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service, Sarlice and I eagerly picked up a copy of the new Tanzan holy scrolls, and dropped a donation into the box for the scribes. A tiny orange skyearl peered at us from his perch on the scribes’ table.
    ‘Newcomers from Telby are you?’ he squawked, forming the words with an accent similar to Ciera’s. I couldn’t help comparing the skyearl to Ciera, even though he wasn’t much bigger than one of Ciera’s eyes. The differences in their size and colouring was vast, but for all that they looked very much the same, right down to the shiny domes on the tiny skyearl’s snout. Sarlice nodded and offered him one finger, which he shook vigorously with both of his dexterous little forepaws.
    ‘Found your Sleffion-kin yet?’ he queried.
    ‘Not I,’ Sarlice replied, ‘but there’s nought to say I actually will. Talon here has, with Emperor Ciera. Say, you’re not bonded yet either, are you?’
    ‘Nope,’ he acknowledged, cocking his head and scrutinizing her with one golden eye. There was a long silence as the two stared at one another. The people crowding around the table seemed to fade out of their awareness. I looked from one to the other, appreciating how the rich orange of the skyearl’s fur matched Sarlice’s coppery-bronze hair.
    ‘Your name is Sarlice, isn’t it?’ the skyearl chirruped happily.
    My guide’s body went even stiller. ‘Aye, and you are Thita.’
    ‘How did you…’ The words died on my lips as I realised there was only one way they could have deciphered each other’s names without ever speaking them.
    The tiny orange skyearl flew suddenly to Sarlice’s shoulder and snuffled her hair. She stroked his back and he crooned into her and rubbed his jaw along her cheek, scent-marking like a cat. The claws of his four tiny feet clutched at her upper arm and his feathered wings flapped excitedly.
    ‘I have a strange and wonderful sense about you…’ A smile, if it could be called that, creased the line of his mouth upward. ‘I never knew what it would feel like to finally meet my own Sleffion-kin.’
    ‘Nor I,’ Sarlice replied, staring at him in fascination.
    ‘Velkin, will you take over for me, please?’ Thita asked of a human-sized skyearl in the crowd. ‘I’ve just met my Sleffion-kin!’
    ‘Congratulations,’ Velkin replied shuffling between people on his hind legs until he reached the table. He opened the coin chest Thita had been using and began taking money from those eager to buy the new holy scrolls. I paid for mine and received a scroll-case from a human behind the table.
    Sarlice was already moving outside with Thita, her interest in the new Tanzan holy scrolls temporarily forgotten. I followed them, torn between my fascination with the scrolls and my joy for Sarlice’s new kin. Rekala wended her way through the forest of people around her and butted her head against my hip. I stroked her forehead affectionately and chuffed to her in greeting. When I looked up Sarlice and Thita were completely engrossed in conversation, so I decided to take a peek at the treasured manuscript.
    The scrolls were bound with green ribbons and encased in a nyno-scale tube. The first piece of parchment I unrolled contained a list of books and a preface explaining that several books were still missing from Tanzan holy scroll archives and the endings of some were yet to be properly translated. Even in Jaria it had been impossible to find a complete version of the holy scrolls. Not only were some ancient writings lost to time, but the banishment of the Tanzans had caused the destruction of countless sacred Kriite texts.
    I held my breath as I unrolled the scroll of Anzaiia, by Astas, and scanned to the end. The final chapter had been missing from all the holy scrolls in Telby and Jaria since before I was born.
    Anzaiia Chapter 28
    The Prophecy of Anzaii
    As written by Astas in 403 of the Age of Prophets before the birth of Krii
    1 Krii walks through the meadows of Shamayim, awaiting the day