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Rohan took the book back to the library the next morning before going downstairs for breakfast and saw Foulque seated at one of the tables, writing in a thick book. He left the history book with the librarian on duty and joined his mentor.
"Good morning," he greeted. "Already at work?"
"I was updating the Annals of the Teeth," Foulque answered with a smile, showing Rohan the page. "You or Isaut will have to update my own page when I'm gone."
Rohan read "Jasmine" at the top and his heart sank. He sat next to Foulque and read his mother's biography. She had joined the Teeth at twenty-one, had been with them for fifteen years, then she became pregnant and left after the birth of her son, Rohan. The father's name wasn't mentioned.
So she'd been fifty-six when she had died, but still looked in her thirties. It might be the reason why Rohan still looked younger than twenty. He sighed, staring into space.
"They're not all dead," Foulque said. "I mean, not all died a violent death. Some retired and died in their bed, like I hope to do."
Rohan snapped back to reality.
"Waltrand said he met them all, that he saw them come and go more than you ever did," he said.
"Yes, and so did Kassandra." Foulque smiled. "Did you have breakfast? I think this morning you can have a closer look at the Annals of the Teeth, before we start your magic training."
Waltrand wasn't at the very beginning of the Annals. He was the second generation to join the Teeth, so of course he had met the founders. He was the son of a human mother and Belfidom, Immortal of Light who seduced the beautiful Kathryn and left her pregnant and a single mother. She had identical twins, Wilbert and Waltrand, and the latter had magic and grew up with skills nobody else had, so he was apprenticed to a powerful sorcerer – another half-blood himself.
Waltrand became immortal after an accident: a failed experiment instead of killing him stopped his growth, so he didn't age and would look in his twenties forever. He could be killed, though, hence he had started his warrior training.
A great warrior, he lost his eye after a "discussion" with a dragon who eventually became his mount and gave him a magic gem that allowed him to see normally. Back then bonding with dragons wasn't easy, and somehow Waltrand managed to get Reddy-siak, a red dragon he had inherited from his twin who wasn't immortal like him.
Rohan was really impressed by the biography.
"So how old is Waltrand?" he asked, incredulous.
"Who knows? And you'd better not ask him, or Kassandra."
"You told me she's as old as him, correct? She even mentioned she met Dracodemkin once..."
"It must have been a long time ago, when the Immortals still came to the temple." Foulque pondered. "She's not a member of the Teeth, so you'll find her biography in the Temple Annals."
Foulque gave him the book, and it was another source of wonder for Rohan.
Kassandra, High Priestess of the Temple of the Rainbow, was the daughter of a human and Ilalora, an Immortal of Darkness, who dipped her in a magic lake, rendering her immortal and eternally youthful, like Waltrand, more or less at the same time as Waltrand, to allow her to become High Priestess and last longer than her father in that position.
Apparently Ilalora loved the very human Lanceor, and had made him High Priest of the Temple of the Rainbow with Dracodemkin's blessing. When Lanceor succumbed to old age, Kassandra had already taken his place, forever young. She wasn't a warrior, but she was the best archer in the whole land. And her mother bonded her to a black dragon, Sharsa-rak.
"So, you see, an Immortal of Darkness loved her daughter and stayed by her side for as long as she could, and an Immortal of Light left her ten-year-old daughter in a human city to fend for herself." Foulque sighed. "I guess Ilalora and Calivorra are very different..."