I'd remained tense every minute to the library despite trying to force myself to relax. On the up side there had been no more phone calls. I could only hope that meant Arthur had remained in his reading room and nothing more had happened. If he had behaved in the last hour or so, I stood a better chance of getting him a free pass and smoothing this over.

As I parked, I grabbed my ID but I left the vest. I had to hope this was going to be peaceful and I didn't want to appear as if I needed all the gear today. The receptionist spotted me before I did her, excusing herself from her customer immediately and hurrying over to me. Doris was as frail as she'd sounded.

It was clear she was on reception as a place for her to stay in a workplace she loved and still be of use without having to be as busy. She tottered over to me, her short frame barely coming up to my shoulder.

"I'm Jennifer," I said, holding out my hand to shake hers. Despite her appearance, her grip was firm when we shook hands and I had to consider that maybe she was the one in charge here and my first impression had been wrong.

"Is Arthur still in the reading room?" I asked as soon as she turned to escort me where I needed to go.

"Yes. And he's not bothered anyone since. I'm just worried about security. They promised me they would remove him and no one has seen Clive or Keith since."

I frowned, pretty sure that this was a bad sign. Arthur had done magic before my eyes and although he had left his sword at my house, I knew there was a chance he had done something to the two security guards.

"Hopefully we'll get to the bottom of all of this soon, Arthur usually responds well to me and he's harmless enough once you know how to handle him."

She looked as if she wasn't sure she believed me, but she was letting me try and fix things and I appreciated that much. It didn't take too long to get to reading room three, the side of it glass.

There was a table inside and it was covered in books, many of them open and laid out before Arthur. Some of them looked very old, but he was being gentle with them, turning pages at the very corner with care.

He didn't notice us approaching, but Doris seemed to deflate a little as she saw the calm scene and that all her books were still fine. As I got closer, however, I tensed up. While most of the scene was normal, and Arthur even had the notebook out beside himself to take notes on, he had a toad in one hand and was petting it in between turning pages.

It was only as I reached the door that I spotted a second one on his lap.

"He has creatures in there," Doris exclaimed, equally shocked. It made me feel better that this was something new to her as well, but it was yet another element to have to smooth over.

"What exactly happened?" I asked her, hanging back a little and to one side so he couldn't see us yet.

Doris frowned at me delaying, but she moved out of his sight as well and pursed her lips while she thought about the question. "When he first came in, there didn't appear to be anything the matter. He's a polite young man and he wanted some history books. But his requests grew more and more outlandish and he asked for tomes I've never even heard of, let alone have copies of."

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"And that's when he got upset?"

"Not upset so much as he seemed to get a little cross. He told me he'd been assured we had all the books that had ever been made in the country."

"Ah, sorry, that was probably my fault. I expected him to be asking for more recent books..." I trailed off as she looked at me like I'd grown three heads. "Please carry on and tell me what happened next."

"He started asking me for books on magic. Modern magic and the old magics. I thought he might be some strange historian so I obliged, but some of the older books, they're important ones we don't let leave. I told him that we needed ID."

I nodded, understanding where the problem had arisen immediately. "And he told you that he was King Arthur back from the dead and didn't have or need ID."

"That about sums it up. I mean, he was polite enough, but it's not exactly normal behaviour." Doris seemed to grow embarassed. "When I told him he couldn't read the books without ID he grew more restless and said that he'd appreciate me accommodating him anyway. That he'd read them all here and leave them here if I wished, but I didn't need to be a dragon about learning. That he believed a country should allow all who seek access to knowledge to have it."

Again, she paused and shrugged. It was obviously something that all of us agreed with and she wasn't going to have argued with him.

"So how did he end up back in the reading room?" I asked, hoping to smooth things over and figure it all out still. So far I hadn't been told about anything too dire."

"He told me that was where he was going with whatever books I would allow him and that he hoped we could sort this out a better way, then he gave me your number and told me if I was really so worried that I could call you. I admit I thought he was playing games so I had security go after him to get him to leave. When they didn't return and no one could find them I called you."

It was an interesting tale, but it made me feel more sympathetic to Arthur than Doris. She had probably just been doing her job, but it didn't sound as if he had done much wrong either but not hide who he believed he was. People didn't know how to handle that sort of thing and I couldn't really blame them. He sounded like a mad man.

"And the books he has now?" I asked, wanting to understand what had happened after.

"When you said to humour him I gave him what he'd asked for and just asked him to be very careful with them. I wasn't going to argue with a police directive."

"Thank you," I replied. "He's not a violent man, but it makes sure that he has no reason to be angry at you."

I only had the comfort of knowing that cooperating with an actual threat was a good idea to waylay the guilt I felt at abusing my position. This wasn't a formal police operation and I was operating without the consent of any superior and way outside of anything training said I should do.

If anyone found out about it, I could get into trouble. Given my history I was pretty sure that I would only get a slap on the wrists, but if the wrong person was having a bad day at the wrong moment, I could lose my job.

Despite that I reassured the librarian that I would take over and handle the situation.

"Are the books going to be preserved safely?" she asked, making it clear why she was a librarian.

"I'll make sure nothing happens to the books. As I said, he's not a violent man. Just not able to fit into societal conventions and he struggles with adapting to new situations sometimes. I'm sorry he's scared you."

The woman nodded as if this explained everything and seemed to deflate. It was a good sign that she had opted to trust me.

I watched her go for a few seconds, not particularly wanting an audience when I handled this. I still didn't really know what I was going to say. For one, he was petting a toad, and for two, he had caused enough of a stir I'd had to leave work. Neither of these were good, normal, or helpful.