Liliane tried, and failed, not to sneeze, which made all the dust of the surroundings form a wave of filth. The library was unclean, full of cobwebs, scuttling bugs and at least three different species of rats. She hoped the diversion and her husband’s help would keep the cleric distracted enough to steal the books they needed. She was not fully convinced of his plan, but she trusted her husband to know what he was doing. “Now”, she thought, glancing around, “where should I start looking?”
The old woman really hoped they at least had a register somewhere, or had put plaques on the various scaffolds and bookshelves. Her library, back home, was tightly organized, divided by genre and sorted in alphabetical order, but something suggested that it wouldn’t be the same here. She looked around searching for a thick volume, somewhere easily reachable, near the staircase maybe, but came up with nothing.
The tables were clear, with the exception of a couple plates and forks.
Someone had also left some rags near a spilled bottle of ink.
She pouted.
“I should probably ask someone here.”
Liliane made three short whistles, then a long, deep one. After a minute or so, a pair of rats - one with a gray mane, the other spotted with black and white - scuttled in front of her feet, silently, and sat in waiting.
“Hello darlings, how are you today?” she beamed “Such a shiny coat! Did you raid some nice pantry? Here, I have some seed bread with me”, she said to the animals, patting a purse that seemingly appeared out of thin air as they watched her, intently “I just need for you to show me the book that most people, or the old man who smells of incense, take before the others each time they come down here”.
The rats looked at each other, then at Liliane, and finally started to slowly move toward one of the scaffolds in the back, silently. They went around a bit, sniffing and scratching the bookshelves, until they reached a thick,leather bound book abandoned on the ground, and started nibbling at it. On the cover, faint gray letters outlined the word ‘index’.
“Oh thank you so much dearies!” she giggled, taking a big chunk of bread out of her purse “This is for you, and there will be more prizes for you if you keep a lookout for anyone coming down the stairs.”
The rats nodded silently, cleaned themselves a bit and took the bread apart, taking some pieces. After putting it in their mouth, they scuttled away toward the door of the room.
“Ok, now. Let's see what we have here.”
The pages of the book were a bit frayed at the edges, but luckily, their content was still legible enough. The system with which the books should allegedly be ordered was simple, if really ineffective. The books were cataloged in the chronological order they arrived at, with the oldest book near the far end wall, and the newest near the entrance. Thankfully, they wrote down the book names other than the date they were brought in.
“A brief history of the human realm, a long story about short bows, ugh, what’s the marvelous misadventures of Marvin Misadventus? I want to curse whoever decided to put these books here.” Liliane was starting to pace, while holding the tome. After a while, she stopped. “Ok, this, this may be something we need” she said, tapping her finger on the page “The complete list of prophetic scrolls and where they belong by Biblio Teconomew. Third row, second column.”
She counted the rows by hand, and went straight for the book she needed. It was pretty old, but barely worn out, bound with a light blue material. Something like wool, maybe? Anyway, she put the book in her purse, and went back to the index now resting on one of the desks.
She started going through the pages again, faster this time, looking for whatever may be tied to the Numens, to the silver lion Erad, or the mythical lance.
After some minutes, she had actually found more tomes that may be of interest: ‘Glory be to the Numens’, ‘The great spirits’, ‘The end of the Night’, and two small booklets concerning the lance of Undoing and the basic chants of the clerics. They were in their supposed place, and she skimmed them, finding that they seemed to hold very little, and be mostly legends, heresays, or glorified retellings by imaginative bards. She still put them all into her purse, which disappeared under her dress.
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“Still better than nothing. Maybe I should try to find something else, though. And… This uncleanliness…” She turned around, looking at the room, trying to take in details she might have missed. “It feels strange. Constructed, even. Let’s try something like… this.”
She started clapping her hands, in a three on five rhythm, while humming unintelligibly. The dust started to pool, collect together and form ghastly figures shuffling around, sitting on the chairs, sometimes in mid air, or moving their hands as they were turning pages.
One of the dust shadows, though, wasn’t reading, or reaching for a book, or otherwise resting their head on the desk: it seemed to press one of the books inside a bookcase, and then puffed in a cloud when it hit it, trying to phase through it.
“I knew there would be some secrets! It would’ve been weird if it was so closely guarded and then just had stuff you could find in a communal library or a bookshop. Now, let’s see how…”
She placed herself where the dust shadow was, and looked at the books on the shelf. One was a bit cleaner than the others and, on its spine, ‘History of doors’ was written in red. She pressed it against the wall, and, unexpectedly, it sank with an audible click.
The bookshelf slid slowly to the left, revealing a tight passage, scarcely illuminated. From here, three shelves, full of golden and silver books, could be seen.
She entered the small room, and was struck by the smell of cinnamon, ginger and clove.
The insides were all finely adorned, with silvery candle holders above which hovered magical lighting, illuminating the room as it was day. The walls were painted with frescos of the Numens, even though there were eleven, not ten as was shown in the paned glasses outside. The spines of the books, looking closely, had a metallic sheen, hovering half an inch from them. Some sort of barrier, or magical protection.
She put her hand into her purse, took a pinch of black salt from it, and started sprinkling it on the shimmering surface. The barrier started eroding, slowly, until there was a big hole into it, big enough to allow the tomes to be taken away.
“I think I struck it rich. Well. I hope no one will miss them too much.”
With a twirl of her hand, the books departed from their resting place and willingly jumped into the bag, which had enlarged to ease their passage. One by one they all went inside, while the barrier started mending. She looked at it, fascinated by the changing lights.
All of a sudden, something bit her ankle. Softly.
“Oh dear”, she said to the rats “Someone is coming, right? Thank you so much for the assistance, you two. You have been so helpful.” One of them squeaked, then the other, then the first one, again.
“Safe passage, you say? To Cranesworth? You were separated from your colony because you fell into a book crate bound for here? Oh, for the Numens, you can count on me! Nothing easier, loves, just jump into my purse, let’s go before someone notices!”
The two small rodents jumped in, and the old woman made the purse disappear again while hurrying through the passage, closing the contraption behind her and walking straight towards the stairs.
“Is someone there?” asked the familiar voice of Willgamber, harshly. “Show yourself!”
“Oh, dear minister, forgive me, I was trying to find a toilet, you know, with my age and all, we need to go more often, I’m sorry if I created you some problems!” Liliane said, going up the stairs with a face full of contrition and shame “I did not want to disturb your work, since my husband said you went into your study, so I tried looking for one alone but my sight isn’t good as it used to…”
The cleric smiled gently to the old woman, who seemed so sorry about her wandering in the temple’s rooms. “Let me show you the latrines, madame, don’t worry. Age is not something to be ashamed of, it’s the opposite, instead, but I understand how awful it can be to lose our strength to the tides of time. Keep your fate in the Numens and, as you surely know-”
“We will begin anew, born in new flesh again, stronger again, happy again.”
“Yes, exactly! Look forward to that day, mrs. Goodcat.” he said, radiant.
“I really hope that day comes as late as possible” she thought.
Exiting from the stairs, , they took a left, followed a short corridor and arrived in front of a wooden door.
“Here we are, madam.”
“Oh, you’re such a nice young man, thank you so so much for helping this old lady!” she said, patting his shoulder.
“You’re welcome, Mrs. Let me know if you need something else.”
“Oh, no, I don't think I will! I’ll just go and then regroup with my husband, the day is still young, and I thank you again for such willingness. I’ll be sure to sing your praise in the next temple we’ll visit.What was your name again?” she asked, smiling.
“Call me Edramund, madame. Just my name will suffice.”
“Well met then, Edramund. Well met.”
Saying this, the woman made a small bow towards the cleric, and entered the latrines. The cleric, finally, went back to his study. Liliane waited a couple minutes and then, certain of being alone, got out, ran like the wind, caught her husband, still sitting on the benches, by a sleeve, and the two of them were finally out of the Numen’s temple.