Lukas strode into the dining room for a late lunch, having spent the morning in bed after the late night with the contest. The table was already set with places for everyone within the house, though Lord Sulli’s seat was already cleared away. Lukas found his seat with an already filled cup of wine and a meal of what looked like roasted venison and seasoned vegetables. The only other occupant of the dining table, Marie, sat at the table with a small cup in front of wine and an empty plate. She was reading a thin, leather-bound book, but he could not see the title.

"What are you reading?" He asked, taking his seat across from her.

Marie jumped and stopped the book on the table. "Lukas, can you give me a little more warning than that." She grabbed the book and closed it.

Lukas chuckled, starting to cut into his meal and eat. "Sorry, I thought you heard me walk in."

She shrugged. "It's alright. I was trying to have a quiet minute; Aunt Atia has been having me help her get ready for the play tonight. She thinks I'm eating lunch and will be back up, but I needed some time to myself."

She made a quick glance at the double doors leading out to the living quarters of everyone and paused, thoughtfully looking at them.

"Ah yes, William had me try on my new suit last night after the games. The vest was a bit snug, so it was probably good that he made me try it on. I can't stand sitting around in uncomfortable clothes. Especially a vest, it would be unwise to unbutton it in front of Uncle."

Marie laughed at that statement and rolled her eyes. "I'm sure you'll be fine. I still need to make sure Julia has my dress out and ready. We have plenty of time, but if Aunt Atia continues, I might only have a short time to prepare myself."

They sat in silence for a bit, Lukas eating the delicious food. Marie took a long while to finish her wine before she signed and stood to go. "I probably should start making my way back up there. I'm half surprised she hasn't had a servant come to look for me.

On cue, as if summoned, William walked into the room and moved directly to Marie's side before bowing. "Lord Lukas, Lady Marie. Lady Sulli is asking for you if your lunch is finished. She has some questions on necklaces."

William kept his face neutral while Marie showed a tired expression. "Yes, yes, I'm coming."

William bowed again and went to leave.

"William, can you wait a moment." Lukas turned to Marie as she picked up her book. "Have fun with the rest of your day."

She waved and made an exaggerated sad face. "Until tonight," she said, and then she left.

Lukas waited until she had left before returning his focus to William.

"Lord Lukas, is there anything I can help you with?" William asked.

"Yes, I would like to go to the library. Can you have the carriage ready for me as soon as possible?" Lukas stood and pushed his chair back in.

"Ah, is this with Lord Sulli's blessing?" William asked.

He had said that maybe William could bring me after the contest, so technically, Lukas did have permission. But what he did not know would not hurt him, and if asked about it, Lukas would play it off as he had time to do it and show some prerogative regarding his education towards his wraith. Lord Reza had recommended it, and with the likelihood that he would become one of his teachers, Lukas needed to be ready. How badly would he look in his teacher's eyes if he had not followed Reza's single recommendation when asked explicitly by Lukas? It was a nonsensical thing to do when he had time to research and learn something about his wraith. Maybe it would even give them a bridge towards forming a partnership like Reza and Elana had. Their skill during the contest showed how much trust had been built between the two when Reza knew Elana would place him in the perfect position to finish a fight or protect himself from an attack.

"Yes. But to make everyone happy, we will also take one of the guards with us. Grab Pullo if he's on duty." So far, Pullo had been the only guard not to act like they needed to walk on eggshells around him. Lukas moved to the atrium and allowed a servant to grab his jacket and help him into it. He was still not used to having other people dress him, but that was the decorum of high nobility, and he had to follow it.

It took them an hour to get through the noble district, pass through the bridges and forum to ride into the Northern district, and finally make it to the library. The Arkhen Library was near where he had been yesterday with the amphitheater. It was deep into the district, built directly into the wall on the Northernmost part of the city. It loomed over the buildings around it, one of the oldest buildings in the city besides the palace, broken king's domain, and Echoes’ towers. Its highest tower reached the top of the wall; though old, the weathered rune-carved stone still held strong, never having been destroyed or burned in its long history.

His father had always told Lukas that it held tens of millions of texts from around the world—places no one alive today had ever visited or knew where they may be now. It had always been a place of interest that he had not visited enough when he was in the city.

The carriage door opened, and William held his hand out to help him down into the street.

"Finally, it took longer than I expected." Lukas took his hand and left the carriage. He looked up at the library, noticing the same long line of words, each a foot tall, scrolled above the large wooden front door, a stark black against the light grey of the building. The words were no language he had ever read. The front of it has few windows, and those he could see were small, allowing little light into the building.

Pullo jumped down from the carriage, placing his hand confidently on the short sword at his side. "Lord Lukas, how long do you expect to be here? I want to ensure the carriage will pick us up at the right time."

Lukas stopped. He wasn't quite sure how long this endeavor might take. He looked to William. "How long do you need so that we are ready to go to the play tonight?"

William's eyes went wide, and he stumbled over his words. "Um, ah, you must leave at the seventh hour to be there on time. So we probably should leave her no later than fifth hour."

Lukas returned his attention to Pullo. "Have the driver back here about thirty minutes before then. Even if we aren't out here, better to be early than late."

Pullo bowed and returned to the driver.

"Come along, William. Let's see what we can find." Lukas started climbing the stairs that led to the entrance of the library. Lukas stopped and spun to face Pull again. "Pullo, you don't have to come in. It will be quite boring."

Pullo shrugged, leaning against the building on the stairs, and stood facing the street, his eyes taking in everyone who passed the library. The street wasn't the most crowded one, just off the city's main roads, but there were a lot more people within the city now that the contest had begun, and there was a good bit of traffic walking around with their wraiths in tow.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Lukas walked through the door and examined the open first floor. He had rarely come here before with the sparse time he spent in the city. He also didn’t have many reasons to go, as his father and Lord Sulli would buy the books for the family to read. This would be an experience, at any rate.

Walking in the sight was as wonderful as the first time he had come. The first room was cavernous, with the ceiling well over three stories up, the entirety of the walls filled with shelves cut into the wall itself, each filled with books and scrolls. Massive ladders allowed workers to remove or replace books over fifty feet into the air. The main room was wide open with lines of shelving throughout again with more books and scrolls of every size, color, and language on them. Walking through into area that opened up into a large work area with around fifty wooden tables and chairs surrounding each. Lukas could see multiple people at different tables working, none looked up from their book or writing as they walked by. Spying through different shelves, Lukas noticed even more people walking through the other aisles.

Now that he was here, Lukas realized he had no idea where to start his research beyond knowing they had records, according to Reza. Unsure where they were, Lukas continued to the large deck that extended the length of the building, stopping everyone from going deeper into the depths of the library, as Lukas knew there were multiple floors built into the wall itself and even more levels below the ground that had been built over centuries if the rumors were true.

Behind the desk, a man with stark grey hair and a beard stood writing furiously on a paper. His clothes were rumpled in such a way that Lukas thought he might have slept in them. A wraith stood just behind him. A book was held in his hand, and he was slowly turning the pages.

The Liberian looked up as they stopped in front of him. Lukas was shocked that the librarian was much younger than he had assumed. The grey hair had made Lukas believe he would be in his fifties or sixties. But the man looked to be no more than thirty or so, around Lord Reza’s age.

"Well, hello there, my name is Alexander Tarimage. How may I help you,?" Alexander the librarian asked.

Lukas froze, nerves building in him that made him want to turn right around, walk out of the building, and return home. Gritting his teeth, Lukas stood his ground and pushed down the uncomfortable emotions. "Yes, ah, Mr. Tarimage, I just got my first wraith recently. I was told you might be able to help me see if he has ever been cataloged."

Tarimage's eyes brightened, and he smiled almost manically. "Of course, I can help you with that. Emily, can you take my place at the front desk?" he yelled into an open door behind him.

A voice from the other room answered. "Give me a moment, and I'll be there. If you just want to leave, you can. No one is going to steal your stuff, Alex."

His smile faltered. "Tell that to the last time I left the desk. Those kids stole half my pens and a first-edition Alunok book. Cost us a hundred ghouls to replace that."

"Well, wait until I finish this letter, and I'll be happy to help or take the chance," Emily yelled.

He rolled his eyes. "Just a moment, I just can't stand to lose another book like that."

Lukas just nodded. If she didn't take long, he had little problem waiting, But he also didn't want to waste much time on his research. Thankfully, Emily did not take long, and a young woman walked through the door.

Tarimage moved and motioned Lukas to follow. "The room with all the records is below, so follow me."

He brought Lukas down a seat of stone steps into a dark hallway. Tarimage took an elemental lantern off the wall and lit it, bathing the hallway in low purple-white light. William grabbed a second purple-white lantern, giving us plenty of light to find the records room.

Tarimage opened a door after walking through the darkened hallway for a while, making Lukas unsure how far below the city they were and if they were beyond the library’s walls above or not. Examining the room, Lukas found it was not nearly as large as the library’s main room, but it held many shelves with large leather-bound books neatly placed into any available space on the walls. There had to be hundreds or thousands of books within the room. Were these all the records he would have to go through? It could take him weeks or months to read through them all.

"Oh my, I just realized I never got your name," Tarimage said, smacking his forehead softly with a finger, chuckling.

Lukas laughed with him. "Sorry, I didn't even think to offer it either. My name is Lukas Sulli."

Tarimage eyes were a little large. "Ah well, Lord Sulli. I think the best place to start is to see your wraith."

Lord Sulli sounded strange coming from him, let alone anyone else. "Lukas is fine; my uncle is the Lord." Lukas pulled on the power, and his wraith came forth, the scowl still in place.

"Ah well, that's perfect; I guessed the correct room. Let's see, these records start with the color and gender of the wraith." Tarimage walked across the room and into one of the corners. He pulled a couple dark red-leather bound books from the third shelf, placing them on the one table in the middle of the room. Lukas noticed that each wall held different color books, Black, grey, white, and red covered each wall. He slid one book to each of us. "It will go faster if we all do our part. These books are the first quarter of the male wraiths that are colored red."

Lukas had to ask. "Are the book covers the color of the wraiths in it?"

Tarimage nodded. "Yes, a librarian back some three hundred years ago name Kennor Scoun decided it would be useful, and I must say I agree. While we don't get many people asking about their wraiths very often, but it makes the records quicker to comb through."

Luka nodded. He and William opened their books. The first page for Lukas had the name Muharia. It seemed each Wraith had at least one page, with the first half of the page described the wraith in detail. With their ability, they explained afterward, along with whoever had made a pact with said wraith.

Muharia could not be his wraith as it described a young man dressed in the robe of the Celsior, a dessert nomadic tribe Lukas had never heard of. Lukas turned the page and continued the process with Lukas and the others going page by page to see if they could find one that matched

An hour later, William pointed at a page about halfway through his book. "I think I may have found him. What do you guys think?"

Lukas read down the page. Gregory, Uniformed in the style of Arkhen circa the tenth century. He didn't get any farther before Tarimage shook his head.

"Can't be. This wraith is older than the tenth century by the uniform he wears. The uniform of the legions added nine towers above the heart in the ninth century. No one adding to the list is leaving such details out. Also, the scars, and cards we holds would be another couple to look for in the description. Each one will help us find him. Thankfully, we have multiple unique details to find him in the books should he be there."

They continued for hours, going through book after book with little luck. Lukas became increasingly frustrated by the lack of success, having been overconfident in their likely success in such a short time. He had not thought about how many wraiths the city could possess. Just the number of red wraiths was staggering, and Lukas felt almost overwhelmed by the number of names and descriptions he read, one after another, book after book. And it was still even more likely that his wraith wasn’t in one of them. After hours of searching, they only found one other possible identification, but the scars were wrong. It was a silent search for a few more hours before William finally broke the silence.

"Lord Lukas, we should probably get going. You said you didn't want to be late tonight."

Echoes abyss. Lukas closed his book, another one with nothing of use within it. Unfortunately, he did have to stop, though he sorely wanted to continue the search; while he was annoyed, reading about several different wraiths and their abilities had been a unique experience. However, being late to the play was no option. Lord Sulli would be furious, and more importantly, he was looking forward to talking with The Rezas again, especially Marius and Cassia.

"Yes, let's get going." He looked down at the books they had gone through. Maybe a third of them having been checked. "We will have to come another time to try and find him."

"Anytime, I’m still going to continue the search. He's burned into my mind well enough that I should have no problem continuing and marking possible wraiths. I do love a search like this, they come so infrequently I cannot let them go. We can meet up again to see if any fit him perfectly." Tarimage left the book on the table, grabbed his lantern, and walked them out of the underground level, the purple light leading the way to the stone stairs.

"Thank you for your help. I will try to get back here soon. If not, I will at least send William here to see what you found." Lucas held his hand out, and Tarimage shook it.

Tarimage had been beyond helpful, and they would not have gotten this far without him. With his continued relentless search, Lukas felt confident that he would have the answer to whether his wraith's name was in the records by the end of the week.

"Absolutely, I will see you then or let you know should I find anything." He bowed low to each of them, including my wraith. "Have a wonderful evening."

Tarimage turned and returned down the stairs hastily, not worrying about falling.

"Let's get going. I hope we don't hit any crowds on the way home." Lukas left the library with William in tow. Pullo joined them as they exited and opened the carriage door.

"Find what you were looking for?" He asked, sounding half interested.

"Not yet," Lukas said, stepping up and sitting down heavily. Lukas felt defeated, but this was only the first step. Even if he did not find his wraith in the records. He would figure out its power with Reza.