~Tanrin~

Tanrin still hadn’t adjusted to the sight of that damned demon door. It wasn’t a door that led to the literal bowels of hell, but if he stumbled across it coming home after a night of ale, he would mistake it as such. It had taken Jerald a bit of time to convince him it was just a simple door, and not some attempt at sacrificing him to a demon lord. Fucking door. Who the hell puts a door like that in a damned library? Wasn’t this supposed to be a place of learning, a place to enlighten oneself, not a place to give you nightmares? He’d avoided looking that way since they began their research, and only now could repress the shiver that ran up his spine. At least he told himself it was the door, and not his innate dislike of reading. Thorben would love this place. He would like it more if it served ale and the damn door disappeared. Though he supposed it did its job, and deterred most people from entering this forbidden section of the Great Library.

Tanrin and Jerald had holed themselves up in the restricted section for longer than they had planned. Tanrin being used to enclosed spaces didn’t mind it, other than that door, but the narrow aisle between overbearing bookshelves would make most non-dwarves feel claustrophobic. Where Tanrin tolerated it, Jerald was like a kid surrounded by sweets. This was the elderly gnome’s element. He couldn’t hide his smile of joy. His face lit up at each new book he searched. It convinced Tanrin the man was at constant risk of becoming lost in the labyrinth of books, as he was so focused on perusing the titles and paid no attention to keeping track of his location. At first, Tanrin had been content to act as Jerald’s personal page, as he’d always been a slow reader. As much as he wanted answers, he figured that was the best way to speed up the process rather than relying on his sub par literary skills. Unfortunately, the best laid plans only last until the first arrow is loosed, or in this case the first gnome gets a book in his hands.

Just looking at the library, Tanrin knew this wouldn’t be a brief excursion. He asked Jerald to send a runner to alert Mia to the change of plans and pay for the room to extend her stay. As they tunneled through an endless mountain of books, they’d found several references to the Order of Buanaì, but they all referred to an older instance of speculation. Damn it! I just want to punch something. Tanrin thought as his frustration yanked his mind out from the most recent book. If wasn’t for his dwarven constitution and Jerald’s caife induced insomnia, they wouldn’t have lasted the last two days down here. As it was, he felt that this amount of time in a place like this was tantamount to torture. Thorben needs me. Tanrin could see they were making progress on the magic research, as Jerald had started a pile of books on spell casting to review after they finished researching the order, and they were both skimming for any reference to the Buanaì that they could. Much to his own surprise, Tanrin had found a few books that he’d added to each pile.

After what seemed like ages, they came to a book that was barely held together. “Come here, here, here!” Mr. Kubeck said. Tanrin glanced up from the book he was thumbing through. His droopy eyes locked on to the gnome as he waved a book erratically over his head. Tanrin swore the book was going to crumble in his hands, but Jerald insisted that the library’s sphere of preservation charm wouldn’t allow that to happen. Good to know he could have been throwing these books around the whole time. The book Jerald showed him had a sinister appearance, though Mr. Kubeck assured him it wasn’t magical, or a risk. Its stark black cover and brown pages gave him the impression of pure evil. It smelled musty and the blood red title, Origins of the Buanaì, on the cover didn’t convey peace and love. “Look here! See, see, see.”

Fucking convenient title, Tanrin thought with a sigh of relief. He’d always disliked titles that tried to sound overly academic. Scribes were always trying to make themselves sound smart. They’d write a book about gardening and instead of titling it How To Garden, they would call it A Basic Treatise on Modern Rural Farming for the Amatur Cultivator. Pretentiousness like this drove him crazy. Seriously, it’s a book about growing plants in dirt. Dwarves had figured out how to do it in fucking caves. Returning to the issue at hand, Tanrin looked over the gnome’s shoulder and read the words he was animatedly pointing at. He’d had to grab the gnome’s wrist to prevent him from waving his hand in front of his vision.

“Mazoga the Evil, who transcends mortal boundaries, prophesied the end of the world. Saying a being will spring from the depths of the planet forsaken, ushering in the end of days. All will bow to the emptiness of death. All will succumb to Buanaì.” The words echoed off the walls as Mr. Kubek read them.

Tanrin felt disappointed. He had expected something more lengthy. “So just when and where is this book from? And why do you seem more excited than is to be expected from reading this passage?”

“It’s from, from, from the beginning. I know, know, know Mazoga! This means that I get to visit, visit, visit an old friend, friend, friend! Let’s go, go, go!” Mr. Kubeck started rushing towards the study room door.

This dude must have lost his ever loving mind. Tanrin thought. Does he think he knows some ancient author of some ancient book that contained some ancient Armageddon level prophecy? “What about the spell casting research?” This guy has to be wonky. It can’t all be his personality. At least we got a name, but we still need to look at these books more closely. They needed information on the Order, but it seemed to Tanrin that figuring out Thorben’s magic was more important. If Thorben could understand his magic, it might help solve the Order of Buanaì problem.

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“Oh yes, of course, course, course,” Mr. Kubeck walked back purposefully to the table piled high with books. He removed a simple necklace from his neck and began pressing it to the cover of each book. Tanrin stared as he did this, his jaw dropping to the floor. What was this goofy bastard doing? When he finished, he handed the necklace to Tanrin. “Okay, let’s go, go, go now.”

Tanrin was beyond confused. “What is this thing? I don’t need jewelry and I don’t have a girl to give it to. We still need to skim these books! Our research is only half done, if that!”

“A book, book, book crystal. It can store a copy, copy, copy of each book you press it to. All the, the, the books are on it, it, it.”

“You’re saying that this necklace is magic? That somehow we don’t need these books anymore?”

The gnome looked at him as if he were a toddler. “Yes, now, we have a magical copy, copy, copy of each of these books that we can study, study, study at our leisure.”

“How can you be sure that the information that we need is in one of these books?” Tanrin asked as he processed the gnome’s words.

“I, I, I can’t, but if it’s not, then it’s more, more, more than likely not written anywhere,” Jerald said. “My book club did a really good, good, good job gathering all the books, books, books they could.”

Then the reality of the past few days hit him. “Couldn’t we have done that from the very beginning and not spent so much time here?!” Frustration threatened to overwhelm Tanrin’s patience. He could have been on the journey back to his brother by now!

“Why, of course?” His face was perplexed, as if to say, why are you asking stupid questions? “I much prefer the feel of real parchment. It is superior to both, both, both magical screens and electronic readers. Though I should add this,” Mr. Kubek grabbed the crystal out of Tanrin’s still outstretched palm, pressed it to the evil-looking book, and replaced it in his hand. “I think maybe you need, need, need to find a girl. You seem pent, pent, pent up, my boy.” With a sage nod, he turned and began walking, shaking his head in confusion.

Teeth gritted, he forced himself to trot after the old gnome. Tanrin could tell the old gnome had meant no ill by his omission, but still struggled to let his frustration go. He caught up to Mr. Kubeck, and they exited the restricted section. Tanrin could not understand why none of the guards made any effort to stop the batty old gnome. Despite the ease with which they had entered the library, internally he readied himself for a confrontation. Careful not to display an aggression, he kept his hands off his weapons but was prepared to draw them at a moment’s notice. He attempted to put this out of his mind as they reached the massive spiral staircase that led back up the central tower towards what Jerald had named a flying carpet. Tanrin was huffing and puffing by the time they reached the landing.

“We are almost, almost, almost there,” the gnome said.

Where is this gnome’s energy coming from? He’s not winded in the slightest! I need to do some more cardio!

They made their way back down the hallway they had met the first guards at. Tanrin nodded respectfully at each of them. Mr. Kubeck waved. “See, see, see ya around next time, fellas!” The guards shook their heads and ignored him.

“Are you ready, ready, ready to go find, find, find Mazoga?” Jerald asked in an uncharacteristically serious tone.

This man is a whirlwind! “No, Mr. Kubeck. I need to check in on Mia, and then return to Alfred’s Inn to check in on my brother.” Tanrin said in as respectful of a voice as he could muster.

“Yes, yes, yes. I shall go with you, after some caife, of course. Let’s go.” They were off, and Tanrin tried to enjoy this flight. The view from above the rooftops was admittedly unusual and beautiful. They had constructed the roofs around the central Keep and grand library with what appeared to be a reddish hued curved interlocking tiles. Tanrin assumed this was a luxury for the wealthy as it faded into a more traditional thatched roof as they neared the outer border of the city. Which only added to Tanrin’s shock as Mr. Kubeck landed the rug on a rooftop of pristine white engraved stone terrace jutting out from a similar silver tinged curved interlocking tile roof.

Tanrin looked around in confusion. It wasn’t until he spotted Crystal’s Caife and Cache that he realized this was Mr. Kubeck’s home. “Ummm, what happened to your house?” Tanrin asked.

“It, it, it changed,” Mr. Kubeck answered as if it was obvious to anybody with half a brain what had happened.

Tanrin bit his tongue. “Yes, it did. How? Why?”

“I enchanted it. Honestly, who, who, who wants to live in the same boring house every day?” He shook his head and headed back down into his workshop. Tanrin followed, leaving the rug on the roof.

As they once again entered the foyer, Tanrin noticed it had stayed the same as had the rest of the interior. Mr. Kubeck stopped him at the door. “I will pack, pack, pack my things tonight and meet you, you, you at first light. See you then.” Tanrin wrote down the name of the inn they were staying at, gave it to the gnome, and made his way back. As he stepped outside, he decided he needed some of Crystal’s caife beans before leaving Eleytol. Who knew when he would make it back here? After purchasing a large burlap sack of beans, he hoisted it over his shoulder and went back to the inn.

Wait until Thorben meets this guy!

Mia was up when he returned. He told her his plans to leave tomorrow. She informed him she would accompany him. Tanrin got the impression that she didn’t want to talk any more, and bid her goodnight as he entered the room across the hall. He needed a good rest if he was going to be traveling with an insane gnome, and a woman who may or may not want to kill him. How did he get himself into these situations?