The markings and symbols on the door began to glow a brilliant lilac and drown the environment in a sharp luminescent light. Sarai shielded her eyes with her arm and instinctively looked away. Dimir didn’t move. He missed this secret room. He has a few of them, but this one was special with all of the knowledge it contained. The lightshow was merely a spectacle of his own design to show that he had succeeding in providing the correct answer. Otherwise, the door would open, but explode as soon as the intruder stepped beyond frame inside.

The room itself was probably the equivalent to the King’s treasure room Sarai would imagine. Despite being his own apprentice, she had only ever seen his personal laboratory. A dull dragging noise followed the stone doors as they opened, shaking the walls just enough for small dust to fall from the ceiling.

Sarai turned back around once the light had faded but Dimir was gone. “Master Dimir?” No response. She stood up and brushed some of the dust off of herself before walking into the room. It was cold and dark with just enough light from the couple of the far windows to make out what was physically in the room. It was the kind of room that would be associated with an abandoned storage shed. Though a lot larger. It was seemingly filled with nothing but rows and rows of bookshelves and cobwebs to accompany them. Certainly large enough to call it its own library of sorts more so than a mere restricted section of the library. Then again, reading anything would be next to impossible without standing by one of the windows.

She continued to look around for Dimir but the bookcases made it difficult. They were much larger than her and each shelf was completely filled with scrolls, books and other bits of parchment. Not to mention the various assortments of glassware to aid Dimir in his alchemic research.

“Sarai!” Her head whipped around with enough force to make her stumble. “Dimir? Is that you?” Before she had a chance to properly know who’s voice had called her she started to sprint just as quickly fell over a pile of books. Her arms flailed in the air like a wild fish stuck on land. The suddenness made her heart pound and her breathing stifled. No matter how much her medication helped her condition, exerting too much energy all at once never ended well. The dust certainly didn't help. She stood and continued to make her way to the whereabouts of the voice's origin, but she still couldn't quite catch her breath. “Where are you?” she wheezed.

“Sarai!”

“Sarai!”

She turned round the corner of the last bookshelf where two Dimirs stood facing toward one another, knees bent and fingers pointed. Both men shockingly looked at her within the open end of the room. A part of her wanted to laugh at the absurdity. From what she understood, there was only one way to enter this hidden library of his but she couldn’t help but ask the obvious. “Why are there two of you?” She then looked to the other one, “I thought you couldn’t use magic? Or, is this another failed experiment,” she chuckled.

“I can’t.”

“I can.”

Both Dimirs looked at each other stunned and then to Sarai. Immediately she jumped to the side of the Dimir that revealed his lack in magical affinity. The other, laughed out loud. “Okay, okay, you got me,” he said, arms up. “I did not think you couldn’t use magic after scouring through all of these amazing texts.”

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

Sarai shoved her finger toward his face. “That is all well and nice but who are you imposter!” The fake attempted to slowly move her hand out of his face but as soon as he touched her, she quickly recoiled.

“My name is Erzo Traliz, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintances, but I will not be here for long. I found what I was looking for, and for what it is worth, I am glad to see you are no longer dying.”

Surprised, Dimir squinted and noticed the blue and silver leviathan brooch as well as the title of the book he was holding, 'Shamanism, Art of the World,' then looked at Sarai in horror. "Princess, this is the man that stole the original book I wished to show you!" Enraged, he yelled, “Don’t you dare swine!” The sudden outburst made Sarai jump. “We need that ancient text. It is extremely important and includes some of the most ancient magic that has been revealed in this world so far.” Sarai turned to Dimir frightened. She had never seen him so…desperate. Like his back is to the wall with no other options. Even his slightly crouched demeanor gave him the appearance of a large animal ready to pounce in response to a poor action.

“Is that so? Well, I need it as well and I care not for your cause.” Erzo said. He then motioned his arm over his head, face and chest slowly. A thick, white, plume of smoke and electricity pooled around him. Sarai was taken aback but studied the result of this man’s magic in fascination. She tried her best to interpret what she could see through the small cloud but could not see. As the smoke dissipated her jaw dropped. She had no idea magic could be used in such a way. Even the voice was the same, but now it is someone completely different. Dimir’s usual short, jet black hair had become long, and light brown. The ears changed from the usual rounded human standard into something more pointed at the top but roughly the same size. Dimir was a tall and lanky man, but this person was just slightly shorter. By elven standards he would be considered too short and much too tall for a dwarf. The man’s clothes changed too. He had a very long fur lined, leather jacket with belted pants with a brown sack attached at the hip.

Erzo took a bow and said, “It looks like you will need to excuse me now. I really must be going-” Sarai immediately jumped in front of him but Dimir was too deep in thought to move. A single question continuously wrapped around his mind.

“Just how did you get in here?” Dimir asked, wary of any sudden movements the man might commit to.

Erzo blinked and tilted his head slightly, “How do you think I did?” Then snapped his fingers above his head.

Nothing happened.

Sarai and Dimir relaxed a little and looked at each other for a moment. Erzo was standing in place, unmoving with a hand over his head. Sarai giggled to herself and went to wave her hand in front of his eyes. No response.

“Well I guess, we don’t have to worry about getting the book back. The wizard fool seemed to fail his own spell,” she smiled.

“I wouldn’t be so sure,” Dimir sighed. Confused, Sarai looked back to Erzo and then down to the book. She reached out to pick it up from the cold floor, but she gasped as her fingernails went through the book and touched the ground. “Yes, he is gone, your highness.”

“D-did he use some kind of illusion magic? I read that you needed to use an incantation for something that advanced,” she said in disbelief.

“It would seem he knows his way around the magical arts. Without that book, we are back to square one in attempting to figure out how to save your father. We will need to find something else that might help us. Even tangentially. Start looking through all of the books here. We still have the paper he left behind the last time, so we still have something to work with at least.”

“I hope we can find something, and soon,” she said looking back at the illusion of Erzo slowly fading away like dust in the wind. And just how or why does he continue to show up and take everything we need? What is he after?