Turning to the control tattoo, Oz brought up the console.

>Fenrir, are you able to change the internal configuration of the library?

>What do you mean?

>Can you connect the front door to the World Door that leads to the plains?

>…

>Is that a no?

>Coming in or going out?

>I want to invite someone outside into the plains, so… coming in, I guess?

>Close the door and give me a moment.

Oz smiled at Sachairi. “In a moment, I’m going to close the door. The outward appearance of the door should change. I’ll give you temporary permission to open that door. Wait for me inside, and I’ll join you shortly.”

Sachairi nodded. “Understood.”

His fingers tapped at the keyboard on the control panel, adding Sachairi to the list of those allowed to open the World Door. Before his eyes, the front door rippled. It changed to the run-down appearance of the World Door.

>Er, maybe… outdoor?

>This is what I get for trying to provide customer service. I set the door to open on both sides.

Oz blinked. It can do that?

I guess it’s a dimensional portal. Why not allow both sides of the door to open to the same space? Still twists the mind, though. He grabbed the handle and stepped inside.

WHOOSH.

A blast of fire roared through the plains. Oz startled, looking around at the empty, waving grass around him, then whirled around. From the opposite side of the door, a seething wall of fire swirled around a small, dark figure, wrapped in a black cloak. Fflyn stumbled backward, startled, and the wall of fire tightened around him.

“What a welcome,” Sachairi murmured, chuckling.

“Whoops,” Oz said, scratching the back of his head. He walked around the door and gave Sachairi an apologetic bow. “Sorry about that. I forgot I’d locked an assassin in here.”

“No harm, no foul. It was amusing for such a small assassin to bare his fangs at me. No one has dared to be so bold in a long time.”

Oz nodded. “Still, let me apologize.”

“Truly, it’s not—” Sachairi coughed, then coughed, then coughed some more. He clasped his hands to his mouth and bent over, shoulders heaving. Burning embers trickled between his fingers. The wall of fire flickered.

“Master! Let me!” Aisling insisted, jumping forward. She threw out her hand. A much smaller ring of fire surrounded Fflyn, still closing him in but far less imposing than the thick wall of flames Sachairi had summoned.

Sachairi waved his hand weakly. His fire vanished, leaving only Aisling’s fire. He shook his head, spitting out the last of the ashes. “Even this… how pathetic.”

“Is it progressing faster…?” Aisling whispered, leaning in, soft enough Oz barely heard it.

Sachairi chuckled. He patted Aisling’s head and stood upright. “Aisling, can I ask you to take the boy over to the lake?”

Aisling looked him over, hesitant. After a moment, she nodded. Turning to Fflyn, she made a grabbing gesture. “Follow me, and you won’t get burned.”

“Hey! What’s this about?” Fflyn shouted, staring over his shoulder at Oz.

Oz shrugged. “Sorry, Fflyn. Maybe don’t attack the second the door opens next time?”

Fflyn blushed. He glanced at the ground.

As I thought. Oz shook his head. “You know, Sachairi could have accidentally killed you, with the disparity in your strength. You’re fortunate that he had such restraint.”

“How was I supposed to know—” Fflyn cut off. He pressed his lips together, refusing to continue.

“—That I wouldn’t be the one through the door? Fflyn. I want to trust you. I want to be on your side. There’s no need for us to be enemies anymore. But you’re making it really, really hard,” Oz said, shaking his head.

Fflyn looked away, sullen. Aisling gave him a look and sent the flame ring flying toward his back, threatening to burn his robes. He jolted away, and she led him on, edging the ring toward him whenever he moved too slowly.

Sachairi nudged Oz. “So… why are you keeping a member of the Black Blades in your library?”

Oz cleared his throat. “He attacked me, and I…”

“Wanted a pet with spunk?”

Oz shook his head. “You know how you asked me to speak with you alone?” He nodded after Aisling. “Let’s just say that Fflyn and I share a similar bond.”

Sachairi nodded slowly. “Ah. I understand.” He looked Oz up and down. “If I’m not mistaken, you’ve grown since the last time I saw you.”

“Ah, yes! Thank you for those herbs, by the way. They were a huge help in opening my meridians. I really appreciate it.”

Sachairi waved his hand. “It’s nothing, it’s nothing at all.” Still, a small smile touched his face.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

Oz put his hands behind his back. He stared off into the distance, watching Aisling lead Fflyn away. I haven’t yet investigated this small realm. Who knows how large it is or what secrets it holds? I’m surprised Fflyn hasn’t left… but then, who knows? Maybe it’s dangerous to leave the door. We encountered giant spiders in here not long ago. Sure, maybe the dark mages brought the spiders, but I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect to find monsters in this realm.

I’ll add it to the list. Explore the plains realm. Got it.

Man, that list is just not going down, is it?

Sachairi shifted where he stood. He gestured, and an almost-invisible line of fire burned at their feet. He looked at Oz. “We can speak freely now.”

“I’ve been curious this whole time, but why wait this long to cast the spell?” Oz asked.

Sachairi flicked his eyes toward Fflyn. “Every Black Blade is taught how to read lips and discern meaning from body language. Best to remove him from the equation entirely.”

“Ah… reasonable.” Not that I plan to let Fflyn out, but then, I guess if he cooperated with me I might, and… it’s simply better to not risk it.

Sachairi turned to Oz. He took a deep breath, his expression turning serious. “It’s fine to laugh at Morag, but you should understand that her visit is a symptom of a larger problem brewing.”

“How do you mean?” Oz asked, cutting his eyes at Sachairi.

“Ever since you inherited the library, the sects have been looking for an excuse to break down your barrier and take the library back from you. Thus far, whether you realized it or not, you’ve been protected by the righteous sects, light mages, and good-aligned religions, who believe in upright actions and the rule of law.

“You’ve been under bombardment this whole time, yes, but it’s not the sects’ full power. It’s a mere token attack. Not so powerful that the library is actually under threat, so the righteous sects don’t need to move to defend it, but not so weak that the dark sects appear pathetic and useless, too scared by the righteous to even dare attacking. The strongest of both the righteous and dark sects have been held in check by the righteous sects’ dogma. But…”

Oz sighed deeply. He shook his head. “But then I took Linnea inside.”

Sachairi pointed at him. “Precisely. Now, the righteous sects no longer see you as a force of good. You’ve been perverted, corrupted, ruined. Instead of needing to enforce the law to respect others’ property, the righteous sects now see it as correct to bust down your door and tear Linnea out of the library before she destroys it.”

“And if they loot the library along the way…”

“Are they meant to leave such precious materials in the hands of someone so irresponsible as to allow a demon to run wild upon them? No, no. It would be unrighteous,” Sachairi confirmed.

“Was I meant to throw Linnea to the cold? How is that righteous?” Oz muttered, scowling.

Sachairi shrugged. “I’ll be honest. The righteous sects were waiting for this. If it wasn’t Linnea, it would be something else. No one can be perfectly righteous all the time. Eventually, you would trip up and do something they could deem unrighteous, and you’d be right here in this same problem. So please, don’t beat yourself up over something beyond your control. You did the right thing. What we have to do now is weather the storm.”

Weather the storm. How?

Like I was thinking earlier, this is just like those celebrity media circuses back home. When all of society is ganging up on you, what do you do? Not apologize. Not dig in. Not about-face. Explain things? Get out of here! Once the media has a hold of you, they won’t let go until your bones are dust. No! What you do, is—

“Find a bigger scandal,” Oz muttered to himself.

Sachairi chuckled. “A man after my own heart. I knew you could handle this, as long as you knew it was coming.”

Oz nodded. “I appreciate the warning. How long do I have?”

“The righteous sects need time to ally and convince the holdouts that it is, indeed, time to invade the library. And once they do, they need time to call upon their experts and construct their most powerful spell arrays. While it’s true that the most powerful members of the Mage’s Quarter can break this barrier when they work together, I don’t mean in any way to understate Madame Saoirse’s skill and strength. It isn’t something they can break into as easily as flipping a hand. Truly, this barrier is a significant, well…” Sachairi chuckled. “Barrier.”

He drew himself to his full height and took a deep breath, letting out a long draw of smoke. “How long… who can say. No sooner than a week, no later than a month.”

“A month,” Oz said, relieved. That’s longer than I’ve been here so far. An eternity, and yet, no time at all.

“Don’t relax too much. If you fail, your library is done for,” Sachairi warned him.

“I know. I’m taking this very seriously,” Oz assured him. As soon as I get Sachairi out of here, I’m hitting the books and not letting go until I find a big enough scandal.

Sachairi went to dismiss the flame circle, then paused. “You know, when it comes to scandals… dusty old books aren’t the best place to work. The mortal world, now… phew! In fact, no one does scandals better than the mortal world.”

Oz nodded, flicking his eyes at Sachairi. I know, but I’m stuck in here. I can’t exactly leave. I can send Sid out, but I can’t give her detailed commands. I could ask Aisling to look around, but she doesn’t exactly strike me as the kind of flexibly-minded person who’s good at finding scandal. Fflyn is a work in progress, and Linnea is the demon everyone’s breaking in to find. What am I supposed to do?

Sachairi snapped his fingers, dismissing the circle, then clapped Oz on the shoulder, careful not to let his hand linger too long. “I’m sure you’ll find a way. After all, you have every book in the world.”

“Not every book in the world. Just a large collection of them,” Oz countered.

“Close enough.” Sachairi gave Oz a look. “I trust you understand not to discuss what we spoke of today with anyone else? As little as I gave you, there are still those who would consider this visit of mine a gross betrayal.”

“Who would I discuss it with?” Oz asked, chuckling. After a moment, he shook his head. “I understand. No one will hear of what we discussed today.”

“Good.” Sachairi raised his fingers to his lips and whistled.

Over by the pond, Aisling looked up, then released the flame circle closing in Fflyn. Fflyn stumbled away from her, glaring fiercely at her the whole way. Paying him no mind, Aisling jogged back to Sachairi’s side.

“Master. Are you done?”

Sachairi nodded. “Let’s head back. Is the door still operational?”

Oz startled. “Uh… let me check.”

He pulled up the console.

>Fenrir, is the door

>Yes.

That settles that. He tapped the symbol on his arm, closing the console, and nodded at Sachairi. “Ought to be. Go ahead. I’ll be right behind you.”

Sachairi grinned. “I certainly hope I’m not greeted with a blade this time.”

“Ah, that… I apologize,” Oz said, bowing his head. Should I take Fflyn’s knives away? But then, if there are monsters in here, I’m basically leaving him to die. Plus, would it even make things safer? After all, he’s an assassin. He probably has knives hidden in all sorts of unsavory places, and knows a thousand ways to kill with his bare hands alone.

Then again, he is a failure of an assassin. Maybe I should have Linnea chase him around and steal his knives.

“No, no. It was amusing. Most people treat me like a walking corpse, so delicate a loud voice might end me. It was refreshing for someone to earnestly bare their fangs at me after so long.”

“Huh? Then why does everyone I meet badmouth you?” Oz asked, tapping his chin.

Sachairi pointed at him. “You know, you have a point. I need to make more of the Mages’ Quarter realize how delicate and un-shoutable I am.”

At that, Aisling snorted. “Master, that’s an uphill fight.”

With a last wave, Sachairi exited the World Door, Aisling close behind him. Oz checked for Fflyn, then slipped through the opposite side, and found himself stepping out of the front door, into the library’s lobby. The door remained the scrappy-looking World Door for a moment, then twisted. Scraped and scratched soft wood became the usual impressive hardwood double doors. Oz waited one more second, then opened them, peering out.

Sachairi and Aisling stood outside. Sachairi waved again and walked off, Aisling at his elbow, watching closely in case he stumbled. Oz waved back, closing the door.

Palms pressed against cool hardwood, he sucked a deep breath, bowing his head. What do I do? Fuck. A month, huh? A month, to find and act on a scandal big enough to distract from my own issues. Shit.

Couldn’t have given me a hint, huh, Sachairi?

A second later, Oz grinned. He lifted his head, eyes shining. Or did he…?