Fiona stood there feeling very awkward while Lamont and Saturn stared her down. People could be scarier then any scuttling monster noises, yet there was no running away from it now. The secret door had sealed behind her the moment she had stepped out of the staircase.

Saturn held a bit of a growl in her voice as she spoke. “So you were eavesdropping were you. Since when did you start doing that?”

Fiona shook her head. “I wasn’t meaning too. I-I-I-I-“

Saturn radiated with an intensity that Fiona had never felt before. “You were spying on us! You can’t even lie about it can you?”

It took everything she had to not break down crying. “I-I d-didn’t m-mean t-too.”

Saturn snarled. “Now you're going to tell me exactly what you saw and heard.”

It was getting hard to see clearly as tears started to well up in her eyes. “I-I-m s-sorry.”

Saturn opened her mouth to speak but stopped short as Lamont placed a now bandaged hand on her arm. Lamont’s voice came out gentle, yet warranted no room for argument. “Saturn, let this go. I have some idea of what’s down there and she was likely just trying to find her way back up here before being eaten. I’m sure she didn’t mean to see or hear anything if she did at all.” He glanced back at Fiona and smiled warmly. “I also trust that she wouldn’t reveal any secrets which were not her own.”

Fiona nodded in a quick jerky fashion.

Saturn growled and stepped away from Lamont choosing to go to Thaddeus’s side instead. “I have more pressing concerns anyway.”

Lamont kept his eyes on Fiona. Those eyes were filled with warmth and love, like that of an older brother which Fiona dearly missed. “You must have encountered Scuttles.”

Fiona walked briskly to his side and did her best to avoid looking directly at Saturn as she passed. “S-scuttles?”

“Let’s just say he’s my guard dog for anyone trying to sneak through the secret entrances of the castle.”

Fiona sniffled. “W-what's down there?”

Lamont shrugged. “I’m not sure what all is really down there. It’s like a city down there. According to legends this castle used to be just the tip top of an old secret school of wizardry. Of course those are merely rumors at this point. I discovered Scuttles pretty early, and he had a good portion of the place on lock down already. I offered him a deal.”

Lamont pulled out a handkerchief and dabbed it at the corners of Fiona’s eyes. It was still hard to speak but her heart was calming down already. “W-what did you offer him?”

Lamont grinned. “I allowed him to live down there in exchange for him keeping anyone unauthorized out of those secret places.. Usually by eating them.”

***

Rita moved as silent as a ghost on her hover boots from section to section. She waited for Nightshade and Mind Sliver to enter their own respective sections on the other side of the library before going to the next one herself. It was a lot slower than she’d hoped. Once she hit the section of dark histories Rita heard feet land on the floor just out of sight.

Rita ducked behind a table easily canceling her body. The sound of feet walking into the chamber brought a fresh wave of adrenaline to Rita’s limbs. She could taste the lust of battle on the tip of her tongue. The thrill of facing off against an opponent who was difficult to defeat. If Rita hadn’t found herself in a library, as well as only having her flame charged revolver on hand, she would have loved to face these monsters in battle.

As the sounds drew ever nearer Rita reached for her revolver. She could possibly incapacitate one of them with a brilliant sneak attack if she was forced too. The sounds stopped just next to the table, Rita was able to see Nightshade’s long legs from under that table, and the woman was wearing high heels of all things to a robbery.

Mind Sliver’s voice oozed from around the corner. “I found the section on castles.”

Nightshade replied. “Oh goodie. And here I was thinking it might be in Dark Histories. After all, our Lady Nightmare has quite the history with the place.”

As Nightshade walked off Rita took the opportunity to climb out from under the table and took another look at the shelves that Nightshade was facing. She didn’t see anything that sounded right for information on Nightmare. Tales of the Fell. The Forgotten Magic of the Fade. Twilight Wars: A historical look at the war between Lunaria and Solaria.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

That last one stood out to Rita and her mind jumped back to those dreams she’d been having. There wasn’t any thought to it as Rita grabbed the book and tossed it into her pack. Now it was time for her to go get that crystal.

Seeing as how those two were distracted by their own cause it gave Rita plenty of time to utilize her hover boots to their fullest. She skated over the ground, jumped onto the wall and continued skating up until she hit the second floor where she jumped off and landed on the second floor walkway without even touching the ground. Next Rita found the staircase and skated up it going to the third floor.

She passed by a window and paused only briefly to look out it. She found herself staring at the front lawn of a beautiful garden at eye level. A black crow was sitting on the lawn pecking at the earth. It stopped just long enough to look down at Rita.

Rita let out a sigh. “I've had enough of Crows looking down on me.”

She turned to face the empty space between this side of the library and the other. The sun stone hung proudly from the ceiling, it's glow teasing Rita with promises of creation. Rita pulled out her dagger and raced toward the railing. She leapt from the floor, put a foot on the railing and propelled herself off of it and into the air. She sailed right at the crystal, grabbed the brass chandelier it hung in and swung with it as her body moved it. Rita wasted no time jabbing her knife into the crystal and digging at the seams. The thing came out with only a modest amount of effort as Rita kept swinging back and forth.

The crystal popped free and she was forced to catch it with her other hand, locking her legs around the chandelier and hanging upside down. There was a distinct feeling of a slight tingle going through the air, and then the room went cold. The lights all died, one by one and within seconds the entire room went dark.

Down below Rita heard the two swearing. She flicked on her night vision and looked down below her, right into the eyes of Nightshade herself as she flashed a fanged toothed grin.

Nightshade purred as she spoke, “Hello there, cutie. Come to play with me?”

Rita flashed a boyish grin back at her. “Yeah, let’s play tag, your it!”

Like that Nightshade leapt into the air at an incredible speed. Rita pushed herself off the chandler just in time to watch Nightshade collide into it with her claws tearing it to shreds. Rita used the hover boots to land on the second floor in a roll. A quick glance behind her revealed that Nightshade was already leaping from the ceiling and flying towards her, those deadly claws extended like stained black knives.

It took only a fraction of a second for Rita to whip out her revolver and aim it at Nightshade. Rita’s finger began pressing down on the trigger when some part of her mind recalled Lamont’s warning from the last time she had shot a fire weapon inside a library. The moment’s hesitation was enough to throw her off and enough to force her to make a hasty roll to the side in an attempt to avoid those claws.

A burning line was drawn across her shoulder as Nightshade flew past her landing on all fours much like a feral beast. Rita’s shoulder was running red with blood and Nightshade lifted her claws to her mouth, one of them was dripping with the same red tint and Nightshade wrapped her tongue around the claw licking the blood off of it.

Rita threw her revolver back into her pack and kept her dagger at the ready. “All you have going for you is that pretty face of yours. Let’s change that!”

Nightshade stood up straight, her stance looked relaxed but Rita could sense the ability in her to kill at any instance. “Come on then, I’d love to oblige such a young thing as yourself.”

Rita glanced back at balcony at her side. If only she could just-

A shadowy hand lunged up from over the balcony reaching towards Rita. She threw herself to the wall opposite of the shadow being only to see four more were right behind it. Off to her side she saw Nightshade move for her. Her options were limited but she knew at least one of the foes she faced could be hurt so she went for Nightshade.

Nightshade moved fast, almost too fast to catch with her naked eyes. Rita dodged a claw swipe, tried to turn it into a counter attack by swinging her dagger at Nightshade’s side, but found empty air as Nightshade danced around her with ease. More burning lines were drawn across Rita's back.

With Nightshade behind her Rita decided to make a break for it. She ran forward, her back burning with greater agony as she moved. The air in front of her grew cold and her instincts told her to jump back. Mind Sliver appeared from the nothingness with black shadowy daggers in his hands. He swept them at Rita, but she quickly deflected one of them with her own dagger and moved her body out of the way of the other. Pain so cold that it burned white hot flashed through her side as one of his daggers glanced across her waist. With a quick lash of her leg she kicked out at him, but he disappeared once again.

Behind her something hard slammed into her side with enough force to throw her over the edge. Rita toppled over the edge and turned the momentum into a slow fall. She saw Nightshade where she once stood with an outstretched leg of her own. She hit the hard floor on her hands and knees.

The grate was a few feet in front of her. It took everything she had to move again. Her left arm wasn’t working very well where she been slashed at, and her back was almost complexly numb as well. The numbness was spreading slowly.

Pushing herself to crawl to the grate. She wrapped her right hand around the grate and pulled up with all her strength yet the thing hardly moved an inch. It was like all of her strength was sapped out of her wounds.

A pair of arms wrapped around her chest from behind and Nightshade’s face appeared next to hers. “Tag, your it.”

Rita slid her hand into her pack. “You suck.”

Nightshade licked her lips revealing those sharp fangs. “Oh yes, yes I do.”

Rita whipped out her gun and thrust it into Nightshade’s face. “Suck on this then!”

Nightshade stared down the barrel with wide eyes. Several seconds went past, Rita tried to pull the trigger but for the life of her she couldn’t move her finger anymore. She was paralyzed. Fear shot through every ounce of her body as Nightshade’s wide eyes narrowed toward Rita’s and she purred, “Looks like licking my claws really did work. Took a minute to kick in though, didn’t it. Now you're, all, mine.”