Chapter 225

Jay lay on the smooth stone floor in the private library room and breathed heavily for a bit until his heart rate slowed down. He was on his back and he stared up towards the ceiling. He could see a worried Glenda looking down at him with a frown. Wow, she was big, Jay thought before his eyes flicked over to the only other person in the room.

Norri stood a bit off to the side and was breathing heavy as well. She had already scrambled to her feet and she leaned heavily on her staff. She met Jay's eyes and smiled with a relieved look.

“That was close!” Norri said in a voice strained with tension. It was part accusation and part excitement.

“You ok?” Glenda asked as she offered Jay a hand to help pull him up off of the ground.

Jay reached up and her hand engulfed his own. With a gentle tug she flung him back up to a standing position. He wobbled on his feet for a moment and he heard Norri giggle from off to the side of him.

Jay gave Norri a hesitant smile, “We did everything right – it was the one-tooth that messed things up for us.”

“Should we have brought more people with us maybe?” Norri wondered worriedly as she brushed herself off with her hands.

Jay shook his head and gave her a crooked smile, “The two of us barely made it out in time. Can you imagine what would have happened if we took more than two people? They'd be trapped in there right now, wherever that place is now.”

Norri thought about that before she finally nodded. She tried not to think about what it would be like to be trapped in a pocket dimension, no longer attached to Eden, stuck forever. She shook her head to clear her thoughts. Her breathing seemed to have calmed down a bit and she let out a deep sigh.

Glenda grinned and gave Jay a very gentle pat on the back.

“Good job! Come. Tell Pierre good news. One-tooths very annoying,” Glenda gushed and led a shaken Jay and Norri out in to the hallway.

She shut the door behind her and they followed her through the twists of hallways full of private rooms, up the stone library stairs, and then past a hulking Librarian who carried a two-headed battleaxe in one hand and a book on ancient rhymes in the other.

It made Jay wonder about the places Librarians must go to find long lost books and relics. Places with traps and riddles. Jay could see how a book on ancient rhymes might be helpful in that line of work.

They walked through the library itself and Jay inhaled the scent of books and leather that seemed to fill the space. Librarians were everywhere, some of them even spoke with one another – just very very quietly.

Glenda spoke to the Librarian at the front desk while Jay and Norri stood quietly next to her.

“Pierre?” Glenda asked shortly.

The other Librarian was not Pierre, but instead a female Librarian with a long braid. She had dyed her hair purple and wore only the normal fighting knives at her hips. She gave a nod and left the desk for a moment.

She knocked on the office door behind her and poked her head inside. After a brief pause she returned and waved the group inside.

Pierre was where they had left him, buried in paperwork. He actually smiled as the group walked in. The librarian with the purple hair closed the door behind them once they were all inside before she went back to what she had been doing.

“Finished.” Glenda said with a smile as she gave both Jay and Norri a pat on the back at the same time. Only it wasn't really a pat – it was more like a very gentle placing of the hand on their back. She was trying to be gentle but it ended up looking goofy and Norri smiled.

The massive Bibliomancer nodded and smiled as well. He placed one hand over his paperwork and tilted his massive head to the side slightly. “You find out where one-tooths come from. You find out why?” he asked curiously.

Jay and Norri shared a look as the memory of being chased by a charging beast made them shiver.

Norri frowned, “Someone was breeding them as food. There was something else in there, something worse than one-tooths.”

Jay looked up as if he had just remembered something. “Oh, right! I took some of their notes!”

That got Pierre's attention and he made a grasping motion with his hand towards Jay.

“Give.” the bibliomancer said in a deep voice.

Jay nodded nervously at the sudden intensity Pierre displayed, “Sure, here – just let me get it. I was about to give it to you anyway. I don't want it.”

Jay fished about and found where he'd stashed the papers on his person and handed them over.

Pierre looked over the papers and frowned as he placed them back on to the desk.

Jay looked a bit spooked after being yelled at by the Librarian but Norri was not so easily cowed.

“Whats it SAY?!” Norri demanded with absolutely no regard to the size differential between her and Pierre. Norri hated not knowing things – everyone does, but Norri took it to a slightly different level sometimes.

Pierre looked taken aback at Norri's fierceness and tapped the papers once and shook his head. “Someone do something they should not do. Now someone have consequences,” he said darkly.

Jay wasn't sure what had been so bad about what he and Norri had seen on the way in and out of the pocket dimension but he assumed it had something to do with the weird looking creature they had run from.

Pierre looked at Jay's confusion and smiled. He took pity on him and further explained, “Breeding monsters forbidden. This one...especially.”

“Oh.” Jay said as if that cleared everything up. He tried a different question. “So you said someone will have consequences. Will the Librarians be doing that?” he asked inelegantly.

Pierre frowned and shook his head. “Not this. This something for Man-Hunters,” he said but in a lower tone of voice. “Enough. Not your problem. You want Library access – you have it. Must keep title on, yes?”

Jay and Norri nodded and Pierre pushed a button on his desk and after a brief moment the purple haired Librarian opened the door and leaned in to the office.

“Jay. Norri. Library access allowed. Let others know. Also. Get Man-Hunters. Send them to me,” Pierre rattled off as short as he could and the purple haired Librarian didn't speak but nodded instead before she disappeared out of the room and shut the door behind her.

Pierre looked at Jay curiously. “You use library tonight? Or too tired?” he asked, probing Jay to see if he could learn a bit more about the tiny librarian in front of him.

Jay shook his head, “Not tonight. I have a business opening I have to attend. So does Norri actually. We have to get dressed soon, if we're not late already.”

Norri sighed and nodded. She had been looking forward to having a cup of tea and relaxing. She'd forgotten all about that night thanks to the rush of running for her life just a short time ago. She knew she'd be tired until things got going, then she'd get her second wind and be fine for the rest of the night. Which was great, but she still had to get through the intervening bit when she still felt tired.

“Jay bought a putt-putt course,” Norri offered helpfully with a bright grin.

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Pierre looked confused and frowned. “Putt-putt? You hit balls with sticks? Tiny hole?” he asked as if he wanted to make sure they were talking about the same thing.

Jay nodded.

Pierre shook his head, “Silly game. No point. Rather read,” he insisted with a smile.

They talked for a few more minutes before they were again interrupted by the woman with the purple hair. She opened the door and leaned her head in to the room for a moment.

“Representative here,” the female Librarian said.

Pierre looked up and gave her an odd look, “So soon? Public see?”

The purple haired Librarian shook her head, “No one see. Use hidden tunnel. She was waiting for us,” the Librarian said in a full sentence as if spooked.

Pierre looked thoughtful. “Take Jay. Norri. They go. Use tunnel,” he said before he pinned both Jay and Norri with an intense glare, “You two keep tunnel secret.”

Jay and Norri nodded but remained quiet.

Pierre turned his gaze back to the other Librarian. “Bring representative to me. We talk.”

The purple haired Librarian nodded but did not leave. She opened the door fully and waited for Jay and Norri to join her.

Jay rose. Normally he would shake Pierre's hand but Pierre didn't seem to be in much of a hand-shaking mood so instead they traded nods.

Norri however smiled widely and waved at the large Librarian. “Bye!”

Pierre grunted but relented and smiled crookedly. “Goodbye tiny Librarians.”

The purple haired woman left and Jay and Norri hurried to keep up with her as she walked out from behind the front desk and to the stairwell in the back of the building.

They walked down and and and down the stairs, until they had reached a level which neither Jay nor Norri had yet to visit. The floors were dusty and the rooms were dimly lit, if at all. The purple haired Librarian took a torch out of a nearby wall bracket and led the pair in to the dim room and down a dark stone corridor.

Jay could barely make out forms at the end of the corridor but it was a few moments before they had approached close enough for the torch's light to illuminate them.

It was two people – a Librarian wearing black and teal battle armor, and a human female.

The woman seemed surprised to see Norri and Jay there. Everyone knew that there was no one inside the Library except for Librarians – everyone else was forbidden entry for a week. Yet here was Jay and Norri – and another human female as well.

The two groups passed each other before the human female stopped and turned. Jay caught a glint off of something shiny pinned to her armor and as he inspected it he overlooked the person's face.

“Norri?? What are you doing here?” the human female demanded as she stopped in her tracks once she had recognized Norri's figure.

Jay looked up from the bit of jewelry and was the first one to recognize the woman.

“Alize? What are you doing here?” Jay asked before he could stop himself. It was none of his business what she was doing here and Jay knew better than to pry. He just couldn't help himself due to his surprise.

The Librarians didn't seem too concerned that the three had seen each other and made no move to hurry them along. If the human female wanted to speak to the tiny Librarians then that was her prerogative.

Alize smiled and pulled back her hood to reveal her hair done up in a crown with flowers tucked in to it. She leaned on her staff for a moment as she eyed the two curiously.

“I'm here for a meeting. And you?” Alize said, only half answering his question.

Jay grinned. “We're just coming from a meeting!”

Norri giggled which seemed out of place in the dingy basement like corridor.

Alize looked at Jay with a tilt to her head for a moment as she tried to decide if Jay was being honest, flippant, or both.

Norri cleared things up once she finally found her voice. “We got to meet a Bibliomancer!” she said in excitement.

Alize smiled warmly down at Norri. “I bet that was amazing! I'd love to hear all about it. I have to go now, but we will speak more later, ok? It was good seeing you two again,” she said before she made a motion to her accompanying Librarian and they moved on.

Norri frowned but finally said “Ok...” in disappointment as the two groups separated once again.

Jay watched Alize and her escort go until the light of their torch had disappeared around the corner.

“She seemed in a bit of a hurry,” Norri said a bit unhappily.

Jay nodded, “She did, didn't she? I'm sure she didn't mean to be rude though – I wouldn't take it too personally.”

Norri shrugged noncommittally and looked back at the Librarian, ready to move on.

The purple haired Librarian didn't speak but instead merely turned and continued on her way.

Jay and Norri followed quietly along behind her as they both pondered what meeting Alize in the library might mean.

They reached a dead end, a featureless stretch of wall stood in front of them, and the group stopped and stood for a moment before the Librarian reached out and placed the palm of her hand on the wall.

For a moment nothing happened, but then the three heard a click sound and the wall swung open away from them and revealed a set of stone stairs.

“Follow stairs. At top...push. Goodbye tiny Librarians,” the purple haired woman said.

Jay could see by the torchlight that she was smiling.

“Thank you,” Jay said just as Norri brightly replied, “Bye!”

The purple haired woman remained – she had the only light source, and it was just barely enough to see by as Norri and Jay climbed the stairwell.

It got darker and darker as they went until they were climbing in almost total darkness.

“Keep going!” the Librarian below them called out and Jay nodded, stupidly, until he remembered that it was dark and she wouldn't be able to see him.

“Ok!” Jay called back down to her as he continued to climb the stairs.

Norri was right behind him and would occasionally bump in to him as they progressed.

Finally they reached the end of what felt like three or four flights of stairs and Jay reached out with his arms and found the wall in front of him. He pushed using his hands and then his body until he felt the wall give a bit.

It slid open and sunlight streamed in and lit up the air around them. Pushing harder, Jay managed to move through the opening and in to what looked like shrubbery.

Norri soon followed behind him and they fought their way free from a mass of shrubs that made it impossible to see the entrance to the hidden tunnel. Once they had exited the door closed once again and blended perfectly in to the rock around it.

There would be no return trip, not using that entrance anyway.

“What now?” Norri asked, a bit addled from their recent experiences.

“Now? Now we go to our rooms and change and just hope that we make it to the main courtyard on time.

It didn't end up being that easy though. Jay didn't recognize where they were but assumed it was still somewhere on Guild grounds. He finally found a nearby Guard and got directions to the male and female living areas and moved to walk Norri to her rooms.

As they walked down a dirt path they passed numerous Librarians, all of whom offered Jay and Norri a nod. Others would look at them strangely and Guards tended to look at them oddly as well.

Jay looked confused at their unusual treatment but Norri knew what was going on.

“Our titles are still on,” Norri giggled.

Jay slapped his forehead and sighed, “I should have remembered that. Thanks!” he said as he went in to his settings and turned his title off.

Norri watched his title disappear and turned hers off too.

As they walked Jay thought of how odd it was to see Alize in the Library. She had looked just as she usually did only she had worn her hood up. That was when Jay remembered that she had also been wearing a bit of jewelry, a pin on her chest over her heart.

At the time he hadn't recognized the pin but in hindsight he knew exactly what it had been.

A tiny dagger.