Chapter 93

Screams pursued them as they ran. They found solace only after they had made it to the map room and shut the door soundly behind them. Glenda barred the door using a cross beam. Once everyone had gotten comfortable in their chairs Fred spoke.

“A Rod of Siphoning is incredibly dangerous. Depending on the strength of the rod it can absorb the magic right out of you if you're not careful. So don't use it on anything unless you are absolutely sure of what you are doing. I won't warn you again. If you still insist on getting one..” she said, her words trailing off towards the end. She tilted her head and looked over at Jay with one eyebrow raised.

Jay nodded, “We do.”

The rest of the group nodded in agreement.

Glenda remained still whereas Koots sat quietly, his hump wobbling gently behind him.

“Well in that case I'd start with the Portal Studies room. This entire place was once a giant residential school with the library taking up a significant portion of the grounds. Before you ask I know it's a room for portal studies because it is crammed full of books on the subject and also has a portal frame.” Fred said as she toyed with a few strands of her freshly cleaned hair.

“You can read the books?” M'redith asked sounding surprised.

Koots grinned, “Frederick is a linguist. She's managed to learn how to read quite a lot of Ashagi's language. It's the numbers that she can't figure out.” Koots wiggled his eyebrows but no one reacted.

“Eh? Can't FIGURE out the numbers? Seriously no one here likes puns?” Koots said with a disappointed voice before sighing theatrically.

“Thank you.” Fred said dryly once Koots had quieted down. “He's right though. Whatever Ashagi is or whatever realm it comes from uses a number system so complicated that I remain unable to understand even basic numbers. The symbols for their numbers seems random and scattered. They appear to have an infinite way of writing the same figure and their numbers form no discernible pattern.”

Fred let out a deep breath, “It's a nightmare. And as far as words go that's only marginally better, all I've been able to manage are snippets really. Some of the books here are surprisingly enough from writers on Eden, just translated in to whatever horrible language Ashagi uses. Others though, others describe places I'm sure do not exist here. It's fascinating work.”

“Tell them your theory!” Koots interjected excitedly.

Fred frowned for a moment at Koots before she shrugged and decided to answer. “Yes. Well. I believe that Ashagi collects books from a variety of different dimensions, Eden being just one of many. Ashagi then takes those books and translates them before storing them here.”

Jay shared a look with Glenda. It appeared they had gotten far off topic.

Glenda straightened her back which drew everyone's attention thanks to her size. “Rod?” she asked simply, wrenching the conversation back to the intended topic.

Fred nodded and blushed so lightly that Jay was uncertain if he had witnessed it at all, “Right. Yes. Here,” she pointed to the map and everyone took out their maps and made a note of the location of the portal studies room. “You should find one there. Some portals would require a frame for the user to cast at – they would use a Rod of Siphoning to draw out any residual magic from the frame so it wouldn't react violently with the portal once cast.”

Jay smiled. It seemed that Fred enjoyed explaining the little details, of which she appeared to have a never ending supply. Jay wondered how accurate her details were.

“Well at least we know where we are headed to next.” Aiden said sounding resigned to a day of running from monsters.“Hey, why don't you fight the monsters at all? We're always running from them.” Aiden asked.

Koots chuckled. “Well there's too many of them for one.”

Fred nodded, “I'm a linguist, not a fighter. I don't have a class like the rest of you. So fighting for me would be a horrible idea – I run. Fast.”

M'redith tilted her head to the side, “I thought I remember Glenda saying something about them only being harmed by magic weapons?”

Koots nodded, “Well that is true for the hunters, the ones Ashagi sends out in to the world. It certainly doesn't hold true in here though. If you can find one alone feel free to try and kill it. Just don't be surprised if ten more show up while you're making the attempt if you know what I mean.”

Some of them had taken the opportunity to take out their canteens and drink some much needed water while the others discussed.

“I have a question.” Norri said shyly. The others all turned to her. She took a moment to get up her courage but finally asked, “The book, the one we're returning – why did the Guild act like one of Ashagi's hunters would enter the city to get the book from Jay? Wouldn't that already have happened with others touching the book back at the store we found it in?”

Koots spoke up, “Who told you touching the book would do that?”

Aiden pointed at Glenda who grunted in response and stared back at him.

Koots seemed to be the most knowledgeable when it came to Ashagi so he took the question rather than Fred, “Ashagi sends hunters to fetch his books but they wouldn't be crazy enough to enter a city unless something else was going on.”

Koots shifted his weight as his hump wobbled to one side. “Think of it as different levels of interest. Someone holding the book isn't a priority for Ashagi. If you hold the book and try to read it, that tends to get a little of Ashagi's interest, a hunter will get to you when it can. If you have a class and try and read it, well a hunter is certainly coming for you, but still, not in a city – it would wait. If you happen to be a scholar, or Goddess forbid a Librarian, and you try studying the book, well that tends to get Ashagi's full attention and you'd best be running, city or no.”

“Why?” Norri asked simply.

“Jealousy is my guess,” Koots said as he cracked his knuckles which made Norri frown in distaste.

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Fred spoke up this time, “Some think it has to do with magic. People with classes have high levels of magic perhaps generating more interest from Ashagi. Others think it has something to do with how useful the book is to certain people. The more useful the more interest Ashagi shows. Personally I think both are bunk and Ashagi does what Ashagi wants for reasons all its own. You want to know why you're here? Because Ashagi wanted you here is my best guess.”

Rubbing her temples she sighed and continued, “You all have classes but still I can't see a hunter entering a town just for that. What aren't you mentioning?” she said with a thin smile. Her scholarly mind had picked apart all of the details they had provided her with and had found them lacking – something was missing.

Glenda grunted after the rest of the group remained silent. “Traveler.”

Fred's eyes swiveled to peer at Glenda, “You're a Traveler?”

Glenda shook her head. “No. Jay.”

Jay smiled and gave a halfhearted wave. “That's me.”

Koots laughed. “Well no wonder! Travelers are said to be special magic wise. I bet they're stuffed full of the stuff. They've quite a bit more of it than is usual compared to those born on Eden at least.”

Fred shrugged, that was not her area of expertise, “If you say so. I've no idea about that but I'd be careful when you return that book. Only the Goddess and Ashagi know why it chased you all the way here. Sure, it wants its book back but it could have chased anyone if it was just about the book. It waited until Jay took possession of the book to show any real interest in its return.”

The group took a moment to ponder all of the new information before Jay sighed. “Well I feel worried now.”

Fred looked at him strangely. “If you are just starting to feel worried then you're a bit late to the party.”

Koots laughed and threw the balance of his hump off, forcing him to shift his weight to avoid falling over.

“Guild knew Ashagi would come for Traveler.” Glenda said simply.

Aiden shrugged, “Well we made it here at least. Now all we have to do is return the book. Which reminds me, for a library we haven't seen a whole lot of books.”

Koots laughed, “That's easy, you haven't been to the library portion of Ashagi yet. Sure, they call him a living library but there are plenty of other non library rooms here that make up Ashagi as well. You've been spending all of your time in the non-library sections. I've been easing you in slowly before showing you the difficult stuff.”

“Difficult?” Aiden asked.

“Sure. The library has enemies far more dangerous than what we've seen so far.” Koots replied seriously.

“Dangerous how?” Norri asked as M'redith nodded in solidarity with her. The monsters they had seen so far had appeared quite murderous.

“You want a hump? Because some of those monsters can give you one. You want dangerous? I'll tell you about dangerous. Imagine your skin growing MORE of you with every monster touch, your body bubbling and rippling as you grow more of you.” Koots said as his hump wobbled precariously behind him as he spoke.

“Or what about monsters that can suck your Class right out of you? Or damage your Class Abilities, removing some of the benefits or adding negative modifiers. How about monsters that eat magical items? Or monsters that feed on your experience points? Or monsters that can damage your ability to even gain experience points??” Koots became more animated and agitated the longer he spoke and Fred finally had to intervene and spoke to him in soft tones until he had calmed down and walked over to another table to pull himself together.

After a moment Fred took over the conversation, “Your hit points are the least of your worries in here. Not all of Ashagi's monsters damage your hp or kill you. Some just damage you beyond hope and leave you alive to suffer. Do not underestimate the monsters in here, especially the ones in the library itself.”

Koots had returned to the group after calming himself down. His hump was leaning to the right when he once again approached the group – it had been leaning to the left since they had entered the map room and Jay shivered at the thought of having a floppy hump grow out of his own flesh. “Now, who wants lunch!” Koots said excitedly as if he had already forgotten what had upset him only moments earlier.

Koots screamed the last word, 'lunch,' as a small monster bit down on his right leg. His hump was still leaning to the right and the monster's chewing on his right leg proved too much for Koots to remain standing and with a shriek he fell to the ground, his hump wobbling horrifically as he struck the floor.

The monster was jet black with a shiny sheen that let one know that it was damp, moist, wet, or all of the above. It was asymmetrical and had three legs on the left side of its round body and two legs and an arm on the right. The arm ended in five fingers – not four fingers and a thumb, no, five fingers. Five long talon tipped fingers that had buried themselves in to Koots' right calf and lower leg.

Its round body opened on one end showing row after row of inward facing needle sharp teeth and Norri swung her staff before anyone else had a chance to move.

The monster was a smaller one, roughly a foot long with the legs and arm a foot and a half long. It had apparently entered with the group and hid under a table when they weren't paying attention. Jay's group really needed to work on their attention to detail and their situational awareness.

Norri's staff struck the foot long monster but it didn't budge, letting out a screaching wail that made them want to clap their hands over their ears. Doing so would have forced them to drop their weapons and it was no surprise that Jay's group refused to do so while Koots and Fred both covered their ears.

Fred had pulled back to a wall and was cowering behind a chair. Jay's group had spread out to give thenselves a better angle of attack at the monster. Koots was curled up on the ground with his hands over his ears as he screamed from the pain of having his right leg eaten.

The staff wielders had only a slightly easier time of it than M'redith did with her sword. It was just too easy to hit Koots while trying to hit the monster. The two were moving violently as the monster continued to attack Koots' calf and leg and the group didn't have a clear shot at the monster. Finally Glenda had enough and reached down with one huge hand and grabbed the monster being careful to keep its jaws away from her hand.

She plucked it off of Koots' leg, some of his leg tearing as she pulled but she did not stop and continued inexorably pulling at the murderous orb. Finally with a sickening squelch she yanked it free and slammed it to the ground. Holding it still with one hand she pulled a hand axe out of her pack and began raining down strikes on the flailing monster. It gouged deep furrows in to her arm as she held it fast and she was bleeding profusely by the time the monster was no longer moving.

Glenda stood up and Aiden ran over to her side and began casting heals on her arms and hands. Glenda's forearms were almost covered in patches by the time Aiden was done and she thanked him quietly.

“Thank you!” Koots said with a groan as Aiden turned and healed his leg, the skin covered in overlapping patches by the time Aiden had finished.

No one else had been injured and Koots needed Aiden's help standing up thanks to his wobbling hump.

“I didn't mention it earlier but it's important to make sure the monsters don't follow you in to a room.” Koots commented breathlessly as he plopped himself sideways in a chair and leaned against the table. He inspected his leg and was about to pick at the patches when Aiden stopped him.

“The patches will go away on their own when you're all healed up. I wouldn't mess with them before then.” Aiden said seriously.

Koots nodded and sighed. “Goddess I hate this place sometimes.”