Nyssa's Point of View

Chapter 23

The golem stood in front of me, regaling me with the great story of how he reprimanded the thieves who tried to steal his flowers. The three thieves in question didn't really look ashamed though, their cheeks were rosy and their eyes were bright. They'd showed up at the library on the golem's shoulders, looking like they'd just taken the ride of their lives.

"Care to explain?" I asked Roan.

"Well, let's just say the golem showed them a whole new world," he said, sheepishly rubbing the back of his head. "One full of his flowers."

"Was that the whole mountain?" I asked softly and when Roan nodded, I sighed. "Golem, we've been over this. You can have some gardens, but not the whole mountain." The artists perked up at that, so I turned on them next. "And you, this is a library. You can't just steal from the grounds. Didn't anyone ever teach you manners?"

"Sorry," one of the women, Isolde I think, said. "It won't happen again."

The other woman glared at Theo. "Definitely won't happen again."

I stared at the three of them. This was a great opportunity to get their help with our PR issues if we handled it properly.

"Golem, if they help us get patrons to the library, would you mind showing them where to pick flowers without disturbing the land too much?"

"Patrons? Library wants those..." The golem stared at the great book tree before letting out a raspy breath. "Fine. Golem will share."

"Excellent," I said with a smile. "Then will you three help us out with a little project in return?"

"Of course!" Theo said. "How can we help? A portrait maybe? Or a sculpture for the entryway? Maybe lawn art?"

Roan made a calm down motion with his hand. "I think the golem's got the lawn handled. I'm guessing she wants help with those."

He nodded at the so-called wanted posters they'd brought with them and at the ones Roan had gathered from town while the golem was giving them a tour. We'd been working so hard to repair the library so everyone could enjoy it, but we just kept running into new roadblocks. It was so frustrating.

"I can't believe the adventurer's guild stooped that low," I said, shaking my head. "What did we do to deserve that?"

The demon lord glared at one of the posters of himself. "Right? How dare someone make me look so...unsettling."

My lips twitched. That particular poster made the demon lord look like he belonged on the cover of a dark romance novel, terrifying but handsome at the same time. It was the only one with enough detail to show that the artist had actually come face to face with the demon lord too. Before I could ask about that situation, he picked up another poster.

"This, this one shows promise," he said, pointing at the big sharp teeth drawn on his face like children's art. "It has a fearsome aura, just like I deserve."

I almost laughed, but his face was dead serious. He really thought that was a better poster than the other one. Which actually made me a little sad for him. Why would he feel better about looking scary? Especially when it did nothing but hurt the library at this point.

"Why would the guild make these?" I asked softly. "Was it because of those scare tactics you guys told me about earlier?"

The story spirits froze, like I'd caught them doing something bad, then glanced away from me.

"Was what you did really that awful?" I asked. "I won't judge you. We just need to know what we're dealing with."

They'd made it sound fun last time I'd asked, almost like ghost stories around a campfire, but I really didn't think anyone would go to all this trouble if they weren't worried. Not even somebody like Sylas, who was full of himself sure, but he also seemed to genuinely want to protect the town. Roan seemed to think so too when I'd asked about him.

Shadows swirled around the demon lord. "My job is to terrify people and I do my job well."

I glanced at Lisa, hoping she'd elaborate, but she wouldn't meet my eyes. Mochi was nowhere to be seen and the dragons were hiding in the stacks. A gloom settled over the library so fierce that the books themselves started quivering. So the town wasn't crazy for being afraid of the mountain. Whatever had happened, their fear was valid.

"Okay, so last time you mentioned nobody trusting Mochi's snacks," I said slowly, "and the demon lord making Cerbie's shadows chase people. That can't be everything, so what am I missing?"

Lisa sighed. "That's how it started, with Mochi and his snacks. He wanted to invite people in and make them feel welcome, but the townsfolk took it all wrong. Then the golem tried handing out flowers and people ran in terror thinking it was going to crush them. No matter what we did, everyone kept misunderstanding."

"Ummm...," Isolde interrupted, "but it wasn't just the panda and the golem right? There was a witch luring kids into the woods with sweets. She'd sing sweet songs that put you under her spell, leading you up the mountain until you were too lost to find your way home."

Theo nodded. "And I heard those snacks were poisoned. If you ate one, you'd never eat anything else again."

I glanced at Lisa, vaguely remembering her mentioning singing in the woods. "Was the witch in the woods you, by any chance?"

"Me?" she shrugged, glancing away. "Who could tell?"

Which meant it was definitely her, but the artists were too distracted to realize as they repeated more and more out of control versions of the stories. None of this sounded that terrible still though, not until they got to the part about the traumatized kids.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

"Wait, go back," I said, "what happened to the kids?"

"Well, story goes that some kids came up here for a test of courage one night," Isolde said, "daring each other to go inside the haunted library. Except, when they went inside, the ghosts attacked them. They ran through the woods all night, desperately trying to find their way home until they stumbled into town covered in scratches and dirt, so scared they could barely speak."

"And all they did was step inside this library," Theo whispered, gazing around as if ghosts were going to jump out at him. "Makes you wonder what happened that night, right?"

No matter how you spun that story, it sounded like the story spirits went a little too far if the kids were that terrified. But I didn't think they'd really put anyone in danger, so it had to be a mistake, just another one of their tall tales.

"There's always two sides to every story," I said, glancing at Lisa. "So what really happened?"

She crossed her arms, leaning back into her chair as if she needed distance between us. "Well, that little test of courage wasn't what they said. The kids came up here sure, and they came inside too. The library was so happy to have patrons again so we were going to do our best to welcome them."

Her voice was quiet and full of unease, like the bad part of this story might actually be as bad as it sounded. I worried my lip, wishing I didn't have to hear it. If the story spirits had hurt children, there was no coming back and this library really was doomed. But I really didn't think they'd do that.

Roan stepped closer to me, a silent supporter. I took a deep breath, preparing for the worst.

"So what happened then?" I asked.

"Those monsters started throwing rocks and breaking windows." Lisa gripped her arms so tight her fingers went white. "We were shocked and the library was devastated. Kids were supposed to be full of magic and wonder, the ones who loved the library the most, but they turned on us, laughing at how pathetic the library was. They broke the library's heart along with its windows, shattering any hope we had left. You have no idea how painful that was and I just...couldn't watch it anymore."

The demon lord gripped her shoulder. "You did the right thing." He stared me in the eye, voice low with anger. "We chased those kids off, making sure they'd never step foot on this mountain again. If the townsfolk couldn't appreciate the library, then we wouldn't let any of them come back. We vowed to protect the library from its worst enemy: humans."

I swallowed hard, anguish strangling my voice. How could anyone do that to the library? Sure, they didn't know it was sentient, but still. Vandalism was just an awful thing for everyone involved. It took away something people loved and tainted it.

"You didn't...hurt them though, right?" I whispered.

"Of course not," the demon lord growled. "We're not the monsters here."

I'd known deep down that was true. They were just protecting the library in the only way they knew how: by keeping everyone away. But that wasn't going to fix anything. The library would fade away at this rate and be reborn somewhere else. Is that what they really wanted?

Roan laced his fingers through mine, squeezing my hand softly. I almost cried. He had helped me so much and it might all be for nothing.

"We're sorry," Lisa said, standing up to join me. "We never thought we'd find somebody who cared this much about the library. About us."

The golem nodded. "Sorry."

I took a breath to steady myself and forced a smile. "It's okay. That was a long time ago and everyone makes mistakes. You were just protecting the library. If we apologize, I'm sure the town will understand."

Lisa winced. "Well, there's more. After the first test of courage, other groups of kids tried to outdo them, proving they were even more courageous. And we kept chasing them off. That's when the town hired the adventurer's guild and things really did get out of hand. That's around when you showed up, actually."

Ah, everything was clicking into place now. I'd thought the town was really overreacting to the situation, but if their kids were scared, then they had to take it seriously. Even though the story spirits hadn't physically hurt anyone, they had scared them. That would take a while to overcome, but we'd already started doing it.

"Thanks for telling me all that," I said. "I know it's hard, but we can make this right. We've already changed a few people's minds, like the apothecary and these artists." I glanced at them, hoping they'd agree. "Maybe they can help us explain to the town?"

"Of course," Theo said, nodding. "Good art is complex, just like this situation. People will understand that. Plus, the kids never mentioned vandalism or doing anything wrong, so that'll put things into perspective a bit."

"Good, so...," I faltered, not really sure what the next step should be here.

How did we apologize to the town if they didn't want to talk to us? If we could get them to come to the festival, then maybe we'd have a chance. We could make the day a meeting for both sides to come together and bond. I knew the library would want that, no matter how hurt it was, because I'd already seen it opening up to Roan and me.

There was hope, not much, but some. We just had to put in the work.

I glanced around, taking in all the story spirits' pained expressions. None of them had actually enjoyed scaring people, no matter how they'd made it sound last time. It was just a means to an end, a way of keeping the library hidden and safe, away from the people who'd abandoned it. But the library wasn't alone anymore. We were all here for it.

It was time for real change.

"Okay then, let's do something to fix this," I said. "If the town has fear-filled posters of you, then let's make joy-filled ones instead! Once they meet you, I'm sure they'll understand where you're coming from. Or at least, be willing to listen. So we just have to get them here and a festival is a great time for new starts."

Lisa finally lifted her gaze, smiling softly. "Right. We'll apologize and welcome them to our wonderful library."

"Exactly." I turned to the three artists still sitting in the corner. "Will you help us? We need to make these posters colorful and heartfelt to ease people's fear."

They nodded and Theo even hopped up with excitement. "This sounds like a challenge worthy of our skills!"

Roan sighed. "This is going to turn into chaos, you know that, right?"

"Maybe," I said with a laugh, "but what's wrong with a little fun chaos?"

He put his arm around my waist, pulling me close as he whispered in my ear. "If you're here? Nothing at all."

I blushed, leaning into him for a moment. I wished we had more time to ourselves, but the library needed me too much right now. Maybe one day I could just relax with Roan and see where things went, but right now, we had some posters to make. I sadly pulled away from him to gather up pens, pencils, crayons, paint, paper, and whatever else the library had.

The mood eased as everyone gathered around tables in the middle of the library, talking about what kinds of things to draw. Turns out the demon lord was actually pretty skilled at drawing, but everything he drew was terrifying.

"Maybe you should just help the knights?" I suggested, but he glowered at me and decided to supervise from afar. Lisa on the other hand was drawing beautiful flower-filled images that had the golem fawning over them. "Those are beautiful!"

She beamed. "I have a few skills I haven't shown you yet."

All in all, it was going pretty well, until the knights dragged a bucket of paint over for Cerbie so he could put pawprints on the posters. His little pawprints were so adorable, until he ran away after a dragon and those little blue pawprints ended up all over the floor.

"Cerbie!" I shouted, running after him.

Roan laughed as he picked up a cloth. "I've got it. You worry about the rest of them."

The knights shrugged and started using the crayons as swords for mock battles, fighting across the table in great waves. I sighed, glancing over at the actual artists hoping they were faring better, but they were lost in the stacks looking for inspiration. Really it seemed like they were just snooping, but hey, maybe they'd produce something beautiful.

All in all, today felt like good progress. The story spirits had finally opened up to me about what they'd done and we were working on a way past it. As long as everyone tried their best, I was sure we could get through this.