Chapter 75

She had a system, and it worked.

Perched on Tobias' new cloak, with the ancient tomes spread out before her occupying the other half, turning pages and opening the ancient works were the greatest challenge.

At least the paper wasn't paper and, thus, not so fragile. They seemed universally made from vellum, and the ink seemed fresh as if sustained by a hidden process of magic. Which, she mused, was most likely correct.

The problem was not so much her lack of thumbs, which annoyed her, but the fact that her "wrists" had less dexterity. They only rotated and tilted so far.

Books were not made with quadrupeds in mind, after all, but that was all part of the "fun."

"That's right, this is fun," she reminded herself, "Magic library."

Using the claws on her left paw, she worked them under the vellum page and curled at the joint, pulling up as much as her dexterity allowed.

The page tented at the rough center and began to pull away, giving her room to get her right paw underneath, and, with practiced and laborious action, she raised it and got the page to turn.

"No thumbs, but who needs them?" She said to herself with false bravado, feeling a surge of victory every time it worked.

Adapt! Cid's mantra of torture echoed throughout her mind in punctuated memory.

Well, here she was, adapting and ready to go cross eyed, from the hours of work she had put in, reading the most dry and dusty material she had yet encountered.

Book after book had spoken of mining expeditions or contained purchase orders, holding little that was interesting or fun to her mind. However, they were all books, which was itself unusual, so there was, at least the possibility of wonder hidden somewhere under the purchase orders.

Now if she could only find it...

Focusing on the page, she tried to not translate it automatically. With focused intent she aimed for the words and symbols underneath her magical overlay, scanning between two open books.

On the four pages open before her, each page containing two columns, row after row of perfectly printed and uniform text presented itself. Strange sigils crawled in perfect lines, indecipherable in their current state, but it offered another clue.

"They're all printed. They had a type of printing press, whoever they were," her mind boggled as things began to click.

These records were mass produced. This wasn't a library, but a records vault for this keep!

"Tobias would want to know all about that!" She mused and went to hop but then stopped to consider that she had no idea who these people were or even what they were.

Here, they could have been anybody.

There were also still books to check, and her revelation would keep. Another hour ticked by, as Riley went through record after record, finally coming to the one she had saved for last.

While all the other book covers were made out of a pebbly scaled leather, this one was smooth and black, its velum pages were leafed in gold, and on its front, a silver dragon was stenciled into its cover overlayed over a golden snowflake.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

It was no wonder that Tobias had picked this one. Everything about it seemed important and, to her, otherworldly.

So she had saved it for last, a type of informational dessert, hoping to find it to be a spell book.

"Maybe there'll be a portal hidden inside to an ancient treasure room? Or a doorway to Atlantis?" She mused as she flipped the cover to reveal its title page:

Annals of the Winter Court, in honor of Queen Gemred, Ruler of the Dark Fae, founder of Winterelm.

Fae books! These were fae books! Reverently, with trembling paws, she turned the next page to see woodcut printed images occupying either side of what she knew as Ranger Central and Timbergarde.

"Tobias! Tobias!" She cried, dancing in a loop, excited about her discovery.

"Riley?" He exclaimed with alarm, rushing up the stairs, "What's wrong?"

"This place is a faery fortress! Dark Fae! Queen Gemred built it. I don't know when," She hopped around his legs excitedly as Tobias blanched pale.

"What?" He asked, his tone dripping with anxiety.

"Those books are fae books. That's what the script is!" Riley bounced, elated, filled with wonder.

"They are? That's troubling," he replied, looking around as if checking if they were alone.

"Why troubling?" She wondered.

"They were the ancient enemies of the kingdom and were wiped out in the Ashen Wars. Their knowledge is said to be dangerous and best forgotten. Are you ok?" He knelt down and began checking her over.

"I'm fine. What do you mean dangerous? Why would it be dangerous to know things?" She puzzled.

"By the dead Gods, I should have been more careful. If they were anything but fae tomes," He cursed, pacing back and forth.

"So it could have been a Necronomicon?" Riley shuddered, eyeing the book with suspicion.

"Maybe. Many rumors persist about the fae and their traps, death curses. The war ended strangely. These are things that are dangerous to speak of," he whispered under his breath as if utterance alone could invite doom.

"Strangely?" She pressed.

"The Fae vanished in entirety after a mass ritual suicide, but there are competing theories among the scholars as to their aims. The King of Ashes took his name from those he vanquished. He burned their remains in great pyres that were said to light the roads at night. Nothing was allowed to remain or be remembered. Every bit of knowledge of theirs was banned until their culture became a legend and a byword," Tobias explained.

"It was a genocide then," Riley shivered at the word.

"It was us or them, or so I was taught," Tobias said with a sigh.

"They always say that. It doesn’t make it right, " she observed.

"It was two millennia ago, at the founding of the kingdom. Who can say for sure? I never questioned it before Cid and his talk of elves," he shrugged, looking like he was wrestling with something.

"In my experience, conquering governments always say the ends justify the means, so it's good to question even if it was long ago, so why don't we stay a while and see what that say?" She offered.

Tobias' eyes went wide, "I think it's better if we let this one sleep and keep it quiet. Who knows how it would go over, but I couldn't bear to see those books burned. A secret kept lets it sleep for another day," Tobias replied.

"They'd do that, but that's wrong!" Riley exclaimed.

"Knowledge can be a dangerous thing, and it could be a dangerous thing to us as well. If I want to keep you safe, it's best we keep this quiet. The truth is, I don't know, but I'm not itching to find out Riley. Fae lore is illegal in this kingdom. They are ancient enemies that intended us malice. Whether they truly were or not doesn't matter. That viewpoint is enforced," Tobias explained.

"I'm going to set things back to order. If anyone asks, we were curious and nothing more. Got it?" He urged.

"Got it," Riley agreed, joining the conspiracy.

"So did you find anything useful?" She asked, feeling safer going to another topic.

"Very little, but it all seems fairly basic. It's actually easier than a binding ritual, ironically." Tobias mused as he began setting books carefully back on their shelves.

"How easy?" Riley asked, full of suspicion.

"We both swear our power to each other, much like a magical oath. It's a commitment sealed by our power and will bind our souls together. We'd use a standard circle to enhance and concentrate the effect, but honestly it doesn't seem all that necessary from what little I've seen. The punch of the spell is in the words of the oath more than anything," Tobias explained.

"Maybe Cid would know more? If we're going to do this or consider it, I want to know everything," Riley insisted as Tobias took up and shook out his cloak.

"There's nothing I can do about our footprints, but all that means is that we were up here looking," Tobias said, fastening it back on.

"Exactly, we were just wandering. There's no harm in that, so let's go find and pick his brain!" Riley replied.