Hunter policy #01892 (Redacted):

Anyone detained on suspicions of treason, espionage, or other capital crimes is deprived of their rights under the law and may be treated accordingly.

My heart hammered in my chest. Geoffrey, the old librarian, grunted as he knelt to peer down at me. The hiding spot I’d chosen was suddenly quite childish now that I saw it reflected in his spectacles.

“You’re not allowed down there, Thea, you know that!” Geoffrey told me with a bemused expression. But something in his tone belied a warning.

Play along, I told myself.

I gave him my biggest smile and crawled out from under the desk. Dusting my pants and buttocks off, I answered him as best I could.

“Oh, I know that. But I thought Fenhira was hiding my copies of Monster Cuisine & Other Fine Dining from me again. I’ve been trying to get it from her for days now, and she won’t let it out of her sight. I’m sorry. I should’ve just asked.” I tucked my hands behind my back and kicked an imaginary pebble as the stooped man assessed my claim with an unnerving intelligence I had never seen him use before. After a painfully long pause, he laughed, and that shimmer of shrewdness disappeared.

“Oh, she does love those wild modern books, now doesn’t she? I’ll have a word with her, and see if we can’t pry her iron grip off that book for you. Just be sure to inquire next time. Wouldn’t want you to be tried for treason, now would we?” He said playfully, but inwardly, I froze up.

Does he know?

I thought I’d been so careful with the books I’d checked out, and my subtle questions over this past week. I even made sure to do all my reading inside the library so there would be no record in the index of the incredibly niche topic I explored in these walls.

Aura signatures.

Behind that windowless door was some sort of mechanism that recorded every aura that passed through the library. It was my one clue to figuring out how my brother switched his name in the ledger to Prometheus. And, if I was lucky, I would see where else that name was recorded by the academy’s magic. But not anymore. The ruse was up.

“Oh, don’t frighten me like that!” I said to the wizened clerk. “Scare me like that again, and you can bet I will find out whoever that missus you keep mentioning is and have her deal with you.” Geoffrey grinned at my threat with a devilish gleam in his eyes.

“My Juniper would eat you alive, dearie. Now, off you get before I have to detain you.” He waited expectantly, and I shuffled uncomfortably under his gaze. “Now, please.”

“Oh, sorry,” I stammered and rushed out to join my friends…If I could call them that.

How hard is it to make a skrägging commotion?

I looked behind as I fled the scene and noticed Geoffrey watching me coolly. Whatever rapport I’d built with the man had fled, and we both knew it. I would need to tread oh so carefully now. He was a much better guardian than I’d given him credit for.

Not needing to hide my movements, I made a beeline for the circular table I’d left just minutes before. By the front entrance, Fenhira shooed off a small cluster of Pufflemurs with a broom as they tried to make a nest with spare parchment in one of the library’s many corners. Those cute little buggers got everywhere. I passed through the main foyer and spotted my friends. A third member stood tall with a cloak draped across their broad shoulders, hood pulled deep over their hidden brow. They lorded over my two friends, who both looked deeply uncomfortable. Even Gwyn had one of her hands on her ever-present tomahawks as she watched the newcomer.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

I rounded on them, ready to lay into them for abandoning me like that, but my tirade was halted in its tracks when I saw who it was who had joined them. Azuris, tall and lean and beautiful, loomed as he waited silently.

“Can I sit, please?” He said like he just repeated himself. He barely glanced at my arrival, like I was some uninteresting bug he spotted flutter on a nearby wall.

“Uhhhhh,” Lysandra answered mutely.

“Yes. You fight well. You can sit,” Gwyn responded for the table before I could speak up. My heart continued to race in my chest, and it was a struggle to get it under control as I felt Geoffrey’s eyes linger on me and my strange group.

I was so bloody close. How the frick did you manage this on your own, Kael?

The lithe tiefling nodded his thanks and proceeded to unclip his lengthy cloak. He set it down gently along the back of his chair and sat smoothly, barely making a sound as he met each of our gazes around the circular table. We all waited, my jaw kneading some of the tension I felt into my molars. Beneath the lip of the circular surface, my leg bobbed a frantic beat as I resisted the urge to check behind me for signs of Geoffrey’s vigil of my whereabouts.

“So,” Azuris started, finally breaking the silence. He casually leaned his wooden chair back, and the fine decor creaked under his weight. “I’ll get straight to it.” He shifted his golden eyes not to me but to Gwyn. “Gwynneth. Will you join me in the Hunt? I offer you first claims for whichever…monster…you desire to face, should you join me.” He didn’t blink as the two warriors assessed each other for tells and other weaknesses. Meanwhile, I choked on my own breath.

“Wha—What in the seven hells do you think you’re doing?” I hissed as loud as I dared. Though furious, I didn’t wish to incite any more ire from the librarians at the moment. “You can’t just take my friend like that.” My mind whirred. Gwyn and I hadn’t explicitly agreed to join forces for the hunt, but I had just assumed she would. But as I watched my dwarven ally, I realized my mistake too late.

“Yes.” Gwyn’s answer was confirmed with a single, terse nod. Azuris grinned, his canines slightly longer than that of humans.

“Thank you, Gwynneth Ironfist. You show me great honor. I’ll be sure to repay it with the blood of our foes.” Azuris stood and reclaimed his cloak as he placed it over one arm. Gwynneth nodded again at his promise, and I knew my friend well enough now to recognize her delight in it. When he left, I gaped at her.

“You—you can’t be serious, Gwyn. How could you?” I asked, incapable of deciphering my own tumultuous thoughts, much less able to put them into words.

“How could I what?” She answered with a shrug.

“Ally yourself with that…with that…villain!” Lysandra barked. She seemed even more pissed than I was, though I got the impression it was for completely different reasons. At her statement, however, a dark cloud passed over Gwyn’s expression.

“Strength does not make a villain, elf, nor does the origin of one’s first home. Actions do.” Gwynneth stood abruptly and nodded to each of us a single time before she too left the warm embrace of the library.

“You—you won’t abandon me, right?” Lysandra asked after a long pause, her gaze locked onto some unseen mark on the chipped table. Her eyes met mine, moist with fear and panic.

“No, I won’t. Let’s join up, you and I. Together, we’ll slay some dragons.” I got a light chuckle from her, some of the tension in her slender shoulders disappearing from my lame attempt at humor. Lysandra’s chest shuddered as she took in a shaky breath.

“Alright. Let’s do it,” Lysandra agreed. With a force of will, she stood up, both hands pressed against the edge of the table. “I’ll go see if anyone wishes to join our mighty team. Only five are allowed, correct?” I nodded my head at her question. “Then I will go find three of the most brave and capable warriors out there.” She bobbed her head as she made up her mind, the silky rivulets of her black hair catching the warm light of the everglow lamps nearby.

I glanced behind our nook and saw Geoffrey again, but this time a looming man nearly a foot taller than my father talked with the aged librarian. Thick chains laced up his arms up to his shoulders, runes the color of embers dancing along their lengths. My heart stopped when I recognized him. Gone was the half-mask he wore when he brutally trapped my father in our house. In its place was a face that burned with fury and resentment as red eyes burrowed into mine from across the spacious room.

“You know what, Lizzy? I’d best join you. Cover more ground that way. Let’s go.” I practically dragged the young elf away, careful to skirt around the edge of the room so I wouldn’t run into them.

What’s he doing here?

Out of the library, the combined weight of everything that had just happened caught up with me.

“I have so much work to do,” I muttered pitifully to myself.

“What was that?” Lysandra asked.

“I have toes in my shoe,” I replied way too quickly. I blushed but pressed forward. “Let’s go make some allies!”