Mr. Owlcharge continued explaining what he had learned, “The Watchers want to plunge our planet into the black hole in the binary, and to meet their goals they will gain power in whatever dangerous way they can think of. We think that ‘Black Cloak’, true name Iyak, was causing all of that chaos on purpose, in some bid to gain power for the Watchers.”

“That makes sense,” Addie knew she had something to share on this topic, too. “I found a book here that talks about my birdie. She’s called a Soul Hunter. She uses souls as fuel to gain more magical power. At least, that’s what the book said.” Addie smiled at the opportunity to be helpful.

Auntie rounded on Addie with an intrigued stare, “Where is that book now? It’s way past time to do some research and figure out what exactly happened.”

Addie shuffled her feet. “I don’t know. I can’t find it anymore.” If the librarians found out she destroyed the book, and now it was sitting in her soul somehow, she’d surely get in a lot of trouble.

“A shame,” Mr. Owlcharge said obliviously.

He was about to continue when Christena interrupted. “Addie? Are you telling us the truth? You know how important this is right?”

A nervous tingling panic started to set in. “I really don’t know!” Addie tried to sound as genuine as she knew how. But this usually never worked. Christena somehow always knew when Addie was lying. So, maybe it would be better to say something small at least. The panic at getting caught lying warred with the panic of getting caught taking the book from the library. “Maybe we can find it later!” Addie said, desperate to change the topic.

“Tonight. You will tell us what you found, tonight.” Auntie commanded with narrowed eyes.

Addie let out a sigh of relief. “I’ll tell you tonight,” she agreed easily.

That seemed to appease Auntie and Christena, though Mr. Owlcharge still had a funny look that Addie couldn’t quite figure out.

Actually, he wasn’t looking at Addie at all. Instead, he seemed to be surveying the alcove for some reason.

“Where’s Lily?”

That should have been a simple question, with an easy answer. Lily had come into the library with everyone, so she should be here with Nettal and Christena, right?

Everyone started looking around the alcove. For every moment no one found the tiny girl, Mr. Owlcharge’s worried expression seemed to deepen.

Christena’s face looked just about blue. Last Addie had seen, Christena had been holding Lily.

Addie hated herself for it just a bit, but she had some level of relief at the fact that it wasn’t her fault if Lily had gone missing. That responsibility was Christena’s, and the total dread on her paling face meant that she realized it too. She tramped all thoughts about that down though, since thinking about fault was both unhelpful and mean.

“It’s really easy to find stuff in the library!” Addie tried to sound helpful, “I bet if you just walk around a little bit trying to find her, you’ll find her easily.”

Addie turned around to test her theory, but even after a couple of steps, she was still in the alcove.

“Maybe we need to leave the alcove first,” she said as a blush started warming her cheeks. Addie felt a bit ridiculous, but she shook it off quickly. Embarrassment could wait, for now, she was determined to help find Lily.

Everyone began to file out of the alcove with concerned looks on their faces.

Addie started to walk away from the group, and within moments she was entirely alone. She’d never get used to that. The way the library seemed to shift her around without jarring her or making it obvious seemed so eerie when she thought about it. But, actually experiencing the shift felt natural, no different than walking through town normally would. The only indication that she had even changed locations was the subtle differences she noticed in the book titles around her, and the slightly changing angles of the ring depending on how deep in the library she was. Necessarily, the angle of the bookshelves became more noticeable toward the center of the library as the rings became smaller.

But how did the library work, anyway? That thought ate away at Addie as she continued to look around and search for Lily. She started to pay attention to her spatial sense to see what the library might be doing. Nothing stood out to her as odd, though. She could see the bookshelves around her just fine, and the space beyond them also seemed normal enough. The floor and as far upward as she could see also seemed normal. However, Addie knew that if the ceiling was within her spatial sense’s reach, she would be able to see that area where she found the Grand Librarian.

At first, she just thought her spatial sense couldn’t detect whatever was happening, but as she started walking around she realized the library wasn’t actually displacing her right now. She was just walking through the ring normally.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Addie focused her intent on one idea: finding Lily. She pushed that intent out into the world through sheer force of will while concentrating on her spatial sense. Maybe she could see how the library moved her around. After a few steps, she saw the book spines all change topics to geology. Addie didn’t remember much about that boring topic. More interestingly was the way the library shifted her without being able to notice it.

According to her eyes, nothing had changed. Even her footsteps came easily and normally. But to her spatial sense, the hallway somehow pulled itself in, each one of Addie’s normal footsteps now covering twenty or more steps. Addie stopped in wonder for a moment. She took another step and followed along as the floor squished so tightly into itself that Addie couldn’t resist hopping forward. During her brief flight through the air, Addie watched in amazement as the space around her seemed to collapse and fling her through space. To her ordinary senses, it just seemed like a regular hop!

She landed back down on the ground with a bright smile and glanced over at Squishy, who looked back at her with his head slightly tilted in shining curiosity. He was panting slightly from trying to keep up with her.

“What have you discovered?”

“Let me show you!”

Addie picked Squishy up from underneath his legs, and she took a great leap forward while cradling him against her side. The air wooshed by according to her spatial sense, sending them to a brand new location of the library. Addie’s booties hit the floor, and they both shared a touch of excitement through their bond with one another.

With her mind back on topic, Addie willed the library to send her to Lily again. This time, the ring she was running through seemed to flip-flop in her spatial sense, redirecting her back to the geology section she had just tried to sprint past. To her eyes and everything else, it felt no different than walking through a regular building. Only her spatial sense picked up on that moment where the front of the ring somehow reversed with the back of the ring, re-orienting itself after it finished placing Addie in the correct spot.

Looking around the area, they were right back in the geology section from before. With one final gleeful moment, Addie jumped forward through the air again, still willing the library to help her find Lily.

Still holding Squishy, she felt the air fly past her face and scramble her long hair, but according to her spatial sense, she just floated in the air without moving. For that brief moment, Addie was a bird caught stationary in the gentle embrace of the wind. In reality, she knew it was actually just library shenanigans messing around with space. That logic didn’t dispel the illusion of flight and excitement, though.

“Wow! Do you think we can do that with Realmspace?” Addie asked Squishy with a wide smile.

Saying that idea out loud gave it a certain amount of weight, only making Addie want to try it even more.

“I am glad you are having fun, but I would like to redirect you back to our current pursuit. Where is Lily?” Squishy sent through feelings of amusement and Addie saw a small quirk of his lips.

Addie sighed and rolled her eyes. She wanted to play with the magic in the library some more! But Squishy was right.

“Ok, I think we’ve already found her though. The library keeps bringing us back to this spot!” A hint of her excitement from a moment ago crept back into her words.

With her spatial sense more than her eyes, Addie scanned the area. If Lily was really in this area, where was everyone else? They were all looking for her, too.

Despite her wandering questions, Addie did see something she couldn’t believe she had missed the first time. Just a few paces over to her right, was a small stack of books, just tall enough for one small shy girl to hide behind.

Addie walked up to the impromptu book-fort and looked over the chest-high walls. Sure enough, leaning against the bookshelf on the other side of the book-fort was a tiny girl with shoulder-length black hair. She held a book completely oversized for her; It dwarfed her head, looking almost comically big, but not so big that she would have trouble holding it. Addie read the cover, ‘Igneous formations and their uses’.

“Hi Lily,” Addie said with a bit of trepidation. She had never successfully befriended the incredibly shy little girl.

Lily looked away from her book with wide eyes staring up at Addie.

“What are you reading?” Addie asked as she began to climb over the book walls. She sat down next to Lily, also resting her back against the bookshelf.

“Cool rocks. This one has holes.” Lily pointed to a picture of a bright orange rock with tons of tiny pockmarks.

“Are you ready to go home yet? Everyone’s looking for you.”

“I guess,” Lily said with a frown. Then she turned her back slightly to Addie and looked back down at her book.

Addie winced as she realized how she messed up. Lily must have been having fun with those books. In a brief flash of memory, Addie remembered how Mr. Owlcharge always seemed to be reshaping stone and even using it to fly around.

“Rocks are pretty cool, huh? Even your dad uses them to fly around and fight bad guys!” Addie said with some cheer.

Lily turned back around with sparkling eyes. “Yeah. So cool. Daddy shoots rocks around like ‘pow pow’ and then ‘dodo dodo’ they fly out!”

She couldn’t help herself, a bright smile made its way across Addie’s face. That was the most words she’d ever gotten out of Lily before!

“You know, your daddy is looking for you right now. I bet he’d find you some really cool rocks to play with if we go find him.” If this idea didn’t work, nothing would.

“Daddy?” Lily blinked her big eyes. “Yeah let’s go.” She started to stand up.

Just as she did, Mr. Owlcharge, Christena, and Nettal all walked right into the area.

“There’s my girl!” Mr. Owlcharge reached his hands out toward Lily and lightly ran over to the book fort.

Lily quickly jumped up into his arms. From there, Mr. Owlcharge picked her up and cradled her against his hip. Lily still held onto the book with one hand, dangling along with her arm. Her father quickly picked up the book and placed it back down.

“Lily said she wants some cool rocks.” Addie helpfully chimed in.

In response, Lily rapidly nodded her head up and down.

Mr. Owlcharge laughed and patted Lily on the head. “When we get home I’ll find you the best rock, how about that?” He smiled gently at Lily.

At nearly the same time, Christena walked up to Addie and started to ask her a question, “How did you get here faster than us? We all just left the alcove at the same time, didn’t we? It couldn’t have been more than just a couple of seconds.”

Addie stared at Christena blankly.

In the attic, an incredibly old man laughed at Christena’s question. Not that anyone heard it.