¤ Too Many ‘Likes’

After they finished reading the pages that Solomon sent them, Silver, Jaysen and Rei left the mess hall together for the lift pod lobby. The huntress was much more sociable now, the coffee and the progress of her Project having a positively buoyant effect on her mood.

‘It’s easy to figure out how it all goes next, right?’ She shuffled through the pages in her hand again, juggling them together with her journal and the other scrolls from the shelves. ‘You know who gets the position and goes back to take revenge on Verchiel or something.’

‘That would explain her Frigidness being mad at her,’ Jaysen said. ‘And since she’s competing against Wing… maybe Wing’s just mad that he lost to her, that’s why he said all that about her?’

‘I don’t think so,’ Silver said flatly. She still remembered the look in Wing’s eyes, and it spoke to her better than any truth spell. ‘I know he was hurt more than that.’

Rei immediately recognised that tone in her voice; Silver clearly thought that there was no room for argument. He tried to steer the conversation onto safer grounds. ‘Still, there is no mention of why her statue was there, right?’

‘N- Yikes!’ One scroll threatened to slip out of the pile in her arms and Silver did a funny little hop to catch it just in time.

Jaysen smiled, thinking about how amusing Silver looked with her arms full of books, scrolls and papers. Not that bookish was a look that didn’t suit her, mind you. ‘Do you need help with that, dear lady?’

‘Uh,’ Silver stopped to rearrange her arms around the pile, trying to shift it to become easier to carry. ‘Maybe you could try… taking… those.’ She turned to Jaysen and indicated with her chin the facsimile pages of Salmer’s journal stacked at the top.

Before Jaysen could take them though, a little girl in green Apprentice robes came dashing down the corridor, giggling madly. She did not see where she was looking and, with a loud squeal, the child crashed right into the small of Silver’s back, sending the older Librarian flying along with all the books and scrolls she was holding.

The next thing Silver knew, she had fallen over and was sprawled right on top of Jaysen, her face mere inches from his. The both of them stared at each other for a long while, stunned as though hit by one of Silver’s Bomb Arrows, as scrolls and loose pages fluttered forlornly down to the floor all around them.

‘Oh no! I’m sorry, Ad Lib Senior! Sir!’ The little Apprentice squeaked through her fingers, her hands clapped over her mouth in horror. Rei held her firmly by the shoulders, having caught the little troublemaker before she fell and joined Silver and Jaysen on the floor. She squeaked again. ‘I’m so sorry!’

‘Don’t worry, kid. It’s a nice view from here,’ Jaysen mumbled, still looking up at Silver. His head was hurting from its hasty and violent rendezvous with the floor, but luckily, his Silver Identity absorbed most of the impact and left him slightly dazed, but fully conscious to appreciate said view.

Silver was acutely aware of how close she was to Jaysen, how the corner of his mouth was twitching now in amusement and how warm he was beneath her. And I have never noticed that his eyes are so interesting up close… She felt herself promptly turn red even before she finished that thought.

Jaysen read her embarrassment right from her face and grinned even more. ‘Ooh, the lady blushes. A prettier rose I ne’er saw.’

At that, the heat rushed to Silver’s cheeks with a vengeance. ‘You-!’ She opened her mouth to say something scathing and discouraging, but to her horror, nothing from her usual list of scathing and discouraging things volunteered itself.

She felt someone tug at her arm at that point in time; it was the little Apprentice, trying to help her up. Silver gratefully let her junior pull her off Jaysen, thankful for the distraction. After reassuring the child that no harm was done and sending her on her way, she looked and saw Rei watching from where he stood, his eyes dancing gleefully behind his glasses.

‘Thanks for the help,’ Silver said pointedly, bending down to pick up the loose pages.

‘You’re very welcome.’ Rei said mildly, as he bent down too to gather the scattered scrolls.

‘No problem,’ Silver muttered, glaring at him out of the corner of her eyes. A page that she was reaching out for slid out of reach on a stray gust of breeze, forcing her to stretch out further. But her hand met warm fingers instead of brittle parchment. Glancing upwards, she saw that it was Jaysen and withdrew her hand quickly as if burnt. ‘Sorry.’

‘I should apologise too, dear lady.’ Jaysen picked up the page and handed it to her, careful to hold it by the opposite edge. Giving him an awkward smile but not quite meeting his eyes, Silver gingerly took the page from him.

Jaysen straightened up with a wry smile. ‘I guess I’ll go get us one of those mini torture chambers,’ he gestured towards the lift pod lobby, much to Silver’s relief. He seemed to sense that she needed some time to recover.

As Jaysen walked away, he heard Silver threaten Rei. ‘Say anything, and I’ll sign you up for extra duty in the Archives.’

‘I wouldn’t mind. Five hours of Master Solomon would be worth it to be able to watch that scene again,’ Rei’s voice teased back over a shuffling of paper.

And I wouldn’t mind ten of these accursed rides to go through that again. Chuckling softly, Jaysen made his way to the lift lobby. It was full of people, as the librarians of Ellinia Library emerged from their living quarters to begin another day. Picking the shortest queue, Jaysen found himself standing behind a pair of girls, one in yellow robes and another in Ad Lib blue. They were deep in conversation, the two of them appearing to be very excited.

‘Oh my goodness! How sweet!’ The yellow-robed girl said in a half-awed voice, her eyes obligingly wide at whatever she had heard.

‘Yes, like, I know!’ The girl’s Ad Lib friend let out a giggle behind the hand over her mouth, her other hand playing with her blond hair. ‘Then he kissed me! Like, right on the lips! I thought I was like, going to die!’ She looked positively exhilarated thinking about that manner of expiring.

Oka-ay. Jaysen edged a little distance away, a weird expression on his face as he wondered how anyone could stuff so many ‘likes’ into just a few sentences. He tried his best to not eavesdrop, but their high breathy voices were so loud in their excitement that Jaysen could not help but overhear them as they jumped from one frivolous topic to another.

‘What, are you kidding?’ There was a squeal of mock horror and malicious delight from Yellow Robe that caught Jaysen’s attention. Only someone stone deaf could have missed the high-pitched sound; Jaysen had unfortunately gotten his ears checked and announced perfectly fine only last month. He wasn’t quite sure they would be fine now though. ‘How shameless!’

‘Yes! But it has to be true, right? Like, how else can she get to the top so quickly?’ The Ad Lib tittered. ‘I asked darling Brandon about it, and he said it was true! He was once with her, you know, but she like, totally abandoned him for like, the big fish! Like, totally broke his heart, that girl did. But Brandon told me that it didn’t matter, because he had me!’ She giggled again.

Brandon? Intrigued now, Jaysen no longer fought to put up a front of disinterest. If Rei wouldn’t tell him what was going on between Silver and this Brandon guy, perhaps it was time that he like, started to find out for himself. But it better be like, quick, else I’d like, start talking like that gir- Oh man.

‘Aww, the poor boy,’ Yellow Robe cooed. ‘How stupid of that Silver slut though. Giving up such a cute guy for that old nutcase Grendel? He’s old enough to be her great-grandfather! How disgusting!’

What?! Jaysen’s eyes widened so much, they almost fell out of their sockets. At the same time, he heard someone take a sharp breath behind him.

Spinning around, he saw that it was Rei who had made that sound, his glasses halfway down his nose in his shock. A little behind him, staring blankly as she hugged her stack of books close to her, was Silver.

The girls before them in the queue continued to chatter, unaware of the silent scene that was playing out behind their backs. ‘You know, the Silver stole away top honours for her Project back then, just like that, when everyone knows Brandon dear was the one that like, really deserved it. He’s been getting them like, ever since he started as Apprentice, how could a new Ad Lib just overtake him like that! Brandon said, you know, that that Silver probably like, slept with that old man or something?’

The pile of books and scrolls in Silver’s arms met the floor again with a crash for the second time that morning. At that sound, all heads in the lift pod lobby turned in the direction of Silver, the two gossipmongers included. Most of the other on-lookers lost interest immediately, after seeing that it wasn’t anything remarkable like a lift pod crashing, but the two girls found themselves unable to look away, pinned in place by Silver’s narrowed glare of cold anger.

‘W-why are you, like, staring at us like that!’ The younger Ad Lib squeaked, with Yellow Robe nodding vigorously in agreement.

‘Oh, nothing.’ Silver’s voice was strangely calm, despite the positively murderous look in her eyes. ‘I was just wondering when Brandon will get tired of his newest plaything. It wouldn’t take very long, I think. I should know.’

Seeing the other girl’s jaw drop, Silver gave her a little humorless grin. ‘Pitiful little thing, you.’ With that, she spun around, not even stopping to pick up the pile of books and scrolls at her feet.

‘Silver!’ Rei called, but she did not turn back, stalking off down one of the many corridors leading out of the lobby. It was only then did the two girls realise the answer to their question.

‘Oh my goodness. That’s her?’ Yellow Robe whispered in the shocked silence.

‘Like, so what!’ The Ad Lib answered, annoyance in her eight-octaves-too-high voice. One could practically see the cogs moving in her pretty blond head as she thought of what to say next. ‘S-she isn’t even, like, good-looking!’ Mercifully, the lift pod arrived just then, saving her from the need to think up of any more sophisticated comebacks. The two of them hurried to board it, pushing past the librarian manning the controls and shutting the door grill behind them hastily.

‘That the filthy gossip you were lik-, I mean, you were talking about?’ Jaysen said finally.

‘I was dreading that something like this would happen.’ Sighing, Rei crouched down to collect Silver’s papers.

‘It’s not true, right?’ Jaysen asked tentatively. Not that he believed it, nor would he let himself do so, but Grendel and Silver did seem to be so close…

‘Of course not!’ Rei stared up at him, surprised. ‘How could you think that at all! It’s just that jerk’s doing.’

‘Who, Brandon?’ Jaysen ventured again. Mentally, he cursed himself harshly for having even entertained that idea about Grendel and Silver. ‘Why would he do that?’

Rei sighed, resting back on his heels for a moment. ‘Silver received top honours for her Project that graduated her from Apprentice, one year ago. It was the first time the Masters awarded the honours to an Apprentice, and the first time in four years that Brandon hadn’t received it. When he learnt that Silver overtook him, he started to spread all these rumours about her just to get back at her. And people believed the kind, clever and handsome Ad Lib, of course.’ His voice was grew hard and angry as he stacked up the scrolls and books, setting them down with quick little thumps. ‘For a warrior, he’s about as underhanded as a thief. No offence intended, of course,’ he added quickly.

‘None taken.’ Jaysen said sheepishly. He looked into the direction of the corridor where Silver had disappeared into. ‘Where do you think the lady went?’

‘Since she’s headed that way, she probably went to the archery range,’ Rei shrugged, as he gathered up the last book. ‘If you want to look for her, I’d advise that you leave her alone for a while first. Let her release some steam, you know.’

‘Yeah, I get it.’ After getting directions to the archery range out of Rei (‘Go down that corridor, walk straight ahead, turn left, then right, then left twice again, then go down one floor. The range should be at the end of that corridor.’), Jaysen parted ways with him. Rei was going to return Silver’s books to her room and the bandit thought he felt confident enough to venture into the maze that was the Ellinia Library on his own.

Unfortunately for Jaysen, he had thought wrong, and promptly got lost after he made a right turn at the third fork in the corridors. ‘So much for a thief’s luck,’ he grumbled to himself as he tried his best to retrace his steps. ‘I hope whoever planned out this place got gored to death by Taurospears.’

Or even better, perhaps that person got lost in the maze that he built with his very hands, starved half to death, then get gored to the last half of it by Taurospears. Yes, Jaysen thought to himself as he wandered down another length of corridor, that would be much more entertaining.

Poetical justice could be so useful sometimes, especially when it was distracting you from that little voice that kept wondering aloud if someone you cared about was alright or not.

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I know you have been waiting for this. ^^ Don’t worry, not everything’s out in the open yet; I’m still having too much fun.

[Insert the same old rant about Exams keeping me from writing and updating] Only this time, it’s Major MAJOR Exams. I so can’t wait for this to be over. I was feeling so miffed out about it that day; Thank goodness for friends.

Thank you for reading Here’s a Coloured Sprinkle cookie for you.