¤ Great Deeds

‘But, Wing, sir! You are the first person we’ve met so far that can speak A-,’ Jaysen stumbled over Aurora’s name, ‘I mean, the girl’s name. Maybe you want to give a reason why you don’t want to talk about her?’ He gestured to Silver with a friendly grin. ‘Else this lady will never let you off.’

‘A reason?’ Wing considered. ‘One question, Librarian.’

‘Yes?’

‘Why are you researching about this Aurora?’

Silver replied steadily, although she was still in disbelief at how easily Aurora’s name rolled off Wing’s tongue. ‘I have evidence to link her to the statue that stands at the top of the Orbis tower, and I want to know what great deeds she had done to allow her to earn the place there-’

‘Great deeds?’ Wing gave a hoot of derision. ‘Great deeds?! If there is a spell that makes her name unmentionable, I’ll understand that she deserved it. But for you to think that that Aurora girl did great deeds?’ He shook his head now, laughing. ‘You are most deluded, Librarian.’

‘How come, sir?’

‘I’ll tell you how, Librarian.’ His voice grew louder and more furious as he spoke. ‘Do you believe that someone, who would make use of someone who loves her and then plot his downfall and disgrace to gain success, can possibly be someone who does… great deeds?’

Wing smirked at Silver now. ‘Aurora was that someone. Do you still think it possible for her to do great deeds?’

Silver found herself gaping at this new revelation. ‘What happened? What did she do?’

‘I have no wish to discuss the story of a person as despicable as Aurora. That is my reason, Librarian.’ He gave the trio a curt wave. ‘Now leave and never darken my doorsteps again.’ The fairy sprung up lightly onto his feet now, and entered the house, shutting the door none too quietly.

‘It can’t be.’ Silver whispered, feeling her fingers go numb as she held onto her journal.

‘He might be lying.’ Rei said, nudging Silver to make her move away from where she was rooted on the floor. ‘After all, he was Aurora’s enemy in the Academy, right?’

‘Yeah, he was that Ferra guy’s evil minion.’ Jaysen reminded Silver. ‘He could just be holding on to an ancient grudge. Fairies seem to love to do that.’

‘No.’ Silver shook her head, recalling that angry and hurt look in Wing’s eyes as he spoke of Aurora. That look was… strangely familiar, she thought, and she realised that she had seen it in the mirror before, when her own eyes had held that same expression. ‘He speaks the truth,’ she added quietly.

‘No way.’ Rei shook his head.

‘Perhaps the lady has some powerful hunch?’ Jaysen peered into Silver’s preoccupied face.

Silver thought for a while, running a hand through her silver curls. The curtain at the house’s lone window twitched, a movement that caught her eye. To Jaysen and Rei’s surprise, she suddenly turned to sit down on Wing’s porch. Taking out a pen, she scribbled a brief note on a fresh page of her journal, and tore out the page carefully. Folding it up neatly, she penned Wing’s name on it, and wedged it in the hinges of the wooden door.

‘What’s that?’ Rei asked, curious.

‘Just a note for him.’ Silver said, her voice uncommonly loud as she dusted off her robes. ‘I hope it might change his mind about not talking.’

‘Sure he would.’ Jaysen smiled encouragingly, patting Silver on the shoulder. ‘But what will you do now, my star of everlasting wisdom?’

Silver bit her upper lip and sighed, looking down at the list of names in her journal. ‘I guess we start searching in the Library’s shelves and hope for the best.’

Wing watched the three mortals move away through the gap in the window’s curtains, his mind in an uproar. Who was this Silver librarian that managed to track him down? And make the connection of him to Aurora too, of all people!

But, on hindsight, Wing decided that the Librarian did not make the correct connections, judging from the way she approached him. Yes, she does not know the whole truth, he thought, unsure if he should be relieved or not.

The Librarian’s loud announcement about the note she left did not escape him, of course. She said it too loudly for him to pretend to not have heard, that devious wrench. The girl was now looking back over her shoulder, straight at him through the gap in the curtains. She smiled a thin smile that said, ’I know you are watching.’

Oh Balrogs, how that reminded him of Aurora.

Twitching the curtains close, Wing stared at the wooden sill of the window, angry with himself. No, not with himself. He had done nothing wrong, he told himself fiercely. Curse the Librarian. Thrice curse Aurora, that… that! He ran out of curses, to his further irritation.

And no wonder, if he had been cursing her for fifty over years.

He was about to turn away from the window, when Wing was reminded of the note that the Librarian wedged into his door hinge. Half of him wanted to just leave the note there to be taken away to some forsaken corner by the wind and rain; yet another traitorous part of him nagged at him to just take a look at it, even if to laugh at what paltry words the Librarian thought she could use to change his mind.

Eventually, the traitorous part won, and Wing went out to retrieve the note.

¤ Ellis, The Nightmare Duty, and “Nice” Master Solomon

Back at the Library, Silver was having a brief discussion with the Librarian at the front desk. ‘Mabel, could you help me check if there are any archives on the history of the fairy Royalty in Orbis?’

‘If I remember correctly, the section is somewhere on floor seven, quarter three. Just hold on a minute.’ The yellow-robed Librarian looked down behind the counter. Jaysen peered over the counter to see her fingers flying busily to tap on a strangely glowing grid in the polished wood, each square in the large grid containing a swirly character that Jaysen (and the dull growing ache in his head) recognised as what Grendel had named the mystic language of old Ellinia.

There was a soft chime, and three characters flared up at the space just before Mabel on the countertop, pulsing gently in a soft blue light. ‘Seven, three, eleven.’ Rei muttered out loud, reading off the characters.

‘Yup. Floor seven, quarter three, section eleven.’ Mabel repeated, beaming up at Silver as the characters dissipated. ‘There’s not a lot on them though; Ellis here says the relevant archives only occupy half of section eleven.’

‘Thank you so much, Mabel. And of course, Ellis.’ Silver smiled back.

‘Ellis? Who’s Ellis?’ Jaysen blinked in surprise at the mention of a new name.

‘This. The name stands for Ellinia Library Information System.’ Mabel patted the glowing grid behind the counter fondly, almost as if petting a cat. ‘She helps us keep track of our archives of Projects and the books or scrolls that we have in the Library. She’s one useful thing, aren’t you, Ellis.’ Jaysen thought the grid glowed a little brighter, as if acknowledging Mabel’s praise.

‘Don’t you get a headache using that?’ Jaysen asked.

‘Not if you know how to read the language.’ Mabel shrugged. ‘All Librarians on duty at this counter have been trained to do so.’

‘If you’re done admiring Ellis.’ Rei tapped Jaysen on the shoulder and pointed after Silver who had already walked off purposefully to the landing a quarter circle to the right of the counter. She motioned for them to hurry up as a lift pod decorated with carvings of Nependeaths drew level to the landing.

‘Where is this… floor seven, quarter three, section eleven?’ Jaysen asked as he and Rei joined Silver in the lift.

‘The floor we just left is floor ten. Seven is three below that, and seven storeys above the lift lobby.’ Rei explained. ‘The main Library is divided into four quarters, and they are numbered by taking Ellis as the starting point and counting clockwise. So quarter three is where we are right now. Section eleven is just what we name the shelves. Simple, isn’t it?’

‘Yeah. Simple.’ Jaysen muttered half-heartedly. As the lift descended, he wondered briefly about what happened to Librarians who shared his phobia of heights. Maybe they locked them up in a lift pod like this and dangled it from floor hundred and eleven until they lost the phobia. Or until they died of fright, he thought glumly, carefully ignoring the queasy feeling in his stomach.

He briefly wondered if there were cages hanging at the top of the Library, with bare bones rattling around in them.

‘Are you alright?’ Silver asked, noting Jaysen’s discomfort. He only shook his head. But one couldn’t tell if Silver or Jaysen was the happier person when the lift pod finally stopped. Silver immediately went straight for the shelf marked section eleven, and soon, Rei following close behind to help her pick out the relevant books, and even Jaysen soon forgot about his fear of heights as they busied themselves searching for the information that Silver needed.

”Not much is known of Kranz’s rule, the last one hundred years of fairy monarch most unfortunately lost to memory of humankind and kept in utmost secret by the fairies. It was said that Kranz worked hard to bridge the differences between fairies and mortals and to build good relationships with the mortal lands that existed alongside his fairy kingdom, a controversial move that raised many protests amongst the conservative fairies in his Court…”

But I already know that, Silver frowned as she read the old journal written by an Adventurer Librarian some decades ago. Funny, there’s no mention of the Academy anywhere. She scanned further down the yellow parchment of the scroll she had laid out on the table, skipping paragraphs until a name caught her eye. Maldrich? She backtracked to the start of that paragraph.

”One event of note during Kranz’s rule was that of a war alliance between Orbis and the village of El Nath, as recorded by a song popular amongst the folk of El Nath. The then village head of El Nath, Nethan, had relayed to the King a threat of war from a certain Maldrich. This Maldrich was said to be a powerful Priest, who had, at the peak of his power, stumbled upon dark magics. Driven insane and twisted by the dark powers that he had inherited and could not control, he had summoned an army of nightmares, and was poised to strike El Nath.”

This…this is just like my dream! Silver ran a hand through her silver curls, amazed and puzzled at the same time. She recalled the dark army camp she saw, that housed hordes of monsters on its marshy grounds, and Verchiel’s confrontation with a Priest he called Maldrich. How can it be real?

Head aching a little now, Silver looked up from where she was bent over at the table. From where he stood near the shelves, Jaysen could be heard mumbling to himself as he squinted down at another book that Rei had pronounced promising. Rei himself was nowhere in sight, having gone off an hour ago to his assigned duty in the Archives (He had dubbed it ‘The Nightmare Duty’. When Silver teased him, Rei only gave her a black look and muttered, ‘I’d like to see you try and work under Master Solomon.’)

Silver continued to read, after the brief musing. “As the song goes, Maldrich, in his delusion, had believed that he served the biddings of a certain demon lord named Zakum. (It must be noted that this demon’s existence has yet to be confirmed, at the time of writing.) After the initial declaration of war, Maldrich had withdrawn his army after a parley with the throne of Orbis. Thus, bloodshed was avoided initially.”

But Zakum has been found. Silver checked the year on the scroll and discovered that it was around twenty years old. No wonder. This thing is outdated. But still, it only proves that Maldrich really did summon Zakum, right?

“However, Maldrich had not kept to his promise, if the folktales of El Nath run true. A few years after the parley, it seems that he had unleashed his army of nightmares upon El Nath after all, wreaking destruction and havoc in the lands around it. Kranz rose admirably to his pledge to protect El Nath as an ally, but even his fairy army was no match for the magical tempest that Maldrich had summoned. The El Nath folktales go on to mention several heroes that had battled to hold off the tide of Maldrich’s army, yet left no details as to how exactly Maldrich was defeated.”

“Lacking in details as this account may be, it is only more evidence as to how the monarchy of Orbis operated in its last years, a contrast to its earlier days…” The rest of the scroll simply went on to talk vaguely about ancient Orbis, and Silver gave up on it.

‘Found anything?’ Startled by the question and the sudden warm presence next to her, Silver looked up to see Jaysen standing there, peering over her shoulder at the scroll.

‘No, not really. Though what this thing says sort of matches what Scadur said Salmer had told him about El Nath’s history.’ Silver pointed out the relevant paragraph to Jaysen. Not to mention that it matches my dream too… She decided to keep that to herself.

‘Magical tempest, huh.’ Jaysen read slowly. ‘And heroes. We already know you-know-who had something to do with defending El Nath. Maybe she’s got something to do with this Maldrich guy’s defeat?’

‘Then Wing would have to be lying about her not doing great deeds.’ Silver recalled the vehement pronouncement of the fairy as she pulled her journal closer to her. ‘And I’m sure he wasn’t lying.’

There was a brief silence as Silver scribbled more notes in her journal while Jaysen re-read the scroll.

‘Oi, Silver!’ Just then, Rei rushed up to them, waving a sheaf of parchment in his hands.

‘Aren’t you supposed to be on the “Nightmare Duty”?’ Silver asked, mildly surprised at his appearance.

‘Yeah, but Master Solomon sent me up to look for you.’ Rei grinned, slightly breathless. He pushed the sheaf of parchment into Silver’s hands. ‘Straight from the Restorers’ wing.’

‘That’s fast.’ Silver muttered as she examined the stack of parchment. There was a note attached to the top of the pile, written in Solomon’s neat and no-nonsense script.

Librarian Silver

Attached are the facsimiles of the pages that we have recovered from the book that you have recently handed into our care; please check if all nine pages are safely delivered.

From what Master Grendel tells me, I understand that you are most eager to proceed with your Project. As such, I have arranged for such facsimiles to be delivered to you as soon as there is progress on the Restoration work on your book. Hopefully it will greatly expedite your work.

Master Solomon
Head of Archives

Silver grinned as she read the note. As Jaysen’s request, she handed it over to him. ‘Well, well. Rei, if you ever say anything bad about Master Solomon in the future, I think I shall personally make sure you will never repeat it again.’

‘Sheesh.’ Rei grumbled, shoving his glasses up his nose. ‘You’re too easily bought over by nice gestures, Silver. Anyway, I have to get back to the Archives. Nice Master Solomon only gave me ten minutes to find you.’ He made a face at Silver before dashing off again.

The Restorers weren’t miracles workers, Silver mused as she looked at the facsimiles in her hands. There were still some small parts of the pages missing, and others dark with traces of soot, but at least one could still follow what was written on them. It’s better than nothing, I guess.

‘For an uptight nut, he’s cool.’ Jaysen raised a surprised eyebrow as he finished reading the note.

‘And thanks to him, we’ve got more to read now.’ Silver indicated the pages before her, smiling.

‘Let’s go then, my dewdrop of beauty.’ Jasyen grinned back as he joined her at the table, to read the pages of Salmer’s journal that Solomon had sent them.

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Pretty boring chapter, imo. Nothing much to say, other than yes, librarians do tend to name the systems that they use to keep track of their books and other stuff funny names. When I was a librarian in my old school, they had one system named MERLIN and another SILAS. The first one kept track of loans and fines in the library, the second was for you to enter new books into the system. Both of them were contrary things, to say the least. :X

I’m in a rambling-ly mood. Sorry for the boringness. :/ Read my fiftieth blog, if you want some pointless amusement.

Quadruple Chocolate Cookies with Vanilla and Mocha cream! I don’t know how that works though. But it sounds delicious