¤ Questionable Eating Habits

‘Why, dear damsel.’ Jaysen said quickly, trying to cheer Silver up. ‘You are such a brilliant Librarian, surely you can find ways around this temporary obstruction.’

‘Librarian.’ Silver repeated dully. ‘What can a Librarian do to a damaged book.’

Jaysen looked to the book in his hand, then back to the despondent look on the girl’s face, a wrenching feeling at the pit of his stomach. He knew that Silver took her Project very seriously; the loss of her only and most useful lead so far would be devastating to her.

‘What can a Librarian do to a damaged book!’ Abruptly, Silver started to laugh. Her eyes gleamed, as if suddenly reminded of something. Surprised, Jaysen exchanged a look with Ida, who shrugged.

Catching sight of their stunned expressions, Silver laughed harder, her laughter positively hysterical now.

‘I’m a Librarian! Oh I could smack myself on the head for forgetting!’ She turned to Jaysen and flung her arms around him in a bearhug. ‘Jaysen! You are such a genius!’ Silver cried, grinning widely now. ‘I’ll be right back.’ Taken aback at the sudden, and brief, contact, Jaysen could only stare after Silver as she hurried out of the room, a spring in her steps now.

‘Was it something she ate?’ Breaking the bewildered silence in the room, Jaysen asked plaintively.

Equally puzzled, Ida shook her head in wonder.

Back in the girls’ room, Silver rummaged through her backpack with shaky hands, her heart thumping loudly now. Of course, what else could a Librarian do with a damaged book other than repair it! How stupid of her to forget!

Disintegrating scrolls and books were not uncommon in the course of a Librarian’s career; Jaysen’s comment only reminded her of a team of Librarians back at the Ellinia Library, who specialised in the restoration of damaged books and scrolls through both physical and magical means. Salmer’s journal might be in quite a bad state, but surely the Restorers were experienced enough to reverse the mutilation.

But she needed someone to help arrange a meeting with the Restorers for her. And quickly too. She sensed that a lot more work was needed for this Project to be completed, and she could not afford to waste any more time.

Finally, her hands felt the thing she was looking for. Silver pulled out a small round object and held it up to the light. The object looked like a small mirror, but where the reflective surface was supposed to be instead, there was a dark disc of blackness.

She never thought she would have to use this; after all, she had promised herself that she would not rely so much on his help. Especially after that last time, she thought briefly. I owe him too much already.

But there wasn’t any other way now. Oh well, so be it. Taking a deep breath, she whispered a name into the dark mirror.

‘Grendel.’

The disc misted over, then resolved itself into a picture of an old man’s wrinkled face, his kind and wise eyes worried as they peered out of the disc…

¤ Brilliant Leatty Fodder

It was half an hour later before Silver emerged from her room for dinner. Elma had prepared for the three of them a delicious meal in the dining area, and for a while, only the sounds of munching were audible in the room as the trio ate enthusiastically.

After their hunger was more or less satisfied, Silver told them about what she remembered about the Restorers.

‘That’s great!’ Jaysen beamed across the table. ‘The book can be completely saved, right?’

‘I don’t know. I asked Grendel about it through the whisper mirror he gave me, but he told me that even he was not sure how much of the damage the Restorers could reverse.’ Silver poked at the remains of fried chicken on her plate.

‘So… there is not much chance then?’ Ida asked, setting down her fork and spoon next to her half-empty plate.

‘Maybe.’ Silver pushed away her plate and sighed. ‘At least there is some chance.’ She picked up the glass of pure water in front of her.

Jaysen looked at the girls’ abandoned plates with interest. ‘Do you still want all that, ladies? Because a big strong man like me needs all the energy he needs.’

At that, Silver started to splutter through the mouthful of half-swallowed water. Coughing, she bent under the table’s edge; Jaysen swore he could hear her trying to stifle some laughter. ‘What did I say?’

‘Something untrue, I think.’ Ida gave him with a tentative smile, but there was a deeply bemused expression on her face. She pushed the two plates towards him. ‘I guess you can have these.’

Silver finally emerged from under the table. Her face was red even as she drawled, ‘Next time, if you decide to start extolling any non-existent virtues of yours, tell me first. I have to make sure I’m ready for comic entertainment. Bad manners, you know, to let your audience choke to death while laughing.’

‘Sure, my stalwart lady of all gravity.’ Jaysen waved his fork, a loose bit of fried chicken skin flapping from it. ‘I will gladly prevent your unfortunate death on overheated poultry protein.’ He popped a large chunk of said protein into his mouth.

‘That’s good to know.’ Silver said. ‘I will miss your protection when I leave for Ellinia tomorrow.’

‘Mmfm!’ Jaysen chewed furiously.

‘Don’t choke, I’ll wait for your reply.’ Silver told him off-handedly, her lips twitching in amusement.

‘You’re leaving so soon?’ Ida asked, her green eyes worried. ‘Don’t you think you should lay low for a while? After all, Hedwig’s on your case.’

‘Grendel already arranged an appointment for me with the Restorers. Besides, if I leave now, maybe she’ll think that I’m giving up and returning to the Library. That would put her off my trail even more.’ Silver said seriously. ‘If I leave alone, she’ll think our party is breaking up.’

‘Who said anything about yon damsel depriving her gallant knight of the honour of protecting her?’ Jaysen finally managed to say after he gulped down the remains of his chicken.

‘I don’t know, who was the one who dragged your sorry corpse all the way from the Garden of Darkness?’

‘Let’s say one incident when I dragged a certain lady all the way back from the Icy Cold Fields just slipped my mind.’ Jaysen fired back. Their eyes locked, both of them equally stubborn.

But Silver looked away first, somehow unable to meet Jaysen’s light blue glare. ‘Fine, we’re quits.’

Jaysen picked up his fork again and speared another piece of fried chicken. ‘Face it, my ray of unending splendour. You need this fearless bandit with you.’

‘More like you need me to keep your head small enough so that you can still go through the gates to Orbis Station,’ Silver said sarcarstically.

‘I’ll stay then. To make it seem like we split.’ Ida offered, trying to ease the tension. ‘I think I should be fine alone. Hedwig wouldn’t bother me if I’m not with you.’

Silver and Jaysen stopped arguing to look at her, both remembering how Hedwig had hissed into her ear. ‘Did she threaten you or something?’ Silver asked. ‘When we met her the last time.’

‘Erm, no. Not really.’ Ida said, visibly uncomfortable. She started to fidget with the brim of her White Guiltian, her eyes cast downwards.

‘Just tell us, maybe we can help you.’ Jaysen coaxed gently.

Ida’s brow creased as she looked up at Silver; there was a scared look in her eyes. ‘She warned me that, if I continued to help you… she’ll come after me personally.’ The cleric looked down again quickly, her nails practically digging into the brim of her hat now.

Silver felt sorry for the girl. She was already so timid; Hedwig’s threat probably would have frightened her out of her wits. ‘I’m sorry, Ida. It’s all my fault. I shouldn’t have brought you into this mess.’

Ida only shook her head, still looking down at the white tablecloth. ‘Don’t say that. Anyway, as I said, if I stay behind, I should be okay. Besides, I need to continue my training here. Grendel wouldn’t be happy to see me before I am properly prepared to learn new skills.’

‘If you say so then…’ Silver still could not get rid of the guilt that she felt. ‘But Hedwig knows that you are staying here. What if she changes her mind? We have seen how her promises go.’

‘I, as usual, have a brilliant idea for this problem.’ Jaysen crossed his legs under the table, and titled back his chair, a smug smile on his face.

‘Pray tell, what is it?’ Silver turned to him, a little impatient now. ‘Mind, if it doesn’t dazzle enough, I might just feed you to the Leatties.’

‘You will take your words as Leatty fodder after you hear my idea.’ Jaysen smirked. Looking around to see if Elma was around, he then leant in towards the girls, whispering confidentially. ‘We should just all suddenly disappear overnight from Hella’s house.’

‘That way, Her Frigidness might not be able to find all of us in one shot, and even if she did, myself and fair lady Silver will be in Ellinia, and Ida in Ossyria, so it would seem like the party disbanded. She wouldn’t want to waste time coming after us mere mortals. And so, we get rid of her, at least for a while.’ He leant back into his chair now, the smug smile still hovering at his lips.

‘I think that’s quite a good idea.’ Silver said reluctantly, after thinking for a while. ‘We can keep in touch via whisper mirror. I have another one Grendel gave me as a spare, we just need to link up the two.’

Ida nodded too, smiling tremulously now. ‘That sounds good. I know of a few places that I can put up at for the next few days. So you don’t need to worry about me.’

Jaysen beamed now, vindicated. ‘See. I told you I was brilliant.’ Only, this triumphant declaration was somewhat spoiled by the fact that he was speaking around yet another mouthful of chicken, his voice a little muffled.

‘Urgh. I really hope you choke.’ Silver said in disgust and stood up from the table. ‘I’m going back to the room to pack up. Meet in our room later, because I’m going to read more of the journal.’

‘I’ll go up with you.’ Ida stood up too.

‘Mmph.’ Jaysen nodded, still chewing. ‘Later then.’

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Links to previous chapters:
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Woot. Twenty chapters, and counting! And the story isn’t even half told yet.

In an act of outright stupidy, I stayed up all the way to 3am on a school night/morning. I am so tired now that my hands are shaking in a scary way. Once I post this, I’m going to go and take a nap.

As for the Hedwig drawing, I’ve fixed it and started colouring, but it still looks weird. Oh well.

I don’t think my sentences even make sense now. *gives up trying to make corrections* Hope you enjoyed the chapter