A Goat's Library

"Lia, you're looking kinda pale..."

She quickly turned her attention to Ray, who had a tired, but worried look on his face.

"Nothing— just this prophecy, it's a bit heavy to read it knowing I'm somehow connected," she sighed. Maybe they shouldn't be reading late into the night, their travels today hadn't exactly been a breeze.

Ray looked over at the stack of books still remaining untouched, "Well you are and you're not, directly at least, the figures the prophecy speaks of have died ages ago."

That may be true but it only served to make her more confused about her own spirit.

"Yeah I was wondering about that..." she trailed off, one thing hadn't been explained by the books yet, "How does a spirit come back?" She didn't even really understand what spirits were, let alone how they seemed to die and return in the stories.

Before Ray thought of an answer Lia shifted to another position on the ground, crossing her arms. "Is it the same magical spirit but just another body or only some spirit that resembles the original?" They were stars right? Constellations in some cases, there's so many that surely some must be the same magic. "Do they pick a human to give their magic to, or is it random?" There had been zodiac beasts, mages and now ones like herself and Giles.

"Do spirits– Is there a limit to how many times or how long they give their magic for, instead of being stars?" She could think of so many questions but—

Ray seemed to be a bit lost. The exhausted and confused, judgmental look on his face was devoid of any worry that had been there before. "I think I'm just a tad bit too tired to answer all of those questions right now Lia..." he said while half asleep, bored eyes blinking slowly.

It might be childish, but Lia felt the pout forming on her face.

That didn't mean she expected the wolf to react to that though, but he did. "Fine, okay look–" He took a deep breath, "I can't safely say which is the case in your scenario, but I do know some spirits come back from the skies multiple times," he began explaining, putting his book aside and moving to sit cross-legged on the couch in front of her. "I think it's the stronger ones, like— big magical beasts have bright stars, constellations have multiple stars but only one spirit so..."

He put his elbow on the armrest to hold his chin in his palm and closed his eyes.

"It's likely the zodiac spirit you have and the ones from the story are the same, they just found different vessels. I remember a very old kids-story about the Zodiac beasts, they're some of the oldest beings we know about, along with other big stars and constellations we have. To me– it seems like when they died and became stars they wanted to make sure their power would be used for good and only if it was needed," he yawned, she should probably tell him to go to sleep soon. He didn't need to indulge in her curiosity.

"So you think stars are able to pick their new vessels." Lia didn't know how to feel about that.

Maybe Ray didn't either, since he gave her a small shrug. "I wouldn't know why they choose who they choose, I get Kaida's spirit, but mine..." he spoke so softly Lia had trouble hearing the end of his sentence, if it was even audible to begin with.

"Yours...?" She asked quietly, waiting for him to continue.

But he didn't.

Not surprising once she noticed the soft snores coming from the area in front of her.

Yeah I'm not gonna wake him up for this...

"Can you believe him?" she whispered to nobody, though the moment she did, several tiny spirits appeared.

Just like the ones accompanying her on the climb here.

Were these the same?

While looking around for more tiny spirits she heard a weird kind of rustling noise. Quickly shooting her attention back on the sound she found Ray had just transformed into a giant sleeping wolf.

So he didn't even need to consciously shift back. Did that mean he was just most comfortable sleeping as a wolf?

Lia huffed a silent laugh at the thought, though she supposed... sleeping in any weird position you'd want, without any uncomfortable clothing, while also staying nice and warm– did sound kinda nice.

Maybe she should try to sleep as well, surely it's getting closer to morning than midnight.

Trying to make a semi comfortable space for her to sleep on she felt the heavy tiredness set in. The floor next to the table stacked with books suddenly looked a lot more appealing.

Her back was going to make her regret this in the morning—

But what does that say for her?

"Meaning?" Lia carefully asked.

Capricorn pulled on his goatee, closing his eyes before speaking, "We should try to seek contact with other Zodiacs, make trustworthy council members aware of the situation before the enemy attacks."

Giles hopped off to a small elevated area in his library, where a little but fully stacked desk stood above the bookshelves level. "If there's a way to retell history, to try and fulfill this prophecy. Correctly this time, with a 13th sign, we should put everything we can into making it a reality."

Ray perked up at the idea of taking action, "Blights aren't humanities biggest problem, but we haven't been able to get rid of them for over 600 years, we'd safe a lot of nature, spirits and people if they were gone permanently."

Giles seemed to disagree with him however.

While rummaging through some papers he shook his head at the boy's words, "With the way they've been growing steadily they were bound to become a problem in the near future lad, even if you're right about how it is not the biggest problem we've had."

Once he had some blank papers he sat behind the desk, grabbing for a big colorful feather. "But unlike most mythology– I am afraid we aren't able to help all conflict out of this world by one mere prophecy."

Lia didn't really know what to say, but after all that– she was more determined to read up on the stories that lay before her. Even if they probably sparked the nightmare, she needed to know more.

Soft scribbles could be heard from Capricorns writing, "I will soon inform the scale of this predicament, she will be a strong asset that should not remain ignorant."

The scale, that'd be Libra right?

"It will still be a while before the first rays of sunlight show. You can read more in the morning so rest now, both you and the wolfboy," Giles smiled, barely visible from behind the amount of papers sitting in front of him.

"Sorry again about waking you up sir," Lia apologized, hoping he'd know she meant it even if they couldn't really see each other.

An amused huff told her he got the message, "That is quite alright, I'm usually an early riser– up before the light."

Ray softly tugged on her arm, "Try to get some more sleep," he whispered kindly, leading her to the couch he fell asleep on before.

He turned into a wolf again, knowingly this time, and keeps looking from her to the space next to him.

Hopefully reading this right, Lia sat down on the spot. When he let out a content huff, dropping his head onto the armrest– she figured this'd be okay for now.

Grabbing a discarded blanket from the floor she curled up next to Ray. She found that falling asleep didn't take her long with the warmth and softness surrounding her.



It was hours later when she woke up, the big sleeping wolf still sprawled out on the couch with her, though it was cramped it wasn't uncomfortable at all.

Carefully looking around her she spotted a book Ray had probably been reading before they fell asleep the first time– before waking up from that horrid dream.

Capricorn had called it a vision, but she could barely remember what she saw last night. It was like she was trying to put together fragmented pieces of a mirror, the images so twisted they couldn't line up properly anymore.

Reaching out for the old book she noticed some fluffy little bookworms on the back, putting the worms on her arm she read the uncovered title; The Tainted Darkness.

Ray had been reading about the mage's magic?

The effects of blights were explained more in depth than the book she'd read about the prophecy, Tylluan truly created something evil, while the magic itself doesn't strike her as violent at first glance.

It's a black toxic shadow which taints all it touches, if you were to simply stay away from them you'd be fine. But for curious animals and spirits it was a big problem. The beasts don't even die quickly when the blight latches on, they're turned into something evil, made to suffer through the rest of their existence.

Spirit beasts are even speculated to have evolved or born with blights instead of light as its source.

Like some sort of evolutionary error, the blights integrated itself into our spirits.

Nobody needs to be told how dangerous that can be.

And we've been stuck with these blights for over 600 years? Nobody has found a way to get rid of them yet?

She sighed sharply, did prophecies always sound so impossible to fix?

"Blights didn't exist before Tylluan created the magic right?" Lia asked.

The wolf shifted back into his human self, "Y-yeah," Ray answered, stretching a bit, "Did you know I was awake or did you just not care if you woke me up or not?"

"Both," she smirked, still looking down at the book.

Ray wasn't amused while Lia continued to question; "He was defeated, killed, yet those blights stayed around and nobody knows why?"

Ray seemed to think that over, staring off into the library– now illuminated by a soft morning glow. "Magic can grow on its own, if Tylluan died– that doesn't mean his magic would be dead too. Even if the prophecy says it should have..."

"And he really is dead?" She asked, tone turned grim and firm.

"I wouldn't know," he scratched his neck, "but no book mentions anything about people seeing or hearing from him after the great battle, on top of that– the prophecy and the battle are over 600 years old."

So there's a possibility he's alive, a slim one but it's there.

Tiny clops broke the building tension, "Ah you've come quite far with your research I see, please have some breakfast I've made my own fruits tea."

That sounded just wonderful.

As much as she enjoyed reading, all this information was more than a bit stressful to find out.

She turned her head back around to look at Ray, he gave her a very relaxed and soft smile. Looks like he can use a good meal too.

"We're coming Mr. Giles," she happily replied, feeling a warm smile grace her features as well.