It hurts! 

IT HURTS! 

My head- it feels like it's about to BURST! 

I tried to reach for the call button except it wasn’t there. That’s strange. It’s usually just around here. Hmmm, what am I wearing? It looks like some kind of a Victorian servant outfit. Where am I? Judging by the darkness, it must be past midnight. Although the hospital has never been this dark before. Oh God! Did I sleepwalk into some weird storage room…!?

Seriously, sleepwalk? 

Ash you’re paralysed. 

That just makes it even stranger. I stretched my hand out to see if there’s anything that could help me get up. I picked up what felt like a book. Through the faint moonlight coming from the window, my vision cleared up a little. I was sitting on the floor surrounded by a pile of books in the middle of an aisle of bookshelves. The bookshelves reached about five or six stories up to the ceiling, carrying more than hundreds, thousands, or even millions of books. 

Oh my god, I have never seen this many books in my life! Is this what they call a library? A building filled with books, but why would I be in a library? 

In the midst of my excitement, a light started approaching me. 

A person? 

“Hello? Excuse me! Is anyone around?” 

The light stopped in its path and didn’t move no matter how much I called. Maybe it’s not a person. I used the bookshelves as support and got myself standing, and slowly started walking towards the light. It turns out it was just a lantern placed on one of the desks. Strange though, how come it just suddenly lit up? I looked around the desk and the shelves but there was no sign of a person entering or leaving the building. 

This place is just getting weirder and weirder. 

I grabbed the lantern and slowly dragged myself back to the spot I was in earlier. The books were placed in piles and a few of the shelves were closed empty. It seemed like I was in the middle of rearranging the books. I picked up the book my hand grabbed earlier and brought it closer to the light; “History of Aldelaine, the founding of Alden, the City of Magic” 

Hmmm, I swear, light novel titles are becoming out of hand these days. What kind of a history book is this? There’s no such place as Aldelaine on Earth. City of Magic- Is this some kind of a spin off that explains the hierarchy of the light novel world or something? 

I sat back down in the middle of the book piles and decided to read the awkward title that I had just picked up. 

Let’s see: 

“Here in the Great Zureth Empire, people are divided into two main categories: Mages and Wielders. 

Mages are limited to using one of the five core elements: Fire, Water, Earth, Wind and Light. With the odd chances of dual elementals once in every hundred years. Wielders are the stronger category of mages with the ability to use enhanced elements such as Lightning, Ice, Gravity, Sound and Darkness. 

Mages cannot turn into Wielders, but Wielders have the ability to use the Five Core Elements. 

The Zureth Empire is divided into five kingdoms: Aldelaine, Rosalia, Nermune, Illys and Cesare. The five kingdoms once lived in peace until 7 years ago, in 442, the four kingdoms formed an alliance to wipe out Cesare. The small kingdom of Cesare was home to wielders. The rulers of the four kingdoms felt threatened by the overpowering strength of the wielders and decided to end their reign. The war lasted for 3 years until one chilly winter morning, the King of Cesare was announced dead. Cesare fell into ruins and the two categories of humanity were brought down to one. 

The Kingdom of Aldelaine flourished in honour and wealth as the greatest contributor to the war. Their ruler, King Julien Von Infierno Aldelaine formed the Four K Council and with their alliance, Alden, the City of Magic was founded. 

The Enchanted Library of Cesare, the last monument of the fallen kingdom, is now the centrepiece of Alden Academy. An institute where mages from all four kingdoms come together and are educated on magic, producing new and refined mages of the highest standards.”

-THUD- 

The doors of the library slammed shut: Someone’s here! 

I closed the book and quickly started putting the piles of books onto the shelves. Just pretend like you’re working.

-tap-tap-tap-tap- 

For a person, they sure have small steps. The tapping sounds got closer and stopped. A small shadow appeared at the end of the bookshelf. A cat ear popped out from the corner- 

“A cat!” I sighed with great relief, “Wow, that scared me! My heart almost popped out!” After putting my heart back into my chest, I sat back down and picked up the book. I glanced up to find the cat staring right at me. It was a beautiful black cat with a streak of golden fur on its head. Though I must admit, I’ve never seen a cat of such a rare mix of colours. It looked like such a majestic creature, one would find it difficult to believe it was real. Its bright green eyes stared at me the entire time, keenly watching me until all of a sudden that living creature went up in blue flames with no trace left.

“…!”

For the sake of my sanity, we’ll pretend that it just teleported. #Catlover

According to my “Encyclopaedia of Light novels: Volume 3: Fantasy novels”, majestic or rare looking creatures along with blue flames - that hopefully indicate teleportation - I believe I am currently in a fantasy novel. Hurray? 

–cReaK–  

The doors were opened? Is the cat back? 

-Clack- -Clack- -Clack-

Yeah no. That’s a person. 

A shadow holding a lantern approached me. Based on the shadow, it was a girl. The light became brighter and the stomping came to a stop. A young girl dressed like a servant walked around the corner and stood right in front of me. She had brown hair tied into a neat bun, with big bright eyes that looked straight at me full of anger. 

“Did those maniacs throw their work onto you again?” She spoke with sincere concern. 

“It’s already past midnight, what are you still doing here? You’ll get in serious trouble if the butler finds out. Come on, let’s go back!” 

She grabbed my hand and got me on my feet. After having been paralysed for my entire life, walking was such a strange sensation. With light steps we walked to the doors and quietly snuck outside. The library was a detached building from the house and had its own path to it as well. We walked down the path until we reached the main garden. The fountain of the garden looked like it was lit up surrounded by numerous little light globes that were hovering around it. 

“Come on, what are you doing staring at the fountain!” The girl whispered in a tense voice. 

“Why does the fountain look like it’s lit up?”

The girl stopped and looked at me, “This is the magic garden, everything here runs on magic.” The two of us walked up to a row of hedges, “Why are we stopping at the bushes?” The young girl turned her face showing a wide grin, “Look at what I found!” 

She crawled into the bushes and stretched out her hand ushering me to follow her. I didn’t have much of a choice in the matter and crawled through the bushes. My eyes couldn’t believe what they were looking at. A long path appeared behind the bushes, surrounded by rows of beautiful flowers. “Ah! Hurry! I don’t want to get caught here!” 

The young girl with her little bun ran down the path dragging me along with her. As we ran down, my hand accidentally touched one of the flowers, and to my surprise, the flower lit up. The tiny red bud that my hand brushed against started glowing along with the entire patch of red flowers behind it. The two massive rows of flowers glowed in countless different colours. It looked breathtaking.

I’ve read plenty of magic themed novels but this- the real thing sure is different. 

“GASP!” 

I turned my head to the loud gasp behind me only to find the young girl in a state of fear looking up at someone on the other side of the bushes. I slowly walked up to the girl and she glanced at me, signalling to stay back. 

“Is someone else there behind you?” A deep yet mature voice spoke through the leaves. His tone was refined, clearly indicating that he is unhappy with this discovery. 

“I will ask one more time, is someone else there behind you, Miss Charlotte?”

The young girl hurried to her knees and bowed her head at an uncomfortable angle, “No, Sir Butler. It’s just me.” 

Eh! Sir Butler?

TBC