Once inside the library, they started to feel like they entered a labyrinth, built to keep ferocious monsters both inside and out. An open atrium in the middle of the building illuminated it with light from outside and separated the tangled hallways. Once every 2 to 3 meters a new door opened to a room stocked with shelves filled with books, scrolls and tomes from different layers.
The group, with Brigid’s help mostly, found who they were looking for. Goidel sat bent over a table, studying a map and giving instructions to a small, coral-like Firbolg, who was carrying reading material back and forth. She carried each book under her stubbled arms, while scrolls were kept tight between the coral branches stemming from her head.
“ Right”, whispered Brigid to herself, after which she inhaled in and out and pumped herself up. “ I can do this!” She approached Goidel and, as softly as possible, made her presence known. “Hello…”.
The warrior jumped out of his seat.
“Damn it”, mumbled a disappointed Brigid.
He looked at her, then at the group and then, as if he asked her something, at his assistant.
-” They’re the group you wanted me to remind you about, sir Goidel…Do you remember now? Well, they’re here.”
-” Ugh, right. I did say something like that. Right, thanks Mincha.” He inadvertently turned towards Lian and his face got pale in the second. “ I FOrgot!”, he screamed out, slowly diminishing his voice. “You were hurt! Are you better now?”
-” Yeah, much better; the headache and nausea are all gone, see?” she tried to do a pirouette, and immediately lost balance, but luckily for her Maci reacted swiftly and stopped her fall with a firm palm on her back.
-” Easy there you crazy lady, don’t force your body like that after just recovering from an injury”, added the teen as a piece of friendly advice.
-” Right, understood.” Lian remembered for a second how her legs gave up the first time she woke up in the sand layer, and a shiver came down her spine. For now, though, there were other pressing matters at hand. “ Goidell, I would like to read all you have on the pact, the deities you told me about and anything about dark, black or lightless bodies of water.”
Never since Mincha started working under him has she seen him so stupefied and caught off-guard. The warrior turned towards Brigid, but she appeared just as shocked at Lian’s request. Which the girl noticed.
-” Is there something wrong? Did I say something or…”
Before anyone could respond, a weird voice responded from the selling. It was wispy but soothing, coming from robes and scarves that seemed to float inside a smoky field. As it got lower, it gained a shape, but whatever it was, it was hidden under the layers of purple and white wraps it carried. They swathed around forming a wide torso, thin limbs and a human head; a portion of the face was left unveiled though, from which two, emerald-colored dots shined on the visitors.
-'' Hello Goidel’s guests. I am the Head Librarian of this collection, but you can address it as my colleagues in the Union do: Feth. You inquired about…dark masses of water?”
Maci and Lian were taken a bit aback by the stranger’s sudden appearance, but the teen was the first to regain sense. “ Is that a problem or something? Hey, Brigid, you too, what’s this all about?”
-” Oh, you must be Brigantia’s young pact partner…Hmm, just as everyone said, you are rude but also a veritable bundle of energy.” The head librarian's misty hands stretched towards the teen and gave her an application form; “ Tell me, would you like to work in the library while you stay in Caer?” Feth seemed entirely sincere in his question, to Maci’s confusion. “Oh, this is not a jest by the way. We have tons of parchments that need to be carried between the rooms, and you seem like the type who just likes to run around all day.”
-” What? No, that’s not true! I’ll let you know that I’m a goalkeeper back home! And besides, I already help out around the town. Sooo…no thanks.``, she replied, folding her hands to her chest in contempt.
Feth shrugged and puffed vapors from where his emerald eyes gleamed. “Eh, it is what it is. Now, returning to miss amnesiac, I guess you were told that only through the permission of a higher power can the Fect Pact work as first described…”
To which Maci mumbled angrily as she wasn’t too thrilled that she couldn’t use her power yet.
“So, you’re thinking that it has something to do with the God and Sacred Beast” continued Feth.” I understand that curiosity. But what about the last interest?”
Lian, unsure of what was happening, told them about the “illusion” she saw a month ago. The Head Librarian turned to Goidel, and as if he smirked, asked him:
-” What do you think, will the other Platinum’s will admonish me for this?”
-” No…I mean, I trust your judgment…” Goidel hunched a bit, then cowered back to his table. “ If you think this is the right move, then sure”, he sheepishly added at the end. Minch also shrank behind a shelf and pretended to work on her tasks. Brigid offered to help her out.
-” Good…Now back to you young lady. A dark ocean, a black lake…hmmm. Well, we have records of natural phenomena that can blacken a lake, or weird fluctuations in the skies that could be seen as a floating mass of water…and then there are the floods.” Feth stopped, anticipating their follow-up question.
-” Floo-”
-” A flood, yes”, he quickly continued. “ A weird phenomenon that affects layers, randomly, it seems. Dark liquid starts pouring out of nowhere, covering parts of the layer and defenestrating away its…ugh…energy, let’s say. And just like it appears, it disappears. Into the ether it came from.”
Lian listened to his explanation with suspicion but added it as a possible clue to her tapestry of leads.
- “Thank you, sir Librarian”, nodded Lian with a fake smile.
-” Please, call me Feth, I insist.”
-” Right…Uhm, we’ll check that lead as well, it could be connected to what I saw. Or maybe, as you said, it’s a natural illusion and I was a bit cuckoo from the pain”, she remarked, forcing a laugh. “Anyhow, Goidel was already up for helping us out, so we should let him check out those books for us.”
-” Of course, of course. My bad. Goidel, please do your best to not embarrass our library in front of our guests, ok?”
The warrior only nodded back.
-” Good. Then I wish you all good luck and enjoy your stay”, after which he whisked away in his smoke form, down the halls, leaving a trail of chilly air behind him.
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