by Casey White
He’d figure it out. He had time.
“Why don’t you show me what you’re having trouble with?” Owl said.
- Chapter Twelve -
“I told you that already. If we don’t properly separate it out, the-”
“Emma, I know. Just listen to me for three minutes. Jesus.”
Owl stood in the hallway, unable to quite bring himself to cross into the lab. He stared through the doorway, suddenly glad for the mask that hid his facial expressions.
Lenny and Emma stood on opposite sides of a countertop with whatever they’d been working on simmering away between them. The masks they wore did absolutely nothing to dull the shrill tones of their voices.
They’d been the ones to call him. They’d pulled him away from his office, in fact, interrupting his own projects. And he’d assumed, when they did so, that it’d been for a halfway decent reason.
Instead, he had...this.
Emma planted her hands on the counter, brown eyes flashing. The beakers lining the racks wobbled dangerously. “I’m telling you, Lenny, if you don’t pay attention to this it’ll spark, and-”
“I’m telling you it’s okay,” he snapped, a whine in his voice. “I’ve done this before. We’ve done this before. So stop worrying so much and let me-”
Owl cleared his throat. They stopped abruptly, stiffening.
He watched, halfway to amused, as their heads swiveled to face him.
“Was there something you needed?” he said dryly.
“O-Oh,” Lenny said, going pale. “Oh, shoot. I, uh. Well. There was a footnote I heard about, once, and- and I thought, maybe if it existed-”
“Lenny wanted you to go chasing legends for him,” Emma said, sweeping her hands across her hair and tightening her ponytail. “Only he got distracted when I told him not to burn the place down.”
“I’m not going to burn anything down,” Lenny muttered.
“Please don’t,” Owl said, his voice mild. The little man reddened further. He sighed. “So...you said there was a footnote? What...uh. What exactly are you looking for?”
Lenny’s hands waved through the air, a vial still clutched between his fingers. With every whirl, the liquid within sloshed higher. Emma took a step back, and Owl found himself joining her. Lenny didn’t seem to notice. “It’s...oh, how do I say it. There was a book, a journal. Written by-” He drooped. “It doesn’t matter. It’s gone. Destroyed. But I thought-”
Owl leaned back against the door frame. “And you want me to find it for you.”
A gleam returned to Lenny’s eyes. His hands stopped their waving. “C-Can you?”
“If it was written by humans, it’s in here. Somewhere.” Owl chuckled as the man’s eyes widened. “Even if it was just a thought in their head. I’ll need more to work off, though. Some details.”
“Oh! Right, yes, of course,” Lenny said, his hand returning to its circuit. “Uh, well, I think his name was...” His eyes blinked, going round behind his glasses. “Um. It was...If I can recall, I believe the journal was supposed to be about-”
“Damn fool can’t even remember,” Emma muttered.
Lenny wrinkled his nose, shooting a sidelong glare at her. “Jesus, woman, I’m getting there! I just- It’s been a while. I’m sure it’ll-”
“Why don’t you think on it and call me back when you’ve remembered,” Owl said. The two were right back to glaring daggers at each other, and out of everything he could do with his day...this ranked about last. “There’s no hurry. We’ve months yet.”
A craggy grin broke out across Lenny’s face, and he nodded. “Of course. Yes. I’ll- I’ll let you know!”
Emma only rolled her eyes, bemused tolerance spreading across her expression. “Fine. Wonderful. Now if you don’t mind, oh skilled and wonderful master of the tinctures, would you watch what you’re doing?”
Lenny’s eyes snapped back to the vial he held. “Shut up, Emma,” he mumbled.
The lab exploded into noise as the two set into each other again. Owl crept backward, each footfall slow and soft until the door passed by him.
Then he ran.
This was why he’d put off letting visitors in for so long, damn it. He slowed to a brisk walk once it was safe, pulling his hood a little higher about his mask. Every time, someone found it necessary to bicker - with their colleagues, with their fellow guests, with him. And every time, he could only nod and smile, gritting his teeth and praying his voice didn’t come across as too rude.
Wind rustled through the eaves overhead. Owl jumped back as a door slammed shut alongside him.
“Come on,” he mumbled, casting a tired look roofward. “I don’t mean anything by it. They’re not that bad. But you saw how they were.”
Alexandria didn’t answer. He chuckled, continuing on. She never did. For a while, he’d been working on an interface, a way to connect to the Library’s spirited soul more directly.
His smile faded. The issue came back to the same quandary as always - technology was immutable. Real. It existed in rules and mathematics and constraints. The Library was magic, and magic was another matter entirely.
There was no way for him to connect the two. Not without knowing more about the mythical structure and the energy that made it tick. And he didn’t love the idea of seeking out a mage to grill them for information.
Owl forced the whispers of worry away, quickening his steps back toward the study. Lenny and Emma were...occupied. He didn’t relish the thought of being called back out to play gopher later in the day, but it was better than having to sit by and listen to them for hours on end. One way or another, he was already up and about.
The two weren’t the only guests the Library had. Ronald was an older man, and quite satisfied to stay buried in his texts - census documents from generations long since gone. That made him instantly Owl’s favorite, naturally. He’d check in on him, make sure everything was still going well.
Resolved, Owl hurried further into the wings. Ron had abandoned the study. In his words, Lenny goes there for books. Knowing Lenny and Lenny’s penchant for overdoing things, Ron’s response had been plenty, and Owl couldn’t quite bring himself to blame the man. He was getting up there in years, but he’d taken to the Library quite quickly - quickly enough to realize that it really didn’t matter which wings he visited, he’d find whatever he needed there, a safe distance from the fray.
It helped that Alexandria seemed to like him, too.
Owl smiled as he turned the corner, finding the older man holed up amidst what looked like a monastic library. Chains linked each book to the shelves by a corner, until the whole room rattled faintly with metal-on-metal. Not quite the atmosphere Owl preferred, but the excitement in Ron’s eyes had been undeniable.
He looked up now at Owl’s approach, the corners of his eyes softening. “Ah! Librarian. Is something wrong?”
“That’s what I was going to ask you,” Owl said, coming to a stop. “You’ve been quiet all day. Is there-”
A bell rang overhead - not the entryway bells. Those were elegant, each tolling in harmony with the next. These screamed, sounding off a discordant shriek of noise that set his every cell to shivering with the wrongness of it.
Whatever Ron would have said, Owl didn’t hear. He took off, dashing back the way he’d come.
He didn’t have a choice. With every pounding step he took, doors slammed shut on either side of the hall. At each twist and turn, open paths seemed to meld into little more than shadowed stonework.
The Library was herding him, forcing him down a single path. A bead of sweat rolled down his back. It wouldn’t be doing that unless something was really, really wrong - and he’d never heard it cry out like that.
Straining his legs, he bounded just a little faster. With an exhaled breath, he pushed at the space under his heels. The air seethed, bursting beneath each step and sending him careening along faster still.
With the wind rushing through the gaps in his jacket and his legs just starting
to protest, he saw it - a single door at the end of the hall, slamming open.
A familiar door. He cursed under his breath, releasing his magic and skidding to a stop.
The lab was in chaos. Shattered glass sprinkled across the countertops, littering the floor with crystalline snowflakes. Smoke filled the air with a hazy murk. A murk that burned at his nostrils, Owl realized.
Lenny was just a shadow within the clouds, batting at a fiercely-glowing spot of light. Owl’s eyes widened. Fire.
Emma hung from his elbow, trying to pull him farther away. Lenny only pushed her back, continuing to smother the fire with what looked like a coat. Both of them were bellowing, screaming words lost amid the chaos of the smoke and bells and steadily crackling flames.
The fire pulsed, seething brighter. Owl’s eyes widened. The colors flared. Emma finally succeeded in dragging Lenny a step back, the man frozen with arms outstretched.
A canister on the counter bulged ominously with a crack that rose over the din.
Owl surged forward, his hand snapping up on instinct more than any proof. His fingers spread wide, tensing to grip an invisible wall.
For a moment, in the crystalline span of that single second, he smiled - and saw flames falling from the ceiling in his mind’s eye, a green-eyed woman stomping into the wings.
Time unfroze with a roar like a train engine bearing down on them. The countertop exploded into reds and oranges bright enough to blind. His guests’ cries turned to screams.
Always remember, he heard Jean whisper in his ear, the words faded from the centuries they crossed. Never allow harm to come to anyone within Alexandria’s walls.
His arms flexed, fingers straining as the force of it pushed against him. His barrier bulged, straining to contain the fires within. Chin lowered to his chest, he stared at the brilliant wall hanging between Lenny and the counter, squeezing harder.
The light shimmered - then moved, coiling in. Flames still churned inside, slamming against the shield like physical blows. His hands burned despite the gloves he wore, searing at the heat wafting off the blaze.
A step forward. His legs shook, his feet on the verge of slipping against the stonework tiles. The shield warped, flexing tighter. Another step. Another.
The tiniest sigh slipped between his lips as the light-wall curled shut around the explosion, hovering in midair like the world’s most extravagant grenade.
A twitch of his finger, and a gap opened in the back. A second explosion rocked the room, fire spraying forth - to harmlessly char the cinderblock wall beyond his guests.
Owl stared at the blackened marks, his hands still outstretched. His heart pounded in his ears, oddly loud in the sudden silence.
Somewhere ahead in the ravaged remnants of the lab, a bit of glass shifted, clinking.
“O-Oh,” he heard Lenny whimper, like the spell had been broken. “Oh. Jesus. I-”
“You two okay?” Owl said, doing his best to keep from spitting the words. He half-turned, unwilling to tear his eyes fully off the lingering sparks and embers.
A little help? Lifting a hand, he dragged his fingertips across the open air, smoothing and sweeping.
The glass shifted at his imaginary passing, shimmering once more before fading to nothing. Inch by inch, he wiped away the damage they’d done, a vein in his temple starting to throb.
“Yeah,” Emma said, her voice whisper-soft. “Yeah. We’re good.”
“Holy shit.”
Emma stared glassy-eyed at the wreckage, unable to even glare at her companion.
“Lenny?” Owl said, tapping his fingertips against the air. The scattered flames tamped out, going cold and dark instantly. The ruined chemistry equipment twisted and shimmied, mending itself in seconds.
The scrawny man’s chin snapped up. “W-What?”
Owl ground his teeth together. “Are you burned? You were trying to...I don’t really know what you were trying to do. Don’t fight a fire like that with a coat.” He nodded toward the scholar. “Your hands. How are they?”
“O-Oh,” Lenny said, shoving his hands deep into the pockets on his jeans. “They’re- I’m fine. Yeah. I’m good. Sorry. I’m so sorry.”
Right. He was so good, he almost kept from flinching at the brush of fabric against his totally-not-burned hands. Owl sighed, shooting Lenny a reproachful look, but didn’t press the point. He’d bring a first aid kit around later, when Lenny had had some time to settle down and swallow his pride.
“What did I tell you?” he said instead, letting his hands fall to his sides. The lab might not be as pristine as it had been, but it wouldn’t explode anymore, either.
Both Lenny and Emma jumped. “Oops,” Lenny mumbled.
Emma took a deep breath, her expression chagrined. “Sorry,” she whispered. “Thought we would be fine. I...we went too fast. I-”
“It’s my fault,” Lenny said, grabbing her wrist - and winced again, Owl noted sourly. “I didn’t listen. I’m sorry, Librarian. This was all my fault. The lab...such a wonderful facility, and I’ve...I’ve-”
“Just get your shit together,” Owl said. They jumped again, faces paling at his profanity. “You can’t hurt Alexandria. She’ll fix herself. But those protections don’t extend to you, damn it.”
They withered at his words, shrinking smaller. “Y-Yeah,” Lenny mumbled, his head bobbing ferociously. “Y-You’re right. Yeah.”
Owl glared at them, tight-lipped. Distantly, he wasn’t quite sure what it was that annoyed him so much - the fact that these two idiots had nearly blown themselves up on his watch, or the fact the Library hadn’t actually stepped in to intervene.
Why should it? He thumped the floor lightly with one foot, starting to turn away. Handling the issue itself was unnecessary when it had him to intervene on its behalf.
“Do better,” was all he said, stalking out of the room in a swirl of leather.
The door closed on their exhausted sighs.
Owl’s steps slowed as he started back toward Alexandria’s heart. It was supposed to be a quiet afternoon, he thought wistfully. His chair called for him. At least the day wasn’t totally over - he could go back, settle in, and get at least a few more hours’ work done before-
A whisper rang through the hallway, right on the edge of hearing. Owl froze, one foot poised in midair. Waiting.
Silence was all he found - until he exhaled slowly, ready to chalk it up to his own strained nerves, and heard it.
Footsteps.
His head rolled back, leaving him to stare mutely at the ceiling. A dreamer - now. When all he wanted to do was go back to his office and be free from everyone for a few short hours.
“The work never ends,” he whispered. And then he turned, trudging down the entryway into an adobe-walled wing lit by tall, narrow slit windows.
His ears strained, prickling with every step he took. They couldn’t be far, not when he’d heard them from the hallway. He’d find them, and sort them out, and-
A voice rippled across the Library, hushed but...excited. Owl slowed, his brow furrowing. That was...odd. He’d helped many dreamers find closure since he’d started as a Librarian. Each of them was different, but they all shared a few traits. A curiosity. A need. Single-minded focus.
In all the dreamers he’d helped, though, he’d never heard one sound so...alive.
More carefully, he crept forward, lifting a hand to check his mask. If the two chemists’ little stunt had damaged it...if he’d been left with a crack or fracture he hadn’t noticed...
His fingers found only smooth porcelain, though, and he breathed a sigh of relief. One more rack of books, and-
Owl froze, his eyes narrowing. There. A figure waited on the far side of the Library, half-hidden behind a shelf.
He couldn’t quite bring himself to move, though, pinned in place by the sight of the person - an otherwise ordinary, normal person, with no trace of blue glow lighting their skin.
A person who was much, much younger than the amiable Ronald. And who
was certainly not Lenny or Emma, even if the pair could possibly have beaten him here. Which they couldn’t have.
He was left staring at the figure, his mouth hanging open, while his mind circled around and around before presenting him with the only possible conclusion left.
Someone else was in Alexandria.
- Chapter Thirteen -
A person.
In Alexandria.
A person in Alexandria, that he hadn’t approved. They hadn’t come through his gates, he was completely sure of that much. And so Owl stared, eyes wide and mouth still hanging open.
The stranger was none the wiser, flitting from shelf to shelf with eyes like dinner plates. His fingers traced over the spines of books, oddly reverent.
And Owl was sure he’d never, ever seen this person before.
Get rid of him, his thoughts screamed. He shouldn’t be here. Whoever he is, this isn’t right.
A memory flashed before his eyes - a scene, faded and blurred and right on the distant edge of his memory. The stonework floor of the Library...and a man, sinking into the mud through a hole in it. A cloaked and masked woman stood over him, rigid with fury.
Right. He’d...he’d seen people kicked from Alexandria before. It’d been...too long, and he’d never thought he would have to do something like that himself, but it was possible.
Daniel padded forward, each step slow and careful. If the intruder ran, slipping into the halls of Alexandria, he might never find him again. Any other day, he’d have charged straight in, confident that the Library would be his steady partner in containing him.
But the man was here, impossibly - and Alexandria had done nothing. It’d sat there and pretended nothing was wrong, leaving him to tend to the two chemists. The silence was so wildly out of character for it that now, Owl couldn’t quite shake the ripple of distrust washing through him.
One careful step after another, he crept closer. The man was young, he realized. Probably a college student like...well, like his friends. He couldn’t be much older than Daniel himself, certainly. And with every step forward, he knew with more surety that this was not someone he’d let through the gate.