Chapter 17: Chapter 17.1 - Library Encounter

The library wasn’t a place Kira frequented often, for numerous reasons. She was a lover of books, so one would normally think she’d enjoy the library, right? But there was a major problem when it came to the Wondrous Academy's library. The books here were a tad annoying, and they knew who she was.

Stepping through the doors to the library with a book bag strapped around her chest, she nodded to the sleeping librarian resting upright on a chair behind his desk. He was an old looking man, even older looking than Rynus, with scraggly white hair covering his face. His mouth was open and it looked like he was snoring, not no noise came from him.

Kira didn’t understand why certain wizards transformed their looks to appear old. Wizards didn’t age past their prime, only spells would be able to change their appearance to that of an old person. In her future, there was no chance she would make herself look like an old woman.

With a hood over her head to try and hide her features, Kira started her search for books regarding the Thorn’s. The library was much too large to search manually, with multiple floors going up and down, and odd hidden passages here and there. She needed to find some sort of map of the place. She scanned around, seeing if there were labels she could use, but just looking around at the floating staircases going further up, and the branching pathways on either side, made her positive she needed a better plan.

Asking the librarian was out of the question, the last time she was here she had gotten yelled at alongside the books for being too loud. She didn’t want a repeat of that. But maybe he had something on his desk that could help her.

Kira tiptoed over to the librarian and gently ruffled around the papers and books on his desk, trying to find a map or guide of some kind.

‘Misadventures of Marty Morr… The Geography of Shu’ran… Small Town Enigma…’ Kira read the titles of the books and papers, but didn’t find anything useful. Hesitating for a moment, she went to reach into the man’s desk compartments, but a voice cut her off.

“Psst. You girl, stop that.” The Misadventures of Marty Morr said to her. His voice projected from his cover, and dripped with an accent Kira didn’t recognize. “You're gonna wake him up, he’s enchanted his drawers.”

Kira's hand flinched back, staring at the book. “I need… I’m trying to find a map of this place, do you know where one is?”

“A map? Gods no girl, why would you need a map?”

“So I can find what I’m looking for?” Kira questioned the book's words.

“Yeah, that would make sense in a normal library, but not this one. You’ll hafta ask around if you wanna find what you're looking for— just the way it is I suppose.”

“Then… Do you know where books talking about the Thorn household might be?”

“Who do you think I am, some second rate picture book? Of course I know where they are!” The Misadventures of Marty Morr scoffed at her.

“Um, then could you tell me?”

“For free? Nonono, you need to offer something of equal value if you want that information.”

Kira sighed in annoyance. Why were these books so difficult to work with?

“Fine, I'll tell you a secret then.” Kira smirked.

“Ouh Ouh, a secret! Yes, tell me, I’ll determine if it’s good enough for your information.” The book seemed to be getting excited.

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Leaning in closer, Kira suddenly snatched up the Misadventures of Marty Morr off the table and shoved it in her book bag quickly. Muffled shouts came from her bag, probably swearing at her with words she probably didn’t know yet, but her face remained stoic throughout. She wasn’t going to let some book take advantage of her.

“How rude, young girl!” One of the books sitting on the librarian's shelf spoke out. “Put him back this minute, you can’t go around kidnapping us books.”

“Is something going on?” Another voice said. That’s when things took a turn. The books were waking up from their slumber and started chatting away.

“Oh god, why did Mr. Bobo move me next to you, you're so fat!”

“Calling me fat are you, you ugly piss coloured scrapbook.”

“Shut up you two, you're gonna wake Mr. Bobo! He’ll come around and silence us again!”

“You telling me to shut up? You twat!”

More and more books started up their own arguments, the once quiet library was now filled with a plethora of conversations. Seeing as they were distracted with one another, Kira bolted off away from the entrance, going anywhere else. Her eyes quickly glanced at the small wooden label signs hanging above each aisle, trying to see if she could find anything worthwhile, but didn’t spot anything useful.

She saw one or two other students sitting around the library, either studying or doing some casually reading, but since it was past suppertime, and in the middle of the week, there weren't too many others. Even during its peak hours, there were at most maybe ten students in the library. Not many students liked having to deal with the talking books— unless of course the books were giving them answers to their questions.

Stumbling down into the first lower level, she threw herself into a random aisle and stopped. She reached into her bag and pulled The Misadventures of Marty Morr back out, as much as she’d rather not get an earful.

“YOU!” The book yelled, “How. Dare. You! I'll have you know—”

And she shoved the book back in. After waiting for a minute, she took it back out.

“Before you start shouting again, listen to my offer, okay?” Kira said. Seeing the book silent, she continued. “First, I apologize for shoving you into my bag. I was just… annoyed. Last time I was here, you guys said some mean things to me, and I wanted some revenge. I'm sorry for taking it out on you.”

There was a brief moment of silence, before the Misadventures of Marty Morr answered with a calm voice, “Fine, I accept your apology, but don't think you can throw me back into your bag. But… I guess I should apologize as well, not for what I've done— I haven't done anything wrong— but for how the other books acted. They are pigs for gossip, and they aren't known for holding their pages.”

“Now that I'm getting a good look at you, you're the Thorn girl aren't you? That would explain why the books said some horrible stuff about you.”

“Just cause I’m a Thorn they’d be mean?” Kira hung her head, then held The Misadventures of Marty Morr up to her face. “That's exactly what I'm trying to figure out! I want to know why some books might hate the Thorn’s, or why someone would call me a murderer— I mean I kinda know why, but I want to know everything…” Her words pittered out.

“Hmmm, well I could tell you, but I dont think youd like it coming from me.” The book said, “You’ve already told me some interesting gossip so I’ll say you’ve paid your part, no need for anything else. What you're trying to find is on the top floor, and I mean the top-top floor, past the hole in the ceiling.”

With some guidance, Kira left the lower level and started climbing up the stairs to get to the top. Once she was on the third level, the book led her to a dreary little corner at the back. On the ceiling, about 30 feet above her, was a hole no bigger than her arms stretched wide.

“How am I supposed to get up there?” Kira asked, then complained. “Why is this library so weird…”

“Rude, this is my home you’re talking about.” Misadventures of Marty Morr said, “I believe they made this hole so only more skilled wizards, most likely second years, could get up there. There’s some more intense information up there, definitely not a fun place to go.”

Looking around to see if she could find any obvious way to get that high up, Kira didn’t seem to spot anything useful in her immediate vicinity. That’s when she heard a voice in her head.

Kira? Where are we? Caspian asked from within her core.

“Oh you’ve woken up from your nap. We’re just in the library, trying to get up there.” She pointed to the hole. “Got any ideas, Caspian?”

A ladder? The capybara spoke with a yawn.

“A ladder? Where are we gonna find—“ Kira paused, then shuffled out of the corner and looked down the main hallway. There, leaning against the shelves, was a tall ladder.

That was too easy right? Kira went over to it and tried to move it, but it wouldn’t budge. She could feel magic coursing through it, and checking the ladder, she found a few small enchanted circles covering its sides.

They hadn’t touched on enchantments in class, that was a topic for second year, but they had learned about the dispel spell. She could just dispel the enchantments, but that would definitely pissed off Mr. Bobo, and was teetering on the edge of rule breaking. She also couldn’t tell what the enchmanrs did, reading magic was not a skill Kira was great at. They had learned about it and practised before, but Mrs. Lemon said it would take years of training until someone became good at reading magic.

“It's enchanted with the rearrange spell, nothing complex, just a simple enchantment.” Misadventures of Marty Morr suddenly spoke out, answering her internal questions.

“You can read enchantments? Kira shockingly asked.

“Who do you think I am? I’ve been living inside this magical academy for decades, talking to various wizards throughout. Did you think that just because I’m a book, I wouldn’t be able to read magic?” The book huffed.

‘Yes.’ That's exactly what Kira thought, but she wouldn’t say it. “Then what do you think? Should I dispel the enchantments?”

“Sure, but once Mr. Bobo finds it, he’s not gonna be happy. And if he finds out it’s you…” The book didn’t finish his sentence.

Groaning, Kira didn’t want to think about it anymore. Was there another way up? Most definitely. But right now, this was easier. So with a flick of her wand, she sent out a foggy dispel spell right at the ladder's enchantments, erasing them like they were never there.

Now able to move it off the wall, she awkwardly dragged it through the hall to the back corner. Once there, she realized the ladder wasn’t actually tall enough to go through the hole, so she had to lean it against the corner wall. Without further delay, she climbed to the top of the ladder and reached over to the lip of the hole, pulling herself over the edge and into the hole.