The Library (The Librarian of Alexandria Book 1) by Casey White (surface ebook reader .TXT) 📕

But Vanessa had been nice. Maybe it could be a recurring thing. He snorted. As if that’d worked out before.

The light behind the door flared, bringing his wistful dreams of smooth skin and brown hair to an end. Their guests were here. He stood, pulling himself upright and off the wall.

With a creak, the front door eased open. Owl stepped forward, taking up his place in the center of the room. With how often he’d done this, let alone the countless Librarians before him, he was a bit surprised they hadn’t worn a track in the stone floor.

He bowed as the first shape stepped through the door. “Welcome to the Library,” he said. Lifting his head, he straightened, coming back to vertical.

Three figures stood before him, all wide-eyed and gaping. He chuckled from behind his mask. Every time, it was the same. “My name is Owl,” he said, stuffing his gloved hands into a pair of massive pockets on his coat. “I’m the Librarian. While you’re within these walls, I am at your service.”

And I’m in charge. The words went unspoken, just a hint of steel layered onto his title. Inwardly, though, he knew it wouldn’t be an issue. Probably. The days when scholars would trample over the top of him were just a distant memory, quashed behind endless years of wandering the shelves. He wasn’t a little boy anymore - and now, they listened.

The trio hadn’t moved - but Owl watched their eyes drift around the room, taking it all in. He smothered a groan, biting it off. This too, he knew. Most of the scholars received little more than a warning, if even that. They’d be enthralled for days, likely.

Days he’d have to waste on hand-holding. “I’m sure you have a lot of questions,” he said, keeping his voice even. “I encourage you to ask them, rather than holding onto anything. It will be my pleasure to help you in your studies.”

Two of the guests clung to each other - a man and a woman, both dressed practically. They’d have looked completely nondescript, if not for the tiny burn marks at the hem of the man’s sleeves.

Those were his chemists, then. And as he watched, the woman’s eyes started to un-glaze. A gleam entered them the next moment.

Owl just knew it - at any second, she’d leap back to normal, piling question after question on top of him. He took a step toward the wall of the Library instead, reaching for the first of the cards racked there. “But for now,” he said, “let’s get you settled. And then I can show you where you can begin your work.”

He turned, card in hand, and sighed at the sight of them staring back, like he was an animal in a zoo.

It was going to be a long year.

* * * * *

Amidst the towering racks and shelves of the study, his desk seemed almost...obscene. Out of place, if nothing else. A set of monitors glowed from the tabletop, casting a pale glow over the chaotic mess of his notes.

Owl leaned back in his chair, making a face at the numbers displayed on the screen.

His model was wrong. Not significantly wrong, but wrong enough for a miscalculation. He’d lose a bit of money if the share didn’t recover, at this rate.

Taking his eyes off the display, he glanced into the rest of the study. He’d positioned his office strategically, right at the cusp of a second-floor balcony. Artistic wrought-iron bars around the perimeter allowed him to watch their guests in peace, while also keeping them out of his projects.

Like the damn models, which were wrong. His mood soured instantly. Twenty years of work, with intimate knowledge of every single damn company on the face of the planet to draw from, and he’d still managed to make a mistake.

Leaning forward again, Owl reached for the keyboard, filling his corner of the Library with clickety-clacks. He’d fix it. He’d safeguard his own future, and hopefully give any Librarians who followed him a head start. And then-

His fingers slowed on the keys. And then what? He had an eternity ahead of him. Sooner or later, even if it took him another twenty years, he would fix this.

What then?

He’d sifted through some of the journals in his room, some of the books from Librarians past. A Fox, and a Bear, and a Jay. Each of them had talked about a personal drive, a project they pursued through the years. Something that went beyond their role as Librarian, to leave their mark on the world.

Owl hadn’t found anything like that. And every time he thought on the matter...

His gaze drifted, settling on a single, heavy notebook resting in the very farthest corner. His best attempts, which hadn’t exactly gotten him very far.

Every time he thought about it, he could only return to his own frustrations. In here. Out there. It was like he was caught between two worlds, kept hurrying up and waiting in turns for this or that. If he could reach between Alexandria and the outside, it wouldn’t sting so much. And if he was able to access the Library’s information in reality...everything would change.

But that was reality, and Alexandria was magic. If he was going to do anything like that, he’d need to learn more. A lot more. He chewed on his lip, otherwise motionless. It’d mean delving into forbidden shelves, places the Library didn’t even like to show him. But if he was careful, maybe he could-

“M-Mister Owl? Sir?” A quavering voice broke the silence.

Owl blinked, sitting upright in his chair. The chemist man stood in the doorway, his fingers wrapped around the intricately-worked bars around the edge. Lenny, his name was.

“That’s me,” Owl said, rising and snapping his fingers. The screens went dark, and he breathed a sigh of relief. He didn’t think the chemist would be able to understand any of it, much less at a glance, but there was no sense