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

Lenny squirmed under his look, paling to ghostlike instantly.

Owl laughed, shaking his head at the other man’s terror. “It’s the mask, isn’t it?” he said gently. “It’s all right. Is there something I can help you with?”

“S-Sorry,” Lenny whispered. “I don’t mean to bother you. You’re busy. I should- I’ll just-”

Owl stepped away from his desk, ushering the man from the doorway and twiddling his fingers. The gate slid closed behind him, the latch closing and locking with a reassuring click. Another knot loosened in his chest.

The questions still swirled in his mind, the what-ifs and the should-Is. If he was being honest with himself, he knew that these questions had been there for years, simmering just under the surface. But every time they cropped up, a pair of green eyes swam in his vision. Whispered warnings filled his ears. Be careful, they said. Stay away. And every time, he let it go, returning to this or that busywork.

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