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

Leon pushed past him, hardly waiting for any encouragement, and collapsed against the far wall.  His cloak billowed around him, masking his form.

"You're all right?" Owl said.  He followed on Leon's heels, albeit more slowly, but turned back to face the room.  With a long groan from the hinges, he slid the door shut.

"I...I think so," Leon said.  "Jesus Christ."

Owl chuckled hollowly.  "Right?"

"Those absolute idiots."

"You know," Owl said, his hand resting on the latch.  "I've always wondered how much it'd take to knock those things over.  Not sure I'd have chosen to test it this way, but...better them than me?"

He glanced back to Leon - and found the man staring at him, eyes wide and strained.

They both burst into laughter.  Leon bent forward with the force of it, his arms wrapped around his knees.  Owl leaned backward into the door, still shaking his head.

It wasn't funny.  He knew that.  No damn part of this had been funny.  But they'd survived, and both of his idiotic charges had survived, and somehow laughter just seemed like the right response.  Or the only response.  And so he let it bubble up through him, not bothering to try and maintain any sense of decorum as the anxiety and terror fled them both.

Finally, when it slowed, Owl let his head droop forward.  "Goddamn idiots," he said.  "Fucking hell.  I leave them alone for, like, half an hour, and they...they do this."  His hand slapped against the wood of the door.

"Yeah."

"Jesus Christ."

"That's what I said," Leon said with a snort.

Owl stepped away, then, letting his fingers slide away from the wood.  "But...oh well."  He wet his lips, pulling himself upright.  "I guess...I should go make sure Alan didn't hurt himself too badly.  Fucking idiot."

"What will you do with...that?" Leon said, more quietly.  Owl glanced down.  He was watching the door, a wistful sadness in his eyes.  "It was so pretty, too."

"The room?" Owl said.  He turned his gaze back to the portal.  "That's...it was pretty ruined.  Normally, I'd fix it myself.  That?"  He shook his head.

"Then...is it gone?"

Owl smiled too, then, his eyelids drooping.  "I don't know."

"W-What?"  Surprise filled Leon's voice.

"Maybe Alexandria will heal it herself," Owl said.  "Maybe we'll see it again, someday.  She can, you know.  Anytime she wants."  It wouldn't even be hard.

"Oh," Leon said.

Owl shrugged.  The wood of the door was already starting to fade, to sink into the stone.  His eyes lingered on it, watching the grain fade out to nothing.  "Or maybe not," he said, turning back to Leon.  "Maybe she'll retire that room.  It's just a study, after all.  It's nothing special."

"I wonder where all these rooms came from," Leon said, teetering forward and clambering to his feet.

Owl blinked.  "What?"

A grin spread across Leon's face.  "You know.  All these libraries, and all these offices, and labs, and gardens."  He took an unsteady step forward, running his hand across the stone.  "Were they real?  Did they come from somewhere?  Was that someone's life's work that just got ruined by two drunks?  Or is it all just a figment of your Library's magical imagination?"

Owl stared after him, Leon's words echoing through his mind.  "I don't know," he said at last.  "I've...I wondered about it, now and then.  But I don't...I don't know."

"Huh.  Just wondered," Leon said.  "Uh...should you-"

"Alan," Owl said, snapping straight again.  "Right.  Uh...see you next time?"

"I'll hang around," Leon said.  "Little too wired to go back to sleep.  But maybe in a bit."

"Gotcha," Owl said.  "We'll see, then."

Leon grinned - and gave him a tiny, jaunty wave.

Owl turned away before Leon could drop his hand, his mind already turning to the next tasks - the first aid he'd have to perform, the lectures, the explanations.  None of which he'd wanted on his plate for the day.

A smile tweaked at the corners of his lips.  Well, maybe he could put this to use, at least.  Picking up speed, he swept back toward the Library's hearts.

What a bunch of damn idiots.

- Chapter Twenty-Five -

Heavy weariness clung to Owl's limbs as he trudged back toward Alexandria's heart.  The worst was past - but now, he was left to clean up to mess.

A task he very much did not want.

"If you don't mind," he whispered, after the twists and turns of the hallway grew too tiresome.  Alexandria groaned around him, a glimmer of a breeze drifting through like a sigh.  But when he rounded the next corner, it was the sitting room that lay before him.

The chairs were already occupied.  Alan sat slumped in one, his face twisted in pain.  Dylan was halfway through the process of peeling his sweater away one scrap at a time.  He might not have been the one burned, but his eyes were tight.

Both stiffened at the sound of footsteps.  Owl held up a hand, not slowing his walk.  "Don't get up.  Alan...don't move."

"Don't...have to tell me twice," Alan mumbled, his teeth clenched.

"C-Can you help him?" Dylan stammered.

Amazing, Owl thought with a tiny, wry smile.  Both of them had gotten shockingly far in their cups in the brief time Owl had been away - and yet, Dylan's voice sounded halfway back to sober.  It turned out, dropping a building on your own head does wonders for one's sobriety.

"Don't worry," was all he said, continuing to a cabinet sitting against the far wall.  Any other day, he'd have gotten beverages or snacks from the cabinet.  Now, though...

Do you mind?

The door creaked open at his touch, revealing a slim white case.  Owl nodded.  Thanks.

His footfalls slow and ponderous, he strode back to the chairs circling the fireplace.  Tired as he was, a spark of curiosity lit within his mind.  Injuries within the Library were...rare.  Exceedingly rare.  Lenny might have gotten a bit of an involuntary tan from his escapades in the lab, but even that was a passing pain at best.  And he might pull a muscle or cut his finger on a page, but such minor hurts would vanish in a night's rest regardless.

So how did