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

he broke away with a tired, happy sigh, tearing his eyes off the scene.  Another few steps saw him to the desk.  This time he pulled the chair loose, dropping into the seat and reaching up for the first book on the rack.

He wasn't surprised when the rattle of a chain echoed out.  The hidden passage, the locked gate, the chains...Alex didn't want any of this information leaving.  It had to stay with him.

After seeing what was down here, all of it....he understood.  More than ever, he understood why she'd been so hesitant to open this wing to him.

But now he could start moving forward again.

Taking a deep breath, Daniel lowered the book to the desk, turned to the first page, and started to read.

- Chapter Twenty-Eight -

Daniel leaned back in his chair.  One hand on the mouse, he clicked through dialog boxes, hardly reading the words on them.  He'd memorized it all years ago.

With one final click and a gentle whirr of the computer singing to life, the program started compiling.  He leaned back in his chair, rubbing his eyes.

"Come the hell on," he mumbled, his fingers still pressed into his eyelids.  Spots of colors danced in the black void of his vision.  He'd already been through this a hundred times.  More.  Every time he fixed one area of the code, something else broke.  Damn it, he was supposed to be better than this.

It'll take time, his thoughts crooned.  You have an eternity to make this function.  And when it does...

He sighed, dropping his arms to his sides and letting his head roll back.  When he got it working, he'd have taken a massive leap forward for AI tech.  Whenever it was that happened.

With a final creak, he sat up, going from flopped backwards over the chair to flopped forwards onto his desk in a single smooth motion.  His chin came to rest on his folded arms.  His eyes were glued to his mask, hanging in its place on the wall of his office.

"It'd be easier if I could stay focused," he mumbled.  "Dammit, Alex, why do you have to go and keep distracting me?"

Alexandria didn't reply, and he chuckled.  "Oh, I get it.  You didn't want to show me any of that stuff.  And now, here I am getting all distracted."  It wasn't his fault, damn it.  It was only natural.  He'd...he'd been so curious.

And now, with his work churning away before him and his mind free of the labors...he couldn't stop his thoughts from turning back to the subterranean library he'd roamed.

One hand slid closer to his chest, his fingers tensing.  The necklace shimmered to life, coming to rest in his grasp.  He squeezed it, pursing his lips.

He'd read the texts down there - starting with the fabled Basics, naturally, but he hadn't limited it to that.  No matter how many of the books he'd torn through, though, he couldn't quite make sense of it.  "So how about it, Alex?" he said, still draped across his desk.  "All that stuff?  I read the books you gave me."

Daniel could remember them all too clearly, in fact - the drawings of various artifacts, neatly penned alongside listings of their owners through the years.  Alexandria had been...less than explicit with how it worked, even with a primer.  It'd taken him some time to realize the magic his predecessor had warned him about came from these artifacts.  It'd taken him longer to realize why each of them had so many owners.

And why each of their stories was so short.

"It sounds familiar, doesn't it?" he said, refusing to dwell on the things he'd found written within those pages.  The nightmares.  "Items that give their owner magic."  His fingers stroked the necklace, slow and steady.  "I don't get it all, but...I can see the resemblance."

The window panes rattled somewhere high over the study, blowing in a wind Daniel couldn't feel.  He groaned, burying his face in his arms again.  "I get it.  It's a resemblance, nothing more.  I can see that you're different."  The books had been explicit.  Those objects were eternal, indestructible.  Alex?  He gripped the pendant more firmly - and felt it crumble to dust in his hand.  Alexandria's artifact was different from them, totally and completely.  "I just...I don't know how.  Or why."

Brilliant in the half-shadow of his room, the lights of his monitors flickered.  Daniel grimaced.  "Pay attention to my work and stop worrying about it, eh?  Is that it?"

The rattling of the windows stopped.

Daniel pushed back from his desk with a groan.  "It'd be nice if I could understand, is all.  I'm learning."  He rapped his knuckles against the wall.  "But I still don't know anything about you."  Already knowing he wouldn't get a reply, he reached for the handle of the door, snagging his mask on the way out.  "I'm just saying.  Think about it, Alex. I could use the information."

He pressed the porcelain over his face as he turned for the stairs, grumbling quietly to himself.  He'd spent the whole morning doing that busywork, and now, no doubt, his other duties would be piling up.  He'd hoped to have a little time left before the program finished compiling to skip down to the House of Horrors for another read, but...with his luck, he'd probably be kept busy the whole time.

That didn't keep him from glancing from side to side as he walked, peering down aisle after aisle of books.  "Anywhere?" Owl murmured.

But no brassy-haired figure leaped out to startle him.  Owl sighed.  Leon wasn't here - and Leon hadn't been here since he'd started digging around through Alexandria's mage archives.  He'd been into the Library a half-dozen times since he'd begun, and yet...each time, he was left to his lonesome.

"What's with that?" he said, trudging through the halls and turning down another wing at random.  It didn't really matter where he walked, Alex would make sure his chores followed him.  She was damned good at that.  "Are you not bringing Leon around anymore?