Chapter 2

My eyes held firmly to the floor as my father continued to stare me down. He’d just finished a long discussion with a couple of irate sentinels outside and had come back in to talk with me.

“Felix,” he said with a sigh. “I’m not mad at you, I’m just disappointed.”

My shoulders slumped further, and I was sure that the boards along the floor would bend if the weight of my heavy stare became much worse.

“I know that you didn’t mean any harm by it. You’ve loved stories of the sentinels since you were small. But they don’t know that, and I really don’t think they enjoy someone eavesdropping on them.”

“I’m sorry, Da,” I muttered.

He sighed once again, and I saw the shake of his head from the corner of my eye. “You’ve always been a bit impulsive, but as I’ve mentioned before, you’re almost twenty now and you’ll be taking over the library soon.”

“I know, I know,” I said. I’d heard it too many times to forget, at this point. I ‘needed to work on being more responsible.’

“I just don’t want you to get in trouble over a misunderstanding. It won’t happen again, right?”

“Right.” I nodded, glancing up to meet his eyes. I still planned to spy on the cursed sorceress, but that was different, wasn’t it? She was planning something evil and had to be stopped. It was definitely different.

The small smile he gave me was contagious, and one slid across my own face.

“Good.” His hand ruffled my hair. “Now get to bed before you have to suffer through another long lecture on responsibility.”

I scurried past him and into the sanctuary of my small room, giving out a small sigh of relief as the door closed. My face planted into the bed, and I laid there for a moment, breathing in the gentle scent of my blanket.

I’d really fumbled that whole situation. Luckily, it was all past now, and if I managed to catch that sorceress’s scheme, it’d all work out, I thought. I shrugged off my clothes and wrapped myself around the large pillow I slept beside. Idly, I wondered why Lena hadn’t shown back up today.

It didn’t take long before my thoughts drifted to the same thing I thought about most nights. Perhaps tomorrow I’d wake up and be someone else, someone different. A new person, a new me. Someone strong, yet sensitive. Someone who fought for what was right and traveled the land. What would it be like to be someone else? As I often wondered before drifting off to sleep, staring up toward my dark ceiling, what would it be like to be a girl?

— — —

My father made his way down the stairs, and I looked up from my novel for the first time in several hours. He grabbed the small stack of books that needed to be put away as he passed the desk, nodding my way. I gave him a small smile and looked back down to my book.

“Hey, Da?”

“Yeah?” he grunted slightly as he made his way up a nearby ladder. I faintly worried he might fall, carrying all them up there at once. It wouldn’t have been the first time. Attempting to hold onto the books and the ladder with just one arm, he adjusted his glasses, pushing them back up onto his face.

“The sentinels mentioned something about the Emperor being the reason there are libraries outside the capital.”

“Oh?” he said in the sort of curious voice he always had when an interesting question was asked. I looked up once more as he squeezed a book up between two others before sliding the ladder a meter to his left. “Well, I believe you already know that we do get a small stipend to help with keeping this place going. It’s something the Emperor has encouraged towns like ours to do. Though I suspect what they meant were the laws put in place a number of years before you were born. I believe you’re familiar with the fact that it’s an Imperial crime to steal from a library, for however well it is enforced?”

I nodded before saying, “Yeah.”

“Well, that was made into law back then. The Emperor made all libraries in the Empire property of the Empire. Technically speaking, to steal from or vandalize a library is to do so to the Emperor himself. Of course, in practice, the Emperor has little to nothing to do with the libraries scattered across the land. And the fact that sometimes books go missing or things are damaged, while technically criminal, they aren’t generally enforced. It does mean that we get certain protections that most other crafts do not.” He looked over to me and squinted his eyes. “Haven’t I told you all this before?”

I lifted the book to cover my face. “Umm, no?” There was a very good chance he had, likely on several occasions. It did all sound suspiciously familiar. Unfortunately, the number of times my father often went into lengthy lectures about random facts meant that a lot of what he said either ended up forgotten or just sort of all blended together uselessly in my head.

He sighed as he climbed back down the ladder. “I’m sure.” Wiping the sweat from his brow, he took several steps from the bookshelf. “Alright, I can watch the library for a while. Go take a break. Make sure to eat something.”

I grinned as I shot up out of the chair, closing my book and slipping it into a drawer. As much as I’d prefer to have it with me it’d just get in the way. “I’ll be back later,” I shouted as I ran out the door before he could question where I was off to.

As I moved out of sight of the library, I did a small hop of victory. Freedom! It was time to do what I did best: a bit of spying and mystery solving. Not that I’d solved many, or really any, mysteries in my life, but how could I when there were so few around to solve in a small town like this? I’d done the hardest part already, finding the mystery in the first place. The rest would be easy peasy, I thought with a grin.

The station was quiet with no train currently in town. The lesei that fueled the trains and motos was generally shipped out either early in the morning or occasionally later in the evening. It really depended on when they got here. I was careful in making my way past the old station. One had to be with how the lesei liked to stick to your shoes and clothes. If you weren’t careful, you’d end up with the oily black stuff staining everything you owned. I always felt bad for those who worked the pit. They had no way of really preventing it; everything they owned was stained black.

Eventually, I found my way to the Sunridge Mansion, knocking loudly on the large doors. It was pretty small for a mansion, all things considered. But the town of Sunridge itself was small, so that was pretty normal. Still, most people only called it a “mansion” out of consideration for the town-reeve. He was a nice enough guy, I supposed. But more importantly to me, he was Lena’s father. In truth, everyone knew that it was his wife that did all the real running of things, something she had recently started passing forward to Lena.

I waited patiently until a young maid finally opened up the door for me.

“Oh, hello, Felix. The young miss is bus—” I scooted in past her, catching her somewhat by surprise. “Wait, you’ll h—”

“Thanks! Don’t worry, I’ll be able to find her. See ya later!” I shouted as I rushed through the second set of doors between the entryway and the perpendicular main hall.

As the doors closed behind me, I slipped into a side closet used for storage. Keeping the door cracked, I watched as the maid rushed through the doors and ran past me, clearly intent on tracking me down as she walked in the direction of Lena’s room.

Operation Secret Espionage of Sunridge Mansion was a go. I smiled.

There was really only one place in town that a bunch of sentinels and a sorceress would be staying: right here. It helped, of course, that Lena had told me yesterday about the sentinels staying here, complaining about how noisy they were and how cramped it made the house feel. I could only imagine it was probably even worse now, with even more of them. I’d have to be extra careful not to get caught.

The house had rather limited guest rooms, at least for as many people there were now staying in them. Chances were that some of the sentinels had ended up sleeping on the floor last night. I wondered if they’d given the sorceress her own room, or if they had female sentinels staying with her. I shuddered at the thought of having to sleep next to one of the cursed. There was no way I’d get any rest.

I peeked out of the closet, and finding the hall empty, slipped out. Quickly, I moved in the opposite direction the maid had run and made my way toward the guest rooms. The hall was still quiet when I reached the first door. I peered through the keyhole, hoping to spot something that might indicate that the sorceress stayed there. Unfortunately, the room was empty, so I made my way down the line of rooms, looking into each one. Part of me was surprised to find that they all had no one in them. I was less surprised to find the sleeping bags scattered along the floors. I chuckled slightly at the thought. As I came near the guests’ singular sitting room, next to the largest guest room, I finally heard voices.

“This is ridiculous,” said the voice of a young woman.

“No more so than the last lot we gave you,” a man replied.

“I’ve got more important things I could be doing,” she countered.

As I looked through the keyhole, I immediately spotted the tall sentinel in the room, his arms crossed and with a look that suggested he’d rather be anywhere else. Unfortunately, the woman wasn’t in my range of sight through the small opening. Her voice was equally unfamiliar to me. Could she be the sorceress, I wondered?

The man snorted. “I’m sure. But alas, here you are helping us. So get to helping.” He glared off to the side, where I expected the woman likely was. “I’ll be back later to hear your thoughts on them.”

He began moving toward the door, and I backed up quickly, my eyes widening. I couldn’t get caught now! Frantically looking around me, I scrambled backward toward the nearest room, praying it would be both open and empty. As the door clicked, I let out a small sigh of relief and slipped inside, closing it as gently as I could. The door clicked closed just as the one opposite opened. Nervously bending down the peek through the keyhole one more time, I watched as the man turned down the hall and moved out of sight.

I nearly slumped down to the floor in relief, my hand bumping against a table leg. As something wobbled, my eyes widened once again. In a flash, I grabbed it before it tipped completely over, noticing only afterward that my hand was gripped around a large flask full of a greyish blue liquid. Looking around the room in wonder, I realized I’d stumbled into where the sorceress was staying, the main guest room.

A wide and proud grin spread across my face. I’d done it! Part one of my mission was a success. Now all I had to do was find proof of her evil plans and expose her. The question was where she was hiding it.

Much like most of the rooms in the “mansion,” this room was fairly simple, though on the fancier side of simple. Besides the large bed itself, it had a small desk, a dresser, a bookshelf, and a tiny couch with a tall and red soft-carpeted back. The floor didn’t even have a rug, unlike the hall outside. Still, the sorceress seemed to have started to make it her own. The bookshelf had yet to be truly filled, though a few books sat on it, likely there from before she came. Instead, several large tomes sat stacked on the desk, along with some paper and ink. A couple more of the dull-blue potions sat nearby, both on the dresser and the desk itself. Peering into the one next to me, I took in a deep breath of it and gagged at the foul acidic smell. No way I was trying that.

I moved to a nearby large chest and, finding it unlocked, cracked it open. Inside was an array of folded clothes of varying colors. I shuffled around inside, just to make sure nothing was hidden in the bottom, before moving to the next item. Numerous open wooden crates sat along the floor of the room, several of them stacked on top of each other somewhat haphazardly. I peeked in each of them, finding books, more clothes, and other assorted items, but nothing that I thought might be of much use to me in my search. This lady sure had a lot of stuff, I thought.

Finally, I made my way to the desk and looked down at the notes below. Her handwriting was terrible, I decided. To my annoyance, instead of plans or letters, all I found as I shuffled through them were lists of items and things. It was just an inventory list, I realized.

Utterly useless, I huffed. But I wasn’t giving up just yet. My search went on, looking through the drawers, poking an eye under the bed. Feeling beneath the mattress and picking up the pillows. I scoured the room, top to bottom, sure that eventually, I’d find something. When I made my way to the closet, I smiled. If I were going to hide something, perhaps a sneaky hidden compartment in the closet would be the perfect place? I should have looked in here first! Gently, I slid the door open and looked inside. Much like the rest of the room, it held several crates in the small space. I stood on my toes, glancing into the one in front of me. More clothes, I realized with some amount of disappointment. Carefully, I reached into the crate, digging around within. Just as I was about to give up and move on, my finger bumped against something hard. Blinking, I reached in further, my arm pressing harder against the top of the crate as my hand wrapped around something.

The sound of splintering wood reached my ears, and I gasped as the shelf collapsed beneath me. I fell forward a few inches, and the crate crashed loudly to the floor, the corner of it landing straight on my toe, while the upper edge rammed into my leg. I nearly screamed out in pain but managed to cover my mouth. The sound of glass shattering echoed through the room, and I looked down to see the object I’d let go of in my panic. It was a small strange container filled with some kind of black oily substance. It looked a lot like lesei except more peculiar, as though it held a complete absence of light, a void sucking it up until just a blank nothingness remained.

And it had splattered all over me.

I reached down with the instinctual desire to brush it off, as my brain slowly caught up to what was going on. As my hand brushed against it, I found that strangely the stuff had disappeared from my pants. Looking at my fingers I watched in a fascinated horror as the black void-like substance absorbed directly into my skin. The silence of the room, as things began to settle, met my ears. I’d been standing here or far too long.

I didn’t have time for this, I realized. I had to run!

Before I could even register what I was doing, my feet were taking me out of the room and down the hall. A door opened behind me, but I didn’t look back. I kept going until I was through the entryway and back out of the mansion.

I was going to be in so much trouble.