Clutching his chest, Ferdinand staggered, his world spinning. Shadows danced before his eyes blurring his surroundings. Where were his attendants? His hands didn’t cooperate, the tingling a  warning that his body that he didn’t have much longer until he was sure to faint.

He walked in the rough terrain, his empty cape catching on all the points and nooks of the nearby shrubs, he walked in what he hoped was the correct direction until he saw what must’ve been the dormitory steps. He promptly collapsed and hoped to be found by a neutral student.

The statue.

Ferdinand woke from a nightmare with a gasp, his vision swam with spots as he made clear of his surroundings. He was in a dark room with only a bed.

‘This is not Ehrenfest dormitory… nor Ahrensbatch’s, the decoration is too different’ Was he found by an unknown third party? Even as a bastard, he was still an Archduke candidate, where they hoping to curry Ehrenfest’s favor?

‘Not like Veronica would offer compensation for a trap she set up herself’ he remade his messed up braid and got ready to thank whoever took him in, he waited a moment for an attendant to enter the room so he could ask further information.

And so he waited.

And waited.

And so on.

Fuming, Ferdinand left the room to seek the dormitory supervisor. But to his surprise, he wasn’t in a dormitory at all, outside the door laid rows and rows of bookshelves and carrels. ‘Was I moved to the library?’ He asked himself in disbelief. No, it was impossible. Even if a professor found him, he would promptly be transported to the Ehrenfest dormitory.

Taking out a small feystone from his belt, he summoned his schtappe to call for assistance via ordonnanz, tapping the small stone and offering the words, he was left confused as the stone refused to shift.

Trying again two additional times yielded similar results, so he gave up and traversed the shelves in hopes of making out the exit. ‘Not even the library has this many books’ He contemplated as he walked, for no matter what direction he took, more shelves blocked his way. Frowning at the breach of etiquette he was about to commit, he yelled for assistance.

But he was met with silence.

This place wasn’t abandoned, the tools were powered and the tapestries dusted, there must be someone in the building. 

Annoyed even more by the lack of response and somewhat agitated, Ferdinand attempted to summon his highbeast, only for it to react similarly to the ordonnanz. He took to running, only to still be met by shelves upon every turn.

He had to stop running eventually to catch his breath, panting, he sat on the cold but clean floor. It was humiliating. What could he do? How could he get out of here?

A bell echoed down the building, once… twice… Ferdinand ran to the source of the noise. He had yet to run to the building’s walls, he could only hope the bell was connected to an external mana source,  he could follow the path of magic and brute force his way out if need be.

The bell ran again, and he finally heard the first natural sound in this cursed structure, the turning of a page. He stopped dead in his tracks, he tried to smooth the creases in his garments, and got his breathing under control, a small inoffensive smile to don his face, and there, he was ready to talk his way out of this place.

“I am overjoyed that our threads of fate were woven under the harsh judgment of Ewigeliebe, despite the circumstances, may I pray for such meeting?” He smiled genially making his way out of the corner of the shelve, hoping to catch the other party by surprise.

In the carrel sat only an ivory statue of mestionora holding a stone tablet in its hands, a couple of books by her side.

But before Ferdinand could dismay further, he walked along the surrounding area, hoping the person had merely moved. 

There was no one in here.

With a shake in his step, Ferdinand returned to the carrel with the books and promptly collapsed.

What could he do now? He could try to climb the shelves in search of the exit, or maybe he could read the books wishing for a clue to escape this accursed place… with his head on his hands, he warily stared at the statue of the goddess. 

He had seen this sort of statues in number, always guarding the libraries. Eyes half closed and holding a book. But this one lacked some of the usual accessories the goddess was depicted with. The hair ruffles where absent, in it’s place some delicate white flowers now adorning a strange side braid instead of the usual style most sculptors opted for… strangest of all was the lack of book in her hands, a strange barbaric stone tablet in its place.

Was it a clue?  He took the ivory tablet from mestionora’s hands, but found it empty. He put it back in the statue but he did a double take. Did the statue’s expression… change? Surely not, his eyes must be seeking Schlaftraum’s blessing.

Then he eyed the book in the table, he picked it up and read… a most bizarre passage.

“…Another tool has broken down, the country foundation cannot support my beloved library no longer,  Mestionora has spoken with Schutzaria on the matter and she assured us a blessed thread has been dispatched on her territory…” The book continued detailing the woes of the owner of a library. Was it this one? Ferdinand flipped the pages to the very beginning of the book, which surprisingly took longer than expected, as the book kept going and going the longer he turned the pages. Was it a magic artifact?

He finally reached to the beginning of the book. “Rozemyne’s Log! I was […] as the […] librarian?!” He couldn’t make out some of the words, written in what must be some cypher. Most of the book was written in said cypher. Perusing the text, he found a highlighted paragraph.

“… Schattenwurz is a dark, ominous-looking plant found in shaded forests or hidden groves in the northern most point in the country. It grows in clusters of deep purple-black leaves with veins that glow faintly in moonlight. Its flowers are small and purple, emitting a faint, sweet scent that lures unsuspecting prey closer…” An illustration was given, as well as a detailed explanation on how to counter it. “The stem must be consumed directly, this was developed as an evolutionary counter measure to…” the text continued but the highlight ended. the description was strangely specific, and he recalled a similar flower being imported recently. Was this…

He glanced again at the statue, the flowers it adorned being the same he had seen before and a direct recreation from the book. He quickly grabbed a handful of them… yes, the smell was sweet as he recalled. 

But could he trust what must be a dubious personal diary?

Of course not, he would need to cross reference this information with other sources. But the moment the thought finished its thread, a book suddenly fell from one of the shelves parallel to the carrel he was in. He stood up to see if someone had pushed it from the other side, but still found no one… he felt he was being watched.

Picking up the book, it was a text he recognized from one of the herbology teachers of the academy, it was bookmarked.

‘The gods are behind this.’ For no one else could read thoughts. He understood to jab at his distrust, but he still looked up the description of the flower and compared it side by side to the diary, nothing seemed amiss.

He went to grab the flowers he had collected from the carrel but found them missing, in its place, a bowl of clear soup laid innocently in the table.

The gods were asking for too much now. How could he trust this strange liquid that materialized out of thin air? “You don’t expect me to drink this… there’s not even a spoon”

He blinked and a spoon clattered from the ceiling. “This is a serving spoon…” he complained. If he was being forced to drink this, he would do well for his etiquette teacher. Then another spoon fell from the ceiling, now into the bowl, splashing him from the impact.

‘Petty gods.’ He silently picked it up and gazed at the liquid in annoyance.

Well, either I drink this and die from the gods poisoning me for not being zent, or don’t and  die from Veronica poisoning me.

Does Ewigeliebe long for Geduldh? He drank the liquid.

It was… very good. He tried not to show it in his face, but his efforts proved pointless, as after he finished the soup, he was met with the statue of mestionora donning a smug grin.

“Don’t show such a shameless smirk. Cuococalura most likely did most of the work”

He blinked and suddenly he was strewn in the steps of the ivory structure he had collapsed in. Feeling better and full, he noticed the structure was the shrine of the goddess of wind… a back entrance?

“My lord!” He heard a call from the distance. It was Justus. “My lord! I saw you being taken by Veronican archnobles! Are you well?” He closed the distance in a hurry, fussing in a way that most reminded him of Rihyarda.

“I… am indeed well” he stood in a bit of a daze, no time had passed it seemed. 

Justus quickly casted a washen and a healing spell. Checking for prevailing injuries, his eyes went wide and then a smile graced his lips. “My lord… if you wished for a secret rendezvous with some sprouting rafel, you need only tell me” 

Ferdinand turned in a hurry at whatever made Justus say such unbecoming nonsense. The he saw it, a subtle embroidery made to fix all the holes in his cape. It was clearly dyed with some unknown mana, a whiteish yellow that blended with his ochre cape.

He felt the noble color Geduldh spreading in his face as he yanked the cape from Justus’ hands.

“I command you to never say such nonsense again” 

And with that, they left the gathering spot, ready to face the Veronican nobles that dared poison his latest experiment.

His cape now felt just a bit more warm.

The boy.

A boy had wandered into the steps of my wonderful library.

“This is my first guest in what must be… a millennia!” I swirled in my library, waiting for the boy to finally enter. “A zent candidate with an incomplete wisdom! Did he find it lacking? Is he looking for some now lost knowledge? What do you think Mestionora?” She asked the ceiling above. There was no answer.

“Of course! A boy barely in his summer, how great must he be to aim for the highest seat so young!” I continued. “But isn’t he taking an awfully long while to enter? Boooy! The library awaits to be toured! Come inside!” I peeked from the entrance, only to find a troubling sight.

The boy had fainted on the steps.

“He must’ve been so excited he fainted, don’t worry boy, no need to feel ashamed, I reacted the exact same way!” She smiled. “But this is bad, I cannot reach you all the way over there” I pondered with a hand in my cheek, a gesture I copied from the goddess of light long long ago.

“Heeeey! Are there any shumils around?” I called out to the world beyond my library. “You are my herald animal come onnnn!” Finally a small one came forth, slightly annoyed.

“Hey don’t give me sass! Come help me drag the boy here!” The shumil seemed uncaring of my plight. “I’ll be sure to reward you!” Now there it goes, thankfully this shumil was of above average size, as it only took a few minutes for him to tug him into my reach.

I grabbed both of them by the scruff.

And… oh gods the boy is so cute! A living doll! “Both of you are so damn cute, let me put this boy somewhere so I can feed you”. I ran to the end of the library and made some chambers for the boy to rest in. Tossing him inside, I went to the kitchen to make some species adequate food for the little shumil. It patted the ground impatiently as I worked. 

“It might be a while until its done, how about I go grab a book to pass the time? Please remain in the hallway” 

The shumil couldn’t answer, so I took it as confirmation and left to retrieve some light reading material. As I walked my library, I noticed a part of it had obscured again… “Again with this…” I briskly ran to the light magic tool to power it again. The bell system was also broken here.

Hopefully the boy would fix the country wide mana problems.

“Wait isn’t that too much responsibility for a… 9 year old? 10? How old are kids again?” I wondered. There had never been any kids in my library, right? Ah no, there was that one Zent with a baby in arms.

I couldn’t recall correctly, so I sat to check my tablet of wisdom for previous notes I had made of the family.

I quickly became absorbed in my reading, right! This family was so interesting!

Ten generations in and someone stole my tablet from my hands. Who would dare?! I quickly glanced at the person that took away my reading material only to find the boy from earlier.

“Ohh it’s you!” I recalled, “hey boy, has no one told you its rude to take stuff from people? Give it back!” I demanded, but the boy ignored me. My anger grew. But Erwachlehren suddenly whispered in my ear that the boy couldn’t hear me as only a zent candidate.

“Ohh right, the… thing, why do we do that again?” I asked, but no one answered.

I shrugged and looked at the boy, he seemed… pale … deathly so? Was he ok? Thinking back on it… he was very light, as light as the shumil actually! “Wait are you being prosecuted?!” I asked in shock, not like the boy could answer me. I tried recalling what his symptoms were and gave a decent guess on its cause. A slow acting poison grown in what today is… Ahrensbatch?

Then he suddenly grabbed my diary!

“Oi oi oi that is private material!” But my pleas did nothing to stop the boy. He continued to read my diary. “Ahh! Unbelievable!” I quickly changed most the text of the book to japanese. There! My privacy has been protected.

But the boy seemed paler and paler by the second. Has he not climbed the towering staircase because my library abhors death? “Boy, you might be interested in this part” I highlighted some text in my diary. But wait, this information wouldn’t help him at all! He would die the moment he stepped out of my library!

“Ahhh hold on!” I asked for Efflorelume’s assistance and quickly changed my hair ornaments from jasmine to the counter poison. I smiled in pride at my quick thinking, until the boy suddenly yanked my hair. I could barely feel it, but it was still very rude.

“Now eat the thing so you might leave! If that’s how you treat a lady I refuse to see you abuse my books the same way!” I huffed as I watched the boy distinctly not eat the plant I so graciously got for him.

I looked at him in annoyance and conceded. Well… this was a boy, he must be a picky eater.

I went back to the kitchen to pick up a bowl of the soup I was making for the shumil, it had now wandered in the kitchen, I rolled my eyes at the little rebellion it was displaying and quickly went back to the boy. I dusted the part of the flowers into the soup.

“Here! Now eat.” I unceremoniously dropped the soup on the table, the boy now complained about the lack of cutlery. “Nobles are unbelievable, half dead and still ask for cutlery, just drink it from the bowl!” I massaged my temples. “Hey Vulcanift, sorry to bother you, but could you help me out?”

A wonderful spoon fell from the ceiling, it had such intricate details in it, and the boy still complained.  Vulcanift must also be annoyed, as he threw a simple metal spoon at the boy, I quickly redirected for it to fall on the bowl, a drop from that high could give the boy serious brain damage.

“Now eat! I bet it’s the tastiest thing you’ll ever eat” I smiled, assured. The boy murmured something as he ate. But she had enough of the impromptu visitor. With a flick at the forehead, the boy was now unconscious. 

“You sure now how to pick them Erwaermen, couldn’t the next zent be more picky?” I jabbed at the old man, surely he could hear me from the garden.

As I picked him up to throw him out, I noticed his clothes were in tatters. His cape was in specially rough shape. “Yikes… isn’t this some sort of social faux pas? I can’t send him out like this”

I asked for Kunstzeal and Dregarnuhr’s help and quickly finished fixing the mess of cloth. Now no one would make fun of him, could I call it my best work yet? Fu fu fu.

“Well off you go” I threw him out. “Now where was I?” I quickly went back to my reading, a yes, the family…

I was absorbed in my reading again, and I finally closed the book after finishing it. “It would be a comedy had that family not ruined the country… oh well” I sighed as I went to the kitchens. 

The shumil was dead on the floor. I frowned. “This is why I told you to stay on the corridor! And now the place smells horrible…” I held my nose, had it died of starvation? Flutrane must’ve been paying attention, as she quickly cleaned the place for me. Well… it kinda annoyed me not being able to pay back the shumil’s help, but what can you do?

I went back to reading my book.