The Last Library Ch. 11

Chapter 11

Ashur trudged back through the city to his boarding house. He had only been about five minutes away from where the traveling platform lay hidden when Mera's shock had pulled him up short.

I just don't know, she grumbled to him. The thought was both frustrated and contemplative. The surprise visitor's presence had completely disappeared from the Library, and Mera was still randomly searching the Vault in an attempt to ascertain how the entity had breached their defenses. Eventually, she found herself at the intrusion site once again, but with no additional answers. The reason there is only one way in or out of the Vault is so that something like this can't happen. If someone has created a new way in, I can't find any sign of it.

The Guardian huffed, shook his head in a gesture of his own consternation, and kept walking. Even though it was only an hour or two past midnight, he deemed it unlikely he'd get any more sleep. Well, if we can't figure out how they got in, is there any clue to who they were?

No. I can't say if it was male, female, or some variant in between. I can't even tell if it has some form of physical body or if it's just naturally non-corporeal. Whoever it was, though...

Mera fell silent for a time while she studied the column that her "guest" had been so focused upon. Through their mental link, she showed Ashur the lines of Writing flowing smoothly and without issue. She took a few minutes to mentally enter the Writing in the manner that Xakelle had taught him and watched its movement. It had been a moderately troubled spot several days ago, but any evidence of that had vanished.

I just don't know, she repeated, then withdrew back into her own body. Shit.

Once Ashur had returned to his room, he watched through her eyes as she investigated the column for another two hours, finding nothing. Mera eventually gave up and started back to the living space for food. As she exited the stairs leading up under the statue, she glanced at the new formation taking shape between the towering carvings of the Caretaker and Guardian and came to a halt. The emerging addition was still rather amorphous, and its gender and visage were still uncertain, but the general body shape most decidedly matched one particular species: Brenphan.

Seye opened her eyes and immediately closed them again. Her head was throbbing with every heartbeat, and even the small amount of pre-dawn light increased her pain exponentially. She grabbed at a spare pillow and threw it over her face. For the next few hours, she huddled under her blankets, trying desperately to go back to sleep while fighting the slowly receding ache behind her eyes. Any thought of her dream and the excitement she'd felt while having it were wiped away as the morning turned into afternoon and then evening.

Finally, after the sun had barely set, she was able to crawl out of bed, empty her swollen bladder, and collect a few small snacks from her pantry. Once those immediate needs were satisfied, she returned to her small bedroom and sat on the floor, leaning against the bed frame. The last ache disappeared, and tears ran down her cheeks as she sobbed in relief. When she was done, she heaved herself back onto her mattress and fell into a deep slumber.

The next morning, she awoke feeling better, but her energy levels were still low. The walk to Ashur's office was draining, and she sank into her chair like a thick paste. When Ashur arrived, he found her with her head pillowed on her crossed arms.

"Is everything okay?" he asked with some concern. "You didn't come in yesterday."

The young woman buried her face further into her arms in embarrassment. "I'm so sorry. I wasn't feeling well. I'll make up the extra time today."

Ashur waved his hand dismissively. "Don't worry about it. Everyone gets sick from time to time. You're feeling better now, I assume."

"Yes, sir. I'm almost back to feeling normal." She began opening her ledgers and organizing her paperwork for the day. "I'm good to work for today."

Her employer nodded and moved to his own desk. They worked in silence for several hours until Ashur stood and left for a meeting with Ternat. Seye worked on for a little longer, then rested her head on her arms again. She hoped that a good night's sleep would help her be true to her word.

Poor thing, Mera mused as Ashur made his way down a side street to one of the industrial districts. His meeting with Ternat was to be in one of the many factories in the area. Their contact styled himself as a "worker's friend" and thought conducting business at his factory made him appear "humble." Ternat had chuckled while telling Ashur about it. She respected the idea of holding a transaction meeting at the place where the goods were made, but had ridiculed the man's idea that it made him seem more connected to his employees. His mansion in one of the finer districts was a rather large confutation, since his workers' less-than-modest homes were located less than five minutes' walk from the factory.

She looked so tired. Mera had started to develop a soft spot for the young clerk. In fact, all she could think of was falling asleep. The amount of effort she put into just staying aware and awake for you was impressive.

Ashur nodded in agreement. Seye had indeed looked as though her bed was nearest and dearest to her heart. He hoped she would be able to get the rest she obviously needed. In the meantime, the Librarians were no closer to discerning the identity of their intruder.

"It might have been someone whom I met with," Ashur mused to himself. He began replaying his meetings over the last few weeks. None of the people involved had caught his attention or had even seemed close to the right personality or skillset.

I agree, Mera said. I can't think of anyone who it might have been, but it had to have been one of them. Everyone has been around you too long; they would have made contact sooner.

They discussed the matter for the rest of his trip, but came to no real conclusions. Once Ashur arrived at the factory, he was ushered into an office waiting room until Ternat arrived. The meeting went smoothly and would be highly profitable for Ternat once she had shifted the parts she was buying through two more middlemen.

"Why doesn't the other company just buy from here directly?" Ashur inquired as they walked away from the building. "It seems like it would save them quite a bit."

"It would," she replied. "However, the owner's partner wouldn't be able to claim less of a profit when his clerks register their accounts with the guild, and he would have to pay a higher percentage to the guild itself. This way, he gets to put a little more in his purse without it looking like he's actually skimming."

Ashur barked out a laugh. "That sounds extremely convoluted, and I probably wouldn't have understood a bit of it when I got here." Thanks to Ternat and Mera, his education in commercial-level finances had been swift, but it had also been "on-the-job" and far beyond what he had seen in Oudromore. There was still so much he didn't know about the profession, and he knew it. In particular, the thousand ways that the unscrupulous could line their pockets astonished him. It seemed that for every method he'd heard of, there were fifty more that he hadn't.

Ternat gave him an easy grin as she reached up to pat his shoulder. "Don't worry, my handsome friend; we'll corrupt you yet." He noticed that her hand stroked down his arm and lingered on the last pat, but didn't think much of it. Mera, on the other hand, grinned widely in his mind.

She likes you, she crooned in a childlike, sing-song voice. She wants to touch you and kiss you and do all sorts of things to you! He found himself enjoying the humor after the last few days, and he joined her in her laughter. Ternat heard his laugh but thought he was reacting to her own jest.

She really does like you, though, Mera said once they had settled down. She's holding it back well because she really doesn't like sleeping with someone she's doing business with, but I think it's getting to the point where she may cross that line. If she does, you'll get to expand your horizons even more.

Ashur stumbled a bit in surprise, but recovered before Ternat could notice. Please stop that, he whined. I really can't see that happening.

For just a second, Mera gave him a glimpse of what she was reading from Ternat's feelings. The low-level lust that she shared with him was shockingly genuine, causing him to reevaluate his perception of his Brenphan mentor.

"Umm... wow."

Ternat turned to him. "What?" she asked.

Ashur lurched more noticeably as he realized that he had spoken aloud. "Nothing," he said. "I was just thinking about how much I've learned."

"Liar," both women said in amused unison.

Ashur hunched his shoulders and kept walking.

The Prime Shentet walked into her office and stopped short. There was an unfamiliar scent in the air. Staying where she was, she called for her personal secretary. There was no answer, but movement on the large balcony caught her attention. Making a quick check behind the door, she closed it, set the papers she was carrying on her desk, and stepped through the archway into the open air. Her secretary lay crumpled against the stone railing. The young woman's chest moved with shallow breaths, but the large pool of blood under her head made Vernlat check again. She tsked in annoyance and pivoted to face the man sitting easily in one of the two soft lounge chairs on the other side of the open space.

"Was that actually necessary?" she hissed.

Her visitor tilted his head back and forth in thought, then smiled. He was of medium build and average height, with nondescript clothes. His markings were not native to Couset or the surrounding country.

"Not entirely, I guess, but I needed to speak with you uninterrupted." His accent was almost perfect for the city, but he had just enough of Fetud-Pra's undertone that only someone who knew who his employer was would notice it.

Vernlat glanced again at the fallen functionary and stalked over to take the other seat. "That's very sloppy, you know. We've talked about this. Now I have to act as though I found her and make a fuss. It's going to hold up my entire day and probably disrupt the rest of my week while she recovers."

The man gave a shrug. "Not my problem. I, however, am yours for the moment. I'm here as a reminder from the council."

The Prime waved a dismissive hand. "A bit heavy-handed, don't you think? I'm not some country bumpkin to be shocked and swayed by a thug showing up on my doorstep. Besides, my deadline is still over a month away. Is Fetud-Pra in such dire straits, or are the council members that greedy?"

The man shrugged. "I don't really know or care. They paid me to give you the message, and I have. More than that, I can't say. Just keep in mind that I will be around until you hand over what's owed."

He rose from his chair and made his way to her office. Seconds later, her office door clicked closed. She stared at her unconscious secretary for a long while before returning inside herself and checking everywhere to be certain he was actually gone. Once she was satisfied, she picked up the papers she had set on her desk, moved to the entryway to the balcony, dropped the papers on the floor, let out a heavy, aggrieved sigh, and started screaming.

Seye was in much better spirits when she arrived the next morning. She was even early and had everything settled and ready for Ashur by the time he walked through the door.

"I see the rest did you some good," he noted as he sat behind his own desk. "You were in rough shape."

Seye blushed a little but nodded. "I'm so sorry, sir. I must have put you so far behind."

Ashur waved it away and shook his head. "I was farther behind before I hired you. Don't worry about it too much. I did my share of heavy drinking when I was younger and took some time to recover."

Seye's eyes widened. "Oh, no! I didn't drink!"

Ashur grimaced at his blunder. "Oh. I'm sorry for assuming. I guess it was a pretty bad cold, then. Either way, it really shouldn't take very long to get you caught back up. Speaking of which..." He handed her a new contract with several notes, and they got settled into work.

They stayed focused on their individual tasks for most of the day and only paused when Ternat made her usual afternoon appearance, bearing exciting news from around the city. She gave Seye a little smile of acknowledgment, but moved around to set herself on top of Ashur's desk, close enough that he had to shift a little to make room. Seye was mildly surprised by the blatant intimacy of the businesswoman's chosen seat, but told herself that it was really none of her business.

"Have you heard the latest?" Ternat's question was apparently rhetorical because she immediately continued. "The Prime was attacked in her office yesterday! I'm told it was an assassination attempt, but it failed."

Ashur's eyes widened in shock. He leaned back and pushed his chair back slightly to look at his mentor without having to crane his neck. Seye felt much the same as her employer. It was common knowledge that the Prime Shentet was heavily guarded at all times; nearly a platoon of soldiers had been surreptitiously shadowing her at the party. How anyone could have made their way through the palace to her office without being seen was more than Seye could guess.

"Is she okay?" she asked.

Ternat turned to regard her. Her perch was on the opposite side of Ashur from Seye's desk, which put her breasts very nearly in the man's face when she pivoted. His expression turned slightly embarrassed, but not unhappy. Ternat seemed either not to notice or to mind.

"According to the rumor mill, she's upset but unharmed. Her secretary, on the other hand, will be in the hospital for quite a while. She took a nasty blow to the head defending Vernlat. Apparently, the attacker got away without a trace! The palace has been on high alert ever since."

"That's unfortunate," Ashur commented. "I hope they find whoever it was. Are there any guesses as to who it might be?"

Ternat tilted her head back to gaze at the ceiling in thought, which just so happened to push her chest even further out toward her student. "If it's just some random espionage, then I really have no clue, but since she's meeting with Fetud-Pra council members..."

Eventually, she shook herself out of her stasis and turned to study Seye. "It looks like you're feeling better," she noted.

"Um, yes. I just needed some sleep."

Ternat jumped up from the desk, very nearly planting her breasts in Ashur's face. She came around to look in the young clerk's eyes. "Yes," she said, "you definitely look better for it. Make sure he doesn't work you too hard like that again."

Seye frantically waved her hands. "Oh! No! It wasn't work. I think I just caught something. It very rarely happens."

Ternat nodded a bit and made for the door. "Well, I've delivered my exciting news. Ashur, don't forget to meet me for breakfast in the morning. It's going to be a busy next few days."

Ashur watched her depart and stared speculatively at the door after it had closed. Eventually, he spoke. "I'm probably going to be out of the office for the rest of the week. I'll stop and check in from time to time, but I'm going to leave your working hours up to you. You know what needs to be done, and I trust you to keep things in order at this point, so don't feel like you have to stay just to fill time. If you need anything, just leave a note here and I'll pick it up."

Seye nodded in acknowledgment and turned back to her work.

True to his word, Seye did not see her employer often for nearly two weeks. When he did stop by, he appeared frustrated and nearly desperate, but about what, she couldn't say. In the meantime, she worked diligently and left him periodic updates.

At the same time, she was getting closer to answers at the Palace. Melat was plodding through his side of things, checking and rechecking files and ledgers in furtherance of Anrit's original project. He would occasionally lend a hand to Seye when she needed it, but left the sleuthing primarily to her. "You're the problem-solver," he'd quipped one day when she asked if he had any ideas that might help, then turned back to his own stack.

Her nights, however, were growing increasingly strange. She didn't dream as such, but she could feel something pulling at her in her sleep. It was formless and vast and seemed to need her in a way she hadn't felt needed in a very long time. It wasn't like a lover or a child, but more like a suffering animal that was quietly but determinedly limping toward safety.

She caught glimpses of the great pillars from her first dream, but they were glimpses only. Her sleeping self yearned to reach out to the puzzle those imperfect and malfunctioning columns offered, but she never quite felt as though she could touch them. Many mornings she awoke mildly frustrated, but rarely remembered why.

Conversely, she was making great strides in her work with Melat. She was beginning to piece together a bigger picture of where the mysterious funds were coming from and going to. Dozens of companies and guilds did business with the Palace every day, providing goods or services that were paid from a wide range of accounts. Seye had started to notice a pattern of discrepancies where a particular product was paid for from one of those accounts, but never quite made it onto the inventory of the Palace's supplies. Often, they were small items, but the quantities that went missing were usually on the level of an entire crate or, in rare instances, a whole shipment. Oddly, they were never counted as "lost" or "damaged"; they just never actually appeared on the inventories when it came time to make the transfer on paper.

Initially, she suspected that the guilds were making it a regular habit to trick the Palace, but that didn't seem feasible to her. Too many people were handling the paperwork when the goods were being delivered. That left the Palace itself.

Unfortunately, she was stymied about how to surreptitiously go about finding someone in the Palace. The number of hands that the invoices and payments passed through was much smaller, but any inquiries had a greater chance of catching the wrong attention, and any number of possible leads had to go untouched.

After a while, she wasn't sure it would have made a difference. As she searched, she found that there were no common links between the lost items and the payments for them. To make the whole thing even more confusing, she was starting to see hints that the overpayments were making their way back into the Palace coffers through other accounts, then immediately leaving again... into the mystery account.

The payments that account received ranged from small amounts of a few hundred to several thousand vills, but none of them were out of the ordinary for a commercial account. Seye had to admit to herself that, if she hadn't noticed the odd entry in Melat's pile, she probably would have passed over it completely. By the time Ashur's week of absence was over, she had several notebooks worth of evidence of malfeasance, but just couldn't see what or who it all pointed to except that single old account.

Finally, she brought her problem to Melat, who didn't even bother to open any of her notebooks, but took her by the hand and immediately dragged her to their supervisor's office. Anrit not only opened them, but started making notes of his own as she explained to him her thoughts and suppositions. Occasionally, he would send Melat to chase down another file, but he kept Seye there with him as he went over her findings. Eventually, he wound down and asked where she thought it was all headed.

She pulled out the page with the oldest reference to the mystery account she could find. "I don't know who started this or how it's even still being kept up," she explained as she handed it over, "but most of what I'm finding just keeps coming back to this."

Anrit's eyes twitched back and forth as he scrolled down the contents of the page until he came to the entry she had marked. There, his gaze froze. Seye saw his hand trembling and grew alarmed, but didn't dare utter a word. Finally, he set the sheet aside, picked up Seye's notebooks, and held them out to her. Before she could take hold of them, however, he pulled them back, picked up the page, looked at it one last time, and placed it firmly inside the top one.

"You are officially done with this project," he told her curtly as he passed the notebooks across. "Keep these, but go back to helping Melat with his. I want it done by the end of next week."

Stunned, the young clerk nodded wordlessly, gathered the rest of her things, and left.

After Anrit's door clicked closed, he leaned forward to put his face in his hands and didn't move for a long while. Finally, he rose and moved around his office, retrieving individual files and placing them in a large, hard leather pouch. When he was done, he sat back at his desk and spent several minutes writing a lengthy letter. He signed it, placed it in with the collected files, and locked the pouch with a complicated latch mechanism that held a small single-use plate for a wax seal and an address label. The wax itself was not meant to hold anything closed, but the plate had an intricate internal structure that would shatter when the pouch was opened. He dribbled wax onto the plate and stamped it with his personal seal instead of his official one. He looked it over, called in a runner, and handed the pouch over with several other routine dispatches and deliveries.

Moving through his office once again, Anrit started another collection of papers, but those he folded up into his pocket. He closed up his office and strolled casually through the building until he reached the incinerator where sensitive documents were destroyed. He nodded jovially to the two workers as they dumped a large bag into the chute. They nodded back and moved to the side to grab another bag. As they did, he took the opportunity to slip the folded papers into the chute and made sure to watch as they fluttered down onto the burning pile at the bottom of the incinerator. He shifted away as the workers returned, nodded to them once more, gazed down at the flames for another moment, then meandered out the door.

A short time later, he knocked on an office door in the highest levels of the Palace. When the owner of the office looked up, Anrit drew in a long, heavy breath and spoke.

"Vernlat, we need to talk."

Seye settled into the only soft chair she owned. Her mind was still processing Anrit's abrupt termination of her project and what it probably meant. She knew she'd stumbled across something very important, but she still didn't know much more than that--and that worried her, especially the warnings that Anrit had given her and Melat when they had first found inconsistencies at the beginning of the project.

She spent the next hour mentally reviewing everything she had done since the beginning in a vain attempt to sieve out whatever bit of information had triggered Anrit's response. She eventually gave up and put the whole thing from her mind. As she usually did when finishing a project or task, she took a few moments to clear her mental headspace and felt much lighter for it. A quick dinner and long bath later, she was relaxed and ready for bed.

Almost as soon as she closed her eyes, the dream took her. As so many times before, it started as a hazy, amorphous sensation that she was trying to reach something that called out to her. It had no face or name that she could define, but it needed her all the same. This time, however, there was an opening--a pathway that her mind followed timorously at first, but more confidently as the image of the boundless space solidified before her. The fascinating pillars of mobile symbols surrounded her, their traveling strings of characters continuously drawing her eye in various directions.

The memory of her first experience came back to her in a jolt. She immediately started looking around for the alien blue figure that had startled her so badly. When nothing appeared after several moments, she allowed herself a small sigh of relief and began wandering.

Seye took note of, but mostly ignored, the majority of columns she passed in her meanderings. They were steady and gave her no impressions of instabilities or problems. Others caught her eye, but any feelings of dissonance were so minute that she felt it safe to ignore them. One, however, tugged at some part of her, and she turned sharply to her right to focus on it. In most ways, it was indistinguishable from any of the others, but she sensed a problem below her and dropped down to find it. When she finally came to a stop, she felt as though she must have descended more than half the height of the Palace itself, but when she looked below her, she saw nothing but columns vanishing into the distance.

She turned her attention back to the troubled area in an attempt to curb a visceral, shuddering reaction to the overwhelming view. The trouble spot she'd located seemed larger than the last, and she felt compelled to push both hands down into the swirling mass. Farther and farther she pressed until her shoulders were just outside of the topmost layer, but the source of the dissonance was still out of reach. Gritting her teeth, she shoved her head and upper torso in. Her vision was immediately obscured, and she found it necessary to shut her eyes as, gradually, she dove into the river of runes. The sensation of them passing by and through her body felt very much like being in the center of a windstorm of feathers--pleasant, but easy to ignore when necessary, and doing little to dampen her determination or her progression. In her submersion, however, she missed the arrival of her feared blue apparition.

Mera stared incredulously at the small mound just below the surface of mobile Words. The Library had let her know that an intruder had once again found its way into the Vault. She had been resting on the couch in the living area, which had had the dual effect of extending her response time and letting her curb her initial panic response.

When she finally arrived at the intruder's location, she was just in time to see the disturbance in the Words as her guest was enveloped by them. Fascinated, she watched the small bump diminish as her visitor moved deeper. She reached out mentally in an attempt to suss out an identity, but the Words that were the core of her magic overwhelmed anything she might have ascertained. In her mind, it was very much like trying to hear someone speak from the other side of a ballroom filled with wind chimes. Defeated, she leaned back on the podium and settled in to wait, certain that the intruder would need to come out eventually.

Seye's body tingled as she descended into the swirling mass. She felt the movement of glyph strings not so much as the hard bump of someone moving carelessly through a crowd, but more as though tiny cloth threads were being brushed along her skin, and she stopped moving to enjoy the sensation. Her pause was brief, however, and her attention rapidly reattached to the defect she still felt in front of her. Once again extending both hands, Seye attempted to discern its nature but jerked them back to her body with a small yelp. They felt as though she had plunged them into a frozen river.

With greater care, the young Brenphan slowly stretched her fingers out to discern the boundaries of the anomaly. It was roughly spherical and very close to the size of her chest, but the shape was amorphous, fluid--and quite cold.

She gripped her hands together and took a moment to consider the issue. The last puzzle had required her to "untangle" a string of the glyphs, but that solution didn't seem to pertain here. She was unable to see much of anything due to the constant movement of glyph strings past her eyes, which hampered further methods of analysis. Annoyed at the hindrance, she waved her hands in front of her face as though clearing away a swarm of flies. To her elated surprise, she discovered that she could create small gaps between layers of the strings by doing so. With a few moments of practice, she was eventually able to create a bubble of space, which she then moved to encompass the frigid deviation.

"So," she mumbled quietly to herself, "if the cold is the problem, what's the solution?" For the life of her, she couldn't think of any way to dispel the cold, but perhaps if she could pull the ball from the column, she could get a better idea of its underlying issue.

Placing a hand on one side, she tried to replicate the feeling of bracing herself against the surface, then pushed. The glacial spheroid shifted away from her palm, and she squealed in triumph. With a grin, she wrapped her hand around the far side and pulled toward her body while preparing to ease back out into the open air.

Nothing happened.

The sphere remained immobile, and strain though she might, the ball would not move the slightest bit toward the surface. Pushing on the side again resulted in movement, as did pressure in the opposite direction. Experimentally, she tried to direct it deeper into the column, working on the hypothesis that, if she couldn't pull it out one side, perhaps she could push it through to the other.

At her pressure, the trouble spot shifted inward a couple of feet, then stopped. She pushed to either side again and found that it would only move at a diagonal, toward her feet and to the right, so she gave it a shove that way. Once again, it moved a short distance before coming to a halt. With a huff, she pressed in a different spot. She wasn't moving inward so much as what she would have considered "down," but she was still making some kind of progress, so she kept at it. Like a marble in a child's maze toy, she propelled the thing in every direction possible, and that sense that she was accomplishing something--anything--began to falter. She had been manipulating it for quite a while, and she didn't feel as though she was any closer to the surface.

It wasn't until she noticed an odd pattern that she finally began to make real progress. The ball was attracting or being attracted to various parts of the symbol strings zipping by. Some symbols were only lightly drawn in, others more so, and the amount of attraction affected her movement. If the lure of the ball only created a small jitter in the symbol's movement, there was no issue. Stronger attractions, on the other hand, would palpably alter the ball's path of movement, which often headed away from the surface she was trying to reach.

"This isn't going to work," she thought to herself. "I'll just be fighting that the whole way." Adding to her frustration was the fact that her small bubble of space would start to collapse shortly after she stopped attempting to shape it with her hands. She was constantly forced to go back and forth between shepherding her spot and keeping her space clear.

Eventually, she resorted to clearing space with one hand and pushing with the other. Her headway was slow, but eventually, with a final push, she shoved the cold area free of the column and herself with it. The moment the spot broke the surface, she felt it wobble, then contract to nothing.

"And that... is that." Seye beamed in accomplishment and turned to find more puzzles, but her awareness suddenly dimmed, and she was swept into darkness.

"Damn!"

Mera's shout of frustration rang out as she felt the intruding presence fade quickly. She had lost their location once the small surface bump had diminished. She moved up the column in an attempt to anticipate where they would exit the Writing. Unfortunately, she had guessed wrong and was nearly fifty feet away when she felt them exit the column. By the time she arrived, their presence had faded. She shook both fists and stomped in frustration.

Well, Ashur murmured in her mind, I guess we've confirmed that whoever it is, they are definitely our helper.

Mera nodded and looked back at the column. The Writing was flowing more smoothly, and the pillar as a whole felt more in tune with those around it.

"I just want to know how they are making it in and out," she said. "I know there's a Brenphan shape up there and the Library has to be helping or facilitating it, but how? Are they physically being transported here, or is it some form of astral travel?"

She felt Ashur mentally shrug. The only experience he'd had with that mode of transportation was when he had first connected with the Library and spent several hours spiritually flying in and around the bookshelves. That had been a while ago, and his education since had been focused in other directions.

Mera scrunched her face up one more time and started back for the Vault entrance. She had a feeling that the slowly forming addition to the marble figure might have coalesced into something more definite. Her hunch proved to be true, for when she reached the top of the stairs and looked, the Brenphan figure was indeed more detailed in shape. Mera climbed up to stand before the new form and stared intently at it. The face was still amorphous, and any skin coloring or mottling patterns had yet to appear, but there were at least one or two features she could discern.

"Well, my love," she said with a grin, "at least you'll still be the big man around here."

She chuckled at his flash of confusion, focused more closely on the chest area, and let him see what she was seeing. He spluttered in her mind as she visually fixated on the small but very obvious breasts that jutted out from the figure's ribcage. They were clothed in generic Couset fashion, but there was no mistaking that the new addition was decidedly female.

You know I'm not nearly as perpetually horny as you seem to want me to be, right? he joked.

"Oh, I know," she said both mentally and aloud, "but it's still fun to watch you squirm."

She laughed at the rude sound he made in her mind.

Seye was singing quietly but elatedly to herself. Her dreams had been exciting and had left her feeling accomplished in a way she hadn't felt since before her trip to Fetud-Pra so many months ago. They had been vivid in a way that felt more like a memory than a nocturnal experience. Again and again, she replayed the feeling of moving through the winding trains of mysterious shapes and the sensation of manipulating the trouble spot. More than anything else, however, the absolute joy of solving the puzzle made her hop and skip from time to time as she made her way to Ashur's office.

When she opened the door, however, she stopped abruptly, and her smiling face shifted to concern. Her employer was sitting at his desk with his face planted firmly in his hands. He looked exhausted and beyond frustrated.

"Oh!" she squeaked softly in surprise.

Without removing his face, Ashur tilted his head back and spread his fingers just enough to see who had made the noise, then returned to his original position.

"Morning," he mumbled.

"Is everything okay?" she asked cautiously.

"Not really, but there's not much either of us can do about it for the moment, so I'm just going to enjoy suffering for a few more minutes."

She blinked at his flippant answer, but had no other response, so she took her place at her desk and started working.

Occasionally, it sounded like Ashur was talking to himself, but the odd word that she caught almost gave her the impression that he was speaking to someone else. After the first few times, she ignored him and continued to work throughout the morning. She was starting to wrap up in preparation to leave when Ternat breezed in. Ashur had moved in the interim, but only to pull his face from his hands and lay his head fully upon his desktop.

"My, don't you look worse for wear?" Ternat opined.

Ashur responded with a quiet "Mmph" without opening his eyes.

Seye shrugged when Ternat turned to her for an explanation. The older woman grimaced in slight annoyance and tapped him on the head, which was met with no reaction. Her annoyance turned to irritation as she pulled a coin from her pocket with two fingers. Seye watched in amazement as Ternat bent her wrist in toward her body and then, with a lightning flip of her hand, caromed the piece off Ashur's head exactly where it would be the most painful. The young woman quickly hid a giggle behind her hand as Ashur shot to his feet with a sharp curse.

"Dammit, Ternat! What was that for?"

His mentor eyed him with a haughty expression and bent to retrieve her coin.

"Don't you know that a lady doesn't like to be ignored?" Her total hauteur was broken by the laughter in her eyes. She waved him to sit back down, which he did with a raised eyebrow while rubbing his head. "Besides, we have things to do today, and I don't feel like dealing with you when you're moping or whatever it was you were just doing."

"I wasn't moping," he muttered. "I just had a long night and couldn't sleep. Annoying dreams."

Seye perked up at his comment. "Oh! That reminds me! I had a dream about your puzzle, your mind game! In the dream I was...!"

She stuttered to a stop when her employer's entire frame went rigid and his head whipped around to face her fast enough to startle Ternat.

"Say that again."

"I... um... had a dream about your puzzle. The one with the tall columns? I dreamed about it last night. It was a different puzzle this time, but it was still fun. I was thinking about it this morning, and it would be great to do it for real."

Her words had started to speed up in her excitement, but she stopped again at his raised hand.

"What do you mean, 'this time'?" he asked.

After a few false starts, she started to recall her first dream experience. The details were hazy at first, but the longer she talked, the more she remembered. She told him about finding herself in a large cavern and the towering pillars. His attention sharpened with every sentence. When she wound down, he took a deep breath.

"When did this happen?" he inquired. He was ignoring Ternat's tapping on his shoulder and, when her hand looked like it was going for her coin again, he gently trapped it in his without looking away from his young employee.

"Er... it was the night I was so sick. I felt so bad that I forgot all about it until this morning."

"And last night?"

"It was like I was in the same place, but the puzzle was different and I had to figure out a new fix. Why?"

Ashur regarded her for another moment, then stood up and walked out the door with a muttered "Excuse me for a moment." Seye looked to Ternat for an explanation, but the older woman looked just as confused. They made small talk until Ashur returned several minutes later. He returned to his desk and stared at the desktop for a while. Then, finally, he looked up at his young clerk.

"I know you have to work at the Palace this afternoon," he said, "but would you be able to return here when you're done?"

Seye nodded mutely.

He began gathering his things. "Excellent. Thank you. I should be back by then." He stood and started for the door.

Ternat watched him go, then turned to Seye and silently mouthed "I'll be here, too" before following him out. A surprised Seye smiled in relief and finished out her day and locked up the office.

Distracted, she proceeded toward the Palace without really noticing anything around her. The conundrum of her employer's request was taking up too much of her attention. She realized it had something to do with her dreams and his mind game, but, beyond that, she was stymied. Nevertheless, she ran as many permutations of possible conversations through her head as she could think of.

Her preoccupation was so great that she didn't notice Melat trying to get her attention until he grabbed her arm and violently hauled her out of the street and into a nearby shop. She squealed at first, causing a few of the patrons to give them both sideways looks.

"Melat! What are you doing?" She yanked her arm from his grasp and smacked him with the same hand several times. "You scared me! Why..."

He took hold of her with both hands and drew her even deeper into the store. She was so shocked that all she could do was splutter at him while he looked over his shoulder toward the street. They passed through the store and into the alleyway behind. Melat finally let go of her, looking desperately up and down the alley. When no one came into view, he finally gave her his attention.

"What are you doing?" she repeated. "Are you crazy?"

"Anrit's gone!" He took another look around and then hunkered down next to a couple of stacks of crates. "He's missing, and his office was ransacked when I got there. No one remembers seeing him today. They sent guards to his house, but they haven't come back yet."

Seye's hands flew to her mouth in fright while the young man continued.

"I got a quick look into his office before they blocked it off. Everything had been thrown everywhere, and there were even holes in the walls!" His breathing was rapid and stuttering. He gripped her by the hands to pull her down in front of him. "The guards were starting to push everyone into a group. One of the inquisitors came in and started looking everything over, so I ran to find you!"

Seye could feel her heart against the walls of her chest. "What are they looking for?" she asked, partly to him and partly to herself. Suddenly, her eyes went even wider, and she reached out to grab his upper arm. "Were they going through our table?" she asked.

"Shit!" she spat when he jerkily nodded. "Shit, shit, shit."

"Seye! What's going on?" Melat's voice had risen by half an octave. The young woman's legs slumped, and she landed hard on the ground.

"Anrit pulled me off the project last night," she said. "After you left for the last time, he told me to stop working on it and help you finish. I know I found something important, but I don't know what. He seemed really upset. I think he's gone because of it! I think he got in trouble because of what I found! Trouble with someone high up in the Palace!"

She started to thump the back of her head on the wall they were huddled against.

"What do we do, Seye?" Melat both looked and sounded terrified to her--terrified and out of his depth.

Despite a fleeting desire to comfort or reassure him in some way, she felt the same. She had little knowledge of Palace intrigue or the little machinations that happened a hundred times a day, and she had never been more painfully aware of that sheltered naivete. She and Melat needed help, and she only knew one place to go. She grabbed Melat's hand, jerked him up, and started pulling him along before he could react.

"Seye! Where are we going?"

"To someone who knows what to do!"

Damn it, Mera! How did we not know? How did we miss it?

Ashur was mentally raging at himself as he marched back to his office. He had spent so much of the walk to the appointment fending off Ternat's persistent queries that he hadn't had time to confer with his partner. After that, the negotiations had been active enough to keep his mind occupied. When everything had finished up, Ternat had mentioned something about getting a bit more information and catching up later. He knew that she would race back to his office once she was done. Her curiosity was piqued, but, at the moment, he didn't care.

I've literally spent hours right next to her and not a clue. Nothing!

Just as the goal he had spent so much time and effort on was right in front of him, months of worry for his love and their home were spilling out. The only reason he hadn't thrown the girl over his shoulder and headed for the travel platform the instant he had realized what Seye's dreams had meant was that Mera had started talking to him very quickly and very emphatically. Finally, he had agreed that not only would the poor thing react badly to being abducted, Ternat would most likely have had a few choice words and actions as well. All he had been able to do was step outside for some very deep breathing.

We didn't know because she didn't remember.

He could tell that Mera was doing her best to calm him down, but he was too irritated with himself and the world in general. He tromped through the city to his office but, rather than go inside, he flung himself onto a bench across the street and tried to regain a measure of control.

Recalling just how bad Seye had looked the day after she had been ill, he could agree that it was plausible she'd forgotten any kind of a dream. Intellectually, he was aware that Mera would have had no reason to delve further into Seye's memories if the young girl had not had thoughts of the dream at the top of her mind. Knowing those things did little to ease his anger at the months of worry and frustration. Eventually, however, the wave of harsh emotions passed, and he was able to begin to find equanimity again.

All right, he thought, now we know. What's our next step? We're going to need to explain it to her, but do you think she'll believe us? Do you think she'll come home with me? What if she says no?

Mera's mental sigh came across almost as heavily as if it were his own lungs blowing out.

I think that's exactly what we are going to have to do. You're going to have to convince her somehow because, obviously, I can't keep this going.

He felt his lover's own fear at the thought of continuously failing to keep the Library from imploding on itself.

I don't think she'll refuse, though. Did you hear how excited she was when she told you about the dream? It was a fun puzzle for her, a challenge. I think she'll jump at the chance to do it for real.

Ashur shook his head.

The puzzle? I agree. But how will she react to the idea of leaving her world? Possibly forever? We can't guarantee that she'll always be able to come back here to visit her family or friends.

Mera was silent while she pondered the possibility. Finally, she gave a mental shrug.

We're just going to have to deal with it if it happens and do our best to convince her. We really have no other options at this point unless Xakelle magically reappears with an idea.

Ashur snorted, stood, and crossed the street. He was just about to take hold of the handle when Ternat walked up behind him. He gave her a quick smile and was about to apologize for being vague and brusque earlier, but her expression stopped him.

"Is everything okay?" he asked.

"I'm not sure," she replied. "Let's talk about it inside."

He nodded and opened the door.

Both of them stopped at the sight inside.

Seye was on her back, and the body of another Brenphan lay face-down on top of her.

Both of them were covered in blood.