"The oracle of the goddess race was by far the most powerful, having the ability to see into the future, far beyond any before her. Her divinations led to the demise of the Demon King, but also led to the extinction of the shifter race after she spoke of an Ultimate King coming to power. She spoke of this Ultimate King having power that exceeded the powers of the kings of each race combined and a great darkness consuming the earth during his rise to power.
"When asked for how to prevent such a tragedy, the oracle declared that the Ultimate King would rise through the shifter race, thus initiating the greatest genocide in history."
Damia stopped reading and looked at Adi. "Guess your right about this being fiction. This speaks as though all shifters were killed due to a prophecy, when in fact, they had been casualties of war during the last battle against the Demon King."
"Told you. Now how about you read through a book that I haven't already ruled out?"
"Fine, fine."
After many hours of reading, neither Adi nor Damia had found anything about practicing magic in any of the books. Adi picked up the last book remaining on the table.
"I don't know what possessed me to pick up this book. It's written right in the title that this is about legends."
He was about to toss it aside when Damia reached over the table and snatched it from him.
"Don't be so quick to judge. Legends come from seeds of truth, right? Besides, it might be interesting."
"Well, if you want to read it then go ahead, but do it during your own free time. It won't be of use to us right now and I'm tired."
"Oh, sorry Adi, you can go on. I want to stay here a bit longer."
"Suit yourself."
Adi left Damia in the library as she went back to the bookshelf to look for more books. She wasn't sure where Adi had pulled the books from earlier, but she had a feeling that he would have started from the left so she decided to look on the right. She bent down to the lowest shelf, when suddenly, she felt a chill. Quickly, she stood up straight and looked around for anything that may have given her that feeling, but she saw nothing.
Damia bent down once more to look at the books she intended to search through before. From behind, closer to the table where she and Adi had been sitting, she heard a faint sound, like something falling which made her jump.
"A-A-A-Adi, is... is that you?"
There was no response.
She slowly stepped in direction where she had heard the sound and saw a book on the floor. Picking it up, she kept her chin parallel to the ground and continued scanning the room for anyone else that might be with her. Seeing no one, she slowly rose from her crouched position and put the book back on the shelf next to her.
"I must be hallucinating things. Maybe I should go to bed now too."
She picked up the book on legends that she had wanted to read and went back to her room to sleep.
The next morning, she went straight to the library. Since her room would be empty, she assumed Adi would know to look for her here whenever he came looking for her.
Upon entering the room, she noticed that a book had fallen in the same spot where one fell the day before. Bending down, she picked it up off the ground and a hand reached down at the same time, taking it from her.
"Hidden in the Mist, interesting title. Are you reading this?"
Startled Damia looked up to see that Xerxes had picked up the book she intended to pick up.
Damia spoke very curtly. "No, it just happened to be on the ground."
"I'm sorry if I have offended you, Princess. It was only meant to be a question to initiate conversation."
"I am not offended, merely surprised. I wasn't expecting anyone else to be in the library. May I ask what brought you here?"
"Actually, I just returned from my journey last night and I wanted to see if your library had anything regarding the Dark Forest that might aid in understanding the creatures within it. Wesdon is known for having one of the largest collections of knowledge, second only to the fair folk's collection of course, but I'm afraid I couldn't make sense of the organization in here so my mission was fruitless. I was actually on my way out when I noticed the book on the floor at the same time as you."
"I see. Well I wish I could be of more assistance, but I'm afraid I'm not anymore familiar with this library. I haven't been able to find what I've been looking for either."
Xerxes chuckled. "Perhaps we could assist each other than."
"I thought you had to attend to other matters now?"
A look of bewilderment flashed across Xerxes face, but it vanished as soon as it appeared as he regained his composure.
"Nothing that can't wait for another time. Having been in this library alone earlier was a bit eerie, if I'm being perfectly honest. It would be nice to search with company."
Damia wasn't generally rude to anyone and she didn't quite understand why she was being so rude to the Marquis now, but something about him put her on edge whenever he was near. Having nothing to dissuade him from his choice, she conceded to letting him join her.
As they searched through the bookshelves, Xerxes became quite talkative, telling her about the Dark Forest, how they had wards around it to control traffic flow, and about the creatures he had seen within it; nothing that she wanted to know, but listened out of consideration for his ego.
"Have you been there, Princess?"
This question caught Damia by surprise. As a princess, would it be normal for her to not have left the castle walls or would this raise suspicion? She didn't have any experiences in this topic to know how to respond without her response leading to additional, perhaps dangerous, questions. It's the Dark Forest, it should be normal for her to not have been there right?
"A place as dangerous as you make it sound doesn't seem like somewhere a Princess should visit, wouldn't you agree?"
Xerxes acted as if he was contemplating her question and then nodded. In truth, he only brought it up to see if she would answer. No matter how hard he tried to convince himself that he had only imagined her presence at the forest, his mind just wouldn't let it go, and her deflection of the question now only made him that much more suspicious.
"While I would agree, we all have our rebellious phase." Xerxes tried to play it off as though he was teasing her.
"Well I'm afraid I would have to disappoint you, Marquis. My rebellious phase did not take me so far."
"Then perhaps one day you'll let me take you outside these castle walls and show you the world you're missing."
This statement left Damia incredulous. This man was truly arrogant to speak so brazenly. She did not wish to continue the conversation so she just smiled politely and returned her focus to the books.
Damia and Xerxes searched the library in silence for half the day, neither one finding what they seeked. Xerxes was the first to give in and left Damia alone in the library. She gave up shortly after as well, and as Adi had not shown up, she decided to take a break to go look for him.
As she stepped back from the bookshelf she had been searching through, she stumbled over a fallen book.
"This book again? I could have sworn I left it on the table on the other side of the room."
She decided to take it with her and review it in her room instead of returning it to the bookshelf or table.