The banshee, whose name was Brigid would become a constant shadow, though her omnipresence did not create an instant camaraderie between us. In fact, Brigid seemed completely uninterested in me as a person entirely. The resulting relationship was chilly but having Brigid with me at all times did make me feel less vulnerable. This morning I was preparing to go to the library for research. Sergei was meeting me at the cafe I'd eaten breakfast in the morning I first attempted to go to the library.
I arrived at the cafe a few minutes early, hoping to get time to organize my thoughts and write out a list of things I planned to research. When the waitress approached the table, I asked for a double espresso-- I was going to need some caffeine to fuel my body for the mountain of research I had planned. After a short wait, while I scrolled my phone looking up different legendary creatures and tales of Ireland, she brought my deliciously bitter espresso which I drank black and delighted in the near instantaneous burst of energy the warm drink brought my body. With my body energized and my lists made, I sat back to wait for Sergei.
After ten minutes had passed and Sergei was officially late, I began to worry that he wasn't going to show up. At twenty minutes, I had grown frustrated and annoyed by his tardiness. After an hour passed, I became seriously worried.
"I don't think he's coming," I whispered to Brigid, hoping no one could hear me talking to "myself".
"I don't know what his problem is, he should be here by now," Brigid responded. By the time another thirty minutes passed, I gave up on Sergei and decided to make my way to the library without him. Once I was ensconced in the dark, wood-paneled, ancient hall housing more books than I could have imagined I completely lost track of time and my thoughts and became entranced by the vastness of the assembled books. They had books on every bit of lore I had ever heard of-- and even more that I'd never remotely encountered in my years as a bookworm. I wandered around the library, using the computers to pull tome after hefty tome from the immense shelves. Once I could carry no more, I found a snug little wood desk with a comfortable chair and set to reading anything I could that would provide me with an edge.
What quickly became apparent was that whoever had assembled the collection on supernatural experts for the university library was clearly an expert and a believer. A monstrous assortment of what would normally be housed in fiction was filed away as nonfiction and no one had ever seemed to notice. After a few hours of binging through book after book, returning to the computer to follow one rabbit-hole after another, I realized I'd spent the entire day in the immense library. ]
I had completely lost track of the day and forgotten lunch. I'd also forgotten about Sergei, and Brigid appeared to be sleeping-- if ghosts did sleep. Whatever she was doing, she wasn't paying much attention to me or our surroundings.
"Uh, Brigid, aren't you supposed to be looking out for threats?" I asked her with a hint of annoyance in my voice. The last thing I needed was to be attacked while I was distracted with my research, especially without Sergei there to have my back.
"Actually, I was, I had put myself in a special trance in order to monitor the entire building from my minds' eye since I'm doing the job of two people today if you must know," she said curtly.
At that moment I began to really worry about Sergei and sent him a text message for the third time today. When he still didn't answer, I became really overwhelmed by worry. With that, I decided to ask Brigid to ask the council members for help. I didn't know anything about my potential powers, and as of yet, nothing had revealed itself. I'd had some inkling of insight when I had read about certain topics-- like the second sight and healing magic, but beyond slight feelings, I still felt 100% human.
Brigid arranged for the council members to meet us back at my place and we prepared to leave the library. The bulk of the books I had been mining for information were for in-library reference and only for use in the library but there were a few that I was able to check out and bring with me. I went to the circulation desk where the clerk raised her eyebrow at the large number of books I was borrowing but did not say anything contrary to me. I was remiss to leave the gorgeous, dark and inspiring library behind but at that moment I determined that I would spend as much time as I could here, preparing myself to become a veritable human encyclopedia about supernatural creatures and tales of Ireland. As they say, knowledge is power and I needed some kind of power and the only thing I had control over right now was my mind, at least mostly.