"So, you're telling me that you're stuck in a library somewhere?" Nate asked, looking incredulous. "When I said that you were a secret nerd, I was just joking. You know that, right?"
Lorenz narrowed his eyes at Nate who didn't change his expression.
"I'm not a nerd, secret or otherwise," Lorenz said.
"Dude. You're stuck. In a library. Probably one of those with a capital 'L' no less." Nate sat back in the leather booth, shaking his head. "With everything there is to do, why are you in a library of all places?
"Research," Lorenz replied. "It's a very respectable library, and it's full of mysteries."
"No, not the mystery thing again," Nate said, putting his hand to his forehead. "Why is it that you're all weird? Heidi shovels down weird dumplings, Cora just wants to be a moneymaking hermit, and you're a closet nerd. Where did I go wrong?"
"You're not responsible for raising us. That's what our parents are for. Well, not Cora's," Lorenz corrected with a wince. "Anyways, I'm stuck in my room. I can't open the door without being marked by something."
"Marked?" Nate straightened up. "What do you mean?"
Lorenz glanced around cautiously before explaining what happened. Nate's incredulous look came back.
"And he's gone? No one remembers him except you?"
"Not just me," Lorenz said with a shake of his head. He fell silent as the waitress slipped their plates onto the table followed by a folded note for Nate. "Don't you ever get tired of that?"
"You never know who might be the future Ms. Nate Delacroix," Nate replied with a shrug. "Someone has to spend all that money. Just gets dusty from disuse."
Lorenz rolled his eyes at Nate as he applied ketchup to his fries. They were already coated in cheese, chili, jalapenos, bacon crumbles and artfully applied ranch dressing.
"I feel sorry for the poor girl," Lorenz muttered.
"And I feel sorry for your arteries. That's going to eventually kill you, you know," Nate said, shaking his head with a disgusted look.
"But I'll go knowing I ate great food," Lorenz shot back. He looked at Nate's salad. "Rabbit food."
"And who's rescuing you again? From Maraca, of all places to be stuck in?" Nate asked, pouring the last of his four containers of ranch onto his immense salad.
"Mmm, yum, you'll live forever," Lorenz sighed.
He looked up as a new waitress approached. The apron on the uniform she was wearing was a bit crumpled and askew, and there was a clear sign of blood on the edge of her tray.
"Can I get you anything else? Anything at all?" The waitress asked Nate, smiling gently.
Lorenz waited a moment to see if he'd get noticed. After a few seconds, he shrugged and went back to scarfing down his fries. Thinking about it, Nate probably ate so many salads because he was besieged in their little college town.
Lorenz decided that Nate needed to move. Preferably somewhere with restaurants not completely staffed by college kids like them who were fully aware that Nate was loaded and looking for Ms. Right.
*****
The door to the resting area slowly swung open. Lorenz whirled around to see Nate standing in the doorway, staring at the sword he'd dropped.
They both watched as dark spots blossomed and ate away at the once shining metal. After a few seconds, all that was left was a small pile of rust that eventually disappeared, leaving only a small bit of brownish dust.
"What exactly was that stuff?" Nate asked, frowning.
"Didn't you look at it? Inspect, Examine or Analyze even?" Lorenz shot back.
"Analyze? What's that?" Nate turned his frown Lorenz's way. "How come I've never heard of that one?"
"You need the other three, and then bam! It turns into Analyze. What? Cora didn't tell you?" Lorenz smiled, his mood lifting. It was always a good day when he had a one-up on Nate.
"All Cora's been doing lately is dodging me. I confronted her about that Gerald guy, and bam! Complete radio silence," Nate complained. "How is it that you know this stuff?"
"Because it came up, and then she told me." Lorenz searched his pockets for something to scoop the last of the dust up with.
"Really, man?" Nate shook his head. He pulled a small sack from his pocket. From the looks of it, it had once held some sort of sachet. "What? Girls give me these things a lot, especially new guildies."
Lorenz shook his head. He took the small bag and cautiously covered the remaining dust. Then he tore a bit of paper out of his new grimoire and stuck it under the bag before inverting it and sealing the bag shut with its drawstring.
It was weird, but that was the way all the bags, boxes and containers worked. Once you put something in, you could close it, and nothing would leak out. Depending on the level of the item, it might even seal in air.
"I'm going to see if Mage Hollins is interested in this," Lorenz said. He glanced at Nate. "Mage Hollins owns the library. He's the one with the missing apprentice."
"Still sounds freaky." Nate stared at the spot he'd dropped the sword and then up at the door.
The dark ovals had expanded to half the door. Instead of ovals, they were now twisty decorative lines of void in the door's wood. Even as they watched, the lines inched ever so slowly towards the hinges.
"Is it safe for you to have even been in there?" Nate glanced in the doorway to Lorenz's prized resting place.
Lorenz shook his head. He had no idea. He'd been proud enough to score the resting place. It was like a dorm room, even though it was small. Most people who researched in the library only got to rent a place to sleep and temporarily store their stuff. Lorenz's resting place was permanent until he terminated his contract with the library.
Now, looking at the destroyed furniture, he shivered. His imagination had no problem conjuring up what could have happened if he'd been present when that figure had shown up.
"Come with me. Have you ever met a magister before?" Lorenz said, finally deciding to wrap the bag with the bit of torn paper.
Grimoires were usually treated as research notebooks, but their pages were still enchanted. That was because they were mass produced; no one was sure when a mage might want to inscribe a spell or enchantment or just a newly discovered or rediscovered glyph.
Even so, the paper had darkened from its original snowy whiteness to a more soft gray.
He and Nate exchanged worried looks. From his expression, Lorenz could tell that Nate was also surprised that something could damage grimoire paper.
*****
"And what is this?" Mage Hollins asked, staring at the dark gray paper wrapped sack.
"This is the remnants of the sword my friend used to push open my resting place door," Lorenz said, holding the sack by its drawstring. Only the last inch of drawstring was still blue. The rest had turned a darker and darker navy as they walked.
It was highly disconcerting. It had only taken them a few minutes to walk to Mage Hollins' floor, Lorenz using his new authorization to activate the floating platform.
The situation was so disturbing that he didn't even have the time to notice any jealous or startled looks. Only Mage Hollins could give out the authorizations, and he was usually too busy to do so. Having one showed that he valued the person enough to make it easy to see him.
As far as Lorenz knew, only officials and his mage apprentices had the authorization, along with a few other random people. There was truly no rhyme or reason; Mage Hollins just had to like you…if you could manage to meet him.
Mage Hollins' eyes narrowed. He stuck one hand into the other arm's sleeve and rummaged around. He pulled out a glass tray that gleamed in the bright light of the library floor.
Lorenz's eyes flicked upwards. The skylights were open, letting in bright sunlight, some of it redirected by the clever use of mirrors. He spotted one of the apprentices descending a small circular staircase, muttering something to himself.
"Put it here," Mage Hollins said, holding out the tray.
With a small sigh of relief, Lorenz let the sack rest on the tray. The paper untwisted itself as it came to rest, revealing a jet black interior. The bag itself was the same unrelieved, flat black color.
Lorenz, Nate and Mage Hollins frowned at bag. The bag suddenly shivered and fell apart, revealing fast corroding threads.
Mage Hollins pulled out a wand with his spare hand and waved it lightly at the glass tray. The tray floated out of his hands and hovered in place.
"It's just like the sword all over again," Lorenz breathed.
"I liked that bag," Nate complained. He shrugged when the other two glanced at him. "I get a lot of little presents. I can't keep all the bags, now, can I?"
"I remember being that young," Mage Hollins muttered, walking around the glass tray.
"I don't ever want to be that young," Lorenz added with an eyeroll. "He's annoying as is."
"Hey! Who was the one who came to let you out of that death trap?" Nate demanded. Then he paused, looking queasy. "Do you think that it's still doing this," and he waved at the remnants of the bag, "in your little dorm space?"
"Resting place," Lorenz and Mage Hollins chorused absently. Then they paused.
"Retta!" Mage Hollins called.
One of his apprentices materialized at his elbow. She peered at the glass tray with wide, apprehensive eyes. Her straight blondish brown hair was done in a braid coronet with little wisps escaping here and there. The whole effect gave her a waifish look at odds with the plain, nearly austere mage robe she wore.
"Yes, sir?" She breathed, taking a small step back from the glass tray.
"You see?"
"Yes, sir!" Retta frowned just a little.
"Lorenz's resting place. Now! Take James and Kay with you. Containment spells for everything! Go!" Mage Hollins commanded.
"Right away, sir," Retta responded before disappearing again.
Even as Retta left, the remnants on the glass tray shivered and a dark spot appeared on its translucent surface. After a brief battle that resembled pebbles dropping into a lake, the tray was once again pure and clear with a tinier pile of blackish ash resting on it.
"How fascinating," Mage Hollins said.
"A great mystery," Lorenz agreed.
"Not this again," Nate complained. He rested his hands on his hips. "If you're off to do research, then I'm leaving. Let me know what happens."
"Wait!" Mage Hollins cried, looking up. "Lorenz's friend, was it?"
"Nate Fullreach," Nate said, looking wary at Mage Hollin's interest.
"Yes, yes, Mr. Fullreach, thank you for saving my dear friend, Lorenz," Mage Hollins said. "Plus, you brought me such interesting things."
They eyed black ash. The paper had dissolved during the tussle between the ash and tray.
"You should be careful, especially now that you're involved," Mage Hollins said. He rummaged in a sleeve and pulled out a round token. "Here. With this, you've free run of Maraca."
"Wouldn't Lorenz need this more than me?" Nate asked as he accepted the token.
"Lorenz is a librarian's pet. I doubt there's any library that would bar their doors to him, light or dark," Mage Hollins said dryly with an amused look Lorenz's way.
"It's the interest in learning and the politeness," Nate agreed with a smile. "He's like that where we live as well. No floor barred."
The two shared a commiserating look as Lorenz frowned at both of them. He couldn't figure out just what was wrong with their statements.
"It's just manners to be polite," Lorenz said tentatively. "Besides, what is this stuff?"
"This?" Mage Hollins eyed the glass tray. "I would think it's a sign of the presence of a Darkness Demon of some sort." He sighed. "The world is getting to be increasingly interesting. Any idea why it would be in your resting place?"
Lorenz started to shake his head before stopping. He reached into his inventory and pulled out the stack of books he'd chucked into it.
"Borrowing books? You are dedicated, young mage," Mage Hollins said with a delighted smile. "I should give you a discount." He thoughtfully tapped his chin, humming lightly.
Lorenz gave himself a shake, dismissing Mage Hollins' words. The old mage would probably forget after a while anyways. Most of the magisters were like that in his experience. You could be talking to them and bam! Off they went because they'd had an epiphany on whatever their research topic was.
Lorenz reached into the pile of books. He pulled out the book that Orrin had entrusted him with.
"They were looking for this. This is the book that Orrin had found for you," Lorenz said, straightening up. "That's weird."
He eyed the dust on the book in surprise. Usually the dust on books vanished once they were put in a research pile. He'd used it for that purpose more than once in the past.
"Now this is an interesting tome," Mage Hollins said as Lorenz held it out to him. He frowned thoughtfully. "Hans! Come here."
A boy approached, unruly black hair nearly obscuring his eyes. He looked surly, and yet the expression in his eyes was pure curiosity.
"Go through the purchase records. See if this title is in there." Mage Hollins nodded towards the book, still not taking it.
Hans whipped out a tiny square of paper and scribbled the name of the book on it. Then he was gone.
"The book?"
"Oh, you hang on to it for now. It's obviously something someone is looking for, and I can't be everywhere at once," Mage Hollins said absently as he turned towards the glass tray. "This is the truly disturbing thing. Might even have to call a Council for it."
"Really?" Nate asked.
Lorenz looked at him, puzzled. Nate shook his head at him.
"Go, go! Don't let me keep you from your research," Mage Hollins said, drifting away in the direction of his lab.
All around, unoccupied apprentices stood up, eyeing the floating glass tray that followed Mage Hollins.
"C'mon," Nate said, clapping Lorenz on the back. "We won't get anything from a mage who just got a research subject."
Lorenz reluctantly nodded and followed Nate to the floating platform.