"That's a novel," the fairy stated in a flat tone.
"Sure, it is," I agreed, "but Lagertha was also one of the best shieldmaidens in the realmsverse, and embedded inside this novel are the secrets to some of her advanced shield skills."
How did I know that? I've read it. Duh. Cover to cover too because Divah had insisted that I practiced the ins and outs of shield tactics to make it easier for me to beat up people who liked to use them.
"Just read it." I shoved the book into the fairy's hands. "You'll get what I'm talking about if you're worthy of the hidden knowledge inside it."
"Um," she raised a long, thin eyebrow at me, "why are you helping me?"
Sheesh, this fairy was just like Liara in her skepticism. Yes, I knew everyone considered everyone else their rivals at the Academy, but it wasn't necessarily a bad thing to be helpful to rivals. Especially fairies who had access to rare alchemical ingredients that only their species was allowed to buy. Bigotry was alive and well in the realmsverse after all.
"Didn't you just dive into me to rescue me from falling books?" I reminded her.
Truthfully, I wasn't being altruistic. But, like Divah often told me, "A favor given is a favor earned, kiddo."
"Let's call this me thanking you for saving me from a nasty headache," I shrugged. Although I couldn't quite hide the smirk that appeared at the corners of my mouth. "Bu~~ut… if you do find that book useful, maybe you can return the favor in the future."
The doubt in the fairy's expression was quick to melt away. Replaced by a smile that could have lit up the room. Fairies and deals—that was the secret sauce to getting into their good graces.
"I'm Dess," she chirped. "Short for Desdemona Dewleaf..."
Dess offered me her hand.
"Will. Will Wisdom," I said as I shook her hand.
"Yup, I know. Your match with Doomsday's the talk of the lodge right now." Dess revealed.
'Oo~oh… does that make me one of the 'popular kids' like the ones in the teen shows I'd seen on Realmsflix', I wondered.
"Um, are you okay?" Dess asked, her brow furrowing slightly. "You look kind of dopey all of a sudden…"
"Ah, ahem…" I coughed to hide away my embarrassment. "Yup, I was just thinking I'd never met a good fairy before." Way to shift the conversation into even more awkward waters… fairies hated talking about good and evil. But I knew I had to follow through now. "I thought you guys were all nasty little tricksters who liked driving people mad."
"You're thinking about those bastards from the dark realm of Unseelie…" Dess puffed up her chest before pointing a thumb at her heart. "I'm a fairy of the Seelie Court. We're the good ones."
I'd never been to the mirror realms of Seelie and Unseelie where a war of good and evil between light and dark fairies has endured for a thousand years—a fight that started when the Unseelies sided with the Trickster god Loki against their Seelie cousins in an ancient war of realms—but Divah had once described them to me as beautiful worlds that were mirror images of each other which had been worn and torn by a seemingly endless conflict.
"They used to be paradises where darkness and light lived together in perpetual harmony… but that was a long time ago… Now they're just hells where balance has shifted to one extreme or the other…" Divah had spoken these words with a wistful expression on her face. As if she had seen these realms before they were ravaged by war, which was impossible considering my master was less than a hundred years old.
"You're spacing out again," Dess noted.
I cleared my throat. "Sorry, I was just thinking…"
"Desdemona!" came a shrill voice. "What have you done this time, silly girl?!"
A look of horror flashed on Dess' face. "Oh, frigid Hel…"
Both Dess and I glanced over her shoulder to discover that the first stack's librarian—a surly-looking middle-aged woman with frizzy hair tied back in a ponytail and the attire a typical human librarian might wear—was stomping toward us with murder in her eyes.
"Time to go," I said.
I gave Dess an apologetic smile before I high-tailed it out of the line of fire, which was conveniently when Liara decided to reappear. She grabbed at my arm just as I passed her and then pulled me into the hallway where the stairs up to the second stack were located.
"Where have you been?" I asked.
"I didn't want to interrupt you and your new friend." Liara turned her back to me and didn't wait for me to follow as she climbed up the steps. It wasn't until we'd reached the second floor that she deigned to look over her shoulder and add, "You know, I think that was your first meeting where you didn't immediately antagonize someone."
"Um, but I nearly got clobbered by a bunch of books," I reasoned.
"Well, there is that…" Liara pushed open the doors to the second stack's main room. "…maybe you're just unlucky at meeting new people?"
That was food for thought. One I'd have to analyze another time as my focus had shifted from bad first impressions to wide-eyed wonder at the scenery before me.
Magical Grimoires! Row upon row of thick colorful tomes that leaked out their special brand of mana—many of them strangely chained to the bookshelves they sat on—lined the walls of the second-floor stacks. Blue cloaks, some of whom I'd met at last night's party, had taken up most of the seats in this stack so that Liara and I couldn't find a single free table to discuss our real reason for coming here. Not that we needed seats for what I had planned.
I high-fived each of the brothers' Grimm—we were chili mead buddies now—and led Liara to a back row of bookshelves whose secret had been thoroughly described in Divah's journal.
"After the second star to the right of the largest fireplace"—I glanced up at the five-pointed star someone had carved at the top of the bookcase and then shifted my gaze toward the tall window by the room's eastern wall—"and straight on till morning…"
"Is that a code?" Liara asked as she followed me on the narrow path between two rows of bookshelves.
"Haven't you heard of Peter Pan?" I asked.
"Of course, I have… I've been to Neverland," Liara stated.
"Huh, I didn't know Neverland was a real realm…" I led the way to the end of the row so that we could reach the window by the eastern wall. "Divah was a fan of Earth classics, so a lot of her codes are derived from them… like this one."
I pointed to the tall window and the rays of morning light that peeked out of its curtains.
"Do you get it?" I wondered.
Liara glanced over her shoulder, and her face turned contemplative for a long moment before she nodded. "The fireplace represents the north star because it's the brightest one in the second-floor stacks… And once you move over to the bookcase two rows over, you'll notice the window facing the east—"
"And the Earth's sun rises in the east, representing the morning path…" With the flare of a stage performer, I pulled back the curtains and stepped toward the tall, door-sized window—and just like Divah's guide promised, I didn't smack my face against the glass. Instead, I passed through the illusion and walked into the secret room it hid.
Liara took a second or two longer to follow me. Once she stepped onto the carpeted floor of this hidden room, her eyes lit up with the same wide-eyed wonder reflected in my gaze.
"This is… Blessed Freya, we're in the special section of the 2nd stacks," she realized.
"Yep… And it's not Neverland…" I grinned as I took in the sights before me—a cozy little room with its few books kept inside their own special display cases mounted on the walls. "…but this is definitely A bibliophile's wonderland."