Thud!
What a day it is to wake up with new hair. The librarian was alive and well just as she won—and she even felt better than before she was nearly killed. But she was covered in snow from hair to toe, still alive and breathing among the little water particles.
"My, my..." She mumbled. "It's real. It's all...real."
"I'm enchanted in ice!"
Her hair is as pale as snow! She could see clearly through that crystal-clear eye. A blue hue for her and a mark of radiance on her sweater set off a vivid ice vapor around her white skin, with her fingers and toes edged with ice. Everything about her is cold and icy as a winter in the form of a human.
"Eve, my friend! How was your new look, friend?" Charger watches her from behind the curtain, holding a paused DS.
"It's amazing! I mean—it's terrible. Why can't I just be a powerful witch like those people?" She replies hesitantly.
The tower had many sets of attire for the thief and the librarian. With the prince leaving the two for themselves, it was a perfect opportunity for the thief to steal several garments and for the librarian to change for the appropriate. The clothes are enchanted and live inside the thread that formed their very design.
"You look even better than I thought." Eve satirized, mocking the creature with a laugh. But Charger sees it as a compliment.
"You're welcome, friend!"
"That's not—never mind. Head to the downfloor, now!"
"That's what I'm about to say."
In the morning, the librarian and the thief were ready to leave the tower as part of their promise. It was the time for her to fulfill the obligation. With the librarian possessing a word of light, she is part of the radiant world and must put on the jacket of honor to the disgraced ones. It would be a tiring yet exciting step from home at once!
The humble apprentices from the tower recognized her when they met on the same floor with the same thought about their steps. Their sticks and stones held as brittle as the ice staff that wields the sphere of ice wisdom.
"Hi, there! You're new here, right?" The lady asks.
"Oww...of course..."
They were warm in welcome but too noisy and kept babbling about their surroundings because they weren't too familiar with the magic around them. It was clear that the librarian must act softly by refusing any communication that could terrify them with incomprehensible thoughts, so silence was perhaps an adequate resource. But her eyes are sharpened like thorns, trying to look into the conversation without partaking in it.
"Oh, we didn't wish to talk a lot here. It seems your friend over there happens to be uncomfortable with us." The apprentice glances at Eve on the corner.
"Yeah. I'm already feeling excited with this place anyway!" Charger replies.
The thief, however, doesn't even bother with a slip of himself. The new people, who had no idea about his cunning and deception, immediately liked him at his first introduction, seeing his false innocence a rather perfect companion. But for the librarian, he was a voice in her head.
"Such a funny creature. You must be her companion, aren't you?" Said a girl.
"Yeah! Her name's Eve and she likes reading. We were here to help a community service!" Charger replies.
"Such a charming creature. I'm sure you'll make a good friend with your friend there."
"Yes. Yes, he is..."
When the door was opened, she knew the time was urgent against the apprentices' request, so she had to rush from the tower. But when she was about to depart, she found the lobby filled with people and the prince standing with his arms crossed behind his back, happily watching his people peacefully around his tower alongside his guards. He was less threatening than yesterday and seemingly happier with the librarian's arrival.
"Well, look what we have here..." Dion spreads his arms. "Thought the wind didn't tell me anything?"
"Can you believe it, everyone? This girl over here is helping us out from the terrible Quasarian we've been carrying for years!" The prince takes everyone's attention on him and the girl. It was no doubt that the apprentices were perplexed upon hearing it.
"What....are you...doing?" Eve gritted her teeth. The apprentices look at her awkwardly.
The prince was too excited seeing her safe and sound, but one cannot be said with the librarian surrounding the people. He informs of her arrival to the people with sweet talk, hoping to get her attention. For a moment, eyes are looking everywhere at her, and she feels the embarrassment she wishes to deal with a blow.
With the news carrying out the convict at control, the people began gossiping behind the librarian's ears, leaving her uncomfortable with the prince acting innocent and ignorant. The apprentices question the thief's motive from his infamy, leaving the two alone at the center of attention, which seems to recede but does not.
Furious, the librarian picks up her staff and aims for the prince's head to redeem herself from the shame. Her staff is as cold as an icicle from the northern, which gives her the strength to swing with fragments of a blizzard. But before she could cast a spell, the cloaked figure approached her with his blade under her jaw, sharp and ready to bleed anything it slid with. All that strength built into the librarian vanishes, with her slowly facing the reality of her weak self.
"Careful, young one." Said the cloaked figure. "You're walking on thin ice with that head loose."
"Whoa! Whoa! Let me take care of this, you three. Let this be a four-eye talk, okay? Okay?" Dion steps in with a wink.
The icicles turn fragile as the librarian feels weakened by intervening dread from the cloaked one. What she thought would be a good chance to excess her dominance turns out to be a show-off. The prince laughed at her when he spared her life again to see her actions laughable.
"So, anything to say for me? Maybe a...gratitude?" The boy winks.
"Oh, come on! Don't give me that silent face! You can't just be mad at Carven forever. Everyone loves me—everyone!"
While his guards hold onto the thief with deep resentment, he offers a hand to the librarian for an apology, which she outright refuses with a slap by his wrist. She couldn't risk talking with the man who let her into harm. Yet his smile seemed unaffected by her rejection, just like the starlings she had met before.
"Tch, you're welcome." He crosses his arms while huffing.
The prince, however, seems too intrigued at sticking around the librarian since morning, barely leaving her sight and nearly abandoning his friends on the training ground with the thief. He waited for the librarian to notice his charming and unique eyes, which she hadn't commented on since their meeting.
"Would you quit it? I have no time to look over your stupid eyes!" Eve yelled.
Her anger silences the prince. Having the answer, He returns to his friends with disappointment and helps torment the thief together. She glares deeply into the tower's edge below the pebbles that lift this magnificence as she breathes a life-taking relief. Below her foot was once a distant land with a distant people, with many still unexplored and left to question.
"So this is what heaven looks like? A town full of stars?" She uttered with her arms crossed. "Intriguing, but not even a formidable foe."
"With a land like this, who could've wished to return now?"
"I have a lot to do in this town. A lot before I came home..." She uttered.
"And once I came home, I'll have mom and dad knew I was more than just a girl! I'm a writer, and this—this is my story."
A perfect start for a perfect end. Where should this story begin now? There are too many outcomes for her and too few to answer. Will the wind guide this fellow lady to a once-in-a-lifetime experience? Or will it fall to a tragic end? The path was far from the beginning, and she was ready to—
"Hey!" The big man in thick armor yelled. "The road to loser's town is right there!"
"I know! Wait—screw you!" Eve replies, followed by laughing from the people around the park.
"Hahaha! How'd you double down on that, lady? Maybe you just miss them?" He taunts her.
The prince and his guards took the two to their destination beneath the tower, where they were tasked with dispensing justice. With their superior's orders, the librarian nodded obediently to the prince before leaving them in the city of smiles.
"I wish I could guide you there, but..." The prince looks desperate.
"I had a duty to fulfill elsewhere. Please, don't hurt the thief and your eyes. You have a lot to look at."
"Not that I need to know about that." She replies.
"Funny girl." The witch chuckled.
Without the prince's guidance, the librarian and the thief returned to the harsh and challenging environment where they started this journey. A town of happiness—with starlings that never cease to smile, a tent for a home, and blessed in lushful green. There was a debt to pay for the librarian by their treason and an incomplete journey she had to follow from all the wasted time and troubled minds. Only there she would notice a lack of happiness from her well-devoted friend. The cleric who would've enjoyed this place with her.
"Wait, where's Cyrus?" Eve wondered.
"He was not here?" Charger replies while holding his watch.
"He should've been telling me."
He had not informed the librarian of his departure since this morning, and it seemed like she had to do this job alone with the thief. Although it seemed simple and leisurely, she remembered how bothersome the people here had been since yesterday. Their laughter and giggling hadn't stopped ringing in his ears since she came here.
Instead, the city became even more cheerful than yesterday. The starlings began to dance and roam uncontrollably, and more goods were set in red-themed shops. Many people dress more openly with their arms and legs, showing their bright skin to the world. Indeed, today is hot enough to dress thickly.
"Once again we returned to this cursed city. Ha ha ha..." She quipped.
"Have you noticed how odd this day is?"
"Nope. Everyone's a fool still. Literally."
"Whoa, Eve! Look!" Charger pointed out.
The arrangements outside were more orderly and red and orange than yesterday—while markets were opened with toys, decorations, and masks. It was a hit sale on this day, just as the unbearable heat rays over the grass and the librarian.
"Hm. This doesn't look too usual. There must be something happening here..." Eve deduces with a uniquely wood-carved figure in her hand.
*Plop* A poster slaps onto Eve's face.
"Exclusive for today—no work, no job—enjoy the vacation. Join the...?" She read. "Fiery Festive?"
The starlings from the north must have come to the garden like the librarian in the middle of the city because of the festive fire. There was fire, then a spark on the scene, inviting many eyes like her to follow to the center. Somehow, there was more than a day in the garden than yesterday for her.
"Fiery Festive and Flaming Favor," Charger explains. "A long-awaited event on the month of Sola where northern people celebrate the early Radlum in Elis to commemorate Jovus the happiest one. Almost forgot about that one..."
"Uh...?" Eve surely understands those words.
"Ehem...a long-awaited event in July where northern celebrate for early halfway to arid-like summer to commemorate an important figure? Not sure who's Jovus is."
"He sounds like someone historical to me," Eve replies.
"He must be! Don't you wish to meet him?"
"Only if he was real."
But there was something wrong with the people. It didn't sound as lively as yesterday, and she could not move past the line because everyone didn't move. It was less noisy and festive than the preparation outside of the garden. The blockage could only mean one thing in this town.
"Someone's not happy," Eve muttered. "The line calls for help. Our help..."
"Then let's help the line before the people grew bored!" The thief remains mesmerized in his gold.
When she and the thief went to the garden, they could only find trees turning their leaves from green lush to fire—the glow of a crystal beaming life for the show and fragments that could remind her of her homeworld. Yet they were too hot for autumn and lively to be a seasonal decay.
"The trees are alive!" Said the librarian, "It's...burning?"
It wasn't a decay, indeed. The leaves were changing colors like a chameleon but without a predator. When she grabbed one shed of a leaf to her hand, the librarian only felt a heating glass like an incandescent lightbulb slowly turning on—Truly a hot topic among the citizens.
"Ouch!" She dropped the leaf with her burnt hand.
"What a view, isn't it? Almost makes you think it's autumn today, right?" Charger grabs a leaf for himself.
"It's autumn in my town, you know?" She replies.
Everywhere was red or orange, but not a fire—not yet. People are dressed to be a tree on a fire as if they wish to draw one out. Northern people had always adored the color red. Perhaps its color may draw them to heat?
But it was only a matter of time before she heard a sound so displeasingly unheard behind the beautiful garden. It lies behind a closed show at the center of this garden, hidden behind a red curtain that everyone seems to notice, too. Yet, in their eyes, they knew not to intervene because they had seen it before.
"That sound." The librarian replies.
"What happened here?"
There was an angry starling standing in the herd of worklings, interrupting a busy construction with his furious stomping feet. It was fascinating to see one unhappy starling in this town among the happiest creatures in this world. But the reason he was aggravated must be somewhat devastating to be ignored.
All he did was rant and yell at the worklings with incomprehensible words. They did not seem bothered, maybe because their expression was hidden inside the mask or he happened to be somewhat important and high. He wouldn't let the other starlings leave until he finished what he wanted to express with vulgarity and rudeness.
"How many times do I told you not to—huh?" The man stops as Eve kneels beside him.
"Don't worry, our feelings are mutual with these people." She replies with her arms on her chest. But the man didn't seem to reach for her support.
"Who are you? And what are you doing in my garden??" The man yelled.
"I'm the one to help you with your anger issue. Quite a phenomenon to see someone who didn't laugh at my face for the first time."
"Oh, you're THAT people. Come here to fix one of your troubles, young lady? Right after you take down my entire hall that led to my people's biggest disappointment while you get away with it??"
"Yes." Eve replies calmly.
The man angrily explodes with a shout before he calms down, "Good! Then I wish nothing more than your arms working here until midnight. I did not stand here as a mayor just to see how incompetent these workers are!"
"Woah, woah, woah...what? Excuse me?" Eve glares shockingly.
This town has a mayor—an unhappy mayor. He is hot-headed and easily angered by an inconvenience like a star seemingly without a spot here. He couldn't think clearly about his surroundings, so he seemed to berate at everything he could see. And when he sees the librarian, he becomes more furious than ever.
There was a terrible matter he couldn't help but need to throw a tantrum about, and it was related to the messy artwork behind the red curtain. What appears to be a pile of sticks towering like a monument seems to spread like a pyre of wood to appease a god. What a poor performance in an artistic attempt—Someone so wise as the librarian should intervene!
They wanted to build a hall to appease these people, not god. But they did not have enough strength and wisdom to make something twenty times their size. Luckily, there was a woman with six times their size to help. Everyone was relieved but not the mayor—He left the worklings and the librarian in a hurry since.
"Woah...I've never seen a hall this big before..." Charger commented.
"You didn't?" Eve carries a bucket full of wood.
"I have a place where I am needed the most, friend!"
-
"Your mayor must have been an outsider if he can't smile for himself. Is he?" The librarian checked the worklings.
"Oh, lady. If only you knew..." The workling replies.
"Knew what?" She asks.
There was little to tell about him, except his unusual rants seemed to have this town by years. That raging star disappears without even a formal goodbye to the librarian—and without anyone. And when being discussed by the worklings, they did not even think about him.
The librarian had to focus on her task instead. There is more to be concerned about than a rude leave by the backstage—such as how long the worklings would take to finish a building with only their tiny, slippery arms. Their design is flawed if it isn't for the merriment, and they have circled around in confusion since they haven't been criticized like the mayor.
"This design is stupid! We couldn't go with this!"
"There's something we could do!"
"Why is this look...boring?"
"We can't be entertained with this! This is a setback to our society!"
"Hey! Hey! Enough with the ridicule!" Eve intervenes with a clap, earning the attention of the workings, "Which one of you had the blueprint for this...thing?"
"Here—It was supposed to be grand, but none of us knew what grand looked like."
"Of course! Jokes are not pretentious. Not one of you would even knew how to make a hall with sticks and stones."
"Then what should we use to make this, young lady?" Ask the workling softly.
The librarian replies firmly—hands full of construction dust and a leather cap on her head. With careful observation, she continued the construction project through the hat of the worklings leader. She raises her staff and aims for a shot of ice. Through her fingers, a gust unleashed into an art.
"And there you have it!" She uttered. The first step of her work was completed instantaneously.
The worklings cheered for hope was lit through their darkest time. Damned for the sticks and stones, for ice shall built before the eyes. It was beautiful and clear, with the librarian's reflection and sparkles as bright as the starlings. But she has more to go than a shot of a staff. Glossy is not enough to define a palace yet, and the sky is too harsh with the ice.
"Woo, Eve! That was—cool~" Charger jokes, "I bet we could finish this less than an hour."
"Wait, this is wrong! It's not like the blueprint!" The workling intervenes.
"Yeah! This isn't how it looks like! Too inaccurate!"
"Inaccuracy? Pfft!" Eve bluffs, "This would be easy."