Jiron followed closely behind Nyxith as she led him through the shadows of the castle, and towards the library where they found that tome. As they made it towards the door, he placed a firm hand on her shoulder and pulled her back against his chest before he peeked his head out noticing guards in front of the door.
"Of course," he muttered before he leaned back against the wall letting her go. Nyxith moved over beside him against the wall as she leaned her head against the wall.
"I should have known they would be guarding it. After Kavi and I broke it he went on about how he thought about wanting to kill us," she exhaled as she steady on hand on the hilt of her saber so it wouldn't clatter against anything. "The library is massive, so if we were to get inside we could sneak around without being detected. Even if guards were inside."
"We'll just have to be careful of the moving books and that thing Lady Kaprice said was a librarian of some sorts," Nyxith continued.
"If the librarian allows it, we'll probably be able to find what we need more easily," Jiron whispered to her as he kept his eyes on the guard to make sure they were not moving. "How badly do you think you pissed it off?"
Nyxith raised her palm and gestured it side-to-side. "50/50, huh?" Jiron sighed out as he touched his face. "This what we'll do. Hit the upper floors and find away to get in from above. I'm sure they're at the windows too."
Nyxith nodded her head, before Jiron snuck down the hallway in front of her and she followed behind him. Just as they were going to hit the third floors, Count Lirael walked through the front door with Kraxil the Dimunitive. His face bandaged and his broken horn wrapped as Count Lirael dropped his coat on him.
"They seem to be taking a liking to Lady Kaprice well," he said to the stewardess as he sighed out. His white hair falling out of his hot as he took it off and dropped it onto Kraxil.
"I don't think Countess Lirael would like this," Kraxil responded.
"If the people were to see her current form, I'm sure it wouldn't even matter," he said with a stern voice. "Countess Lirael is too weak and lost, she can no longer sustain the pact the way she used to. Lady Kaprice…she has the right amount of fire to last many lifetimes if I wanted."
Kraxil seemed hesistated to say what he wanted to next while Count Lirael looked towards upstairs. "I…I can't agree with you Count Lirael, Lady Kaprice is out of control! How can you control a woman meant to replace Countess Lirael. When Countess Lirael controlled you?"
"That's because the Countess is a demon of nobility," he continued as they walked towards the lounging room their voices starting to fade. "No matter how powerful, its nothing to tame a human woman that barely became an adult amongst humans."
"So, that's the reason for that," Jiron said recalling what he seen the townfolks doing to images of Kaprice. Then he quietly ascended to the third floor, turning around to make sure Nyxith was still behind him.
She nodded her head when he looked at her to acknowledge his concern. As they rounded the corner, Bilbo was there crazy upon a rug, and when it saw them its eyes gleamed.
Jiron placed an index finger across his lip. While they were paying attention to the goat, they didn't noticed a guard glaring at them. "Is it appropriate for a Mistress to be running around alone with a man?"
"She's a kid," Jiron said pulling his rifle from his shoulders.
Before much could happen, Nyxith placed her hand in the hilt of her saber and sliced through its throat.
"He's gonna fall," Nyxith said realizing it would alert other people, before a string a soul thread appeared and wrapped sround the demon's neck. It held him up like a puppet, and they turned to see Kavi struggling to hold him up.
Nyxith ran beside her, she grabbed the thread to help her hold it up before Jiron quickly grabbed him and land the guard gently against a corner.
"Private, nice work," Jiron said his heart racing faster than usual. Things just seem harder when children were around.
"Bilbo," Kavi said as the goat crawled towards her leg, and she picked it up. Her finger scratched behind his ear. "I'm sorry about your father."
Jiron blinked in surprise. "The goat… can understand you?"
Nyxith shrugged as Bilbo wiggled out of his grasp and trotter off down the hallway. All they knew were to follow behind it just as they had played. Jiron in front with a junior corporal and junior private right behind him with their palm on their saber's hilt. He hoped they were dependable enough to hold their own if he were to get himself in trouble.
Suddenly, Bilbo just dissappeared.
Kavi was the first to noticed as they continued walking and she looked around the hallway. Bilbo poked his head out through the seemingly solid wall.
"Hey," Kavi said placing her hand on Nyxith's shoulder. Nyxith grabbed Jiron's sleeves as they stared in disbelief as Bilbo quietly bleated. Though, it seemed out of place, where they're constantly surrounded by weird magic and phenomenons.
Nyxith shot Jiron a sideway glance. "Your call, Sergeant. Shall we follow or retreat?" she asked him.
Jiron pushed his dreads from his face, not sure how much longer they'll be able to stay unharmed. Especially with the way Kapri is.
"Don't tell your parents when you go back home," Jiron said as he led the way towards the wall. "Just stay close, okay?"
He crouched down, his palm cautiously pressing a hand against it. It was in fact permeable as he eased his way through with Kavi holding on to as they followed behind him.
The moment they pass through, the space around them shifted—-into complete darkness. Same to what Nyxith entered when she climbed to the top of the bookshelves.
Nyxith looked around, though she wasn't seeing anything. "This is…this the place I've been to in the library. At least I think it is," she said to Jiron.
He pulled out his cellphone to try to illuminate anything. Just like with Nyxith's lighter, it didn't even illuminate his hand as if it was sucking the light before it could reach anything.
"Let's hope the librarian isnt in here," Jiron asked, his voice hushed.
"Unlikely," Nyxith said to him as she scanned the darkness.
"We should just move until we bump into something." Jiron replied, as he grabbed both their hands pulling them close to him. "Stay close, don't let go."
"Ow, Sergeant, you're hurting my hand," Kavi whined, but Jiron was terrified. Being unable to see the attacks was worse than getting beat to death to him.
A sudden bleating echoed down the hallway, and Jiron whirled his head to see a faint flicker in the distance. Bilbo was trotted towards them with a glow of what appeared to be fire above his head, and it glowed against their faces and clothes.
"Donn," Jiron muttered in excitement for some light.
He dropped to his knees as he pulled out a handful of ingredients from his jacket with an electric stovetop and cylinder. They appeared to be too much that would fit in his jacket.
"Luckily, for us. I'm Virtuoso," he said happily as he took out dried ashenblight petals, crushed quartz of everdark, and wraithroots. He carefully measured and mixed them, before he finally pricked his finger and let it fall onto it.
With his thumb, he dipped it in, then he rubbed it across his forehead. A few seconds, a warm flickering flame appeared above his head and glowed above him and a little of his surrounding.
Kavi chuckled as she clapped as if she saw a magic trick. "That's cute," she said to Jiron.
He grabbed Kavi head and rubbed a streak on her forehead, and then on Nyxith's forehead. She looked up, but it moved back with her head movements.
"It doesn't burn?" Nyxith asked him.
"Yeah, I made sure my intentions were for it to not burn Jiron, Kavi, and Nyxith," he said mechanically and he moved forward after gathering his things back into his jacket. "Donn is the perfect with intention good intentions."
The flame like Donn showed their path. They found themselves in an endless hallway lined with strange windows and doors. They seemed to show the glimpse into various rooms within the castle and even some of random people within town.
As they walked, Jiron's attention was caught by a particular window where he saw the young demon he had a fling with since he got there.
"Sila?" he muttered, he was distracted by how pretty she lookee as she brushed her hair. Though, she may be one of the crazy cult people that were stuck in the intimacy pact too.
Nyxith stared through the window of a distant room, where she saw a figure lying in a cot. When he sat up, it was Kraxil with a ice bag on his still swollen face.
"Bilbo," he called out for the goat, not knowing they were on the other side.
Bilbo let out a mournful bleat, standing on his hind legs as he stared at his father in bed looking for him.
"So he does understand," Jiron whispered, then he touched the top of Bilbo's head. "Don't worry, we'll get you back to him soon."
As they continued, Bilbo moved forward with careful steps. Also, weary of whatever was lurking in the shadows, now Jiron was even more sure that the librarian was somewhere in here. They all passed another window, a french casement window where they saw Kapri pacing her room
She sighed, then paused, as her gaze settle towards them. It didn't seem she could see them though. At least they thought so.
"Can she see us?" Kavi wondered as she reached out toward the glass. To her surprise, her fingers pressed against the surface, and Kaprice seemed to done the same at the same time. In a blink, the window flew opened and she tumbled out right on top of Kavi.
"Kavi," Kaprice said, looking very surprised and startled as she looked down on her junior. "Are you okay? And where are we? In some weird ass pocket dimension?"
Before Jiron could respond, it seemed like an alarm came on. Everything glowed a deep blue and a distant, echoing scuttling caught all their attention. Followed by a low, rumbling voice that made the ground tremble.
"BARONESS KAPRICE SANAA VOSS IS NOT ALLOWED IN THE LIBRARY!"
Bilbo's eyes went wide, and he bolted down the hallway. Kaprice tried to opened the window she fell out of, but it wouldn't budge. Then she burst it with her elbow, for it to just reveal the wall on the other side.
The voice rumbled even louder. Seemingly more upset by her vandalism. "KAPRICE VOSS, GET OUT!"
"I'm trying!" Kaprice yelled back angrily. Jiron grabbed Kapri under his arm, and urged Nyxith and Kavi forward as they sprinted after Bilbo.
"What the hell did you do, Kaprice?" Jiron asked informally as he tossed her over his shoulders as the enraged voice continued roaring behind them.
Kaprice hummed in deep thought. "Honestly, nothing I can remember. I'm sure it has something to do with Dazriel or Ose."
Behind them, Kapri could see stretched out arm from the distance emerging from the shadows. Even from so far away she could tell the librarian was enormous.
"BARONESS KAPRICE SANAA VOSS IS NOT ALLOWED IN THE ELIUDIRÍA LIBRARY!"
They ended up to Bilbo scratching desperately at a door. Nyxith reached it first as she wrenched it open. Jiron all but shoved them inside and slammed the door closed as he twisted the closing the door's lock just as the librarian's stampeded by like a train.
All of them held their breathe, until her voice faded. Jiron fell back against the wooden floor as he stared up at Kapri.
"Did you die, Sergeant?" she said seeing annoyed by his glare.
"Woah, where are we?" Kavi said leaning against the window as they found themselves in the small space of a forest watchtower and forestation all around.
The watchtower stood near the edge of a serene riverbank and a grand waterfall that casacaded down nearby from a cliff. It mist making the air around them quite moist.
Jiron blinked, as he sat up and walked towardd the window. "Are we…back in the middleworld?" he asked.
Kaprice folded her arms over her chest, quite unimpressed. "A pocket dimension within a pocket dimension?" she chuckled. "Seems like we found ourselves against a Paragon guys. Dazriel set us up quite badly."
Jiron sighed, watching Bilbo as he pranced happily near the water's edge. He already have descended. "Believe me, it wouldn't have been my first choice to come if I knew."
"I can't say it may not have been mine," Kapri said gleaming down onto the waterfall with excitement about taking Countess Lirael's life.
Jiron felt uneasy, because Kapri is becoming more blood thirsty by the minute. And to fight someone who she knows can make dimensions like these for some reason. I wanna go home.