My mind wouldn't let go of yesterday's events, the haircut, the question, thoughts that plagued me as I leaned on the balcony to the courtyard. Scarlet wasn't there when I woke up, in fact I hadn't seen her at all since then. I couldn't believe how childish I acted around her, telling her how badly I wanted to sleep in her bed, that I broke her mirror because I didn't like what I saw in it. That mirror couldn't have been cheap, especially not in a world like Ennath, I had to make it up to her somehow.

  As I thought about how to help Scarlet a familiar red figure entered the courtyard. She had a piece of paper in her hands, and was wearing all sorts of exploration gear, the same kind I had for the cave. For a second I hesitated to move wondering if I should even talk to her after what I did, but in the end I made my way to the staircase to confront her.

  “Scarlet.” She turned her head to me obviously not expecting to see me. “I'm sorry.”

  “There's nothing to be sorry about.” Scarlet gave me that same warm tone even though I knew she was lying.

  “Yes there is! You've been avoiding me because of what I did.” Before I could think about what I was saying the words came out of me as a shout.

  A few people in the courtyard turned their heads to me before going back to their day as if I didn't exist. My cheeks blushed at the faux pas, embarrassment from my outburst that my body wouldn't let me ignore.

  “Can we talk about this somewhere else?” Scarlet asked me and I nodded as I led her back to my room. As soon as the both of us were in my room I immediately closed the door and sat on the wooden slab of a bed.

  “About yesterday, I'm sorry for-” I tried to apologize again for what I'd done to her.

  “Like I told you, there's nothing to be sorry about, it's nobody's fault okay?” Even now Scarlet didn't let up the nice persona.

  “Okay…” My voice was meek and quiet, I doubted Scarlet believed my words. “Where have you been Scarlet? I've been looking around the inn for days.” I tried my best to pivot from the uncomfortable topic.

  “Do you know what an adventurers guild is?” I shook my head and noted the lack of her question from two nights ago.

  “Well it's this place where people like Kael and Damian go to get jobs to do stuff, killing monsters, investigating ruins, all kinds of stuff. And I found this request to find a book in an ancient library! Apparently all kinds of books can be found there, maybe even spell books!” The more Scarlet talked the more excited she sounded.

  “And?” I wasn't sure why she'd go on a job after the hell she went through underground.

  “It's magic, honest to God magic, aren't you excited about it too?” Scarlet was basically bursting with enthusiasm.

  “The novelty wore off after a couple of days, it's just a replacement for gunpowder for me.” The only things I'd ever used weaving for was for killing monsters and making light.

  “It can be so much more! It can heal people, make fireballs, it can even fly if you master white gems! The possibilities are only limited by your gems and the constellations in the sky!” I wasn't sure what to say to Scarlet's unapologetic optimism so I got to the point.

  “Is there anything I can do to help you Scarlet? For the broken mirror and the haircut.” I felt terrible for how I treated Scarlet, she only wanted to help me and I hurt her.

  “The haircut was free and the mirror was an accident, you don't have to do anything.” My parents always taught me to help people when I hurt them, they always made me repay them.

  “Please, just let me do something to help you.” I basically pleaded for Scarlet to let me do anything to repay her.

  “Alright, fine. You can come with me and Damian on our job, help carry stuff, nothing that would get you hurt.”

  “Thank you Scarlet, I promise I won't get in your way.” If I just did this one mission then I wouldn't owe Scarlet any favors.

  —

  Damian, Scarlet and I were all walking through the forest giving me an immense sense of deja vu. The last time I'd been in here was when we were lugging Kael back to Rosurnan and now we were back in it, although heading in a completely different direction. Apparently this library was a lot closer than the cave and we wouldn't need to make camp until tomorrow after the job. The two of them blabbered on and on about Earth, Ennath, cars, and magic. The conversation wasn't interesting to me so I just tuned it out while we walked to the library.

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  “What does the library look like?” As I said the words I realized how quiet I was.

  “Apparently it's this huge underground complex made by a civilization that existed hundreds of years ago!”

  “If it's underground how are we supposed to find-” Just as I was about to ask Scarlet a question I stubbed my foot on something metallic.

  I almost faceplanted into the ground before Scarlet caught my bag, my face was less than an inch away from the cold rusted metal below me. As Scarlet pulled me back up I realized what it was I was actually looking at. It was an ornate silver hatch in pristine condition for being in the middle of a forest. I wouldn’t have even registered it as a hatch if it wasn’t for the handle that I tripped on.

  “That, is how we find it.” Damian gave me an annoyingly smug grin.

  He approached the hatch and seemingly used all of his strength to lift it up completely. The hatch landed with a thud as Damian dropped it over the open patch of grass where its hinges left. Peering into the hatch I saw a ladder leading deep underground and dozens of magical lights following it down. Damian began climbing down before Scarlet followed after him. With no other choice I followed down the hatch.

  The descent into the library didn't take nearly as long as I thought it would, only taking a few minutes before we hit the bottom. My feet settled onto bright oak panels in a room surrounded by empty shelves and doors to other parts of the library with only what I could assume were more books. The room was lit up by seemingly electrical lights, a warm light orange hue filled the area we stood inside, I never thought I’d be nostalgic for non-candlelit rooms.

  “Be careful and stay close to me, this dungeon has traps littered everywhere.” Damian said.

  “Dungeon? Isn't this just a library?” I was confused as to why Damian would call this place that.

  “Every ancient library, tomb, cave or even house with traps is by definition a dungeon to me.” He confidently said that as if it actually was what a dungeon was.

  While Damian and I were talking Scarlet was scouring the books with a scowl on her face.

  “None of these books are in English.” Scarlet talked about the books with an inquisitive tone.

  “Of course they aren't, they're all in Selukan.” Damian answered her non question.

  “What kind of language is Selukan?” Scarlet sounded genuinely intrigued.

  “It's the language we're speaking right now.” Damian was obviously wrong as we were all speaking English.

  “Really? Then that must mean that English and Selukan are the same languages when spoken!” I had no idea how Scarlet came to that conclusion but she sounded confident.

  “It's actually a very well documented phenomenon between wayfarers and those born on Ennath. There are probably some books about it in the library.”

  As the two of them chatted about Ennath I decided to look around the place. I opened one of the doors and was immediately flashed by a bright light as I opened it. My eyes adjusted and the view I saw was something out of a dream. A library literally as far as my eyes could see below me. There had to have been miles of shelves, tens of thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands of books just waiting to be read. The only way down to the library itself was through a pair or grand staircases.

  “How are we supposed to find one book in all of that?” I muttered the words to myself not expecting an answer.

  “Most of the library's been chartered and categorized already, all we need to do is avoid the traps, just follow my lead.” Damian said with complete confidence in himself.

  The three of us made our way through the library's winding bookshelves and pillars. I wasn't sure exactly where all the light came from in this place, but I was glad to not be stumbling in the dark or being forced to hold a gem for hours on end. Damian had a map in his hands just like when we were in the sewers although he was looking at it at least twice as much as before. He double or even triple checked if we were going the right way multiple times which didn't give me the most confidence in our safety. At one point we were at a crossroads for fifteen minutes before Damian finally decided to go left.

  “How long until we get to the book?” I was starting to get impatient.

  “It shouldn't be too long until we're in the section it's in, from there we'll split up and find it on the shelves. Here's a drawing of the letters on the spine, it's a purple book.” The sheet of paper Damian gave me looked like a bunch of distorted English letters, an R had a hook going out of the top and the E had four lines instead of three.

  “The book we’re looking for is apparently based off of this religious figure called the Didact! They say he was the first to use sparks and that when he died he gave everyone the ability to use sparks, isn't that cool?” Scarlet started talking about history again and I couldn't be bothered to respond, instead Damian did and the two of them started talking again.

  After an hour of listening to the two of them talking Damian finally stopped for the first time since the crossroads.

  “We're here.” He said it with a sense of finality and exasperation in his voice. “Start looking for the book, remember it's purple and don't touch any books without me, there are traps everywhere. Yell if you find it.”

  I almost rolled my eyes if it wasn't for the fact that I knew how dangerous Ennath was and some lunatic trapping a library wasn't too absurd. Looking through the books I realized how easy my job would be, there were barely any purple books, mostly browns, red, and black with the odd green every now and then. All the books' names were like jumbled up letters, it was like I was on the brink of knowing what they said with how closely they resembled English.

  Then a book caught my eye, it wasn't messed up like the others, no this one was different, it was in English. It was titled On the new world's magic. There was no author on the spine, maybe there was on the cover, but that would mean taking it out and touching it. I looked around me to make sure there was nobody nearby, for a second I contemplated not taking it but I couldn't just pass this up. Taking a deep breath I pulled the book out of the shelf and… nothing.

  Nothing happened!

  Turning the book I saw that it didn't have an author on the cover, nothing to indicate who wrote it. Flipping through a few pages I confirmed that it actually was in English, none of that gibberish that was Selukan. I quietly showed the book into my pack with a grin as I continued searching for the actual target of the mission.

  For half an hour I searched through the shelves, in total I hadn't seen a single purple book throughout the entire library. I decided to pick up my pace and keep looking for the purple book, the sooner we finished here the sooner we would leave. For a moment I almost decided to take a break from searching before I spotted it, a bright purple book in this deluge of similarly looking books. As I approached it I made sure it had the same symbols that Damian had given me and it did.

  “I found it!” I yelled out as loudly as I could, my voice echoed bounced around the empty halls and back to me before I got a response.

  “Stay right there!” Damian confirmed to me, he sounded distant.

  “Good job!” Scarlet gave me a compliment, she sounded close, maybe just a few shelves from me.

  I reached for the book, since the first one wasn't trapped then I doubted the second one would be.

  “Wait!” I turned my head to see Scarlet yell at me as she was running towards me but it was too late.

  My hand touched the book and I immediately felt a wave of dizziness hit me as if I'd been spinning for hours on end. I tried to slap myself to stop the dizziness but my arm wouldn't move, it was like it was paralyzed. Scarlet reached me in time just as I was… I was beginning to get drowsy.

  —

  I woke up with a start as I looked around me. Immediately I knew I wasn't in the library anymore, I was in checkered white sheets in an impossibly familiar child's bedroom. The slanted ceiling with glow in the dark stars glued onto them, the neon green alarm clock on the nightstand to my right. It was an impossibly lucid dream that couldn't possibly be real, it was my childhood bedroom.

  “Are you real?” A child's voice startled me as I looked to my right to see him.

  Staring at me was an eerily familiar nine year old boy that I knew all too well playing with a figurine that looked almost exactly like me.