Lies & Labyrinths

It wasn’t that it was a bad class, per se, but it was a class with Arleigh. The four other students in the class, all older than Lilith, all clearly using it as a blow-off class had thought the same thing. They were spread out in the classroom, three Alphas and a Beta, and had managed to break off into their self imposed social structure. The alphas were up front, stretched out lazily across their chairs, smiling and talking with Arleigh. The Beta, Alm, a boy she had seen in her first period class, seemed to have taken the smart decision to be in the corner of the room with a book not bothering to look up. That left Lilith at the back.

“Oh, Lilith!” Arleigh said as she entered. “Grab a seat if you’d like, but we’ll be going to the library as soon as the bell rings. The others know their instructions.”

Arleigh then turned back to the other students, continuing on with their conversation. Lilith picked up bits and pieces, something about an athletic or academic game. Something with magic. She found it somewhat intriguing, and sat not too far away, listening.

“What strategies have you been trying this season?”

“Reactive spells. When the three of us are together, we strengthen one another.”

“Should we be talking about this in front of other students?”

“What, a Beta and a Delta? We’ll be fine.”

Lilith felt a burning flash of shame and anger, glaring daggers into the back of the skull of the Alphas.

The bell rang, thankfully, and the Alphas stood, walking away as a trio. The beta followed shortly after, reading their book and ignoring everything else.

“You could learn a lot from them.” Arleigh said with that smug smile still plastered on his lips as he looked between the Alphas and Lilith.

“What, how to be complete asses?”

“No, how to be model students, how to be the future of aetherical academia as we know it. They remind me much of myself.”

“You were an Alpha?”

“Well, no.” Arleigh admitted. “I was a Beta. But! I was taken in under the wing of a group of young alphas just like that! Why, I daresay it was their recommendation that got me my position here. Which is why you will be receiving nothing but my esteemed tutelage this quarter.”

“Oh Monsieur Arleigh, I am so excited. What ever will we be learning in Scrollmaking?”

“We shall be learning the art of storing spells!”

“Oh, we won’t be making scrolls? I had gone the day thinking this would be a lesson about scrolls and the making thereof.”

“Yes my dear, because scrolls are the optimum way of storing a spell for later use. And that is what you shall be doing in detention, every day, for the rest of the year. Now, follow me. It is time to see the place you will be getting most acquainted with the rest of your academic tenure.”

There was beauty to behold in the library. A short brisk walk out a side door, it floated in its own accord on the north part of the school, a large hemisphere with a teal some that reminded Lilith of the fairy tale stories of dragons and their scales. It would be described to her later as a rotunda, the dome at the top with the heavy pillars from the southern entrance a beautiful view.

Lilith followed the others, a slow pace as she looked about in wonderment. It was the single most impressive building she had ever encountered, and it just kept getting beautiful the further she explored.

Inside the rotunda, in the central wing, a row of cabinets not unlike a museum held glass boxes with various artifacts on display. They were breathtaking.

The first, a piece of art in the shape of a tree, formed with what appeared to be intricate wooden laces to reconstitute the shape of the drakewood from which it was fashioned.

After that had been a beautiful embroidered piece of fabric, bright scarlet with gold threaded embroidery around the edges. The dimensions themselves seemed off; it was lopsided and seemed to twist through itself. It also floated in its own place, with its own sense of direction; nothing held it aloft inside the case

Beyond that, a brass orb with strange patterns and loops carved into it, with a ruby and agate were inserted and smoothed into the face of the orb, much like the iris of an eye.

And still, all of those objects paled in comparison to that last object in the case nearest the center of the entrance. It looked like a needle, long and silver, twisted metal that seemed to vibrate inside the case. There was a strange ring to it, one that grew in pitch the closer that Lilith stepped. Her heart raced.

“What is that?” Lilith whispered. It was the only thing she even thought to ask of.

“That my dear is the Silver Needle. One of the legendary artifacts, The Ninety-Nine Blessings, objects given a fraction of power held by a prior Emperor of Sulore. As are the others.”

Lilith’s eyes lingered on it, then passed onward.

At the forefront of the room were a dozen desks with scrolls and inkwells, located nearest to the head librarian’s desk, an elderly woman with curly hair dyed a bronze shade, and thick glasses on a heavy chain. She very well may have been the first librarian ever.

At the center of the room, a tree of floating lanterns hung. It gathered the light from the center of the dome where glass scales had been cleverly disguised amongst the other plates. The branches budded with small bulbs that bloomed with direct light on the leaves. When one had fully matured, it floated off the tree, beginning a lazy path of illumination as it floated down one of the many, many rows of bookshelves.

The Alphas approached the tree, each shouting one word each. “Synchronization!” They bellowed. Three lanterns popped off of the tree, a bit of iron root hanging down like a handle. Each grabbed their own respective lantern as it passed, and up the three were pulled into the air and off to their requested location. The beta soon followed, muttering “dispells”, and a different lantern grew, taking him straight up before depositing somewhere down the eastern hall.

“Lucinus Quersis. Lantern Oak. Impressive, no?” Arleigh was beaming, looking between the tree and Lilith.

Lilith didn’t want to give the man the satisfaction.

“I’ll be serving detention here?”

“Yes, right here in the center.” Arleigh pointed to one of the desks.

“But that is for after class. Here, step up.”

Arleigh approached the Lantern Oak, adjusting his collar where his tie clipped beneath his robe. “Spell storage.” He turned to look at Lilith. “Just like that, no mumbling.” The lantern sprouted, floating to Arleigh, who grabbed hold and began to float away.

“Spell...storage?” Lilith repeated. The lantern tree sprouted a matching illuminated carrier, floating her way. “Just like holding on to a tree branch…” Lilith told herself, grabbing hold and closing her eyes.

It was a strange feeling, being suspended by something that didn’t seem to be able to hold your own weight. The lantern bobbed and weaved in the flow of the lights like a buoy to an invisible current, lifting Lilith up as she gripped the handle with all her might, her invisible hand clenching her left hand to the ironwood for her. The height gave a better view of the rows as Lilith passed, which set her stomach sinking in an entirely different way altogether. The building seemed bigger on the inside, with what seemed to be miles of books, with lanterns bobbing to and fro for light source and the occasional armchair. One could get lost down here, it was almost labrynthian.

The lantern pulled to the right and away they went, Arleigh a few lanterns ahead, watching her every movement. He balanced the fine line between proud teacher and stern punisher, as if she could get up to any more trouble than being careened through the air beneath a bobbing floating box of light. The lantern began to fade as they approached their destination, disappearing and dropping Lilith to the ground in a soft feather-like float, a few feet from Arleigh.

“How do you get back?”

Arleigh gestured about. “Just grab one and name your next destination.”

“That must be rather handy.”

“It is, especially during your capstone. This is the very section I spent most of my days, nights, and in-betweens. I had my first breakdown not far from where you’re standing!”

“You’re far too enthused about that, Monsieur Arleigh.”

“Okay, that does it.” Arleigh huffed. “Why have you refused to refer to me as professor this entire time?”

“Golly, maybe it’s because you’ve refused to treat me like a student?”

“Because you aren’t one!” The man’s face had a way of turning bright red beneath his spectacles at a rather fast pace. It was impressive, really. “Others have worked hard in their lives to get here, and you just… just…”

“Just what?”

“You lied. You forged. And you deserve to be punished.”

“Punished? You’re the one who gets to decide who deserves to be punished!?” Lilith’s voice hovered somewhere between laughing and cracking.

“Why...Yes. I am in fact the adult here.”

“Well you could have fooled me!”

Arleigh turned, yanking a book off the shelf and shoving it into Lilith’s torso. She grabbed it, taking a step back and glaring.

“This- is your homework. The steps to scrollmaking, with included instructions of a proper fire-ball. You’re going to be learning the finer ways of this book, and then you’re going to be spending the rest of the year copying someone else’s work. Should be right up your alley, hmm?” Arleigh smirked. “Central hall!” He called, a lantern dipping down to his hand and lifting him off.

“When you finish gawping and glaring, I’ll be at my desk!”

She wanted to scream. Lilith Lavoi settled for gritting her teeth and clenching her fist hard enough to press her nails into the flesh and leave marks along the palm lines therein. That had been the toughest lesson yet, somehow: That you could never earn the respect of some people, and that some people made it their life’s decision to determine who needed that respect.

But she wasn’t done gawping and glaring, and so Lilith set to wander. Curiosity ate at her to at least look at the book, but she fought against it, tucking it under her arm and marching forward, along a soft scarlet and maroon carpet with varying diamond patterns, and the occasional armchair with accompanying lantern roosting on a table.

There was also an assistant librarian, scrawny and lanky, and, well, green. She recalled him from Twixtfeather's, though she couldn't place a name to his pea soup colored face. The boy pushed along a cart that had four lanterns tied to its handles, helping to keep aloft a cart that was overflowing with misplaced books. The assistant, no more than Lilith’s age, smiled and nodded, tipping his rather large circular glasses in greeting.

“Oh. hi.” she said, blinking. “Who are you?”

“Sam Douse.” the boy said. “I help out here after lunch.”

“Are you a student?”

“Yeah, a D-D-D”

“Delta?”

“The boy blushed and nodded, giving an embarrassed smile. “Yeah, a D-Delta.”

“I’m Lilith Lavoi.”

“I kn-kn-know. I saw the a-a-a, the assem-sem-sem… -the ceremony. That was cool.”

“Thanks. I can do more, but I didn’t know that’s what they wanted me to do, y’know?”

“Yeah, definitely.” The half-orc boy agreed without thinking. “So, what are you studying here today?”

“Oh, it’s-” Lilith pulled the heavy tome away, reading the leatherbound cover with some disdain. “My First Spellscroll.”

Oh she was so going to get Arleigh back.

“Oh that’s a g-g-g-good one. Covers all the b-b-b-basics. All kids r-r-r-read that one.”

“Really?”

“Y-y-yeah. The Alphas also u-u-used it to learn alongside their A-A-A-B-B-”

“Their alphabet, got it. Well, it was nice meeting you Sam.”

“See you in d-d-detention.” he said, waving.

“You too?”

“Every day.” He smiled, grabbing a book and going back to sorting the wall, one book at a time.

The book was good, even if it was for babies. She read it as she chose to walk back to the center of the library, flipping through as she walked. Each page had step by step instructions to every placement of the spell. There were rules, it seemed, as to what went where. It was fascinating. Lilith thought of her arm, and how easily The Knave had edited whatever had been stolen, giving it different flourishes. Maybe the Alpha trio were on to something, maybe there was something to synchronization.

She sat the book down on the table, glancing over to her right where Arleigh stood leaning over the desk of the Librarian, who seemed rather annoyed with his conversing. Good, he wasn’t paying attention to her.

Lilith practiced turning the page with her ghost hand, and writing sigils with her right hand. She found it came much easier than anticipated, slowly overcoming the pressure of learning writing with her recessive hand.

She finished the steps as instructed, curling the parchment up and tying it with a red string before setting it aside.

“Well done, you’ve managed to complete your first spell. Let’s see how you did.”

Lilith hadn’t even noticed Arleigh’s approach. He grabbed the scroll off the table, untying the ribbon and reading quietly to himself before nodding.

“Acceptable. With the right evocation, this would indeed cast. One down, Miss Lavoi.”

It was the first time Arleigh had called her as such. Lilith blinked. “Thank you, Professor.” She said.

“I expect to see a dozen more before the end of the evening.”

Lilith sighed, resigning herself to her fate. “Yes, Professor.”

That was how Lilith found her last class of the day much like her very first: With writing the same thing down, ad nauseum.

The bell rang some time later and the library briefly became the center point for the passing of a group of students. All of the first wave were Alphas, moving from the south entrance out through the north, some grabbing books along the way as they moved into whispers. Lilith felt every eye fall upon her that passed close to her desk, the feeling of shame washing over her yet again. She scooted her chair in, trying her best to focus on writing, wishing herself invisible. Eventually the tide of students ebbed, the current of people thinning out like the drip of a faucet until only a few errant drops of students wandered the piping of the halls of books. Lilith breathed a sigh of relief, taking the moment to stretch and wander before the next bell began and she had no choice but to continue.

She wandered the first floor, trying to locate Arleigh to try to weasel herself into a time killer that didn’t involve sitting still. She found him tucked behind a shelf of books with a small object that was displaying a holographic image of two men, one tall and lanky with a handlebar moustache, the other with a pot belly and crazed hair.

Arleigh seemed to be sweating. “Yes, I understand that you have been quite generous in our established-”

“HAH! Gen'rous?” The man with the handlebar moustache laughed. His voice was gruff, scratchy, and had all the qualities of someone familiar with lots of yelling, and lots of smoke. “That was not gen'rosity. That was merely the beginning of what you owe me. Now, we continue our business with you, we set the terms of our arrival. Our terms are that you bring the school to Mount Skjorna and let our council see our nephew. The school goes as it pleases, what is one more stop?”

“I’ll speak with the Vice-Headmaster.”

“You do that.”

Arleigh turned, starting to head her direction. Lilith ducked away, deciding that maybe it was for the best to not be noticed. It sounded like the kind of conversation one would be punished over eavesdropping.

That was when she saw a side door with the words Egress printed over it. Lilith turned to leave, when she was suddenly startled with a familiar intrusion, as The Knave of Spades appeared once more into Lilith Lavoi's life.