Dark Heart, Bright Eyes |ONC 2024|

*9*

Zara wondered if it was too late to just tell the truth and hope the owner of the odd voice would be more sympathetic than Alistair the ghost. Thunder cracked again, the rain still pouring down in heavy sheets.

Better not to risk it.

Cautiously, she ascended the spiraling staircase that had been indicated to her. A few steps from the top, she stood on tiptoe, hoping to catch a glimpse of the voice's owner before he saw her. A soft humming met her ears, the melody lilting and a bit off-key. She moved up the last few steps, glancing around the landing. The mezzanine was deeper than she had previously thought, shelves extending farther into darkness.

"Familiar contracts, biology, history or evolution?"

Zara turned to find a tall shadow tucked away between the stacks just to her left. Chewing the inside of her lip, she took a few steps forward, squinting to try and see more detail through the gloom. How could he read the titles in such thick shadows?

Monster, a snide voice in her head suggested.

Zara tried to take a discrete step back, not keen on getting too close until she knew what sort of threat he really posed. The shadow turned toward her, head tilted quizzically, and she realized she had never answered the question. "Umm...contracts but probably also something on the history of how the first contracts were devised and...the..."

"Evolution of which animals witches on a whole prefer as their companions?" he suggested.

Zara nodded, leaning back against the wood of the balustrade, peering down toward the ground floor. If she had to jump, the fall wouldn't kill her, but it would certainly hurt. 

"You'd break an ankle."

Zara whipped her head back to the shadow looming between the stacks, just to flinch back into the balustrade. He was no longer a shadow in the stacks, but a figure in front of her. She didn't realize until the man let out a low whistle that she had pulled something from her bag.

The wakizashi blade glimmered, silver and deadly, in the dim light between them. The runes scored along its back shifted and danced, trying to tune themselves to the threat before her.  

Half his face was still in shadow, the dim light revealing a mouth curled into a delighted smile and the sharp angle of his nose. He held a stack of books out to her with one hand, the other extended toward her, palm up.

"Trade."

Zara was brought up short, fingers tightening around the wakizashi's hilt, the leather wrap cool and solid in hand. "What?"

He flapped his waiting hand impatiently. "I want to see that. I've never seen something like that before. Knowledge is a currency, my dear menace. I am willing to trade."

Shrinking back, Zara's heart pounded hard in her chest as the balustrade pressed hard into her back. "I'm...not giving you my weapon. Are you crazy?"

"Jury is out on that," he said, lofting the books in his other hand up. They floated above his palm, twirling slowly in the air. Then, he snapped his fingers, making them disappear. Zara's mouth opened, then closed, eyes narrowing in aggravation. "I just want to look at it. It will be promptly returned."

"But I won't be able to find those books unless I let you."

"Not so much as a drop of ink, I'm afraid," he said, sounding anything but contrite. He flexed his fingers toward her. "Swear. I'll give it right back. What? Do you want a blood promise? I can do that. Just slice that pretty blade here and I'll swear on whatever god you fancy."

He extended his palm farther into the light. Zara glanced at his proffered fingers, brows drawing together. His hands were already wrapped in bandages, covering most of his fingers and disappearing up his wrist beneath the sleeve of his shirt.

"Do you require blood promises any time a student needs a book?"

His head tilted down, lips drawing into a line of confusion. Then, a soft, "Ah!" He flexed his fingers and tilted his hand, showing bandages soiled with small blotches of blood across the ridge of his knuckles. He huffed a laugh through his nose. "The grimoires...some of them bite."

"You're...the librarian?"

"Whatever gave you that idea, dear menace?" He laughed again, nodding. His fingers stretched once more to the wakizashi, which vibrated in Zara's hand, runes still shifting madly like they couldn't decide which was the most appropriate configuration.

Zara tilted it away from him, taking a step back toward the stairs. "Will you come into the light?"

"Does the light keep the monsters away?" he asked in a stage-whisper. Then he sighed, taking a long step toward the balustrade and the shaft of golden light there. He spread his arms to the side, on display, head tilted to the side. "Worth it? Hm? Or should I have stayed in the dark? Ghastly things belong there, don't they?"

Ghastly wasn't exactly the first word that came to mind as Zara looked at him.

He was tall and slender, but not skinny or sickly looking. The shoulders beneath his dark coat hinted at strength as did the neat line of his legs and waist. He was neatly dressed in a dark suit, a silver chain dangling across the front of his waistcoat. 

His hair was dark, messy but not overlong and just...

Was he blind?

Zara tilted her head, trying to decide if that really was a bandage wrapped across his eyes as well, or simply a trick of the light.

He was decidedly handsome, even if he was also decidedly weird. 

"Has this satisfied, dear menace, or is there another condition you would have me meet before you hand that delightful little blade to me? Temporarily," he said, stressing the last word.

Zara chewed on her tongue, eyeing the strange man, eager as a child reaching for sweets. He was impossibly odd, that was for sure. Odd and...a bit creepy, with the bandages covering what seemed to be a good deal of him.

Still...he was not...hostile. Zara sensed no threat from him, in either his posture or his tone.

Simply curiosity and an overwhelming desire to satisfy that curiosity to the detriment of any social niceties. 

Zara's fingers loosened slightly on the blade, the librarian's smile growing. "The books," she said flatly. "And you can only look for a minute."

He snapped his fingers, the books thumping to the ground at Zara's feet. "A minute is more than enough, menace."

"And you have to stay right here next to me," she amended, reversing her grip on the knife so she held it by the spine of the blade, slowly extending the hilt toward him.

"But of course." He snatched at the weapon, holding it up to the light.

Locks of dark hair fell away from his face, revealing that he was in fact...blind. Or...at least blinded by the layers of gauze wrapped snuggly around his eyes. Zara bounced nervously from foot to foot, nearly gasping when he ran his fingers gingerly over the bladed edge.

He muttered to himself, seeming to peer down at his fingers, which had somehow managed to escape the edge unscathed. Then, his head came up, fingers taping excitedly against the runes, which were still writhing around.

"From the land of Osamu?" he asked, taking a step forward.

Zara danced back out of instinct and he stopped short. After a moment, he cleared his throat and repeated the question. Zara nodded, throat a little too dry to risk using her voice lest it give away her nerves.

"Hm," he hummed in delight, once again drawing his thumb down the blade. This time, a small, weeping red line was opened on the pad of the thumb. He gasped in delight, tilting the blade so the runes showed clearly, glittering triumphantly. "It breaks enchantments. Peels away protective spells." His shoulders raised high in excitement as he handed the blade back to her.

Threading his bandaged fingers together in front of him, he beamed at her. "There are your books, simply call if you need anything more. That trade has bought you quite a bit of my knowledge, menace."

With that, he turned and disappeared back into the stacks, leaving Zara alone and bewildered on the balustrade. 

Word Count: 1348

Total: 9,165