Ruler of the Mind

10 Misty

Thursday morning, the grey dragons' personal effects arrived, and Misty forgot about dinner out with Winter or her friends as she got lost in helping sort and catalog the donations to the library from all the cargo pods. The magical items she left alone. Her gift was sufficient to warn her of the things that were not what they seemed to be. It might have even been the first time in her life that she thought of her ability as a gift rather than a curse.

Andrei and Nadine had left on the mission to rescue Cerie, the Leaindeail Oracle from the Wizard's Circle, leaving the library a bit short-staffed. Misty didn't think of complaining about a mission similar to the one that had rescued Brenda and her from a house of horrors in Phoenix. If she pondered that episode in her life at all it brought back blushing memories of her romps with Winter in the middle of the night.

Losing hands made for a longer job with just her and Artie and occasionally Fox. The library desperately needed more librarians and inventory specialists. Fox had even been grumbling about it. Still, she certainly had job security for the foreseeable future. That wasn't something to worry about.

Fox waited for Javier and Luke to return from a look at a cave on the new property the Inner Circle had bought as hunting grounds and was handling some of Luke's email replies. So that meant for a little while it was just herself and Artie. Misty didn't shy away from the work any more than Artie did and for a mere human she kept up well with the old immortal.

Scorch arrived with a woman named Moon at nine in the morning and began helping right away. That took some of the pressure off. The more hands the merrier was a thought that made her blush when she considered how it applied to what Winter had done to her with his. She had to shake away those errant thoughts when Scorch approached to ask questions.

Misty relaxed when she saw his desire to work and his obvious attention to the woman with him. She didn't want to be afraid of strange men, but she wasn't comfortable around them yet. Time and good men were helping. Having a late-night fantasy lover was aiding her confidence as well.

Tala and Valerie pitched in later, moving things around and helping sort some of the documents for scanning. Having the two ulfheonar women made working with the man, Scorch, a bit easier. Safety in numbers and all that.

In retrospect, it was strange that She had no issue with spending quality time all alone with Winter but still shied away from other men. Even Fox who always acted like a kindly old uncle toward her was a bit scary, and he'd been the one to offer her the job as a librarian.

The shipping containers had to be cleared from the driveway because Scorch had sent for his hoard as well. It was arriving Friday morning. So many of the dragons and the dragonsworn were ferrying items into the house and personal spaces in the university housing. That helped lessen the enormity of the project, but the bulk of the books, artifacts, and scrolls was streaming into the library.

The day wore on. Misty had to remind herself to saty focused. As she grew tired, thoughts of Winter and whether she might see him that night returned. It was ludicrous to be so obsessed with an imaginary character.

News arrived that two Demon Lord brothers had met with Javier and Luke when Fox returned. The cave they had gone to investigate had been remodeled with a port into the lower realms being added, and Draoithe had new allies from the Netherworld.

The library functioned as a library should. It was a hub of information, the kind stored in books and scrolls on the shelves and the kind twittered as gossip amongst the people in the room.

When she became as fond of storytime as the dragons all seemed to be, she wasn't sure. That didn't change the fact that she had been eavesdropping, reading, and picking up on strange tidbits of conversation for days. Ever since Winter had invaded her dreams. Did her mystery lover have something to do with that?

She hadn't even known a Netherworld existed much less an Ainglean until two days ago. She'd never even wondered if places like other realms could exist.

Working for an immortal library that contained information on all the magic in the dream even if much of it had yet to be sorted, meant that Misty had an overwhelmingly vast amount of knowledge at her fingertips. That wasn't even mentioning all the different immortals she could likely see and learn from.

She smiled at herself as her mind placed a heavy emphasis on the overwhelming word. She wouldn't live to study it all. She would need an eternity and then might not be able to learn it all.

Eli arrived and helped for a while after lunch but left for an appointment with Ursala at two. Choir practice would begin Sunday, and Draoithe was about to get gazebos. People still walked into the library to do research even though it was only partially set up. It seemed as if the work never ended.

Fury arrived again with a pretty ice blue-haired girl with striking orange eyes looking for information on female dragons. Sky must be the one all the buzz was about. Fury was sure that she was a queen of dragons, whatever that was. She helped him find a few texts that they'd managed to catalog and promised to send word if more was discovered.

Fury thanked her and that made her a bit shy and uncomfortable before he and Sky left. Her memories of Winter eased that away when she took a short break later and remembered what they'd shared in the nights she'd dreamed of him.

She wondered why she hadn't seen him recently? If she imagined him, shouldn't he just show up whenever she wanted him to? The work in the library was important and she went back to work still questioning the existence and her seeming obsession with a man she had never seen.

There was too much work even with the help that arrived for her to even consider a true lunch or dinner break. And her plans to get away were somehow once more placed on the back burner. Maybe she could escape in another day or two. Time was passing and life was improving.

Thanks for reading Ch 10. Please be kind and leave a comment and let an old tiger know your thoughts. Sincerely, -OK