Halfway down the moonlit hike down Bantaybungou, James realized that the trip to the Capital could be cut down in time and effort by using William's Gift to teleport to a place where he knows and has yellow. Thankfully, William vaguely remembered a yellow banner hanging outside a temple in the Rigein district from a short visit there years ago, and it took less than an hour for everyone to be brought over.
The temple might have been one of the grander ones, especially for one in the Capital's largest and most prosperous districts, but the wood was beginning to rot, and the golden yellow banner Will described had lost most of its vibrancy. Even if it would still take a few more hours for the sun to rise, the ragtag group of teens had no reason to worry about being spotted in such a destitute area of the district. Since no one had any money, everyone agreed to use the temple as a place to sleep and scheme.
While almost everyone claimed a spot on the old mats covering the temple's floor, Lucas met up with the Bookkeeper under the pale moon's light outside the temple's doors.
"Lead the way," they said. They had a tattered bag slung over their shoulder, but it was empty, probably because they were fine with adding "theft" to the list of crimes they were going to commit in the Capital.
It took Lucas a while to find the grander area of the Rigein district that the Capital was known for, leading the both of them down scary, rundown alleyways and by squished-together, rickety "houses''. Under the royal blue sky slowly gaining a pink tint, thugs and swindlers were just beginning to retreat to their dingy, dark holes where they could continue their business away from the world of light; Lucas grabbed the Bookkeeper and dragged them down a different route whenever he spotted such suspicious characters. Fortunately, soon enough, the massive scarlet towers of the Haoraine Palace were visible above the rest of the buildings in the area. The only problem, though, was how they were going to get past the walls and guards surrounding the palace grounds. Lucas vocalized these concerns, to which the Bookkeeper replied, "We could go through here." They gestured to an archway that led right into the palace gardens.
"Huh?" Lucas said. "When did that get there?"
The Bookkeeper just shrugged and entered the grounds. Lucas followed them, still bewildered, but also impatient to finally get to see the legendary royal library.
At some point, the massive ferns, trees, and flowers ate away their surroundings, forming walls around the pair and leaving only the sky in a swirl of several colours for Lucas to see. The Bookkeeper, on the other hand, pointed out the unique characteristics of certain plants in the garden and landscape design choices they heavily disagreed with. Lucas ended up learning about some beautiful but deadly plants, the difficulty of eradicating certain weeds, and the reasons for why some flowers in the garden were suffering.
"You really know a lot about plants."
The Bookkeeper shook their head. "I just learned all of that from Vaessen. She knew way more than I ever will."
With the mention of Vaessen, Lucas no longer had the heart to speak. The Bookkeeper understood.
Finally, the garden ended, and the pair could finally see a building on the grounds attached to the rest of the palace by a sheltered crimson walkway. Right away, the duo knew what was inside and raced to get to the door.
"I… hate you," the Bookkeeper huffed.
Lucas was leaning on the outside of the library, patiently waiting for them to catch up, and he wasn't tired at all. He opened the door and gestured for the Bookkeeper to go in first with a grin.
"It's… It's beautiful," they murmured once they were inside.
Lucas closed the door behind him and turned to look around. The Bookkeeper was right—the Library of Haoraine was beautiful. He already knew that, but each time he entered the grand space, it was like he was seeing it for the first time. The place was massive, more massive than any sane person could ever dream of, and it was filled with rows and rows of shelves that seemed to stretch on for eternity. It was like he had entered a maze specifically designed to trap him forever, and he was perfectly fine with that. This was the first time Lucas had been in the library at night, however, so now he could confirm that the ceiling was in fact just a painting, not made of glass. How was he supposed to tell when his visits were mostly illuminated by the gigantic windows lining the walls of books?
Every single one of Lucas' visits was an experience that was accompanied by an elated feeling that no human could name, but this time, a bittersweet sensation enveloped Lucas' heart. Not long ago at all, Lucas was in the middle of nowhere, promising his friend that he would accompany him to see this haven once all the chaos had died down. At the very least, Lucas was able to see the Bookkeeper witness the library's magnificence.
The Bookkeeper was long gone already, rushing down the aisles to spot any books that appealed to them. Lucas laughed softly and decided to take a look as well. Usually, he would head to the section with all of the scientific textbooks, covering everything from biology to physics to astronomy. However, this time, he decided to venture to a place he had never been to before—the books on philosophy.
There, he could barely make out the names "Marcus Aurelius", "Plato", and "Friedrich Nietzsche" in the dim hall. He had no idea of where to start, and no one was there to give him recommendations, so he just randomly picked two and moved on.
"Geez, how much did these guys ponder to make such heavy books?" Lucas muttered as he waddled over to find a table to sit down at. There was probably one in the next aisle, but he also needed some source of light to actually be able to read. If only he still had that one highly expensive lamp from home that provided blue light to keep him awake…
Lucas walked away, thinking of where he could find a lamp in the library. His thoughts were cut off, however, upon spotting another person ahead. There was no way that this person was the Bookkeeper—they were far too tall. Fear was the first thing that jolted through Lucas' veins, but after taking a moment to pay attention to this person's features, he was overcome with disbelief.
He wore newer, darker robes this time, but he still had that same dumb chocolate brown bowl cut, that clueless look in his snake-like eyes, and a book about philosophy in his arms. He blinked. "Lucas?"
"Jalen."
Lucas dropped his books to the ground. The slam of their leather covers on the marble floor echoed across the library. Lucas broke into a run, then to a jump, then to an embrace. Lucas' grip was as tight as a python's to ensure this moment would not slip away from him, and his hands refused to stay in one place on Jalen to ensure that this was in fact Jalen. Was this truly Jalen, his Jalen, stupid and alive as ever?
"Jalen," Lucas croaked out. "Jalen, Jalen, Jalen…"
He said his name again and again like he had been reduced to a babbling child and that was the only word he knew. He said it with the same intensity and desperation as a man on the brink of death begging his god for forgiveness, for hope. He said Jalen's name again and again until he couldn't bring himself to say it anymore.
He physically could not say it anymore.
Lucas felt a small, sharp pain in his back. Jalen had been hugging him back, but were his intentions the same as Lucas'? The sight of a ring glittering with scarlet on Jalen's finger was the confirmation that Lucas needed. That, and the growing numbness in his legs, the growing fog in his brain, and the warm, miniscule trickle of blood flowing down his back.
The sound of the Bookkeeper's screams was the last thing Lucas could comprehend before collapsing.
THE END OF BOOK ONE
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A/N
IT'S DONE IT'S FINALLY DONE OH MY GOD. After almost a year of procrastination and stress, I finished the fanfiction about myself and the people I know :').
Well, not completely. I know this left on a super abrupt note, but there's more, I swear, and it'll be better than whatever this is.
...
Hopefully.
Anyways, I'm bad at outros...
Bye.
YOU ARE READING
𝐎𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐃
Fantasy✦✧✧✧✧✦ ❝ i've been lost my whole life . this . . . this doesn't make that much of a difference . ❞ ✦✧✧✧✧✦ multiple teenagers were thrown out of their kingdom due to their unusual powers. many try to start new lives, but some wish to go ba...
