A Chance

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You can see Yoongi's movements are carefully controlled as he opens the massive door, his fingertips barely touching the stone, and a second later, you realize why – as the doors slowly open, grinding over the scratched stone to your feet, dust falls from above. The doors creak under the impact of Yoongi's push, no matter how careful he tries to be. They are of stone, thus unable to absorb pressure as well as wooden doors would, and furthermore intricately decorated. If Yoongi used more strength than he is, the stone would simply burst.

After he's slowly pushed the doors apart wide enough for you to slip through, he pauses, as if he's considering letting you go first, but then he decides against it and walks into the room first.
For a moment, the silence of the old vault engulfs you. It gives you a feeling of calm and peace that you haven't felt in a long time and that you know will be disrupted soon enough. You take a quiet, deep breath, because you have a feeling you'll need it, and then you slip through the door.

The tension that fills the library feels like a giant boulder is being dropped on you, intense enough to make your knees buckle. Everyone looks up from their documents when you enter, five pairs of red eyes and two silver and gold respectively staring you down with shocking sobriety.
You take another shallow breath.
The only eyes that are dark are Yoongi's. He's joined Namjoon, who leisurely rests in a comfortable chair made of thick, red velvet, a book wider than his chest resting on his legs. He flips its pages with lazy flicks of his hands. The other demons are scattered across the room, most sat on comfortable chairs and sofas themselves, only Jin and Hoseok are standing, skimming through the rows upon rows of backs of books as if they're looking for something.

You search for your familiars. Daimon is difficult to miss, rolled into a ball of black fur on a couch next to Taehyung. His eyes are still missing their original, bright silver color and staring into space blankly, but he is awake. His ears are twitching, as if he's trying to determine the happenings within the room with his sense of listening.
Heishe, however, is nowhere to be seen. It takes a second for you to hear the quiet rustle of his scales high, high above you, and when you look up, you can't help a gasp.

The library is lofty – shelves reaching so far up into the darkness of the stone it is made of that even your demonic eyes struggle to see their end, filled with thousands of books of, undoubtedly, thousands of topics. While the shelves' lower ends are carved from dark, hard wood, at some point higher up, they become stone, just as intricately hewn and decorated as the doors that guard this place. Each shelf is framed by two slim columns at the side which also turn to stone further up, and there's so many of them that navigating through them could be confusing, despite the room not being too large. Candles are lighting it up, mounted to the shelves' columns until mid-height, where they stop, leaving the top part of the shelves unlit. They are undoubtedly lit by magic, because if real fire was to come close to those books, they would burn immediately.

And beneath the arched ceiling of the library, almost invisible against the dark stone, you can see the shift of black scales, catching the light of the flames far beneath them every now and then in a quick, orange flicker. The dragon is smaller than usual, as if he adjusted his size to fit the confined space, his body curling around the columns.

"My Queen", he says. His voice is quieter than usual, but still thunderous, filling the entire room as his body moves again and his head appears from the darkness, lowering from the height he was at. When his snout appears in front of you, still massive despite his smaller size, you lift your hand and pet its softer scales.
"I'm back", you say quietly, and your greeting seems to satisfy the dragon, as he pulls back his head a little to look at you with an intense, golden glow in his eyes.
You smell of him, he notes, merciful enough to choose the inaudible way of communicating with you.
Is he the one you chose?
His question baffles you, but you're not willing to discuss this here and now. I don't know, you answer. And for now, it's none of your concern.

The familiar's eyes narrow, as if your reply displeases him, but he doesn't press further. Instead, he lifts his head and returns to his patrol around the tops of the shelves.
"What are you doing?", you ask, this time aloud, directing your question at everyone in the room.

"We're researching", Namjoon says, closing the book in his lap with a soft clap and looking at you.
"Researching what?", you continue your questioning. Sometimes the fact that the demons give ambiguous answers is really unnerving.
"Your friend's little gift", Taehyung says. Instead of a book, he has a single sheet of paper in his hands, and it doesn't seem like he is researching much at all. "He told us about his ability to, well..." His lips curl into a sleazy grin at the edges. "Regurgitate souls."
"A little more respect", Jin says, shooting him a sharp glance. "None of this thought this possible, and if it weren't for Jinlong, we would be at the Ayabbi's mercy. Keep that in mind."
Jinlong, you think. So the others don't address him like I do.
Taehyung's gaze darkens, but he doesn't retaliate. Instead, he turns back to you. "Be that how it may, Jinlong has not done this before and while he technically knows how it works, we wanted to make sure we don't miss anything. Anything that could", he grimaces, "kill us or damn us for eternity, you know."

"And we're looking for ways to kill the Ayabbi", Hoseok adds, pulling a book from the shelf in front of him and opening it. "Not that we don't know how to kill demons, but apart from Yoongi, none of us have ever fought one of them, so we'd like to find some information on their powers and such."

Their words make you cringe inside. You feel guilty at the though that you've just been indulging in pleasure for Lucifer knows how long while the others have been down here the whole time, trying to find a way to escape the dilemma that, ultimately, you brought upon them.
"I'm sorry for taking so long", you mumble.

"Don't you worry." Jin's words are filled with a smile as he looks up from his book and cocks his head slightly to the side. They immediately elevate your feeling of shame. "There's only so many people you can cram into this library, and some of these books are difficult to read even for us. It was good of you to rest." His tone changes at the last word, but it's so subtle that you're not sure if the others noticed it at all.
The oldest's glance flickers towards Yoongi, who is still standing next to Namjoon. "You, however", he slowly says, "we could've used. You know you're the only one of sufficient knowledge in Qaay." Without looking, he reaches for a book on an ornate glass table next to him, picks it up and tosses it towards Yoongi, who elegantly catches it.
"Take this, for a start", Jin says, and Yoongi just slightly nods in response. You're not sure if he feels bad as well, but the way he confidently walks across the room to find himself an empty seat, sits down and opens the book doesn't seem particularly sorry.

"And me?", you ask, unsure of what to do next. There are thousands of books in the shelves around you and you're not sure if you can even read any of them. Jin pauses, as if he himself doesn't know, but the silence doesn't stay uninterrupted for long.
"You don't need to do anything", Yoongi says, eyes glistening red as he looks up from the pages he just read. "In fact, none of you do. I've found what we're looking for. Well - at least the more important issue", he adds. 
The entire room halts for a moment. The first to move is Heishe, lowering his giant head until it hovers above Yoongi. "Show me, youngling", he demands and Yoongi, as much as the address irritates him, lifts the book higher to show the dragon the page.

Heishe finally lets out a deep breath while the rest of the demons close their books and send them to their respective places with a snip of their fingers or a wave of their hands. You wonder why they got up to check the shelves at all.
"I must thank you, as you and your collection of books have been incredibly helpful", the dragon rumbles, indicating a small bow with a nod of his head. "In return, you shall receive what we so direly need." His eyes flicker in your direction and you return his glance.
We have a chance, you think as the dragon turns away from you and raises his head. Finally, we have chance.
Heishe's jaws open, letting out a gush of hot air before his next words.

"I will do as I promised. I shall give you my souls." 

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