To Pattis' surprise, he finished all his chores with time to spare. He even had a quarter of an hour to sit down and write a list of things he needed to bring to the makeshift lab in addition to what he had left tucked in the railing cubby. Fortunately, the cubby turned out to be large enough to fit even the storm simulator, so he only had to carry back a few books and equipment that he didn't have room for the day before.
The spare time would be a welcome change from the day before if not for the fact that most of it were saved in the food distribution line. There was significantly less produce given away and he felt guilty for the wishes he had in the morning. There may very well be no lavis left in Dumadari soon. Too soon. He got half the usual portion today but gave half of that to a woman who arrived too late and found nothing but empty boxes. She represented the majority. He had never seen such a number of the tiny brown specks of hungerspren zipping up and down the streets.
He expected to find the soulcaster running the length of the stairs when he got to its base, but he was the first to arrive this time. That troubled him. He was sure Juliyah would not miss her workout for anything rather than an emergency. Storms! I hope they didn't make her practice bi-focus. It was one thing to know that some unknown soulcaster would die if he didn't succeed, but knowing that someone so full of life and fond of 'math, languages, reading fiction and daydreaming' would have to... that was more than he could easily contemplate.
To his relief, just when another minute would mark her as being late, Juliyah scrambled up, panting, to the east stairway. She must have sprinted all the way from the soulcaster wing to make her breathe this heavily. She let her hood fall back when she reached him and put her hands on her hips, as if to keep them from running further.
"I hope I am not late," she said between gasps for air. "It takes me on average fifteen minutes to get here in a full sprint, but the corridors that are usually empty are now stuffed with people that have absolutely no idea how to step out of the way. If the tower itself was crumbling on top of them, they would still not move an inch!"
Pattis smiled at her and she smiled back, though none of the levity he saw in those twin emeralds of eyes pranced there today. Her face seemed drawn, as if she slept even less than he managed to, and pale, like someone who had looked through a magnifying lens at ladybug and saw a voidbringer instead.
"Is everything alright?" he asked as Juliyah stormed past him to her place by the railing in a cloud of rippling robes, loose hair, and swaying leaves.
"Of course," she said and tugged on her freehand sleeve unconsciously. Out of habit, Pattis guessed. "Just a very busy morning. Did you get enough hours of sleep?"
From the way she studied his face, Pattis thought she knew the answer. Just mentioning sleeping made him want to curl up on one of the wide steps and doze off. He managed to keep himself from yawning.
"Got a few," he said. If she could play an optimist, so could he.
"That is one article too many to be true," she replied, some of the old mischief returning to her expression. The moment didn't last long, though. "Let's get to it," she said evenly, "before we both start sleepwalking."
Pattis was already calibrating the voltage level on the energy fabrial. They settled into the work routine they established the day before. Juliyah helped him readily and proactively with everything she could, but between those moments, he noticed her looking shakily around, as if wary of someone watching. Alone as they were at the staircase, he wasn't sure what or who that could be. Once, he even thought he heard her mumble "What do you want from me?" and shudder as if in response to an inaudible answer.
That brought back Jasuio's warning but Pattis shooed it away. If he judged the soulcaster correctly, whatever was happening to her must not only be real but documented and statistically analyzed. That thought made him even less comfortable. Twice, he looked over his shoulder himself.
On the third covert glance behind, he almost jumped. Striding with short but quick steps, a figure of a woman was approaching the stairways. He recognized that leathery face and sharp tilted eyes immediately. Ardent Malam. What was she doing here?
The older woman paused a few steps away. She carried a large bundle on her left shoulder, heavy, from the way she leaned to one side. Pattis got up quickly but Juliyah jumped to her feet a moment faster. He half expected to see thorns sprouting from the soulcaster skin like hackles would rise on a wolf preparing to pounce. The only visible barbs, however, were bristling in the dark glare she directed at the newcomer.
Malam stopped three steps away from Juliyah. Looking unblinkingly at the soulcaster, she said, "Brother Pattis, these books are for you," and stretched out her left hand, as if to offer him the bundle.
Despite the sound of his name, it took Pattis a full couple of seconds to realize she was speaking to him. The ardent didn't glance at him once and he wondered if she was worried Juliyah would tackle her if she took her eyes away for just a moment. Hoping to discharge the suddenly electrified air around them, Pattis walked closer and took the bundle from the older woman's shoulder. It was heavy. At least fifteen to twenty books.
"What are these?" he asked, opening the bag flip and peering inside. 'Riding the Storm', 'The Words of Radiance', 'Collection of children's tales of Azimir', and another book, a thick soft-leathered volume that lost whatever was written on its spine to time, topped the collection. An odd assortment, he thought and resisted the urge to rummage through the rest.
Malam growled softly in response, but he doubted anyone but him registered the sound.
"These," she said in a voice that vibrated like a tight string, "is what your companion tried to steal earlier today from the High Library. What did you think, girl? That you could truly sneak into the library - into the archives! - and rake through the shelves without me knowing? I knew the moment your dirty feet touched the first step of the library porch! I knew before..."
"Why didn't you stop me then?" Juliyah asked in a voice so calm, he couldn't believe it belonged to the same person whose stare rivaled a shardblade in sharpness.
"Because I wanted to catch you red-handed," Malam hissed, the tight string of her voice snapping to hoarseness. "Infiltrating library grounds would be the least of your charges, girl. Defamation and obstruction of justice would be more serious for you and your family."
Juliyah didn't move as much as an eyebrow. "If you are as well informed as you suggest, you would know that I did not steal a single page. That renders your accusation void."
"Don't play with me, girl. You didn't take anything because you did not find what you were looking for."
"If that is the case, it seems you were doing your job poorly, Malam. A library where one can't find the books they seek is a poor one."
That must have hit Malam below the belt because she choked on whatever she was about to say. Juliyah, on the other side, shrugged her shoulders almost playfully and said in that bizarrely calm voice, "Either that or I was searching for something else and you don't know what it was. Pick your poison."
Before either of the women could go any further, Pattis raised his voice and said, "Thank you, ardent Malam. I am sure these will be useful." He still wasn't sure what the books were for but it seemed the right thing to say. "We have a very busy schedule today and I am sure you have a lot to do as well. Everyone does these days." He cringed at the awkward dismissal but Malam took the chance and finally broke the staring duel with Juliyah. The soulcaster retained the alert stance but did not object.
"These are the books courier Edde borrowed from the Dumadari High Library over the last ten months of his life." The older woman was looking at him now and Pattis was surprised to see a trace of embarrassment in those tilted eyes. It flickered there for a second and disappeared again behind a mask of formality. "I believe the courier spent so much time with the ardents that he taught himself to read and was borrowing books to keep him company over long journeys. He was... an eccentric man with peculiar interests." She looked Pattis over, as if wondering if he matched the description as well. "I do not know if these will be helpful for your experiments, but since she," Malam pointed behind her shoulder to Juliyah, "tried to find the list of his loans and steal them, I wanted you to have them."
At that, the older ardent whirled around and marched away from the stairway, head high. Patttis watched her go and then turned a bewildered stare at Juliyah. Tried to find the list and steal it? Why? Not for the first time he wondered how much of this story eluded him. For years, he had focused on the science behind the events, not politics.
Juliyah caught his eyes, then slowly moved them down to the sack of books in his hands. A smile crept to her face and, suddenly, she was laughing. A guffaw of laughter held tight for too long and exploding from the pressure. The open question in his eyes made her laugh even harder. He wished he could have joined in mirth but could find nothing remotely funny in the entire exchange.
When Juliyah finally regained her composure, she said, "I am sorry, you must think me mad. Perhaps, I am at that," she added as an afterthought, the same wariness he noticed earlier returning to her expression. "Malam was right, of course. I was searching for that list."
"But you said..."
"I said what I had to. She needs no more ammunition against me than she already has. Besides, she is close to the truth and yet misses it by a half princedom. I had no intention to hide the books, I wanted to study them."
"But why?" he asked. Storms, I am asking this question way too often as of late.
"Because I wanted to disprove a theory. From what I understood yesterday, you are working under the assumption that whatever happened in Kostanari to Edde was an accident. A series of fortunate coincidences that led to an unprecedented phenomenon. A blast of lightning, a soulcaster, and other environmental conditions combined in a unique blend that healed broken gemstones. But what if it wasn't a coincidence at all? What if Edde knew exactly what he was doing? When I learned he was frequenting the library often, I thought his loan history may hold a clue."
She grinned again. "I almost passed out from fear while creeping about the city and trying to get into the archives unnoticed. The archives were sealed though and I thought my attempt had failed. If I knew all I had to do was to mention the books and Malam would bring them to you... well, it could have saved me all that trouble. Perhaps, even let me sleep for a few more hours."
Pattis placed the sack of books on the floor and started pulling out one by one. He was about to ask why Malam suspected Juliyah of 'obstruction of justice', when his eyes fell on the title of a book in hand. He felt his eyebrows creeping up almost to the hairline. An old and dusty copy of the 'Advanced Principles of the Axial Interconnection', the left upper corner missing, was staring back at him.
Juliyah was saying something still, but the noise of his own thoughts muffled the outside sounds. The soulcaster must have realized that Pattis grew distracted because she kneeled by his side and touched his arm lightly. It was a measure of his focus that he didn't even flinch when registering that she unconsciously touched him with her gloved safehand.
"Are you alright? Are you surprised that the courier could read?" she asked.
"No, not that," he said simply, still staring at the ruffled cover. Most lighteyed girls learn to read at a later age than he taught me.
"This book... I think you may be right." He traced a finger along the creased spine, then looked right at her, "Juliyah, is your soulcaster a spren manifestation?"
If she were standing, Juliayh would have probably stumbled away. Kneeling as she was, she just jerked her hand away from him, as if discovering acid spilled on a work desk.
"Why would you ask that?" she finally said in the same calm, too calm, a voice she had addressed Malam earlier.
Pattis flipped the book open, found the right page, and proffered it to the soulcaster. Her eyes flew across the lines almost diagonally. In a few seconds, they froze at a particular spot. A few more long seconds passed. Then she raised her head to look at him. To look into him. He had never felt self-conscious in his life, but at that moment he found himself remembering every word he had ever said to her, every move he had made. Wondering if she would be able to trust him - a stranger just a day before - with the truth, guarded by her order for generations. Wondering if she had a right to.
Like in a mirror, he saw the same questions race in her own eyes. He wanted to say that she could trust him but knew that any such claim would sound forced. So he watched and waited and hoped. Hoped for the sake of the city on the brink of starvation and, selfishly, for himself. As a scholar and as a man, he needed her to trust him.
Juliyah breathed in deeply and held the air for a while, as if afraid to let it go. Her exhalation was a rustling 'yes'.
Pattis nodded slowly. He wished that was enough and he didn't have to push her further. This admission alone, so painfully wrecked out of her and so poorly understood by him, was not sufficient to adjust the experiments, to figure out what role the soulcaster spren played in the formation of the chemical bonds. He needed more.
Careful not to sound demanding or intrusive, he asked, "What can you tell me about it?"