1. IN WHICH LIBRARIES ARE SACROSANCT, MINOTAURS ARE VEXING, AND THE HOLIDAYS APPROACH

Chapter one

“ I s that food? Did you bring food into my library?” Cora shrieked. 1

“No, they're cookies, they …"Asterion trailed off. His bovine ears drooped, and she almost felt bad for yelling at him. Almost. Until, of course, she remembered that he brought food into her library.

“Cookies. Are. Food.” Cora was quickly approaching the end of her patience with this man.

Perhaps minotaurs had especially thick skulls, because, for some reason, Asterion couldn’t seem to get it into his head that she wasn’t interested.

Well, she supposed, that wasn’t strictly true. If she wasn’t who she was, she would absolutely be interested. The man was gorgeous, tall and broad with short, messy hair that made him seem debonair and boyish, despite the fact that he was a revered diplomat. From what she’d seen in books and illustrations, Cora had assumed they'd have a body covered in fur, and a more cattle-like head, but Asterion’s was more of a suggestion of a bull. He had horns that were annoyingly adorable and a flattened nose that was still distinctly bovine, but he had fairly humanoid looking lips.

Below the waist was where he truly differed from other humanoids. He had fur covering his legs that were hocked like one would expect, and a tail that hung beneath the short skirt of his chiton. After watching him walk away one day, she’d decided that the combination was dangerous on a man, between the flowing fabric, the strong legs, and the tail that swished behind him, he could melt anyone’s heart. She’d caught herself staring far more often than she’d liked. He had hooves of course, that clicked in the entrance to the library, so he always knew when he’d arrived and the second he was leaving, even though she didn’t care to know either way. So yes, given the right circumstances, she was sure she would be interested in him.

Regardless, he would surely not be interested in her—not if he knew her–and therein laid the problem. He spent entirely too much time in her library, distracting everyone with his good natured attitude and devastating looks.

“You need to leave. You need to take your cookies and get out of my library before you damage any books."

“But they're Madeleines, they —”

“I don’t care, they could be made of solid gold and you would still need to leave."

He left then, blowing air out of his nose in annoyance, and Cora felt a tiny twinge of guilt that he looked so dejected, but she'd seen this story before. Once Asterion, and his food, were gone, Cora helped a selkie and an orca-shifter find some information on bonds. After that, she spent a largely normal day in the great library of Berggeheimnis. She reshelved books and typed up late notices on her typewriter, to be sent out via messenger. The significant influx of new residents to the city meant that Asterion wasn’t the only patron she was having to acclimate to the rules.

He’d arrived in the city amongst several hundred others, as his people’s representative to the newly formed, but as of yet unnamed, clandestine rebel opposition government. For centuries, the dwarves of Berggeheimnis had hidden in their mountain home, maintaining a decrepit village above ground to trick the elves of the Empire into thinking they were on the verge of dying out.

Instead, the city housed a massive population of dwarves within a massive cavern, watched over by a settlement of dragons on its peak. 2 Its history meant it was the perfect location to begin the delicate process of unifying the disparate peoples of the Empire in hopes of freedom.

For Cora though, it was overwhelming. Her city, which had once made so much sense to her, was flooded with newcomers, and she’d spent less and less time roaming the city than she was wont to do, simply because it was so loud. Seeing all of the different peoples was fascinating, especially as she’d read about so many of them, but they all had different mannerisms and social norms… and most days she felt she barely knew what to do in dwarven society. Even the mountain seemed fine with all of the hubub, excited even, so she was quiet alone in her bother.

But in the library? She knew the rules, she made the rules, so at least there, she felt safe.

When all of her pertinent tasks were done, she was grateful to find she had some time to settle with a book of her own. The library had recently acquired a new shipment of books including, to her joyous surprise, a natural history text about the marine life of the southern coast of Caihalaith. Being tied to her mountain as she was, she would never see a coast other than the rocky cliffs just outside and the cove that made up the hidden port of Berggeheimnis.

There were worse places to be trapped, she knew. In the grand scheme of being a nymph, she was lucky. Instead of a tree or flower she was tied to an entire mountain, one that housed an underground city, no less. She could roam anywhere within its borders, but she’d never be able to leave. Instead of a tree or flower that could die, ending her life, her mountain was old, enduring and wise, a constant source of comfort and stability. She reached out to it then, attempting to draw comfort from it's steadfast nature.

The niggling sense of unease that she'd had at Asterion's visit was difficult to shake, however. The minotaur came most days the library was open, often in the afternoons when he was done with his business on the council for the day. He read widely, not that she paid much attention to the books her patrons checked out or pulled from the reference section. At first, he'd done what appeared to be a survey of the many peoples that lived in the Empire, and therefore the many cultures now represented in the city and on the council. Then, he touched on history, including spending hours pouring over forbidden texts that couldn't leave the library and needed special dispensation to read. It had taken him months, but no matter what she said, what she offered by way of summarization, he’d been determined to read it all himself.

Cora had disliked Asterion from the start. He was loud and messy, had seemingly no idea how to compose himself in a library, and had a smile that somehow melted her indignation if she didn’t nurture it closely. He'd bow his head and blush, rub his hocked hoof over the floor in chagrin and all of her righteous fervor would drain. One minute she'd be waggling her finger, whisper-admonishing him, and the next she'd be calmly explaining the rules and trying not to giggle at his self-effacing jokes.

In short, he was the perfect kind of torture. Someone she should easily detest, yet she could never quite muster the ability. His consistent offers to help around the library, his smiles and blushes when he’d broken a rule, interfered with her ability to feel as she ought, no matter how she tried.

Unfortunately, as was often the case–despite her careful study–it took her quite some time to realize he was flirting with her. He'd asked for his usual study cubby and as much as Cora would have liked to let him go by himself, it was absolutely against the rules. Cora had staff at the library, of course, but they were mostly students who arrived after their classes were done for the day. She had them accompany Asterion whenever possible, but on that specific day no one was available.

She'd walked him from the front desk, through the tall stacks of the first floor while he babbled on behind her.

"It really is such a magical place though. All of these books, and I can't even imagine how you keep them all organized. I'd have them all over the place, or better yet, locked up tight. And this–" he'd gasped when they arrived at the elevator, like he'd never ridden in them before. "It's just genius , who'd have thought of devising a system of tracks and catwalks for the second floor so you could see all the way to the roof? Not me, I wouldn't think of such a thing, I'll tell you that!"

He whipped his head around as they walked, and Cora had worried that he'd move it too quickly and those massive horns he sported would snap his neck. And where would she be then? A death in the library was just too much to even contemplate, let alone dealing with the death of a foreign diplomat! Worse yet, who would she get to help her put books on the highest shelves? She'd have to go back to using a ladder and moving it from shelf to shelf was so tedious.

"Do be careful with your horns," she'd interjected into his stream of admiration, annoyed that she even had to consider such a thing.

"Oh, of course," he'd quieted then, which was an altogether unsettling experience, looking so disappointed in himself that Cora, in turn, felt guilty.

"The library was designed by Curin Bronzebart, the famous architect, as a wedding present for his wife, based on a fanciful idea she'd had about mine carts that could be used to deliver books."

Asterion whistled in awe, eyes roaming the stacks as they ascended. He gasped then, drawing her attention, and she followed his gaze to the third floor... and her apartment.

"Did they live up there?" his voice raised, as it often did, to a wholly unacceptable-in-a-library volume. He pointed a massive arm, of course with the arm free from his draped garment, highlighting the delicate furring of his chest and the brown nipple it flagrantly displayed.

Cheeks hot, Cora snapped her head to the cart controls, as if she'd find life's answers hidden there. She squeaked an affirmative answer, and hoped he'd drop the subject. They had lived there, but she wasn't sure she could handle knowing he was thinking about her current residence, she'd simply die of mortification.

"What a wonderful idea... what a gift..." he mused, eyes roaming once more.

Asterion kept quiet as she steered them to his cubby and was just about to leave him, when he spoke again. "You're so lucky to work someplace so beautiful ," he said, but he looked at her. He placed his hand on hers, gently, as if she were a skittish animal he was afraid to drive away."I do wonder though, if you ever leave... to go out to eat, perhaps?"

The eye contact, the heat where his hand touched hers, and the question collided in a roar that had assaulted her entire being. Heat pulsed from where he touched her and she felt herself immediately blush. He was flirting with her, it had just taken her too long, again, to realize it.

It was a common problem, with her being a nymph, she received more overt passes regularly. The subtler ones though, often eluded her as her mind seemed ever so slightly out of lockstep with everyone around her. As a child, raised lovingly by a family of dwarves, she'd assumed that she looked at the world differently because she was not a dwarf. And while that was likely at least partially true, her subsequent experiences with other beings, nymphs especially, led her to believe that there just might be more to it.

As a nymph, Cora was cute and seductive. Her white skin was marbled with gold and accented with beautiful gems, not wholly representative of the mountain rock of which she'd been formed, but of her mother's desires for her instead. While she was perhaps plumper than some peoples' tastes, she had grown up in the dwarven city of Berggeheimnis and followed their shape. As she’d never left the underground city, nor would she ever be able to, she’d been glad to blend in where she could. As a child, the library had been a refuge for her, a place where she could escape and explore the places that she would never be able to, and escape the noisy overwhelm of the city. She’d worked hard to become head librarian at twenty-six, and she couldn’t afford to be distracted by the heartache that would inevitably follow any attempt at romance.

Coming of age had introduced further difficulties, as she learned that many nymphs were often polyamorous and regarded as being free, easy, and fleeting with their affections. While she wasn't averse to friendship or romantic entanglements, she found that she sometimes had difficulty forming connections, and that others expected her, by virtue of her race, to be easily wooed and easily left. Often, she'd not realize that someone was trying to get her romantic interest until they were quite forward. If she found herself interested, one of two things would happen. She'd quickly realize that they were not looking for a relationship, but instead a brief affair, or they'd be put off as soon as they picked up on her quirks .

So, after learning a good many hard lessons in the first ten years of her adulthood, Cora had resolved herself to being alone. She quite liked her own company, though she still enjoyed time with friends and her correspondences. As a young child, she'd always imagined herself with a partner, though she was growing increasingly convinced that it was simply not a viable solution. As such, she'd taken to gently dissuading anyone from setting their cap at her as quickly as she might.

That moment, when Asterion combined those three actions into an equation that finally computed, she was instantly transported back to the first time she’d thought herself in love… and realized it was so much worse this time. Not only was he bound to be disappointed in her, as that was always the case, but she’d been actively avoiding her own attraction to him for months.

No, it had to be stopped, before he discovered what she was really like and decided she was not worth his time. Luckily, if there was anything she knew, it was what people did not like about her and how she could wield them to drive them away. Not one to beat around the bush, Cora resolved to start strong.

Her own fondness for Asterion put her in a uniquely precarious position, so she'd wanted to deal with it as quickly as possible. Instead of treating him coldly or ignoring him, Cora unleashed what she considered to be her secret weapon, shells.

When she was quite young, Cora had spent a great deal of time traveling through the rock of her mountain, melding through it, so as not to disturb its intricate makeup. It was comforting, the entire lack of sound as she was consumed by the steady, comforting pressure and silence. She’d been confused as a child that rock was solid for everyone else all the time. When she willed it, she could move through or mold the rock as if it were air or clay. As she’d explored the interior of her mountain, though, she had encountered curious formations within its strata. According to their best records, the world was less than 10,000 years old, these deposits, called fossils, still dotted the insides of her mountain. To their best guesses, fossils should take thousands and thousands of years to form. 3

Even though they should not exist, the fossils remained littered throughout her mountain, little nuggets of joy for her to find. Her favorites, she had quickly decided, were those of fossilized sea creatures, and shells. They differed from the present-day shells she could find along her mountain's tiny beach, and she loved imagining a time where her own mountain had been entirely different.

Though she found fossils to be infinitely interesting, their varied textures and colors uniquely adapted to their purpose, she'd learned that sadly, most others did not.

A long, detailed speech covering her favorite topic usually dissuaded even the most determined suitors, a fact she’d been confronted with repeatedly before learning her lesson. And that was fair enough, she figured. She didn't have much interest or enjoyment in listening to someone blab on, however excitedly, about something she cared nothing about, either. But, in the past, it had been a foolproof method of stymying interest. It didn't matter, anymore, if the interest would be welcomed or not, her hobbies were an important part of who she was, and though she could see the appeal of how other nymphs seemed to share affection, people were just too exhausting for Cora to see it as a viable option.

With Asterion, it didn't seem to work the way she'd planned. She'd droned on and on about shells, specifically mollusk reproduction which she assumed he’d find interminably boring, but he'd only nodded. He didn't interrupt her, nor look at her dreamy-eyed as some had done. Instead, he seemed... engaged? Interested? Intrigued? Hell, he'd even asked questions, though not until she'd wound down what she was speaking about, which was even more infuriating as she hated being interrupted. Perhaps, she'd hoped, he'd go home and contemplate a lifetime of shell lectures and think better of it.

Instead, he'd brought cookies.

1. Never mind the fact that shrieking was also against the rules of her library, but food, of all things, merited a special dispensation.

2. For those unfamiliar, Berggeheimnis refers to both the city and the mountain which houses it. Situated on Caihalaith’s eastern shore, the city was housed in a massive cavern and had access to land, sea, and air, via it association with the dragons that roosted on it’s peak and the cove hidden amongst it’s rocky cliffs.

3. The timeline the Lady has shared and the geological record are often at odds with each other. Though some posit that instead our Lady operates on a slightly different reckoning of time than mortals, my reading leads me to believe it is more complex. From her journals, we can see how much of the creation of our world was instinctual and based on her observations of other planets. If, for example, she observed fossils from ancient seas in rock on other planets, she’d have included them in her creation of Timonde, though she may not have understood their significance at the time, or ever.