Chapter 3 - Nyssa

Chapter 3 Nyssa

Sending Roan away might not have been the best idea ever, but he was basically a stranger and I didn’t know how he’d react. I’d only just gotten this endowment and I wasn’t about to lose it to...whatever I’d seen inside.

Creatures. Dozens of them. From tiny flying dragons to giant hulking things I hadn’t gotten a good enough look at.

I leaned my head back against the door, staring at the sky. There were dragons in there. I’d heard stories about them, sure, but I’d never actually seen one. It was like how I knew bears were real, but I didn’t expect to find one in a library. And now there were dozens of them, just flying around like it was normal. Not to mention the other...things I’d seen. Things my mind wasn’t making much sense of yet.

The Librarian’s Guild would want an investigation, and if that went badly, they might never let me reopen this library. Or let it be part of the Tales and Tomes Festival. Without the gods’ blessing, the Misty Mountain Library would fade away as if it were never here. Eventually a new library would grow somewhere else and the cycle would start again.

I couldn’t let that happen though. This library held too many memories for me, important ones that I wasn’t ready to let go of so easily. The best thing I could do now was keep those creatures to myself. At least until I knew more.

Once my racing pulse settled a bit, I dared to open the door again, just a crack. I peeked inside, but there was nothing. No dragons, no creatures, nothing. I swung the door open wide as silence greeted me.

Did I imagine them?

I stepped inside cautiously, half expecting somebody to jump out and yell surprise like this was some strange initiation to becoming a librarian here. Except, nothing happened. Well, that was a letdown. I sighed, closing the door behind me.

“Hello?” I called out. “I’m the new librarian, Nyssa.”

Shuffling sounds came from multiple directions followed by tiny dragons flying in circles around me. I froze, not moving a muscle as they landed on the bookshelves nearby, quirking their heads as they stared at me.

Each dragon was a different color from emerald green to sapphire blue to bright amethyst, like a treasure trove of brilliant gems decorating the shelves. Their small wings settled against their bodies as they pounced at each other, starting to play as if they’d forgotten all about me already.

I let out a breath, relieved that they hadn’t attacked me on sight, but why were they here instead of out in the wild with their own kind? And why were they so tiny? I really wanted to know more, but they weren’t the only creatures here and I had work to do.

“Don’t mind me,” I said as I strolled through the shelves, “I’m just looking at what repairs need to be done.”

The stacks were clean, not a speck of dust on them like I expected. Which meant somebody had been cleaning them. I smiled faintly, loving the idea of people stopping by to take care of the place. So it hadn’t been fully abandoned after all. People still cared about it, just like I did. Maybe reopening wouldn’t be as hard as I thought.

Something else was missing besides dust though: the books. Almost every shelf was empty, except for a few random books all by themselves. My stomach sank. It would be harder than I thought to restock such a big library. How could the guild give up on the Misty Mountain Library like that? How could anyone take the books away?

I guess I couldn’t blame them too much. The library did look pretty rundown with the broken windows and holes in the roof. At least somebody had patched them up to keep the weather out, but not before water damage warped the floor. That wouldn’t be an easy fix.

Had a wild magic storm really done all this? I rubbed my temples, silently calculating how much money the Tomekeeper’s Endowment was worth vs how much it would probably cost to rip up a floor and redo a roof.

Maybe the contractors would take pity on me since it was for a good cause. I’d hire local workers, people who might remember the library from back in the day when it was warm and bright.

As I studied the mess of a floor, apatch of beautiful purple flowers caught my eye.

“What the...”

I knelt down, looking at the hooded flowers closer. Wolfsbane? That shouldn’t be growing in the library. It was poisonous for one thing and for another, it was growing right on top of the floor, no dirt required. My gaze moved on to another patch of flowers and then another, leading me through the winding stacks like a path through a maze.

Something small and fluffy ran at me. I yelped in surprise as a three-headed puppy nuzzled against my leg. Purple flowers blanketed the floor as the adorable dog rolled over, exposing his belly. I looked around, but nobody else seemed to be here.

He wiggled on the floor, tail wagging, eyes begging me to reach down and pet his stomach. It was impossible to resist.

“Fine, I’ll pet you.” I knelt down, smiling despite the odd situation. All six of the dog’s eyes closed in bliss like I’d found just the right spot to scratch. “Now what are you doing here, hmmmm?”

I’d heard of wild magic tainted animals, but usually the magic made them a different color or gave them some kind of magical aspect like glowing eyes or scratches that forced you to tell the truth. I’d never heard of wild magic changing their entire shape before, especially not giving them three heads. That was basically a whole new animal at that point.

Wild magic altered the purpose and intention of normal magic, it didn’t make entirely new creatures. At least, I didn’t think it did. I’d have to do more research.

A tiny bit of drool dripped from one of the dog’s mouths and hit the floor. Flowers sprouted from it like magic. I jerked away. That was new. I’d never seen a dog do that before. Just heard stories about...

“Cerberus?”

The dog leapt up, wagging his tail, and eagerly looking at me like he wanted to play.

“No, you can’t be Cerberus. You’re all tiny and cute and...fictional!”

What was going on? Dragons I could handle, they were real even if I’d never seen one before, but Cerberus? He was the guardian of a fictional Underworld, created by an author a long time ago. Stories didn’t just come to life and drool on your floor.

I searched the area, hoping for anything that resembled an explanation. The little pup followed at my heels, jumping at the flowers once in a while to play. It was hard not to give in and play with him, but something was very, very wrong here.

A book covered in so many flowers I almost missed it lay open on the floor. I picked it up, reading the title. “ Taming the Beast ?”

I raised an eyebrow at tiny Cerberus as he ran around the book in circles. That story was about an underworld goddess adopting a puppy and it causing adorable chaos in the underworld. The dog on the cover looked eerily like the dog wagging his tail in front of me, but that was just a story...

“Oh Cerberus, what are you doing here?” I whispered to the dog. “Actually, Cerberus feels a little too infamous for a cute puppy like you. How about Cerbie?”

He woofed his approval, coming to me for more pets. Well, whatever was going on didn’t seem too bad. It’s not like the dog came out of that book. That would be ridiculous. I mean, wild magic storms did a lot of weird things, but they didn’t bring books to life. They just didn’t. I’d have heard of it by now.

I bit my lip, staring at the dragons and three-headed dog in front of me. It would be really cool if books could come to life though. Imagine the swarms of patrons eagerly visiting their favorite book characters. The library would never have to worry about magic levels again since everyone would be reading, filling the area with magic for the book tree to absorb like water. I shook my head, laughing at how crazy that sounded.

As the stacks opened up to a large reading area circling the great book tree, I froze, all thoughts of stories coming to life gone. The book tree was withered, a husk of its normal self, with no leaves or books gracing its branches.

I pressed my hand against my chest, feeling the pain of that tree in my very soul. Book trees were gifts given to us by the gods, shooting up from the ground like flowers poking out of the snow in spring. One minute they were tiny little libraries and the next, they were full-sized and ready to use.

This one was almost out of magic though, as if it hadn’t been blessed in over a decade. It had only been a few years though, there was no way it should have been this drained. If I didn’t do something soon, all the repairs in the world wouldn’t matter. The book tree was what gave life to a library, without it, there’d be no point in fixing up the building.

Could I even wait until next year’s festival to gain the gods’ blessing?

I needed help, somebody who knew more about library magic. My old research partner from school was getting his doctorate in arcane relics. Maybe he’d have some ideas.

I pulled out my communication crystal, holding it up to the light to cast a rainbow. “Connect me to Oren.” I pet Cerbie, trying to calm my nerves as an image of Oren sleeping on a pile of books, glasses crooked, appeared in the rainbow. “Wake up. I’ve got a job for you.”

He jerked up, running his hands over his face to readjust his glasses. “Nyssa? You never contact me. Is something wrong?”

I moved closer to the withered book tree so it would show up in Oren’s crystal. “I’m reopening the Misty Mountain Library, but it looks like the tree’s magic has been drained.”

“Drained?” His eyes widened as I got closer to the tree, but then he frowned. “Something’s wrong with our connection. It looks like the tree’s...walking?”

I jerked my gaze from the crystal to agiant forest golem standing beside the tree. I tilted my head back to take all twenty feet of it in, watching it move with muscles made of corded vines holding the dirt, moss, and rocks together. One huge step swallowed the distance between us as I scrambled out of its way.

Cerbie ran circles around the golem, tail wagging with joy. It took another step, moving right past me as if it didn’t even see me there. Red flowers sprouted from its shoulders, blooming brightly under the light. They reminded me of a book I’d loved as a child about a gentle giant. No, it couldn’t be...

“Nyssa? What’s going on?” Oren’s voice snapped me out of my stunned silence. “Is that a golem?” Excitement colored his voice. He’d always loved mystical creatures, but hadn’t seen any up close. Not like this.

“What do you know about...books coming to life?” I gazed at the impossible golem in front of me. “Specifically, can characters from books ever become real?”

“Of course not,” Oren scoffed. “Unless...”

I’d seen that look in his eyes many times as he opened a book and got lost in his research for days on end. He always came up with an answer for everything I asked him, no matter how long it took him. This time would be no different.

Unfortunately, our conversation had drawn the golem’s attention. It turned slowly, gazing around the library with wide glowing eyes. It leaned down, close enough for me to smell the damp earth and sweet flowers in its body.

“Gotta go, Oren,” I stammered, before dropping the crystal. “Um, hello, Mr. Golem?”

“Not my human,” it said, its voice rumbling like an earthquake. “Where is my human?”

Its voice was slow, drawn out, and something about its face, how its head tilted curiously and its eyes shimmered, reinforced my theory about it being the gentle giant, the one who’d saved a misfit child from harm and made both their dreams come true. I couldn’t help but smile, remembering all the times I’d read that story, all the times I’d wished a golem of my own would find me.

“Nice to meet you,” I said. “My name’s Nyssa. Can you tell me why you’re here?”

“Why I’m here?” It straightened, body groaning as the rocks and vines shifted. “Here is my home.”

It’s home? Golems lived in the wild, not in cramped buildings where they couldn’t connect to nature.

“I’m sorry, but this is a library, not a magical refuge.” I worried my lip, not wanting to hurt its feelings. “Do you know where you lived before? Was it outside the library or maybe...inside a book?”

A book fell off the mostly barren shelves nearby, making me jump. Then the shelves seemed to quiver as more books fell. One by one they hit the ground, making me cringe.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, hoping the golem would stop whatever it was doing, but it just tilted its head, staring off in the distance.

Actually, it was staring at somebody walking toward us. A man, shrouded in darkness. Black horns curled over the man’s head and his fingers were tipped in claws, black as the night like they’d been dipped in ink that crept up his arm to his very toned biceps.

“Get out,” he said softly, but the words held weight, as if he fully expected me to follow orders. “We don’t need a new librarian. It’s time for you to leave.”

I swallowed hard. He obviously wasn’t human, but this was my library and I refused to be intimidated. Was he a character from a story like the golem? Or was he something else?

Before I could ask, the golem picked me up, my feet dangling in the air like a child too short for their chair. My stomach lurched, but its large hand held me securely, carrying me outside. It set me down far more gently than I expected, but then slammed the door in my face.

My heartbeat thundered in my ears as I sat outside. Did they just kick me out? Of my own library??

I stood up, grabbing the door handle firmly. There was no way they were getting rid of me that easily. I pulled on the handle, ready to give that demon a piece of my mind, but the door didn’t budge. I leaned back, putting all my weight into it, but the door stayed shut.

“Fine,” I said, “if that’s how you want to play it, then I’ll just find another way in. I’m the librarian. You can’t keep me out.”

Not for long at least. I’d get back inside and reopen that library. I’d spent too many years dreaming about it to let a few books that had come to life stop me.