♛Shadows Lurk♛ Darkiplier x Reader

« ♡ » Chapter 15 - Bookworms

(Y/n) wasn't sure how much time had passed, she could have been sitting in front of that fire for hours for all she knew; but what she did know was that she was still no closer to deciphering any of the writing inside either of the books.

Earlier she had stopped and tried her hand at reading the daegicae book but ran into the same problem of not being able to read it at all. It frustrated her to no end, but for some reason, she believed switching back to the mystery book would give her some luck.

"'Find a nice book to read,' he said, 'whatever catches your fancy,' he said. Yeah, well, I think Die forgot I can't speak a lick of Latin! And that's all these bloody books seem to be written in!" (Y/n) exclaimed to herself.

She wasn't really mad at Die; (Y/n) knew he meant well, she was just frustrated that even with all her might she couldn't understand a single word in either of the books she'd picked out. Every other book in the library that she'd seen seemed to be in Latin, too, just from their titles alone.

(Y/n) ran a hand through her hair, becoming physically tired from how much effort she was using trying to read a language she'd hardly ever seen before. She glanced over to the map.

Every once and a while she'd see an odd-sounding name walk through the hall outside the library- which she guessed were guards doing their rounds- and every so often she'd see a human name race past, assuming it was a maid or a servant tending to their duties.

The map was still now, though. She hadn't seen a name float by in a while. (Y/n) began rereading the words and labels on the map, thankful for something she could actually understand.

Library, West Hall, Flare... Hold on a second.

(Y/n) noticed some writing on the map that hadn't been there before. Pulling the paper closer, she squinted at the page, trying to read the small, cursive writing.

Darkiplier...?

Although it was good to know that not even the king was excused from being present on the weird map, (Y/n) was more concerned with the fact that he seemed to also be in the library.

No, that can't be right- I haven't heard anybody come in! And what would he even be doing in here-?

She was snapped out of her thoughts as she heard a book fall somewhere towards the entrance to the reading nook. Her head shot up from the map, and without thinking, she pulled it under the coffee table and folded it up quickly.

"Hello?" she called out.

"...My apologies," Dark seemed to step out of the shadows of the bookshelves, reaching down to pick up the book that he'd knocked over. "I didn't mean to disturb you."

"O-oh, it's fine, really," she shoved the map into her pocket before Dark could notice it under the table. "I wasn't really doing anything, anyway."

"Just some light reading?" Dark gestured to the two rather thick books (Y/n) had on the coffee table. He then examined the book he had in his hands, turning it over to read the back briefly before looking to (Y/n).

"Can you read Latin?" he asked, obviously knowing that every book in the library was written in the language.

"Ah, no..." (Y/n) responded bashfully, closing over the mystery book sitting in front of her. "I tried my hand at deciphering the words, but..." she trailed off.

"So you're not even sure what those books are about?" he looked like he was trying not to laugh as he walked closer.

"Well, I know that this one is somehow related to daegicae," she said confidently, pointing at one of the books. Dark continued towards the table, turning his head sideways to read the cover of the book.