Lovely Dark Things

FIVE (ISELEN POV)

The temple library is exactly as I remembered it, a big and well-lit room, with a wonderful carved wood ceiling and full of fancy armchairs and tables that contrast with the austerity displayed in the Queen's rooms. Helien waves her hand at one of the chairs and I sit down obediently, waiting while she talks to a handful of elves with white hair that are looking at us with curiosity. I guess it's been a while since the last time this library was so crowded: the acolytes, sorceresses and the God's brides are whispering around us till Shurien decides to impose order and sends them outside to bring food and drinks for us, to watch the door so no one will disturb us and to run some errands in the City of Witchcraft.

It's hot in here but there aren't fireplaces with witch fire in the walls and I look at the antique marble floor confused... it can only mean that... The dark elven artisans must've lifted the marble tiles, building the brick arches of my heating system and putting the marble floor back on top of them again, the same way they did in the Queen's reception room. I take my coat off keeping my head low to hide my triumphant smile: I know the High Priestess was reluctant to accept my inventions and was the last one building a water tank behind the bedroom fireplace, but she finally decided that comfort and luxury were more important than her feelings of resentment towards me, apparently.

I realize that Sryne is staring at me when I look up again. Her eyes travel all over my body from head to toe and she frowns, perplexed, before averting them to look at one of her assassins who's wearing a chain mail that hardly hides her toned body and highlights her perky breasts covered by a small bra and her very long and perfect legs. She looks back at me again raising an eyebrow, lost in her thought, while I fidget on my seat. Ruby chuckles behind me and I turn my head to look at her, she winks at me mouthing quietly.

"She'll never understand it, her heart is rotten..." I nod and she leans her gloved hand on my shoulder. "I love you."

"All right," Helien gets closer followed by some scholars holding books. "We've found things that could help you although the information isn't very detailed, unfortunately."

"Could you let me borrow some scribes from the temple, Terrible Lady?" I ask respectfully and the High Priestess nods. "I don't want this situation to happen again and thought that we could document each step of the preparations for the battle... If we survive, dark elves' civilization will continue to flourish but, in the end, they'll have to get through this situation again. I'll make sure that, whoever the new advisor of the Queen will be, they'll have accurate information to get ready. We'll write several copies of the chronicle and send them to all the libraries in this kingdom so one of them will survive the passage of time, at least."

"What if we don't make it?" Sryne asks bitterly.

"Well, all this hard work will be useless... but in the meantime, we'll fuck those demons to death," I answer firmly and Shurien laughs amused, nodding.

"Who would've thought that humans could be taught to think like dark elves? You're a good influence for Iselen, my daughter..." Ruby seems to think about it for a second and nods.

"Or a bad influence, depending on how you look at it... Can we start working? Which are the books written in the common language?" One of the scholars gets closer holding two heavy volumes and hands them to me smiling a little creepily.

"Be careful with them, keep an eye on those scholars..." Helien whispers in the assassin's ear and she looks at her puzzled. "They aren't dangerous in theory but have been locked up here for long years, reading and studying, ignoring the real world and they've become a little... unstable..."

"They're nuttier than a fruitcake, aren't they?" My girl smiles and the High Priestess nods.

"But their knowledge is wide and they know where to find every book, we couldn't run this library without them... If you need anything, just ask them..." Helien leaves the room followed by an upset Shurien, I guess she'd love to stay with us to be able to nose around a little more. Sryne sits down closer to the door with some Brides of the God of War while Ruby monitors the scholars' movements bringing more books. I heave a sigh and take a blank sheet of paper from my notebook to start a to-do list, projects I intend to carry out if we survive this fucking doomsday.