Sapienophobia

Chapter 23

The nearest human trailed her eyes from me to the lock to the rock in my good hand. She then looked at her partner.

I dropped the rock immediately before my shaky hands had the chance to.

Herl's lips were forcing that frown he wore when he was trying not to smile.

"This is him?" The man beside him asked with a hint of annoyance in his voice.

No. I am not him. You betrayed me, Herl?

"Yep," he spoke informally.

I could only stand there awkwardly, dangling my arms at my sides like an idiot.

My self-hatred would have to wait; my self-preservation took precedence.

"This way," the woman now next to me gestured.

I quickly started ahead of her with a vague idea of our destination.

Their ivory robes and braided sashes told me they were from the library. Their cufflinks looked like real gold.

The pages, I'm going to die over some pages.
Run away.
There are four of them.
Four's not five.
Four's not three either.
Even if I can give these humans the slip, they might sic the swarm on me.

I turned the corner around to the front door and swung it open, retreating to Danny at his usual spot.

"Can someone please explain what's going on?" He stood, approaching the enemy who had just now made it to the door.

They must've not told anyone anything until I got here. So they could take me without much resistance.

"The books that were returned to us were not in the same state that we lent them out in," the other guard behind Herl opened a case.

Sure enough, the two pages I tied my noose with, dangled from their hand.

"Someone needs to pay. This one," the first guard jabbed her thumb towards Herl, "says he doesn't know anything. So it must be the boy."

He hasn't betrayed me yet.

The second guard attempted to play the good human, squatting in front of my cowering form in front of Danny.

"It'll be alright if you just tell us the truth," he smiled.

Lies.
Where can I run?

However, before I could come up with anything, Danny took the initiative.

"In the absence of our overseer, I am the head of this division of the Anide Dispatchment Organization. Any quarrels you have with this child or that one, you can take it up with me first as they are both under my immediate oversight," he asserted.

Who is this person?
It was wise to hide behind him.

"This is taking it up with you," the male guard gritted, curling his hand into a fist.

I could tell the other Anides in the room were tensing up. The weapons were being gripped tighter, and the spines sat up straighter.

This will turn into a massacre if I let things be. It'll afford me time to escape.
I can take a roundabout way to an unnoticed exit.

Danny scoffed, unafraid, and said, "I think not. You can't just strut in here and expect everyone to answer to your every command just because you lot are human."

"Careful, Anide," the guard warned, "your kind is quick to forget who's Province you're in."

"Before you try to threaten me, it would behoove you to recognize that unlike everywhere else, the guilds of the Anide Dispatchment Organization are the few places where your words hold no merit," Danny spun, flaunting the lobby and its inhabitants, "Even in 'your' Province."