The Hidden Path

Searching

Lilith sat in the library of the same drafty castle she had the displeasure of calling her home for the last few months. Three days had passed since her dinner with Lucifer and both he and Eve had been missing since that time. There had also been a shift in the energy of the castle since their departure. There were more people moving about, making it nearly impossible to find peace and quiet. The library thankfully was left out of the bustle and it provided her a perfect excuse to hopefully find some answers. Not only had the castle been teeming with bodies, but she had also been called to "royal obligations". They were the most mundane of tasks as well, feeling almost purposefully set to keep her busy. Among the activities she or Alpha had been dragged to include a brief meeting with advisors for which they waited two hours to see. She also had a military dinner, and a variety of Clergy meetings sprinkled in between.

She had moved the low coffee table of the sitting area, in its place were stacks of books and a pillow that made her makeshift seat. In an effort to find any information she could, she had pulled out every book she deemed old enough to be useful. None of the books had any dates of publishing, but she had found books in Latin as well as other unknown languages in multiple sections throughout the library. Additionally, she had found a book on language translation, however this had not yet proven to be of much use. Among the books written in long dead languages, she had pulled out books that looked particularly old and frayed.

With a heavy sigh, she flipped through the language book again, running her fingers over the Latin of the leather-bound book beside her. This is useless! She lamented, leaning back on her hands, and stretching her legs out in front of her. The doors to the library slammed shut a moment later, causing her to jump. She scrambled to gather the books together, but she had pulled out nearly 30, some of them of tremendous size. Looking over her shoulder, she saw a thin man moving toward her, his incomplete polished chrome mask catching the light of the morning sun that streamed in from the large windows surrounding the seating space. He was in black slacks and dress shoes, a black and dark grey vest over his black dress shirt.

"Hey Dew." Lilith stood and turned to him with a smile, hoping he would somehow not notice the mess behind her. Dew stopped at the step of the rounded seating area, his eyes first looking her over before flickering to the dusty pages strewn atop the rug.

"Good morning, you Highness." Dew said, a flash of teeth seen below his mask. "I was tasked to find you." He added, slipping his hands into his pockets. Lilith tensed, a small frown turning her lips.

"Why?"

"A military ceremony. Lucifer seems to be away still, and thus Alpha is filling in, and you." Dew replied, looking over the books behind her with a more scrutinizing eye.

"Another ceremony! No, I-I can't!" Lilith protested, her cheeks warming with frustration. Dew moved to a stack of books, picking up the top one and turning it over to read the title. Lilith watched him, again taken back by how easily he was able to ignore her.

"Do you read Latin, Queen?" Dew asked, glancing over to her.

"No, I'm learning." She replied curtly. He hummed his acknowledgement, nodding slightly.

"Learning about what?" He asked, cracking open the book and looking over the pages. Lilith watched him silently, not sure how to answer his question. She could tell he was reading the pages, his eyes scanning over the text.

"What does it say?" she asked quietly.

"If I tell you, how would you learn?" He asked with another grin and snapped the book shut. Lilith jumped at the sound, her frown deepening.

"Leave me to my work, Dew." She snipped, sinking back to the ground and grabbing a book of unknown origin. There was no way she would be able to make enough progress in time to save herself. Alpha was surprisingly of little help with this as well, having only kept up with a few languages over the last couple hundred years. Dew moved to stand behind her, leaning over to look down at the book in her hand.