Mosaic Windows

Chapter 19: And The Books Say Nothing

Roman closed a book and sighed, his shoulders slumping. That was the last book in the whole library that mentioned dragon witches. There was nothing, aside from the three books that said only another dragon witch can break the curse.

Virgil frowned, seeing the frustration on Roman's face. It's been a few days since they had made up, and they seem to have fallen back into the same friendship. The prince still had a wall of distrust, but so far it hadn't been a problem.

"I... had a feeling we wouldn't find anything," Virgil said. He was surprised with how upset saying it out loud made him. It left a bitter taste in his mouth.

Roman's frown deepened. "Nope, I'm not giving up. Maybe I missed something, or there's another book we haven't found yet in here."

"Roman-"

"I mean, this library is giant! And if there's not one here, then there could still be one in town! We have a bookstore and a library! There's plenty of books there. I just need to make a list of the books in here so I don't accidentally grab one I already read."

Virgil smiled as Roman grabbed a piece of paper and started to write down the names and authors of the books in front of them. Then the prince laughed at it.

"You are ridiculously determined," he chuckled.

"I swore I would find something to help you break this curse," Roman reminded him, his voice serious. "I have yet to break my word on anything. Except maybe... with Remus. There was this one time when we were kids, we got croissants and I ate his, and I swore I didn't. I told him that someone broke in and took it."

"Remind me to never leave a croissant unguarded. Actually we don't have any, I haven't had one in years."

"Ooh, I should bring you guys some from the bakery!" Roman looked up from the list. "They're delicious."

"After your leg gets better, you don't need to be walking back and forth between the castle and your town just yet."

"Well yeah. Though my leg has been feeling better."

"It's only been..." Virgil counted in his head, "ten days, there's no way your leg would be healed by now."

Roman shook his head. "Oh absolutely not. It just doesn't hurt as much."

"That's good, I hope that means it's healing well. Sorry I don't have any healing magic."

"Well if you did then you wouldn't have been stuck with me for ten days."

"Well now I wish I had it more." Virgil stood up and stretched.

"Haha, very funny. That was a joke, right?"

"I don't know, is it?" Virgil smirked at him, which did nothing to help Roman's confusion.

Their attention was pulled away when the door opened and Patton walked in. "Roman, your family is here," he said.

Remus seemed to have appeared out of nowhere and grabbed onto Patton's shoulders, looking around him. "Heyo!" he shouted. "Wow, that's a lotta books."

"Remus!" Roman shouted, then he saw his dad walk into the doorway too. "Dad!"

"Thanks Patton," Virgil told him.

He nodded before saying, "I'm gonna go help Logan tend to their horse."

As his son skipped his way over, Nico walked into the library slowly as he looked around. "This place is big," he commented. "Almost as big as the town's library!"

"Let me guess, you're researching something for a story?" Remus asked as he came to the table, looking at all of the books on the table.

"No actually, I'm helping Virgil with something. Unfortunately, none of these books are helping. I'm hoping the town library or bookstore might have something that can help."

"Wow, and in the process you somehow became an even bigger nerd than you were before." Remus crossed his arms, looking over his brother.

"Haha, very funny. How's your job going?"

"Better than your job hunting."

"I have a broken leg."

"Better than your job hunting before you get a broken leg."

Roman felt his face turn red when he heard Virgil stifle a laugh.

"Alright, that's enough bickering, you two," Nico told them as he finally walked over. "How have you been, Roman?"

"Oh, everything's been fine, except Janus attacked Virgil a couple of days ago."

Nico's eyes went wide open. "What?!" he shouted. "I should have known... convincing him to back down was too easy."

"Ooh, can I fight him again?" Remus asked.

"No, that won't solve anything." Nico sighed anxiously before looking at Virgil. "Are you okay? Did he hurt you?"

"I'm alright, I had help. He's gone for now, but I'm sure he'll come back. I'll... have to figure something out."

"I'm so sorry, this is my fault. To be honest, I had originally hired him to find Roman and bring him home... I didn't expect this whole mess..."

"It's also partially Remus's fault," Roman added. "For jumping the gun when he first saw Virgil, thinking I was kidnapped by him."

"What?! I told dad not to hire Janus! By that logic, it's also your fault for acting like you were kidnapped!" Remus shouted.

Virgil rolled his eyes. Roman's family was... interesting. He was glad he got Roman over Remus though, the other twin seems like more of a handful. "It doesn't matter who's fault it is, as long as this whole situation is... fixed," the prince said. "I'd rather not have a bounty on my head, if word gets out."

"I'll try to talk to him," Nico offered. "But I don't know what good that will do."

Roman frowned in thought. Janus wants to kill a dragon witch, but Virgil was a human cursed into one. Maybe if Janus knew the truth... No, Virgil probably wouldn't be comfortable with the hunter knowing about that. But maybe if he can help Virgil reverse the curse before Janus attacks the next time...

"Hey uh... do you think I can go home for a few days? And then come back?" Roman asked. "I want to check out the town's library and bookstore. I've been looking for something here, but I can't find it."

"Oh? Uh, sure, if you want," Nico agreed. "We brought Guinevere, Logan said he would give her some food and water, so she should be good for a run."

"Sounds good! Plus I can get some of my clothes so I don't have to borrow anymore. And maybe I can pack some other things as well... I do want to come back here afterwards." Roman looked up at Virgil.

"That sounds good," the dragon witch agreed. Though he didn't want Roman to be gone long. At this point, Roman being here felt as natural as Logan and Patton. He'll be back but one day... he's going to go home and stay there. Maybe he'll visit, but he won't live with them anymore. He won't be constantly around. It'll mostly go back to the way things were...

Virgil couldn't lie, the idea of that upset him. But it was going to happen eventually, and it would be selfish to make Roman stay. He has a life to get back to, Remus even mentioned that he was job hunting before all of this. It would be nice if he could stay, but very unlikely.

"I think I have everything in here, I didn't have much to begin with." Roman looked around the table, putting all of the papers back into his bag.

"You don't have to leave right away," Virgil pointed out. "You should give your horse some time to rest, and it is around lunch time. You and your family should stay for at least lunch." Okay, maybe it was an excuse to get Roman to stay longer. But if it works, it works.

"That sounds good, thank you," Nico told him.

"We gotta come here more often," Remus said. "We always get free food!"