To tame a Demon (english)

Chapter 35: Piece by piece

Several boards on an old door broke into a thousand pieces when a firm kick tore their nails out of the dilapidated wall. Dust of bygone times swirled up between heavy footsteps that now entered these dilapidated halls and made sure that no danger lurked in some dark corner.

Quickly the man could confirm:

"Apparently no one has been here for a long time."

Another person joined them and a pair of suspicious green eyes made their own assessment of the situation before snarkily replying:

"-tt- great Grayson, so your terrific sleuthing has led us astray. I told you we wouldn't find anything here. What a waste of time."

But Dick was undeterred and took a closer look at this dilapidated library. The cape of his Batman costume swung behind him as he walked the dusty shelves along the walls and looked closely at its books. And quickly, a thick book caught his attention.

"I don't think this is a waste of time. You're missing out on a lot by always being so pessimistic." Dick answered the boy teasingly, and at the same moment pulled out the slightly dusty book. A clack sounded and Richard took a few steps back from the shelf. Small oil lamps lit up throughout the room, their flickering light illuminating the many old spines of books.

The small shelf section of this big library swung open, revealing its secret behind. Which, to Dick's regret, was another closed door. But he didn't miss the chance to tease Damian a bit more with his best grin:

"Well, look at that. I actually found a secret passage."

But he didn't get more than a sour hiss and a dismissive look in response from the cynical boy.

Dick now inspected the ornate door more closely and quickly noticed that there was a bulge on it in the shape of a book. Above it was an inscription, which he now read aloud:

"Is it good? Is it evil? In solitude, the embers the only friend. His lips, his betrayal. The good deed, his death. The end the moral?

If you're wrong, the ember turns from friend to foe.

Hm...Looks like we have to use one of the books here as a key and find the right one right off the bat. Anyway, I'm assuming by the last part that if we mess up here, everything will go up in flames."

Damian looked around this huge library. Wherever he looked there were hundreds of books and he was at a loss as to which one was the right one. He himself had never had much time to deal with literature and simply had no answer to this riddle.

And it annoyed him:

"And which book should that be? There are several thousand of these old paper bricks here. We don't have time for that kind of crap. Let's just blow open this stupid door and get it all over with."

But his guardian saw this matter differently:

"I wouldn't do that. It would only trigger possible traps and probably rather block the way even more. Besides, I know which book we need," Dick answered him and began to search the spines of the books under Damian's skeptical gaze.

"And which one do you think it is?"

"Do you know the fairy tale Rumpelstiltskin?"

"Rumpel-what?"

"Rumpelstiltskin. But judging by your confused face, you don't know it. I honestly would have been surprised, since I don't consider Talia a fairy tale reader. Come on, help me find it. I'll explain it to you on the side."

Damian just pushed the air out of his nostrils in annoyance before grumbling and searching the spines of the books. He didn't much feel like listening to another one of Gold Boy Grayson's silly stories. So he paid little attention to his words for now while Dick began to explain: