The Bookkeeper of Enneduin

Chapter 5

Firan wondered if he would ever get over the constant feeling of being lost in the Library. It had been nearly a month since he'd arrived and even still, as he searched for Daena through each wing, his stomach twisted nervously. When he came across a wing he did not recognize, or when he turned down a hall that was just a tad bit too dark, he wondered if he would ever make it up to the safety of the grand room again.

The echo of a cough rang through the air, and since nobody had entered the Library that day, and Firan locked the door before he began his search for Daena, he knew it must be from the Bookkeeper. So he followed the sound, and wiped his clammy palms on his tunic. Absolutely ridiculous. Firan had been running headfirst into battles with the druids for years. He had no fear of death, of injury. So why did the vastness of the Library make him so uneasy?

Firan craned his neck to look into the wing with the giant chandelier made up of golden rings, and found a flash of silver hair disappear behind a bookshelf. He nearly sighed with relief that he'd finally found her.

"Daena?" he called, walking into the room. He'd found her in this wing many times over the past week or two. And when she was not there, she was studying from the books that came from those shelves. For whatever reason, she seemed feverish to gather knowledge of whichever king this room of the Library was dedicated to.

Daena's face popped from around the edge of the bookshelf, and she smiled softly. "Over here."

Since that night when she'd come barefoot to his bedroom, there had been less arguments. Less frustration. Firan would hardly go so far as to call them friends but, they were approaching something almost like it. And he wasn't sure how he felt about that. The tightening in his stomach he felt while looking at her only increased. And now in certain moments at the sight of her brow creasing while she leaned over a book, or the ring of her voice greeting him in the mornings, he found that his breath grew short and his chest grew warm. He wanted to reach out and smooth out the creases in her forehead. He rose out of bed a bit quicker and with more excitement just to hear her "good mornings". And that terrified him more than the end of any sword he'd come across.

"Did anyone come in while I was gone?" she asked, tucking her chin on top of the massive stack of books she balanced in her arms.

He reached forward to take the majority of the books from her, and shook his head. "No. Goddess above, these are heavy. Were you really going to carry all of these up to the grand room?"

She craned her neck to examine one of the books on a shelf just out of her reach, and shrugged. "Maybe. Not all of them. I haven't sorted through them just yet."

Firan extended a hand to grab the book she was looking at and pulled it down to add to the pile in his arms. "You're like a little owl. Hiding away, gathering knowledge like treasure."

"Do...owls gather knowledge? I thought they just hunted mice."

"They do in legends! I think so, anyway. There is a letter for you in the grand room, by the way," he told her, shifting the stack so it rested on his chest. "It came from the palace."

Daena turned sharply towards him, and her lips fell slightly apart. "When?"

"Just now. I came to find you right after the courier left."

"I thought you said nobody came in!"

"Well he didn't really come into the Library. He stayed in the grand room for a moment to deliver the letter and then left."

"That's-" Daena sighed a little, and shook her head. "You do realize how annoying you are, don't you?"

Firan couldn't help but smile. She didn't ask the question with any hint of animosity or genuine frustration. Instead her eyes twinkled with humor and a smile teased at her mouth. Perhaps they had become some type of friends after all.