The Haunting: A Legend of the Artificer Side Story

Chapter 2

"Well, that's done for the day," Tibalt said as he put the various jars in the charmed ice box. "They just need to sit for a few days and they'll be perfect."

"That was enlightening; thank you," Innes said and Tibalt jerked his head towards the stairs.

"Want to see the library now?" he asked and interest flickered in Innes's dark eyes.

"Yes, please."

"Hey, dinner is almost ready," Grim said, sounding properly offended, and Tibalt flapped a hand at him.

"We won't take too long; I just want to show Innes the organization system so ze can find zir way around."

"... Promise?" Grim asked, sounding distrusting for whatever insane reason, and Tibalt flapped his hand once more.

"We'll be right back down," he promised and started climbing the stairs. "Come on, Innes."

"Ah, I'm coming," Innes said and rushed behind Tibalt as he clambered up to the next floor.

"So, the bottom two floors are all nonfiction," Tibalt started. "Almost the entire first level is magic studies, theology, which I haven't touched, and history. The next level is primarily subjects on how to, such as the study of sciences and trades. There's an entire section just dedicated to fiber arts... Oh, that's an idea..."

"What?" Innes asked as sudden inspiration hit Tibalt.

"I'd been struggling with incorporating charms and enchantments into crochet and knitting, but the primary problem is the need for unbroken lines, so what if I enchanted the yarn instead, because it's all one singular line of yarn, and---"

"Tibalt?" Innes interrupted and Tibalt blinked up at zim.

"Yes?"

"You were showing me the library?" Innes prompted, and Tibalt opened his mouth, shut it, and then heat climbed in his face.

"Ah, yes, my apologies," he said and cleared his throat. "Anyways, I imagine the magic section will be of the most interest to you. I'm quite proud of my collection. There's an entire bookcase dedicated to magical theory I think you'd find interesting, and that's right about..."

Tibalt trailed off as he rounded the corner of the curved bookshelves and tapped the spine of a book.

"Here," he declared and idly traced his fingers over the spines to find the book he was searching for. "Ah, here we go; I needed this one."

"And what is the third floor for?" Innes asked and Tibalt blinked up at zim as he pulled out the book on the magical theory of the Southern continent.

"Ah, that's all fiction and folklore. So, novels and fairytales. I thought about keeping the fairytales with the history and sociology sections, but there were too many of them," he replied and licked his thumb to flick open the pages to the table of contents. "Static... Enchantments... Charms..."

"Didn't you promise Grim you wouldn't get distracted?" Innes asked and Tibalt hummed.

"I'm just marking my spot that I need to start at. Oh, those wooden slabs of wood are markers and enchanted to mark the name of the book that was pulled. You just have to tap them on the front cover and they'll engrave the title onto the far side. Just tap them a second time and they'll erase themselves. Very helpful when you're scatterbrained."

"That's a useful invention," Innes said and picked up a single wooden marker with a sense of detached interest.

"Mmm. Mostly for my own sanity," Tibalt said, still distracted as he flicked to the appropriate page. "Tap me, would you?"