Another Life in The Grand Library

Chapter 11. Another Grimoire

Dryad ran out of the basement, quickly made her way back to the library. She slammed the door behind her with a loud sound and tried to catch a breath. She leaned against the wooden door to steady herself and try to get her thoughts straight.

Haze, who was still inspecting the library, frowned at her, "Dryad? What's wrong? You look like you just saw a ghost. What have you found?"

Dryad looked up to him, trying to catch a breath. "Not a ghost. A human! There's someone else here! It's Lord Vlad's wife!"

"Wife?" Haze's eyebrows furrowed.

Dryad nodded several times.

"So that person is in the basement right now? Let me see." he was about to go to the basement, but Dryad quickly grabbed his arm.

"No. Don't go there!" Dryad cried.

"What? Why?" Haze turned to her.

"She's crazy! I mean... She's been chained to a pole and she doesn't want to get out, after all."

"Chained? Is she some prisoner or something? Let me..."

"I said don’t go there!! We have to get out of here!" Dryad cut his words off.

"But we need to find a clue about Sir Alvard and Virgil's whereabouts!" Haze said. "I can't stop here now and just leave. I've called the officers, so I must stay here until they arrive.”

"That woman said, this is the day of the ritual!" Dryad said, clenching her fists tightly.

"What ritual?"

Dryad sighed heavily, "It's... it's a long story, I'll tell you later, Haze, but for now we...." she stopped in the middle, then quickly turned her head to her left, as if trying to listen to something.

He noticed her sudden reaction and stopped looking around, his attention now on Dryad. He raised an eyebrow in curiosity, "Dryad? What's wrong?"

"ssh..." she hushed him in a whisper.

He leaned closer to her and whispered too,  "Is there something? Do you hear someone?"

"Someone... no.. something is calling me," Dryad whispered back.

His eyebrows furrowed as he listened to her. He looked around and tried to hear what the thing was called Dryad. But, Haze didn't hear a thing. Not even a single thing.
"Dryad? Don't scare me."

"No. I..." she trailed off, then suddenly walked again. She looked around, as if trying to locate the source of the sound.

Haze followed her closely and kept quiet. He was curious about what was going on. But he also didn't want to disturb her in case she could actually hear something.

Dryad heard the whispers sound... Calling her name, telling her what to do, but she wasn't so sure because the whisper sounded faint.

Haze noticed that Dryad's eyes were focused on something, and he tried to follow her gaze. He also listened carefully for any sounds of whisperings she talked about.

"There!" she walked in a rush now.

Haze was surprised by her sudden change in pace and followed closely. His curiosity now grew as he tried to figure out what she might heard or saw "Dryad, wait! Where are you going?"

Instead of answering, Dryad kneeled and searched for something between piles of books that scattered on the floor in such haste. Haze crouched down next to her. His curiosity now replaced with concern as he saw how frantic she was "Dryad, are you okay? What do you need to find urgently?"

Somehow, she found a grimoire!
"So this is what's calling me.." she whispered.

She ran her fingers on the cover. Something written on it..

“Lesath”

Dryad didn’t know whether it was a name or a word. She thought that she found the Ashmedai’s grimoire that Vlad and Zaard were looking for. But no, what she found was something that was crafted by Lesath with his last power, though she had no idea of it.

She flipped the pages, muttering what was written on it. As she was doing so, something happened. A surge of power released. Light burst forth from the book, blinding them momentarily. Then it faded as quickly as it appeared. The force made them both faint, because it was too strong for a mere human to bear

Haze was taken aback. He tried to stay conscious, but he couldn't stand against its power. He closed his eyes and blacked out immediately after Dryad did.