In The Grand Library, there are no ordinary days for the librarians. Where most visitors found fascinating books, few of them found secret untold, but then Dryad found another life.
Sir Alvard carefully made his way, walked through the bushes labyrinth, so as to avoid any eyes that might spot his presence. His eyes widened slightly as he realized that the sect members still gathered in the mansion. Right. The ritual took days to complete. The final event would be the human sacrifice. He sighed in relief that he still had time to prevent the ritual from a success. A shiver went down his spine as he thought about that ritual.
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A group of people was moving around. They seemed to be preparing something. But Lord Vlad was nowhere to be seen among those people. Sir Alvard looked around discreetly, searching for a chance to move to the library without anyone notice.He entered through the side entrance, quietly approaching the library's door.
Finally, he managed it back to the library. The sight of disaster greeted him. Reminded him of the previous battle. Virgil died in that fight right in front of his eyes. That memory alone was enough to fuel his resolve. He clenched his hands hard, forcing back his emotion. This time he will do everything he can in preventing Vlad from getting what he wanted.
As a guardian of the grimoire, he usually could sense its power. But now... he felt a sense of emptiness. No longer could he feel its influence. It seemed almost as if the grimoire itself became dormant.
Alvard gasped as realization hit him. "No...don't tell me..." He stormed to his study room- which was in a complete mess- to confirm his fear that the grimoire might have been taken away, or hopefully still there.
With a whisper of simple incantation and a single wave of hand, he opened the magic seal of the secret compartment between the bookshelf, behind his working desk. A light flashed for a second, and some glowing strange symbolic characters came to existence, whirled around in the air. The entire bookcase opened to reveal the dark void inside, where Ashmedai grimoire should be hidden in plain sight. Those symbols whirled faster counterclockwise and the light disappeared with a swoosh, revealing nothing but dust.
"Damn it..."Sir Alvard gritted and covered eyes with hand, "I'm late..."
The grimoire was lost.
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Dryad decided to have one more night at Eurydice's Clock Shop. She's in the guest bedroom now, sitting on the desk while flipping through Lesath Grimoire. The book, however, was completely dry and perfectly fine. As if never soaked in rain before, which made her wonder how was that possible? All pages were blank. The writing only appeared when she was thinking of something, searching for an answer or solution regarding the situation.
She sighed. "I'm thirsty" she murmured softly and stood up, looking at her surroundings with a tired gaze. She went to the kitchen to get herself some water.
She noticed that one small room beside the living room opened slightly, with a dimly lit light that came through the gap. Dryad approached slowly. Haze was inside the room, sitting on the desk. He stared at the watch on his wrist with a frown, seeming deep in thought.
She cleared her throat softly and he turned his head toward her with a faint smile.
"Oh. It's you, Dry. Not sleeping yet?" Haze asked. But the seriousness never leaves his face.
Intrigued by the tools scattered on the desk, Dryad leaned closer. "What are you working on?"
Haze sighed deeply. "I was just... testing Atreides' project."
"Project?" Dryad frowned, dragging a small stool to sit nearby.
"Yes," Haze nodded, his gaze back to his watch. "It's still under development, though. Atreides invented a micro device to be planted into clock machines. Something simple yet would be very useful in the middle of the battlefield, for example... to locate your comrades whereabout, or even to track down the enemy. Though, never fully finished yet. So... I want to give it a test. I actually modified Sir Alvard's pocket watch. I planted that device inside of it. In other words.. his pocket watch is now linked to my watch. Notice the green light here?" Haze showed the light on the side of the watch, and pointed at the center.
A flash on the watch was something new. Even the wristwatch was the newest fashion design of that era. People still widely used pocket watch.
Dryad raised eyebrows, "that's a very cool design! So...? What about the light?"
"Green light indicates that the pair device of mine is not far from the radius 3 kilometers away. Means... Sir Alvard is not too far from here."
"Huh? But... he should have gone by train now, right? How many hours since he left?" Dryad glanced at the clock on the wall. "Two hours or so... he should have reached Euston right now, the next stop before Durea."
"If he really had reached Euston, the light should be red instead of green. Red means, the pair device is out of range."
"So... you mean... Sir Alvard possibly never got on the train?" Dryad frowned.
"That's possible. Maybe he lied. He didn't plan to go to Durea.. but... to where?" Haze's eyebrows knitted together.
Dryad's eyes widened and she got up as if lightning struck her. "To the Library!"
"What?" Haze was surprised. "No way... we just got him out of there, risking our lives! What made you think he would go back there?"
Dryad shook her head, "I...don't know.. It's just... a feeling," she bit her lip, "a very strong feeling."
