The Librarians and the... Budapest Mysteries - part 1

- 10 -

"Simone?"

Eve couldn't believe her ears. She straightened up, surprised by the sudden burst of anger that washed through her body. While she was had been worrying sick about the Librarian, he had been thinking about another woman? Unless he had been with another one while he was searching for the Library.

"Eve. Of course I meant Eve. I'm so glad to see you Guardian," he quickly said, trying obviously to make amends for his mistake.

Flynn was now fully awake. It had taken him only a second to realise where he was, who was kissing him, and how awfully wrong things looked right now.

He sat and, noting that he was on the table, jumped down to face the colonel whose glance was now ice cold.

"I can explain everything... if... you give me a chance?" promised Flynn with a smile he hope would appear as apologetic as he meant it to be.

"You got only one before I slap you, Librarian."

"Fair enough," replied Carsen.

Unable to keep still, he started pacing in the room while telling Baird about the auditive hallucination, his meeting with Zoltán, the visit to the museum and the archivist's attack.

The Librarian stopped walking around as a thought stroke him:

"By the way, since I woke up here, I guess that I have to thank you for that. How is my poor bald friend?"

"Last time I saw him, he was knocked out... I suspect he must wonder what happened to him."

"The artefact?"

"A Medusa stone. We collected it along with yourself."

"Oh... well, good. Fine."

Carsen seemed somehow lost in his narration, but Baird had no intention of making it easy for him:

"Simone?"

The Librarian sighed and a shadow of smile crossed his lips.

"When I begged the Library to let me reach you by thought, I was in a very difficult situation."

"Yes, I know, the archivist was trying to force you to look at the stone."

"Oh, so the message actually went through?"

"It did," answered shortly the colonel. "But you had already passed out."

Carsen nodded and went on:

"The effort had weakened me and the hallucination was not too far away so I decided to give it a try. I mean, I chose what I considered was the less evil thing."

"From what I can gather, it was indeed the very least evil," snorted Baird.

"Actually, it wasn't very pleasant at first..."

He caught Eve's angry glance and quickly added:

"... but then, I saw Simone Renoir, who I met seven years ago in New Orleans. She is the one who kind of taught me that messages could be conveyed through dreams. So in a way, she is the one I have to thank for... whatever. Simone was a vampire. She was dedicated to ensure that the Judas Chalice wouldn't fall in the wrong hands. Once it was secured again... she..."

His voice trailed off and he fell silent. His guardian had noticed the change of tone when he spoke about Simone. Her intuition told her that now was not the time to insist, she needed to be patient. Indeed, after a few seconds, Flynn went on, his voice strangely low.

"She wanted to see the sun rise. I was with her until... the end. To see her again, to talk to her, it was... really nice. I probably shouldn't say that, but... I do miss her."

"I understand," said Baird whose anger was gone. "But you do realise that it rises a few questions. Even the Library cannot bring dead people to life again, although technically, Simone was already dead when she died. Oh my, that's such a nonsense!"

Her joke attempt failed. Flynn was deep in his thoughts. Eve had an idea about their topic and she suddenly felt sad for the lonely Librarian. She joined him and put a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"Those questions can wait. You still owe me an apology."

He turned his attention to her and smiled:

"Yes I do. What could I do to earn your forgiveness?"

"Well, you could set the score right by giving me a kiss, so I would stop being jealous of a hot vampire."

Baird was happy to see the usual sparkle back in Flynn's eyes when he complied.