Oracle (Book I)

The Library

Caprice wished that all the things she remembered were nothing more than a dream. A very bad dream she was now awake from. But it wasn't and making sense of it was the problem now. Caprice decided to tell Nezzle about Aether first. They were studying in a very stately schoolroom carved of white, black-veined marble as she tried to gather the courage to say it. Given that this might not be the best time while she worked on her plan to return to Shire Nyte Village for the last time, she hesitated. At last, Caprice drew a steadying breath.

"Nezzle."

"Hm." Across  from Caprice, the witch had an elbow propped on the table and a small, chunky volume raised to her face, sitting sideways with a leg bent on the marble bench. She didn't look up from her reading, eyes traveling line to line, silently devouring the page.

"I wanted to find some books." She turned a page in her Basics book. "You know, to practice reading."

"About what?" Nezzle muttered.

"Rebellions and sorceresses."

Nezzle put her book down and faced Caprice.

"Caprice, what are you planning?" she asked directly.

"Um, nothing!" she said a little too loudly as her heart tripped a few beats under Nezzle's scrutiny. "Nothing. I only wanted to read about some damn powerful witches, you know. That sort of thing."

She thought the interrogation might go on and braced herself. Nezzle was giving her that piercing, knowing look. She finally said, "You haven't seen the Library yet, have you."

"Er, no."

"Let's go."

Relief flooded through her as Nezzle gathered her things, took up her book, and led the way to the Library.

Oracle was so vast yet Caprice couldn't believe there were still places she had not yet set foot and explored.

Like the catacombs and the dungeons, the Library was breathtaking in its size. Unlike those places in the school though, the Library wasn't quite as rustic and earthy. It was certainly designed for a scholar's purpose and comfort as well as opulence. Floor to ceiling windows looked out onto the green grounds. The white walls sheltered arches, floors lined in rows of towering bookcases, and alcoves of bookshelves stuffed full; the rows of bookcases on the main floor stretched endlessly in either direction until the bookcases shrank into the distance.

Caprice thought she could never read so many books in all her life. It would take that amount of time for her just to get though a few shelves. A shadow passing above drew her gaze overhead. One hand flew to her mouth and the other grabbed Nezzle's sleeve.

"What-what is that?!" Caprice gasped. The thing floated high in the air. With chalky white skin, it looked like something that hid under the beds of children at night. It held the shape of man or wizard in faded pasty plum robes that were splotched almost white as its face in places as if from age and perhaps many washings. The creature bore a long neck and hunched back, its shoulder drawn up to its ears. Its eyes were thin diagonal slits in its face in its flat, long oval face. Its long, skeletal hands, longer than Caprice's head and large enough to wrap around her skull, were large knuckled and tapered with long, conical blood red tips. It had a smile like a friegle only much more unsettling. The strange frightening creature bared its teeth at Caprice in a permanently grotesque grin, all wet and long like harpsichord keys. The teeth it showed were seated in bruised-looking gums mottled red and purple.

Nezzle tilted her head back but remained otherwise unmoved except to place a calming hand on Caprice's arm.

"The librarian."