Of Soul And Spirit

Chapter 7: The Library

"That's it!" Opal shouted. Briar looked up from staring at her lap at dinner and glanced to see Opal's frustrated frown. "You've been moping for days now, Briar."

Briar shrugged. After three weeks of nothing, she had given up trying. She had been making no progress in training, her search for answers was fruitless and she was stuck in Greece until God-knows-when. She was completely miserable, she hardly even talked with her mom or friends anymore. Briar slumped in her chair a little more.

"Ugh!" Opal exclaimed in frustration, and Briar was suddenly brought to her feet as Opal grabbed her arm and started to drag her out of the room.

"What in the world are you doing?!" she shrieked, trying to resist being pulled away, but Opal was too strong.

Opal smirked, continuing to drag her. "We. Are. Going. To. Do. Something."

"Fine," Briar relented. She stopped resisting, but Opal didn't let go of the deathgrip she had on Briar's arm. Some trust, she thought, sighing.

Opal pulled her around another corner, and though Briar had become decent at navigating the massive building, she still wasn't proficient, and had definitely not seen the section of hallways they were in now. "Where we going?"

"Well usually, I'd suggest going and punching something, but you seem to be doing a lot of that in training. So I figured since you are so hell-bent on immediately getting answers to things you'd find out eventually, I'd just bring you to the library and you could meet Claire. Though the library isn't my version of a good time, perhaps it will help you."

"Claire?" Briar asked, "I thought I've met everyone by now."

"She doesn't leave the library much." Opal continued to drag Briar down the hallway. They passed other members of the Psychi occasionally, but the corridors still felt heavy with an air of abandonment. Briar thought back to the hundreds of dusty, unused rooms she had come across, forgotten and frozen in time.

She yelped as she was suddenly yanked to the side and through a doorway. "You need to give me a little warning!" she cried out as Opal once again changed direction with no warning, and then finally let go of her arm. Briar stood there for a second, hands on her knees, trying to recover from the dash. "Th-thought......I'd be in shape by now....." she gasped out, breathing heavily. She glanced up to see Opal leaning against the doorframe, arms crossed and smirking, and was about to go off on another tangent, but then she saw the rest of the room.

"Whoa....." she whispered breathlessly, practically drinking in the sight of rows upon rows of shelves of books. She looked back at Opal, beaming so wide it almost hurt. "Why didn't Thania ever bring me hear before?!"

"Probably the volume," someone said. A girl that Briar assumed was Claire walked over. She had blond hair and like most of the Vendari Briar had met, she had strange eyes. Hers were purple.

"Hey, Claire," Opal said, "Long time no see."

Claire gave Opal a miffed look. "Well maybe if you would read sometimes, you'd see me more often."

Opal shuddered slightly at the thought of reading. "I'll pass, much rather be hitting things. Much as I oh so love your company." Claire sighed, rolling her eyes, and turned to Briar.

"You were complaining about Opal dragging you down here? She rarely even sets foot in the library once a year."

"It was an emergency, she's been miserable," Opal grumbled, "it was the only thing I could think of."

"Well whatever the reason, I'm glad to see a new face," Claire said shrugging, and offered her hand, "My name is Claire, and I run the library."

Briar shook her hand, "I'm Briar. Opal mentioned you're Dasker's older sister? He seems....way more energetic in comparison."