White Thorn | On Hold

For the Sake of Books

She waited until dark to make her move.

Silently, she crept out of her window, clambering down the vine leading to her room, nearly screaming when Lydia materialised next to her.

She was dressed in dark clothing, almost seamlessly blending in with the night as she tapped Arya on the shoulder, quickly covering the small squeak that left her lips. "Jake might meet us there if he can get away..." Lydia mumbled, nudging her into the shadows of a nearby building. "Rian seems to be keeping a close eye on him."

"But not on you?"

"He only has one set of eyes," she said, slipping through the streets, freezing when she heard the sound of footsteps echoing down the unlit street. "Hide!" she hissed, ducking into a little niche, dragging Arya with her. "Stay quiet till I say."

She nodded, keeping her breathing shallow and barely audible. There was no way in hell she was going to get caught after all the trouble that'd already happened.

A Disciplinary Committee Member walked past, black coat flaring behind him as he patrolled the streets, not ever sparing a glance their way. Arya relaxed, noting the tight grip Lydia still had on her wrist. It was an obvious sign not to talk just yet, and she obeyed quietly, waiting until the older girl spoke first.

"Come on," Lydia said. "The quicker we get there, the quicker we don't need to worry about those idiots."

"Logic," Arya mumbled, following close behind her. She wasn't too confident on her internal map of the city just yet, so she'd decided it'd be safest to have Lydia lead. At least she might actually be able to get them to the North Library before daybreak that way.

"I'm full of it, what'd you expect?" She snorted. "Jakey-boi is the stupid one."

"He'd yell if her heard you calling him that."

She smirked. "Well, it's a good thing he's not here then, isn't it?"

"He might be useful in figuring out what the hell it is we're supposed to do."

"Might I remind you I'm the smart blonde?" she said, a wide smirk on her face as they trawled through the streets. There were close calls between Disciplinary Committee Members, and Arya's occasional bouts of sheer stupidity, but eventually they found their way in front of the thick doors leading to the North Library.

There was something eerie about being in a library late at night, especially when the lights weren't on. The bookshelves towered over them, the precious tomes all blurring together in the bluish light, the shadows flickering. The hairs on the back of Arya's neck were on end, and she knew they were being watched. What she didn't know was by who... Flynn or any other member of the Disciplinary Committee would've called them out in a heartbeat and demanded to know why they were there. But nobody jumped out at them and started quoting the rulebook at them.

That scared Arya.

It could be her lurking in those shadows, waiting to strike... to drag her away...

She bit her lip, fighting the urge to grab a hold of Lydia's hand. She was a teenager now, for crying out loud, and teenagers had to be brave – like she had with those thorns.

A sudden creak shattered what little confidence she had, her arms wrapping around Lydia before she could blink.

"Arya." Lydia paused. "Are you hugging me?"

"Um... Yes?" she mumbled, her cheeks reddening in the darkness.

"Could you, like, let go?" she asked. "This is kinda awkward..."

Arya scowled at herself. "Sorry."

"Relax," Lydia said, patting her on the shoulder. "There's nothing in here aside from us."

Her instincts screamed otherwise.

"Now, let's just get this over and done with... I have an idiotic cousin to go and meet up with." She clapped her hands quietly, eyeing up the gate which led to the restricted section. "Come on."

Arya took a deep breath, hurrying after her older friend, knowing she'd have to tell Lydia where to go from here. She was the one who knew where the lion's head was, roughly... considering she'd ran around randomly the last time she'd been there.

"So this is the place," Lydia mumbled, staring up at the silver lion's head on the wall above them. "Well... we're looking for something underneath it," she continued, her face falling when she realised there was nothing but bare empty wall underneath it. A few of the bricks seemed to stick out of the wall, but apart from that there was nothing interesting in the slightest.

"There might be something right underneath it?" she suggested, eyeing up the bricks sticking out of the wall.

It was like they'd been designed as a staircase of sorts.

Arya concluded it was probably intentional, scrambling up the narrow footholds like a mountain goat, peering curiously at the lion's head.

"Anything?" Lydia called up.

"Nothing," she said. "It's just a little cross shaped indent underneath it."

"An indent?"

"Yeah!"

Lydia was puzzled. "The shape of a cross? Like one of your crosses?"

"Yep."

Silence fell for a few moments, her older friend clearly thinking about the whole situation from the ground. "Would any of your crosses fit in that indent?" she asked. "Specifically the one that made Jake become a human fireball?"

Arya bit her lip, pulling that exact cross out from under her shirt. "Well... it did say something about waiting for yellow flames..." she muttered, hesitantly pressing the cross into the little indent. "It fits—"

A loud clank cut her off, the sound making her lose her grip as something shifted behind the wall, and it was fortunate it did.

The golden-tipped arrow brushed past her cheek, narrowly missing her eye as it shot out from just underneath the lion's maw.

"Arya!"

She flailed, blinking as a pair of arms caught her, setting her down safely on the ground.

"You OK?"

"I'm fine," she mumbled, too focused on the whirring noises behind the wall to pay attention to what Lydia was doing.

Rumbles filled the air, the sound of stone scraping across stone making her wince as a perfectly vertical cut appeared in the centre of the wall – it opening like a large set of doors – leaving the pair staring at the new black corridor in front of them.