by Giger, S. L.
I reciprocated her stare, pondering whether I should voice my thoughts out loud. In my opinion, there was only one way we had at the moment to find out whom we were up against. “I’ll try to speak to Dr. Palmer. He is the one who creates most opposition against magical beings.”
Alex threw me a worried glance.
“Yes, be careful. If he realizes that you create any resistance, he might reveal you as an Alternative as well,” Melissa said.
“We have to start somewhere,” I said. “Of course, I’ll be careful.” I wasn’t that foolish.
“Great.” Cathy clapped her hands. “So, I will contact the uni and soon we'll be able to get down to work.”
Roisin snorted and got up. “This is a mistake.” Before anybody could say another word, she was out of the door.
Alex threw me a worried look. I pressed my lips together. I was speechless at how quickly this whole thing seemed to be organized. What if Roisin was right and someone was tricking us? After all, male Sirens had been persona non-grata so far. I could only hope that we wouldn’t end up running around like headless chickens.
Chapter 10
Luke met me in front of school so that he could also show his face in town again. We stopped by at the Hot Chocolate Sparrow in the center of Orleans to buy a cup of coffee that we wouldn’t drink. Then, we strolled to the outskirts of town, from where we ran to NYC in about twenty minutes. The maze of the city announced itself with a higher frequency of honking and humming car engines which nobody turned off at the traffic lights. We passed a street musician here and there, playing the drums on garbage cans. I took in the smell of roasted chestnuts that hung in the air everywhere, now that it was winter. Everything combined together, the sounds, languages, and smells, was like a symphony that told me about the lives of so many individual people getting along in a tiny space—tiny for the large number of people—below huge skyscrapers.
Luke and I walked straight to the big, gray building on the edge of Bryant Park. I felt small when I climbed the steps past the lion statues, with the heavy building towering in front of me. It was as if it was telling me “Hey, I’ve been here for a long time and I have no intention of ever moving.”
The drumming of all the people’s heartbeats was massive. Apart from us, there were elderly men in coats, with leather bags strapped over their shoulders—perhaps university professors. Younger people in all sorts of clothes, alone or in groups, students or visitors, and parents with children in their arms, or children running ahead of them, racing to the top of the stairs. Amazing how such unique people all fit under one roof with the same goal—to read.
Slightly confused, I threw Luke a glance. “Luke, how do you manage to spend day after day around so many heartbeats?” I asked, keeping up with his big steps, as we were walking toward the entrance of the library. Perhaps it was quiet in the reading rooms but it was definitely populated.
“You’ll see in a minute,” he answered with a tense voice. Obviously, it wasn’t so easy for him after all.
When we had passed the doors behind the pillars, we didn’t continue into the big hall. Instead we turned left and went downstairs into the basement corridors, where the toilets were located. It was a dimly lit hallway with a lot of closed doors. Luke threw a cautionary glance to the left and right before he opened a door with a small sign that said ‘Maintenance.’ He stepped inside and looked at me expectantly. I stared at him blankly.
“Come on, before anybody sees us.” He ushered me inside.
There we were, standing in a dark closet-like room that smelled of used mops and cleaning liquids. My eyes took a moment to adjust until they made out the shapes of brooms and buckets to both sides of us. I saw the shape of Luke right in front of me. It felt pretty huddled in there.
“Luke, what are we doing in here?”
“You didn’t really think that we’d stay up there, did you?” He laughed. “All those hearts are making me nauseous already.”
“Well, what should I have expected? This smell isn’t very pleasant either.”
“You will love this.” He reached for a plastic bottle with one of those spray dispenser tops.
“If you ever come here on your own, you need to find the bottle that says ‘Vinegar.’ They never throw it out because they seem to think somebody uses it for cleaning, but they never actually use it.” He opened the lid and smelled it.
“It does have a slight vinegar scent at first but if you smell closer, I find it tastes somewhat like roses.” He held the bottle toward my face. I wrinkled my nose because I expected an acidic, vinegary smell, but it faded to something softer.
“Now, you need to spray some of this on the top of your head and say ‘invisibilis,’ while you imagine that you can walk through a wall. It’s important that you say it and think it all at the same time,” Luke said.
I furrowed my brows. “Yeah, and did you know that when you say gullible backward, it rhymes with airplane?” I responded.
“Nathalie, I do like to joke around but don’t you think purposely finding a storage room in the library just to play a trick on you is going through too much trouble, even for me?”
I pondered for another moment. “Ok, but you go first, then.” Part of me was waiting for him to pull out.
“Alright, but remember, you have to do it at the same time. Think about passing through a solid wall.”
Next, he did as he'd instructed. He held the bottle above his head, pressed his finger down and when the vinegar water splashed over him, he said 'invisibilis.' In the next moment, the black shadow that had been in front of me was gone. The bottle, on the other hand, kept hovering in the air.
“Oh my God, Luke, where are you?” I asked, half scared, half uncertain about what had happened.
“Still here,” he laughed. “Just a little magic.” The bottle hovered closer to me. “Now, you do it.”
Excitement rose inside me and I had to steady my breathing. “How does this work?” I asked.
“I assume a witch, wizard or alchemist has whipped up a potion of which we can all profit now.”
“Haha, of course,” I said in an octave higher than usual. Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined anything like this was possible. I grabbed the bottle from out of the air and held it over my head.
“Visualize inside your head, how you walk through a wall.” I heard Luke’s voice.
I imagined how I would slip through that thick brick wall at the back of this closet, pressed down the handle, and said 'invisibilis.' Wet drizzle fell on my hair and shoulders, but other than that, I didn’t feel a difference. But when I brought my hand back down, I saw how the bottle was hovering in the air again, without seeming to be attached to anything. Nevertheless, I felt that I was holding it. I placed the bottle on the shelf and touched my body, or where I thought it was. Everything was still there but at the same time, I couldn’t see anything.
“Are you ok?” I heard Luke’s voice.
“Yes,” I managed to breathe. “This is amazing.” Then, somewhat frightened: “How will it come back?”
Luke took the bottle—it moved through the air again. He put it back in its original place.
“Use the same bottle when you come back and say ‘visibilis.’ The magicians have made it that easy for us.” Afterward, he added: “But we have to get going now. Follow me through the back wall here.”
For a moment, nothing happened. “Luke?” I asked. There was no reply, so I shook my head and stepped forward. I touched the wall but my hand slid through it as if it was an illusion. I slowly pushed forward and glided through the wall like a ghost. Suddenly, I was standing at the top of a winding flight of stone stairs. They were lit up by a single oil lamp, which was spreading a warm light into the otherwise dark, narrow rock stairway. The room was empty. I wondered where the stairs were leading but I was too scared to descend into the darkness and therefore stayed put.
“Luke?” I asked, a little nervous.
“Ah, here you are. How do you
feel?”
“Good. I think.” It was a rather weird sensation to know I was there but to not see myself in the surroundings.
“Good. follow me down. I want to show you The Library.” I heard his footsteps echoing and so I gulped and followed him downwards. Every few yards, there was another oil lamp. I had just been unable to see the light around the corner. After walking in a downward spiral for about five floors, we reached a landing with a bigger chamber and a wooden door at the end. On both sides, next to the door was a shelf, which was stacked up with lanterns. At that moment, the door opened on its own and a burning lantern floated through it. The door closed again and the fire inside the oil lantern was gone. Then, the lantern moved to the shelf.
“Nathalie, get to the wall,” I heard Luke say.
I did as I was told and at that moment, I felt a wind swish by me.
“Oh, g’day,” I heard a male voice say.
“Hello,” Luke responded.
Suddenly, something—or rather someone, for it felt like human hands—touched me and made me jump.
“Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you,” Luke said. “I just wanted to know where you are.”
I knew that Luke was right there beside me, because he had his hand on my shoulder, yet I was staring at blank, grey rock.
“The thing that passed us. Was that a ghost?” I asked.
“Hah,” Luke laughed. “No, that was a person like us, only that we can’t be sure what kind of creature he was. Maybe a wizard, daemon, or perhaps a vampire. But you will see ghosts in a minute.”
While I was processing that information, he pulled on my hand. I was feeling slightly dizzy from not seeing my body.
“Come on. Take an oil lamp.” He lifted one up and held it toward me. I automatically took the lamp. Luke picked up an electric lighter. It didn’t fit into the scenery, since I felt like I was inside a secret corridor of a castle, sometime in the medieval age. I watched the lighter and then my lamp light up. Next, Luke did the same with another lantern for himself.
“Okay, we’re ready to go. Stay close to me.” He opened the door and I walked through it with my lantern in hand. I expected another narrow, dimly lit stone hallway but certainly not what I had stepped into now. I stopped dead and let my gaze wander, open-mouthed.
We were in a vaulted room about the size of a small cathedral. Its walls were arranged octagonally so that the room seemed round but there were eight corners where the walls met each other. Whereas in the corridor the walls had been grey brick, now the room was painted in white, which made the room seem brighter. On the floor of the hall, there were big bookshelves in dark brown wood, filled with heaps of books. Between the shelves, I could see tables and chairs in the same wood as the shelves. To my amusement, there were these green-shaded lamps on the table—the exact ones I knew from the movies that showed American university libraries. I chuckled. These green lamps had even managed to invade the space down here.
Beautiful stuccos embellished the walls. On every second wall, there were window arches behind which a gallery or another room was hiding. These alternated with more bookshelves which reached up toward the ceiling. I couldn’t see a door or ladder to them, and I wondered how you could get up there. Along the wall, on every level, there were more oil lamps. Hence, the room was bright enough, and I wasn’t sure why we needed our oil lamps. The biggest source of light was the ceiling. It was a beautiful dome made of milky glass, which was held together by a spider web of rock pillars. It was beautiful. An absolutely stunning room.
“Wow. That’s insane.” Although we appeared to be the only ones in here, I automatically whispered, since we were in a library and it was so quiet.
“Yeah, isn’t it amazing?” Luke whispered. “I love being here. The room alone feels inspiring.”
I could see what he meant. I looked up again and this time paid more attention to the shadows that were moving behind the milky glass. It looked quite spooky.
“What are those black movements up there?” I whispered again.
“These are the people above the ground who are in the public library. They have no idea what’s below their feet,” Luke chuckled.
“And we are the only people down here, now?” I breathed.
“No, have a look around. They are all just invisible. But you can see their lanterns moving.” Then, he added, “and you can spot the ghosts. Most of them are volunteers here.”
Now that Luke mentioned it, I indeed spotted a burning lantern here and there, next to an open book on a table. Sometimes, a page would turn as if by a ghost’s hand and sometimes a lantern floated behind the arches on the galleries. Ah, that’s why we needed the lanterns—so we didn’t accidentally sit on a chair that was already occupied, or bump into someone.
Without warning, I spotted my first real ghost. It was a milky shimmer of light in the shape of a woman. She might have been a hippie because she had long hair and braids with flowers woven into them. Plus, she was wearing a thin bandana around her head and a loose shirt with a long skirt. I was so intrigued that I kept staring at her. Luckily, she couldn’t see me. She was silently hovering through the air, carrying books, which she was placing back on the shelves.
“I’ll show you what I’ve been working on. Just follow my lantern,” Luke said.
I stayed close to him. As we were passing along the shelves, I saw more lamps and sometimes even laptops on the tables, where somebody was obviously working on something.
Luke guided me to the farthest corner from the entrance, where we stepped through another door and walked up another flight of stairs. I could throw a glance at the first gallery. It seemed as if there was bookshelf after bookshelf stapled next to each other. However, we didn’t stop here and went up another level, where Luke turned right. The shelves were so close to each other that it was impossible to reach or have a look at the books they contained. We walked around a few corners. Luke placed his lamp on a table, which had several open books on it.
“I like this seat up here. It feels so sheltered but at the same time you have a wonderful view above The Library,” Luke whispered. “Usually, the ghosts don’t clear my books away and I can come back and pick up where I have left off.”
From up here, I could see that the bookshelves on the ground floor were arranged like a star, beginning in the center of the hall, leading to one corner each.
“Wow, who built and designed all this?” I whispered and hoped that Luke was listening.
“Wizards and witches. Only those with active magical powers could create something so marvelous and then manage to hide it.”
“Yes, how can it be that all this has never been detected?” I also placed my lantern on the table.
Luke pulled a chair out and sat down on the soft pillow. “We’re doing our best to keep it a secret. There are several magical spells around it. That’s also why we have to go through that trouble and walk through that rock wall. It’s open to any non-human creature who knows how to enter.”
“And how do people know how to enter?” I asked the bookshelf that was behind the empty chair I was facing.
“Oral tradition. A lot we learn is passed on by word, even today, and so it depends on yourself how much you find out about our universe. It depends on the questions you ask, the people you meet, and how much effort you put into it. I’m hoping to find out just a little more by browsing some of these books down here.”
I glanced at the thick leather-bound books on the table. I was almost afraid of touching them, as they appeared to be very old. Nevertheless, I brushed over the soft cover from the book that was lying on top. “Evolution of Sirens,” I read. I pulled it closer to me and opened it. The pages felt like real parchment and the writing was in an old print. Every first letter on the page was a beautiful drawing, plus there were a few other drawings that accompanied the text. Some of them scared me. One, for example, showed a woman with an evil look in her eyes. She was sitting on a rock in the ocean. Her mouth was open in a snarl, revealing shar
p teeth. Not someone I’d like to have as my friend. I turned a few more pages and then closed the book again, dedicating my attention to the two other books on the table: History of Male and Female Demons and Anatomy of Mermaids.
“Not exactly books that I've come across so far,” I joked, whereupon I didn’t know what else to say because I was awestruck. They weren’t just props for a theater play. Somebody had actually written them to save information for later generations.
“It is quite peculiar that of most creatures, a male and female version exists, like Elves, Vampires, Demons, Wizards, even Centaurs and so on. But if there is only one sex, it’s usually only female. Like Harpies, Nymphs, Muses, Medusa, or the Sphinx. Can you think of one race of mystical creatures that are all male?”
“You are saying that all these creatures exist? Have you seen any of them?”
“I can’t know for sure what exists, but they are all mentioned in these books.”
“So, the other people in here” —I paused— “they are not all Sirens?” I whispered.
“Most likely not, no.”
“I wish I could see them. Why do we have to be invisible down here anyway? I mean, we are inside now and then we wouldn’t have to carry these lanterns.”
“It’s for our own security, too. You know, not all creatures get along well. Some are even the prey of others. Yet, since this library is open to any magical being, the wizards came up with a plan to ensure this can be a safe place for anybody.”
“So, this is kind of the UN of the underworld?”
“Yes, it’s a neutral ground. The knowledge is open to everybody and the aim of us all should be to keep our worlds and varieties alive.”
“But I do wish that I could get a glimpse of who else is here.”
“I knew you would like this,” he said.
