Necrofairies 2

by Shane Griffin

  #

  Neen used a sprinkling of purple dust on the air conditioning grate and the screws unwound themselves allowing it to swing open. She dropped down out of the opening and floated gently down to the floor with both her guns at the ready. The electricity to the city had shut down and it was too dark for her to make anything out, even with her fairy night vision. Sliver dropped down next and then much more clumsily and loudly Heliodor.

  "Illuminate," he commanded and the red crystal at the end of his staff turned to flame. They had come out inside the air conditioning plant room and for the moment at least they were alone. Heliodor opened the door and stepped out into the hallway. They were in the service corridors behind the main public areas.

  Neen was wishing she had a schematic of the place because she hated not knowing the layout of a building she was breaking into. It had long served her well to know the easiest way out if things went bad. Heliodor however seemed to know exactly where they were going and lead the way without hesitation.

  "Are you sure you know the way?" she asked quietly.

  "Relax little thief you are not the only one who has experience in break and enter. I have been sneaking around this place for many years in search of knowledge and for a cure."

  They turned a corner and entered another corridor that was at least twenty five metres long. On either side were eight huge heavy round metal doors spaced evenly along its entire length. At the end of the corridor was a much more mundane closed door with a simple sign on it that read; "Public area beyond. Please keep door closed".

  "Wow. This is some serious hardware. There are some pretty secure banks that don't have this type of protection," said Neen. She hovered over to one of the heavy round doors and ran her hands gingerly over it, as though she were placing them on the head of a wild animal in the hope she could tame it. She had never broken into anything this serious before and the thrill of what might be behind the door carried her away momentarily.

  "Welcome to the place where true power and treasure exist. You are now staring at the mighty vaults of Adarna. Hidden within them are more knowledge and secrets than you ever thought existed!"

  "If what is in there is so precious then why was it so easy to get in?" asked Sliver sceptically.

  "Getting to the vaults is not the problem, getting into them is. The magic that protects them requires skills beyond any magic user living today."

  "Some well placed explosive along these walls and you won't have to worry about the doors," snorted Sliver unconvinced.

  "You could demolish this entire building with explosive and it would not help you. Only the doors exist in the physical world, the vaults themselves are magically bound to another plane."

  "So you have never seen inside them?" asked Neen.

  "No, the knowledge I have stolen from the library has been from the depths of the public areas or some of the less well protected sealed archives in the main library. Unfortunately I believe the ancient scrolls that we are seeking regarding the great wars are inside the vaults."

  "Why go to so much trouble to protect historical documents?" asked Neen.

  "You will understand when you see them."

  "How exactly to you propose to break into the vaults if we cannot do it physically or with magic?" asked Sliver.

  "We don't. We will go to see the Keeper and simply ask him to let us in. Unless he wants the world to end he will open the vaults."

  "And if he won't?" insisted Sliver.

  "Then we will make him," said Neen coldly. "I am sure you will have no trouble remembering how to torture someone Sliver."

  "Maybe you should do it. It might help you find yourself," he retorted.

  "Immobilise!" growled Heliodor and the flaming crystal at the top of his staff burned white hot in parallel with his anger. Suddenly both Neen and Sliver were frozen in place in mid air, kept aloft not by their wings, but by Heliodor's magic. Neen struggled in vain to move and she could see by the exertion of Sliver's face the he was doing the same. "It's worse than listening to the incoherent babbling of pixies! I have half a mind to eat you both just to shut you up!" Heliodor brought the flame from his staff tantalisingly close to the pair of them and licked his lips. "Now let's go find the keeper shall we before my stomach gets the better of me. Release!"

  At this last command both Neen and Sliver were free again. Sliver was livid and Neen thought by the look on his face that he was going to kill Heliodor on the spot. Instead he took a deep breath and stared darkly at Heliodor's back as he followed him down the corridor. The only thing more frightening than seeing Sliver angry was seeing him brood.

  She wanted to say something, anything, but she didn't know how to start. She didn't know what she wanted anymore. She felt pulled in two different directions, she felt as repulsed by him as she was drawn to him. At the same time one half of her wanted to bury her conscience in the same way he was able while the other half wanted redemption for her sins. The latter was the only thing that was keeping her focused to make things right. Perhaps if she could bring the world back from the brink she may save her own soul in the process?

  She wondered what he was thinking as she flew. She wondered if underneath the cold exterior he was in the same turmoil or if his heart really was black to the core. She wished that he would say something to break the uneasy tension between them, but he remained stoically silent.

  Heliodor lead them to the end of the hallway and, with some help from Neen's purple dust, through the locked door into the public area of the library. The library itself was expansive with row after row of shelves crammed with books, maps and scrolls. There were alcoves dotted all over, each with their own collections.

  There were no windows in any of the chambers so it should have been pitch black, but instead they found lanterns dotted strategically all over the place. They moved between the book shelves and out into the main open reading space. Just beyond it was the service desk with the administrative offices behind.

  The reading area, which should have been empty, was instead covered in gnomes. Although a full head and shoulders taller than a fairy the gnomes were still too small for the largely human sized lounges and soft armchairs that were scattered around the reading space. Some of the gnomes were sleeping, others were reading, but most were awake and huddled together in small groups talking in hushed tones. On closer inspection many of them looked dishevelled. Neen did a quick scan and counted at least thirty of them.

  "Who are they?" she asked quietly.

  "They are the caretakers of the library. The gnomes have been..."

  "Intruders!" screeched one of the gnomes suddenly, when he noticed the three of them enter. All at once the gnomes scrambled and clambered over each other in a completely uncoordinated and comical flight to the safety of the service desk. They entered through the bottom half of a steel security door designed to open at half or full height to accommodate both gnomes and humans.

  The service desk itself was long and arched in a gentle curve along one entire side of the reading space. As soon as the gnomes were all safely inside a set of clear glass screens thrust up out of the counter and locked into place with a sharp clang when they reached heavy metal clamps imbedded the ceiling. The place suddenly resembled the inside of a bank which put both Sliver and Neen immediately on guard.

  Most of the gnomes peered fearfully back at them from various vantage points behind the protective screen while one, who looked more senior than the others knocked urgently on one of the office doors at the rear.

  "I've never known a gnome who wasn't a complete coward!" said Sliver shaking his head in disgust.

  "You should be glad. We are going to need their help and their compulsive avoidance of violence is probably what has kept them alive this long when the rest of the city has already joined the walking dead," replied Heliodor. As the three of them approached the service counter the gnomes all pulled back fearfully.

  "Who is in charge here!" demanded Heliodor.

  "I am," said a hum
an who emerged from the rear office. He was in his late thirties, with short dark hair neatly cut. He was fit and wore a Government Issue dark grey suit. He strode up to the service desk carrying a mobile tablet in one hand and pointed an accusing finger at them with the other. "I want to know how you got into the library?" he demanded.

  "We are here to seek audience with the Keeper not a bureaucrat. Where is he?" asked Heliodor.

  "I'll ask you again. How did you get into the library?" he demanded.

  Heliodor, leaning close to the glass screen so his heavy and hot orcish breath fogged it in a predatory type way. It had the desired effect of the gnomes, most of who hid as best they could behind and under anything they could find. It had no apparent effect on the human however.

  The elderly looking gnome who had dragged the human from his office had now clambered up onto a chair beside him and was tugging on the man's arm. He looked scared too, but had resisted the urge to hide.

  "Kio," he urged in a squeaky child like voice. Kio ignored the gnome and stared back at Heliodor unmoved.

  "I am assuming that is supposed to be intimidating," said Kio mockingly.

  "This guy is wasting our time, how about I just shoot him in the head and we get one of the gnomes to tell us where the Keeper is?" interjected Sliver, pulling back his coat and resting his hands on his machine pistols.

  "Fire away, the screen is bullet proof. Then when you are finished you can say hello to these."

  Kio tapped at his mobile tablet triggering four auto-cannons to drop down from the ceiling along the front of the counter and immediately aim themselves at Sliver.

  "You have got to be kidding me! The three of you combined have the negotiating skills of a giant telage worm!" shouted Neen angrily. "You two, how about you save the testosterone for killing undead? And you, do you have any idea about what is happening right now? There is a magical undead contagion that is spreading like wildfire and if we don't find a way to stop it fast there will be nobody left alive! You need to let us see the Keeper, otherwise you may as well shoot us all now. It would be more humane."

  The guns remained active.

  "My orders are to protect the vaults at all costs from anyone and anything. You think that I can't tell you are thieves by just looking at you?"

  "We are not here to loot anything," insisted Neen. "We are trying to stop the contagion. We just came from Myriad city and it has already been overrun. Who knows where else is already infected! There is information in those vaults that may help stop this."

  The elderly gnome was still persistently and urgently tugging on Kio's sleeve. Kio finally leant down and listened while the gnome whispered something into his ear. Kio stared at Neen and then the other two for a few moments. Reluctantly he tapped the tablet and the auto-cannons receded into the ceiling again. Kio seemed to age visibly and slumped back down wearily onto a chair behind the counter.

  "Screw it," he said dejectedly. "The last word I got from command was that we were alone in the city and I had to hold out at all costs until we could be evacuated. That was twelve hours ago and I have heard nothing except static on the emergency channel since."

  "If you were sent here to protect the place then where is the rest of your security team? Agents like you don't work alone," said Sliver.

  "They are all dead...or worse. They sacrificed themselves to give us time to properly secure the library. It has formidable defences inside and out during emergency situations, but they take time to initiate. The whole place is set up like a fortress. It has enough food stores to last a month and emergency battery power from the solar arrays on the roof to last a life time, as long as we only use the power for the core security systems. Until you turned up I thought this place was actually impregnable."

  "If you don't want to be stuck inside the library until you run out of food and starve to death then you need to let us see the Keeper," insisted Heliodor.

  "I wish I could, but he is not here," replied Kio reluctantly.

  "Where is he?" demanded Heliodor.

  "I don’t know. I was sent here to protect him but his identity is classified and I have never met him. The gnomes are too scared to speak about him. They say he lives in the shadow world and they fear he will steal them away if they even say his name. I don’t believe a word of their superstitious rubbish myself. Unfortunately that means he is probably dead because he is not in this library."

  "Oh Great! Now what?" cursed Sliver.

  Heliodor started to pace back and forth feverishly for a few moments, mumbling to himself incoherently as he did so. He stopped momentarily then shook his head in agitation before pacing around again. When he finally stopped he let out a frustrated sigh.

  "There is just no way we can open those vaults without the Keeper. Our only option is to look through the public records. It's a slim hope but, it's possible we may still be able to find some useful information. I assume that is not going to be an issue?" asked Heliodor.

  "Knock yourselves out. I'll even send Vassal here along with some of his gnomes to help. If they cannot find what you are looking for in the public area then it does not exist. Just don't expect me to leave my nice secure space here unless you are all prepared to give up your weapons. Oh and if you make any attempt at breaking into the vaults you should know I can flood this entire building with nerve gas in less than a minute!"