by Dan Wingreen
Unfortunately, the archeologists who uncovered the mansion let their excitement get the best of them and never bothered actually reading more than a few of the books. When scholars started studying them in depth, after the find was publicized and after many scholars had used the most well-preserved of the collection as a basis for many different historical works, they found that Melquhart was actually quite insane, often rambling for hundreds of pages about the mice who were trying to assassinate him, or being haunted by the ghost of the window he accidentally broke when he was a child, or other such nonsense. It rendered months of research and new findings absolutely worthless and it took decades to find all the works tainted by his writings, since no scholar wanted to risk their reputation by admitting they'd referenced him.
"So, what are you in here for?" the Librarian asked as he put his half-finished sandwich down and let out a rather revolting belch. "Ah! That felt good!" He glared at Elias. "Well? Come on, boy! You must have tracked me down for a reason, out with it!"
Elias mentally rolled his eyes. "Have you noticed anything strange about Dunbar recently?"
The Librarian raised his eyebrows. "Dunbar?" He frowned. "Nothing but the usual. He skipped work a week or so ago and I gave him hell for it, but since then I haven't noticed anything out of sorts."
"And…did you perhaps include anything about me in your scolding?"
The Librarian snorted. "It might not look like it, but I do actually have better things to do with my time than get between the two of you. Why? Did he do something else?"
Elias frowned slightly, but shook his head. "No…but we did just have a rather odd encounter…" He narrowed his eyes suspiciously as something occurred to him. "You said he skipped work? When did that happen, exactly?"
"A little over a week and a half ago."
"And he showed up the next day?"
"Yes…"
"Did he seem…off, at all?"
The Librarian furrowed his brows. "Hmm. Yes, actually. Looked like he hadn't slept at all. Figured he spent the day and a good part of the night at one of the pubs in town. Though he didn't reek of a brewery, now that I think about it."
A week and a half ago, right after I mentioned Dunbar to the Dark Prince…
"Ah."
"Ah?" the Librarian asked.
Elias shook his head. "Never mind. I apologize for interrupting your lunch." He nodded briefly to the Librarian before turning to leave.
"Stop."
Although every inch of Elias was straining against it, he obeyed the command. He recognized the tone all too well, and didn't particularly fancy wasting more of his already shortened work time fending off the Librarian's curiosity.
"Yes?" he said, not letting any of his impatience slip into his voice as he turned back.
It was just as well that he did, too, because the Librarian already looked like the cat that got the proverbial canary.
"I hear whispers on the wind," he said slyly. Elias held back a sigh. "Of strange alliances formed under cover of darkness…"
Elias crossed his arms, but otherwise waited impassively. Like always, the Librarian wasted little time growing impatient with his own games.
"The Dark Prince." He prompted.
Elias didn't even raise an eyebrow. "What about him?"
The Librarian let out a short, disgusted huff. "'What about him', he asks. The rumors are about you! How you're spending your nights with him in his rooms, how you leave early in the morning looking tired and satisfied…" He flashed Elias a small grin. "Tell you the truth, boy, I didn't think you had it in you."
He even had the temerity to wink.
"It isn't like that—" He bit off the words, well aware the Librarian was only going to take denial as confirmation of any gossip he'd overheard. Looking satisfied! Ridiculous. If I look satisfied, it's because I'm happy to be free from the Dark Prince for another few hours.
Except, that wasn't exactly true, and Elias wasn't one to lie to himself. At least not once he caught himself doing it. He frowned as all his earlier confusion came surging back, a look that didn't go unnoticed by the Librarian.
"Seems like you don't even believe your own protests."
Elias let out a breath. "Perhaps I don't."
The Librarian's jaw went slack and for a moment Elias thought there was a rather large possibility he would fall off of his chair. Elias almost smiled.
"Though not the way you're suggesting," he said, taking advantage of the other man's surprise. "There's nothing even remotely physical going on. We aren't doing anything more than collaborating on a project…"
"And yet…?"
The Librarian had gathered himself quickly, but when he'd spoken, there was only the barest hint of his usual lust for rumormongering. If anything, he sounded like a concerned acquaintance. Possibly even a friend.
And yet. Well, that is the question, isn't it?
Elias's relationship with the Librarian had never been one of friendship. Once Elias had grown up and stopped thinking of him as a mentor, they'd fallen more into the realm of colleagues who had a fond understanding of one another. Not a full understanding, of course, but the Librarian often had insight into aspects of Elias's personality that he himself couldn't see. This understanding, and the fact Elias's confusion and frustration with the Prince were slowly driving him insane, were why he found himself telling the Librarian the entire tale. It felt surprisingly good, putting it all into words for another person. It forced him to organize his thoughts in a way he couldn't inside his own head. The Librarian, for his part, surprisingly stayed silent through the whole retelling, even during the parts Elias knew he would have been cackling over under normal circumstances. Unfortunately, even organized thoughts and a silent listener weren't enough for him to solve the mystery.
"—what I still don't understand is why he affects me the way he does," Elias said as he finished his tale.
Elias blinked then, surprised that he seemed to have run out of things to say. His throat was dry and he felt like he'd been talking for hours, although he knew it couldn't have possibly been that long. Perhaps unburdening himself was more exhausting than he'd realized?
The Librarian, although older and sitting in what looked like the kingdom's most uncomfortable chair, didn't seem half so tired. He appeared to be deep in thought, his lips pursed and his thumb absently scratching at the white stubble he'd forgotten to shave off that morning.
Elias quickly grew impatient with the silence.
"Well?" he asked.
The Librarian stopped his scratching and his eyes lost their glazed look as he focused on Elias. "Well, what?"
Elias let out a frustrated breath. "Do you have any insight? Any…advice? Anything?"
The Librarian raised his eyebrows. "Insight? I'm surprised you don't."
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"You want to know why the Dark Prince drives you crazy?"
"I believe I've been very clear on that point, yes."
"Well, I have a few theories on why that is," he said with an annoyingly secretive smile. "But what surprises me is that you don't have any of your own."
Elias blinked. "What?"
The Librarian sighed. "I've known you ever since you were a tiny, silent, little boy thrown into a classroom filled with spoiled noble brats, and never once in all those years have I ever seen you approach a problem with anything other than diligent research and the desire to find the pure, unblemished truth. Until now. You have no idea why your new prince sends you into fits of rage even Dunbar on his best day couldn't accomplish—"
"Yes, I already know that—"
"—but you don't know why." The Librarian pierced Elias with a sharp look. "And that's why he affects you the way he does. You have a pathological hate for the unknown, boy. What's driving you crazy is that you have no idea why he's driving you crazy." The Librarian grinned. It was a truly disturbing sight. "Find out why, and your problem will be solved."
Elias was quite sure he had never
heard anything so stupid in his entire life.
Which was why he was incredibly annoyed that it resonated so loudly within him.
Could I actually be that childish?
He thought back to all the people who'd ever gotten under his skin. Cornelia, obviously, but she'd been there for him on the worst day of his life and had given him a brand new one, so it was no surprise she had always been able get behind his indifference. There was the Crown Prince, who bothered everybody in some way and made Elias despair for the future of the kingdom. Dunbar, of course, but Elias was well aware Dunbar only upset Elias as much as he did because the scribe interfered with his work. Even the clinging annoyance was only the clinging annoyance because she clung annoyingly. Well, and the fact she could pull forth that laughter from the Dark Prince.
None of them affected him the way the Dark Prince did, however, and Elias realized with all the clarity of someone who had just put on his first, much needed pair of glasses, that the Librarian was right.
Elias sighed to himself. "I really am that childish."
The Librarian barked out a laugh. "Yes, you are. But I'll forgive you, if you promise to tell me everything that happens between you and the Dark Prince."
Elias almost laughed as well. "If I didn't agree to spy for a duke, what makes you think I'm going to spy for you?"
"Don't be rude, boy! You owe me thanks for helping you solve your glaringly obvious problem."
Elias's lips twitched. "You're right. I do." He straightened up and gave the Librarian a perfect courtly bow. "I thank you, good librarian, for all your help."
And with that, he turned around and walked smartly out the door, leaving the sputtering librarian sitting behind his desk of ruined documents. As the door closed behind Elias, he allowed a small smile to spread across his face.
At least there are some perks to being childish.
Chapter 12
That night, Elias came to the Dark Prince's room with a plan.
It had occurred to him, as he was planning out the first chapters of the Prince's book, the Librarian had struck upon another insight, which Elias hadn't picked up on at first. First and foremost, Elias was a scholar. A man of facts. Even on a project as frivolous as writing someone else's autobiography, he was doing whatever he could to make it as factual and informative as possible through diligent research and fact checking, which was almost painstakingly difficult, given the subject matter. It was rather like solving a mystery, and it was what he was good at; one of the few things he took pride in. And yet, he'd never once applied any of that skill to the one mystery which had been plaguing him since stumbling upon it. He'd never applied logic to the Dark Prince.
He rather thought it was long past time that he had.
Of course, he couldn't approach the Prince like he normally would a research project. Most of his scholarly endeavors, especially the ones where his subject was another person, required him to push his own feelings and opinions to the side. Preconceived notions and biases were the quickest way to completely invalidate a factual analysis. The problem was, Elias was supposed to be studying his feelings. He couldn't very well ignore them. It was an obstacle, but one he felt confident he could meet and overcome, like he had with any number of other scholarly problems.
Quickly navigating the way to the Dark Prince's rooms that evening, Elias knocked on the door with steely determination in his heart, anxious to finally have the mystery solved so he could go back to having some semblance of control over himself.
"Why hello, Elias," the Prince said after opening the door.
He was dressed much the same way he had been earlier; sans robe, of course. He stepped back as he always did and gallantly ushered Elias into the drawing room. Elias felt like rolling his eyes, but instead of giving in to the flash of annoyance like he normally would, he let it wash over him and tried to figure out why it annoyed him. Because he's wasting time with unnecessary theatrics he knows I have no interest in.
That seemed logical enough, so Elias returned his greeting and entered the room. He was about to make his way over to his customary chair in front of the fire, when the Prince said, "Did you have a good day at the library?"
Elias felt his eyes start to narrow. It wasn't so much what he said as the way he said it, with a knowing little lilt; Elias could almost see the accompanying smirk in his head. He thought of Dunbar, and his suspicions about the scribe's behavior, and he just knew the Prince was making reference to it.
Is he spying on me?
He almost snapped an accusation at the Prince, but, at the last second, he remembered he wasn't here to indulge his feelings, he was here to study them. So, once again, he let the irritation pass over him as he analyzed it.
I don't like the idea that he's watching me, or worse, having someone else do it.
That one definitely seemed logical, and Elias could feel himself calming down. This was working out even better than he'd thought. Surely, it wouldn't take long at all for him to be back to his normal self.
"And what, exactly, did you do to Dunbar?" he asked as he turned to face the Prince.
"Me?" The Prince pressed a hand to his chest. "Why, whatever do you mean?"
Elias raised an eyebrow. "You're not even trying to deny it."
"Actually I believe that was, technically, a denial."
"Not a very good one."
"So, now my denials need to pass some benchmark of quality before you'll believe them?"
"Highness, everything you say needs to pass some kind of benchmark before I'll believe it."
"That sounds an awful lot like you're saying you don't trust me."
"Imagine that," Elias said dryly.
"I do believe that hurts, Elias."
Elias snorted. "Now that I don't believe is true for a moment."
The Dark Prince smirked. "It's only untrue because I know you weren't being serious."
"Oh?" Elias asked. "And what makes you think so?"
The Prince leaned in. "Because you wouldn't keep coming back if you didn't trust me."
It was only then Elias realized, at some point while they were talking, the Prince had moved a lot closer to him. Or maybe he moved closer to the Prince, he honestly couldn't remember. Nor did he particularly care, right then. He was too caught up in the sudden realization of just how much he enjoyed talking to the Dark Prince. Once he pushed past the irritation, which seemed to cover a multitude of surprising emotions, it was almost fun.
"Perhaps I just trust my own judgment of you," he said, a smile that he didn't quite care to stop pulling at his lips.
"And what would that judgment be?" the Prince asked.
"That you aren't nearly as unpleasant as you pretend to be," he said, almost softly.
Elias blinked. Did I actually just say that…?
The Prince's eyes widened slightly and an emotion Elias couldn't identify flashed across his face. It was strange, but he almost felt like he should recognize it. Before he could even try to analyze it, however, the Prince leaned in even closer and studied Elias with an almost tentative intensity.
"Elias…are you flirting with me?" he asked.
Elias stiffened up and whatever moment they'd stumbled into was broken in an instant. He quickly stepped away from a prince who was suddenly much too close for comfort.
"Absolutely not! That's utterly ridiculous."
Of all the stupid things he could say to ruin what may have been a pleasant evening…
The Dark Prince, instead of seeming embarrassed for straying into territory Elias had thought they had silently agreed to stay far away from, looked delighted.
"Elias, you are truly magnificent!"
Elias glared. Stop! Don't yell. Analyze. Analyze! It took an almost magical effort of will, but Elias somehow managed to push past his initial indignation to see the feelings behind it. Except all he could find was even more irritation. There was a part of him that was disappointed, not in his findings, but in himself. He didn't know why, and he didn't care to.
Obviously, in this case, there were no deeper feelings to dissect. None whatsoever.
"I'm so glad my reactions please you, Highness," Elias said, voice practically dripping with frost.
"You will never know just how much," the Prince said, almost too low for Elias to hear. Before Elias could say anything, the Prince said, louder, "And to answer your question, I didn't exactly do anything to him."
Elias was thrown by the sudden change in topic and it took him a moment to realize the Prince was talking about Dunbar.
"All I did was chat with him for a while. Quite a hardship on my part, I assure you, since whatever scribal deficiencies he may possess are most definitely overshadowed by his lack of conversational aptitude. However, I believe I impressed upon him the folly of continuing his campaign of antagonization towards you."
Elias, for all his skill with words, actually had some trouble deciphering what the Prince had said. Elias wondered if the Prince was doing that on purpose, but if he was, Elias couldn't see a reason for it. Other than to provoke another reaction, possibly.
Or to cover one up…
Elias shook his head. "Why?" he asked finally.
This time, the Dark Prince's smile had a dark edge to it. "I have my reasons."
It was easier for Elias to look past his annoyance at the vague answer, but he couldn't quite figure out why it made him feel warm again.
Feelings should be more straightforward than this.
"Well!" the Prince said brightly. "If you don't have any other questions, I think we should get started. The night doesn't last forever, and all that."
Elias blinked again at the rapid change of subject. Why is he so happy all of a sudden? He pushed the thought away. He was supposed to be solving the mystery of his own feelings, not the Prince's. A feat that he was starting to realize might be a lot more difficult than he originally thought.
