by Adam Cairney
Chapter 16.
The library door closed behind them, shutting out almost all of the last of the day’s sunlight. A few thin sunbeams still managed to find their way through the windows scattered along the walls of the place, but it was barely bright enough to see anything, as all the lanterns in the building had gone out long ago. The only other light being given off was from Elijah himself, whose arms were still glowing like little fires. Molly asked if there was any way he could possibly conduct, at least for a little while, to help them see for now. Elijah happily obliged, conducting just a little bit and creating a small, gently crackling fire in the palm of the hand of his good arm. It immediately lit the place up enough to see, and cause shadows to dance and flicker everywhere. It was an improvement, but the myriad shadows made them both a little uneasy, their minds telling them there was something there from nothing.
The light from the fire did help give them an idea of where to go though. Elijah had been here many times, and knew what section they needed to search in, but was just a little hazy on how to actually get there, especially in the near darkness. The library itself was almost like a maze, but certainly lived up to its name of Great. It was spread out over three different floors, with various staircases and hallways leading every which way. The bottom floor had the most books on it, and they were laid out upon shelves and tables everywhere. The second floor up was set out in a U shape, and looking up you could see the shelves and such up there, as the middle of the floor looked like it had been cut away. The third floor was set further back, and was only half the size of the ground one, and contained many older manuscripts. This was where they were heading. Elijah explained to Molly it was easy to get up there, and they set off.
The library was in almost perfect condition. Almost every book was in its correct place in its correct section, and everything was laid out neatly. Molly could only guess at just how sturdy the foundations of the building must be to have withstood the previous earthquake without a scrap of damage on it. It wouldn’t matter though if there were too many more of those. She had to focus, and make sure that if they possibly could, they found out everything they needed to about Azrael.
Low stone tables were dotted here and there, with a few books spread out that people may find interesting. The only books that were really out of place were the ones people had currently taken away, or the ones that people in the library had been reading before everything had happened. They stood at various locations, books in hand, frozen in place reading whatever pages they had been on for their chosen books. Elijah and Molly tried to just ignore them as they skirted past. They wandered up the various staircases, and ramps that led ever upwards, navigating the maze-like corridors until they made it to the third floor.
As they left the corridor they saw that the entire third floor area was locked away behind a barred area, so as to keep the delicate pages free from mishandling. “I’d actually forgotten they were locked away,” Elijah mused as he walked over. “Shouldn’t be too much of a problem. I don’t like doing this but I think under the present circumstances it’s acceptable.” And with that he conducted, with his hand over the padlock, until it melted off of the door. The doors swung open invitingly, and Elijah stepped inside, Molly following behind him, careful to step over the still bubbling padlock.
Elijah knew exactly where to go from here, and led Molly to the far corner, where the oldest books available in the library were housed. The books here were old to the point of falling apart. There was the constant, faint smell of decay, and the covers and indeed many of the pages in these tomes were crumbling and falling to pieces. To help keep some of the rarer documents safe they had been placed in locked closets or drawers. Elijah led them to several such pieces of furniture in one corner.
“The chief librarian here and I became good friends. Tomas was his name. I used to come here all the time, although less so now. He used to give me the key to these cupboards and let me look up whatever I wanted. I’ve read about some real strange stuff in some of the older pieces up here. If we’re going to find any information of use, this’ll be the place for it.”
“Good. I know we need to be here, but this place is giving me the creeps, and I don’t even know why. The sooner we’re out of here, the better.” Molly shivered involuntarily as if to illustrate her point.
Elijah nodded. He hadn’t managed to spot the chief librarian anywhere around the entrance or on the other floors. Tomas had always kept the keys with him, he practically guarded them with his life. There was nothing for it, they would have to break open the locks. Given the situation and the need for the information they were after, Elijah was sure Tomas would forgive him. He told Molly to go ahead and do it, and together they broke open a few of the doors, exposing the precious books behind them. The sound of the snapping of the wood and breaking of the locks was horrendously loud, and it echoed through the library, bouncing from wall to wall. The noise eventually died down, and the two of them stood completely still for a moment, listening to see if the noise had attracted any unwanted attention. For the briefest of moments Molly swore she heard someone moving around downstairs, but the sound was gone. She signalled to Elijah to see if he had heard it too, but he indicated that no, he had not.
“I hate this place!” Molly hissed under her breath. She wasted no time delving into the first cupboard and retrieving one of the books, little more than a loosely bound stack of paper at this point. She blew the dust off of it, and began to skim through, keeping an eye out for any mention of anything vaguely regarding their current situation. With the manuscripts on the top floor being comprised mostly of historical texts and prophesies from long ago, This was their only and best hope to find something they could use. Elijah followed suit, gently taking out an old tome and carefully turning the pages, hunting for what he needed. The two of them periodically checked with one another to see if they had had any luck finding anything. Molly thought she had found something at one point, but it had turned out to be a completely different situation that had been recorded altogether, and so they continued looking.
Luckily, the search didn’t take too long before they found exactly what they needed. After going through around half a dozen books each Elijah was midway through a thick leather bound volume when he stopped reading and loudly whispered Molly’s name and beckoned her over.
“I’ve found it, I think. I knew there would be something up here about him, I knew it. Look!” Elijah indicated the page he had found, and Molly leaned in close to have a look. She read out loud, barely above a whisper, the words taking on a more sinister than usual feeling in the gloom of the library.
“Concerning the early years, there have been few grievous errors on the part of the college of the learned. The one discussed here is the release of the Dark Son. There are few details that remain of the release of the Dark Son. The college sought to manipulate the ether below the city, and in their doing so created a presence unlike any before or since. Anzarael was the name given to the creature…” Molly stopped reading, here with a puzzled look on her face.
“Who are the college of the learned? And are you sure this is about him? It’s a different name.”
Elijah nodded. “I’m sure. The college of the learned were what the scholars of the cloud called themselves back in the very beginning, not long after they were founded. Anzarael is slightly different, but its close enough, and who else could it be? Look, keep reading, you’ll see.” Molly turned back to the book, and continued from where she left off.
“The first days were full of wonder and learning. Balance and harmony reigned, and the creature taught much. The records were made and kept, and can still be found to this day, so that all may learn what this wondrous bond brought about. Anzarael was strong, able to manipulate the ether, bend it to his will, but kind, and our symbiotic peace seemed like it would last forever.
It was a false peace however, for the creature’s true nature was hastily revealed. He did destroy, transform, and terrorize, the e
ther which he could manipulate lending him strength unlike anything ever seen. His awful, blackened skin, sharpened teeth, and shapeshifting abilities coming to light, and showing him for what he truly was.
The decision was made to subdue, to hide away the creature for all time. The rock at the heart of the city wherein he dwelt was shattered, and sent to the sky. This however, only served to diminish his powers, and his reach, but did not quell his awful desires. He sought to strike at us from the sky, and we had no choice but to go up to where he did reside, nullify him with the pale ether, the counter to Anzarael’s power, and lock him away forever. One final choice was made to post those of our order in the sky, to watch over the prison he was contained in to ensur-“
Molly looked up. The page was literally crumbling away to dust towards the bottom, and was now completely incomprehensible.
“We don’t know what the prison was. We don’t even know if we can recreate it…this was useless.” She said dejectedly. She ran a hand through her hair and held her face in her hands. Elijah though, was quick to remind her what she had just read.
“You’re missing the most important part of the whole thing! The pale ether, Molly. That’s exactly what you’ve been using. It’s the anti-ether, it has to be! If they stopped him with it once, we can do it again. And it has to be him. The things they mention there, the teeth, skin…It has to be.”
Molly’s eyes lit up as she re-read the passage. She shook her head afterwards, realising how tired she must be to have glazed right over that point. Once she had read through the passage again she apologised and agreed with Elijah. She began to discuss with him what they could do. She had two small vials of what she now knew was referred to as the pale ether. That wasn’t exactly a lot, and there was no real mention of how exactly it had been used to subdue Azrael in the past. There wasn’t even any mention of how much had been needed. That was a lot of uncertainty, a lot of things that could go wrong. They had no choice though, and had both come to accept that fact. Thinking of an entire city, frozen in place, helpless and waiting to die, they knew they couldn’t do nothing.
“Alright, so we know we don’t have much of the stuff, so when we get up there, we really need to make it count. If you can distract him, try and light him up a little bit with those flames of yours, then I can get in close and…I don’t know, smash one of the vials into him. I mean, I assume it has to make contact, but apart from that I don’t know if-“Molly stopped dead as a loud banging sound echoed from down on the ground floor. She hadn’t quite been sure if she had heard a noise earlier, now she knew she had. And there was no doubt Elijah had heard it too. They looked at each, completely tensed up, nerves jangling, completely on edge. They strained their ears, trying to see if they could hear any other sounds at all. Nothing. Not a single other noise. The echo of the noise died down, and silence returned to the library.
As much as he hated to say it Elijah leaned in close and whispered as quietly as he could that they needed to leave, right now. Leaving would of course mean taking the only exit out of the library, which would take them towards and right past the source of the noise. There was nothing else for it. Elijah went to close the book they had been reading from, but before he did Molly leaned in and quickly ripped the page out of the book. He looked at her incredulously, and mouthed the question of why she would do that to her. She shrugged at him, and then leaned in and whispered “It might come in handy later!”
He shook his head, and picked his bandoleer up from the ground where he had placed it while they had been looking through the books. As he slung it over his shoulder his arms took on their gentle glow again. Molly made sure she had her staff and supplies, and they were on their way, heading down the various stairs and slopes as quietly as possible.
They moved slowly, stepping carefully and as lightly as possible, not entirely sure what they were walking down to. Molly had assumed the worst, and was prepared to face another fight when they got down there. Her hands still ached and throbbed from the burns before, and all she wanted to do was cover her hands in ice. If she had to defend herself though, she was going to give them hell. Elijah was hoping there was an easy explanation for the noise, but was of the same opinion as Molly. He would give it his everything if it came to a fight.
They carried on walking, practically tiptoeing downwards. They had to assume that whatever had made the noise didn’t know they were in there, because nothing had come upstairs looking for them. Elijah reached the ground floor. He was peering out at the floor from the staircase on the western side of the building. Looking around the corner from where he and Molly were, he could just make out that the front entrance doors were open, and could see the starry night sky beyond them. Perhaps whatever or whoever had come looking for them had gone. Maybe Azrael knew they hadn’t been killed earlier and had sent roving scouts out to look for them. It wouldn’t surprise him.
He turned to Molly. “Everything looks alright to be honest. I think we’re good to go. Whatever was here earlier is gone now by the looks of things.”
“Thank god. I don’t think I’m quite ready for another bout just yet.” She looked down at her hands as she spoke. The blisters on her hands had already started to ooze and weep through her bandages. Elijah noticed at the same time and made a sympathetic face.
“I’m so sorry. As soon as this is done we’ll patch you up properly I promise. I just didn’t-“Molly cut him off mid-sentence.
“Don’t you dare apologise. None of this is your fault, and I was the one that told you to do it! We both know whose fault everything we’ve been through is. Let’s go and let him know how we feel.”
Elijah just smiled at her for a moment, then nodded. He turned and set off across the floor, heading towards the front door. They skirted around the statuesque shapes of the people still inside, and made it to the entrance. Elijah put one hand on the door that had been left ajar and pushed it open, stepping out into the beautiful night. The sky above sparkled with stars, and shimmered with its usual faint rainbow of colours. Beautiful waves and strips of colour flickered and danced, almost as if they were swirling around the stars. The silhouette of the Cloud hung in the night sky, secured by its chains. The moon was behind it from the angle Elijah was at, the Cloud in front of it giving it a jagged, uneven edge. It was a wonderful sight, but he had only a moment to enjoy it.
As he stepped out of the doorway into the cool night air a huge hand came from behind the now open door to grip him on the shoulder. Elijah, completely taken by surprise, cried out and tried to pull away but the shadowy figure held him fast. Molly was with him in a flash, darting out of the door and spinning to face their assailant, staff at the ready. She swung it down, hard, and was surprised and completely caught off guard when not only was the figure moving out of the way as she swung, but that they managed to grab the staff towards the middle, avoiding the ether. The figure let go of Elijah and ripped the staff out of Molly’s hands. She immediately reach into one of the back pockets of her bandoleers, ready to launch a vial of pain at the attacker, when he spoke up.
“Well, looks like you two have been doing just fine without me. I forgot what a mean old swing you had there, Molly.” They recognised the voice immediately.
“Noah! Molly squeaked, and launched herself at him, hugging him tightly, but still wary of where the staff was. Elijah walked up and held his still glowing arms up to the old man, conducting slightly to help illuminate him better. The patched up arm and injuries became apparent straight away.
“What on earth happened to you?” Elijah asked, a concerned look on his face.
“Long story lad. I’ll tell you all about it as we walk. We’ve got things to do, and not long to do them by the looks of things. Come on, this way.” Noah turned and lifted an enormous sack that must have been sitting next to him as he had been waiting for them. He swung it over his shoulder and set off. Elijah and Molly looked at each other quickly, palpable relief that their old friend was alive washing over them for a moment
, and then set off quickly, trying to keep up with Noah’s large strides. The sun would be up soon, and it sounded like Noah had a plan. It was time to get to work.
