The Great Library

"... why?"

"I think you might use some help every now and then. And some company as well"

"As appreciated as help would be, company is among the last of my concerns, milady"

"Don't worry and let me handle it" she replied, kind of ignoring half of what he had just said "I'll look for one or two assistants. Just make sure the rooms here aren't a mess for when they arrive"

"As you wish"

He didn't really have a say, nor did he really care. It's not like he owned the place after all. He was just the librarian.

"By the way, what happened to your helmet? And the chain you usually wear, too"

"They broke ten days ago"

A few weeks later, a bit outside the outskirts of the city, Ara was sitting alone on a bench on the roadside, humming softly a tune to herself. Next to her were a total of five leather suitcases: two were quite long and narrow, and two, one being one of the long ones, were dyied dark orange. After a few minutes, an open wagon drawn by two horses arrived, stopping in front of the bench. The carman was an old-looking man, probably a bit over seventy years old, just like she had been told he'd be. That wagon was the only one which stopped where she needed to go, or at least that's what they told her. Chances were the driver was deaf, since he didn't give any sign of having heard Ara greeting him. She shrugged it off and placed her luggages on the wagon before getting on herself. The driver looked back to make sure she was on, then made the horses start moving.

The weather was nice, sunny and warm. An ordinary spring day. Ara kept humming. She was a bit excited: she had finally gotten a job, and a full-time one at that. Truth be told, there were a couple of things which seemed a bit off. Mostly, the fact that the job had been presented as one which gets quite dangerous from time to time. But then again, what's the worst that could happen in a library? ... probably something bad enough to warrant a life insurance, since it had been mentioned in the contract. But then again, some action every once in a while wasn't bad.

The first hour of journey was actually quite boring, and Ara did nothing but look at the landscape: trees, an hourse every here and there, cultivated fields, sometimes a flock of birds flying in the sky. After reaching the city, trees got replaced by more houses, and the street, which went from a dirt track to an actual paved road, got more crowded. People going back and forth, in and out of shops and other buildings, another wagon traveling next to hers every now and then, but that was that. The carman was keeping away from the main roads, which speeded up the journey a bit since those were always increbily crowded. And noisy. At some point, he stopped in front of a bench, in a small and almost empty road. There, a girl was sitting on an empty bench, a few luggages resting beside her. She was probably the same age of Ara, if not a bit older. She also was a bit taller than her, but Ara herself was a bit short so that was nothing strange. The girl had blonde hair reaching her shoulders, with a long hairpin on the back of her head from which a rather long, brown cloth tape was hanging, and deep blue eyes. The hairpin was shaped similar to a golden rose. She was wearing the upper half of a white kimono, yellow on the helms, and whose sleeves were dyied orange and green around the wrists. The large, blue sash with which the kimon was tied around her waist was partially covered by a black tape, dyied dark red on the edges and tied in a ribbon right beneath her breast, and on said ribbon was a round, metal ornament, which was faintly glowing with a blue light at the centre. Her brown skirt, which almost reached her knees, had a blue area in the middle, and was decorated with golden motifs and white frills. On the back of her waist was a butterfly-shaped blue ribbon, a bit larger than her chest. She was wearing white shoes, which looked like they were made of fabric and where decorated with golden and dark red motifs. Actually, they looked more like clothes than actual shoes, since they seemed to be kept in place by a black string around her ankles and they were quite high and large. Beneath them, she wore black socks. Ara also noticed a small, black shoulder plate on her left shoulder. The two girls glanced at each other for a moment, then the blonde stood up and began bringing her suitcases on the wagon. Ara helped her, tough they weren't that heavy. The blue-eyed girl then took a seat in front of Ara. Once again, the old driver looked back before commanding the horses to move.

"I'm Ara" she introduced herself, offering her hand "Ara Haan"

"Rose" the blonde replied, shaking hands with her "Just Rose"

The blonde looked at Ara, as if to study her. She was wearing a large, white and orange coat, which she kept open. Underneath, Rose could see a short, tight dress, white on the front and black on the sides, maybe on the back as well, which emphasized her rather large bust, as well as covering a bit her short, orange skirt. A bit too short, maybe. She wore a pantyhose and two high wedges, black and orange, and a pair of very large but short, white socks. Her neck was completely uncovered, and Rose guessed the same was for her shoulders and arms, since she had seen a few similar outfits before and they all had nothing covering those areas. Ara did wear a pair of white, tight gloves tough, which almost reached her elbows. They left her hands exposed, though, so maybe gloves wasn't ever the right term. On her black hair, long enough to reach he knees, she kept an hairpin shaped like an arrow, a white strand of cloth hanging from it. Two strands of hair were made into a braid which was tied behind her head, while almost all the rest of her hair were kept togheter by a big, orange, spherical clip, near the tip of her hair. A bit of her hair fell on her forehead and down on her shoulders. Also, she had an incredible cowlick, which went straight up from her forehead and then bent down to her left.

"You're moving?" Rose asked, looking at Aras' luggages.

"Well, kind of. Almost. Pretty much? Well, you're doing so too I guess"

"More or less. I got a job which is 24/7. I'll have to stay there all the time, which is kinda like moving after all, but that's better than having to pay a rent"

"Wait, me too. What job were you hired for?"

"Assistant librarian"

"... you know, we might be coworkers"

"Oh, really? Was the one who talked to you about this job a pale girl with silvery hair and a... glass orb on her forehead? Who introduce herself as Eve?"

"Yes, that's totally her. Guess we're really coworkers. Let's get along well then, shall we?"

"Sure"

The wagon then took a small, secondary, road, too thin for two carriage to travel side by side, and stopped halfway trough it. The carman, for the first time, spoke.

"We've arrived, passengers" he said, with the voice you would expect from someone of his age. It did sound a bit too crackly tough.

They were in front of a rather small, despite being two stories high, building. Through the two shoop windows were visible a large amount of books, nothing special for a library. The two windows on the upper floor were covered by curtains. Ara and Rose came down from the wagon and took down their luggage. The old man slowly waved his hand at them before leaving. The road was actually devoid of people other than them. Ara stood there for a moment, while Rose knocked at the door. From inside, a voice they both recognized told them to come in. They walked inside, carrying their suitcases. The place was... different from what both of them had imagined. A lot. It was a bit smaller than it seemed to be from the outside, and it was filled to the brim with every possible kind of book, all placed without an order all over the room. Maybe because they were too many to fit into the shelves. Even the stairs for the upper floor were covered in books, almost to the point of being unusable. It almost looked like they'd been abandoned there. But, as messy as the place was, it was perfectly clean. There were, oddly enough, two windows on the wall opposite to the front one, both covered by curtains. At first Ara thought that to be the warehouse, but then she realized the building wasn't big enough for there to be another room, at least not one big enough to be used as a storehouse. Sitting behind the counter was the girl who had talked to them about that job. Just like the last time they saw her, they found her pale skin and long, silvery hair striking. She had amber eyes, two blue marks below them, and an overall stunning figure, enhanced by her black, tight clothes, which covered her while leaving not too much to the imagination, especially her short skirt. Her legs were covered by long stockings tough. Where her ears were supposed to be were, instead, two mechanical, ear-like protuberances. And in her forehead was a glass-looking, blue orb. She was skimming trough the pages of a large book when they walked in, which she then closed and placed on the counter - which, by the way, was covered by books just like the floor and everything else, chairs included- before getting up.

"I was waiting for you" she said, then, noticing the look in their faces, said "is something wrong?"

"Ah, no, it's just..."

"Oh, sure. This is not the actual library. That's what you were wondering, I guess. I did talk about a really big library, and with apartments, didn't I? The real one is here" she said as she turned around, gesturing them to follow.

Ara and Rose exchanged a brief glance before walking to Eve, who was standing in front of an heavy-looking wooden door.

"This is the where you'll be working" she said as she easily opened the gateway.

What Ara and Rose saw was... definitely unexpected. It definitively was a library, but... first of all, it was too large. Simply too large. The other end of the place was so far away it almost didn't even look like a closed space, and the side walls weren't any closer one to the other. Actually, hadn't it been for the ceiling, they would have thought to be outside, since there was also sunlight inside there, as well as a soft breeze. There were around fifteen floors, each with stairs to move from one to the other, and none of them covered more than a relatively small area on the edge of the library: the ceiling was visible from most of the ground floor. The bookshelves were noticeably big, at least seven meters high and thirty meters long, each filled to the brim, and most of them had a wooden ladder laid near one of the two end. And then there were the trees. Some were rather small, but others were far taller than the shelves, even up to more than three times their height. Some where even growing from the walls, with varying degree of tilt . Yet they somehow seemed to fit perfectly in, either not touching the bookshelves or growing around them without actually covering the books. In the middle of the library was an incredibly large tree whose foliage reached the ceiling. On its branches, which reached each of the library's floors and were large enough for people to use them as small roads, they could see small bookshelves. There was also a regular net of intertwined passageways, linking opposite sides of the upper floors together. Also, they could see at least half a dozen waterfalls, some small, some quite large, which meant there were also some rivers inside there. Around the great tree, placed like the corners of a triangle, were three spiral staircases, each reaching the roof and linked to a good number of passageways. And... it was raining. There were clouds, and it was raining. They were under a glass-made canopy so they weren't actually getting wet, but it was raining. Inside a building. Which was much, much larger inside than it was outside.

Ara was quite astonished. Rose... not so much.

"This is definitively better than the other room" she said "And of what I'd imagined, too. It's a bit weird, but I can see myself spending all my days inside here"

"That's wonderful. Now, if you don't mind, I have other business to attend to. The librarian should be here at any moment, so... goodbye" Eve said before leaving.

Ara and Rose brought their luggages under the canopy and closed the door.

"It's... bigger on the inside"

"It's definitively magic. I'd heard about these kind of places, but it's my first time seeing the real deal" replied Rose.

"Yeah, me too. It... kinda reminds you of a forest doesn't it?"

"Can't deny that"

Then they heard footsteps. Someone approached from their right, an umbrella made of transparent plastic shielding him from the rain, two more in his other hand. He was a rather tall man, with dark red eyes and spiky black hair reaching his shoulder. His white clothes, with black and red geometric decorative lines going over them, emphasize his slim figure. He was also wearing black gloves. The man stopped righ outside the canopy.

"I'm Oberon, the librarian. You two must be the assistants I've been told about" he introduced himself as he slightly bowed.

The two girls returned the bow and introduced themselves. Oberon handed them the two umbrellas.

"Ah, thank you"

He then looked at their suitcases.

"Do you need help with your luggage? You can also leave them there for now if you don't want them to get soaked"

"Mine are waterproof. What about yours, Ara?"

"Ah, mine too"

"Great. It'll take a couple of trips tough" answered Rose.

After saying that, they each grabbed one or two suitcases, then Oberon started moving, Ara and Rose walking behind him. They were staying close to the wall: there weren't many trees there, nor bookshelves. After a not-too-long walk they crossed a rather thick, glowing, orange line drawn on the floor, and soon after they reached what most likely was the apartment they'd been told about. An unusual building, rather wide and taller than a one-floor house but lower than a two-floors one, with a sloping roof whose pitch was facing the front of the house. There was only one door, under another glass canopy. Oberon led them inside, and they found themselves in an hallway, most likely as wide as the whole structure, with a total of fourteen windows, six on each of the long walls plus one each on the side walls. And there were three doors, four counting the one they had just crossed.

"Those are the rooms" Oberon said "There's hardly any difference between each one of them. The one on the right is adiacent to the wall of the library tough, so there are no windows on that side. And for the lighting, there's a switch next to the door, inside each room. And behind the rooms there's a shared kitchen. I was using the middle one, but if one of you wants that I can move to another one, it's not a problem"

"No, no, thank you but you don't have to bother about that" said Ara, who then turned to Rose "Which one do you want?"

"I'll take the right one" she replied.

Oberon left the two luggages he had in his hand down.

"I'll go take the others" he said.

"Thank you"

"I'll show you the library once it stop raining, so take your time. As for showing you the rest of this building and explaining what exactly our job is, that can come once you're done unpacking your belonging. I'll be in the kitchen in the meanwhile"

The girls nodded and went to their rooms. Ara opened the door and walked inside. It was perfectly cubical, and actually quite fancy, with wooden floor. There were eight windows, two on each wall, including the one shared with Oberon's room, each one with black curtains. Below every couple of windows was an inner balcony with a small drawer and two tables, each with four chairs, and an half landing stair leading to each balcony. The windows were at the right height for someone to sit on the chairs and look outside. There was a good number of wooden furnishings in the room. Actually, even excessive, at least for Ara's luggases. At least half of those wardrobes and drawers were sure to remain empty. There was also a large, empty bookshelf, a writing desk, a table with four chairs and a large mirror. Ara also noticed two doors in the corners of the room, one of which probably led to the bathroom. Oberon hadn't mentioned it, but there had to be one. The other one must had been the one to the kitchen. Light was provided by... candles. They were also unusually bright, given their size. There were some on the walls, and a chandelier was hanging from the ceiling in the middle of the room. Ara tried to press the switch, and all the candles suddenly went out, leaving only the light coming from the windows to illuminate the place. She pushed the switch again, and the candles came back to life.

"That's pretty"

The most noticeable thing in the room, however, was the bed. A fancy canopy bed big enough for three, if not four, people to sleep in, with dark red courtains and five pillows, tough only one seemed to be a sleeping one.

"That's... well... probably a bit too large..."

She began unpacking her stuff, starting from the two long suitcases. Inside each one was a chiseled spear, both longer than Ara. One had an orange and white staff, with an ornament a bit larger than her fist on one end. The head of the weapon was made of a red, symmetrical, rather plain blade, with a supplementary one which allowed the weapon to be used also as an halberd. Ara laid it against a wall, then pulled out the other. The second one was a lot different. While the first one was a finely crafted weapon, the spear Ara was holding now was on a far better workmanship: the staff was of a deep black, and near the head it split into two dark orange parts which entwined with each other, joining at a bright orange orb, enclosed by a decoration which somewhat resembled an asymmetrical, golden flower. From there extended two blades, both black with dark shades of orange and red, finely worked in asymmetrical forms. On the other end of the pole was what could be described as a smaller and simpler, tough still finely crafted, version of the head of the spear. Ara carefully placed it near the first one, against the wall, and the way she held it almost suggested that wasn't even her weapon. After that, she hopened the third suitcase and began unpacking her stuff: pretty much nothing you wouldn't expect from a normal girl's luggage came out of there. Once she was done with that, she went back to the hallway. There were a few suitcases, two of which must had been hers. Oberon was nowhere to be seen, and the same went for Rose. Then again, she was most likely unpacking her stuff as well at the moment. Ara took her bags and brought them to her room. She placed the dark orange one near the black spear, without opening it, then turned to the last one and grabbed it. At the same time, someone knocked at the door.

"Ah, come in" she said as she opened the suitcase.

Rose walked in, holding a case almost identical to the one Ara had just opened, saying "I think you took one of my... yes, that's mine"

Ara looked at the content of the bag. Saying she was startled would be an understatement. Her gaze moved from the leather cuffs to the ropes to a collar to a pair of handcuffs to... several other things. Her face turned red as she shut the suitcase.

"Ah... ehr... that..."

"Yeah, that's mine" Rose casually repeated as she walked towards Ara "It's similar to yours, see? The luggage, I mean"

"Ah, right, sorry about that..."

"Don't worry, it's nothing" she replied as she took her luggage "I'll go back to my room now"

"Ehr, Rose... ?"

"Yes?"

"That bag..."

"Just an hobby of mine. Why, are you interested?" she asked, her lips forming a soft, playful smile.

"Ah, no, no! I'm not... I mean..." Ara panicked.

Rose laughed softly and ran her eyes over her for a brief moment, then turned around and left the room. Ara stood there for a few moments, then she realized she had yet to unpack her last suitcase. The most noticeable things she pulled out of there were a chessboard, a pen and a few books. One, in particular, was at least twice the size of all the others. She placed that one on the writing desk, while all the others were arranged on the bookshelf. The chessboard, instead, was placed on the table. She then sat at the desk and opened the large book. It had a black cover made of leather, and had no title. She skimmed trough the pages, all of which had been used to write, until she reached the first blank one. She looked at the last line of text.

I've prepared my luggages. They're the orange ones.

Ara took the pen and wrote something. A short sentence.

Please, don't cause any trouble.

She really wanted things to go smoothly at least on her first day of work.

At the same time, somewhere in the library, a book suddenly started trembling, and it began to slide out of place, until it fell off from the bookshelf, all the way to the floor. It then opened. The letters were glowing with a faint light. And then, something started to slowly crawl out of the book.

First chapter out.