Hello! Tonight is Shiori's birthday.

This story was inspired by FrozenDeluxe's The Light Within the Darkness.

Enjoy.

Shiori turned another page. It was a great feeling, being the only one in the tranquil silence of the library. Minerva leaned on her shoulder, asleep, as Shiori continued reading a Greek epic.

If being alone at midnight in the library was weird, Shiori didn't care. She was where she felt she belonged, safe within her fortress of knowledge. The ignorance of the outside world was insulated by the wisdom of thousands of books.

A loud clang echoed from the doorway. Shiori looked up from her book.

Nothing happened.

She shrugged and flipped another page on her book.

...

++[Tenri's House]++

"Sister Diana!" Minerva's cry of distress woke Tenri up from her peaceful sleep.

Diana's reflection immediately appeared on the mirror opposite Tenri's bed.

Despite the sudden awakening so late at night, Diana looked antsy with anxiety.

"Mind if I take over?" Diana asked urgently. Tenri nodded quietly.

The room shone brightly as Diana took control of Tenri's body.

Diana opened the window and rushed out into the sky. Concern for her younger sister was evident through the tears struggling to surface. Diana's crimson eyes flashed with a resolute determination as she bolted towards the library.

As she landed in front of the brick building, she spotted broken glass from a window. She tensed her muscles as she approached the hole.

Diana flew through the open window, her hands glowing with a golden light as she prepared to blast anything there with a light beam.

Nothing moved from within the quiet library. Diana lowered her hands and looked around.

The lobby of the library was badly torn up by some sort of struggle. Tables and chairs were splintered or completely destroyed, and books lay haphazardly on the floor.

Diana came to wall with a large slash imprinted on the wall, along with a blood splatter that spread to the floor and ceiling. Slumped over on the floor was Lune, whose sword lay helplessly beside her. Diana could still read the lettering despite the thick blood that coated the blade.

-GUARDIAN-

Lune's lifeless eyes held one last emotion in them... but Diana wasn't sure if it was regret or hatred that remained within those dead eyes.

Unconsciously, Diana balled up her fist. What was Lune doing here? Was she the one responsible for Minerva's desperate cry for help?

Diana scanned the library. Any sign that her sister was alive and well was welcome to her yearning heart. Fear pumped through Diana's body was her heart beat rapidly against her chest.

She came to the middle of the library, where the tables sat undisturbed. Diana's heart sank as her eyes met one of the last tables in the row.

Shiori never saw her assailant coming. She had sprawled her arms out over her precious book, the hilt of a knife sprouting from her back.

Diana's fists trembled with rage as she saw the inscription on the bottom of the hilt- a circle with a few arcs formed a conspicuous "V."

In that moment, Diana's world shattered.