Disappearance

"Let's serve ourselves"

And everyone started eating, with Ara and Rose taking only what they could identify at first glance. Also, chatting. People from the same venue were sitting together, but almost everyone started talking with someone from a different jurisdiction. It was actually rather messy and slightly confusing, ten people talking over each other so casually, but not even one of them seemed to be bothered by it, except maybe Add, who was still arguing with Aisha anyway. Luciela was silent. Rose was sitting between Eve and Ciel, while Ara had Oberon at her right and Karis at her left. The succubus fixed her gaze on Ara for a while, then looked briefly at Add. After that she rolled her head back a little, as if she was trying to remember something, and then for some reason she laughed softly, at which point Ara decided to talk to her.

"Did I do something funny?"

"Oh, no, I was just thinking" she replied as she pointed to Add with her tail "He was your first wasn't he?" she asked with a playful smile and an amused voice.

Ara turned red but managed to keep her voice down. Mainly because she almost choked on what she was eating.

"H-how do you know?!"

Karis moved her wings a bit before replying.

"I'd tasted him too when he joined our little group" she said as she brought an index to her lips "And when I tasted you I realized it" she told her as she poked Ara's forehead with her tail "I told you what I am, you shouldn't be surprised shouldn't you?"

"Ah..."

"Karis, don't intrude on her private life" said Oberon, who had been talking with McGard up to a few moments earlier.

"Oh, right. Newcomers still have one"

"If it isn't a bother, would you two tell us what's your title?" asked then Yoru.

"Title?" replied Rose.

"They don't have one. Technically speaking, their contract is with me, not with Glaive" said Eve.

For a brief, an incredibly brief moment, everyone went silent. Then Ignia bursted out laughing, to the point McGard had to keep her from falling from her chair.

"Ahahahahahaha! I knew you were on bad terms with him but oh man! I can't even begin to imagine how mad he got at you! Like, what the freakin' hell were you thinking?!"

"Mind your words" said Oberon.

"Let her be, I'm used to this child's manners" Eve told him.

"Ah, there she goes again" was Ignia's reply.

"Wait, what's this title Yoru mentioned?"

"When we sign the contract we get assigned a title, something to represent our previous life. It's something that loses meaning rather quickly, but the Masked like to use it from time to time" explained McGard. His voice was less human than both Ara and Rose had expected.

"Oh, I see"

"It wasn't thoughtful of you to do something like this" Luciela said to Eve. The moment she spoke, everyone else went silent.

"Had it been a violation of the contract, I would no longer be here" she replied as she brought an hand to her throat "Though there were still... consequences"

Oberon fixed his gaze on Eve's neck.

"I'm not saying you did wrong" Luciela replied as she looked at Ciel out of the corner of her eye.

A brief silence, then everything went back to normal. Ara and Rose noticed that there were no empty plates nor bottles on the table, and shortly after saw that each one refilled on its own once empty. Then they also realized that, despite having already eaten quite a lot, they really didn't feel full. It's not that they were hungry, they simply felt like they could still keep eating. And since the fact wasn't really any more surprising than other things they'd seen in the last few days and the food tasted great, they kept eating, eventually asking what some of the dishes and drinks were, and sometimes earning a reply they both would have rather not receive. After a while, they heard Aisha asking something to Karis. Apparently she and Add were done arguing.

"Say, do you have any specimens to lend me? I've almost run out of them"

"Sure, sweetie" she replied

"Specimens of what?" asked Ara.

"It's a bit early for you to know, I would say" replied Yoru.

"Now I'm curious too" said Rose.

"I can show you my breeding farm one of these days. Maybe" Karis responded "And since you brought up the argument, Aisha dear, I still haven't gotten anything for the last ones I gave you" she asked, with the voice of someone who is foretasting something.

"Eh? What about the... no, wait, I've already..."

"That was hardly a little taste, dear. Don't make me say the obvious"

"But I..."

"Give it up, 'Isha" said Ignia "She got ya".

"You're the last one I want to hear that from"

"Ah? What do ya mean?"

"You really need me to tell you it?"

"Shut yar trap, flattie hag"

"F-flattie what ?! You little impudent...!"

The two of them stood up.

"What, wanna fight?"

"Seems like you need some punishment, you little impudent cheeky obnoxious unreliable..."

Then Luciela coughed, just once. Both Ignia and Aisha stopped and sat back down.

"These quarrels of yours are getting old" she said "No one here is asking for you two to be friends, but at least try to keep a minimum of composure while we're eating"

"... my apologies"

"... my bad"

And then, another moment of silence. Another really brief one. After which everything went back to normal again. Eventually, some of them stopped eating. Still, it took around one more hour for the dinner to end. Ara and Rose were sure they'd eaten roughly the same amount they'd normally eat in two or three whole days, if not more. Well, among all the things which didn't make sense there, that was definitively one of the least strange, and most appreciable. Then, following everyone else, they stood up, grabbed their chairs and took a couple of steps back. The table then split into four pieces which moved next to the walls, not a single dish or drink falling in the process. Ara and Rose did like the others and brought the chairs to the edges of the room. And, judging by the way Oberon gave a quick glance at both of them, they were most likely about to dance. Ara gulped. And Add looked a bit worried. Seems like he knew how good she wasn't at dancing.

Kizna left the room, Ciel and Yoru walked to the center, and everyone else sat down. Well, everyone except Ara and Rose. The two girls walked up to the two older colleagues. Rose had sincerely hoped for Yoru not to be there. There was something about him which just made her feel nervous. Then Kizna walked back inside the room and sat down. However, she was holding something. At first glance they almost looked like a violin and it's bow, but they were different. The violin was larger than a normal one, and the shape was rather different, unusual even. There were keys on one side similar to those of a piano, though recurved, and there was also something similar to the headjoint of a flute placed so that the musician could blow inside it while holding the instrument almost like a normal violin. As for the bow, there were three small triggers at the base of it, and it had four different set of strings rather than just one. She sat down, took a deep breath, then took another. And after that she began to play.

It was... astonishing. Rather, it was almost like listening to an orchestra. Different sounds merged together in harmony just as they were replaced by different tones, in a relaxing yet intense succession of notes. It didn't even seem a single melody, it was as if Kizna constantly kept changing the music she was playing while never straying from a core element.

"Impressive, isn't it?" Yoru said to Ara as he offered her his hand, bringing her back to reality.

"Yes... yes, really" she replied.

She took his hand and he gently pulled her closer.

"I'm... bad at this" she whispered.

"Oh, there is no need to worry. Just relax, and follow me. Besides" he replied as he gave a quick glance at Ignia "I am particularly skilled at leading"

Ara gave a quick glance at Rose, who was actually relieved to not have to dance with Yoru, and Ciel, then sighed softly and, just as she had been told, let Yoru lead her. Even a neophyte like her could tell he was a good dancer, a very good one, though a bit creepy when looked at from that close. Still, her movements were a bit clunky, or rather hesitant. Mainly because she was focusing too much on the gaze of the others, to the point she wasn't even paying much attention to the music. Then, somehow, she started to move in a noticeably more spontaneous way. Actually, it almost didn't even seem like it was the same person dancing. Add frowned. A few others shook their heads, laughed softly or sighed. Ara noticed something wasn't exactly right. There was something pulling her limbs. Granted, she wasn't being forcefully moved around like a doll, she was just being guided, but it still felt... truth be told, it was a rather nice experience. Probably because it actually helped her relax. She started paying attention to the music again, and against all of her expectations, time flew by. Kizna eventually stopped playing, and the two couples stopped dancing. A brief round of applauses followed, and Ara simply tried to ignore it. She also felt something detaching from her limbs, as if the web of a spider just fell off from her.

"May I ask you for another round?" Yoru inquired her as almost all the others stood up, some walking to the center of the room and some simply heading to a different chair.

"Ah, ehr, sorry but I think I'll just watch for a while. Thank you for guiding me during the dance" she replied. As for how exactly he leaded her, she would have asked another time, though she had an idea.

"Don't mention it"

Ara walked back to her chair and sat down. Kizna started playing a different song. Rose was still dancing. With McGard. Which one had asked the other one for a round, she really wasn't sure. There were also Karis, Yoru, Oberon, Eve, Aisha and Ignia on the stage. Apparently, Karis dragged Ignia all the way there and... "convinced" her to dance with her. As for the others, Luciela and Ciel seemed to be simply enjoying the music. Apparently, Add was doing the same thing, which left Ara a bit surprised. He had never been the type to simply sit down and listen to music. Well, Kizna's music was on a whole different level, so maybe that was it. Two dances later, Rose went back to her chair and sat down.

"It's not as bad as I thought it would be" she said to Ara.

"True" she replied as she grabbed a glass full of... well, something, from the table and drank.

Karis had pulled -almost literally- Add from his chair and brought him to the center of the room for a dance. Rose noticed Ara following them with her gaze.

"... you jealous?" she asked in a low tone.

Ara almost choked on her drink, and Rose almost failed not to laugh at it.

"W-what?"

"You've been staring at him for quite a while now. Was he your boyfriend, or something along those lines?"

"N-no! I mean... well, kind of... almost? I guess... no, not really..."

"That's one confusing reply if I've ever heard one"

"Right, sorry. It's just... I'm not sure. Things were a bit... complicated"

"Well, I can go on living even without knowing"

After a while they noticed Luciela and Eve leaving the room together. Oberon walked up to Kizna, who had just finished playing another piece. With no exchange of words she gave him the instrument, got up and left her chair to Oberon, who sat down and started playing in her place. Kizna simply stood there, her back against the wall, her face lowered and covered by her hat. It almost looked as if she was sleeping, though she could be heard humming along the melody. There was clearly something different in how Oberon played that instrument, but what exactly it was was hard to tell. After listening to it for a while, Ara and Rose thought that Kizna was better at it than him. Then they saw her talking to him after he had finished the melody. Was she teaching him how to play the instrument? Anyway, none of the dancers seemed much concerned by the difference. At one point, after another dance, Karis brought Aisha next to a wall and said something to her. The two had a brief talk, then Aisha followed Karis, who was also forcefully carrying a clearly upset Ignia with her, out of the room. After that, Add walked up to Ara.

"... do you mind coming with me?" he asked.

"No. No, of course" she replied as she got up and followed him.

Rose, now alone, started to wonder about what to do to kill some time, until Yoru took Ara's seat.

"Mind a little talk?" he asked.

She sighed.

She had been put deeper than she had expected. It took her quite a lot of time -relatively- but she had almost arrived. She could see it from there. The prism made of mirrors. She had always though it, but something like that being their way in and out could mean nothing but that they both had some sort of problem. She started to hear something. Voices. She didn't recognize any of them though, with only two exceptions. One was Ara's. The other... was that... Add? She almost bursted out laughing, which would have actually been a bad move. Eun didn't know she was out -had she known, she would have already meet her- and making too much noise could have betrayed her presence. Nari had been locked away for a long time, so pretending to be still imprisoned for a bit longer couldn't hurt. Not her, at least. And if didn't hurt her, it surely wouldn't have hurt Ara either.

Add leaded Ara to the hallway he had come in from, and from there went to one of the side rooms. They walked in and he closed the door. He didn't lock it though. Maybe because there was no key. Maybe because that would have given a bad impression. Maybe for a completely different reason. The room wasn't particularly large. There were only a rather small bed, a small squared table with a single chair, a wardrobe, a small window on the ceiling and a black screen on the wall. Add grabbed the chair, raised it and pushed it down against the floor a couple of times, then pulled it apart into two complete chairs. How, Ara didn't even bother to ask.

"This still makes no sense to me" he commented as he handed Ara a chair "Splitting things like this, I mean"

They both sat down, in silence. For almost five minutes not a single word was heard. They almost didn't even look at each other.

"... you're doing well it seems..." Ara said then.

"... you too..."

Silence again. Add, for some reason, bit his lips. Then broke the silence.

"... so, you have a contract with Eve. Just... what kind of contract?"

"An ordinary one, I would say. I mean, there was nothing which could have possibly made me think about... well, any of this" she replied as she indicated the whole room with her hands.

"No one of us knew what he was getting into when he signed the contract"

"Where is your family, Add?"

"They're fine. Though I haven't seen them in two years"

"It that how long you've been here?"

"Thirty one months"

"And why are you here?"

"Because... I couldn't turn down Glade's offer. ... what about you? Why did you leave Fahrmann?"

"Because I had to. Nari... things between me and her went completely wrong after what happened with you. She did a few... things, and, well, staying would have been problematic"

"What about your brother? How did Aren..."

"I left him a letter and set off when he wasn't home. He would have never let me... let us go, not because of that"

"What did Nari... ?"

"Three people"

A brief silence followed. Then Add stood up.

"Ara, I'm happy to see you, I really am, but... it would have been better if you never came here"

"Why?"

"As long as you have a contract with Eve, Glaive won't do anything to you. Nothing permanent, at least. But if the contract you signed is really a normal one, you are basically free to leave whenever you want. And Glaive would never allow it. Nobody has ever left this... "job", like they call it. The first one to do it being from his venue would make him appear weak to the other three. And he is too prideful to allow it"

Ara stood up as well.

"What can he possibly do to me?"

"... not to you. To everyone else"

"What do you mean?"

"Do you know why Oberon signed his contract?"

"No, he didn't tell me. Or rather, he told me to ask Eve, but I didn't get a chance to do it"

"He... he did it because a long time ago, Eve died. Glaive offered to bring her back to life in exchange of his services in the library. And not only him. Aisha did more mistakes in her life than she is willing to admit: Glade brought her back in time to when she was a child, and let her keep her memories. She was basically granted a second chance at her whole life. Ignia came here because it was her only way to escape a death sentence. I'm here because... because my family died, and Glade revived them. None of these events were caused by those four, but I have absolutely no reason to think Glaive wouldn't act directly to bring you back in case you left. And... well, you can guess what he would do"

Ara looked at him, straight in the eyes. She didn't say a word.

"That's how things are, Ara. I'm..."

And then Ara laughed. An heartfelt, loud laugh.

"A-Ara?"

"Ahahahaha! Just what did she put us into, that crazy girl?! Ahahaha!"

Then she walked forward, grabbed Add by his shoulders and pushed him against the wall, got on her tiptoes and... licked his scar.

"Ah, I remember this as if it was yesterday. Tell me, does it still hurt?" she asked as she laughed softly.

"Nari..."

Add grabbed her and tried to push her away, but to no avail. Physical strength had never been one of his traits, while Ara, on the other hand, was far stronger than a normal person. And since they had the same body, the same went for Nari.

"She got really, really angry after what I did, you know? To the point of using the fox to lock me away. Deep, deep, so deep within our mind I didn't even know what she was doing anymore. Oh, all because of Eun. There was something between me and Ara, you know? How do people call it? Entente? But then that fox snuck inside of us, and since then everything turned for the worse. Ara even started calling me crazy. She even got angry at me! I forgave her for what she did to me when we were young! For everything! Then someone else gets inside us and suddenly I'm crazy and evil and everything! It's laughable, isn't it?! That fox doesn't even know what Ara did, and she spits judgements on me for what I do! While Ara herself had nothing against it until she arrived!"

"In what world are people like you not considered crazy?"

"Oh, Add, Add, Add. If I'm crazy, then Ara is too, isn't she? You know, I can feel her clawing at me, on the back of my head, trying to bring me back inside. It's not pleasant, you know? She didn't know I got out of the little hole they had put me in"

"What do you want, Nari?" he asked. He tried to keep his composure, but he couldn't hide the fact that he was sweating.

"What do I want? Ahahahaha! What I want, you ask?!"

She grabbed Add and threw him on the bed, then walked up to him and got on all fours, on top of him.

"Right now, I think I want to have some fun" she said. For some reason, she was holding her head with one hand.

"You're kidding, right?! You did this to me, and now you say this!?" she shouted as he pointed to his mechanical eye.

"That's because you wanted to keep Ara all to yourself. You're not her type, and she knows it. She never told you, but I know. We can't hide these things from each other. I just tried to made it clear. That said" she told him as he grabbed him and pulled him in for a kiss, from which Add pulled away as fast as he could "When it comes to being a simple lover, you'd do just fine. For me, that is. Don't get me wrong, you're not my type. But you know, there's only you inside of here right now. And I don't even know where "here" is!"

He wanted to hit her. He wanted so badly to hit her. But that was also Ara's body. And besides, there was really nothing preventing her from snapping his neck -or biting off his jugular vein, or whatever she could came up with-, and given what she had just said, hitting her could have easily meant his death.

Then, suddenly, Nari literally fell down on him and rolled over, enough to fall from the bed. Add got up and walked next to her.

"Hey! Hey!"

"Ah! Ahah... seems like... Eun woke up... she was sleeping, that makes sense... no way that fox would have let me out so easily... well then, Add... see you around..."

And then, she got up and ran to the door.

"I'm sorry, Add" she said.

"Ara, wait!"

She didn't listen to him and ran outside. Add stood there, unsure about what to do.

"What happened?" Rose asked.

"Nothing" she replied.

"If you don't want to talk about it fine. Just know that it's written all over your face that something happened"

The blonde then grabbed two glasses and a bottle from the table.

"I'm not sure what this is but it's alcoholic. I think. Want some?"

"... yes"

The only ones still in the main room were them, Kizna and McGard. The former was still playing her instrument, while the latter was sitting on the floor in front of her, his eyes closed.

"Where did everyone go?" Ara asked Rose.

"Oberon and Yoru left the room together. Ciel... well, I actually didn't notice when he left. Also, Karis came back and went to the same hallway Luciela and Ciel came from"

"What about you?"

"I did nothing special. A couple of dances, some drink, some food. Her music is amazing, isn't it?"

"Yes"

And so they simply sat there, drinking something neither of them could name, occasionally grabbing something to eat, and listening to music. Until, around half an hour later, Ciel walked in.

"Lady Luciela wants us to gather here" he said "I will call the others now. Don't leave" he said before leaving the room.

Kizna stopped playing and walked out, probably to put her instrument away. The four parts of the table moved to the center of the room but didn't assemble. Instead, they left four openings between them, placed in correspondence of the four doors. McGard started putting the chairs in order. Since they had nothing do to -and standing there watching him would have been rather rude- Ara and Rose helped him. In a matter of a few minutes, everyone was back on his seat. Though Aisha and Ignia seemed a bit... tired. Karis, on the other hand, looked more energetic than before. Ara looked at Add for a moment, and turned her gaze away when he noticed.

Then four small, black clouds appeared in the room and moved to the four empty spaces between the table's parts, where they condensed into Glaive and the other three, standing around a meter above the ground. As they sat down, black thrones appeared underneath each one of them. They seemed to be made of stone, with a few crystals coming out here and there. On the left armrest of each one was a chalice. They were sitting in the four cardinal directions, splitting those who worked in their venues in two groups. Rose found their sitting at a noticeably higher height than them rather annoying, but said nothing.

"I apologize for interrupting you" Luciela said to the other librarians "But as you know, this meeting has been anticipated, which means there is something we have to discuss about"

"I do not want to be pessimistic" said Yoru "But the last time a meeting got anticipated was due to the appearance of Nenhlekelele, the Great Anomaly"

"Who?" asked Aisha.

"The worst thing which has ever happened to this part of the Dream" replied Kizna.

Ara and Rose didn't really understand it. Add and Ignia didn't believe in the Dream in the first place.

"We don't know yet" Luciela said before pointing to Oberon.

"As some of you may already know" he said "the tracking system in the east venue broke, almost two months ago. It took a while, but I eventually found the problem. Someone had purposefully tampered it, and in a worryingly efficient way. After having repaired the system, a full-scale scansion of the library was launched. The scansion ended this afternoon, and the results were anything but predictable"

He could hardly believe what he was about to say. It was something with absolutely no precedent. Rather, it was something nobody had ever even thought about.

"An amount of ink equal to that of nine hundred seventy four books at the peak of their existence has completely disappeared from the library, without leaving a trace"

Tenth done. This one came out different than how I had first planned it, I thought I could describe a few more of their activities but seems like that would have taken too long. I'll do it in another chapter, probably.

See you around.