Ember had found out. Somehow, that knowledge didn't bother Ty as much now, as much as he'd thought it might. In fact, he almost felt… relieved. She was watching out for him now, and as often as he proclaimed his independence when it came to taking care of himself, it wouldn't be exactly unpleasant to have her there for him.

Of course, Ty would never admit this out loud.

Looking around, he realized he didn't know where he was. There were books, books, and more books, all on shelves that reached towards the vaulted ceiling, which seemingly stretched away to infinity. The rows were spread far apart, at least five meters. A title from one of the highest shelves, at least thirty meters up, caught his eye, glittering silver emblazoned on a blue binding. Amor Omnibus ad Lunae Lumina. He didn't speak whatever language it was, but the book caught his eye just the same.

Grabbing a torch from one of the brackets on the wall, he wandered deeper into the library, marveling at the architecture and at the sheer size of it. There were so many books here, it was surely enough for an eternity's reading. All of them looked to be different. As Ty went further down the hall, he found slightly more disturbing artifacts. A human skull glared down at him from one of the shelves, and a mouse scurried out of his way.

Passing another shelf, he paused to remove a book. It was bound in a soft material studded over with hard chunks. Scales. Dragon scales. The book's cover was made of dragon skin. It was a beautiful pastel lavender skin, a color that he'd never have guessed dragons came in. The scales were small and delicate, almost the size of flower petals. It smelled strangely familiar, almost sweet.

Driven by a burning curiosity, Ty opened the book to the first page. The text was clearly handwritten, in a crabbed, sharp style. It was hard to read the writing, and, bored, he thumbed through it rapidly, expecting to find nothing of interest.

Instead, he came to a sketch. It was a drawing of a skeleton, except with… wings. There was a caption next to the picture, which Ty struggled to read. For further study. Whoever'd written the book had clearly finished studying more, because on the next page was a diagram of a pentagram, with specific instructions that only someone like Seto could ever hope to understand. The next two pages were taken up by a giant map of what Ty recognized to be the Overworld. There were several villages marked on it, and one was circled and labeled 'A likely candidate.'

The next fifteen or so pages were filled with notes, which Ty skipped through until he came to the next illustration. It was of a small human girl playing with a young boy. She was running with a smile on her face, and he was laughingly trying to catch her. On the next page, the girl was crying on a doorstep. One side of the house appeared to be cut away, and Ty could see two people, possibly the girl's parents, who were eating something and smiling. The boy was on the next floor, asleep in his bedroom.

Ty stared at the little girl for a while. She looked so familiar… When he skipped to the next drawing, he stopped cold. There was an image attached to the page; it appeared to be a family portrait of the same family as before. And the little girl…

Someone had inked in a sketch of wings onto the girl's picture. And they'd labeled the girl, too. Specimen one: Emma Grey.

Emma… with wings… Ty's mind was racing. The boy… he looked familiar. The boy… the boy was the boy he'd seen in the simulation, Ember's brother Seth! So that meant… that the girl was Ember. Emma Grey. That had been her name?

His breath was coming fast and shallow as he tried to make sense of what he'd just found. Ember… someone had chosen her as a specimen for some experiment. Who had written this? What experiment were they doing? And why? Why did they need a little girl? Ty needed time, time to keep reading.

A noise came suddenly, off down the hallway. Ty wrapped his wing around the book, concealing it quickly before extinguishing his torch and tiptoeing down the hallway. He was about halfway to the door when he heard another noise, this time much closer.

"What are you looking at?" Seto asked, tapping him on the shoulder. In the span of a second, Ty had jumped in panic and pinned the intruder to the ground. "Ow! Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow!" he groaned. "Get off, Ty! Y-you're hurting me!"

"Oh! Seto! Sorry!"

"Don't ap-p-polog-gize, just g-get off-f, you id-d-diot!" Seto pleaded. Ty obeyed and moved off of his prisoner. "Geez, you act like someone just gave you an electric shock."

"You startled me. Sorry," Ty mumbled again. Seto slowly began to pick his way to his feet, wincing with every movement. "What are you doing here?"

"Uh, nothing, just looking up spells. What about you?"

"I think Ember's not happy with me," he said, feeling a prickling sensation at the back of his neck, hoping that Seto didn't press for more details.

"What did you do?" the sorcerer asked, bracing himself against one of the bookshelves.

"I… I guess I explained how much I like annoying her." That was part of it.

Seto gaped at him. "Why would you like annoying her?"

Ty knew he was blushing and shook his head angrily to try to dispel the pink flush that was creeping over his face. "Because… she gets so cute when she's pissed off. Her eyes get super intense, and her tail starts twitching, and she… I don't know, but I love it."

"You're weird," Seto told him. "Ember being pissed off is not good. It's not cute. And it's only a little bit funny."

"So you admit it's funny."

Seto blinked. "Let's keep this conversation to ourselves, yes?"

Ty smirked at the sorcerer. "Sure."

"Good," Seto said, seeming relieved. "So… yeah."

"Yeah what?"

"I was just saying it."

"No, you didn't say 'it,' you said 'yeah.'"

Very clever. Can I borrow that sometime?

Sure. Ty grinned.

"Damn it, Ty, you know what I mean!"

"I do?"

Seto yanked at his own hair in anger, and then yelled in pain. "Ah! Yes, you do!"

"Fine. Maybe I do."

"I hate you," Seto muttered.

"Good to know."

"You—" He broke off, shaking his head disgustedly. Ty watched with amusement. "Never mind. I'm just done."

"Done with what?"

The sorcerer's glare was filled with such rage that Ty took a step back. "YOU."

Oh. Seto was really ticked off. "Sorry," Ty sighed. "I'm just bored."

"So you intentionally annoy everyone you meet?" Seto quirked an eyebrow into a quizzical expression.

"Pretty much, yeah."

"You do realize that that's not exactly the best method for coping, right?"

"It works," he said shortly, reminded of his conversation with Ember.

"I see. You know, you could just say that you need something to do."

"Direct solutions are overrated."

"Look, do you want to go be un-bored?"

Ty rolled his eyes. "Is that a technical term?"

"Yes," Seto said, completely deadpan.

"Fine. How do I get un-bored?"

"Hold still. I think this spell should work… I mean, I've been reading about it…"

He stared at Seto, backing away slowly. "Whoa. What are you doing?"

"Teleporting us. If it works."

"Stay away from me!"

"No, chill, Ty, I mostly know what I'm doing!" Seto grabbed his arm, and then everything went black.

Oh dear me, what is Seto doing? And... what was that book?

I KNOW!

I know you know, brain! Shaddup!

I DON'T WANT TO!

I'll get Zariah to come!

*Silence ensues*

Thank you. Also, important announcement!

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT:

This story is coming to an end soon, and I thought a Q&A might be cool. Do you guys have questions? Send them in! I might not answer them all, especially creepy stalker questions, but I'll try to answer some!

SOTC: "Dangerous" by Big Data