Chapter 6: Voile, the magic library.

On the left side of the atrium was a black oak door, with a gold talisman beneath a stained glass window. Meiling, taking Fili by his hand, introduced the boy to the library known as Voile. "This is where miss Patchouli often resides." the Yokai girl said to Fili. "She essentially lives there, but she does come out occasionally to visit."

Meiling's words passed Fili by, as his focus was shifted towards something else. The talisman to be specific.
Fili couldn't quite put his finger on it, but he could've sworn that he saw that emblem before. A shield emblazoned with a white rose. What on Gaiera was that doing here?

Meiling took notice of the boy's curiosity. "Oh, that?" Meiling asked.
"Patchouli put that there when she first came here a long time ago. I don't know what it means, but I think it looks nice."
The significance of the talisman was also lost on Fili. He too had no idea what it meant.

Stepping inside revealed the true scope of the library. It was almost as big as a house. Huge towering bookshelves almost seemed to touch the ceiling with no real way to reach the books on top without either a comically large ladder, or the basic power of flight. The sections between each bookshelf were rather wide as well, and each was kept clean by small winged faeries wearing maid uniforms.

As Meiling guided Fili through the library, the sounds of books tumbling and a loud thud was heard one section over from the two.
"Duqi tes... what was that?" Fili asked.
"Probably Koakuma, Patchouli's assistant." Meiling answered. "She can be a bit clumsy at times, often dropping whole stacks of books."

Meiling took Fili to investigate the noise in the lane next to them, only for them to find a girl with long purple hair, pink nightcap and robes lying on the floor.
"Ugh... my back..." she said as she applied pressure with her hand to her uppder back. "Why did she take a day off today of all days?"

"Hey." Meiling said to the librarian.
"Can barely stand-" Patchouli paused. "Oh. Hi."

Fili peered around the corner of the bookshelf to see the magician girl struggling to stand back up. "V... Vale." the child said.
"Hey. I see you've recovered from your wounds." Patchouli slowly gained her footing and gained the strength to stand up. "From the looks of things, you looked like a fresh carcass."

Stepping forth towards her, Fili asked Patchouli "Suqi tu es?"
Patchouli flinched as an expression of sudden shock appeared on her face, as if she had a Vietnam flashback. "Uh... does that mean something like 'who are you?' well uh..."
Meiling chimed in, and urged her "Go on, tell him your name."

"My name is Patchouli Knowledge. I was the one who saved your life. Or at least, was was left of you." she said, giving a slight bow.
The boy bowed back, not because it was customary for a greeting, but because he thought that was what he was supposed to do. "Fili Stradivarius." he said to Patchouli, knowing that she would only catch his name if he spoke in his tongue.

"So, what do you need. Meiling?" Patchouli asked as she retrieved the dropped books from the carpet floor.
"Well..." Meiling looked over to Fili. "I figured you could help with the whole language barrier thing. Is there some sort of translation magic you have?" the youkai girl asked.
"Not really," she replied. "But... I could make a translation spell from scratch, although that would require his co-operation for a while."

Making magic from scratch was no easy feat. An example to compare it to would be like programming. Using a spell already made, like a fire spell, could be compared to a simple PRINT statement. Making your own command would require machine code knowledge, which is it's own form of hell to deal with.

Patchouli would need to collaborate with Fili to work on this spell, because you would need to have a word, as well as another word with the same meaning.
Explaining this to Meiling would make it sound complicated. That's because it is. Not to mention it would take a long time to do so.

Then, Patchouli had an idea. What if instead of creating a spell from scratch, she could use an already existing spell that can convert sounds to other sounds. Only a piece of paper would be required in production of this magic.

"Fili..." she asked the child. "There should be a few tables around here. Why don't you wait for me while... oh. Right." she just remembered the kid doesn't speak English, at least not very well.
Meiling chimed in with "I'll take him there. You prepare what you need. Sakuya should be here soon to serve tea."
"Right."

Meiling took Fili by his hand and escorted him to a nearby set of tables. That would leave Patchouli to simply fetch a sheet of paper and a tome on sound spells.
"His language... It's been so long since..." the librarian stopped herself from saying anything further.

"Your tea, mistress." Sakuya said out on the balcony of the Scarlet Devil Mansion. A small girl in a pink fancy dress, cap, and light blue hair watched as the sun slowly started to set over Gensokyo.

"Thank you, Sakuya." she took a sip of her red tea. "Nothing could be better than a sunset with blood tea."
Her name was Remillia Scarlet. Owner and master of the mansion, and Gensokyo's most infamous vampire. "Does Meiling still insist on letting the boy live here? He looks more like chow to me."
"Mistress, we both know she won't allow that." Sakuya advised her mistress.

Remillia took another sip from her tea. "If I had it my way, that boy would be fed to Flandre as a cake."
"You mustn't say such things Mistress."

For Remillia, the boy was only seen as an intruder in her mansion. A pest that her gatekeeper wishes to have stay here. She wasn't having any of it.
But, Sakuya insisted that Fili should be allowed to stay here. It's unlikely the human village will take him in, and Gensokyo was too dangerous for a child like him to wander around in. The shrines were out of the question, as the trails were littered with Feral Youkai that would tear the poor boy apart.

"Very well." Remillia said, finishing her tea. "The boy may live here. But, he must also work here if he wants to stay. Otherwise... He's our dinner."
"Mistress..." Sakuya chastised as if she were Remillia's mother.
"Fine. I'll simply have him leave."
"Thank you, mistress." Sakuya said. "To be honest, I've grown quite attached to the boy myself."

A few hours later, the sun had finally set, and dinner was ready to be served.
The meal consisted of turkey, salad, and a few dinner buns. Perfect for a certain Tempus child who probably hasn't eaten in a very long time.

Fili and Patchouli exited the library, Meiling took a break from guard duty, and a blonde haired Girl dressed in red with crystal wings emerged from her basement to gather for dinner tonight.

Despite not have had a proper meal in ages, Fili couldn't bring himself to eat that much.
Who could blame him? Two whole years of running, barely managing to scrape by, getting shot, mauled, and now he's in a world he knows nothing about.
This kind of behavior was unlikely to go unnoticed, as Meiling leaned over to the child and asked "Not hungry?"

"Oh, uh, sorry." Fili said.
"Nah, it's cool. If I were you, I'd lose my appetite as well."
Patchouli chimed in. "I advise you to eat, as you will need it to fully recover from your wounds." She made some sort of sign with her hand and a translation of what she said started to come from a floating light of sorts.

"A translation spell..." Remillia commented. "I didn't know such a thing existed, Patche."
"It doesn't." Patchouli took a bite from her food. "I had to write down every English word he knows and assign it to its translation in his tongue." she noted. "Then I had to use a sound spell to make his language sound like it's translation, and vice versa. It was absolute hell to work with."

"Interesting..." Remillia said.
Fili remained quiet through dinner, only speaking if spoken to directly. 'Shy' wouldn't correctly describe how he felt. He felt as if he was still in danger, like the whole place he was in was too dangerous and he had to get out.
Nervous? Sure.
Scared for his life? Definitely.
But shy? No. He felt he didn't belong there.

In a sense, he didn't. Humans were usually kidnapped and kept here, kicked out, or even eaten here.
If it weren't for Meiling and Sakuya, the boy would have perished here.

Dinner had long since ended, and as night fell over Gensokyo, Fili was put to his bed by Sakuya.
This helped to calm him down a little. Two years ago, his mother, Bella, would do the same thing every night. Pull the covers over him, pet his hair, the kind of thing you would expect a mother to do when she tucks in her child at night.

Tonight, Sakuya did essentially the same thing. Tuck him in, wish him good night. It was as if she WAS Fili's mother.
Before she closed the guest bedroom door, Fili asked her "Where are you going?"

"To bed, Fili. My quarters are in the next room over from yours." she answered.
Once his door closed, Fili started asking himself bigger questions.

Who exactly was Sakuya. She looked almost exactly like his mother, shared her same behavior, even going so far as to put him to bed the same way.
This can't possibly be a coincidence. Fili thought his mother was supposed to be dead. To find someone like her in a completely different universe that was unrelated to his own, that wasn't mere happenstance. No.

It had to be fate, as Fili had heard many times before in his life.