Ghost Slayers
Chapter Ten
By Relm
Once Filia and Amelia were done with Zelgadis' office they took Filia's sketches to talk with the library staff.
At first the library staff person didn't want to have anything to do with Filia or the investigation until she showed the picture Lina drew.
"Where did you get this?" One woman named Dawn Palny asked Filia looking at Lina's crude sketch.
"That doesn't matter where I want to know is do you know what this is?" Filia persisted. She wasn't too please with the lack of help she was getting.
"Yes I do. But I won't tell you unless you tell me how you got this." Dawn demanded.
"I got it from my boss. It's related to a case of ours." Filia said through gritted teeth.
"You're from the Ghost Slayers… Mister Zelgadis was turned into a ghost?" She asked in surprise.
"What makes you think that Zelgadis is the ghost we're investigating?"
"Because Mister Zelgadis was the one doing research on the Mglah collection before he disappeared." Dawn explained.
"Is this symbol from the Mglah collection?"
"Is Mister Zelgadis a ghost or not?"
"I cannot confirm or deny that statement."
"My god he is a ghost! How horrible!" Dawn exclaimed in a hushed tone.
"Ma'am though I can't confirm that I hope you understand that I must insist that you not tell people about what we are talking about. It has to stay completely classified do you understand me?" Filia glared down the woman with a no nonsense stare.
"Yes I understand."
"Alright now tell me about this book collection."
"Okay. The Mglah book collection was written a thousand years ago during the Kol era on Talini islands. From what little we know of the books are about mysticism and mythology. The Mglahans worshiped various mystical creatures and had various methods of worship. It is believed that some of the books outline some the worship rituals they practiced."
"Believed? So you don't actually know?" Amelia asked.
"Well the Mglahan language is an old dead language. Very few people have been able to translate some of the works of the Mglahan. The language is very complex and hard to understand."
"And Mister Zelgadis was one of those people that could translate the text?" Amelia prompted the librarian.
"Yes, not as well as some could, but he could translate some of the text of some of the books. A dig on the Talini islands found the collection of books that our library currently owns. They were found in buried ritual chamber and locked away in a strange stone box. Strangely enough the books were found quite preserved as though the stone box had been vacuum sealed. Mister Zelgadis had taken it upon himself to write a complete translation of all thirteen books."
"Thirteen?" Filia mused. "I thought I only saw twelve of them in Zelgadis' office."
"Yes. When Mister Zelgadis disappeared an investigation of his office revealed that one of the books was missing. The red text as that one was called."
"Why?"
"The book was red and the pages written in a dark red ink. All the other books were black ink. That one was the only one that was different from the others. There were rumours that Mister Zelgadis decided to run away taking the red text with him to sell on the black market for a fortune and retire on an island beach. Though Mister Zelgadis was never a sun seeker it didn't stop the police from checking the markets and the Internet for people selling rare books. But they never came up with anything concrete."
"The Mglahan people, did they believe in demons or ghosts?" Filia asked while taking notes down of everything Dawn said.
"Yes they had a great belief system in demons and evil spirits."
"Did they ever write about trapping a ghost or demon in a book?"
Dawn frowned. "Well I know the myths of monsters in books was quite popular in neighbouring nations at the time there wasn't too much translated about the Mglahan people practicing such beliefs and rituals. But then little of the texts have been translated so there is a possibility." She surmised.
"Did anyone have any strange reactions to any of the books of the collection? Feelings of uneasiness, disorientation or sensations of sudden drops in temperature?"
"There were a few members of our staff that got chills and felt uneasy around the red text. The book seemed to give off a strange vibe to some people. Being that Mister Zelgadis wasn't particularly superstitious he volunteered to work on translating the books despite some uneasiness by others."
"And you didn't find that alarming that some members of your staff were frightened by the book?"
Dawn shook her head. "Books do not harm people, people harm people ma'am. And those of our staff that were 'uneasy' around the red text are very superstitious people. We come to expect such behaviour from them that we don't pay much notice to it."
"This image I have here," Filia showed Dawn Lina's crude drawing on her cell phone, "can you tell me which book this symbol is from?"
"I'm sorry. I never really got a close enough look at the collection to really identify which symbol belongs to which. That is what makes the language so hard to read and understand, so many of the symbols look almost the same except for a very small minor difference."
"What about the red text? Would you say the symbol could belong to that book?"
Dawn shrugged. "It could be, but I can't say for sure."
"Is there anyone one else in the library that could tell us more about this symbol or the red text?"
"Just Mister Zelgadis. Ancient and dead languages were his forte. We don't have anyone else with his level of expertise."
"Well thank you for your time." Filia frowned.
"What was with the FBI agent routine Miss Filia? 'This information must be confidential' blah blah blah." Amelia poked Filia in the ribs once Dawn had left.
"Do you really want her to go around blabbing that Zelgadis is dead and his ghost is walking around?"
"But FBI?"
"It worked didn't it?" Filia glared at Amelia.
"I guess we'll have to wait and see on that one. We'd better go see Miss Lina."
...
"Amelia and Filia should be here soon and then we can get back to the GS headquarters." Lina told Zelgadis who didn't really seem to be listening to her.
Zelgadis just continued to look at the ground not paying any attention to Lina or anything else. He didn't even seem to be looking at anything either, like his gaze was blind and he was staring off into nothingness.
"Listen I said I was sorry. I didn't mean to flash around the picture so much. I had no idea it would have that effect on you now will please just drop it? Men! They just can't let anything go." Lina muttered crossing her arms in protest.
Zelgadis broke off his vacant stare to shoot Lina a smile. There was really no way to know what was going through his head or to really understand him but Lina didn't seem to have any problems having a conversation with him. In fact it didn't matter the Zelgadis couldn't talk; she seemed to be able to do that for him.
"Alright Lina we're here." Filia called out to Lina with Amelia following her.
"So what did you find out?"
"The book that you saw in that vision is part of a thirteen book collection from the Mglahan people on the Talini islands from about a thousand years ago." Filia read from her notes.
"A thousand years, they looked maybe 10 or 15 years old but not a thousand." Lina exclaimed.
"Probably has some self preservation enchantment to keep it from breaking down. I'm not exactly sure which book the symbol is from but one of the books is red and written with red ink. This book is special from the others because the rest of them are written with black ink and this book disappeared when Zelgadis went missing. And certain superstitious people in the library felt chills and uneasy around the book." Filia closed up her notepad.
"Is the book that grabbed Zelgadis the red book?"
Filia shrugged. "I don't know. It seems that Zelgadis is the only one in the library who really knew much about the books. There wasn't anyone else in the library that could really help me identify it. However I did draw pictures of the books I was able to see. Why don't you take a look at them and tell me if any of them are the one from the vision." Filia went to show Lina her sketchbook.
"Wait. Why don't you show me a little ways over there? Amelia why don't you keep Zelgadis company?" Lina ushered Filia a fairways away from where Zelgadis was sitting.
"Why do I have to show it to you over here?" Filia frowned in confusion.
"Zel was having a strange reaction to my drawing. It was bothering him until I put it away. I don't want to risk anything else happening to him. Even a picture of the symbol is enough to mess with his non physical chemistry. So show it to me."
"Okay." Filia pulled out the sketches and showed Lina. "Is the book any of those?"
Lina scanned the pictures thoroughly and frowned. "No. They look very similar but somehow they just don't look right. I wish I could draw better."
"So do I."
Lina glared at Filia. "I also sent the picture to Sylphiel. I'll call her and see if there is anything that she came up with." Lina dialled up Sylphiel's number.
"Hello?"
"Hi Sylphiel. Found anything yet?"
"Not much. Filia have any luck?"
"Yeah the book is from the Mglah book collection. Though she doesn't know which book it is."
"Okay I'll try looking it up with that information."
"Try and get pics of all the book covers if you can. That way I can see if I can figure out which book it is from the covers."
"Alright, I'll talk to you later then."
"Bye." Lina hung up her phone. "Well Sylphiel didn't come up with much. She's starting a new search with what you got."
"You know Lina I have a feel the book you saw in the vision was the red text."
"I don't know Filia. You said the book disappeared. Why would Zelgadis be having such a strange reaction to the book if it isn't there?"
"You said he had a reaction to your picture maybe the other books affect him. Or maybe the red text is leaving some sort of residual energy in the library that he's reacting to."
"Did you scan the room?"
"Yeah we did. Didn't come up with anything."
Lina frowned. "This is certainly a strange case. Let's get back to headquarters. Maybe by the time we get back Sylphiel will have come up with something."
"Oh yeah remind me when we get there I have to bug Sylphiel."
"About what?"
"That's for me to know and Sylphiel to be embarrassed with." Filia snickered.