C

(Sorry this one's late. Thanks for your patience.)

The following week lacked the chaos of the first week. As Katy and Rachele sat and contemplated the previous circumstances, they began to find it difficult to keep from noticing the pattern their lives had taken up. Since coming to the academy, dull moments were sure to be around but they were always followed with something exciting whether they were directly involved or not.

"This just seems like history repeating itself… Lord Death throwing a party to distract everyone from what's going on outside the castle… This isn't looking to be in anyone's favor." Katy leaned over the table to whisper to Rachele in the middle of the library table.

Rachele kept her tone quiet, too. "And Christian said that Lord Death was in a fight that night they got in trouble. But who was he fighting?"

"I think it's safe to assume that Carvalho's goons have already made contact."

Kian glanced up from his black bound book. "I still don't understand why he doesn't want us to fight." He turned a page and kept his chin in one hand. "We'd either be fighting them here or in the East. And we've gotten great in the group training. We can corner Stein almost every time now. So, what's the difference,"

Rachele looked across the library when she heard the librarian hiss a sharp "Ssshh!" in Christian and William's direction, who were serving their detention time by sorting library books by throwing them at each other's heads. She looked back to her weapon. "I don't know. Lord Death is a really… secretive guy. I don't think we know the whole story."

"I can guarantee that we don't." Katy played with one of her tight curls. "But what could he possibly know that would make him change his mind about sending us out and letting us fight?"

"He said it was because he thinks he might have underestimated the forces against us, didn't he?" Rachele looked to her best friend.

Kian spoke again. "Then what was all that, 'I'm certain if there is anyone who could do this it's you guys' talk?"

"He very well could have decided that Carvalho's guys are too strong for us and it's better for him to handle them instead." Katy laid her head on the library table.

Rachele furrowed her brow and blinked. "Who exactly are Carvalho's guys?"

Katy shrugged and Kian made some noise that meant the same thing. There was a moment of silence between the three of them. They all looked back across the library to watch Christian climb to the top of the rolling bookcase ladder to place a book on one of the upper shelves only to have William sling the ladder clear to the other end of the shelves and tossing Christian off with a yelp and a thud. The librarian came storming from the back to yell about the ruckus. Katy blinked vacantly as she watched. "… You think maybe there's a book that could tell us?"

The ginger perked up and looked to her partner.

Kian marked his book and closed it. "Only one way to find out!" He stood up and pushed his chair up to the table. "I guess we will be in the 'K for Kishin' section."

The girls got up and followed him down one of the many aisles of bookshelves in the vast library. Katy wasn't certain of the amount of literature there was on individuals who had become Kishin. She anticipated a lot of books about the making of a Kishin and their abilities and make-up. However, they were fortunate enough to find a stack of books about real Kishin. Kishin in History, and Kishin and Their Powers, and several news articles from the paper racks about different Kishin who had terrorized Death City and all around the world were dug up in just a few minutes. With the three of them flipping through pages, scanning over the Index and skimming through paragraphs, much was found about various Kishin. Katy found herself becoming distracted with the task at hand once her eye had found Asura's name. She glanced at Rachele and Kian and found that it was likely they had become distracted as well. "Has anyone found anything?"

"I found Carvalho's name here and here," Rachele pointed to two of the four books she had laid out. "But neither of them say a whole lot. And none of them mention anything about people he would have recruited."

"I haven't found anything either." Katy went on reading about Asura's weapon.

"Hey." Kian tapped Rachele's shoulder. Both girls turned to him. He held up a book to show the gutter, which bore two tiny slivers of short, ragged paper edges.

"What the hell?" Rachele took the book from him and had a closer look. Katy leaned over her shoulder for a better view as well. Yep. Sure enough. "There have been pages ripped out!"

"That's not fishy at all," Katy said sarcastically as she scanned over the words just before the missing pages to see if she could use context clues to figure out what had been removed, but Kian beat her to it.

"It was about Carvalho. It doesn't say much before that." He lifted his chin a little and pushed his tongue against the stud in his bottom lip, making it protrude forward. "I'd bet my bottom dollar that there was information about his gang on those pages."

"Wait, guys." Katy sat down suddenly. The other two students looked at her. Even though they were already speaking in whispers, she lowered her voice further to where her words were almost indistinguishable. "What if they were taken out because it said something about William in there."

Rachele lowered her chin and pursed her lips, subtly glancing with the rest of them to where William was still sorting books on shelves with Christian. Kian openly stared though. There was another moment of silence before he spoke again. "Then perhaps we have a more convenient source to answer our question." He flipped the book in front of him closed and stood up from his chair again.

Katy bolted up next. "Wait. Let me do it." She turned with a book under her arm and casually approached. Rachele and Kian followed and watched for the eyes of the librarian. If they were discovered socializing with a student who was serving their detention time, they would surely be joining them in sorting all these endless books. She positioned herself directly on the other side of the shelf William was tending to and ran her fingers down the spines of a few books. Rachele and Kian did the same, spacing themselves apart appropriately so as to not look too suspicious. Katy subtly shifted a book aside to where she could see William. "Hey."

He ducked a little to see her face. "Hey," he said back quietly before settling another book in its rightful place.

"It's just you and Christian tonight? Where's Nikki and Odette?"

"They do their time on another day. I think Thursday. Why?"

"Just curious." She opened a book and pretended to scan over the words. "… We have a question."

He didn't look at them and only went to the next book. "Okay."

Kian spoke ahead of her. "Who are Carvalho's cronies?"

Now he stopped and positioned his face back in the hole to see them all again. "What?"

"Who are Carvalho's cronies," Kian hissed a little louder.

William knitted his brow. "Why do you want to know?"

"So we know what we're up against," said Rachele, "And it might give us an idea about who Lord Death was fighting that night of the dance." She slipped while trying to move into the viewport that Katy and Kian were huddled around and checked to make sure she had not gotten them noticed.

His green eyes flicked between them. "What do you plan to do? You gonna run off to the East?"

"No!" Katy hissed.

"Well, maybe." Kian added.

"Maybe?" Rachele looked at her weapon.

Katy sighed. "I didn't plan to. We just wanna know why Lord Death is keeping stuff from us. What is it that made him change his mind about sending us to the East, ya know?"

William inhaled deeply and found another book to place. "Look. I'm not one for keeping Ol' Grim's secrets for him. But I'd like to think at least this one time he has a good reason for it."

Kian blinked in confusion. "But you went out looking for them!" Rachele hushed him before he got too loud.

"Yeah, but maybe I shouldn't have." He shrugged and placed another book without looking at them.

"Come on, William," Rachele persuaded in a sweet sing-song tone, "Can't you compromise just a little? You could just be telling us about your experience in living with Kishin Carvalho and the people you came in contact with."

"There's witches, there's meisters and their weapons, weapons without mesiters, there's some knights, some ninjas, I think maybe there was a warlock or two but I never saw them." He shrugged nonchalantly and shifted some books aside that ended up inadvertently closing the viewport between them.

Katy shifted them back. "What were some of their names? Can you remember?"

"You're gonna get in trouble right now and you're gonna get me in worse trouble. Please go." He put up another book and still didn't meet their eyes.

Kian huffed and moved backwards. "Awesome. Thanks for the help." He saluted and left the aisle.

Rachele and Katy solemnly looked at each other then back to him. The ginger kept her voice gentle and quiet. "Sorry to bother you." She followed her weapon. Katy sighed quietly and moved out of his view and followed her friends. They reconvened at their original table to put away the books they had checked and carry the ones they hadn't to the check out desk. Rachele stood behind Kian as he had his books checked out and looked to her best friend. "I didn't imagine it being a touchy subject to him. You think maybe that's not something he really wants to think about? That it bothers him to remember?"

"That's possible." Katy exhaled and looked back over her shoulder at him. "And if that's the case I feel bad now for making him think about it."

Rachele checked out her books and said goodbye to Katy before going on her way. She watched her ginger and Kian leave the library as she stepped up to the desk to have her own books checked out. On her way out the door she heard her name from behind her, a whisper just loud enough for her to catch. She turned around to find William beckoning her with subtle head gestures. She moved closer and met him in the corner of the library next to a bookshelf. William stuck out a rather thin paperback book that was a faded tan color from the cover to the back. Katy took it slowly and whispered back to him. "What is this?"

William picked up another book from his stack to sort through. "Bring it back to me when you get what you need. And don't tell or show Kian."

Katy blinked, still holding the book carefully. "Why?"

He barely shook his head before disappearing back into another aisle.

She watched him go, still utterly confused. Katy looked down at the book. There wasn't even a title on this book. There was only a piece of masking tape that had a marker stroke on it with the letter 'C.' Carvalho? She glanced around to make sure she wasn't seen before she slipped it into her small backpack-purse and strode out of the library towards her dorm. Don't tell or show Kian? Maybe the reason for his incompliance wasn't that it was a touchy subject after all.