HAPPY (early) VALENTINE'S DAY: Because I love you all so much, here is your next chapter. I almost forgot to put this up as I'm currently repainting my kitchen so I'm currently typing this with paint-covered hands. Have a great week and I hope to see you again soon with a new update!
Kyoko's nerves ate away at her relentlessly as she continued to periodically glance up at the laboratory door. Idly chewing at her bottom lip, she braced herself for the fateful sound of a knock at the door. A knock meant someone other than Ren was on the other side. Someone who, most likely, did not have good news for her. She cursed quietly and tried her best to focus on the book in front of her.
It was not long before the event she dreaded occurred. A sharp knock sounded at the door and she all but leapt from her seat to answer it. Regaining her decorum, she slowed her pace and walked, as calmly as possible, to the door. Letting the door swing with the momentum after her initial tug, she saw a man of slender frame, light-colored hair and wire-rimmed glasses standing before her. He wore the deep green robes of a Head Scribe and held a folded sheet of paper in his hand.
"Class 1 Weaver, Kyoko Mogami?"
She nodded, afraid her voice would betray her, and directed him to step inside the laboratory and shut the door behind them. The last thing she needed was for this to be broadcast down the hallway.
"Head Scribe Yukihito Yashiro, at your service," he proffered a hand to her that she confusedly shook. "The Grand Archweaver has requested that I offer my assistance with your assignment."
Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, she furrowed her brow and looked at him, "Please forgive me as I was under the impression that I was to be reassigned to another Archweaver to complete this. Is there a particular reason why I am being paired with a Scribe?"
He gave her a conspiratorial look before leaning towards her, "You didn't hear it from me, but Lory paid Ren a visit early this morning and was told in no uncertain terms that you were not to be reassigned and he all but guaranteed you two would be finished by tomorrow."
Shocked by his sudden, casual candidness, her eyebrows lifted, "Oh?"
"Yea, he said he planned to be back in this lab in the afternoon but until then, I'm to help get you anything you need as I have full access to all materials in every Archive across the country," he explained.
"Oh," she said again, not sure how exactly to process this new information.
"I work with Ren on stuff like this all the time," she noticed him eyeing the mannequin oddly as he spoke. "So don't hesitate to ask me for whatever you need."
"Thank you, I think," she ran a hand through her hair and her lips pushed out a sigh of relief. "I may need a moment to process all of this before I can ask for anything."
"No worries," he assured her and, suddenly remembering the paper in his hand, he held it out to her. "Oh, I was asked to deliver this to you."
Taking the paper from him, she saw her name scrawled on the outside in the same writing as the list she was given to take to the Archives two days prior. She carefully unfolded the page to read the contents within;
I cannot thank you enough for the medicine, and meals, you provided me yesterday during the onset of my illness. As a result, I believe I will make a full recovery by this afternoon and I hope to join you in the laboratory then. Grand Archweaver Takarada informed me of his intent to reassign you but I assured him you would be capable of continuing on your own until my return. I have asked for my colleague and friend, Yukihito, to be allowed to assist you with whatever research materials you may require. He is an excellent resource and I am confident you will work together well.
I regret that I was unable to spend time with you yesterday and hope the Grand Archweaver did not cause you too much distress with his intentions. I look forward to seeing you later today.
~Ren
A light blush dusted her cheeks as she refolded the note. She turned to find the man perched on the edge of Ren's desk, perusing the books on the nearby shelf. Not knowing what she did to be given access to a Head Scribe and express permission to work alone, she tried her best to organize her thoughts. Her hand found her amulet and she looked down to see the stone winking at her in a faint powder blue.
"So, how much do you know about the project?" she asked quietly.
"Very little, actually." turning to her, he shrugged and adjusted his glasses. "Which is usually the case, since these are often confidential matters. I only provide the materials. I don't ask about their intended use."
"I see," she placed a finger to her chin in thought. "So, do I just give you a list of what I need? How do I find you if I need additional pieces?"
He grinned excitedly, "That's exactly what I came here to show you!" He motioned for her to come closer to the bookcase where he was now standing and pointed to an area on one shelf that had a rectangle carved into it with a small draft symbol in the middle. "You see that? All you have to do is write a list, include that symbol on the sheet and place it here. It will be be sent directly to my office in the Main Archives. I will collect whatever you need and the volumes will show up on the shelf here. Ren set this up to make things easier for both of us when he needs things from the Archives."
As she stared intently at the shelf, a nagging thought moved from the back of her mind to the foreground. "Wait, why did we not use this when we started researching days ago?"
"Ah, that would be my fault," he looked askance and ran a hand through his hair. "Actually, I'm the reason Ren got sick in the first place. We met up a few nights back and I told him I might not be available until later in the week as I was recovering from a cold. Apparently, I was still contagious."
"So this is your punishment for getting him sick?" her eyes narrowed and she folded her arms.
"Self imposed, I assure you," he placated her with a raised hand before his lips drew up in a smirk. "Besides, I was quite curious to meet the cute Class 1 he was reported to be working with."
It was an internal struggle to ignore the 'cute' comment but she managed to prevail with a tight smile, "I appreciate you coming all the way here to explain everything and I will send you a list as soon as I go through my notes in the next hour or so." Her smile became wider and more glaring, "Will there be anything else?"
"Uh, no, that will be all," he wondered how she learned to replicate her research partner's deadly smile so perfectly. "I look forward to working with you, Weaver Mogami."
"And I, you. Thank you for your assistance and expertise," she held the smile as she walked him back to the door.
Shutting the door behind him, she leaned against it and pressed her forehead to the cool wood. Another sigh escaped her lips, followed by a chuckle. She soon found herself laughing uncontrollably, shoulders shaking rapidly while her head remained firmly against the door. This all seemed so absurd, she was still having a hard time believing any of it. This was far from what she anticipated doing this week. She was supposed to be spending time with her best friend as they took the current crop of Provisionals for their cross-training at the Healer campus. That's what Class 1 Weavers did; the grunt work that none of the higher levels wanted to do. Class 1 Weavers did not get assigned to work alongside the guild's rising star, and youngest-ever Archweaver, on a highly-classified project.
When her hysterics finally died down, she took a deep breath, turned around and went straight to the wall on which the draft copies were hung. She looked for each copy on which she noted a question needing further information to answer and carefully removed each one and placed them in a stack on her table. The thought entered her mind that, had Ren been there, he probably could name every book she needed. Shrugging to herself, she found comfort in the fact that he promised to be back later in the day. In the meantime, she would do the best she could to write a coherent information request that would allow her to receive the right materials.
Kyoko took great care to accurately copy the symbol she saw on the shelf onto her list before placing it on the carved rectangle she was shown earlier. She watched the page disappear with a soft whoosh of air. Now, all she had to do was wait. In mere minutes, books began to appear on the empty shelf before her with a muted pop. That Head Scribe clearly was quite knowledgeable if he was able to get his hands on each volume so quickly. While trying to decide which she wanted to start with, a small, paper-bound book appeared on the shelf. Noticing a note sticking out of it, she sidestepped to pluck it from between the pages. As expected of a Scribe, he had beautiful handwriting;
It will take me a bit longer to gather several more books for you as they are currently held in other Archives but I hope this is a decent start. This particular one might not suit your needs, but Ren always seems to request it when he works on a difficult project. Perhaps you will find something useful in it as well. Good luck!
~ H.S. Yashiro
The book in question was fairly nondescript compared to the large volumes beside it bound in elaborate covers of embossed leather and gilding. Kyoko could not discern whether the grey paper cover was the original color or became that way after years of use. The pages on the unbound corners of the book fanned outward and curled slightly. Turning it over to inspect the spine for a title, she saw only the author's name, Hizuri. She recognized it immediately but wondered why the book was so small as that name usually appeared on much larger and well-known texts.
Superior Grand Archweaver Kuu Hizuri was once the head of the entire Spellweaver guild and held the prestigious position of being on the Council of Ten; the country's ruling body comprised of the leaders of all ten guilds. As one of the greatest Enchantment Spellweavers in history, everyone knew about him and his accomplishments were all but beaten into the heads of Provisionals during their training. The official story stated he retired early to start a family in his wife's home country of Cretia. However, as rumors often surround prominent figures, the unofficial story was that he had grown tired of dealing with Guild politics and got out while he still had his sanity.
She thumbed open the front cover and finally found the title, The Enchanted March. This was an autobiographical text that covered the Hizuri's early life before he ascended the ranks of the Spellweavers. She had once seen it cited in her history books. But why would Ren ask for this book in particular? What potential answers could be found in an autobiography? It was something she could ponder later when he was there but, for now, she had work to do. Placing the small book back on the shelf, she turned to heave one of its larger counterparts from where it sat and slowly walked it to her table. It was going to be a long morning of reading and testing… and more reading.
The sun had gone past its midpoint in the sky and the shadows in the laboratory had grown longer. Kyoko was sat atop her stool with hear head down on the table, taking a moment to let go of the frustration that mounted in her with each failed attempt. She assumed she was over-thinking the problem and decided to take several minutes to calm down before starting again. With her eyes closed, she had just managed to even out her breathing when the door abruptly opened, sending her heart straight into her throat. Bolting upright, she looked towards the door with wide eyes.
"If I had known you were just going to use the laboratory for sleeping, I would have reconsidered my request to Grand Archweaver Takarada," Ren stifled a laugh at seeing her frantically pull off a paper that had stuck to her face.
An apology was ready on her lips when she remembered his past words and she swallowed it, "I just needed a moment to clear my head." She smiled warmly at the man across the room, "Welcome back."
"It is good to be back," he returned her smile and strode over to his desk and looked at it carefully before sitting down. "You really did booby-trap my desk, didn't you?"
"Oh! I meant to remove that earlier," she exclaimed and he watched an orange spark jump from his desk and bounce over to her before disappearing into her amulet. "It's completely harmless, I assure you. I designed it only to alert me if you removed items from it."
"Such little faith," he lamented, shaking his head.
"I'm not the one who came to work with a fever," she shrugged. "Which reminds me, how are you feeling?"
"Much better, thanks to you," his smile widened and she nearly squinted from its brilliance.
"It was nothing really," she met his gaze briefly before looking away. "But, you're welcome. I'm glad you have returned."
"Missed me already?" his smile became an impish grin.
"Don't make me retract my statement and get to work," she warned and pointed towards his desk. "We still have a lot to do."
Seeing her list lying there, Ren affirmed he would finish his cross-check before assisting her with her experiments on the mannequin. He pulled several draft copies from the wall and set to work. Still not quite ready to resume her experiments, Kyoko retrieved the small, grey book from its temporary home on the shelf and began to read. By the time she reached the third chapter, her mind had quieted considerably. Absentmindedly fidgeting with her amulet, for the umpteenth time that day, she closed the book and placed it on her table with a sigh. It had been three-and-half long days spent stuck in this laboratory trying to work out how to convincingly layer one camouflage draft over the another and they only had a little over a day remaining.
That would have been fine, if they were actually making progress but they were getting nowhere, fast. Everything she had tried so far worked to the extent that there was full coverage of previous layers, but each layer had to be built heavier than the previous, making them look thick and overdone. She sighed, letting her eyes drift towards the windows on the far wall of the room. As she noted the contrast between the light coming in through the window and the dark panels of wood on wall surrounding it, a thought occurred to her.
"That's it!" she exclaimed.
THANKS EVERYONE: The comments have been amazing, as always, and they help keep me motivated. See you in chapter 6 for Kyoko's epiphany. In the meantime, I'll be working on chapter 7 and waiting for the Valentine candy to go on sale.
AUTHOR OUT