-Chapter 3-
For Those Who Seek Them
They ran, her ducking under low hanging branches to avoid hitting her head. It did not escape Evelyn's notice that Curiosity's hand felt much more substantial all of a sudden.
"Where are we going?" she shouted, glancing over her shoulder to make sure her wolf was still behind them. He kept pace easily, which did put her somewhat at ease.
"Places!" The boy-shaped spirit called back effusively. She had to admit it was entertaining, though she didn't understand why her companion had wanted her to speak to it.
She began to feel a rush in her head, and noticed colors blurring and running together all around her. Forest greens and blues pooled into each other, and she blinked rapidly in an attempt to focus. Her ears began to pop, as though she were somewhere very high up. Oh Maker, what had she gotten herself into? She gathered her breath to scream, when her swimming vision suddenly cleared.
She stumbled forward, breathless and disoriented. They'd finally stopped running, and she snatched her hand back- right through the spirit's, which was no longer any kind of solid. A few choice words on what had just happened rose to her lips, but before she could say even one, her breath abandoned her. She turned slowly on the spot, taking in her surroundings.
They were standing in the base of a wide tower. The robin's egg walls rising up around her were dotted with small circular windows that began to look like stars the further up they went. Indeed, this tower stretched so very high that trying to determine where it ended made Evelyn dizzy. That was not what had her so awestruck, however. What truly left her standing there, mouth agape, were the bookshelves that spanned almost every inch of those stunning blue walls, housing a number of books she couldn't begin to fathom. Those, and the hundreds of elves and spirits of different colors, all walking and floating around the space.
She looked down again at the marble floors that gleamed up at them, and could clearly see the massive outline of her lupine friend reflected behind her. If the people or spirits here noticed the strangeness of the group, none of them made a move to interact. Eventually, Evie found her voice again.
"Where are we?" she asked, softly, not sure where to rest her eyes.
"Nowhere, anymore," Curiosity giggled, floating a few feet into the air and landing again, trailing blue sparks. "It's a memory, duh."
Then it vanished with a puff, in the way she was becoming accustomed to.
"Where did it go?" She asked, wrapping a hand securely into the fur of the wolf beside her. In reply, the beast cast his many eyes around the space, a clear gesture of around here somewhere.
Her eyes tracked to the edge of the tower's base, directly across from her. There was a great staircase rising up from the floor there, not made of stone, but pure light. It gleamed, reflecting the colors of the rainbow differently based on how she looked at it. She marveled, gaze following it upward, and saw that it corkscrewed up the entire tower, occasionally meeting platforms and small bridges made of the same shimmering substance. It seemed solid enough, given that the elves had no trouble walking across it.
"Is... is it safe?" She was hesitant. Curiosity burned wild inside her, setting her mind alight, but even that caused her some worry. She very much did not want to encounter a demon. He nodded, once, and that was all she needed. She tore across the room and began to run her fingers along the bindings of the books that lined the walls.
They were all titled in a language she couldn't understand, which dimmed her excitement, until she tried to open one. She felt a small crackle of magic against her palm as she pulled the thick volume from the shelf. It was singing in her hands, radiating its melody into her skin, though she was sure she wasn't actually hearing it. The book itself was bound in leather dyed a burnt orange, ornate birds and flowers were hand painted onto the cover in shining gold. There was no telling how old it was, and she handled it reverently.
Very carefully, she lifted the front cover of the tome and ruffled through it. The whisper of the pages against each other sounded like dozens of voices, speaking urgently and in unison. Evelyn knew without asking that she'd never seen a book like this. She couldn't even be sure there were more books like this, outside of this room. Her eyes darted about before landing back on the volume in her hands. Were all the rest of the books here like this one? Unable to withstand her curiosity, she opened it and tried to read. Instead of her own inner voice, she was shocked at what she saw and heard.
A solemn group of elves in an amphitheater of living wood, entire trees grown into seats and stairs for listeners to recline on. Two other elves and a spirit of learning are speaking in turn on ways to bend the properties of the material world when casting spells. At the end, the spirit, with the air of a senior lecturer, floats forward and booms in a surprisingly deep voice:
"The unchanging world is delicate: spells of power invite disaster and annihilation. The unchanging world is stubborn: the pull of the earth fiercely resists making fire run like water or stone rise like mist. The unchanging world rings with its own harmony. Listen with fearless hearts, and great works will unfold."
All of this played out in her mind's eye in a moment, leaving her staggered. It was comparable to moving from memory to memory, but so different. A window into a moment in time? All the while she saw the page open in front of her, still unable to read a single word written. She was fascinated, thrilled at the idea of how much she could learn in a library like this. A grin spread unchecked across her face, beaming pure childish glee.
Closing the book and sliding it back into place, she immediately grabbed for another one nearby. This one was unassuming, bound in soft grey leather; it had no distinguishing marks of any kind except for the title, foreign letters carved into its weathered spine. This tome sang a new song, and she yearned to know what visions waited inside it.
Before she could open it, however, a massive paw landed in her lap, folded over the book.
"Hey!" She cried out, indignant. She cringed inwardly, having forgotten to keep her voice low for a moment, and hoped she hadn't drawn attention. "Why'd you do that?"
not that one
His simple answer conveyed something dark, and she carefully replaced the worn volume where she had found it, understanding that whatever was inside would not be joyful. She slowly straightened from where she was crouched next to the shelf, and looked back around. As she did, she unintentionally caught the eye of an elf, who smiled warmly to her and beckoned.
She was dressed in simple green robes that complimented her fair complexion. Blue eyes danced behind round spectacles, held around her neck when they weren't in use by a fine golden chain. Her brown hair was cut short and uneven, exposing the long points of her ears. She sat placidly on a bench against the wall that had been behind Evelyn, spirits floating aimlessly back and forth between them.
Evelyn's guard was up, surrounded by the beings; aware that any could try to tempt her to release them to the waking world. She didn't know exactly what happened when someone was possessed, but she knew she didn't want to find out firsthand. This woman, however, was very clearly an elf. And she was looking at Evie with such tender affection that she had difficulty not going to her immediately. She glanced at her wolf, who nuzzled her hand with his wet nose, seeming wholly unconcerned.
Tentatively, she approached the woman, who had returned her eyes to her own lap. Evelyn realized she was writing something, and had several sheets of parchment scattered on the bench around her. The rhythmic scratch of the quill could be heard as she drew near. When she reached where the elf was sat, she shuffled some of the pages to the side and hoisted herself onto the seat beside her.
"Hello little one." When the woman spoke, her soft voice had a calming cadence to it. Up close, the skin around her eyes crinkled as the talked. "I'm so glad my friend thought to bring you here, and very pleased to meet you."
"Your friend?" Evelyn questioned. "You mean the Curiosity spirit?"
"Curiosity is a friend of mine, yes," She laughed gently. "I was actually referring to your companion, however."
She smiled at the dark, animalistic figure that loomed close to Evelyn. The wolf slowly blinked six eyes, bowing his giant head to the puny elven woman.
"You know him?" Evie cried, once again forgetting she was in a library, and ducking her head when her own voice echoed back to her. This earned another soft laugh from the woman, who seemed to enjoy the presence of a child. A fainter aura of amusement radiated from the creature himself, and Evie shot him a scowl for laughing at her.
"Oh yes, da'len. We've been friends a great many years now." She turned her attention back to Evelyn. "I suspect he brought you to Curiosity, knowing it would lead you here. Where has that little spirit gone, anyway?"
"Here I am!" A pop of smoke, and the boyish entity stood in front of them. Its hand was against its forehead in salute, face sporting a goofy grin. It snagged one of the elf's papers from the bench and began squinting at the markings, glowing blue tongue sticking out the side of its mouth in concentration.
The woman simply shook her head with an exasperated sigh, plucking the paper back out of the spirit's translucent fingers. Evie tried to glimpse what it said, but could only make out a few numbers; the rest of the paper was covered in lines and symbols she'd never seen before. Meanwhile Curiosity, deprived of its entertainment, rounded once more on her.
"Why are you here anyway? Humans never make it to that forest. I haven't even seen elves there in ages. Are you some kind of spirit too? Can't be, I'd know. You're all," The thing wrinkled its nose. "Solid."
"What's wrong with being solid?" Evie asked, not sure whether to be offended.
"Doesn't it get in the way?" The thing questioned back. Once again, she had no clue how to answer that.
"In the way? The way of what?"
"The way of you, duh." With that, it zipped off across the room, small blue body vanishing entirely through the bookcase opposite them; only to reappear a few moments later, bursting through the wall right above their heads.
Evie gasped, clutching her chest in surprise, then grimaced in annoyance when this caused a thin river of giggles to rise up from the spirit. It floated itself back to the ground in front of them, sparking blue as it laughed.
"Be easy on our new companion, please," Said the elf. She was smiling indulgently at the thing, like an overtaxed mother. "She is not used to the way of our world. The physical realm is very different, as I have told you many times."
Something in what she said sparked a thought in Evelyn, and she turned back to the woman.
"Who are you, exactly? Do you live in memories all the time?"
"A good question, da'len. In a manner of speaking, I do." The elf's gentle eyes alighted on her. There was so much behind those eyes, she thought, this woman knew more than Evie could ever hope to. As she stared, though, she saw her blue eyes gradually began to change. All of her began to change.
"I apologize for deceiving you, I thought this form might be more comforting to you than the one I possess naturally. You should call me Wisdom."
She was glowing, green light emanating from her eyes which had been so blue a moment before. Her skin became transparent, the stone of the bench visible right through her. The light spread to encompass her whole being, until Evie was clearly conversing with two spirits; one blue, one green.
"Finally!" Shouted Curiosity, who had stopped laughing and returned to peering over Wisdom's notes, scattering pages with abandon as it riffled through. "You look so weird in that other shape."
Evelyn couldn't contain her shock, slipping off the bench as she attempted to scramble away from the elf who was not an elf. She landed softly against her lupine protector, who pressed a reassurance into her mind that everything would be alright, these were friends. For the first time it occurred to her to wonder if the wolf may be some kind of a spirit as well. Her world tilted around her.
"Worry not, little one," The Wisdom spirit spoke kindly, reaching out to brush its fingers across her brow. The touch was whisper light, but comforting, and brought Evie thoughts of her own elven nursemaid; Ada was the one who mostly cared for her, as Mother was far too occupied with other matters.
"You're safe here."
And she would have believed it, if at that moment she hadn't been ripped from her dream with a sharp tug. She cried out, bolting upright in the blackness to grab the hand that had shaken her.