Chapter 93:
"U-um... if you don't mind me asking, why aren't you asking Freed for help?" Levy stammered, glancing up at Laxus through her long blue curls. Her brown eyes were large and hesitant. She walked daintily at his side like she was scared he would just reach out and snap her in half if she got too close, "N-not that I mind, of course. It's just... you two are so close..."
Honestly, Levy was not the person he had wanted to be spending the day with. If he would have thought he'd get just as much done, he would have gone with Freed. Recently, though, Freed had been acting far too volatile for Laxus to deal with. On their last mission, he'd even gone on a rant about how since Gajeel had done prison time, it really was bad for his image to be so closely associated with him. Typically, Laxus didn't mind his petty grievances about his boyfriend because usually that was all that they were, petty. But that comment had ended up being the one that tipped Laxus over the edge. Even Evergreen had nothing to say in his defense, and usually she was quick to say something to make them all stop fighting even if it was something as pointed as shut up.
And since then, well, Laxus hadn't exactly been thrilled about spending time with him. It sucked because Freed was his friend, but he also wasn't stupid enough to think it had nothing to do with his feelings towards him. As cold as it sounded, Laxus just didn't care for Freed romantically. He just hoped their friendship wouldn't end over it. But he honestly had no idea how to make amends at this point. So instead of doing the more noble thing and facing it head on, he'd asked Levy to walk with him out to the ancient library. He needed help; he wasn't sure he'd know what he was looking for if he was looking alone. He could get past his own piffling jealousy as long as he got the research done he needed to. Even Jet tagging along was an added bonus. It just gave him even more reason force himself to be nice.
"Freed has been a little weird since I came out," Laxus muttered.
"Oh..." was all she seemed to figure out how to reply.
"He was all over you before, I can't imagine how he is now," Jet sighed, lacing his fingers above his head as he stretched out his spine, "You're such a player, Laxus."
"Lucky for me, Gajeel isn't the jealous type," he replied half-heartedly.
"Really?" Jet snorted, incredulity seeping into his voice, "But he's so violent."
"He's calmed down a lot, Jet," Levy scolded him, putting her petite hands on her hips as she did so.
Laxus cleared his throat a little awkwardly, "I'm actually the jealous one, out of the two of us."
"O-oh... really?" Levy laughed nervously, "I never would have guessed..."
Lily circled back around overhead. Laxus instinctually held out his arms to catch the Exceed as his wings dropped. He and Lily had been spending more time together, it seemed, what with his distance from The Thunder God Tribe and Gajeel's frequent trips to Ember Island. He tried not to think about how he was seeing Zahir now, especially after Gajeel had told him all about how obsessed the fire demon had been over him in the prison. It made his stomach knot over itself and his blood start to stew.
"Not that'll I'll do anything about it. He's his own man, after all. I'm not gonna tell him who he can and can't be around," Laxus growled, "My jealousy is my issue, not his."
"That's a... a good way to look at it," the bluenette said with her eyes trained forward.
Laxus wasn't going to think anything of it, except that Lily elbowed him in the chest. When he shot the Exceed a quizzical look, he nodded pointedly to Levy. It suddenly dawned on him that she probably thought he was talking about her. The more vindictive part of him wanted her to just simmer on that for a while, but he also knew better. So instead, he awkwardly put his hand on her head and ruffled her hair.
"I was talking about someone he was in prison with."
Her entire face flushed with red, "O-oh! Of-of course! I mean... I wasn't going to ask..."
"He got another boyfriend in prison?" Jet asked, all enthusiastic as if Laxus had just dropped some hot gossip, and he supposed it might have seemed that way to the redhead.
"It wasn't like that. The guy was just obsessed with him I guess," Laxus snarled while rubbing Lily's ears, "...and it's not bad, he's not doing anything wrong. He's just talking the guy through stuff so he doesn't do anything crazy like try to kill himself. It still agitates me, though. Guess I should be a better person."
"It's not bad to have feelings, Laxus. It's how you act on them that makes you a bad person or not," Pantherlily stated in a way that was probably suposed to be shrewd but ended up being pretentious.
"Yeah, well..." Laxus felt like his ears were a little hot, "Anyway, jealousy is for kids."
"U-um... you're not insecure in your relationship... are you?" Levy asked tentatively, like she was afraid she might set him off. The fear wasn't far off base.
"No," he said, probably a little too snappily, "I know he loves me it's just lately our schedules haven't been matching up. It's a three-day round trip to Ember Island, and he has to go once a week. I feel like he's been keeping secrets... which is his business. I think I know why he's doing it... It's just stupid."
"But he means well?" Levy asked in that kind way that meant she was being absolutely genuine and when he looked at her in the face, she truly seemed honest. With a bit of roguish disdain, he realized this must have been what Gajeel had fallen for in the beginning. She was just so brazenly compassionate and sincere, and there was no hint of duplicity like in Mirajane in those times that her demon half got the better of her. The girl probably didn't have an antagonistic bone in her body. That must have been as absolutely bewitching as any drug when he'd first come from Phantom Lord. Laxus sort of hated that he understood. It just made him feel a little bit worse for being resentful of her.
"Yeah..." he conceded, "He means well... but that doesn't make me like it any more."
"Maybe you could try talking to him about it?" she offered, "I'm not sure how you'd bring it up without sounding like you're prying though..."
"Could just get him mad. I bet he'd spill his guts then," Jet said and immediately received an elbow for his efforts.
"We're trying to be helpful, Jet!"
"I am being helpful. The guy lets loose when he's mad."
"Don't you think arguing would be the opposite of what he wants?"
"Sometimes arguing is good. A relationship that doesn't have a spat here and there isn't healthy. People disagree, and if they care about each other, they'll say something. Letting it bottle up just makes things worse."
The two devolved into bickering, not outright fighting, but enough that it made Laxus feel like a third wheel. He wondered how Droy dealt with it all the time. Surely it got old after a while? But Droy was also a lot closer to the two of them than Laxus was, so he was sure that had something to do with it.
Laxus scratched the top of Lily's head and dropped his voice so they wouldn't hear him, "They're kinda annoying,"
"You asked for their help," he chuckled, shaking his head when Laxus hit a particular spot he liked, "Besides, I like Levy. She's nice."
"Oh yeah... so nice," Laxus replied spitefully.
The Bloodgood Athenaeum was just as extravagant and antediluvian in atmosphere as he remembered. He hadn't been able to see the ancient tree in full bloom when he was last here, and now the dark branches were ablaze with crimson leaves that stretched blithely towards the sunlight filtering through the massive dome windows. It was close to sunset now, and so the lamps were all lit and brightening the space with warm orange hues to the point that it felt like walking into a warm memory. Laxus sort of wondered when the library closed, but given the way Levy and Jet seemed unperturbed made him think it was either going to be a while yet or else they were on good enough terms with the people in charge to not get kicked out.
Intermingled in the classical antiquity, Laxus could catch the scent of burned wood and ash. From where he stood at the entrance, looking down into the vast array of bookcases, he could see a black scar running up the back wall. Levy had said the fire hadn't done much damage, so maybe it was all superficial, but it certainly looked worse than she made it out to be. One of the librarians shelving books nearby glanced up and called to them, dusting off his apron as he approached with a warm smile on his face.
"Ah, Miss Levy! We weren't expecting you back for a couple of days!"
"Sorry for the short notice, Ramou. A friend of ours wanted to do some research, and we didn't think you'd mind a little more help," her smile practically lit up the place and Laxus wanted to roll his eyes at how the young man seemed to melt in its wake.
"Of course, of course! How nice of you!" he glanced over at Laxus, and he was sort of shocked by the strange honey color of his eyes. He was all smiles and hasty to please, although he never quite parted his lips when he spoke, "Is this your friend?"
"Laxus," he shook his hand and then motioned to Pantherlily, "and this is Lily."
He blinked a couple of times at Lily, obviously wanting to say something about him bringing a cat into the library, until Pantherlily reached out and also shook his hand. Laxus could have laughed at how the guy stammered through that one.
"So, what sort of research are we doing?" he asked, brushing at a bit of brown hair that had escaped his ponytail.
"Lacrimas," Laxus stated flatly, earning confused glances from both Jet and Levy.
Ramou hesitated, taking a moment to process that before ushering him to a few bookshelves. Laxus didn't miss the contemplative way Levy regarded him as they walked. He actively tried to ignore it. Jet kept to himself, though, muttering about how he didn't like being in the place after dark because it got spooky. The old tree would creak and groan at night, apparently, and Ramou laughed about how the spirit of the bloodgood maple would talk to the pages of the books after the sun fully set.
"He's our master librarian," Ramou spoke with the sort of confidence of a man bragging about his feats in some story he'd made up on the fly, "he's the reason this place has stayed standing for so long."
"Like your own guardian tree?" Levy smiled, excited at the thought.
"Not a very good guardian if it let the building catch fire," Laxus mused as he ran his fingers over bindings. He actually hadn't really meant to say it out loud, and he certainly didn't expect the reply he got from Ramou.
"Well, you can't really expect a tree to stop arsonists, can you?" he said, surprisingly lightheartedly.
"It was arson?" Laxus asked and the librarian nodded.
"Oh, most definitely. It was done when they knew we'd all be asleep. Thank the Goddess of Order that Dimisia is a light sleeper or who knows what would have happened."
"That's awful..."
"Oh, well, yes, absolutely," but he was smiling, and the more Laxus saw that smile, the more he was aware of something strangely insidious about it.
"You don't seem very upset."
He chuckled, "Well, to quote something I've read recently: the human soul is virtually indestructible, and its ability to rise from the ashes remains as long as the body draws breath. And here, my body has breath. So, we shall rise even from ashes."
"That sounds beautiful. What is that from?" Levy asked.
"For Your Own Good by Alice Miller," his lips parted into a Cheshire-cat grin, revealing the sort of teeth that belonged more in a lion's mouth than a man's, "A marvelous read on the consequences of violence in parenting and what it breeds. Miss Levy, I do recommend it if you want a decent take on-"
"Would you mind showing us what we can help on? It's already so late and we don't want to be here past midnight," Jet interrupted, sparking a strange sort of look from Ramou.
His wide smile closed immediately, although his light caramel eyes still crinkled at the corners as if Jet had just told a hilarious joke. He motioned them towards the back of the library, where Laxus was guessing the burned spot was, and Levy gave him a short goodbye before following after them.
"So much for having help," Laxus muttered and Pantherlily cuffed at him playfully.
He could hear Ramou prattling on about how he was going to make sure all of the librarians would be aware of them staying so late in the avoidance of more run-ins like last time. Laxus sort of raised his eyebrows at Pantherlily who shrugged. Neither Jet nor Levy had mentioned anything strange about the place, though Levy had gone on and on and on about the types of books she'd been refurbishing from the fire. All old texts, things she'd never read but a few titles she'd recognized as in-depth anthologies of the history of Fiore and its various cultural shifts. Banned books, hand-written first copies, some of them from denounced sources; they were sort of priceless collector's items. Laxus had only listened because it made the trip go faster, not because he had any real interest. Jet had helped, though, asking her questions and keeping her engaged so he didn't have to. Or at the very least, he distracted her from the way Laxus was barely paying attention.
Laxus made his way down the bookcases and Lily hopped up onto his shoulders, settling in to help him as he scoured the shelves. He was more than a little surprised at the selection, although to say it was exactly what he was looking for wasn't at all accurate. Laxus wasn't a novice when it came to lacrimas and how they worked so much of what he ended up reading was what he already knew. Laxus knew how to charge lacrima, he'd done it himself en masse when he'd created the Thunder Palace. He knew the mechanics of how they worked and he knew what they could be used for. What there was a miserably small amount of in all these books were accounts of people like him. Of course, he knew of Sting and Rogue and even Cobra, but none of them seemed to be having the problems he was... unless maybe his lacrima was just defective.
He let out a sigh, rubbing at his temple although he didn't actually have a headache. Laxus's stomach twisted.
Maybe it was it something he'd done? Maybe he caused this? He supposed he had been triggering the pain in his eye a lot the past couple of months. And that was really his fault, when he thought about it. He knew getting himself worked up and carried away triggered something in the lacrima and it hurt. He wasn't an idiot. If he got too anxious or too upset, it never failed to remind him it was still there, and so it was one of the reasons why it was so important to keep himself in check. He'd known this since he was a kid. He was so nervous all the time when he was young, whenever he'd get even the slightest bit wound up his eye would start to throb and suddenly, he was having a panic attack remembering the day Ivan had put it in. School had actually been sort of good for him in that regard. It gave him structure, something stable, and it kept his mind busy.
Laxus shelved the book he was reading and grabbed another, at this point all but losing hope he'd find anything useful. It just didn't really make sense to him. Porlyusica was so convinced it was the lacrima draining him of his magical energy but, well, it wasn't like a lacrima was a living thing that could just decide it was hungry and then start stealing magic from any mage that touched it. That just wasn't how it worked, unless for some reason it was just different for the sake of being a Dragon Lacrima but damn him if he could figure that out. There wasn't exactly an abundance of material on Dragon Lacrimas for him to really dig into... or any for that matter. He couldn't even find an account of how they were made, just that they were rare and incredibly expensive. How in the hell had Ivan even found one?
"Didn't you say Gajeel convinced you to eat lightning?" Lily asked after a considerable silence had passed, "Could that be it? You need to eat?"
"Never had to do it before," Laxus pointed out and Lily sort of mulled that over as he continued to read.
"Porlyusica said your eyes were better during her visit. What did that mean?"
Laxus sighed, "What she said. They got better."
"She said they were a different shape? That they'd changed a lot?" Lily pressed.
"Oh, well... since what happened on that mission Gajeel and I took together, over a year ago now, my senses got a lot sharper. Gajeel says they're my dragon senses. I see in the dark better and can pick things out from farther away... my right one is still worse than my left, though."
"Really? How did that happen?"
"It's a long story, Lil. Maybe some other time."
Pantherlily didn't ask further, and honestly, that was one of the things Laxus liked about him. He wasn't pushy and he wasn't all that judgmental. For the most part, he just accepted what Laxus said at face value and didn't dig when it was clear Laxus didn't want any digging done. Some might think it would be easy to lie to someone like that, but for Laxus, it made him more inclined to be honest.
"Would it work?" Pantherlily asked.
"Hm?"
"Eating lightning. Would it work?"
Laxus took in a vexed breath and pulled his eyes back up to just sort of stare at the spines before him. He supposed it could work, and even told Lily so, but that wasn't exactly the point. He could take potions all day to restore his magical energy if that was the only problem. The truth of the matter was, he was less worried about replenishing his magical energy as he was with losing it in the first place. It was scary, knowing what you used to have abundant you now only had a limited supply of. If Laxus couldn't regenerate his magic by himself anymore, it didn't make him much good in a fight. He'd just pass out every time he expelled too much energy, and then what would he do? What would happen if there was no one around to help him back up after he was down? He didn't want to live the rest of his life like that.
He needed to know what was causing this strange ailment. It wasn't enough that he was losing magic at random times, but it was also that it seemed to hit him in the morning. After a good night's rest, or even a bad one at that, he should have regained some of his magical energy back. It definitely shouldn't be that he was waking up so weak from magic deficiency that he couldn't even stand, especially not if he hadn't done anything particularly taxing the day prior.
And the anemia, well, he'd been a sick child growing up so he really shouldn't have been surprised that it could flare up again. He'd changed his diet, which seemed to have helped. At least he'd cut down on the nosebleeds and random bruising. He still looked terribly pale, though, and his bad spells would leave him down for most of the day. It was really starting to get to him. He seemed to have this buzz in the back of his head now, a growing sense of dread wondering when he'd be hit with his next attack.
At least for now he'd been able to keep it from Gajeel. Maybe it was the nearness of his body next to him when they slept together, but he wouldn't have nightmares when Gajeel was home. He woke up feeling better, refreshed, like maybe none of it ever happened. They'd spend their days together, their nights, and then when the night before Gajeel had to be at Ember Island would roll around and Gajeel would pack his bag, Laxus would feel his anxiety start to build in his stomach. Part of him wondered if maybe that's what all of this was, nerves. He knew from when he was younger that anxiety can cause a lot of things similar to sickness. The nausea, the dizziness, the fatigue and weakness, those could all be attributed to stress but it wasn't like he felt especially stressed out. And even besides, Porlyusica was a pharmacist, and a talented one at that. If she thought something was wrong that wasn't all in his head, she was probably right.
Except, Laxus still couldn't convince himself this was all his lacrima's doing.
"It's getting late," Lily grunted on his shoulder, closing his own book that he'd been reading.
"Yeah, I guess it is," Laxus muttered, pulling his eyes up and marveling at how dark it had gotten. Under the lamplight, with his eyes hyperfocused on black printed words and thoughts twisted, he'd hardly noticed the light fading. Blinking into the dimness, he sort of wondered why no one had approached them yet. But the last time they were here was sort of like this too... empty and quiet.
Laxus didn't typically get creeped out by being in the dark, not anymore. But there was something about the way the night had faded in around them that made it feel like it was waiting. His hair rushed to stand on end as he glanced around them, taking in the stark vacuity of the archive. Training his ears to listen, he didn't hear anyone moving or working. It was a little unnerving because he thought he should be able to pick up something. Levy and Jet should still be here somewhere, shouldn't they? And hadn't Jet said something about not wanting to be caught in this place past midnight?
"Suppose we should hunt the lovebirds down, eh?" Laxus glanced over to Lily who nodded his head firmly.
"Yes, definitely."
Laxus wasn't quite sure anymore where Jet and Levy had gone off to when they'd followed Ramou. He kicked himself for not asking where they were going. Turning in a circle to try and get his bearings only served to make him even more lost. The place was far too labyrinthine for it to not have been intentional. His only solace was in the shadow-shrouded bloodgood giant in the middle of the library. At least from there he knew he'd be able to figure out where he was, and if nothing else, how to get back to the entrance. Since the entrance was elevated, he'd be able to see most of the library. Hopefully then, at least, he'd finally be able to spot somebody.
Laxus took in a deep breath to try and straighten out his thoughts, and then struck out in the direction of the tree. The hungry stillness seemed to encroached on his footsteps, and Laxus was confident that just as he couldn't hear anyone else in the place, they probably couldn't hear him. The soft spines lining the tall bookshelves probably took the blame for that, although it was no less unsettling. Lily even refused to fly off to look ahead, mumbling something about how he didn't really need to and didn't want to accidentally lose Laxus. The Exceed had only the slightest of tremors in his paws as he spoke, and Laxus chuckled as he scratched the top of his head.
After what was only a few moments of wandering that somehow felt like an hour, Laxus saw the balcony stretching up over the shelves. The second story; he remembered trying to find a way to get up there the last time he was here and never being able to find a staircase. He still didn't see any staircases, although he wasn't exactly looking. He ran his eyes over the darkened railing, all of it intricately carved wood no doubt imported from somewhere. A place like this sort of oozed history. He was sure if he asked one of the librarians, they could spin him some sort of convoluted story about how it was made and installed. It was probably a generous donation from someone who cared way too much about preserving old carving techniques from a long dead culture but didn't care quite enough to actually save the people behind the art.
As he stared, he caught a sort of glint in between the balusters and stopped walking, earning him an anxious glance from Pantherlily from where he was still perched on his shoulder. Two circles winked in and out of existence. They didn't move as far as he could tell, and it was too dark to see what they could be attached to. They sort of just floated there in the gloom past where the weak light of the lamps below could reach, every once in a while vanishing and reappearing though Laxus didn't move.
"What's wrong?" Lily asked, trepidation tinting his voice just enough to make Laxus smirk.
"Nothing... just saw something up there," he nodded in the direction to the glint of light, "Probably a lamp up there reflecting off something."
"Right," Lily agreed enthusiastically, "Probably."
Laxus chuckled, "You're not scared of a library, are you, Lily?"
"No," he scoffed, but gripped onto Laxus's shoulder no less tightly.
It took another few minutes of wandering around in probably one of the most convoluted routes through the bookshelves before the massive tree loomed overhead. The great bloodgood groaned and swayed as if some stiff wind was carding through the branches, but of course there was nothing but stillness in the library. They had heard it as they approached, the noise like a massive ship struggling against the intimidating pressure of storm-driven waves and guiding them to a place familiar. The roots were almost up to his waist and curling into the black trunk like a throng of snakes fighting to coil into a basket. He ran his hand down one of them and wondered if he tried to tap into its natural electricity what would happen. Do trees have memories? He immediately rolled his eyes at the idea.
There was a muted noise up above them, like something heavy dropping down onto a branch. The tree creaked and the limbs shivered. Lily sucked in an unnerved breath at the sudden hush that descended over the place, like the entire library and even the tree itself was all holding a collective breath. Even Laxus had to admit that it was odd, and the fact that the air felt suffocating and stale in the loss of that idle noise made it all the worse. He decided then that he had no desire to be in the library any longer, and cast his eyes to the darkened walls around them, spotted the entrance, and turned to head towards it. It was as he turned his back to the ancient guardian, that Laxus felt the fine hair on the back of his neck stand on end. His skin prickled, making a wave of anxiety swell up into his chest. He waited expectantly for a noise and the darkness responded with another heavy, muted drop.
"Can't we just leave?" Lily asked, shivering now.
Laxus glanced over his shoulder at the bloodgood and ran his eyes across its shadowed branches. There, glinting in the black swathes of the tree, were two pinpricks of light winking in and out of existence. As Laxus stared, he watched them sway lazily from one side and then to the other, bobbing gently back and forth like they might be rocking on calm sea waves. Laxus narrowed his eyes, but from this distance he couldn't see what they were. The glint of something except that if it were an object, it wouldn't move. So, what in the hell could it be if it could move and freeze with no discernable rhyme or reason? And it was with a dim shock that shivered swiftly down his spine that he realized whatever it was up in the tree, it was alive. And then, just as swiftly, he realized what the two floating dots were.
"Who's there?" Laxus yelled, making Pantherlily jump and clutch at him with his claws, "Show yourself."
The lights vanished, and with it they heard a rush of air palpable enough that it made their eardrums shudder. A shadow dropped onto one of the low branches and a pale face peered out at them, eyes catching the lamplight and flashing it back to them. It was a slim face, with round sides that instead of looking friendly seemed innately sinister. Brown splotches started at its forehead and jawline, and it leered with wide, honey-colored eyes at them, lips twitching and nose wrinkling like a cat as it eyes a downed starling. A woman, Laxus immediately thought, although he had no idea what she was doing in the tree or why the rest of her seemed to vanish into its bark.
"I wonder..." she spoke from her throat and the voice spilled like fresh, black ink down from her mouth. It could have been blood. Laxus could see sharp teeth not at all dissimilar from Ramou's as her lips drew back into a near grimace, "...does it know the danger it is in? As you stand with your hand on the door... someone knock, knock, knocks and you answer. Can you truly know the danger you are in?"
Laxus gritted his teeth, "Who are you?"
"Me?" her head tilted to the side, and continued to tilt until it was upside down. Long brown locks slipped free to brush down to the branches below where she perched and two large ears flicked forward. They were round and gold-furred, tipped in black, like a lion's. Laxus realized that what framed her face and surrounded the tufts of hair on the inside of her ears were feathers. Her eyes flashed at them in the light, brimming with pity or maybe confusion, "I... I am the guardian of histories. I am that which keeps safe ink and paper. I am... not what you are seeking, no. I am... A library can give you a thousand answers, a thousand books, words, history, definition, knowledge. I am not answers nor am I knowledge. I am not the thousand but I have definition. I... I am not what you are seeking... but I know where it waits."
"Laxus..." Patherlily whispered, "I don't like this..."
"We're trying to find our friends, they're helping to refurbish the library," Laxus called but she didn't answer, only stared with her head twisted upside down, not blinking, "Are you a librarian here, for the Bloodgood Athenaeum? You work here?"
She was silent and Lily started shaking, "Please, Laxus, we should just leave."
"We can't leave without Jet and Levy," Laxus muttered, "Besides, we're fine. She doesn't mean us any harm."
"Yet," he cautioned.
Laxus turned his eyes back to her and felt his pulse jump. She had moved but he had neither heard nor seen the movement. Her head was twisted almost completely back up again, eyes still large and unblinking, and her neck was craned towards them so that he could see rows of brown feathers disappearing into the darkness. A hand that was more a large paw had reached forward and dug yellowed claws into the bark of the tree. Her breathing was shallow and her lips twitched back again, baring her teeth and hiding them, full of excitement and agitation. Something in Laxus wanted to recoil, to steal back away from her line of sight, but something else that trembled up his spine told him that would be a grave mistake. He stood his ground, trying to keep himself from seeming ill-at-ease even as a chill threaded down his back.
"You said you could help us?" Laxus asked and she stared, unmoving, but a look that crossed her face made him think he'd said something she didn't quite understand, "You... you said you could help... me?"
Her ears twitched and her lips drew back in a snarl,
"On the night
At the very early morn
The moon had already risen
Just as a broken gaseous no more sleeps
Somehow, somewhere, a beast trapped, released
No longer is it trapped to the confines of its prison
Eyes that survey
Salivating, wanting,
A prompt to its hunger
Its nostril's pleasure: my scents
Under a crack of dim, creaming crescent
The uncensored scene of my slumber
The conditions, possibilities, a setting made right for the empty
A glimmer of hope or just the fangs bared for the bark or biting
Once started, the urge, its selfishness to one else, it'll never lend
The craving has begun; the questionable realism of this game of pretend
A shadowy figure, upon a pair of feet; yours, no, mine, it lurks in the dark..."
She shivered and then stepped forward, more of herself twisting from the tree's shadow as she dug her claws into the bark. Laxus froze his feet and refused to move as the sloping ember shoulders of a great cat revealed themselves along with large feathered wings. Her claws clicked and dragged sharp sounds into the air as she moved with precision towards them. Pantherlily shook.
"She's a sphynx, Laxus. A sphynx."
"Shut up. Shut up, she's talking..."
"Countless moments to lose the count of, time is held still
Longer and longer, in continuous moments that shows no signs of breaking
Once I had the warming presence of the body of mine besides me, only to be replaced
"A story's not to be finished without the satisfaction it gives," is all I find
All we have seen, the sweet smell of lovely dreams still dancing feverously like visions of my mind
Darkness lies beside me, wanting you, cannot be unseen: the features being without a face
What's gotten is what's to be deserved: deliberations of the disease that festers the fabric of my thoughts, I pay no mind
At this point, my reality sinks in, run-on sentences roles across the virtual plane called your screen.
Unable to break away from the unrecognizable creature that lies before me, I lose contact with the senses, my nerves have no feeling
The beauty of it all is the art, the science, I love the way how it consumes me, growing over me, light glinting off its fangs still bared
I remember now, I know it, we've talked about it before, it calls itself my sleep paralysis demon, still I feel the need to be scared
My lovely dreams, he feeds off of, the hunger within, in him, is never satisfied, no matter how many times he tried, he didn't stop, just enough to make me void, light blinds me, my soul is fleeing
On the morn,
At the surpassed night
My heartbeat pends
Eternally I sleep, at peace
Those who know me weep
For my plotless reality never ends."
Laxus's breathing hitched up and she lunged forward, stopping short on the twisting root before him. He flinched just the slightest bit, honestly, it was more of a full-bodied twitch, and her head tilted to the side at him. He felt sort of silly for thinking she was just a woman before, because from this close he could see the black rings around her eyes that sloped towards her nose. Fine gold hairs shimmered up her cheeks and she kneaded at the tree with her long, hooked claws. Her paws alone were probably the size of his face and it took everything in him not to activate his magic when she flapped open her wings as if she were shaking cobwebs loose.
"Riddles... they speak in riddles..." Lily breathed at him harshly.
Laxus wanted to snap back at him that he knew, but his chest was tight with the need to be still and silent, to never take his eyes off of her. She was staring at him again and he realized that she was waiting. For an answer? But had she even asked a question? He swallowed and tried to remember everything she'd said as she'd stalked down the tree.
"I wonder..." she spoke silkily, baring her teeth, "Do you know the danger you are in? You sit there at the table bleeding yourself thin. Do you know? Do you know? When you hear the knock, knock, knocks... it can't come in unless you open the door, unless you let it touch you..."
She was watching him expectantly and Laxus took a shaking breath, "You... are you talking about me? I'm the one in danger?"
She blinked at him slowly. He could hear the claws on her back feet tearing at the bark as she tucked them up under her haunches, ready to pounce at a moment's notice.
"How am I in danger?" he asked slowly and she winced.
Her teeth clicked together.
"I hunger all the time. Deep beneath the red, red is the color of my hunger. Like the petals of the rose that rots on your front porch and the blood that flows endlessly from the altar where I take my meal. I deny myself pleasure, the breath from another and the fresh drop of water but still I hunger. I do not pray for its absence because it does not satisfy me anymore. I yearn for the sunbeam spiral that shivers in your chest and lights you, the words that speak inside that no longer speak to me. It makes me hunger... Silent and starving I will look for you where you are vulnerable. You are blemishless. I have touched you and you drip like the ripe and bulging fruit that hangs low on the tree and I will drain you until there is nothing left. It grows hot and consumes all logic. There are times when I could eat the world alive... and they grow frequent and fervent. I smell the blood at the altar and I crave more..."
Laxus opened his mouth to speak and she clamped hers shut. Her ears twisted and he could tell she was listening for him to make a sound but he wasn't sure what sort of sound to make. It was strange, the range of emotions he felt so close to her. He knew she was dangerous and everything about her screamed that she was ready to jump down on him and tear out his throat, but he wanted to trust her. He didn't know a lot about sphynxes, but he knew they were dangerous when you didn't answer their riddles the right way. Maybe that was why she was perched before him now, angry and ready to attack. Was he asking the wrong questions? But what was he supposed to ask? She had said she could show him answers... did she know he was looking for what was wrong with him?
He cleared his throat, "You know what's wrong with me?"
Her head twisted again, this time almost completely around, "Have you ever heard of the Great White Plague? It was once the most feared disease in the world. We didn't treat it. We didn't know medicine. We prayed to gods and spirits and begged for it to just go away. But it didn't. It lived and it thrived and it killed for a very long time. It was named The Consumption because it ate you alive until you were nothing left but a sack of bones walking. A paper wraith laid low by an invisible blade. It waits. It waits. And it eats."
She hunched down on her front paws, gripping at the bark and breaking it to pieces in places but never deep enough to scar the tree. She waited, some of the tension uncoiling in her. She looked confused again and her head slowly twisted back upright.
"What is she talking about?" Lily whispered. He tensed when her ears flicked in his direction but she never stopped staring straight into Laxus.
"I don't... I don't know."
"You're not allowed to not know," he hissed.
"I'm trying to think, Lil," Laxus bit back.
"Is she talking about you being anemic?"
"I... don't think so? Consumption is a lung disease, I think. I don't think that's what she means. I think she means that something is draining me."
"We knew that already."
"Right, but... she keeps saying consumption and hunger. And an alter..." Laxus paused, wanting desperately to just close his eyes and concentrate but scared to do so. He was sure as soon as he looked away she'd move again, and with her so close now he didn't want to know what that would mean. But it was all familiar, "The poem, it mentioned a sleep demon."
"What poem?" Lily muttered wretchedly, "You mean her raving when she was coming down the tree?"
"I've been having sleep paralysis. I keep seeing someone standing over my bed before it turns into a dream about Ivan..."
"So what? You have a sleep paralysis demon?" he asked sarcastically.
"He was born in the absence of light a formless featureless face
A vacant void this hollowed out soul nothing but empty space
The shadow man of amorphous shape, the embodiment of night
My loves killer stood waiting as I came in to fight..."
Laxus's heart jumped into his throat. He hadn't expected her to speak. And something about the way she strung those last words resonated with him. A shadow man of amorphous shape? What had he seen when he'd passed out the night of the party? The thing that loomed over him at his first waking? The nightmare at the saltbox house?
His love's killer? His love's killer?
"Do you know the danger you are in?" she breathed, and he felt his flesh skitter all the way from his calves up to his crown, "Do you know? Do you know? As you sit in your miserable self-pity and you groan over the agonizing night. You hear the knock, knock, knock. Do you know the danger you are in? It comes as it came before but it can't enter unless you open the door..."
His palms were starting to sweat and something shaky edged into his voice, "Is someone going to kill Gajeel?"
She stared at him rigidly, flashing her teeth.
"How...? Who? Who is going to...?"
She shivered and closed her eyes. A look crossed her face like she was concentrating very hard, like she was trying to remember something. He could see her eyelids twitching as her pupils rushed back and forth.
"That's a little more complicated." Her voice twisted, became deeper, sharper. It rang familiar but Laxus couldn't quite place it. "Well, the short answer is I don't know. There are rumors, but no one knows for sure. What we know is that It is very, very old."
"What...?" Laxus couldn't help it, he stepped back from her. Her eyes flew open, her teeth clicked. He felt... sort of heavy, like the space had filled with water and he'd sunk to the bottom of it, the pressure forcing his bones closer together. He felt like a child playing with hexes just to see if they worked, and a feeling of dread tugged at his conscious like the fear of getting caught. The fear of getting caught. Dread.
Her voice warped again, the accent he recognized immediately. It was Davian's, and it nagged at him that he'd heard these words before but he didn't remember the conversation...
"No one has ever seen It, no one has ever heard Its real voice… or at least if they did they didn't survive the experience. Is that another question? I'm just letting you know your tally… I've done, well, I spent some time… When I was studying for the path Father had chosen for me, I had spent a lot of time in our Archives. There's not much but what there is of official record says Father was inducted into the council and was given the title of-"
"Father? Is Father going to kill Gajeel?"
"Father?" she said slowly, her voice snapping back to what it had been, and then cringed away like maybe he'd just hit her. Her lips drew back and she bared her teeth, letting out an angry hiss as she backed up. She flapped her wings and he had to brace himself not to be knocked over by the sudden burst of air. Lily grunted as he clung to Laxus's shoulder, only barely managing not to be tossed away, "Father. Father. Father. I don't know. I don't know a-a Father. Father isn't. It is. You can't see it. It isn't real... not like I am real, you. It's more a feeling, an everywhere. Or a nowhere. It sits between your reality and the falsehood of an overactive imagination. Somewhere, somewhere. There is great violence and it bleeds into it, this fabrication. Its lack of definition, the legion of years spun from unsung victims. You've seen them and they exist and it draws near..."
"You said It was going to kill Gajeel? How do I stop It?" Laxus demanded, stepping towards her like he could wrangled the answer out of her somehow. Panic was starting to pervade his thoughts and she hissed at him again, flattening back her ears and unsheathing her claws, "Where do I find It? How?"
She leaped and he ducked, barely missing her outstretched talons. A flap of her wings and was clutching the top of a bookshelf above them, her eyes flashing menacingly in the dark. A guttural growl had her shaking, and almost in response, the tree started to groan and sway. She seemed excited, pacing with her tail flashing back and forth like she was just looking for an excuse not to jump.
"A person with no knowledge of their origin is a tree without roots. You will fester and faulter and fall on the rock. Follow the roots, the tree, he knows."
"The tree?"
"Laxus, we shouldn't follow her. Sphynxes are known for setting traps," Lily insisted, pawing at his shirt.
"She said It's going to kill Gajeel!" Laxus's stomach twisted and he felt bile rise up in his gut.
"It was a poem! It could mean anything!" he argued.
"Gajeel is hiding things from me, Lily. What if she's right? What if I could figure something out?" he growled at the Exceed. Pantherlily shook his head.
"What direction do I need to go?" Laxus glared up at her. Her eyes flashed over to one of the roots and back to him. He took a sharp breath, "Keep your eyes on her, Lil. I'm going to have to turn my back to her."
"Right," Lily replied shakily, drawing his sword, "I'll let you know if she gets close."
The smell of ash and burned wood was growing stronger. A low hum of tension boiled in his stomach as he followed the tree's roots. He could hear the sphynx as he walked. There were long expanses of silence suddenly broken by the sound of claws clacking against hard wood, a flap of wings, and suddenly she'd be above him with eyes flashing and teeth bared. A few turns later and he saw what looked to be the hasty cleanup of half-burned shelves. The bookcases ended abruptly, and Laxus could tell that work had been done here to peel back that which had been damaged to begin replacing it. The charred floorboards were pulled up, revealing beneath the twisting roots of the bloodgood, a network of veins in the heart of the library.
So dense were the roots that he couldn't see the ground. A cool dampness ebbed up at him as if he'd just opened the door to a cellar. Laxus had to step down into the threaded wood to continue, and his ankle rolled once as he lost his balance and wobbled forward. This new, organic floor had a life to it, a breath, and it ruffled his hair gently as he walked. Here and there were patches of stark darkness that was black as pitch. These were places where the roots gave way and Laxus was sure rested a meager yard or so down the dirt foundation. It was hard to tell. There were no lamps here save the ones that hung from the ends of the bookcases now nearly thirty feet away. The warm light wasn't strong enough to permeate the shadows here.
Lily shifted on Laxus's shoulder just before he heard the sphynx's claws click and tear at her perch. He heard the rush of wind but was too busy concentrating on where his feet were going to land to register it was coming towards him. Lily gasped his name and he stumbled out of the way of outstretched claws, barely keeping his balance as she landed, bristled in front of him. She growled and charged. Laxus brought his hand around to hit her just as a loud groan echoed down from the tree, making the roots he was standing on writhe beneath him. His foot slipped and he tumbled towards one of the gaps, throwing his hands forward to catch himself. He didn't expect that his feet wouldn't hit ground, and his weight was against him as he fumbled to find purchase.
It happened so quickly, he didn't even have time to process it. He fell. The world blurred and tilted around him. Lily was scrambling towards him, but like the end of one of Gramp's old westerns, the frame around him was shrinking rapidly. The roots were closing, blocking out what little light he had as well as the only person who knew where he was. He had enough time to think how stupid of an idea it was to follow a sphynx in its own labyrinth, and then the wind was knocked out of him.
He wasn't sure how long he was out. He just sort of realized he was waking up and that his bones felt like they'd just been run through a tumbler with so many other stones to be pulverized and smoothed. He grunted and coughed as he pushed himself up, clutching at his head like it could push away the migraine his impact had caused. He ached in the sort of way he figured old people did when they complained about the cold and how it stiffened their joints. But at least he wasn't incapacitated. Nothing was broken, and blearily he wondered why in the hell he hadn't used lightning body to stop his fall. He rolled his eyes at himself and sluggishly got to his feet.
He was standing in a basement of sorts. The floor was dirt, not stone, which was probably why he hadn't cracked his head open when he'd landed. Above him, the entire ceiling was roots. They were everywhere, as thick and impermeable as a wall. No warm lamplight filtered through anywhere, which meant Laxus wouldn't be getting out the same way he'd gotten in. Dimly, he wondered if Lily was ok. Had he been able to fly away from the sphynx after she'd knocked him down here? He couldn't remember where she'd been when he'd fallen. Why had she suddenly attacked them?
With a huff he decided that at the moment it wasn't worth pondering over. He needed to find a way out of this fresh hell first. He could demand his answers later. He rolled his shoulders to try and shake off the soreness as he gazed around him.
This was no ordinary dirt basement. He was close to the southernmost wall, aligning with that same wall of the library. Bricks had been pushed into the dirt walls forming arches of nearly twenty feet with stone shelves that made cubbies. There were scrolls littered on the shelves and some on the ground, half-opened. It almost looked like the place had been looted, or at least that someone had been steadily reading down the shelves and hadn't been in the mind to put anything back. There were markings in the ground but Laxus was a novice at best when it came to tracking and he could hardly tell if they were fresh or even the same person... thing... sphynx.
His stomach knotted. There was a starling amount of lion tracks, now that he was really looking at it. He flashed his eyes around the floor until they rested on a blackened archway. Roots caressed the bricks around it, webbing down the sides as they struck deeper into the ground. He stood still and concentrated on the silence, trying to pick up a noise or breath there out of the scope of his vision. The loud thudding of his heart grated on his nerves and he felt like his body was working against him. He was dreading going farther into the depths of this place. How long would he last if he had to fight his way out?
At the thought of fighting, he remembered the potion Porlyusica had given him. He quickly unsnapped his satchel to be sure it hadn't been damaged in his fall. Thankfully, it wasn't shattered. That would save him some trouble if something did happen. He used that as a reason to shrug off any lingering unease and cast his eyes back around the desolate archive one last time before walking towards the archway.
All that he could see by was what little orange tinge that fought through the outlines of the tree roots above, and even that became more and more scarce as the roots grew thicker. The room that he walked cautiously into was massive, spanning most of the library, if he could guess. Every twenty feet or so, there was another archway. There were dozens of chambers, laid out like a sprawling, stone warren around him. He could only guess that the rooms led to more of what he'd seen, shelves and scrolls. Faintly, Laxus realized this must be the library's archive. When he was much younger, he'd helped Freed on a mission at Magnolia's library and they'd had something much the same, although on a much, much smaller scale and not nearly as old. How old was this place? The Bloodgood must have been ancient to have grown so tall. Was it already that mature at the library's inception or did it grow with the library?
It was while Laxus was turning around, studying the roots as they sloped across the walls, interlacing themselves with the bricks and dirt, that his eyes landed on an archway far larger than the others. As he approached it, he began to make out two massive columns, hand-carved instead of just placed brick. There were two pedestals on either side of it, and as he looked them over, a shock rushed down his spine. One pedestal had on it perched the intimidating silhouette of a sphynx, wings drawn back and splayed wide as if it were a mantling raptor looming over its prey. The other pedestal was vacant, and he could only guess it was because the sphynx that had been occupying it had been the one that had chased him down here. From his distance in the stygian gloom, Laxus couldn't tell if it had spotted him or not and he had no idea if he would have to fight his way past it.
"Fucks sakes," he hissed out, barely even a breath.
He dredged up a sort of cynical resolve and marched up to it, committing to the idea of hurling a bolt of lightning at it if it rushed him. It didn't move, even when he was sure he was in its direct line of sight. Despite his eyes being adjusted to the minimal light, he just couldn't see it clear enough. He gritted his teeth and summoned just the smallest of sparks in his hand to try and shed some light. He hesitated, waiting to hear the click of claws on old stone or maybe a growl, but nothing came. He took in a calming breath and tossed the ball of lightning up, concentrating just enough to illuminate the area. He felt the tension in his shoulders immediately disappear, quickly replaced by exasperated disdain at how worried he'd been.
It was a statue. And it was old. The whole thing was covered by a thin layer of dust and dirt from the roots shifting above. Laxus let out a huff and rolled his eyes, and then stole a glance around him for good measure. He didn't see anything, no glinting of eyes in darkness like when the sphynx had been in the tree, no shadows disappearing around corners of into the honeycombed labyrinth of chambers and bookshelves. The place seemed completely empty and he was now able to see that the massive archway he was approaching was exactly what he'd hoped it would be: an exit. Stairs disappeared upwards and he could just make out the faintest hint of lamplight reflecting off the stones.
"What a waste," he muttered tersely as he trudged forward, eyeing the statue, "Ya know, your sister is kind of a dick. Chased me down here..."
Laxus let out a tense sigh and shoved his hands into his pockets. What was he even doing? Talking to statues and making himself feel like an idiot. Being down here was his fault in the first place, wasn't it? Here he was again, chasing shadows in Gajeel's name without his head on straight, ignoring reason and falling into traps. What in the hell was wrong with him? He knew better. And hadn't he said this would all be over once he'd gotten Gajeel out of prison? Everything would just fall back into place? And it had. He'd been out for over a month now and everything had been silent. Father had been thwarted, Gajeel was free. All it had been was petty revenge and when it became too difficult to achieve, Father had faded into the background with all the other bad guys they'd fought over the years. Laxus had decided it.
His eye started to throb and he clicked his teeth, anger and misery surging up his jaw. Really, all this was getting ridiculous. His gut twisted and he felt so stupid. What was he even doing here? Researching the lacrima that was draining the life out of him like it wasn't completely pointless? Gramps would convince Porlyusica to take it out, he was sure. That wasn't a bad thing. The magic deficiency would go away and he'd just be left trying to get a handle on his anxiety and anemia. Gajeel would finish therapy in a couple of months and they could be happy together, grow a life together. Maybe one day, he'd look back and not think so dismally on these days when he'd started losing his magic. Things would get better, they'd be normal.
When was normal ever enough for you, Laxus Dreyar?
The riot in his stomach wriggled up into his chest, tightening into a black ball and sticking there. He didn't want his lacrima taken out. Despite the nightmares, the occasional pain, thinking of it being gone felt even worse that leaving it in. What if his worst fears were right? What if taking it away left him just as weak and pathetic as he was when he was a child? What if he couldn't be a wizard anymore? But did that even matter if it was sucking the life out of him? Was this just what he'd always been doomed to become from the start? The great Laxus Dreyar, the only heir to the Dreyar name, and the last to ever be at this rate, would fade away into obscurity. On the cover of Wizard's Weekly one month, and the next not a wizard at all. What a nameless tragedy.
You are not enough.
He dropped his gaze to the ground. The urge to just wallow in his own self-pity was nearly irresistible while he was in the dark alone. He swallowed it down, telling himself to stop being so kiddish. It was time to stop this, to go home, tell Gajeel what was going on, and come to terms with no longer being a wizard. Lily was probably worried sick, probably still being chased around by that stupid, deranged sphynx. Laxus had dawdled long enough.
He took a moment to breathe and unwind, let the pain fade from his eye. With a shakiness he only admitted was there because he was alone, he rested a hand on the giant paw of the sphynx. The stone was warm to the touch, and smooth. When he looked up at it, the eyes didn't seem like those of a stoic guard. They almost looked compassionate. Watchful. He let the thought roll off his shoulders and stepped past her towards the steps.
That's when he heard something that turned his blood to thick ice. A breath whispered just behind his neck, a gasp that vanished into the basement like it had just been swallowed. It was that sound he heard when Davian activated his power, the tell that let him know he wasn't truly alone. Slowly, he turned and gazed back into the dim chamber, where the shadows still pulsed along with the ball of lightning that he'd charged to illuminate the space.
Something glinted at him. There, by one of the stone cubbies, was the flash of metal buried under what looked to be the charred remains of floorboards and dirt and ash. He eyed it with a disdainful snarl. Chasing shadows again, he was chasing shadows again. But even as he told himself to just leave it alone, let whatever it was lay there because whatever that noise had meant, it probably ended in trouble. But still, he didn't turn away and retreat up the stairs like knew he should. He stepped back down into the dirt basement, eyes darting across the archive and up to the twisting, creaking roots. Searching and coming up empty.
Laxus approached it with caution, gaze trailing on every dark shadow in the room. His foot brushed at the ash, and knelt down to delicately lift away the rubble. The gold glint was from a large, hand-bound, leather book. On the cover was etched an intricate ritual circle with rings folding and crisscrossing in on itself engraved in gold. A simple leather strap and gold buckle held it firmly shut, and it had been this that had caught the light. He recognized this as the same book Davian had at the saltbox house on his desk, but this wasn't nearly as worn and the gold wasn't tarnished. It looked as if it had been written just yesterday, completely blemishless aside from the tinge of black smoke that had turned the leather a darker shade in some places.
He felt a strange sort of fixation towards it, like it had a gravity of its own and he was loathe to break from it. Laxus didn't know why, but he was suddenly griped by the idea of just taking it. Even as the idea shocked him, his hand wandered down to his satchel and fumbled it open. The actions didn't even feel like they were his. This was just another facet to this nightmare of an experience, unreal and disconnected. He slipped the book into his satchel, clasped it shut, and then he just stood there, watching it with abject concern. He felt an overwhelming sense of now what. He was just going to turn and leave? Was he seriously just going to...?
"Humans always seek to destroy that which they do not understand..."
Laxus's heart slammed into his throat, because the sphynx from before was perched on a low-hanging root. How had she gotten there without him hearing a sound? Her eyes flashed and she jumped, paws reaching out for him and gripping into his chest. He cried out when he hit the ground, and instinctively sent volts of lightning spiraling into her. She didn't flinch, and somehow the bolts ricocheted off of her and arched into the ground. Her claws dug into his chest, a growl making her body shiver. Her neck arched down towards him and he gripped into her throat, trying to use his arms to keep her back. She stilled above him. Her breath fell across his face in leisurely, warm puffs of air that brushed away his hair. Her own long, dark hair framed her face and trickled over his arms as he held her still, away. She was so heavy it was hard to breathe. Laxus couldn't help it, his anxiety, his helplessness, it all started to froth inside him.
"What in the hell did I do to you?" he demanded, breathless as her lips parted and she bared her teeth, "I fucking listened, didn't I? I tried."
"Humans always seek to destroy that which they do not understand..." she reiterated, her head twisting as she spoke. She leered down at him with wide eyes.
"I'm not destroying anything!" he yelled back at her, his arms shaking now with the effort to keep her face back from his neck.
"It hates you," she whispered, craning her face ever closer to the point Laxus could make out the yellow flecks intermingled with the caramel hue of her eyes, "It hates what you are and what you do. And if it hates you, then maybe I can help you..."
Laxus gritted his teeth, "I don't understand..."
"I wonder... does it know the danger it is in?" Laxus's heart shuddered as her voice lilted, her eyes became unfocused. She wasn't looking at him anymore, but past him, like something was sitting there in the ground by his head. Her gaze was distant, not fixed, "As you stand there in the kitchen. You hear the knock, knock, knock at the door..."
"Don't let them take it," her eyes suddenly darted to his again, her breathing got faster.
"It protects you. It keeps you safe. You need it. You will die in its absence. There is agony and there is blood and there is suffering but you must withstand it. It will kill you if you do not." She sounded frantic and her pupils dilated, almost engulfing her irises entirely. Laxus pushed into her throat as she splayed her wings like she might take off. "It knows you are alone. The church is fully armed, spinning gold from copper noise to the gods of moray eels' teeth. Do not turn on the golden light. They will come with splints made from words to fix bones that are not broken guard your mouth with a knife and await the sharpening words of worship. Everything will be lost if you let them take it!"
"Take what?"
"Dimisia!"
The sphynx's head snapped up and she hissed. Two hands dipped down and Laxus just caught sight of a face he found familiar. She tumbled off of him, brushed to the side like an overgrown tomcat. Ramou was at his side, his hands on his hips like he was scolding a dog that had just stolen his sandwich from the table.
"Dimisia! Are you out here terrorizing guests again? We'll have to collar you to the wall next!" he yelled, flicking his wrists at her to shoo her away. Her eyes flashed and she growled, "Oh, yes, yes, you frightening thing. Back to your pedestal! Some guardian are you! Won't even stay in your place!"
He crossed his arms and shook his head before glancing down to where Laxus still sat dazed, "I am so sorry, friend. She really thinks she's doing right. Sphynxes and their charms, eh? It's no wonder they were hunted down when they act like this. Mischievous things."
"She was... she was saying something..." Laxus floundered dumbly, twisting his head to watch her as she paced just a few yards away.
"And I'm sure not a bit of it made sense," Ramou tsked, "That's what happens when you're blessed, it just drives you mad."
"Blessed?" Laxus turned his head slowly back to him. That strange, insidious smile worked its way across Ramou's face.
"Old gods and their traditions, you know? All they do is frame curses as blessings. Poor Dimisia, she can't tell past, present, and future apart anymore," he shrugged, then extended his hand down to him.
"She sees the future?"
"Of course," he replied simply, waving his hand impatiently.
Graciously, Laxus took it, "That must be hard,"
Ramou regarded him strangely. His eyes flicked up and down like he was seeing Laxus for the first time, "Maybe when we weren't familiar with these things, they were."
Laxus took back his hand. He thumbed nervously at the strap on his bag. Ramou's smile faded from his face, replaced by a look of disdain and suspicion. Laxus stepped back from him, chancing a look at Dimisia to be sure she wasn't going to pounce on him again.
"Listen..." Ramou started, leaning forward a bit as he did, "...I know this is a public library and we don't typically turn people away but... I do think it's time for you to leave."
"I, uh... yeah, actually, I was looking for Jet and Levy when I got lost..."
"Yes, yes," Ramou dismissed, "I guess what I'm trying to say is, don't come back."
Laxus was a little shocked, "Excuse me?"
Ramou splayed his hands, an amiable smile showing his teeth while his nose crinkled. On anyone else, it might have looked friendly or even charming, but not on Ramou. Somehow, it was more chilling to Laxus than when Dimisia was staring down on him from the bloodgood.
"Listen, we all have to draw our lines somewhere, yes? From one vestige to another, if it were up to me, I'd let you consume whatever it is you want. But it's not just me. I have to watch out for all the librarians here and my sovereign tree. We can't really guard knowledge if there is no knowledge to guard," he shrugged, "It's simple logic. You understand."
"No," Laxus replied sternly, "I don't."
"I'm not trying to start a problem. There's not many of us left, we need to stick together. I think we can all agree, causing witch hunts hurts everyone," he shrugged as he said that, "but you and I, well, we're not exactly friends, you know."
Laxus's confusion must have been written on his face, because Ramou gave him a sympathetic look, "Ah, you must be new then," he smiled and patted Laxus on the shoulder, "It's ok. We all advocate learning. Challenging your perspective on reality, helping you grow, making you something more, that's what gods are for. Talk to your elder, I'm sure they'll have a wealth of knowledge for you to fill whatever sort of hunger you have."
"My... hunger?"
Ramou turned and headed towards the stairs, motioning Laxus to follow, "Mustn't tarry, now. Ms. Levy is starting to fret."