A long while after the drunken sorcerer had disappeared into the lower levels of the library, Anna told Alexei the brutal truth.

We had gone back up to the top of the library and worked our way back down to where I had snatched Anna from, looking for any sign of Precept Seram's clues. When we had made it back to where her little lantern sat, then unneeded in the calm blue light the librarian had created, and found nothing, Anna turned on my guard.

"Look, can you not just tell us? It's getting late and both of us are hungry. We don't want to know what the answer is, just where to find it. I would ask the other guy, but I doubt he knows where the floor and the ceiling are." She asked him with an exasperated shrug of her shoulders.

"No." Alexei said simply, showing no signs that the ridiculous amount of stairs we had all walked up and walked back down had taken anything close to the roll that it had Anna and I.

Ann groaned in frustration. "Why not? You like watching us wander around, don't you? You think it's funny or something?"

"No." Alexei said simply.

"Some guard you are," Anna said and turned her back to him. She gave me a small wink before continuing. " The guards in Erosette were nice. They would mess you up if they knew you were treating her like this."

"No." Alexei said simply, again.

I knew what her wink meant. It was time for me to appear to be something that I rarely ever was.

Reasonable.

Anna spun back around on the heels of my boots and opened her mouth to speak, but I held a hand out to silence her.

"Master Alexei is only doing as Precept Seram asked him to. We cannot blame him for being honorable." I said, giving her a stern look as I spoke.

The more ill tempered and rude towards him she was, the more my politeness would endear him to me. I had some small progress with him, his words of the spirit that guarded the library was evidence enough of that, but I had a much bigger question that I wanted an answer to.

I still wanted to know what had happened to Katarina and the uncountable questions that I would have once I found out, but that was not what I wanted to know then.

If my memory of the memories I had viewed in The Well were true, which I knew they were, Alexei was a sorcerer. The aura that had jetted back from his hands when Katarina had finally coaxed him into letting out had been a very dark shade of blue.

The color of the light that illuminated the library was not the same shade at all, but it was still blue.

Katarina had three children.

One was Alexei.

I was fairly certain that Anna and I had just met another of them. There were too many things that made too little sense if the librarian was not the brother of my guard.

So sure of the idea, what I truly wished to know, was which child had we seen?

Had it been Radomir in all his glory or had it been Jaka? Was the man the boy with the teary red eyes from M.D.G's painting or the baby that I had once held in my arms while I was in the memories of The Mother in Blue?

Somehow, without the need to tell her, Anna knew that I wanted to know something and she'd did her best to paint me in a comparatively better light.

"No way he's being honorable," She started again and waved her hands at Alexei dismissively. "He likes watching you struggle. He's just another way that The Mothers are punishing you."

"Do you think that little of me?" Alexei asked, the ghost of a smile turning up the corners of his mouth.

I took a step toward and turned to Anna with my hands clasped behind my back. "No, Master Alexei. She is upset because I scared her and she is taking it out on you. Forgive her, please and let us speak of other things. If I cannot find Precept Seram's clues then I will have to leave Lun trusting that you would not let anything happen to me."

I could not see how my words affected the white haired man, but I was very pleased with what I had been able to string together.

Anna clenched her fists and the dark blue light of the library painted deep shadows across her face. "You shouldn't trust him. He knows who you are, Autumn, who you really are. He knows what you have and he knows what you've done."

She walked straight past me and towards Alexei, only stopping when the ends of his swords pressed against her front.

"I do think that little of you," Anna said, her voice barely more than a whisper. Quiet as it was, I heard the hard edge in it that she only got when she was well and truly angry. "As long as she is bound, sealed, concealed, punished, or whatever other terrible thing they decide to put her through, I will not trust a single one of you."

"Uhm, Anna?" I said, feeling like she was taking our plan just a little too seriously. It no longer felt like she was feigning annoyance or anger. She seemed like she was actually annoyed and angry.

I had learned in our time together that when she began to sound like Ms. Lao, something was very wrong.

She carried on despite my concern. "That's why they sent you isn't it? You've basically said it yourself. When she lost control of herself, the guards in Erosette couldn't stop her, but you could. You can play at being her protector and all of that shit, but I know you are just one of The Mother's dogs."

"Hey," I said, trying to mimic the soft way she spoke to me when I was upset. "Take a breath."

"No. Why else would he be here, Autumn? If he felt like he had to, he would cut you down. That's why he wears these," she tapped the handle of Alexei's black sword with her pointer finger. "If she decided to run away or she lost control, you wouldn't blink at having to hurt her. You would probably feel right in doing it because it was your duty. Can you not see how wrong this all is? It makes me sick."

I was too stunned to speak, let alone know how I felt about what she had said.

Neither of them faltered.

She stared up at my guard and he stared down at her with his one white eye, the blue hue that painted the library

"I was warned of the depths of your devotion." Alexei said simply to Anna before taking a small step back from her.

Not a moment later, the first genuine smile I had ever seen the white haired man make spread across his face and he let out a small laugh.

I knew it was not the right time for me to have such thoughts, but I could not help but be aware of how attractive Alexei truly was.

Part of me thought that I was imagining it, but the sharp points of his canines seemed just a bit longer than they should have been, which only added to his wolfish appearance.

He was beautiful in a way that made me think someone would thank him for killing them if he offered them a smile in their dying moments.

"Mind that you do not let it blind you like it nearly did me," He said and tapped the black leather patch over his left eye. He turned his back to both of us and gave a small wave for us to follow. "Come. Let this dog lead you."

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Anna groaned and pushed her hair back from her face with her hands.

"Hey, are you okay?" I asked her softly, still shocked but how angry she had gotten.

"That's not normal. I got carried away. I meant what I said, but I got carried away," She looked to me for reassurance as she pointed towards Alexei. "I called him a dog and he smiled at me. That's not normal, right?"

I shook my head in agreement. "No. It's not."

"Where are you going? I didn't yell at you for you to just walk away!" Anna shouted after my guard.

All she received in answer was another wave of his hand.

"Master Alexei? Where are you taking us?" I asked, no part of me concerned with trying to make him like me.

I knew how I would have reacted if Tana or any one else yelled at me the way Anna did. In truth, I felt nothing but gratitude towards the white haired man. There would need to be a conversation between Anna and I about what she said, but it would have to wait until our voices could be drowned out by the bathwater in our quarters.

"I cannot tell you." He called back as he reached the staircase that I had arrived to the balcony from.

I took Anna by the hand and pulled her along behind me as I followed my guard. "Come on, he's helping us."

"No. He is walking away like nothing just happened. Am I not intimidating? Do I look that pathetic?" Anna asked as we walked, her anger giving way to obvious confusion.

"I was terrified. And you didn't look pathetic, you are cute when you are angry. Still intimidating, but also cute." I insisted as I pulled her closer to my side, enjoying the chance to do for her what she had done for me so many times.

We held hands all the way up the stairs even though both our shoulders dragged along the walls, but by the time we reached the first floor of the dark blue library, we both sat down and clutched at our burning legs.

Alexei waited for us to recover, looking as unbothered as he always did.

"Why is it blue in here?" Anna demanded as we began to climb back to our feet.

"For the same reason there are no windows. The light is better for the books." My guard answered.

I would have thought it was because of the librarian's aura.

"How do you know that, Master Alexei?" I asked, holding Anna's hand and following him once again.

"I have been in Lun for a very long time." He answered without difficulty.

Anna's verbal attack on him over, the questions I had returned to my mind and I tried very hard to make it sound like a natural extension of what had been said.

"You know the librarian then?" I asked.

My guard gave me nothing but silence in response until he stopped and gestured to an open doorway between two of the towering bookshelves. "Here is the bathroom, if either of you need to use it."

Without another word, he went and leaned over the balcony, a single strand of his white hair falling loose from the tie behind his head.

I hadn't noticed that Anna had gone into the doorway until she came back through it. "I'm not positive, but I feel like the fact that there are magic bubbles in there means that the clue is too."

"That doesn't make any sense? We are in the bathroom together all the time, how can I be my only company?" I shook my head and asked.

Alexei spoke without turning around to face us. "Precept Seram has a much more proper opinion on bathrooms it seems. When you learn anything, it is important to consider where or who you have learned it from."

Anna crossed her arms and pushed a sharp breath out through her nose. "Really? You go from ignoring her to trying to be her teacher? What now, are you gonna be all wise and teach her things that she will only understand were lessons in a moment of need?"

"No." Alexei said simply.

"Let's go find out where I am going." I sighed as I pushed her back through the doorway by her shoulders before she could loose whatever infuriated words that had formed behind her lips.

I saw the bubbles Anna had mentioned. There were neatly folded pieces of paper contained within each of the pastel blue stained shapes and they floated on the wall in a way that made them hang just above where someone's head would be in the mirror.

Ignoring them for the time being, I turned the water in both sinks on full and moved us to the very back of the bathroom. It was just as cold and just as blue as the rest of the library, but I felt a little less exposed in the smaller space.

"Listen," I said, bringing my attempt at Anna's softness back to my voice as I spoke to her. "Are you sure you are okay? You haven't been sleeping well since we moved here. Seeing you standing on the railing like that, and then how angry you got with Alexei. I don't know a lot about much, but I know I'm supposed to take care of you too."

Under the sound of the running water, Anna glared back at me, sighed, and then spoke in a voice that was barely loud enough for me to hear. "It's because you're leaving."

I didn't need to understand why. The fact that it was bothering her was all I needed to know.

"Then I won't go. I'll pretend to be sick or something. We can come up with a plan so I can stay." I said, meaning every single word.

"No, no, no," Anna shook her head and leaned back against the wall. "No, no. It's just that every other time you have gone somewhere, it hasn't been for good reasons. I'm on edge. I'm sorry if I embarrassed you in front of the creep."

She had to stop calling him that, but I would tell her that later.

We were alone, and I had suddenly become very aware of that.

I stepped towards her and put my hands on her hips the same way she had done to me after my super secret training. "You don't want me to go?"

"No. You are, but no." Anna sighed, her dark eyes meeting mine.

"Because you are gonna miss me?" I asked her as I removed any space left between us.

"Yes," she whispered. "All I do all day is think about you anyways. The only way I can stand it is because I know you are gonna come back to our room."

There was something in her voice that sounded like she was embarrassed of what she had said, but I had never heard anything sweeter in my life.

I kissed her.

She kissed me back.

It was such a wonderful exchange that we did it again.

"What about the clues. We need to know where you are going." Anna whispered, her arms wrapped over my shoulders and our brows resting against one another.

"I don't care where I'm going. All I care about is where I'm at right now." I whispered back.

Our lips met again.

Even though the bathroom was less out in the open, we were still in the library. If we had finally come to the moment that more was going to happen between us, I was ready, but it had not been quite so blue in the near infinite amount of times I had imagined it.

I began to drop my glamor. If more was going to happen, and I truly wished that it would, it would not be Ire that got to experience it.

Just before the black of my hair began to fade or my features became my own once again, just before the first speck of azure dust fell from me, someone cleared their throat and I realized we were no longer alone.

"I wasn't going to." I closed my eyes and sighed, knowing that Alexei had used whatever unnatural senses he possessed to know that I was going to let my glamor fall away.

"Do you know her?" Anna asked quietly, her arms still wrapped around my shoulders.

I looked over to see Underwitch Plia standing by the mirror, her eyes pointed up towards the pastel bubbles that floated above her head.

"Plia? What are you doing here?" I asked, finding it very difficult to speak through the heat I felt on my face and in my body.

"I didn't mean to-if I had known-I'm. . ." She trailed off as she reached up and popped each of Precept Seram's bubbles with the nail of her pinky.

I could not be certain in the shadowy blue light that filled the room, but I thought she was blushing.

One by one, she caught the folded pieces of paper and unraveled them, nodding to her self as she went. "That makes sense."

"Plia." I called to the thin haired new moon. Anna and I were much too close to be in front of someone, but I could not bring myself to push away from her.

"Sorry," She answered. With the bubbles gone, it was much harder for her to not look at us, but she tried very hard not to. "Tana told the rest of us where we are going. I didn't think it was fair that you were the only one that didn't know."

"Oh." I said, unable to keep my body from tensing at the mention of Tana's name. I hoped Anna had not noticed. I had not hidden my issues with the honey haired underwitch, but I had not mentioned them either.

"It's a place that familiars go when their sorceresses die. Apparently, the precepts want to see if any of them will bond with any of us," Plia said, already backing out of the bathroom as she spoke. "I will, uhm, I'll leave you two to it. Sorry for interrupting."

And with that, she was gone. She turned on the heels of her laced black boots and left the bathroom, having done far more for me than I knew she must have realized.

"I'm disappointed," Anna sighed with real sadness in her voice." I was looking forward to figuring out the clues.

"That is the kindest thing any of the other new moons have done for me in the entire time we've been here." I said honesty.

"Give them time, they will all be in love with you before you know it," Anna said sweetly. "Except for Tana? Do you not like her or something? I saw how you clenched up when you heard her name."

I couldn't answer her. If I did, I would have to tell her everything and it would be no small task to keep her from carving a war path through Lun once she knew.

So, I did the best thing I knew how to do.

I kissed her again and let the thoughts of anything else fall away.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.