Page 148 of Librarian

Animal experimentation is unnecessary on the best of days. If her third years are good enough to brew the potion, they should be confident enough to try it on themselves.

I couldn’t even sense where the animals had gotten to.

I ended up on my knees, checking under shelves and in corners. Fury made my movements jerky. Patrons gave me a wide berth. There were a dozen spells I could’ve used. None of them were in my grimoire.

The only reason I didn’t end up closing early was Dakari. He came up behind me, rubbed his invisible hands up and down my shoulders, kissed my temple, and then took over rounding up the creatures with a quiet order for me to return to my desk.

Not that it’s much better for me here, especially when Westley appears with a live rat in his mouth. The cat deposits it on my desk in clear view of the patrons.

The screech one of the magisters releases makes my fingers itch.

No. Even if I was sure banishing them all with the dagger would work, I don’t want to risk using the blade more than I have to.

I shouldn’t have reopened. This plan will drive me to murder before the day is out.

Subconsciously, I start to drift towards the classroom where Hopkinson is holding his lecture. Can I creep inside and listen in without anyone noticing? I just need a break for a few minutes…

Jasper, Eddy, North, Pierce, and Lambert are all in there. At the very least, I would have their company.

Unfortunately, I can’t ghost through doors anymore, which means I probably won’t get away with it. More depressing is the number of people I have to turn away when they ask me to access the Lineage Room.

Some of them are trying to prove adept ancestry—protecting themselves. Understandable. I make discreet copies of their immediate family trees for them and send them on their way.

Then there are those seeking to look at the trees of others.

Those patrons are dismissed without guilt.

Their motivations could be innocent, but if they aren’t…I won’t be the person to lead enforcement to someone’s door.

I slump against the desk as I send the latest such patron off in a huff, and for the first time I wonder if maybe…

Maybe I can’t enjoy this without the Arcanaeum. I used to think this was my calling, but without my friend here to bring levity to the place, it feels like I’m going through the motions out of an ossified sense of duty. Is that enough of a reason to continue?

No. I’m being silly.

This is just a stressful situation.

Things will get better when Mathias is gone.

I’m not normally predisposed to optimism, but the alternative is listening to the pragmatic voice in the back of my mind whispering that this is how it will be from now on.

Can the Arcanaeum even survive in this state? The mist is constantly seeping into the building in tiny wisps. That’s not an affectation designed to lure in Mathias. It’s a consequence of how drained the Library really is. There could be other effects.

What if there isn’t enough magic to hold the mist back? What if there’s not enough to preserve the consciousness of the Arcanaeum? What if we defeat Mathias, channel all of that power into the building, and it never comes back?

I stroke the desk, listening for a reassuring creak. Waiting for the drawers to pop open and slam shut in a temper.

Please.

“What aretheydoing here?”

I don’t see the student who asks, but my head whips up at the disgust in his tone.

Enforcers.

Dozens of them. Easily over a hundred, marching through the doors across the Rotunda and further down Botanical Hall. All in uniform. All wearing blank expressions.

It takes a second, in this light, for me to realise they’re in dark blue, not the black of Isidora’s aegis, but I don’t want to guess what that means.