The Last Library Ch. 03

So here we go with Chapter 3! Thanks to everyone for comments, favorites, and, especially, to those of you who think this story is good enough to follow!

I hope you're enjoying it as much as I am, so here is the next installment. I can't wait to see what's going to happen!

Standard Disclaimer: Everyone is 18+, no using the material without permission, and all that other stuff.

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The day after Mera had shown him the armory, she came into his room and woke him just as the walls were starting to illuminate. She had warned him of their "dawn" departure, but he was used to early marching times with the army.

The night before, they had prepared several portable meals that would keep throughout the day. Mera planned on a short excursion for his first day and had kept the menu small and light. With their food packed and both of them armed, they rode the lift to another of the mid-shaft doorways.

By an unspoken mutual agreement, they remained quiet throughout the morning hike; speaking only when necessary to pass information. Ashur was mentally preparing for what lay ahead of them while Mera seemed to be deep in thought. The tall soldier wondered if she was having some doubts about having him come along but with her face and skin unreadable, he resigned himself to following along with her.

The other reason for his taciturn demeanor was due to his constant attention on one of the three Library maps that he kept about him. He knew that, should he lose sight of his azure guide, the maps would be his only way of finding a way back to more familiar areas. It still amazed him to watch the images and words on the folded paper move and change as they traversed from one area of the Library to another.

After several hours of walking, the map seemed to go blurry on one edge. The writing was fuzzy and distorted on the side that corresponded to their destination. When he showed Mera, she had nodded and explained.

"Remember when I said that the Library is now bordered by other planes and realities? The map cannot keep up since it is tied to the space that the Library occupies. As we get into the overlapping areas, we are both inside and outside the Library at the same time and the map gets confused."

Thinking that the map wasn't the only one, Ashur folded it up and stowed it into a pocket. As part of outfitting him for these jaunts, Mera had given him clothing that was more appropriate for what they would need. His new trousers had several pockets sewn very neatly into the legs while the shirt and vest had more along the breast and sides. The stitching of the pockets was strong and intricate and the soldier was still getting used to them. It felt strange not to have a pouch or two hanging from his belt and bumping on his thighs. He had caught himself stopping to see if he had dropped them several times during their morning walk only to remember that he had used the pockets. When he had joked about this, Mera had simply shaken her head sadly and murmured, "So much lost."

Now, as they moved further into the muddled area between the Library and some unknown place, Mera slowed and became more alert. She stopped often and looked around the edges of bookcases or moved circumspectly around common reading areas. The juxtaposition of soft, deep chairs and intricately designed tables with the stalking woman's demeanor made her actions surreal and conveyed the gravity of their situation more than if she had simply told him to be careful. Taking the cue, he mimicked her movements and went from "soldier" to "hunter" in the space of a few heartbeats. As if she had felt the change in him, she turned to look back and nodded her approval.

Silently, they roved through the aisles with eyes moving back and forth looking for danger. What kind of danger, Ashur had no clue, but, having seen what had happened to Mera, he knew it was quite real. Working with decades of experience hunting and foraging while on long patrols, he watched for movement between the shelves and listened for anything above the soft susurration of their breathing and foot falls.

And so, they both heard the clicking of claws on stone floor. Ashur whipped his new sword from its sheath and activated the shield on his arm. Bracing himself for the fight, he saw Mera remove a small glass globe from the folds of her skirt as she stepped up beside him. It looked much like the one the female half of the giant statue held, but any further curiosity was pushed from his mind as the source of the clicking stalked around the corner of a bookcase.

The soldier almost took a step back from the monstrosity. It had seen them and started stalking forward on six large legs. The beast held its long scaled snout low to the ground and sniffed the air in their direction. Overlapping plates of thick green made up its hide and they moved across each other with the creature's movements. Once, it had cleared the corner, Ashur could finally see the entirety of what they faced. From snout to tail tip, it was no more than ten feet long, however the mis-proportioned thing stood nearly six feet at the shoulder. The strange monster waved its stocky head back and forth on an elongated neck as if to see them with both eyes which were set in either side.

Ashur braced himself to run forward to fight but was held back by Mera's hand on his arm. "Wait," she said. Holding up the globe, she stared intently at the approaching animal. It stopped in midstride as the ball in the woman's hand began to glow. Growling, the creature shook its head as if to clear something away, but, as the light intensified, both growling and shaking stopped. After a few moments, it stumbled backwards; obviously confused. Finally, it turned and retreated back among the shelves.

As the illumination in Mera's hand faded, Ashur relaxed slightly, but still remained ready should the strange beast return. The caretaker returned the globe to her dress and nodded with satisfaction. When she saw that he was splitting his attention between her and the receding clicking, she patted the air between them to reassure him.

"Don't worry," she said. "Right now, that poor thing is really pining for home and will follow the path I gave it back to wherever that is." At his confused look, she pulled the globe free again and held it up. "Part of the magic of the caretakers is in a manipulation of sorts. The female half can work with the thoughts and emotions of others since we are more attuned to them. The male half tends to work more with the body and its workings." She shrugged a bit and put the glass ball away. "There is a bit of overlap which is how I can speed up my own regeneration, though not nearly as fast as Colphon could. On the other hand, he could only receive impressions of other's emotions where I can change thoughts and desires if needed."

She waved in the direction of their recent visitor. "Simpler minds are easier to work with. I implanted our friend there with a desire to go home and put the directions in his head. I've found it's a much cleaner and less exhausting way to work."

With that, she turned and resumed her patrol. Eight more times that day, they ran across similar animals; all of which Mera was able to connect with and send home. They eventually called a halt to have a quick lunch.

"If you can bend minds to your will, how were hurt so badly?" Ashur asked. "Did something catch you by surprise?"

"No," she admitted. "The wounds you saw weren't from any meandering animal. In a few days, we'll actually need to go back to that area and make certain that the entity that got me truly is gone." She leaned against a bookcase and sighed deeply. "Not all of the beings that wander into the Library's space are as benign as what we have faced today. To be honest, I've been dealing with these hexapeds for about fifty years or so when, I'm guessing, they migrated into the area where the spaces overlap. I'm not sure what reality they come from, but they're basically harmless."

Pulling up her skirt to look at her newly healed foot, the caretaker wrinkled her nose. "The damage you saw was from something more powerful and definitely malevolent. It was looking for a way to cross over to another plane and this happened to be the first opening it found. I've run into many of those over the centuries and, let me tell you, they are not fun. I was fortunate that my first encounter with something that strong was around three hundred years after the cataclysm and I'd had some experience to fall back on."

Finishing her inspection, Mera rose to her feet and extended a hand to help the soldier rise. "Those that are vicious or ambitious enough to attack once they get here are usually mentally strong enough to have some sort of resistance to my attacks. At that point, I have to fall back on the Lexicon. Last time, I didn't see the need fast enough and it got me before I could react. Fortunately, I was far enough into the Library that my magic was still at its strongest."

She shrugged and continued on. "We shouldn't see anything like that today."

For the rest of the day, they followed the route laid out in Mera's head and, as the ever present light started to dim, they had returned to the area where Ashur's map had started to go fuzzy. They took another break to eat a cold dinner before heading back to the lift. By the time they reached the house, the only illumination they had was from a cone shaped device that Mera had produced from her pack.

Turning the house wall-lighting on, they shuffled to the bathroom and showered separately before falling asleep in their respective beds. Ashur slept dreamlessly and woke early the next morning. Apparently, going on a sort of patrol had returned him to a military sleep schedule.

When Mera emerged from her room, he had already made breakfast and replaced the provisions they had used the day before. Her eyes lit up at having the warm meal before setting out and gave him a kiss on the cheek as she gathered the dishes. "Today will be much easier," she told him. "We don't have to go as far."

This time, she took them through the same door as yesterday, but their trek lasted for only an hour before she resumed her quiet stalking movements. The day proved to be uneventful and they returned in time to enjoy another hot meal before once again retiring to separate rooms.

After a few days of short excursions, Mera felt comfortable enough to take him on longer patrols. With no weather to deal with, they were able to make do with simple bedrolls and cooked their food over a simple ring on a stand that Mera could heat with a Word. On the morning before their first overnight, she had shown him her equipment for extended circuits and he had been amazed. The soldier had joked that she must have a magical canteen with unlimited water somewhere as he filled his own from the kitchen sink. His companion had laughed and shaken her head. He had automatically been a bit concerned about their water supply until she told him how to find the small fountains that had been placed in some of the reading areas for visitors. "We knew that most people would be searching the shelves for hours, so we put in amenities," she explained. She also showed him how to find the one-person bathrooms that contained a toilet and sink very like the one in the house. He had been slightly disappointed by the prosaic solutions but was glad to have them when needed.

His only disappointment with the outing was in the scenery. He was growing to miss being outdoors and, while their single day trips had seemed like he was just wandering around a big building, walking around for days between the ever-present bookshelves was odd. Curious, he asked Mera how she coped with it.

"I used to miss it," she said. "There are a few places where the overlaps are in rather beautiful groves and waterfalls, but I've never felt comfortable relaxing in those areas because they are away from the Library proper." She sighed. "I'd like to, but it's hard to take a nap under a tree when you don't feel safe. Over time, I think I just got used to being in here."

***

When the light began to fade on their first night, Mera found a nearby reading nook, called a halt for the day and started to set up camp. She showed him how to unfold small squares of brown cloth into bedrolls and set up her heating ring. After they had eaten, it was dark enough that Mera had brought out her hand torch.

"I have to say," Ashur commented, "this is one of the nicer places I've had to camp out in. Granted the floor is hard, but at least I don't have to worry about a stray rock sticking into my side. I'm getting too old to sleep well that way."

He lay on his back and looked up into the mist above the bookcases. Nearby, he heard movement, but paid it no mind since it was coming from the direction of Mera's bedroll.

"Do you ever meet people when you travel?" he asked. "I mean, the creature from the other day was basically like a cow or a wolf and I'm assuming the thing that attacked you is a lot like a bear or something, but do you ever actually meet thinking and reasoning folk?"

The rustling from her bedroll stopped. He would have looked at her, but her positioning meant that he would have had to crane his head at too awkward of an angle, so he continued to gaze into the distance.

"I do...," she replied hesitantly. "You're right to call the six-legged critter a cow, but the thing that attacked me would be more like a demon. Where a bear strikes out of hunger or defense, it attacked me with malevolence and rage. I meet more of those than I'd like, but not many."

She stopped for a few moments. Ashur assumed she was gathering her thoughts so let the silence linger.

"I do come across a few higher functioning beings that you could call "people" and I can even understand a few of them. Most often they have stumbled into the overlap and are wandering lost and frightened. I do my best to help them return to their home without much interaction. It's rare and quick so I don't really get to have the feeling that I met someone. Often enough, I can get them on their way in five minutes or so. None have ever tried to return though I sometimes wish they would."

A long sigh came from her direction.

"Until you came along, I really had no one to talk with. If nothing else, thanks for that."

"Well," he chuckled," I don't know how good of a conversationalist I've been, but you make it easy. I feel comfortable with you and like to see you happy. To be honest, I decided a while ago that I wanted to do as much for you as possible before I left so that you would have a few good memories to keep."

As he said those words, however, Ashur knew that he was lying a little. He didn't want her to have only a few memories. He wanted to stay and help her; keep her company. He felt protective of this poor lonely woman and wanted to be there for her. He was coming to consider her a friend. Their occasional sexual dalliances had helped, but he knew better than to equate them with some sort of infatuation.

No, he wanted to stay here in this fantastic library and stand by her side. Mera was beautiful, intelligent, caring, and strong in her own right. She might not need him to be her protector since she had proven that she could look after herself over the centuries, but that didn't mean he couldn't bring her more happiness by being her friend. For the first time since she had firmly told him that she would be sending him back, he began to wonder if he could convince her to let him stay.

His thoughts stuttered to a halt at the soft noise coming from Mera. This time he turned and looked over to see her turned away from him. Her body shook and he thought he could hear muffled tears. He cursed his loose tongue for reminding her that he was leaving and made his way to her side. Kneeling down and putting his hand on her shoulder, he tried to figure out how to ease her mind.

"Look," he started lamely," I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you sad or anything. I just meant that..." Whatever he was about to say was lost when her lips met his. Focused on his apology, he hadn't registered her quick movement until she was on him. Her arms wrapped around his neck and held tightly as she kissed him. He could taste her tears as they flowed down her cheeks. His own arms encircled her just to keep his balance until he realized her intent. He wasn't certain what brought this on, but he certainly wasn't going to complain.

Her kisses grew more passionate and she started pawing at his clothes while trying to remove her dress at the same time. He would have found that amusing if her actions hadn't instantly aroused him. In just a few short seconds, he was kissing her back just as fervently. Never one to turn down good sex, he helped her with her dress and started to get his own clothes off. She fumbled at his pants with little mews of frustration when her hands couldn't get them off fast enough.

He gently batted her hands away and lifted his hips. Pulling down both trousers and armor at the same time, he tossed them to the side while still keeping contact with her lips. Their tongues fought back and forth noisily in the darkness of the aisle accompanied by soft grunts and groans as they shifted positions.

As soon as he was free of his pants, the panting woman raised herself up and grabbed hold of his cock. She broke away to stare into his eyes as she rubbed the head along her lips. He felt her lubrication dripping down onto him, but it was short lived. As soon as the tip of him was covered in her juices, she rammed herself full onto him. Grabbing the back of his head, she resumed their heated kissing and thrust her hips back and forth against his pelvis. He felt her use his neck as leverage and grabbed her hips to help her frantic gyrations.

She never lifted up but ground her clit against his pubic bone while moving his penis inside her. He felt the heat of her passion and exertion radiate from her skin. It wasn't long before she clamped down around him and hummed tremulously into his mouth as her first peak crested over her. She shook and shuddered and he felt the tremors move through her body in waves.

Expecting her to slow down after her first climax, he was surprised when she kept going as soon as her body would let her. She threw her head back while still clinging to him and he watched swells of pink wash over her skin. Content to let her move as she needed, he enjoyed the show and the feeling of her cream flowing down his scrotum and ass.

Then she came a second and third time. He was afraid she would snap his neck as her back arched away from him and she hissed through clenched teeth. When she started to come down, he grabbed her shoulders and pulled her closer to him. Her body resisted at first, but he drew her into his chest. Her hips were still grinding away at him as if of their own accord.

Bringing her lips back to his, he reached around behind her and seized her ass. By now, he was starting to get close and wanted her to peak at least one or two more times before he finished. Reaching around her, he was able to get the fingers of one hand underneath them both to touch where they were connected. Her thrusting helped and he coated them in her slippery fluids. She seemed not to notice what he was doing until he starting to rub around her other entrance.

She jumped then but pushed back as if inviting him to do more. Encouraged, he stroked in circles around her opening until it started to loosen. When the tip of his middle finger entered her, she seized his shoulders and pushed back harder. Most of his finger slid past the tight ring of her ass. Still thrusting with her hips, she buried her face into his neck and grunted several times. Ashur felt the flood of her peak squirt between their bodies until she started slamming her sex up and down on him at which point it sprayed everywhere.