The Last Library

Continuing down the hallway, he was shown the location of Mera's room and, to his astonishment, one for himself. When he looked askance at her, she pointed to a light tunic and breeches that lay on the bed.

"I'm fairly certain those will fit you. I will have to return to the entrance to retrieve your armor and old clothes if you want them back. Please take a few moments to bathe and change and we will speak afterwards."

With that, she walked back towards the common area; leaving him to explore his new accommodations.

Mera proved to be a good judge of body size as the clothes fit well. He took them off again and moved back to the bathing room. In her brief tour, she had not shown him where to heat the water for his bath and, after searching for almost five minutes, he was forced to head for the door to ask for her help.

He was brought up short, however, when he saw his hostess standing in the doorway leaning against the frame and her arms crossed under her breasts again.

"Um...," he stammered lamely. "I cannot find the hot water pot, but I'm going to assume I need some sort of your magic to heat it for a bath."

She studied him for a moment more. Under her scrutiny, he suddenly felt an irrational urge to cover his crotch even though he was still wearing the same under-shorts she had seen him in for however many days he had been incarcerated. He resisted the urge and waited until she moved into the room and headed for the tub itself.

Ashur wasn't surprised when Mera turned a brass knob on the wall and water came pouring out. He had heard of such mechanisms several times though they were very rare. Usually attached to rooftop cisterns, the water came out cold and needed to be mixed with heated water from the kitchens.

What did shock him was when she twisted another knob and the water pouring from the wall began to steam. He was taken back yet again when she pulled on the final knob and the water stopped; only to flow once again from the tubing that he had taken note of earlier. Whatever fitting had been attached to the end of it turned a steady flow of water into something like a rain-shower.

"I sometimes forget what was truly lost in the cataclysm," Mera said sadly as she pushed the knob in again. The water went back to gushing from the lower spigot.

"I keep remembering the great cities, monuments, and machinery of our world, but tend to forget the little things that we took for granted in our daily lives." She stood once again and pulled open the door to a cabinet. Handing him a cloth and a small bar, she pointed out where the towels were kept and left; closing the door behind her.

Ashur stared at the door long after her exit. Before her demonstration of the water fixtures, she had been an oddly colored woman who could wield magic. Now, having seen a hint of the wonders of millennia ago, he thought he was finally started to truly grasp just how long and lonely her watch had been.

***

Emerging nearly half an hour later, he sheepishly returned to the room she had given him and got dressed. The soap bar had not been the rough, lumpy soldier's issue that he had been used to and it had slipped from his grasp into the tub. Bending over to pick it up, he had forgotten about the brass protrusions in the wall and had nearly inadvertently violated himself.

Trusting that the walls and the sound of the running water had muffled his startled yelp, he walked into the main living area to see Mera in the kitchen stirring a pot of stew. She glanced up at him and then quickly back down at the pot. The purple flash and her obviously losing battle not to smile dashed his hopes and he smiled ruefully back at her.

"That will take some getting used to," he groused. Then he sobered. "That's assuming I'm staying here for more than one night."

The smile vanished from her lips and she straightened. Her mouth set into a thin line and, squaring her shoulders, she motioned him to the couch and chairs. He looked at her then the pot and she shook her head.

"It will be fine," she said and made her own way to the sitting area. She waited until he had joined her and seemed a bit disappointed when he approached one of the chairs instead of the couch. He wasn't quite sure what to make of that but was experienced enough to have a small guess. After all, if he had been alone for so long, proximity to another person would be nice, even if you hadn't known them very long.

He mused about that as he turned to his seat and missed the flash of astonishment and gratitude that crossed Mera's face. By the time he had settled into the chair and given her his attention, the look was gone.

"I will send you home." She moved to the center of the couch and lowered herself deliberately onto the cushions.

"Had you truly been some barbarian, thief, or other miscreant, the collapse you witnessed would have still happened but with you inside and I needn't have worried about someone stumbling across your corpse.

"But you are neither barbarian, criminal, nor evil man and so I have decided that I will send you back to the world. It will take several weeks to gather the power to do so as the entrances and exits here were not meant for casual use.

"To be perfectly honest, they weren't meant to be used at all until the Chosen One arrived. Eshava never actually said so, but she gave me the impression that he or she would have the power to return the Library to the world again when it was time and I would be able to rest.

"Until then, you have the use of the room and the common areas. Should you wish to explore the Library," she waved at the unread books they had brought back from his cell, "please ask me first. As you have seen, it is easy to become lost without knowing our language.

"Your wounds have healed and there are areas I can show you where you may train or exercise or whatever soldiers do when not fighting or marching."

Mera rubbed her face with both hands before looking at him again.

"When the time comes, I will remove any memories of this place and your time here. You will most likely be found stumbling out of the woods you came from; confused and uncertain which will fade with time. You will return to the life you had...and I will return to mine."

She stared expectantly at him for a few moments and, when he said nothing, nodded sharply and returned to her stew. Ashur watched her go and then looked down at his clasped hands. He knew that it would be easy to return to his life. The fading cut on his head would explain any disorientation and lost time.

Finding his company might be harder, but eventually he would indeed find them and slot back into what was left after the battle. Perhaps he would be moved to another company. As he mused on, he wondered if perhaps it really was time to step aside and become an instructor. He would have to move his meager belongings from one barracks to another, but that was no problem. From there, he started to make more plans for his future after leaving this place.

Slowly, he noticed that the spoon stirring the pot was banging into the side more and more often. When he turned to the kitchen, Mera was angrily sloshing the stew into two bowls. He expected to see red in her complexion again, but it wasn't there. Her skin had turned almost black again. She looked up from the bowls and he glimpsed unshed tears before she turned away from him and hurried to her bedroom.

Not understanding what had set her off, he followed and stood outside her door. On the other side, he could hear muffled sobs. He cursed under his breath at not knowing and the sounds from her room cut off abruptly.

Ashur stood outside her door for a while longer, then turned, went to his own room, undressed, and lay down in the bed. He stared at the ceiling; unable to sleep.

***

The next morning, or what he assumed was morning since the walls were glowing brighter than they had when he went to bed, Ashur opened the door to his room and looked across the hall to Mera's room. Since her door had been shut during his tour, he had no idea if she habitually kept it open and so didn't know if she was still in there.

He had tossed back and forth despite the bed being much more comfortable than a cot or the dirt floor he had recently used for sleeping. He was certain that Mera's weeping had been at the prospect of being alone again but didn't know what to do about it. She had decided to send him back to the surface so she could resume her solitary wait for the prophesized "Chosen One" which definitely wasn't him.

On the other hand, he hadn't been lying when he told her he was tired of the battles and wars. Perhaps, during the weeks she needed to gather power, he could give her a respite from her loneliness. She was definitely attractive and, if she really was part of the group that built this place, she was certain to be intelligent too. She had already shown a capacity for empathy and compassion which increased his attraction even more.

He wandered into the kitchen and noticed that, sometime in the night, the stew and bowls had been cleaned up. He leaned a hip against the counter where they had been as he continued on with his musings.

What could he offer her? He knew for a fact that she was better educated and more intelligent than he was so he didn't think he would be a very stimulating partner conversationally.

What about physically?

Ashur was old enough to know that a few glances and blushes did not constitute an attraction strong enough for a physical relationship. How many times had he pulled young idiots who had misunderstood a look or light flirting away from barmaids before the tavern bouncer had become involved?

No. He would have to keep his own attraction under wraps so that she could feel comfortable around him. It might mean a few frustrated nights, but he could do it for the few weeks he would be here.

With his new resolve, he figured that he would just have to spend the next few days trying to find a way to make their time together as pleasant for her as possible.

As the morning wore on, he stayed in the common areas; heeding her warning not to explore alone. He spent the time familiarizing himself with the kitchen and wonderous bathroom. The plumbing still fascinated him and he had been delighted to find a similar setup above the kitchen sink. He realized, however, that he could find no firepit. He remembered that she had been stirring the boiling stewpot above grates in the counter, but with no understanding of how they operated, he decided it was best to leave well enough alone and let Mera explain.

Around midday, the azure woman's door opened and he heard her move to the bathroom. Taking a seat in the sitting room, he waited patiently for her to emerge. Looking rather disheveled when she did, she sat down in the chair next to his. Her blue eyes were tinged again, but this wasn't the color from her changing emotions. Somehow, he could tell that she had probably spent all night crying and had slept as poorly as he had.

Reaching across the small distance, she laid her hand on his.

"I feel as though I am constantly apologizing to you, so I guess one more won't hurt. I left you rather abruptly last night and I'm sorry. This has been rougher on me than I thought it would, but that doesn't mean I should make you deal with it."

Mera took in a deep breath and let it out explosively. Sitting up in her seat, she looked toward the kitchen.

"I'd like to make it up to you with some breakfast if you'll let me."

Ashur chuckled, thought of his plans to make their time together more special, and laid his own hand atop hers.

"I don't have much choice. I have no idea where you keep the food or how to operate your cooking mechanism. I was going to ask you about both so that I could make you something for dinner."

Her eyes brightened at his offer and she quickly stood to give him an in-depth explanation of the wonders of her house. Smiling to himself at her lighter mood, he rose to follow her.

***

The next day, Ashur learned the that the kitchen was almost the least amazing thing the house had to offer.

Once they had eaten, Mera had returned to the bathroom. She came back out some time later looking more refreshed and a great deal happier; bouncing to where he was starting to read one of the books she had brought to his cell. She reminded him of a young girl of twenty rather than a woman of...well, he knew better than to ask a woman her age.

Guiding him back out to the foyer, she turned to her right and headed for the door near the white statue. Ashur was somehow surprised to see that the platform was where they had left it. For some reason, his mind had assumed it would return to the floor above and they would have to call it back down.

On the other side of the door she led him to was, unbelievably, a house in the clouds. As she took him from room to room, he marveled at the magic it took so that he could look out and down on a mountain. When he asked her why she didn't just shove him out one of the windows instead of going through the hassle of gathering power for the entrance, she laughed and explained that the images he saw were simply illusions. There was indeed a small mansion on a distant mountaintop somewhere, but the spells on the windows only projected the view and did not create portals to pass through.

Each of the rooms were also luxuriously furnished with decorations, hangings, and paintings that he had only seen during a short stint with the Palace Guard. Chairs and couches may as well have been thrones for the craftsmanship put into them.

Mera also showed him the offices and bedrooms that had belonged to the administrators, architects, and mages that had lived here before the cataclysm. At one point, she sat on a large bed that could have slept his whole squad. She leaned back while recounting a tale of the man who used this room and Ashur's breath caught. Her head had tilted up as she rummaged through ancient memories and the angle of her neck and the swell of her upper breasts dragged his eyes away from her face. He wondered what it would be like to kiss that neck and breath softly on the spot where neck met shoulder.

He suddenly realized that she had stopped talking and her skin had taken on that pink shade again. His face must have betrayed him because her expression told him that she had a good idea of where his thoughts had been. Blushing slightly, he murmured an apology and asked her to resume her tale. After an awkward minute, she did, but stood beside the bed rather than sitting on it.

The tour of the administrator mansion had taken a good part of the afternoon so Mera decided to save the other door for the next day and they returned to the house. She kept sneaking glances his way and he began to wonder if he was in trouble. With her abilities, it wouldn't take much to render him unconscious for the next few weeks before summarily tossing him out the front door.

Since she had shown him the pantry where her food stuffs were stored, he reached in and started to gather ingredients. The soft floral scent was his only clue that she had come up behind him. He turned with an armful of vegetables and looked down at her. She gave him a little smile and reached past him to take a crock of seasoning from the shelf behind him.

Her proximity and the scent she exuded made him glad that he was holding his ingredients at waist level. Before he could stop it, his penis decided that it was a good time to wake up. He mumbled something and shuffled around her; grasping the vegetables in front of his growing hardness. He kept his back to her and set everything on the counter; turning back once to see a considering look from her before she also stepped away from the pantry.

By the time he finished chopping everything for the meal, his cock had returned to a flaccid state though he knew he would need to do something about it later on when he was alone.

All through the meal prep and dinner, they talked. He told her stories of his youth and the people he knew. She described what life had been like before the cataclysm. Ashur was amazed by the things that her society had been able to do through the combination of technology and magic and constantly asked questions which Mera was happy to answer. He got the feeling that talking about the general aspects of it lightened her mood. She only drooped a little when the topics of her immediate friends and team were brought up so he would steer the conversation away as soon as was politely feasible.

Bit by bit, the walls began to dim and Mera stood to clear the table. Waving Ashur to stay, she gathered the dishes into a neat pile and set them in the large sink. He watched her intently as she went about her task; her eyes focused on what she was doing, but her skin was starting to take on that pink hue again. He was coming to find that shade adorable and wondered again what the full significance of it meant. His cock started to shift as the thoughts of kissing her neck and breasts from earlier returned and made him glad he was sitting down.

By her expression, she had been lost in her own thoughts, but suddenly shot a startled glance at him and then back down again. The pink melded together with purple and then came back with a vengeance and she dropped the utensil she was been holding.

While her skin changes were doing amazing things for his libido, he started to rise to ask her what was wrong and if he could help. He stopped himself quickly however to avoid having to explain the bulge he was sporting. On the other hand, he didn't want to seem rude and blind to her difficulties.

"Are you alright?" he asked hoping that the answer wouldn't require him to move and embarrass them both.

Mera jumped and squeaked as though he had pinched her.

"Umm..no! I'm fine! I was just lost in thought and you startled me!" Her eyes darting back and forth between the table in front of him and his face, she hurriedly turned back to her chore and finished cleaning; leaving the dishes on a drying rack.

"This has been a lot of excitement for me today," she stammered," and I didn't get a whole lot of sleep last night so I'm going to turn in early."

Before he could reply, she spun away from him and walked quickly down the hall to the bathroom. Moments later, he heard her cross the hall to her own room and he breathed a sigh of relief. While the reason for her consternation wasn't entirely clear, he was glad for her absence so that he could try to coax his cock into a more manageable state. The pants she had given him fit well, but he was stretching them quite a bit in the crotch right now.

Finally, he felt comfortable standing from the table and returning the now dry dishes to their places in the cupboards and drawers. Looking around, he decided that it was probably a good idea to make his own way to bed.

Ashur entered the bathroom and her floral smell washed over him like a wave. He cursed under his breath as his manhood stood at attention once again. Trying to empty his bladder at this point would be difficult, if not impossible. He shook his head, grabbed one of the washing cloths and headed for his room.

He stopped when he heard a noise from Mera's room that sounded vaguely like a moan. He shuffled closer to be certain and heard her squeak again. After that, he could hear nothing else from behind the door no matter how hard he strained his ears.

Giving up with a small smile, he turned to his own room. He had his own needs to meet.

***

The next morning, Ashur found Mera already awake and cooking breakfast. She had changed from her usual brown peasant garb to something with a few more frills. The pale cream dress had light blue embroidered hems which only served to accentuate her sapphire skin. This one rode lower on her shoulders and flowed outward more when she turned to some other part of the kitchen.