//------------------------------// // The Library // Story: As The City Sleeps // by KarmaPolice //------------------------------// I slept again on the ride. The same dream as before, where I was trapped in place and unable to move while the mage slaughtered all my friends. This time I watched as Shift stumbled towards me, covered in blood, one wing dangling limply. He reached out for me but the mage cast a hellish immolation spell at him, consuming him in fire. The mage cackled as Shift screamed. I woke up immediately alert and smacked my head on the booth’s table. Shift looked at me with concern. “Dreams?” He asked. I nodded, still sweating. The dream had been so vivid. The actual event was a blur but these dreams were horrific. Shift gave me a sympathetic look. I wondered if his mind had been plagued by nightmares, too. I shook my head and sat up in the bench. “Where are we?” I asked, looking out the window. “Middle of nowhere.” Said Shift as we looked out at the fields and woods going past. “But I think we’re almost there. You were out for almost eight hours.” I nodded. “I feel like I could sleep eight more. But I don’t want to experience that again.” Shift nodded. “It’s going to be tough for a while. But you’ll get through it. We’ll have our retribution.” I gazed out the window as the train chugged through a patch of farmland. I had never left the urban sprawl, so this new scenery was completely foreign to me. I saw several laborers out there, pulling plows and harvesting crops. Everything was so green. My mind was pulled away from the scenery as Shift started giving more instructions. “Okay. Now, these small towns work a lot differently from the big city, kid. Everyone there knows one another. So we’re going to limit our movements in the daytime. And, this should go without saying, but don’t talk to anyone.” I scoffed at that. It annoyed me to no end how Shift still treated me like some stupid foal. I had been with him for some of our biggest jobs. He continued. “We’re here for one thing only. Tonight we’ll scope it out, find out what this place has got for security, and hit the planning table. If all goes well we should be able to pull the job by tomorrow night and be out of here.” I nodded. “Makes sense to me. Figure there’s going to be barriers?” I didn’t want to let it show, but I was not exactly in tip-top shape, as my eight-hour power nap had not done much to quell the constant dizziness and exhaustion. The barrier stunts from the Institute job had taken a lot out of me, and the explosion-filled bonanza the following night hadn’t done me any favors either. Shift shrugged. “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. I’d love a week to case it, or at least enough time to determine habits, but that’s time we don’t have. If the Guard has caught onto us, they’ll eventually find out we boarded this train. The town doesn’t have a garrison but they could easily send out a detachment for us.” The sun was being set as the train pulled into the station. As we stepped off I was taken aback by several things- but mostly the air. It tasted good in a way that I never imagined was possible. I could have stood there for a while just breathing but Shift immediately herded me away from the platform. “Remember what I said, kid. Stay sharp. We’re going to wait until everyone goes to sleep and then go find our target.” I looked around- this sleepy town didn’t have much of a nightlife. Back in the city, some unsavory characters tended to come out after dark. Like us. I thought. Not that we really compared. While our entire mission was taking things that didn’t belong to us, we did have a certain code of conduct that your average street thug wouldn’t abide by. Shift had studied the map on the way and we snuck through the streets, headed for the target. I wished I had my stealth gear. Even with that disadvantage, I found my spirits slightly raised by the thrill of another heist underway. I didn’t like the planning stages much- Lifter was the one who always took care of that. Shift and I liked to do the actual thievery. There was little in the way of cover- the ramshackle houses were spaced erratically, leaving no room for alleyways and shadows- our forte. Shift nudged me. “That’s it.” I scanned the buildings. “Which one?” “The tree.” Holy shit, he wasn’t kidding. The library was built into a tree. I had never seen anything like this, so I was forced to stare at it for a few seconds. “We’re breaking into a tree?!?” I asked, incredulous. Shift grinned. “I’ve never seen anything like it either. Welcome to the sticks, junior. Miss the city yet?” I mulled that over. Here, the air was fresh and the citizenry was unassuming. In the city, you choked on smog and anyone you met on the street was liable to stab you for your coin purse. Nah, not missing it so far. Typically we’d post up in an adjacent building for days on end, observing the target, and finding out the habits and idiosyncrasies of its inhabitants. I couldn’t stand that part. I want to get in there and get it done. I knew Shift was that way, too, but he’d never admit it. But as it was, we had no way to do any recon except for hugging the wall of a house and trying to stay in the shadows. Shift watched the windows, trying to make out movement, while I gazed out at the starry sky. I wish I knew invisibility. I was already extraordinarily talented given my background, thank you very much, but the complexities of these expert-level spells escaped me. Even simple barrier breaks. I still couldn’t get over the embarrassment of fainting that night. Not that it matters now. I thought grimly. Everyone that saw that happen is gone now. Well, everyone except for the one next to me, watching the library. But I had my doubts that he’d care. “Movement” Hissed Shift, drawing my attention to the second-story window. A silhouette moved past the glass, and the room went dark. Shift looked up to note the approximate position of the moon and jotted it down on a piece of paper. “Looks like bedtime is right about now” he mumbled. I continued staring at the place. It was so easy looking. Nothing compared to what I was used to. We should just move in now and get this over with. “Why the hell don’t we just turn this place over right now and get it done?” I said. Shift caught the impatience in my voice. “What, you just want to go blundering in there like some first-year thief? We have no damn idea what’s waiting for us in there.” “Come on, Shift! It’s just some shitty small-town library! I doubt they’ve invested much into security.” “Cool it, will you? We haven’t gotten this far by being careless.” “Yeah, well, we usually go for banks and government buildings. Not two-bit bookhouses. Why don’t we just get it over with?” Shift let out a long sigh. “Damn it, kid. You’re gonna get us in a bad situation…” I snorted. “By who, the librarian? Let’s go take the damn books already!” Now I had gotten myself fired up. Before Shift had a chance to protest further, I started moving towards the tree. I kept to the shadows and found myself at the base of it. Shift appeared next to me and hissed with a tense whisper- “Damn it kid, don’t go taking off like that!” “You said it yourself, we don’t have long. Let’s go!” I fired back. Shift shook his head. “Okay, since you don’t have any stealth gear on you’re gonna stay by the window and keep a lookout once we get inside. There’s no barriers, right?” I studied the window above our heads. I felt no magical energy coming from it- and I didn’t see the tell-tale shimmer either. I shook my head. Shift ever-so-slowly leveraged the window open. I noticed a look of surprise on his face when he noticed the ground-floor window wasn’t even locked. In fact, it was already ajar slightly. He made it in without a sound, and then stuck his leg out the window, giving me something to hold onto as I hoisted myself inside, too. The moonlight shining in gave me a rudimentary view of the room- it was larger than I thought it would be. Tall bookshelves lined the walls and I could tell whoever organized them was pretty uptight- they were categorized and sorted with precision. Shift made for the ancient history section. He began looking through them, struggling to make out titles in the low light. I watched out the window. Not a soul out on the street, and every light was out. Shift made a psst noise, drawing my attention. I silently moved over to where he was. “I think we’re wasting our damn time here. I don’t see anything.” Fuck. There had to be something…! I started looking through the tomes myself. A collective history of Magic, no… Ancient History, Volume Three, too general…. Magical Organizations of the Eastern Territories? I withdrew that one and opened the cover. There was no date but I could tell it was old. Hopefully it was old enough. I flipped to the middle and struggled to make out the text. There! “Manehattan Institute was established in the second age as the first official college for magical studies. It has been in possession of several artifacts of immense importance, including several that pre-date written history.” “Shift, I think this is it!” I said excitedly, happy that my plan had worked. Shift looked anxious. “Bag it, and take whatever else looks like it could be the one. We’re spending too long in here..” I returned to the shelf, stuffing volumes into Shift’s bag- anything that looked important and old. I was just noticing how sizeable a dent I had made into the shelf when I heard the one thing you never want to hear on a job. “What are you doing in here?!?”