The Librarians Watch Novels & Stories

"You are the 'Rot' in the library. You must be 'Excised' so that the Great Record can remain pure." Audrey stood on the bridge of her half-faded ship, her eyes burning with a silver-and-gold fire. "The library is 'Dead', Librarian. A book that is never read is just a stack of paper. A world that never changes is just a tomb. We didn't come to excise you. We came to 'Open-the-Windows'."

The library was huge, stretching two stories, filled with rare leather-bound volumes and banned books that I was amazed to see were in existence. I started at the bottom shelf, my fingers running over the spines. Observing everything. I was looking for anything related to fire, old records, or criminal history. Anything to connect the phoenix pendant to the men who killed my parents. An hour into the work, the library door opened, and Lucian walked in. He looked even more severe than yesterday, his face pale and drawn. He was holding a stack of files and moved with a careful, almost stiff slowness. "Elara." He didn't ask what I was doing; he clearly knew. "You're still here."