Page 12 of Bright Soul

I had no idea how, but it was Braza, and her presence expanded out rapidly through the room and likely the library as a whole.“Emergency protocol initiated: temporary placement of an ancient powercore. Reinforcing all existing spells…”Braza projected this outward, and Aurora’s mouth fell open.

Geo released us both as the shaking beneath our feet stopped. A door slammed, and in ran Ben, followed closely by Roe and the rest of our friends and coven. “Hey,” Aurora triedto shout, but she was breathless. “Only librarians and gargoyles this close to the powercore.”

I whispered Braza’s name, awe keeping my face slackened. How could I have thought the other powercore compared to the light and power she put off? Her magic flowed from her in waves, like a beating heart.

“It is quite all right. I have welcomed this young coven in my halls before. As I used to see you daily, small shimmer. Fret not, I have secured the creatures attempting to escape. Come attune with me so we can hold this library against…”Braza faltered for a moment.“Hold this library for as long as we can with the few resources that remain here.”

“I didn’t know you could switch places with another powercore like this,” I said. And my thoughts added,Aren’t you afraid Myuna will come for you?

“In my prince’s absence, you need me more than ever. We shall fight. Together,”she answered. No one else seemed to hear her reassurance or feel the way her power curled around me like an embrace.

“Together,” I murmured aloud in agreement.

“You will see how literal that is soon. For now, I must meet with the three librarians who remain here, and you need to claim a place to rest. Might I suggest the rooms on floor negative two?”She hummed, adding as an afterthought,“The living spaces set aside on floor negative one bear signs of occupation. I don’t think they have grounds to complain if you borrow their things. Clothes, especially.”

I looked down at myself and the wrinkled and torn formal robe and pants combination I was still wearing. She was definitely telling me to change into something else.

As I turned to go, motioning to my friends to come along, a woman who looked like she could be Steven’s grandmother stalked into the chamber. She had a similar brown skin tone andthe first touches of gray through her dark hair. The cat shifter peered around her ankles as if he were a familiar taking shelter behind his witch.

She wore a sweater and jeans but carried an ornate silver sword in one hand and had a book flapping just over her shoulder obediently. Her brows drew in a surprised scowl. “Is it true? An ancient powercore just arrived?”

“That is correct,”Braza answered for us.

The older librarian seemed to pull a face, but her voice broke as she said, “Thank the Goddess. We were bound to be overrun without some kind of help.”

“Do I smell a round of firings once this is all over, boss?” asked the last librarian as he sauntered in. He could’ve been Lars Eriksson’s American twin, with sideswept blond hair and a leanly muscled build. His sword was sheathed at his side and his stance cocky. A low whistle escaped him as he eyed Braza’s glow.

The boss in question smacked her lips. “You’re not coming any closer to my job, Jonah, if that’s what you’re really asking.”

Roe cleared her throat, stepping forward with her hand extended. “Sorry to interrupt, ma’am. Since you’re in charge, I wanted to let you know who we are and why we’re here.”

“Yes, I was wondering what you all were doing this close to the powercore,” she commented, shaking Roe’s hand. “Leona Whiteside, head librarian.”

We gathered for a group introduction, and even Braza presented herself formally. Leona seemed like a strict woman who didn’t take much shit yet had seen too much of it lately. She still was visibly relieved that our group included another librarian and a gargoyle. She offered us rooms, same as Braza had, and accepted a partnership with Ashbough Protective Services through Roe.

“If the monster eating corpses on the nightly news is the reason our dimensional aberrations are suddenly gaining thepower to wake from stasis, we will need any defenders you can spare. Preferably people who won’t hesitate to slay anything that tries to escape,” she said.

I only hesitated for a few moments before telling her that that monster was Myuna, the goddess of said aberrations. Jonah paled beside her, while her eyes flashed with defiance. They exchanged a glance before Leona said, “Then we must initiate a new protocol. Please, put me in contact with your leader. I believe we must do something quite desperate.”

She told us not to worry about it for now and practically chased us out of the room so we could claim places to rest for the evening. I, at least, would not be leaving the library once it was after dark, knowing a vampire was hunting me in Myuna’s name.

Braza reached out to me, whispering the idea that’d come to Leona.“She was not willing to tell you that the only way to keep Myuna from summoning the servants and magic waiting for her in this library is to destroy it all.”

I swallowed thickly, thinking that we locked the monsters away because they were dangerous, unknowable, or both. And the books and tools of occult use were kept here for careful study, considering they could never be replaced. To set all of that alight represented a huge loss of knowledge.

“I know, brightest of souls. But we must mitigate the threats we can.”

I trembled as I thought of how unprepared my friends were to fight the creatures that even a fully staffed library had preferred to keep in containment rooms. I couldn’t lose any of them, especially not after having to leave Phaeron with Myuna and an uncertain fate.

7

PHAERON

As I stood there with Myuna, the ache of my injuries prevented me from focusing on counting the heartbeats thrumming within me. Time passed with the madness of the Void. Hours felt like minutes; moments felt like days. The goddess must have taken the chill of it with her for time to dilate in such a confounding way.

There was a Void between dimensions, an endless blackness. The closest thing humans had come to understanding the Void as a concept was through their study of the celestial bodies. It was similar to space, butthingsstill existed out in space, hanging there suspended with vast distances between them. As much as the Void held the illusion of nothingness, it also retained an echo of all that touched it. It was a chamber where voices and experiences remained, slowly twisting into nightmarish form.

I’d had a few brushes with the Void before, even though I was not of the Vrassorm tribe, the Void-touched. I’d had a friend once who was, and he was excellent at making the darkness answer to his whims. The same friend had helped me guide ourpeople through the Void to Earth. It’d felt like walking through an endless tunnel, the atmosphere cold, cold,cold.

---