Page 78 of At the Mercy of Midnight
Amelia stood there, looking puzzled, as though he had said something cryptic. Silas reached up to brush a hand through his hair, turning away from her. His thoughts felt jumbled and chaotic.
“We aren’t finished talking about those runes,” he said, hearing the dullness in his own voice, “but for now I’m going to the Spire to look around. Aurora was sending those journals, so once we have them, I’m hoping we can find some clarity on the bond.”
Silas moved for the door, half expecting her to stop him, but she stayed silent.
He left without looking back.
NINETEEN
Silas spent the afternoon holed up in his own corner booth in the Lux Spire’s grand library. He’d used a public Wayglass to contact Aurora, reassuring her of his safety following his rather thrilling exit. Aurora had confirmed she would be sending the journals and some of Silas’ belongings his way.
If he had expected Amelia to find him in the library after their encounter, he continued to be disappointed.
Silas sighed, pushing yet another stack of books aside, having found no mention of the Midnight Realm, the blades, or pair bonding. It seemed the phenomena were woefully under researched, which did not help in the slightest.
He stood, wandering back to the stacks.
The library was an absolute marvel of architecture and knowledge. Called the beating heart of Ivory City’s intellectual elite, it spanned multiple floors and was the most revered repository of books, scrolls and arcane texts. Like the rest of the city, it was built from ivory-hued stone, supported by towering columns and a great domed ceiling inlaid with shimmering silver constellations, giving the impression of standing beneath an eternal night sky.
The expanse of polished marble floors was softened by the sprawling rugs laid out in every entry and aisle. Enormous stained-glass windows filtered weak sunlight into the space, casting shifting patterns across the labyrinthine shelves.
Silas turned into an aisle he hadn’t ventured into yet, browsing the spines. The air smelled of parchment and ink, a combination he loved. It was the fragrance that spoke of centuries of accumulated knowledge, reminding him of hours spent with his father surrounded by books.
He plucked up a few tomes that might be of interest, one in particular felt promising: ‘Legends of the Lost Gemino Tribe’. He held the small stack in his arms and walked back out to the main hall, glancing around in awe at the infinitely lined towering bookshelves that reached for the ceiling. He walked past sliding ladders and glass cases runed with magic to preserve the contents of decay, holding ancient tomes in dead languages or artefacts from first civilisations.
He passed a glyph-locked door, hiding the restricted archives, only accessible to the high scholars. It was said to host knowledge of the most powerful and dangerous, but everyone was tight-lipped about the actual contents held behind those doors. Silas had a feeling there would be some important answers somewhere in there, and had even tried the handle, only to be zapped painfully.
He made his way back to the study tables scattering the outskirts, each laden with glowing arcane lamps.
Silas sat quietly, spreading out the books he had taken. The silence in the library was almost sacred, making him overly conscious not to make noise. The silence was only broken by the hushed murmurs of scholars, the light scratching of pens on paper and the occasional fluttering of pages when turned a little too eagerly.
He skimmed through the books, wasting away another few hours.
It wasn’t until he was thumbing through the final book, when he happened across a few sentences that held some relevance. His heart hammered in his chest as he read the lines a few times, before he marked the page and swiped the book from the table.
Silas ordered the book under Amelia’s name before leaving the Spire in a hurry.
He knocked twice at her door but didn’t wait for a response before pushing it open and walking inside.
Amelia was cross-legged on her bed, surrounded by open books. She looked up the moment he entered with a startled expression.
“You’ve been gone awhile,” she remarked.
“Observant as always,” he quipped, moving over to her. He eyed the open tomes in front of her. “Where did all these come from?”
“I visited Halpert. Borrowed some books.”
He raised an eyebrow. “You told him?”
She shook her head, shutting the book she had been reading. “No, but I asked about the history of pair bonding. He thought these ones may help. He might be a tad suspicious.”
“Doesn’t matter,” Silas said, sitting on the edge of the bed. “I was wondering…do you think Halpert might be able to grant us access to the restricted archives?”
Amelia twisted her lips to the side. “He’s never had access, no one I know does, except…”
Silas raised his brows.
She sighed, glancing away. “Uh, my father does.”
