Page 24 of Legends and Librarians
Roan sighed. “Maybe he just doesn’t have one. You know, like he’s a side character?”
“What did you just call me?” the Demon Lord hissed, shadows swirling around him. “I am nobody’s side character.”
Roan and the Demon Lord looked like they were about to duke it out until Oren butted in to examine the shadows, turning this way and that as they followed him.
“Ohhhh, look at those shadows,” Oren said, poking and prodding the Demon Lord. “How do you create them? Are you really a demon? What’s that like?”
I winced. “Ummm...Oren? Maybe you shouldn’t poke a Demon Lord.”
“Right.” He took a step back. “Sorry about that. I’ve been told I’m overeager sometimes.”
The Demon Lord crossed his arms, but reigned in hisshadows. “You humans seem to keep multiplying. Why?”
“Good question.” Even if it was phrased horribly. I turned to Oren, tilting my head. “Why are you here?”
Oren readjusted his glasses. “I talked to a dryad that tends to magical libraries. She gave me a device that gauges the trees’ magic levels so we can see where this library falls on the magic scale.”
I hadn’t expected him to come all the way here to look into it, but I was grateful. I could always count on his need to solve a puzzle.
“Come take a look then,” I said, motioning to the middle of the library. “The tree might look withered, but it’s still alive, I know that much.”
Roan hung back, keeping his eye on the Demon Lord as I showed Oren the book tree. Roan didn’t seem to trust the story spirits. I was happy he was being careful, but even the Demon Lord hadn’t done anything to actually hurt us.
I didn’t think any of the story spirits meant us harm, but if I couldn’t convince Roan of that, how was I supposed to convince anyone else? I worried my lip, picturing patrons screaming and running for the hills after seeing the story spirits. What was I supposed to do with them when I reopened the library?
“Whoa,” Oren said as we approached the tree, “that really doesn’t look healthy.”
Its dry, leafless branches reminded me of a tree from a horror novel. But it was still this library’s book tree and I loved it, just as much as when it was bright and full of books. No matter what it looked like, it was the heart of this library.
Oren pulled a clear crystal from his pocket and held it up to the book tree. “The brighter green it shines, the more magic the tree has.”
We waited a bit until faint light brightened the crystal, but instead of green, a kaleidoscope of colors burst out.
“And what’s rainbow mean?” I asked, trying not to wince.
The shifting colors illuminated Oren’s face, glinting off his glasses. “It means this tree isn’t running on normal library magic. It’s filled with wild magic instead!” His eyes widened as he examined it, moving the crystal this way and that. “But even that’s running low.”
“Is it fixable?” I asked softly, hating even bringing it up. “Or is it...”
I couldn’t even bring myself to say it: dying.
Oren ran his hand over the bark. “It’s alive, but it really needs a blessing from the story gods. Sooner rather than later.”
Libraries received their blessings at the end of the month-long Tales and Tomes Festival as a final ceremony to close the celebration out and honor all the new books that were created.
“But the festival’s already started.” Panic gripped me like a vise. “And these repairs will take months, not weeks. Can’t we find a way to keep it going until next year’s festival? I’ll read every day, all day, if that’s what it takes.”
Oren sighed, shaking his head. “Reading will help, but not enough to last until next year. It’s like using old magic crystals. You can refill them as muchas you want, but eventually, they just won’t store magic like they used to and they’ll need to be replaced. The blessing will make this tree new again. That’s the only thing that will save it.”
I sank onto the floor near the tree, feeling the urge to be near it, touching its bark. “There has to be another way.”
“The dryads gave me something,” Oren said, “but it’s just a band-aid, not a fix. You’ll still need to participate in the festival.”
The festival wasn’t something you just haphazardly joined. It was a huge event, full of people writing new books and celebrating old ones. It was a sacred month where everyone connected to the story gods more than any other time of the year. If I opened this library and nobody showed up, the storygods would take that as a sign.
But Oren wasn’t giving me much choice. I had to make this work somehow. The library needed me to.
“Okay,” I said, “please help however you can.”
