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FLOOR 38: THE MISTY WOOD
This episode of The Library starts in the mostly dark, with slow tendrils of pre-morning grey drifting across the screen. Fox’s bright eyes soon come into focus, then the rest of her face, as she stares into the distance. Her ears slowly rotate back and forth, keeping steady watch as her companions sleep.
It’s a small camp, with Prince Wing and his followers away on errands from his Royal Father. The only two other bedrolls are those of The Accidental Sword and Faithful Margaret. The Accidental Sword is sleeping deeply, heavy arms crossed over his face.
Faithful Margaret is using Fox’s thigh as a third pillow, in addition to the packable down one she carries everywhere and a roll of clothing she’s repurposed. Fox gently disentangles and sorts her hair with practiced motions as she sleeps. It’s easier than usual, with the long dexterous fingers she has this week, and there are not yet fire golems infesting it to dissuade such efforts.
Fox stiffens at a noise, hands tightening, and Faithful Margaret gives a protesting snort-whuff in her sleep. Fox relaxes, intentionally, disentangling her fingers from her friend’s hair to begin to weave a spell. She holds it, adding details with swirls of her fingers, and sinking the sharp edge of her canine against the split in her lip from where she was punched last episode until it begins to bleed again, so if she needs to curse-speak, she’ll have blood in it.
The intruder’s just Ptolemy Krill. She sighs, quiet as she can, but doesn’t disengage the spell -- pinching it down between her thumb and forefinger in case he’s not who he seems. Or is exactly who he seems, but not who she thought. It’s like the difference between having a loaded gun pointed at someone, and just having it unholstered.
Ptolemy grins awkwardly (Ptolemy does most things awkwardly) and sidles forward, drawing a piece of paper from his pocket and handing it to Fox.
Fox raises her eyebrows, not taking it.
Ptolemy looks affronted.
After a short moment, his affront turns to concern, and he pulls the paper back to himself, unfolding it furtively and poking his head down to check it’s not a deadly poem. Reassured, he looks affronted again.
He mouths something, gesturing dramatically, and the subtitles say IT’S NOT MINE.
Fox smirks. She reaches forward, taking it, letting the spell dissolve. After she looks at the paper, she has to stand – nudging Faithful Margaret, who sits up. On her sitting up, The Accidental Sword in the background does as well, as if he’s been up for the whole exchange. (He has.) He starts to pull on his boots.
“Hi, Ptolemy,” Faithful Margaret says in the background, voice still drowsy but pleasant, and he waves down at her, not quite looking so he doesn’t see down her billowing night shirt.
Fox stops by the tree she’s using as her bookshelf at this campsite, grabs a book, and flips through it. “Ah,” she says, triumphantly. “Laryngitis.” Then her face falls. “Someone’s cursed The Norns with laryngitis!”
“Well, shit,” The Accidental Sword says at the same time as Faithful Margaret gasps – “Fox, the Invisible Nightclub re-opens tomorrow night.”
MEZZANINE: THE INVISIBLE NIGHTCLUB
The Invisible Nightclub is still closed for repairs when they reach it, but Skuld’s waiting for them with a tall mug of something steaming and herbal. She looks terrible and, on spotting The Accidental Sword with them, conflicted. They only broke up five episodes ago, though it was on pretty good terms.
“I am so sorry, Skuld,” Faithful Margaret says, with sudden and genuine sorrow as they get closer, walking ahead. “Prince Wing and I’ve been looking forward to your re-opening for weeks! This must be so stressful.”
Skuld looks surprised, and then a small smile crosses her face.
“Is there anyone we can talk to for context?” Fox asks, touching Faithful Margaret’s elbow in gratitude.
YEAH, Skuld mouths along with the subtitles, and they follow her back to The Well. The Accidental Sword keeps to the back of the group, trying to look casual.
Urth’s offices in The Well overlook the lobby to The Free People’s World Tree Library, roots outlining the checkout desks. In one episode, The Well sprung a leak, and Prince Wing had to hire a giant plumber to fix it. Most of the episode was about infrastructure, home care, appropriate insurance measures, and preventative maintenance. The fan sites are still unsure about what the showrunners had been trying to accomplish. The leak damaged the Mezzanine’s baseboards, though, which is why the Invisible Nightclub had closed.
Urth’s sitting on the edge of the stone well, desk pulled up to her, writing something in a vibrant green marker. She turns it around.
WE CAN GET THE BASTARDS LATER
JUST WIN US SOME ENCHANTED HONEY
THE STAIRWELL BETWEEN FLOORS 6 AND 27
Fox leaves Ptolemy Krill, Faithful Margaret, and the Accidental Sword in the stairwell to prepare to breach the hives. She digs a hat out of her pack and clamps it over her ears as she climbs the stairs. It’s not much of a disguise, but it’s about as much of a disguise as Fox ever does. And going completely undisguised into a den of pirate-magicians seems… impolite.
She checks her sword, loosening it slightly from its grip, and pushes open the doors of the Sea Taverns.
FLOOR 27: THE ICE SEAS
Two Devils, like Fox, never looks the same twice – but that doesn’t make them hard to find. They’re the one at the bar with a knife tip pressing against a tall pale man’s throat, hissing calm and quiet instruction – until they notice Fox, grab the man’s shirt front and push him away before snapping the knife closed, pocketing it, and leaning against the counter casually, all five-foot-two of them.
“Hey,” Two Devils says, a smirk starting across their face. “Euphoria?”
“For the road,” Fox says, but her smile is just as smug.
Two Devils, the dashing but treacherous pirate-magician, owes Fox a life debt for saving their soul-ship from an enchanted ice storm, but occasionally attempts to wrangle up trouble to make it easier to repay or cancel that debt. Pirate-magicians have a very weird, but very insistent, concept of honor.
They have a bargain – Two Devils doesn’t go out on the seas while the debt is in place, and Fox doesn’t make them travel with the group. Really, the latter is safer for everyone. Except maybe the current tavern owners -- it looks like there’s an even chance Two Devils is going to end up staging a coup, because ship captains don’t idle easy.
FLOOR 6: THE HIVES
Faithful Margaret is weaving bee-armor out of her hair and magic. By the time they reach her, the armor is glowing a soft red with caged power.
Fox is the sneakiest of the group (being a fox), followed by Ptolemy Krill (who is too uncomfortable with people noticing him to draw attention to himself), followed by Faithful Margaret (who is exactly as sneaky as she plans to be at any given moment, just typically plans to Not Be Sneaky At All), followed by Two Devils (who feels extremely shortchanged whenever they go unnoticed), followed by The Accidental Sword (who tries, but just isn’t cut out for it).
But bee-armor takes time (and magic, and hair). And…
“I’m the shortest,” Two Devils says, eyeing the armor as it takes shape.
Two Devils is the shortest.
Which is why the pirate-magician is dangling ten stories over the floor, with a dripping box of enchanted honeycomb, when the Forbidden Books attack.
After –
Fox lashes out with her blade and her claws, almost before the Forbidden Books are on them, drawing blood and drawing rune
The Accidental Sword lays into them with his blade and his strange ill-luck
Ptolemy Krill pulls out a poem in large print that he swings close to their faces, forcing them to fall back, eyes closed, lest they read it
Faithful Margaret knocks Fox off of her feet to capture the spear inches from her back, grabbing it with both hands and dragging the Forbidden Book off balance as she looses it, looks above, and throws the spear up as she tosses herself down
The Hive wells out of their home with the buzz of an angry motorbike mob that’s just discovered flight
–the room smells of smoke, of burning hair- and blood- magic, of overdue fines sacrificed to appease the Hive’s anger.
“Yeah,” The Accidental Sword says, nudging the least-dead looking Forbidden Book with the toecap of his boot. “This sect’s all toast.”
Ptolemy Krill and he only survived via mischance, of the type that can almost be relied on when it comes to The Accidental Sword, but they both still seem a bit sore about it in how they’re ignoring Faithful Margaret, who’s carefully cataloging what each Forbidden Book is carrying. She’s actively ignoring any ill-feelings, with an airy pragmatism.
Fox sits with Two Devils, crushing the comb into vials that will hold the honey’s enchantment through the stairwell’s sapping energy that pulls enchantment from most things no-longer living. Two Devils reaches out, and steals a swipe of blood from her lip, where it is still welling.
Fox watches them, as they consider it.
“Next time?” they ask, and then smirk like they don’t mean it.
“Sounds like a bad plan,” she says, and grins back. Her lip cracks wider, but who cares, who cares, there’s more than enough enchanted honey to heal up before they leave. “What would I do without a honey-thief?”
MEZZANINE: THE INVISIBLE NIGHTCLUB
They make it back forty-five minutes before the re-opening, and hastily wash off the worst of the grime with Well-water. The Accidental Sword only sticks around afterward because it would be more awkward to leave, wouldn’t it, and Two Devils gets into a conversation about bar management with Verthandi, while Fox goes to find herself some Euphoria.
Soon enough, she's joined by Prince Wing, who's looking for Faithful Margaret, but slings his arm around her and takes a swig of her Euphoria when she offers it.
"You smell terrible," he tells her, with some real concern. Prince Wing, as everyone knows, only smells like rosemary and fresh bread.
Fox relaxes against him for a moment. "We're fine. Saved the day, even." She straightens, and smirks. "Enjoy your date."
Two hours later, as The Norns sing Everybody Wants To Rule The World for the sixth time, the breathy-screechy sounds of their restored voices and the dog toy accompaniment stars to blend into a haze. Fox stops dancing to turn and pinpoint where Prince Wing and Faithful Margaret are. They’ve broken out of a kiss and are wide-eyed, waiting.
The message is for them, too. She pushes towards them through the crowd.
IN THE HIDDEN HOUSE
IN THE
The rest dissolves into static for her, though she thinks Prince Wing is hearing it from his expression. Then:
306.874
Pale, Prince Wing turns to look at her.
“Parent-child relationships,” Fox says, softly. And then, “I’m sorry.”
Story arcs with missing mothers rarely end well. But those are different episodes.