Borrowing, not Stealing

[Jilitse]

Borrowing, not Stealing
59th of Spring 510 AV
Can you handle it?

It's been a while since Jilitse last looked so defiant. The eternal smile was still there, but there was a hidden smirk, a treacherous plan. Were a couple of weeks truly enough preparation?

Her mind frantically went back and forth her purpose, her duty, and her plan. It was very crude at best, and there was no room for failure. It was her life -and in some twisted way, Mashaen's life, too - on the line. Slowly she was beginning to believe there was a need for her to pray to Priskil, not only because she needed the goddess' help in her quest against Sagallius, but also because she needed the faith and the hope to start the journey. How does one mediocre nuit rise up to make her own directive?

Jilitse was walking around the Citadel, greatly burdened by her personal task. She stared out the island - out where uncertainty awaits. Adventure would be too dangerous, there were a lot of threats to a nuit's existence outside of Sahova. But to stay in Sahova was just as same as waiting for death to come, and there would be more sense getting the best out of life before dying.

A bright burst of light before fading into black.

The Sahovan mages were an undead army of wizards striving to overthrow the Suvan empire in favor of Alahea. They were created because of Zarik Mashaen's Grand Oath to Sagallius, former Court-Mage of Alahea, now god of manipulation. So strong was the power of a Grand Oath that the Citadel in Sahova had survived many centuries, and together with the island, countless nuits who continue to serve the Archwizard.

However, time had passed. The name Alahea belonged to the past, and Jilitse had ceased to see Sahova as she had seen it for many years. With Drainira's betrayal and Mashaen's rising unpopularity, she saw Qiao's power, greed and selfish ambitions as the new Sahova. Conquer the world for yourself.

She did not like what she saw, and feared what she foresaw. It sounded so much like Sagallius. And she did not want to be part of it.

Jilitse was just a little above crazy to hope there was a way to undo the Grand Oath. She wanted to free Mashaen from Sahova - even the mere thought of it would sound absurd. But the Archwizard himself had favored her, revealing two other conditions that will allow Mashaen to be set free from the oath: one was the death of Sagallius, the other was the death of all Sahovan nuits. Mashaen had resricted her from the latter, and had burdened her with killing Sagallius' champion, Mashaen's so-called daughter, Drainira.

Was she right in hoping to liberate Mashaen from the oath? Jilitse believed that she would be carrying out her mission in Mashaen's stead. And the first part of her life purpose was to kill Drainira. In order to do that, she must learn more about supervisor golems. Being a wizard of animation, she was drawn to the suggested idea of finding the supervisors Albrecht and Baird. To Jilitse, research was a fountain of wealth. She had lived her years researching about golems and her desire for learning overwhelmed her.

More than avenging Drainira's betrayal, Jilitse wanted to find out what went wrong with Drainira. As a loyal assistant, Jil had never run her own experiment, but had always wished to create a golem of her own design. And she knew she could, more than 500 years of repairing golems and animating devices must have, at the very least, given her competence. But there was always more to learn, and she hungered for the knowledge. She wouldn't have thought of it had Mashaen not suggested. Supervisors, indeed.

Her previous attempts at fishing out important books in the library proved to be a failure. As scarce as detailed information on advanced anthropomorphic golems were, books and journals about supervisors were rare. (She did have to steal from Achtus to learn a few tidbits of knowledge about Supervisors.) If ever she found any book related to supervisors in the library, it contained nothing but a passing mention, which led Jil to surmise that the books she needed were kept in the classified area of the library. It will be impossible to get her hands on one, unless Mashaen allows her access to the area. She had considered this part a lot, the classified area had special guardians and a register that mandates all users to log the purpose of their visit. It would have been easy if things had been under different circumstances, but Sahova was no longer under Mashaen's control. Qiao was dangerous at best, and Jilitse could not begin to fathom what the man might do if she was caught borrowing classified books. It was an action far too suspicious for an ally of Mashaen's. Jilitse haven't forgotten that the reason why she was still around, despite Qiao labeling everyone allied to Mashaen as treacherous renegades, was because she had done nothing that stood out. Hypothetically, if the Archwizard allows her access to the classified wing of the laboratory, it can be and will be reason for Qiao to call her treacherous, what with that wizard's paranoia. What indeed would a servant want with documents so special? She could lie, but she was never used to deceiving others, and even so, she was certain Qiao would find out the truth.

Assuming she gets her hands on data about Supervisors, she was not left with any devices to lift out the books she need. Supposing she could, what then? Jilitse doubted that she would find anything useful, in the sense that important books were probably encrypted in ancient scripts - especially sensitive data like the ones she were looking for. But that was going far ahead of herself. First, she must ensure that she will get her hands on the information she needed. She went back to her room, sat on a chair, and brought out writing materials. She took out a pen and paper and wrote to Mashaen, forcing herself to write out an encrypted message hidden between the verses of a poem. In the letter she subtly asked for help in accessing the classified area of the library.

I pray that I may have a coin to pay
The wishing well that hides the way
And I shall quickly buy and drink its sweet water
And bring some home to my father

Which, if interpreted correctly, will read as:

I request to be provided with a token
to the forbidden place
I need urgent access to learn secrets
I plan to steal them

Jilitse took great pain in making her handwriting ugly, but it was not well-hidden that the recipient of the letter will fail to learn who wrote the poem. Once done she enclosed the letter in an envelop which will only open for the Archwizard. Jil decided to deliver the letter personally, because she could not afford to send it through channels where it can be intercepted.

[Tarot]

"It's open, Jil," Mashaen said from inside his office which doubled as… living quarters, if that didn't sound so wrong with a Nuit. They needed no bedrooms or kitchens or anything, meaning they had a lot more room to themselves than the living. "You come bearing gifts. Interesting." The letter was snatched from Jilitse's hands by an invisible force that couldn't have been anything but Mashaen's Projection. Slung into the Archwizard's hands, the envelope was quickly removed and the man read the words she had written on it.

A long silence followed. The Archwizard held the letter in his left hand, and suddenly it ignited with such power that the flames were not red or orange, but violet, almost white. "So the day has come. Your request is granted." He stood and slowly made way towards the far end of the room. He moved an unfinished golem's carcass out of the way and interacted with a panel on the wall, the front end for a safe embedded in the wall of Mashaen's office. He placed his hand on the lid and muttered a long string of passphrases and numbers. After a minute of this, the wall safe clicked open and Mashaen retrieved a single disc from the inside. He pushed it close once more and walked back to his desk, placing the coin on the old wood specifically treated to withstand the centuries.

"Nobody other than Qiao and myself has been there in over a year, and we can't take anything out. You do realize, if you go there now after all that's happened lately, it will look like a declaration of war. A statement of defiance. Which is exactly what it is, in a way."

The disc may resemble a coin with three grooves on it, but a thorough inspection would show that it was a tiny golem. Its only purpose was authentication. Each disc carried unique data that identified its owner as acting under the authority of a Sahovan leader. The complementary golem built into the doors of the restricted library wing was able to tell these coins apart from any fake in the world, no matter how artful.

"The moment you enter there, you can't turn back. I won't meet you again. I will condemn your actions if confronted about them. Doing otherwise would cause a war. I don't want that." Mashaen was being harsh, but totally honest. Jilitse had agreed to make the ultimate sacrifice for him. It was time to live up to that promise.

"A shipment of bodies will dock six days from now, on the 65th. Negotiate a ride and reach the mainland. If you have any unfinished business, I suggest you wrap it up before you drop that coin into the slot. Things may get hectic afterwards." Mashaen laced his fingers together and continued. "Take everything that sounds promising. You are done for if they catch you anyways, so you may as well steal all you can. Don't bother taking notes; just seize the books. There's one in particular, the one in the Animation section with the red cover… make it yours. Some sections are encrypted. Take it to Lucrece for assistance with that, he can be trusted. Anything else?" The Archwizard was trying his best to be quick and businesslike, but Jilitse knew him far too well to not notice the unease with which he was sending her to her doom.

And the coin just kept shining on under the artificial blue lighting of the citadel.

[Jilitse]

Jilitse bowed her head once Mashaen lifted off the note from her hand. She thought to herself how she could've just walked in and asked for the special token that she needed, it wouldn't have made any difference. The letter disappeared in a short flare, burning into little pieces that nobody else will ever read.

Perhaps it served as an offering, something she had hoped Mashaen would remember. If she ever fails - and may, once again she implored, the gods not allow it to be so - maybe the Archwizard would remember her and her silly little poem: that there was this nuit who, in the light of change, thought she might try being a hero for somebody else.

Jil patiently watched as Mashaen took out the thing she coveted. Being incapable of visions of grandeur, she was more scared than enthusiastic. While she did love to visit the library, she did not have any intention to die inside. Jil sucked in air in a groan. Who said nuits did not fear death?

There were far too many things she did not understand about this mission, but she had been enticed with the knowledge about the Supervisor golems. Being an Animator and a mage involved in research and development of golems, it was like getting access to the most important technology the rest of the world had ever laid eyes upon. Finding one might be a long shot, but definitely worth it. Yes, it would be important to study golems, especially since one of them was out to change the world.

Already, she wondered how many books about animation will she be able to take out of the library. This was Jilitse, unable to see visions of grandeur past her own self-contained world. She was getting access to a restricted part of the library and yet she wanted books on animation? She could probably snatch history books and important journals!

Her short reverie was interrupted when Mashaen reminded her that she was the sacrificial goat. That she will never meet him again. She coughed, "I am under your service, Archwizard Mashaen, and I do not doubt that you will be able to take care of yourself. I know, for a fact, that what I must do will earn the attention of Qiao and everybody else for that matter. How will I be sure that you will be safe from any punishment that the council might bring down? We can't exactly say I appeared here one day and snatched this coin," she pointed at the thing, "from you. Or," a stupendous idea came to mind, "do we say that I worked with Drainira - even if I never had the intention to - and she provided me all that I need?"

Death, Jil had proven, might take away one's life, but never one's memory. And even one's feelings, if the person or thing of attachment was also eternally present. For her family, Jilitse had Plinku to be reminded of her father. For her first and only love, Mashaen was here. For centuries she held onto the Archwizard, she could not bear the thought of being away from Sahova for too long.

"How will I know if I must go back to Sahova? When should I? How can I contact you? I mean, if I ever succeed, and maybe we both doubt that I could... but if ever I succeed," she raised a finger to make a point, brows frowning a little, "what will I do?" There was a quizzical look on her face, as if she was confused, "Where do I look for help outside Sahova? People will not want to see," she waved her hands from her head down to herself, "This. I'll be alone?" If this was their last meeting, then Jilitse should not pull the reins on her tongue. She noticed how eager Mashaen wanted to get rid of her, like many other times. But this time was not "like many other times". Once she leaves his office, she goes straight into following her one and only plan, and then she will leave Sahova. After that, she's pretty much on her own. With no one to tell her what to do!

"No one will tell me what I do!" She worried, "how will I know if I'm doing the right thing? What will I do if I ever find Albrecht, or Baird, or learn about Sagallius' past, or get the favor of Priskil?" It was the voice of a fumbling assistant. She closed her eyes as she waited for the Archwizard's reply.

"That's all there is to this meeting then." It was her last goodbye. She carefully picked up the coin and disdainfully dropped it into a small black satchel she must have brought specifically for this purpose.

She curtsied, "I shall do my best for you, and for the rest of the nuits here. And the rest of the world." She laughed, and her smile returned. To Mashaen it would be an unusual smile - one that radiated strength, courage, and hope. The kind of smile only fools make.

[Tarot]

Mashaen smiled. "I should be the least of your worries right now, Jil. I will manage here. I'll just tell them a lie that you needed access for a personal project but betrayed me and ran away when tempted by so many precious books. It doesn't matter that they believe me or not. They won't try to kill me, Qiao is far too astute for that. I am a known quantity in Sahova. The first rule in a conflict such as ours, is that the enemy you can see is always better than the one you can't see. If they kill me, Qiao's sudden absolute power will disturb more than a few among us. He won't chance it. It's far better for him to just have me cornered and keep up the illusion of sharing the power with me."

The Archwizard did not interrupt Jilitse as she allowed herself this last moment of weakness. He knew it was the last she could afford in a long, long time. From now on she was about to get flung into a world she barely understood, facing almost impossible odds and for someone else's sake. "Those, those are all valid objections you raise. I wish I had answers to give, but I am no better informed than you are. I'm sorry. You know, this brings me back to the days of the war. At one point I risked getting conscripted and having to go up North to join a special ops team. It was that bad. They were considering taking their best researchers onto the battlefield. Quite the desperate move, don't you think?"

"Anyway," Mashaen continued, leaning back on his chair as his previous hurry dissolved into reminiscence. "This Captain from headquarters gave us what was supposed to be a pep talk, except it wasn't pepping at all. He said it sucks to be a hero. It sucks even more to be an unsung hero, a nobody that doesn't make the history books. He told us about the torture methods they used in Suvan, in great detail if I may add. But strangely enough, by the time he was done talking, we weren't feeling as scared as before. There's a strange appeal to being a hero even though it truly sucks. Perhaps it's the fact that you can actually count, it's a little card that says 'you can make a difference'. Isn't that what we want? Deep down I don't doubt that our enemies think of themselves as heroes, too. They want to make a difference just as much as we do."

"But our difference is better." He grinned at Jilitse and reached into a drawer. He took what looked like a rigid necklace, almost like a thin collar, and put it on his desk. Jilitse recognized it as the identification collar at the Royal Academy of Magic. All students had to wear it at all times, like dogs. This one carried a metal tag in the front reading "ID-00193392 Mashaen, Z.". "A little keepsake I'm letting you borrow for a while. I don't know when or how, but we'll find a way for you to return it, so don't you dare pawn it away for a coin or two." He was teasing her now, of course. "Besides, if you find some ancient ones around who happen to remember my name, this could help you win their favor."

He was silent for a bit, before sealing the end of his speech. "And I don't need a piece of paper to remember you, silly apprentice."

[Jilitse]

Going into the library was easy, it's the going out that Jilitse was worried about. There were many tomes of knowledge lying in the classified area of the library - many books about animation! And somewhere, deep in her consciousness, she wanted to get them all - all those books about animation. This was an opportunity that she never fathomed would grace her in her life. Now, if she could only bring out all the books she'll ever need, it was going to be a swell life outside Sahova. It did worry her that she was going to steal actual books, but there was an underlying boldness to it, because Mashaen said so. Jilitse still acknowledged the concept of Sahovan law and order, and it riddled her to think that the Archwizard himself ordered her to bend the rules.

When she came back to her room, she was now staring at Mashaen's tag. Oh what she would have done when she was alive to get a hold of this? Time had dulled her love and affection for the Archwizard, but there was still a tiny spark of compassion. More of fierce loyalty, definitely. Getting the tag reassured her greatly. She must not, and cannot, die until her mission is fulfilled. She will meet Mashaen again, she will personally return the tag to him.

Her room had turned into a semi-workplace, there were scattered metal and wood all around the place. Plinku, her little golem, was patiently guarding. It glowed its brightest blue when Jilitse came back. Jilitse acknowledged her not-so-sentient pet and proceeded to create a small shelf with wheels. It seemed like she had planned this beforehand, smuggling a few nails, a small hammer, or a little of this and that, from the workshops.

She had sketches of a few cabinet designs with wheels, she initially wanted to create a mobile coffin, one she could put a cloak on, and hide her body save for her face and arms, but she never really had an experience with creating woodworks, so she must stick with something small and crude but easy to make. With her shoulder draped with a bigger cloak, she would effectively hide the portable bookcase beneath her, between her legs, and roll into the library's classified section. Why a portable bookcase? Like many novice mages, Jilitse had absurd ideas for useless gadgets. But good reason for it! She didn't want to upset the other nuits who might be in the library on the day of her great robbery - after all, there are always curious eyes. She would walk in with paper and pencils and then walk out with paper and pencils (and maybe a few books beneath her). And once she leaves Sahova, she will be attaching appendages on the little thing, to disguise the bookcase as a golem, and she will probably arm it with a knife, so that it may threaten those who wish to examine it. Also, she did not wish to burden her body to carry those books (they might be heavy, who knows?) while traveling. All these, she recounted in her head as she started smoothing the planks she was going to need.

She returned to a draft she had earlier made and proceeded to create the golem. She sized up and measured four planks, and then marked them where they would be joined. She carefully filed the edges and then proceeded to nail the parts together, making sure that they were properly perpendicular to one another. The result was a small hollow rectangular box, a little more than two feet tall, approximately 12" by 8". She then used these measurements to measure and cut another plank for the bottom, gluing the rectangular body, and later nailing it in place.

After letting the glue and fixture dry, she threw this, as hard as she can, towards a wall. When it did not break, Jil attached a special wheel beneath it, making it look like a portable trash can. The singular wheel can also rotate on its axis, allowing the bookcase to move left, right and turn around. This wheel, Jilitse also took from somebody's workshop. It allowed the bookcase to stand still, and it could technically balance itself if taught properly.

She then started to clear out a small space in her room, putting aside gadgets, a few wires, some trinkets, equipment, and tools. It was certainly very cluttered, but she had more important things to do than to keep her room tidy. Taking a brush and some inscribing paint (yes, she "borrowed" those, too), she carefully marked and measured the floor. Jilitse had always been a stickler for perfection, so she made sure that her circles were properly drawn. One was big, enough to accommodate a young person to lay flat with arms spread, the other joined circle was smaller, just enough room for her to stand on.

She moved deliberately after this, placing the small bookcase (which was still easy to carry because it didn't have any books on it) inside the circle, and then she stood on the joined area. She had done too many animation rituals to not be familiar with the next steps. She was ready with a knife, cloth strips, a glove, and a nearby candle. She poked her finger, deep enough to let her ichor out. She pressed her finger on the circle, and felt the energy wash out of her. It was an unusual sensation, something she didn't really like, what with getting too much wounds. Jilitse mechanically proceeded with securing her wound. Nuits cannot afford to have an open wound for too long, it might spill out too much ichor.

Jilitse cleared her mind of doubt and worry and focused on her little book case. She felt for the energy around her, channeling and focusing these into the ritual circle. Wood. She thought of the composition of wood, its sturdy and strong composition. She focused on one of their animated bookcases at home, pictured the small bookcase in front of her containing books. She tried to control the djed around her, the energies of wood and earth. Focus. The nuit exhaled softly and thought of rolling wheels, wheels for movement. Those wooden wheels rotating on its axis, stopping. A bookcase that knows how to jump. Jump forward, jump backward. It rolls quickly, jumps quickly. It can move on the ground, turn left and right and jump on stairs. Jump, jump, jump down the stairs, up the stairs.

She closed her eyes and felt the djed streaming around her, wafting before gathering together in one short burst!

I. Jilitse taught the bookcase the concept of "I". I will only take directions from the person who is Jilitse. I will move when ordered to. I will know when it is time to turn left, right, or move backwards and not run myself into walls. I will learn to climb up and down the stairs by jumping forward quickly. I will accept cargo from the person who is Jilitse in the form of books. I will learn to balance myself and my cargo, especially when I'm rolling up or down the stairs. I will run away from any person or creature or being not Jilitse who will attempt to check my cargo. I will run away even faster if any person or creature or being not Jilitse even attempts to take any of my cargo. I will listen to Jilitse and follow her given directives without hesitation.

Teaching the concept of "I" took Jilitse until the next morning to finish.

By this time, Jilitse was slightly dizzy. It was taking her every effort to animate this small bookcase. She then mouthed the command phrases one by one, move, left, right, up the stairs, run... integrating the words into the golem's memory bank.

It was easy to handle the concentration of djed, but it was getting hard to manipulate. This was the first golem that Jilitse made on her own set of directives, the most complicated one she had ever done on her own yet. She had been limited to giving simple suggestions to other golems, and now she was beginning to understand what a string of commands would be like. It was, matter-of-factly, giving life to inanimate objects. Slowly she was beginning to understand and marvel at what the object might become.

The nuit found it easier to perform her ritual by standing still, as less body movements provided her with focused attention. Jilitse crafted the golem's astral body with her own mind, willing the ritual circle to aid her in the actualization and embodiment of her plan. She was aware of the energy around her, aware of the djed of the wood, of it's slow stirring consciousness, aware of the fluttering energy - the pieces of the puzzle. Jil used this awareness to harness the power of life, and she gathered the energies, created a soul. Soon the bookcase was stirring, and then it started to loll back and forth, as if balancing itself on its only wheel. She felt the tug of djed inside the ritual circle slowly dissipate into the bookcase, and acknowledged that her little assistant was complete.

[Jilitse]

Borrowing, not Stealing
60th of Spring 510 AV
I'm sorry I forgot my borrower's card.

Jil just had to test the bookcase. With a large billowy cloak draped across her shoulder, she ordered the bookcase to stand between her legs. Jilitse felt mighty awkward, testing how to move her legs. She could walk, but quite erratically, and funny, in a way. Her gait looked like a mother duck's (with an egg between her legs).

It took a little practice and coaxing for the animator to walk properly with her golem. They headed for the library, with Jilitse holding a few pieces of paper, and a weird rusty looking scrap gadget that made weird funny sounds. Even when properly oiled, the bookcase between her legs creaked. She was using the scrap gadget as a decoy, to hide the sound.

Upon reaching the library, she felt her first great success. Sorrow was somewhat overwhelming. Logically, she thought that what she was doing was wrong, and that there was a high risk for her to get caught and she could get punished. The thought kept her grounded, kept her conscious. She could not afford to become complacent, not now.

She was mumbling to herself, which was something she usually did, only this time she was delivering commands. "Move a little to the left, slow down, right." To the ordinary observer, it may seem like she was dictating the way around the library, reiterating a few things to herself. She halted in front of a door, and there was something of a thud, as she forgot to command the bookcase to stop, but she still kicked it with the side of her heel, muttering something about stupidly slamming one's self into a wall.

She then took the small disc out, Mashaen's token. It was like paying a coin to the wishing well. She found that ironic. With certainty, she pushed the coin into a small metallic slot. She was going to betray Sahova in order to save it. She found that ironic, too.

For a while nothing happened, and Jilitse, the nuit who cared none for the gods, was quick to call upon the deity who would most likely approve of her actions. (Yes, don't we call on gods in times of dire need?) "Yshul, may you continue to bless me." She thought of all the little things she had smuggled out of her workshop, the numerous pieces of materials she had carried into her room without permission. That was petty theft, but it contributed into creating the small bookcase - if it can be called as such - nested between her legs. So it's like a little gift made possible by the Goddess of Larceny. Animation was a gift from Yshul, too, nevermind that Yshul stole the knowledge from Kihala. And so Jilitse was enjoying the world magic animation because of Yshul. Perhaps it will not hurt to be thankful? "I have no doubt I will have to steal many more things as I carry out my mission. Many more great things, in fact. And may you always be behind every successful thieving."

[Tarot]

We shall now leave our heroine's fate hanging over the abyss of uncertainty - and, of course, the horrors she would be facing mere bells from now - to entertain our readers about the reason Sahova regulated access to its restricted library wing in such a bizarre way. The greatest minds in Alahea, and most notably Mashaen's, had worked long and hard on a series of regulations to ensure that Sahova could keep functioning for an indefinite amount of time. Some were extremely ingenious, others were cruel, such as keeping throwaway Alahean colonies on other worlds that could accessed from Sahova for the purpose of harvesting new bodies. Sahova was built to outlast Alahea, by millennia if needbe. In the event of a Suvan attack, they could even cause the citadel to self-destruct, only to preserve the lower levels untouched.

The greatest threat to Sahova, however, did not come from the outside, but from the inside. Hundreds of sages with big egos and a tendency to overgive, forced to coexist for centuries, could easily slip into anarchy, or worse yet into civil war. The solution was an intricate system of checks and balances shaping the daily existence of the Nuit. It was a grand and complicated system, approved and certified by great minds - and of course, it had failed. Drainira was the obvious point of failure: out of arrogance and excessive trust in their magic, nobody had watched the watchgolem. Qiao was the other destabilizing force, having brought along a clique of loyalists and considerable political power. The system had slowed down Sahova's fall into chaos, though.

The reasoning with the library was that access to restricted, high level texts was sometimes necessary, but it could potentially create great friction among the Nuit. If left unchecked, everyone would be hogging and hoarding the books, spreading fuel for conflict and paranoia. So, let's have a few Nuit - the most powerful and respected - possess the ability to grant the others permission to read the books. These right-holders should number half a dozen or so - too many for them to monopolize the power or form a united cartel, but not enough to let just anyone access dangerous knowledge. This was a good start, but it wasn't enough. It encouraged secret factions led by a right-holder and furthering agendas in the shadows, which Mashaen had always wanted to avoid. So, Sahova implemented a system in which access to forbidden texts was logged and made public for everyone else to know. The golems compiled daily records of this and other happenings around the citadel, making sure fishy activities were, at least, conducted in plain view.

The massive door in front of Jilitse was actually a golem of metal and wood, as hinted by the stone face replacing the keystone above the frame. As soon as the Nuit slipped the coin token into the slot next to the door, the device spoke in a deep monotone voice.

"Identification successful for user…" the golem's voice clicked as if retrieving a different memory, "JILITSE", and then back to the previous tone of voice, "authorized by right-holder," another pause, "ZARIK MASHAEN".

"Please state the purpose of your visit." This, too, would be logged and become public domain. "You have two chimes to explain yourself."

[Jilitse]

"I intend to peruse materials related to the Supervisors Albrecht, Baird, Caliman, and Drainira," Jilitse had earlier decided to be honest with this part, as there was no use in lying. Nothing stays a secret for so long in Sahova anyway. "I will be copying notes, lectures, journals - any material - related to Animation, specifically topics on: anthropomorphic golems and golem soul-transfers. I will need access to classified Alahean military data regarding Treval." A pause and she quickly added, "Mashaen had permitted full access to information about Saghal Hrinn, Royal Academy of Magic records, Court Mage files." That last bit was a creative lie, but Jil thought she must try to find out what she can. What else did she need?

"And the best books in Cryptology and Personal Magic, Voiding and Projection, please." She counted how many her little assistant could hold, at most ten, and none of the fat books or irregularly shaped ones. She could stash a piece or two inside her cloak, and hide scrolls by hiding them between fresh paper. Does this golem even know the meaning of the word "best"?

She declared, "I am working on a special experiment that involves intensive research on supervisor golems and animation."

Jilitse clasped her hands together and waited for the golem to accept her reply.

[Tarot]

The door wasn't meant to filter requests out based on some kind of reasoning. Jilitse didn't have to fear rejection from the golem. "Request logged. May wisdom enlighten your path, wizard." The die was cast now. By nightfall, anyone accessing the mechanically written logs of the Citadel would discover that Jilitse had been perusing restricted lore on behalf of Mashaen. And no doubt, Qiao's men kept the logs under close scrutiny.

This was not the time for hesitation, though. The heavy door clicked open, and swung neatly inwards to reveal the chambers within. The air was very stale here, but thankfully undead didn't need to breathe. Magical blue lamps lit up on the ceiling, casting colored light and dancing shadows upon the bookshelves. The door would close behind Jilitse, or in a chime, whichever happened first. Once inside, the Nuit would be able to see, for the first time in her long unlife, the treasures of knowledge so many wizards would literally die for, and even more would kill for.

There weren't any golem assistants here. Even the D-wire sockets that littered most of the Citadel's inner walls were absent here, meaning that this place had been outside Drainira's ability to perceive and influence. There were only words here, words too powerful for the community at large to know. It wasn't overly large, and as such it didn't need too much organization. The shelves seemed arranged by topic, and in rough alphabetical order by the book's main authors. All books had been treated to withstand the test of time, and all of them had seen very little use. Some still looked fresh out of print, and some were handwritten, a true rarity in Alahea and a hint that the author hadn't trusted a printing press with its content.

Jilitse and her minion only had to pick a topic of choice, and start digging. A world of research was literally at her disposal, and she didn't have to obey the rules anymore. Animation occupied an entire shelf by itself; so did the history of magic. Every other discipline of magic was represented, some more than others. There were even disciplines whose names rang entirely new to the witch. Every single piece here was a breakthrough of some sort, and Jilitse of all people only had to reach out and take them for herself.

[Jilitse]

Jilitse walked straight inside, repeating phrases to herself. "Materials related to the Supervisors Albrecht, Baird, Caliman, and Drainira." She stepped forward to the shelves of Animation and immediately went and look for the red book that Mashaen had mentioned to her. She had to go through the books, nothing labeled caught her fancy, but she took a thick one about anthropomorphic golems, which, hopefully, contained more than insights and untested models. Jil found another one on Supervisor golems, she checked to make sure that it was the research project, not a journal or opinionated subscription. The books were overwhelming, if only because that the knowledge she now touched with her hands would have belonged to a period that nobody could remember. Animation became a lost art after the Valterrian, corrupted because of the Djed storms. She tried to read a few paragraphs from each book that she took out, as the obsession for learning took over her and brought her to remember the important phrases and names that were listed in the materials. A thin journal was immediately placed into the bookcase golem, it was written in Ancient Toungue, and Jilitse could manage to read that it was a position paper on soul transfer. It wasn't important but it might prove to be interesting later on. She even located a journal that was written by Mashaen himself, and she could not resist to not take it. That book went into the hidden pile as well.

Part of her wanted to haul the books out of the library, part of her wanted to read a few right then and there. It was not long before she found the book she came here for, it was isolated from the rest: that red book. She could not resist opening it, and the nuit tried to read its contents. Remembering her mission, she left - hesitantly - the section on Animation and crossed over to the section on Voiding. She had no idea of the magic, so she took a regular-sized violet book authored by a familiar sounding name and stashed it into the golem bookcase that was following her.

Cryptology didn't seem to have a lot of dedicated material, but she figured any book will be important. Jilitse reached out for the most scholastically sounding one, which was written in fine script and looked more like a personal diary than a book, and dropped it into her stack. She sauntered over to Projection, but stopped at the line of bookcases that clearly labeled the "X" mark on her treasure hunt.

Jil tried to read them, but most of the books were incorrigible, written in fake scripts and artfully created codes. She didn't have enough time to rush a self-taught lesson in cryptology, so she just took the ones that surely contained information on military data, took the one about Treval and another on the Royal Academy of Magic. Jil spent an hour trying to locate information about Sagallius, later realizing that she should have cross-checked the books she did for any information on Saghal Hrinn(the god's hated monicker). She had spent almost five hours inside the library, and while tension and fear was beyond her, Jilitse knew that she had to move fast.

What would Sagallius leave in a secluded place? Would he hide information about himself? Of course, Jilitse thought. The gears in her head were moving. Sahova had layers upon layers of secrets, and she did not believe that a single door would open up all the secrets she came here for. There was a nagging feeling in her head that she was wasting her time, that it was paranoia that brought her to think the not-so-unlikely. If Sagallius was smart enough to play with Drainira, he couldn't have left the most important storage of knowledge to be unguarded. Leaving this room out of Drainira's influence would have meant only that there was something hidden within this very room, something that Sagallius, or even Mashaen, had wanted to hide. Something the less cunning mind would not think of, something too dangerous or too important for other people to know.

She tried to place herself in the mind of Qiao, who was the epitome of paranoia in Jilitse's measure. Would it be ridiculous to try and find hidden passages by pulling the books one by one? The whole place wasn't so big, but it wasn't so small either. It would take more time, and she could tell that the afternoon was being wasted away. She could take another book or two for her golem bookcase, and she could embrace three or more on her way out. Selecting the books was the least of her problem, for she knew what she needed and there should be a helpful catalogue somewhere. Qiao, no doubt, kept a close eye in the inventory.

That's it! The catalogue! Where was the goddamn thing? Maybe it would have a clue in searching for whatever that was hidden in this hiding place. Qiao would not be too smart to figure out any trap or secret that Sagallius would leave behind. She absently searched for the expense book of the military, surely it would reveal what the military spent on and why (and how much). She tried looking for those that involved the last King of Alahea and Court Mage Sagallius, records will show her what she needed to know.

She decided to stay and look for something that does not want to be found. If she was going to bet her life on this mission, she had no hesitation to gamble the next five hours to search for something that nobody ever tried looking for.