[Seasonal Event]The A-Bees of Secret Doorways.

by **Shane Wallsly** on June 27th, 2015, 6:43 pm

Timestamp: 90th of Summer, 515 AV

Shane placed the tome down on the table with a thud. The blue librarian gave him a hefty glare. Shane slumped into the seat. He hadn't felt this energetic in weeks. He hadn't really felt anything in weeks. He walked around the city dressed like a hobo dumbstruck. Was the heat getting to him? He could no longer tell. This city was odd and hot and he hated it. He cursed himself for coming here. The reason for which he lost a little day by day. His life in Syliras was becoming a distant memory and his personality was becoming more and more introspective with each day.

Recently he had taken to coming to the library, getting glared at by the Librarians and reading whatever took his fancy. It reminded him on Undeniable Interests. That store had been his home, Avira had been like a father and... The memories were easier to forget. They made him feel fragile. He didn't want to be fragile. He'd always wanted to be strong. The kind of person unbreakable in the face of adversity but he had found no such thing in this sun-soaked city of slaves and brutes. He was even beginning to miss the Knights. They seemed to stand for something other than survival.

Shane traced the gilded lettering of the book's title. He'd felt a strange pull to the library today. It was more than mild interest. He didn't gfeel as lost and dazed as he usually did. He was thinking with a bit more clarity. He was seeing things through a sharper lens. 'Advanced Beekeeping Techniques' Shane blinked. He didn't quite remember why he'd picked up this particular book. He was, by no means, qualified to be attempting to keep any amount of bees never mind in an Advanced fashion. Perhaps he was a little bit more absent-minded today than he thought.

He stood picking the book up and heading in the direction of the shelf he'd taken it from. The section on bees was way up at the back far from the librarian's desk and far out of the way of other library goers. He could no longer quite remember why he was looking up bees to begin with and why he had taken the book from the most obscure part of the library. Upon arriving at the perfectly book space hole that he'd taken the book from he replaced it. Already set upon the course of learning something about bees today Shane skimmed to bookcase to see if he could find something a little more suited to someone who knew virtually nothing about them.

After some amount of searching he finally found a book entitled simply 'Bees'. He reached out to pull it from the bookshelf but it stuck halfway out and when he applied more force a whole section of the bookcase swung forward. Shane took a step back at first quite alarmed by the turn of events but then his curiosity got the better of him. What was so secret as to be hidden behind this door, he wondered. His heart began to drum in his chest and adrenaline was beginning to fill his veins as he opened the door ever so slightly more and peered inside...

by **Ayatah** on June 29th, 2015, 2:54 pm

Ayatah was feeling torn. Part of her was hugely relieved for finally spending some time alone. She loved Kuame, but the boy was hugely demanding in the way that all children were. He asked endless questions, requested hundreds of stories. She loved him more than she knew how to explain, but Myri! It was good to finally be able to breathe and to read a book in the peaceful silence.

Riverfall's library had quickly become a frequent hang out of Ayatah's. She had always adored reading and learning, and Riverfall provided endless opportunities for just that. She enjoyed the studious silence of a library, the eternal sternness of a librarian. And the Akalak that manned Riverfall's library was no different. She wondered, quite regularly, how such esablishments always managed to hire such dour people for the role of a librarian. Perhaps it was part of the job description? She imagined such an advertisement: The successful candidate must be fluent in 'shush'-speak and possess the hearing of a bat. A sour expression is desirable, though not necessary.

She chuckled quietly at her own hilarity, proving to herself that Riverfall's librarian truly was a great example of his kind. He shushed her sharply and threw the Myrian a brief glare. After dipping her head in a silent apology, Aya moved deeper amongst the bookshelves.

There was never any rule as to what Aya read about whilst she was at the library. One day it might be recipes for soup, and the next she might research famous Akvatari poems. She enjoyed absorbing all sorts of knowledge, even if she had no particular fancy for 'roasted mushroom and trout soup' (she shuddered at the mere thought of such a meal).

Today, she found herself browsing through the books about beekeeping. As usual, this topic had no particular link with her personal interests or desires. Bees, as far as she was concerned, were pretty little bugs that stung if you got too close. But perhaps there was more to them - and this possibility was enough to keep Ayatah's attention.

This did not last long. Another library visitor also seemed entranced by the bee books, and this was enough to put Ayatah off. She did not want to enter into a detailed conversation about beekeeping - not until she had at least read up on the subject, anyway. So Aya turned to leave, but she caught sight of something so unbelievable, that the half-Eypharian simply had to bring her attention back to the book about bookcase.

Only it wasn't a bookcase anymore. Or rather, it was no longer just a bookcase. The entire shelf - rows, books and all - had swung forwards as if it were set on hinges like a doorway. The man she had previously been avoiding stood before it, looking so aghast that Aya could only assume he hadn't been expected the door to appear. After quickly glancing about herself to ensure the librarian was nowhere near, she edged forward to the bookcase-come-door, and whispered. "How did you do that?"

by **Shane Wallsly** on June 29th, 2015, 6:04 pm

Shane had been very, very slowly inching the door open. His entire focus spent on both opening the door and trying to get a glimpse of what was inside at the same moment whilst also trying to be as quiet as possible because something told him the stern librarian would be angry about this. When he suddenly heard a whisper out of nowhere he barely managed to keep himself from all out losing his sanity. He leapt a tiny bit in the air and whipped round to look at the girl. He managed to reign in the leap and kind of land without making much sound and he clenched his jaw to contain what might have been a girlish scream.

“Shhhhhhhhhhhhhh!” He said perhaps a bit too loudly and obviously. As he let out the noise his muscles began to untense and he took a deep breath. He looked from side to side to make sure no one was coming to investigate the slight disturbance then he looked the girl up and down. “Who are you?” He asked scrunching his face up in confusion. “No, wait it doesn't matter.” He answered his own question. “Have you ever seen this before?” He looked her up and down noting her facial expression and trying to remember what it was she had actually whispered to him. He eventually concluded, whether or not she responded to him (he frankly wasn't listening), that she hadn't. “No, of course not.” He answered his question again.

He sighed. He looked at the bookcase/door and realised that he'd hurriedly closed it when she had scared him. However he had not taken his hand off the book that appeared to be the handle. Now that the door was closed again Shane was beginning to have second thoughts about opening it in the first place. Secret doors were secret for a reason. All he'd seen behind it so far was darkness. That didn't bode well. Of course it could just be an unlit passage leading to unimaginable wealth or, even better, secret lore.

He looked up at the girl with a frown. “Do you think it's a good idea to be going about opening secret doors in libraries?” He asked this time pausing to allow her to respond. He tilted his head to the side and studied her. The girl, whom he now conceded to be a woman, was indeed a sight. Her skin was a pleasing shade and seemed to glow celestially. Something about the woman said to Shane that her beauty was more of an emergent property. She was more beautiful than simply the sum of her parts as it were. Perhaps an inner beauty or confidence? She was quite a figure in any case and had Shane not been so focussed on the whole door débâcle he might have taken the time to be an awkward young adult. “Uh, I'm Shane. Nice to meet you.” He spoke a little slower and less excitedly as he outstretched the hand not holding on to the book out to her.

by **Ayatah** on June 29th, 2015, 7:03 pm

"Yes." Ayatah replied immediately after the male had asked his question. But then the Myrian frowned. She had replied hastily, perhaps too much so. Was it a good idea to open secret doors in libraries? Possibly not, no. Anything could be beyond the door, though Ayatah assumed it was probably just storage. She imaged a whole separate collection of books, Perhaps those that were too old to be touched by everyone man and woman who trawled into the library.

"No." She said quickly, utterly contradicting herself and confusing her mind even more so. Again the Myrian frowned. Neither answer - yes or no - sat well with her. If precious books were stored beyond the door, they could land themselves in some serious trouble. But wouldn't it be rewarding to catch a glimpse of a book so ancient and valuable that they couldn't be seen by anyone else? She remembered two years ago when, as a student in Zeltiva, she had been shown the collection of books from the restricted section of that library. Her professor had had to wear gloves to protect the pages, the books had been just that delicate. "Maybe." She muttered eventually, as flummoxed as ever.

To free her mind of the potential risks and rewards of going through the door, Ayatah extended her hand to the male and briefly explained: "Ayatah of the Scattered Bones. Pleasure." A short nod accompanied her introduction.

"I take it you've never seen this door before? Or heard of it?" It was a moot question: of course the lad had never seen the door before. If he had, his reaction wouldn't be as confused as Aya's own. She pursed her lips in thought, mind slipping back into mulling over what to do next. The Myrian part of her - the part that trudged through the jungle to hunt Dhanis day in day out - wanted desperately to jump through the door. And yet she was torn. What if there was a bottomless pit through the door? She could be endangering her life for all she knew. She might never see Kuame again. Her stomach knotted. She licked her lips.

"I mean... We could... see what's in there. Go slowly, I mean. Maybe prop the door open with a book?" She didn't exactly want to be stuck in the room beyond there without an exit. Subconsciously, the Myrian touched the double-bladed dagger that hung on her hip. At least she was armed to protect herself, should the need arise.

by **Shane Wallsly** on July 7th, 2015, 7:02 pm

Shane frowned at the woman. She seemed as unable to make her mind up as he was. More so by the way she kept changing her answer. He shook her hand firmly looking directly into her eyes for a moment as if her eyes held some kind of portal to her soul. What he did see there seemed to placate any mistrust he had for her. She seemed genuine if anything. “Interesting name.” He complimented with a smile. She reminded him faintly of someone he had met once in Syliras. The man with the tiger...

“Nope, never seen it before. I'm not really a beekeeper though so I'm not oft around this section of the library... Maybe that's why it's here. Perhaps this is actually the least visited part of the library. I mean I haven't seen any beekeepers since I arrived in the city. Have you?” Shane's argument held perhaps granules of truth in it but Shane was not the one to have noticed a beekeeper unless they had specifically come into his line of focus.

“I don't know what's behind here...” He finally concluded. He listened to her suggestion and replied. “I was trying that. Maybe you stand directly in front of where the door's opening up. You'll get a better view than me and if you see anything really, really bad I can close it before we're in any danger. Our next move we can decide after. Agreed?” Without really pausing to allow her to disagree or move into place he took the book firmly in hand and slowly began to open it.

Ayatah would see darkness at first. That would be all she could see. A line of darkness slowly expanding as Shane opened the door wider and wider. Then in the darkness she could discern movement. She could fel a gentle current and hear a light flapping. It was getting closer. She might have been starting to feel tense but then the light of their world shone into the darkness and she caught sight of something oddly bizarre and probably quite amusing. It was a book. A leather tome floating, rather flapping, in the air opening and closing to keep itself flying. It was flying in their direction but not necessarily at them. It would flap itself for a while to gain height and then open wide and glide for a little while until it lost too much altitude then it would flap again and repeat the cycle. The book was a heavy tome and seemed to sacrifice speed and mobility for it. It seemed it would take the thing at least fifteen minutes to fly out to them and for all that they could see in the dark realm it seemed to be alone.

Shane could not see the creature as he was focussed on opening the door but he did hear the sound of it's flapping pages. "Can you hear that?" He asked of her as she had the better viewpoint into the door.

by **Ayatah** on July 16th, 2015, 6:41 pm

Ayatah smiled faintly as the male complimented her name. She would have thanked him, had their meeting been in a situation more normal. As it was, though, they were standing before a secret doorway inside a library that seemingly opened out of thin air.

Thin air and books, she corrected herself silently.

"I spend quite a bit of time here," she murmured softly, her fingertips touching the spines of the books closest to her as if they were old friends. The Myrian smiled as she traced the gilded title of the book: Spiders: to squash or not? "But I don't think I've wandered this way before much either. Anthropology is my field, beekeeping is not." Absently, her dark eyes flickered to the left of the library, imagining the rows and rows of books that fell under the topic of anthropology. She had not even made a dent in the collection yet -- how exciting!

"Agreed." She said in a final matter to his suggestion. "And if worse comes to worse..." Ayatah's fingers moved deftly to the daggers that hung at her hip, "I doubt we'll find anything more dangerous than what can be found in the jungle." A smirk played upon the Myrian's lips, one that implied a hidden passion for danger and fighting.

The smile died as Aya peered deeper into the blackness. It swallowed everything up, like a bottomless pit with a hunger that would never be satiated. Her brow furrowed. She disliked the darkness; it bought to her images of Zinrah, the cavernous home of the Dhani.

She leaned forwards, narrowing her eyes into a concentrated squint. She could see something, but what that something was made absolutely no sense, even an a world with secret passageways. She barely heard his question, and as such gave it some incoherent reply that was a cross between a whisper and a grunt. Only when the Myrian was absolutely sure of what she was seeing did she take a step back, finally exhale a sigh and turn to Shane. "It's a book." She said simply, a small shrug accompanying her words. Her cool actions and blasé tone remained as she continued to say, "a flying book."

Perhaps she hoped the casualness of her tone would downplay the absolutely incredulity of what she had reported.