Night 70: Patient Library

[freewill]

[From here.]

Castiel hadn't ever had a reason to go to the library at night, so this was his first time. As he pointed his flashlight forward, he saw the rows of shelves standing there, stalwart and solemn. If the library was quiet during the day, then it was deathly silent now. Castiel would have never imagined there was something dangerous waiting for them deeper inside, but that was likely the point.

He glanced over his shoulder at Kratos and then found himself speaking under his breath. Just in case. "I was told that the switch for the hidden passage is activated by pulling out the Oxford Book of English Verse. It should be somewhere in the center aisle." It was going to take them some time to find it when they had to search in complete darkness like this, but at least both of them had flashlights.

Without any further delay, he started down the middle aisle. "You check the right side, I'll check the left," he said as he started to scan the books with his light, reading over them as quickly as he could.

Comments

[forsworn]

Kratos nodded. "Alright." He remembered asking Castiel about that book not too long ago, and while he still didn't know much about its contents, thankfully, that wasn't required to make use of the secret it was hiding.

He aimed his flashlight at the shelf and tried to hurry as quickly as he could down the aisle while glancing at the book spines passing him by. They were in alphabetical order by author as usual, so he could only hope that someone had chosen to file the book by its title instead; he had no idea who the author was.

Finally, he saw it: The Oxford Book of English Verse in faded gold on a dark navy spine. Kratos paused, his hand on the book, ready to pull it out but not wanting to do so with Castiel unawares. He looked over his shoulder at the other man and hissed, "Castiel. I have it."

[freewill]

It was an odd coincidence that the two of them had ended up here when Kratos had been the first one to tell him about the book. Skulduggery had filled in all the information that Kratos himself had been missing, though, which had given him that final push to decide to come here and look into things for himself.

When Kratos spoke up next to him, Castiel paused from his own search and drew closer to illuminate the book's title for himself. That was definitely the right one. He could sense that Kratos was waiting on him, and so he was quick to nod.

"Go ahead." So far, this had all been surprisingly easy. That only made him more certain of the fact that no matter what came next, it was going to be a struggle to get past. Still, they were making good time and that gave Castiel the smallest shred of hope that this would go the way they planned.

[forsworn]

On Castiel's cue, Kratos nodded and pulled the book out. It jammed halfway out of the shelf, and, thinking something was stuck, he was about to pull on it with greater force, when suddenly, there was the sound of stone grating on stone. He looked away just in time to catch the wall at the end of the aisle slide away seamlessly.

"Hm." Kratos stepped away, his hand dropping to the hilt of the sword at his waist. As simple as that had been, he knew better than to charge in. After all, the easiest part of their venture was over; it was time to see what kind of nightmares Landel kept locked up in his library.

[freewill]

When the book got stuck in place for a moment, Castiel was ready to step forward and add his strength. He didn't have nearly the amount of strength that an angel should, but an extra pull from him might have dislodged it.

It seemed that that wouldn't be necessary, though. The sound of the wall sliding open echoed through the mostly empty library and he turned toward it. Castiel knew that at this point, there likely wouldn't be any option for them to avoid danger. There was no chance that the secret passage wouldn't be guarded.

Kratos was already ready to draw his sword, and Castiel fell into position as well, taking a careful step toward the opening as he held tightly onto his blade. "We dispatch it as quickly as we can," he said. That would give whatever was waiting for them less of a chance to hit them with some other kind of effect. Physical damage was one thing, but anything mental could tie them up for longer than they could afford.

[damned_monsters]

The stairway had been dark, and quiet, but not empty. Not quite. Light broke in through the open door, and the overhead fixture flickered to life. Too much light...for the two yellow eyes that gleamed from what might almost look like a heap of trash in the corner of a landing.

Bright. Searing. Humans, coming in, with their light and their light and their flesh.

It didn't matter that its brothers were not here. All that mattered was making the humans go away. Only one could go down the stairs, and the others weren't here, so one would be enough for two puny humans. It scrambled to its feet and charged down the stairs, taking them two and three at a time, lunging forward with every step only.

[forsworn]

"Right." Kratos drew his sword and began to advance slowly toward the opening, holding the sword in one hand, and his flashlight in the other. He couldn't see it, but he heard it: loud, heavy steps thundering down the stairs. It sounded large, and it would reach them with considerable speed...but he knew how to deal with that. A swift step to the side at the last possible moment, and then a quick pivot to increase the momentum of his arm as he swung his sword down--except there was a bookshelf in the way, and that made things a little more complicated.

There had to be some way, something they could do other than engage in a full-on battle, which would only serve to tire both of them out and probably drain him of all his mana. He looked left, then right. Books, books, and more books: not very useful, but maybe as a distraction...his eyes wandered back to the shelves. If only they were a little wider apart, he'd have the proper room to maneuver--wait.

"I have an idea," Kratos said tersely as he abruptly stopped his advance and began quickly backing up, still keeping both eyes on the opening. "Retreat to the end of the shelves. We'll lure it into the aisle and knock the bookshelf on top of it from the other side." If it didn't work, well, they'd just have to go back to the original plan of throwing everything they had at the thing.

[freewill]

As soon as Castiel heard those thundering footsteps of an approaching foe, he was ready to put his all into the fight. If he dispatched whatever guardian Landel had organized for them, then they could move on and see just where that staircase led.

He was ready to fight, no questions asked, but then Kratos' voice cut through to him, giving him pause. He looked over, taking in the two shelves that were towering around them. Using their surroundings to their advantage seemed like a decent strategy, and so he gave no complaint, nodding as he worked to back up and out of the aisle as quickly as he could.

Castiel exchanged glances with Kratos. "It's likely going to take both of us to push it over." Which was ridiculous, because if he was at his normal level of strength, he would have been able to do it with a flick of his hand. At this point, they were going to have to move carefully and work to trick it and then outrun it.

[damned_monsters]

The light was still there, but all there was was an open door. The lurcher stopped at it, squinting into the gloom for the pale piercing light the humans liked to use. There was probably more than one of them; they preferred to hunt in packs just as much as he and his brothers did, but none of them were visible. He shook his head, snorting a little.

There were lots of things in the way, and he couldn't see them. But they were there, he knew it. Humans. On his front doorstep. It didn't matter how many of them there were, he just needed to drive them off.

He charged forward, shoulders knocking a few ill-shelved books off a shelf, snarling.

[forsworn]

"We'll need to time it just right, then." Kratos tried to measure the number of steps it took for them to reach the end of one shelf as they moved further and further back. Eight...maybe ten? That didn't give them much time at all. He noted sourly in his head that the odds were certainly in their favor.

They had reached the end of the aisle when he heard it: a low, deep snarl and then the frenzied pounding of feet on the ground. It was difficult to gauge the distance, although he could tell that the distance was swiftly closing. Where--how close was it?

He shone his flashlight into the aisle and caught a glimpse of something enormous and hairy not more than a few feet away; it reminded him of the gigantic mutant bears found in Tethe'alla's mountains, huge, monstrous things with thick, oversized fists and bared fangs. Normally, he would feel nothing but cool disdain and cut through it with a single blow, but now, with the full weight of his mortality hanging above him, there was a brief spike of fear, and with fear, an instinctual attack.

The sword was moving before he could fully register the action, the mana he hadn't realized he'd called up already soaring from the tip in a brilliant white wave along the ground. It felt normal, as in, it drained him as normal, and even though that was usually frustrating, this time, it was so relieving that Kratos was actually energized--at least, energized enough to bellow, "Now!" and then sprint for the other side of the shelf. Demon Fang could not do any real damage, but it would hopefully buy them one extra second or two.

He threw his whole weight against the shelf, praying that this would do something: after all, he'd just spent half of all he had in that attack.

[freewill]

From the quick glimpse that Castiel caught of the monster before he ducked behind one of the shelves, he could see that it was large and therefore probably clumsy and slow. That would work to their advantage.

Kratos beat him to any attempt to slow it by tossing out an attack of his own. Castiel watched as the wave of energy slid across the ground toward the monster and he knew that wasn't simply a feat of good swordsmanship. Kratos had an added power within him. Castiel, meanwhile, should have been able to put out his arm, bathe the creature in light and thereby turn it to dust, but they were going to have to do this the hard way.

When Kratos barked out that order, Castiel didn't hesitate, darting after him and then shoving himself bodily against the shelf, right at Kratos' side. It caused a lance of pain to shoot down his chest and abdomen -- he'd pushed his body too hard and he was likely to pay the price, but... was the shelf teetering? Would it fall? This was their only chance.

[damned_monsters]

A wave of light came rushing towards the lurcher, and it put up its paws in front of its eye. The impact of the spell was a flyspeck compared with the rage that the light conjured up, and it stood in the aisle, bellowing and screaming at the humans.

And then a pile of small, dusty hammers started raining down on it, followed by a wall. It toppled over under the shelf, screams turning into shrieks as it punched at the books that buried it.

The shelf hadn't completely fallen; it slammed into the next one over, coming to rest a few feet above the ground, and it lurched upwards as the beast underneath it tried to shove it upwards. Any moment, it would realize it could crawl forwards, rather than fighting the shelf itself, but the humans had a few precious moments of peace.

[forsworn]

For a second, with the monster's scream of rage echoing in his ears and the shelf only seeming to budge by the slimmest of margins, Kratos thought they had failed. Then, the shelf gave way with a groan and fell, just as he had hoped, directly on their foe, books and all. Kratos staggered back, just barely managing to catch himself with a hand before he crashed bodily into the shelf behind him, and watched in amazement as the monster struggled with the enormous mass of books and wood that were now lying on top of it. Half of him hadn't really expected his plan to work, so seeing it come to completion was something of a shock.

He soon realized, though, that they still didn't have time to waste; they needed to move while the monster was still occupied. With a quick nod to Castiel and an almost breathless "Let's go", Kratos ran for the unguarded entrance, expecting the other man to follow suit.

[freewill]

Between the two of them, the shelf did in fact tip over. The sound of all of those books sliding off the shelf and hitting either the floor or the monster itself caused a huge racket, and Castiel knew that they couldn't waste any time. He wouldn't be surprised if that drew the attention of various monsters wandering around (and of Landel, who was no doubt watching them), so they couldn't delay.

The monster wasn't dead, either. It was struggling under the weight of the shelf, but it hadn't been completely crushed. There was a chance that it would come after them, so it was imperative they put as much distance between them and it as possible.

Which was why it was unbearably frustrating when Castiel found himself having to pause and catch his breath, to work past the pain in his middle that had flared up after pushing himself so hard. He focused on the sound of Kratos' voice and his retreating footsteps and forced himself to move after him.

[To here.]