Daniel trudged onward, his excitement fast fading. “I thought it’d be easier,” he mumbled. “Sorry.” With every step, the bandages around his leg flexed, tensing uncomfortably.
“It’s not your fault,” Leon said. His friend crept down a row of shelves adjacent to him, leafing through books that weren’t more than a few dozen pages wide. “But, Jesus. Are these all-”
“Mages,” Daniel said heavily. He paused, letting his fingers rest against a spine—one thicker than the rest, marked with a slender object. A pen, he realized, and wrinkled his nose. Not it. But...He pulled it from the shelf, flipping through the pages. “Another biography,” he mumbled. “But thicker. This one-”
He stopped himself before he could say it. This one must have lived longer.
“What’s that?” Leon called.
Daniel thrust the book back into place. “Nothing.”
That was one door he wasn’t willing to open yet, even in the silence of his own mind. The fact that none of these mages seemed to live very long. That the few texts he’d perused between his own research and today painted a clear image of their bloody ends. And that Leon was now one of those very same mages.
Could be, he told himself, clenching his jaw. He could be.
“Is something wrong?”
Daniel glanced up. Leon peered at him from between two shelves, his eyes worried. “Is it your leg? Does it hurt? If I need to go back and get that first aid kit again, I can.”
“N-No,” Daniel mumbled, looking down. “I’m fine. There’s no need.”
“You don’t seem fine,” Leon muttered under his breath. “You seem-”
“I’m just...thinking.” Daniel sighed. “About all of these. About...like you said. About them all being mages.”
“There are more here than I’d have figured, that’s for damn sure.”
Daniel snorted, but the twinge of amusement was small, and tempered with worry. “Yeah. There’s...It’s just a lot.” He couldn’t quite say the second half of this, either. These were all mages—and if what he’d been taught was true, most of them would probably be more than happy to come after a target like the Librarian.
This was a room filled with enemies.
“I’m just surprised, that’s all,” Leon said. Daniel looked up again. Leon’s lips were pursed, his arms folded as he drifted from shelf to shelf. “If all these books are people, and all these people are magic...how’s it we don’t hear about any of that?”
“If these books are people, then most of the people are dead,” Daniel said dryly.
“Even still.” Leon swung his hand out, gesturing to the room at large. “That’s a lot of people to be hiding sweet magical abilities from the world.”
Daniel sighed, pausing a moment to lean against a wooden rack. His leg pulsed under the wrappings, throbbing with every beat of his heart. “There’s probably...something more going on,” he said. “They’ve got to be doing something to keep things in line. And if they haven’t let themselves be found…” He shook his head. “They don’t want to be found.”
“I guess,” Leon mumbled. He moved onward, leaning toward another shelf. “Just seems strange. That’s all.”
A chuckle rumbled from Daniel’s throat. “I know. You’re not wrong.”
The rack ended before him. Daniel hesitated, clinging to the shelf for a moment. The ache was getting worse. Alexandria’s medicine or no, he needed to get off his feet soon and rest, or he’d be useless.
But how could he, when he didn’t have what he’d come for? He glanced out over the room, frowning. “Are you really going to make us look through all of these ourselves?” he muttered.
“What’s that?” Leon called again.
Daniel swallowed a groan. “I’m- I’m just-”
“You talking to your book-lady again?” Leon laughed, shaking his head. “You’re lucky I know you’re not crazy, boy.”
“Well, she’s acting like a bitch,” Daniel said, casting a pointed look at the rows of shelves. “I’m pretty damn sure she could be helping, right now.”
“Ah...yeah,” Leon said, his laughter turning nervous. “She didn’t exactly seem happy at my coming down here. I’m assuming that has something to do with it.”
“Yeah, well, we’ve got to get this done one way or another.” Daniel pushed himself back into motion, tottering towards the next row of tight-packed shelves. “With or without her help.”
“She seemed really upset,” Leon said, more quietly. “Is this going to be okay? Maybe I should go wait upstairs, and you can-”
“She doesn’t like mages,” Daniel said. “That’s all.” He looked up, smiling faintly at the low-hanging, dark room around them. “She hardly wanted to show me this place. It’s just...dangerous. To make this stuff common knowledge.”
“I guess. I’m not going to tell anyone, though.”
“I know that,” Daniel mumbled. “But...if something happened…” He ground his teeth together. “Something is already happening. They already know, so what more damage can we do? If we don’t- If we don’t win this, if we don’t stop the people Indira roped into this fight, then it could all get out. There are already mages following us. There could b-be more, and they could spread the word to all their mage friends, and then-”
“Hey,” Leon said, standing bolt upright. “Hey, don’t panic. We’re still good.”
Daniel deflated. “I know. It’s just-”
“We’ll just deal with it,” Leon said. His eyes dropped to another shelf, but he seemed unwilling to turn away. “Whatever comes, we’ll just handle it. It’s as simple as that.”
“But-”
“If those mages know about you, we’ll…” There, Leon hesitated. Daniel smiled mirthlessly. That was the thing, wasn’t it? They couldn’t exactly make the mages forget. Their only choice would be to-
He’d forgotten. The thought slammed through his mind like a lightning bolt. There’d been a letter, hadn’t there? From Crow—from Jean. She’d made him forget.
Couldn’t they do something?
“We’ll figure something out,” Leon said, forcing a smile onto his face. “Don’t give up on it yet. Okay?”
“Y-Yeah,” Daniel said. His mind raced, though. How could he use this? If he could
