After she was gone? The uneasy fear in his gut tripled. What did that mean? She’d never left before, not since...not since he arrived. His mind raced back, trying to count how long it’d been the two of them in the Library’s halls. Months. Years. It was all he could remember. “Where are you-”
“But if we’re going to have others wandering the wings, you’ll have to be a Librarian,” Jean said. “A proper one, identity and all. You need a name and a mask.”
“A...A m-mask?” Daniel squeaked. He looked back to the edge of the table, where that black porcelain shape waited. Jean’s show of pottery skills...didn’t seem so random, anymore. “But I’ve never seen you with that before.”
“Doesn’t really matter when it’s just Librarians inside the place,” Jean said, giving her head a quick shake. “We know each other. That’s just how it works, since I was the one to give you...regardless. You know who I am, and that’s fine.” She flashed Daniel a sidelong grin. “But the rest of them? You have to be careful, Daniel.”
There it was again - she was smiling, as happy and amused as ever, but the smile didn’t quite reach her eyes. They were too dark, too pinched.
“Okay,” Daniel said, fighting with his doubts. “So...”
She sighed, then, lifting her hands from the clay. A bowl of water lay at the table’s edge. She dunked them into it, scrubbing furiously.
And then she reached for her mask, pulling it closer so that they could both see.
“This Library, this home of ours, it’s magic,” she said.
Daniel bobbed his head in a nod. “I-I know that.”
“These books contain everything a person could want to know.” Her eyes tightened further. “Everything.”
“I know that too,” Daniel mumbled.
She reached out, swatting at the tip of his nose. “Listen to me, kid. Ours isn’t the only magic out there, you know.”
He didn’t know that. He froze, his fidgeting coming to an abrupt halt. “W-What?”
“Just what I said,” Jean said, arching an eyebrow. “The universe doesn’t often produce one miracle alone, totally bereft of reason or replication. Alexandria is miraculous, yes.”
The lanterns overhead burned a little brighter, and the smell of the clay sweetened imperceptibly.
“But the reality is that her magic is not unique,” Jean said, unperturbed. “Or, at least, not in that such magic exists. There are others out there, made in her image.”
“Where?” Daniel said, his brow furrowing. “Who? Who are you saying-”
“Right,” Jean murmured, soft enough to be right on the edge of his hearing. Her shoulders slumped, her hands slowing. “It’s...There’s a big world out there, Daniel, all waiting to be found.” She smiled, but it was bittersweet. “You’ll see it soon enough. I promise.”
“What’s wro-”
“But those people exist outside. People with gifts that let them...do things. Much like we can do things in here,” Jean said, lifting her fingers from the clay momentarily. An ember sparked over one fingernail, shaping itself into a tiny rose. “The information we have here? They’d like it very much. And even besides for them, there will always be someone wanting Alexandria’s secrets.”
The walls pressed in around them. Daniel huddled lower in his seat, his eyes wide. He’d...never thought of it like that before. If there were other people out there, if they weren’t alone, then-
“It’s all right,” she said, pausing again to smile in his direction. “We’re safe. I promise.”
“Can they get in?” he said, his voice small.
Relief washed over him as she shook her head. “No. We...there’s a system. No one gets in the Library without our approval, Daniel. No mages. Ever. You must be careful of that.” Her hand pressed down against the tabletop. “But even if they should get inside...the Library will not provide information on magic to one of their kind. If it did...” She pressed her lips together tightly, her eyes darkening. “They’d never give up.”
She’d paused, waiting. Right. Daniel nodded slowly, still quivering in his seat.
“Breathe,” she said, a bit of humor returning to her voice. “I’m not saying this to terrify you, Daniel. Just to prepare you. That’s why we’re here today.”
He swallowed hard, nodding toward the clay. “Masks.”
“Correct. A mask.” Jean inclined her head toward the clay and the form. “When there are guests in the Library, we have to disguise ourselves. Don’t show anything - not even your hair. Not even your skin, if you can avoid it. Give them as little as possible to identify you with. Your name?” She chuckled mirthlessly. “That’s for us, not them. You’ll need a Librarian name, to go with your mask.”
“O-Oh.” Daniel lifted himself higher, bracing his feet off the rungs of the stool. His eyes were glued to the mask, the one she’d set down. Her mask. “Do you have one? What’s yours?”
“Curious?” she said, leering. She reached over, though, pulling it to them.
When she dropped it into his hands, he clutched it close. Tiny black feathers spotted the clay, etched into the smooth surface one line at a time. And just like before, a stone-grey beak jutted from the front.
“My name is Crow,” Jean said, her tone softening. “That’s...what I’ve always gone by. Librarians choose animals, mostly. Easier to make a mask out of.” She snorted. “Less likely for visitors to treat you like an inanimate object, there to cater to their every whim.”
He nodded, still drinking in the elegant curves and shapes dotting the mask. It was lovely, the equal to any of the sculptures he’d wandered past in Alexandria’s halls.
“Take a moment,” she said, more softly. “It’s an important decision. The name will be yours for life.”
Again, he nodded, but his mind was elsewhere. A name? An animal? How was he supposed to pick, just like that?
He could be a lion, big and brave. Jean said Librarians were supposed to be brave, after all. He grinned, picturing himself
