Fae or Dragons—Pros and Cons
So, you might ask, why don’t we ally ourselves outright with the dragons? They stand for order, just as the Fae stand for chaos. They represent reality, in the same way that the Fae embrace and are empowered by concepts of fiction and unreality. As such, the dragons esteem the “real” and the physical world above all else, having little patience with matters of the imagination. So why shouldn’t we want to embrace* physical reality? The answer is that, in their own way, the dragons are just as biased and non-human in their viewpoint as the Fae.
Dragons—Their Orientation Towards Order and Their Powers
Dragons may represent the physical world—the world we can touch, if you like—but physical reality is not kind.* It is raw, brutal, and merciless. Dragons’ powers are grounded in the physical realm: they can control the weather, the tides, the earth, and so on. Dragons are also highly practical in their thinking and see little need for discussions about democracy, human self-determination, or other such fantasies—when they consider themselves as demonstrably the most powerful creatures around. They consider they automatically have the right to rule by this token. So in the worlds where a high degree of order is present, the dragons do rule, either openly or behind the scenes.
The Library—How It Maintains Balance
By means of connections through its doors to multiple alternate worlds—connections forged by harvesting key books from these worlds—the Library helps maintain the balance. Its links with worlds prevent them from drifting too fast in the direction of chaos or order, and a reasonably stable environment for humans is possible somewhere in the middle.* Junior Librarians may be heavily penalised if seen to be making unauthorised pacts with the Fae. This is especially true if these are seen to undermine the Library’s all-important neutrality—which must be preserved at all costs. It should be stressed that we aren’t here in order to make judgements about what is “best for humanity.” Humanity should be left to make its own decisions. The purpose of the Library is to preserve humanity from either absolute reality or absolute unreality.
And you will do this by collecting nominated books, to maintain the balance.
PROLOGUE
The London air was full of smog and filth. Kai’s senses were better than those of a human, though he tried not to be too self-indulgent about it. But even he couldn’t see down a dark alley any better than the average Londoner. And even native Londoners walked carefully in the narrow streets behind King’s Cross station.
But where crime flourished, so, too, did detectives. And he was here to meet Peregrine Vale, friend and fighter of crime.
He paused to inspect a pawnbroker’s window, trying to gauge the street behind him. While he couldn’t see anyone specifically following him, there was something in the air that set him on edge, a foretaste of danger. But there were very few humans who could challenge a dragon, even in his human form, and he didn’t expect to meet any of them in the back alleys here.
Vale was in a warehouse just round the corner. Almost there, and then he could find out what kind of assistance Vale needed with his case.
And then someone screamed nearby. It was a woman’s scream, genuinely terrified, cut off in the middle with a coughing yelp. Kai turned abruptly, peering into the swirling fog. Two men and a woman were huddled at one end of a particularly dank passageway. The woman had her arms pinned behind her back by one aggressor, while the other was drawing back his fist to strike again.
“Let her go,” Kai said calmly. He could handle two humans easily enough. Even if they were werewolves, they weren’t a significant danger. But this would make him late.
“Back off,” one of the men snarled, turning away from the woman to face him. “This isn’t none of your business, nor your part of town neither.”
“It’s my business if I choose to make it my business.” Kai advanced down the alley towards the group, automatically assessing them as his father’s armsmasters had trained him. They were muscular in the shoulders, well-built, but both showing signs of a paunch and dissipation. He could take them, just as he’d taken others of their kind a few days before.
The free man advanced towards him, fists up in a crude boxer’s stance. He was lighter on his feet than Kai had expected, but not fast enough. He bluffed with his right fist, then tried a straight left at Kai’s jaw. Kai side-stepped, slammed his hand sideways into the man’s kidneys, kicked him in the back of the knee to take him off balance, and ran his head into the wall. The man went down.
“Now, don’t be like that,” the other man said, backing deeper into the alley and holding the woman in front of him like a shield. Panic was starting to show in his eyes. “You just walk away and nobody gets hurt . . .”
“You just let go of that woman,” Kai corrected him, “and you don’t get hurt.” He walked forward, considering openings. A dodge to the side and a strike to the man’s neck might be the least risky option for the woman, yet—
“Now,” a voice said from above.
Doors slammed open on either side of him and behind him, and at the same moment something fell from above, tumbling down towards him in a knot of shadows.
