That same evening.
The study of the late director Olga Marie Animusphere didn't change much from what her predecessor had left.
Marisbury Animusphere was a man of elegance and preferred asceticism to the posh magnificence, leaving just enough of everything for the room to be fit for one of the Lords of Clocktower, but also, fairly minimalistic in its furnishings.
Which is to say, the only thing that could be called comfortable was a table and the absolutely heavenly leather chair.
Well, many Magi would have pointed out many other things of note, but Dr. Romani Archiman, after using this as his paperwork hell, could care less about anything else.
Not to forget the sofa, of course. That thing was comfy as all hell.
Roman winced. Considering it was Solomon and his 72 demonic pillars that were making their life worse, mentioning hell was rather ill-mannered.
Still, even as these thoughts were running through his mind, he allowed his head to rest on the mountain of papers.
The stream of paperwork never ended. Especially after he and Roland talked things out and came to the decision that Ritsuka and Mash needed something nice to remember. And while Roland took the organizing part of things, Roman had to sanction everything, so when the UN eventually came, they couldn't sue their collective asses into oblivion.
Romani was so absorbed in his thoughts that he didn't notice the door opening.
He only heard the steps when the person came dangerously close and…
"Ack-Ack-Ack-Ack" something hot was pressed to Roman's temple.
A second later, with him raising to face the intruder of his peace, the hot was lifted as well.
Roman raised his eyes to Da Vinci rolling hers.
"You are hopeless, Roman," she declared, putting the cup of coffee down on the table.
"Yeah, well, paperwork won't fill itself."
"Nor will it go anywhere while you sleep."
"Yeah-yeah," he waved it off, taking the cup,but not before showing a small, but grateful smile.
"So," he started as he moved the stack of paper to the corner of the desk, "What brings you here?"
"Other than saving you from killing yourself from overwork? I wanted to discuss tomorrow."
Roman quirked a brow. What was supposed to… oh.
"You forgot, didn't you," a statement, not a question.
"You know me too well," he smiled wryly.
"Ah, Roman-Roman," Da Vinci only shook her head in dismay, "You can't be fixed".
She said that with a tender reprimand in her tone.
"Let's get to it then," she clapped her hands, making Roman wince from the ringing in his ears. "We'll be visiting Roland's fabled Library. Did he tell you anything more since you talked?"
"Nope," he responded, "Set the date. We need to go to the cafeteria tomorrow in the morning. Then, we'll check it out. Or just one of us. I'm actually on the fence with the whole thing… Maybe one of us should stay behind?"
"A sound precaution," she nodded, "Then, you're staying."
"Hold up…"
She shushed him with a stare and Roman fought the urge to shrink on himself.
"I'm a servant, remember?" he didn't in fact. Her presence was so natural, so seamless, that he forgot that she was from a few centuries back - better yet - a male. "If I die there - you'll just be able to resummon me. There is no second of you, though."
"By that logic, we shouldn't allow Ritsuka to go," he protested.
"Yes, but that would raise some red flags and push him to act. When he doesn't necessarily will."
"Ugh, whatever…" Roman knew that for every rebuttal he could find, she'll find a counter. He wouldn't be winning this one. He never really could. "Anything you have to share in his regard?"
"Actually, I do," the inventor put the cup down."I think I've got the working theory about what Roland might be."
"Well, share with the class," he urged.
"Remember Scatach?"
"Yeah? From the last singularity."
"Well, from what we managed to gather - she couldn't take on the spirit form. I've read it from Mash's post-action report. She submitted it yesterday, by the way. Give it a read. It should be somewhere around here," she motioned towards the stacks upon stacks of paper. The poke at his less than efficient way of doing things was more than apparent.
"Right," his face soured. "So, what about Scatach?"
"Mash mentioned that she was still alive. Left in the Land of Shadows. See where I'm going with this?"
For a second, Roman froze, his tired mind trying to catch up with the implications.
He wasn't a med student for nothing, though, because it only took him another seconds before it struck him.
"Mean to say he is alive?" He took a swig out of the cup to re-energize.
She hid a satisfied smile with a mug, not answering.
Roman, meanwhile, turned into mutterings.
"Well, that's… I dunno. It can be both good and bad," Doctor pondered out loud.
"I mean, if he wanted to do something bad, he could've done it any time. He could have, his Reality Marble allows him to, I asked. Also, why go to such lengths to help Ritsuka out? He organizes a freaking ball in her name."
"I do not know," the inventor shrugged, "Ritsuka seems to trust him enough, though. Judging from her after-action report."
"When did you read that?!" Roman exclaimed.
"Today. She submitted it a few hours ago. Here," she then took it from a file he didn't notice was there, "Take a look later. This is the unedited version".
Roman just threw it on top of the pile.
Da Vinci gave him a stink eye.
They continued.
"Well, what do we do, then?"
"Nothing. There is a chance that he might just kill us all, but I wouldn't bet on it."
"Why?" he pushed.
"Well, you said he might be either good or bad. In there," she pointed at the file, "You'll find a very interesting piece by the end. He asked to kill Medb and Cu. Said that it was important. So, whatever it is he pursues, it's not related to Chaldea. Not directly, at least. And if you don't trust me, trust Ritsuka. She's putting a lot of trust in him and it shows."
Roman tapped a nervous beat on the table, before just sighing.
"Guess we'll have to figure out what he is after exactly."
"Or we might be overthinking this. He is not alive and has no agendas and we've just wasted twenty minutes discussing this," Da Vinci said with a cheshire grin.
"Or that."
"I'll find out tomorrow either way, so for the love of god, please - go to sleep," Da Vinci chided and Roman raised his hands in surrender.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm leaving," he dropped his pen on the table demonstratively, and trod to his room.
Caster regarded the man with a small, satisfied smile and as he turned the corner, decided to retreat to her quarters as well.
Her inventor's spirit was whispering that something truly exciting was about to happen.
*****
The next day came.
Roland didn't sleep a wink.
Usually laid-back, he couldn't shake off the nagging feeling in his chest.
It's been in his nature - to hold cards close to his chest. As an info broker, as a fixer, as a librarian - until, one day, he didn't need to.
Two years in the Library, though, didn't change this particular part of him - to habitually hold off on the information.
So, as he paced around the room, he weighed the pros and cons. Thought of what he wanted and needed to disclose to get the trust…
And then his thoughts reached that particular part, they came to a screeching halt.
His eyes rose up, as he seized up the room again, as if trying to find his thoughts scattered around.
This stop allowed him to register a single, very simple thought.
Why couldn't he reveal everything? Other than fearing potential repercussions, but then it's important to understand… what repercussions?
Will he be shelved from the team? Why would Ritsuka do that?
Will he lose trust? Maybe, and only because he didn't reveal his hand earlier. But he was actively trying to gain it now, so a bit of a mute point.
Will he… Dunno, will everyone start to avoid him?
Please, Jalter stalks these halls. He couldn't possibly be worse than her.
So what was he afraid of?
"Pwa-ha-ha," he laughed weakly. He was scared just because. Because it was in his nature to hold onto as much information as possible and revealing it seemed off.
In fact, there was no reason not to reveal his intentions. Ritsuka was the kind of gal, with which what you see is what you get. She would accept everything in stride, not really bothered.
And he'd like to think that after sharing his most traumatic memory with her - they had the kind of bond that wouldn't break just because he'd say he was still alive and collecting souls of servants for a very specific reason. Not even a nefarious one, at that.
Did he need to, though?
He let out a sigh. That was a question and a half too. Her not knowing wouldn't be harmful either.
"Argh," he let out a strangled groan, scratching his head violently.
Thinking really wasn't his kind of thing.
…
If she asks - he would reveal it. Other than that - he would leave her with the info that would be needed to work efficiently and sate her curiosity.
Reaching that compromise with his apprehensive side, he fixed his tie, combed his hair and took off to the meeting spot.
*****
Roland was already at the rendezvous spot, hunched over the counter.
"Mean to say your stomach is still growing?" Archer asked.
"Yeah. Roman estimated that it would return around yesternight, but…" he heaved a long and disappointed sigh.
"Well, we all make mistakes," Emiya said, "Wouldn't your smooth-brained self know that?"
"Oh fuck off…"
Their chat got interrupted when another person approached.
"Medea," Emiya nodded at her.
"Hey," Roland just waved.
"Good morning," her eyes clashed with Archer for a fraction of a second but then they just stayed silent.
Roland's information broker senses were tingling.
"You guys have a history together?" he probed.
"You could say that," Archer was courteous enough to reply, but didn't provide many details.
Roland urged him to continue with his brows, but Emiya kept his silence.
Fixer's eyes then slid to the woman, but she was busy drinking her…
The fragrant smell hit his nose and Roland figured that it was tea she was drinking.
'Another time, then,' he gave up and sensed another group approaching.
"Goooood morning, everyone," fresh and cheerful, Ritsuka barged into the room.
"Good morning," Mash repeated the greeting, giving a demure smile.
After three various "good mornings" from the servants, the duo took to eating their porridge.
No conversation was held. People just ate and drunk in comfortable silence.
Well, that was bound to end as well.
The door swooshed and the duo of an inventor and a doctor strolled in.
"Good morning everyone," Da Vinci chirped, Roman just waved, too busy fighting back a yawn.
Archer walked in and out of the kitchen, serving food left, right and center.
Roland honestly felt really out of place here, but bit down his tongue as he shed tears in his mind. He'll get his stomach back, eventually, hopefully…
His eyes scanned everyone who had gathered and decided that it's time to put the show on the road.
"Alright, so these are all the people that are going, right?" Roland asked no one in particular and people looked amongst each other before nodding.
"Good," Fixer affirmed and looked at Archer, "Want to tag along?"
"You guys going on an excursion or something?" Emiya gave a questioning look.
"It's not that far from the truth, actually," the comparison made Roland crack up a bit. The smile spread on Ritsuka's face as well.
"So?"
"I'll pass. Arturia is about to come. Don't want to keep her hungry now, do we?"
Roland shuddered. He had the pleasure of being the victim of her gluttonous antics when Boudica asked him to cover for her. Needless to say, it shook him to the core.
Roland gave Archer a pitying look and turned to the rest.
"Alright, we'll be going then."
He stood up, stretched and started up the chant.
I have nothing but my sorrow and I want nothing more.
It has been, it still is, faithful to me.
Medea perked up at the words. They seemed solemn to her, yet despite everything, Roland read it with calm, unbefitting the dark undertones.
Why should I begrudge it, since during the hours
When my soul crushed the depths of my heart,
It was seated there beside me?
Archer arched a brow at this. This guy was certainly a drama queen.
O sorrow, I have ended, you see, by respecting you,
Because I am certain you will never leave me.
Ritsuka looked at the wide back of Pretender and couldn't help a feeling of unease in her gut.
She could feel, almost instinctively now, how important this passage was to him.
But before she could envelop her worries into words, a door of solid wood appeared in front of their eyes.
"Well," Roland stepped up, and opened it wide, "After you."
He motioned gallantly for everyone to enter.
*****
Thirty minutes prior. The Library. Keter.
The quartet of Librarians were intently staring at the two pieces of paper lying on the table.
Their gazes were that of apprehension, dread, curiosity and, more importantly - intrigue.
"Well," Eugene opened his mouth, "We did that."
"Yep," Arthur agreed.
"What do we do now?" Destiny eyed everyone, turning her head left and right.
"Don't be stupid. Obviously we use them," Dakota picked up the key page of 'Cu Alter'.
"Duh," Destiny, in the display of impressive agility, snatched it in between her fingers, "I was asking what are we gonna do with that?" she motioned with her eyes towards the second page.
Four pairs of eyes descended onto the Key page of 'Medb'.
"Why did we even burn it, anyway?" Arthur asked. "Weren't we supposed to burn only the big guy's book?"
"I mean," Dakota shrugged, her eyes darting from place to place behind the shades, "I just threw it in because why not?"
Eugene stared a bit more, before voicing his doubts.
"...Didn't boss say that we aren't to burn them without his permission?"
"Psh," Dakota rolled her eyes, "We've been through this before, remember? It's not like we can go wrong with this. It's just burning a few books, not taking on an Ensemble."
Eugene leveled her, then Destiny with a clinical look.
"Well, I'll be taking this."
With just that, the Key Page of Cu Alter was sucked in Destiny's hand and suddenly…
"Well, this is weird," she said as she moved the chitin tail from side to side.
"Hey, hey. Keep it to yourself, it's rather spiky," Arthur exclaimed, jumping back.
"Tch, I wanted that one," Dakota grumbled and then the remaining three pairs of eyes settled on the other Key page…
Something passed between them, like a dark shadow.
"Not me," collectively, the men of the group said as one.
"Not…" Dakota's eyes stilled and her body froze, "GOD FUCKING DAMN IT EUGENE! I'M NOT GOING TO WEAR THE WHORE'S PAGE!"
Euegene, while mostly unperturbed by the woman's ire, had something to say.
"...Well, you threw it in there. Now deal with it."
With the most detached expression, he declared and was on his marry way to the sofa, another book from Chaldea's library in hand.
Arthur just freaking disappeared somewhere while Dakota was venting.
And Destiny was looking at her especially smugly. As if daring to try and take Cu's page from her.
Which was realistically unfeasible, so Dakota could only really grind her teeth in frustration.
But Destiny wasn't done just yet, the usually mischievous nature pushed to the forefront.
"What do you think will happen, if Bossman finds out that we burned not one, but two… And we don't even know what we got… And we did it all without permission too? "
The smile Destiny showed now truly befitted the page she wore. Very beastly.
Dakota's brow started to tick. Her eyes alternated between the page and her hand.
"Fuck all of you," she spat out, growling, her discontent palpable. Nevertheless, out of sheer spite, she took the page and it soon disappeared in her hand after lighting up.
A second passed. Then, another.
"Hm," wearing a very revealing outfit, Dakota cupped her chin.
"How is it?"
"Surprisingly, the resistances are good. And she has a few pretty neat traits…?" she trailed off by the end.
"See? Wasn't so bad, was it?"
"Although she was a whore, so nah, thanks."
And just like that, she was back to her Thumb's wear, the page, after shimmering with an almost depressed golden glow, thrown onto the table.
"I might be a Rat, but like I would whore myself out like that," with her piece said, the purple-haired menace landed on an armchair, one leg on the other.
"Oh well," Destiny just shrugged and decided to do some exercises with the spear. This page was rather amazing.
*****
As everyone walked in, Roland entered last.
With a click, the door was shut and then…
*SNAP*
(Play: Library of Ruina - Theme 2)
Instantly, Roland appeared before the group, his face occupied with a business-like smile while he fixed his tie.
He then cleared his throat as some of the more magically inclined individuals of the group couldn't believe their eyes.
Roland, after all, just performed what most Magi couldn't hope to achieve without a True Magic.
"Welcome, dear Visitors, to the Library," he gave a small bow, getting applause from Ritsuka and Mash for his artistic entry."My name is Roland and I'm the Patron Librarian of Keter, the Floor of General Works."
After he said that, his body slackened, the air of grandeur subdued, and he asked.
"So, how was it?"
"I'd give it a seven out of ten. Pretty to the point, but the entrance was pretty solid," Ritsuka commented, nodding to herself.
"It was good, Roland-san," Mash too added, even though the stunt prior rattled her a little.
" "What trick did you use to get there? Weren't you just behind us?" asked Da Vinci, a bit thrown off.
Medea couldn't blame her. That was impressive. Even though she was more interested in how this whole place reeked of… something so incredibly foreign to her.
"I teleported," Roland shrugged and raised his hand, snapping his finger and appearing right beside Ritsuka and Mash, "Like this."
Inventor couldn't summarize her first impressions in any meaningful way, so she uttered.
"Holy cow." Even if it was a bit out of character for her. You don't see a guy flaunt True Magic everyday.
"Woooh! Can you do that in battle too?" Ritsuka was quick to spot a practical use of such a feature.
"Nope, can't do that in battle," but Master was in for a disappointment, "And while we are at it - I'd like to ask you guys to keep the loaded questions until we reach the lounge."
An indecisive murmur passed around the group.
"You can ask me some simpler questions, though, while we are on the move. Just give me a moment."
He turned his back on them and closed his eyes.
For a few seconds, silence reigned.
Ritsuka took in the seemingly limitless shelves stretching up into the sky, and the large pillars of what seemed like marble. Not to forget the special-looking stairway to a simple-looking door. You know, all flashy and rectangular, with all these arches and pillars and…
It was all gone the next moment.
*SNAP*
Full of majestic flair, the stairs of clean white marble appeared, paving the way up, into the forest of bookshelves.
Mash was looking at this with childlike wonder.
Da Vinci struggled to pick up her jaw from the floor.
The man than turned and, with a very pleased smile, said, "Follow me."
This whole display screamed 'I'm showing off.' Ritsuka really wanted to throw a wrench in his plan, though.
Just 'cause.
So, Master ran.
"Blow hard," she whispered as she passed the fixer, and the slight amusement in his eyes told her that he just about expected that to happen.
She then climbed some steps up, gaining an advantage.
"Race you there!" she stuck out her tongue, and ran.
And ran.
And ran.
Then, she stopped. Looked around.
She didn't move an inch, from the time she ran over the fiftieth step.
"Looking pretty lost out there, need a hand?" on her right, she discovered another staircase, on which Roland was giving her the most shiteating grin in history.
"Kar-kar-kar, how funny," Master didn't take it lying down, "How about you bring me to you, so I can punch you?"
"Not sure…" he scratched his head, not at all fearful of the threat "I thought you wanted to race me there?"
"Quit messing around, why don't you?"
"Fine-fine."
*SNAP*
"Happy now?"
"Sure, whatever, let's go," miffed, she pushed the conversation forward.
And so they went. The group rose up at a comfortable pace, as the stairs slowly narrowed, as if swallowed gradually by the shelves.
The uneven echo of steps on the marble floor scattered throughout, as four pairs of eyes wandered around the colorful batches of books.
This lull in the conversation, served as an opening.
"Okay, I'll go first," Ritsuka, havening recovered from her race, couldn't hold a question in, "What the hell is this music?! Where is it coming from?!"
Everyone, collectively, nodded. Some, only now noticing the sound of the violin.
"You know, funny you should say that. I still have no idea how there is always music, nor how it works. What I do know, though, is that if you concentrate, the music will stop, but just for you," Roland half turned to them as he stepped up.
"Neat, I guess," Ritsuka really didn't know what to think of that, so she went silent, her rapidly darting eyes revealing her excitement.
With that, the floodgates were open.
"Then I have another question," Medea said, "How is this Library related to the tree of life?"
"Loaded question," Roland nodded, "But not too loaded. Basically, the entire thing was a research facility. When Miss Library director decided to take over, she kept the structure she was most familiar with. Was the facility initially inspired by the tree of life? Beats me. I didn't know it was a reference until after I got to Chaldea."
"Ano, Roland-san," a small pause later, Mash voiced her curiosity, "What does 'general works' entail?"
"Good question. Basically, our floor is in charge of two things - dictionaries that aren't too specific and sorting through the books that we get and then delivering them to the other floors."
"Mmm, what about other floors then?" Ritsuka perked up. "What are they in charge of?"
He hummed, thinking for a second.
"Let's start from the bottom. Malkuth - History, Yesod - Technology, Hod - Literature, Netzach - Art.
"Tiphereth - Natural sciences, Gebura - Language, Chesed - Social sciences. Binah - Philosophy, Hokma - Religion."
"Hm," Da Vinci pondered, "They fit rather well with their characterization from Kabbalah, actually. Except Gebura, maybe. Wasn't it all about actions and strength?"
"Oh, don't sweat it. Gebura was very adept in the language everyone can understand," Roland said with a sly smile.
"You had a sort of unified language? Why haven't you ever mentioned that?" Ritsuka quirked a brow.
"I meant violence, Ritsuka. Gebura was the best of us when it came to the language of violence."
"Oh."
A small quiet formed just as they approached the end of the stairs. A somewhat sober feel permeated through the group.
Roland pushed open the door and they finally left the staircase, entering a large and long hallway.
"Da Vinci, you've been awfully quiet," Roland turned to the group as they all stepped in, "I thought you'd have a lot more questions."
"Oh, I have many, trust me. They are all loaded though," she shrugged innocently, which didn't help with the chill that went down Roland's spine.
"We are currently in the hall adjacent to the lounge. We have a kitchen over there," Roland motioned to the closed door, as he walked "A small canteen there," he gestured towards another door, "And living quarters to the left from where we just came up," he said as he led the group to the double doors at the end of the corridor.
Ritsuka had to give credit, the lighting here was pretty sick. The light was warm and reflected well off the smooth dark wooden planks, giving this whole corridor a very vintage feel.
Another minute later, and they were standing in front of big double-doors. Above it, a picture was lit - a brain with a crown housed upon it.
"Fitting," Da Vinci muttered. Medea beside her nodded.
Roland pushed the doors forward, revealing a spacious room, made in a light brown color ranging from the sofa and armchairs, to the long table and bookshelves. The lighting here was better than in the hall, but it wasn't overly bright, making it easy on the eyes. It also reached every part of the room, so it made this place really good for reading.
And everyone would have probably noticed that, were it not for the figure practicing in one of the corners.
Really, it was hard not to notice an almost hulking figure swinging a blood red spear around.
Everyone stilled, for very different reasons. Medea found it hard to comprehend… this. Two different mana signatures seemed to be overlayed on top of one another, like a piece of clothing.
Ritsuka quacked after her eyes landed on what she presumed was Cu Alter. Mash was already at the ready in front of her.
And Roland…
With a snap, the man appeared near the figure and gave a very melodious smack on the back of the head.
"What did I tell you guys about burning books without me?" he asked, exasperated and annoyed.
It's then that the figure turned around and instead of a predatory-like features of a Berserker, they were met with sharp orbs of silver, accented by the long, flowing hair of the same color.
"Ouch, bossman, ouch."
He tired to smack her again, but the woman evaded with a sly grin. Roland arched a brow as they just stood for a second.
Well, two could play that game.
A snap, and Roland was already behind her. Then, he pinched the hard chitin of her armor…
To the spectator, it looked like, as he pulled on it, the 'skin' of Cu Alter started to rush into Roland's hand, until…
With a slight brushing sound, a worn-out page was in his hand and the woman had a white business suit on.
"Bossman, that's just… ouch"
Roland smacked her again. Destiny could only really rub the spot, unable to resist the manhandling. The Patron had a very heavy hand. Even when he didn't give it his all.
Silence. Everyone looked on in silent bewilderment, what had just transpired, neither of the Chaldeans getting even an inkling as to what they had just witnessed.
"Serves her right…"
It all made it easier to hear how a woman sitting on an armchair smirked, a cruel edge hidden beneath the shades.
"Haaa," Roland sighed heavily as his hand slid through his head.
"We have visitors you morons, and this is what you show them first…" the amount of heat his voice was packing was palpable.
(AN: Roland was about to go Vergilius on these poor sods. Thankfully for them, he is a changed man. )
"So, ah, introduce us?" Ritsuka said carefully and Roland was back to normal.
"Right. Khem-khem. So," a snap, and he was near the group again, "From left to right, let me introduce to you my source of all the Abnormality related knowledge. That silver-haired pain-in-the-ass is my right-hand woman, sorta-kinda - her name is Destiny."
"Gee, way to introduce someone," she grinned, but it thinned as Roland sent her a dirty look. "Heeeellooo everyone. Name's Destiny. I make sure that everything here stands long enough for the bossman to come and sort the problems out."
She gave everyone a peace sign.
"Don't mind her eccentricity. You don't get to live through Lobotomy corporation and not have a mental disorder of some kind," he said with a voice laced with pity.
"Excuse you, I'm a perfectly functioning human being."
That was a man with shaggy brown hair.
"And that's Arthur. He talks a lot," the characterization was short, unlike Destiny.
"Why are you like that Boss?" the man grumbled, but just smiled good-naturedly at the group, giving a small wave.
"On the sofa, you'll probably discover Eugene. If he bothers to lift his ass, of course."
He, in fact, did not bother with lifting his ass from the sofa, only raising a hand.
"Hello," and giving a greeting.
"Hello mister Hand," Ritsuka played along
The red-haired employee did not rise up still.
"And there sits my other headache, the smug, purple-haired menace - Dakota."
"Wow, you're giving me some stellar recommendations, boss," she quirked her brow.
"Anyway, introductions are out of the way. Make some space people, let the guests take the seats."
Ritsuka noticed how the four grumbled, but complied. Despite the prior display, you could feel how lax Roland and his Assistants were, about the whole hierarchy here.
"Well, sit wherever you feel comfortable," Roland gestured towards the furniture. "We have quite a chat ahead of us, might as well do it comfortably."
Everyone was seated before long. Ritsuka and Mash took the center of the couch, Da Vinci sitting on their left. Medea remained floating near the sofa.
Roland pulled the armchair a bit closer to the coffee table, while his librarians scurried out of the way, to the long table to play cards or whatnot.
"Alright, questions?" with the look of the man sentenced to endure a long discussion, Roland waved them to begin.
"Khm-khm," Da Vinci cleared her throat, the hunger for knowledge rising from the depth of her eyes.
"What was that thing Destiny was… wearing? I don't know how to put it," but Ritsuka beat her to it, starting off small.
"We'll touch on it in more detail a little bit later, but to put simply - it was a Key page," Roland put the said page on the table for everyone to see.
"Mmm," Master leaned forward, but understood absolutely nothing from what was written; resistances, traits… she couldn't make heads or tails of it, "So, what does it do?"
"Basically, it's like you wear someone's skin to be as strong and fast as them," Roland explains.
"With an added bonus to replicate their skills, if you have needed battle pages." Chimed in Destiny from the table, as she was about to reveal her hand. "Flush."
Roland gave his subordinates an irrate look and continued.
"They can be used a bit differently as well, but I'll explain that later."
"And can you… wear them outside the Library?" Mash asked, pressing a finger against her chin.
"Nope."
Silence filled the room, with only an occasional shuffle of cards to fill it. The visitors could easily admit that there were, perhaps, too many things to ask, so they turned to the person most eager, until they could sort out their thoughts enough.
Everyone looked at Da Vinci. She was almost shining with curiosity.
"Yeah, Da Vinci?" with the way she looked at him, Roland assumed she wanted to ask something. Scratch that - a lot.
"Let's start off simple - what is the Library?" she asked.
"Library is a… construct, of sorts. Capable of housing an infinite amount of books. I… can't really tell you more, because I wasn't the one who created it." Fixer said.
"Alright," Da Vinci conceded, "When who did? And to what end?"
"Well," Roland chose his next words carefully, "The Library was created by Angela…" then, as if a thought struck him, he smiled with his eyes,"the director and librarian of her role's namesake."
He cited, his tone of voice becoming a bit calmer.The looks of light amusement that other librarians shared told Ritsuka that there was some inside-joke here she wasn't getting.
"And the purpose of it all was to collect a substance called Light."
Medea observed. Da Vinci nodded to herself and probed further.
"So, what is Light? Ritsuka mentioned a Seed of Light project and it being the reason for the creation of Abnormalities, but she kept it short."
Fixer gave everyone around a look and noted that Mash was really out of her depth here. Considering he didn't give Ritsuka nearly enough information to piece together what exactly Light or the Library was… Roland just sighed. He really was starting to get tired of these small history lessons.
"I'll keep it short then," he stood up and, with a snap, a whiteboard appeared in front of the group.
"Lobotomy corporation," with a snap, a logo appeared on the whiteboard,"An energy producer. Through reality defying means - created abnormalities, which, in turn, were used to produce an energy source named enkephalin."
"Any relation to the enkephalin in our world?" was a quick question from Da Vinci.
Roland stopped. He didn't know that there was another thing called enkephalin.
"You don't know. Alright then cont… No actually, another question - how efficient was enkephalin as an energy source?"
"Ah…" Roland trailed off, eyes darting to the four.
"A generator running on enkephalin could approximately produce up to 1000 gigawatts of electricity," Eugene helpfully supplied, then added, "On one box of enkephalin. In a day, we produced around…"
He looked at Destiny.
"Two thousand boxes on the final day."
Mash was trying her best to count it in her head. Ritsuka didn't even try - the number sounded big, that was good enough for her. Da Vinci, on the other hand, was trying to pick her jaw back from the floor.
"That's…" finally, Mash did the math, coming to an astounding conclusion.
"It could power all of Chaldea for decades. Outside of supplying servants with mana, of course," Da Vinci muttered under her breath.
"Can I continue?" Patron asked.
"Ah, yes. Yes please," a bit lost, the inventor replied.
"Most of that energy went to the creation of the 'Seed of Light'. A project that was supposed to help cityfolk unlock what is called an E.G.O. Something to pacify and make the City a more bearable place to live. E.G.O is , in the terms of this world, could be amounted to a personal superpower."
Fixer commented off-handedly, cutting out a lot of details.
"You are simplifying it too much. Not to mention, it's not just a superpower." Destiny drawled, but Roland just dismissed her. He was not about to go on a tangent.
"It's not really important what an E.G.O is," judging by Leonardo's eyes (and everyone's, really) they begged to differ, "What is important is that the Seed was created by pouring enkephalin in it like crazy for ten thousand years from one facility. Plus some spare change that came from different facilities."
You could see how lines of numbers were running across Da Vinci's head as she tried to comprehend the amount of energy, but in the end, she winced, even her brilliant brain coming up with numbers so impossible, she'd think they were a joke.
You could also see how Mash wanted to ask the very important question of 'sorry, how many years, again?' but Roland didn't let her.
"Enter the person who was in charge of this entire shit-show - Angela. She was an AI made with the specific purpose of managing everything in the main facility. However, what you must know is that she was made through some very unique means and after some time she developed emotions.
"However, even in the City, Lobotomy Corporation could be described as a hell on earth. So, you could say that it wasn't the best place to find yourself not only with a perfect memory, but also capable of feeling any kind of emotions."
Roland stopped to take in some air. The many eyes were on him, but he could see that only Ritsuka (maybe somewhat) realized how bad it must have been.
"Why would it be called hell?" Mash asked, innocently enough.
"Oh, you sweet summer child," Destiny purred.
Arthur could only wince with an apologetic smile, while Eugen just stayed silent.
"Because it was," Dakota, though, had no fucks to give, "You've dealt with the Wolf and Red Hood, right?" she leaned closer, the eyes beneath the shades looking haunted, "Well, imagine having to deal with more than thirty of them. Creatures that are more than happy to kill you in ways unimaginably painful or just make you go insane."
"Abnormalities are capable of mental interference?" Da Vinci asked.
"They can bend a lesser man to their will without an issue," she confirmed.
"That may complicate things," the inventor turned thoughtful.
"Oh, it complicated shit alright. To put into perspective, if there weren't some precautions in place, they could've killed millions with ease."
The quiet after that revelation was oppressive.
"...How did you survive, Miss Dakota?" Mash asked.
"First, don't 'Miss' me," librarian's face scrunched up, "Second, we had equipment in place, made out of those very abnormalities."
Roland interrupted that speech.
"But we can talk about that later. As I was about to say - the Seed of Light was eventually finished, and let out into the world."
"Happy end?" Ritsuka asked, knowing full well that it wasn't .
"Well, when the only thing you knew was slaughter and watching people suffer - all alone - you kinda want to live a better life, and have some payback for the suffering you went through. So, Angela stole what remained of Light after three days and made the Library. That made whatever plans that were made go completely awry."
'Pretty selfish of this… machine,' Medea internally noted, yet felt very much nothing. This AI, if not for other reasons than for revenge, decided to thwart the plans of her creators. It was something the witch herself could get behind.
"You never really mentioned what she wanted to do with the Light," Ritsuka raised her hand.
"What a machine with feelings would want, of course, - to become free of restraints. Of memories of endless bloodshed. To explore the world and herself. To become human."
That made everyone stumble on their thoughts.
"Excuse me?" Medea asked.
"What's so difficult to understand?" Roland tilted his head, "Light is, honestly, a very weird substance. It can do some real weird shit. Turning someone into a human was very much possible."
To Ritsuka, it made a little bit more sense now.
"So, alright," Master clapped her hands, "We know the why, the who, I want to know the how," Ritsuka said, her eyes meeting Roland's. Fixer noticed - she already knew the answer, and just asked it to push the conversation forward.
…The girl was as sharp as ever, despite the occasional dark look here and there. To be fair, she had more information than anyone.
"It's very simple. The Light was spread out throughout the City. What was left is to reclaim it."
"Which implies killing people, right?" Ritsuka's face darkened a shade.
"Well," Roland lips thin, "Yes and no?"
"What does that suppos to mean?" Master asks, a little agitated.
"People turned into books don't really die in the usual sense of the word. They just become trapped in it. With very little chance to become alive again," Roland was upfront.
Mash's face paled a little, despite not completely grasping the severity of being turned into a book. Da Vinci's was pensive. Medea was not at all shaken.
Ritsuka, for her part, expected something like this, nodding solemnly to herself.
"Alright, tell me one thing - are there still books of 'guests' in the Library?"
"Only these two. Recent additions," with a snap, a pair of books appeared in his hand and Roland put them on the table.
"'Book of Cu Alter' and 'Book of Medb',"Ritsuka read outloud, her voice trailing off in a very morbid realization.
Looks of confusion and mild repulsion were passed around, before Ritsuka took the lead.
"Let me get this straight," her eyes spoke of untold gravitas, "They are made of their bodies? Basically these books are their corpses."
Roland cupped his chin. He stopped having thoughts like these after a few months in the Library. Not to say she was incorrect.
"Well, bodies of servants, but it hardly makes a difference now, does it?" he conceded.
"That's gross," Master was quick to express her revulsion.
Medea, on the other hand…
With a pull, the book closest to her flew right in front of the witch and opened at the very beginning.
Turning people into books, frankly, was fairly mild compared to the rituals and magecraft Circe taught her, so she saw no problem with this arrangement.
Patron leveled the rest with an analyzing look. They appeared apprehensive, but you could see how Da Vinci was very unsuccessfully grappling with her curiosity.
Roland sighed. It was ultimately up to them. He just needed to show them the results. It was freaky to read these books the first couple of times as well, back in his time. But then he just thought about it… how is this corpse made into a book any different from any other corpse he'd seen in his life?
It's a rhetorical question, but his answer would've been: Well, books, for one, don't rot.
"If it's any consolation, people turned into books won't feel anything. To them, after being booked, it would appear as if the world went dark."
Ritsuka (and Mash with her) remained unconvinced, while Da Vinci gave in, and carefully picked the tome up, opening it on a random page.
Master deadpanned at the Caster, but said nothing. Ritsuka held no moral high-ground here - she would've made these two into corpses anyway… Which didn't mean that she would read them. That just didn't sit right with her.
'God, that wasn't a thought I expected to have today. Or ever,' she thought internally.
"Well, if you don't want to read them, I can understand," Roland said, sounding a bit pleased with their decision.
"This is an awful breach of privacy," she said, and then added "And very morbid."
"Yeah, it is," Fixer agreed.
"So," Da Vinci was finally unstuck from reading Cu's book, "When you brought the Alter to your reality marble, you brought him here and… booked him?"
"Yep," he replied, popping the 'p'.
"Em, Roland-san," Mash hesitantly raised her hand.
"Ah, yeah, Mash?"
"Did Miss Angela become human, in the end?" Shielder asked, getting the conversation back on track.
"Oh, I actually wanted to end with that. So, she did. It took a lot of people, but in the end, the Library was completed and Angela gained a full human body…"
"I see," Mash was dispirited. She was somewhat sympathetic with Angela due to her upbringing - being confined to one place your entire life and being not fully human - but killing people to achieve her dreams… Mash didn't think she could do something like that.
"But she decided against it at the last second and released all of the Light and guests along with it. Becoming a machine again but… it was her choice," Roland continued, his voice a bit more even.
Mash's eyes widened. A look of surprise passed everyone.
"She did?"
"Well, if there are no books, only copies, it means that something must have happened," Da Vinic thought of this detail she had missed, having been too involved with reading.
"Why?" Ritsuka asked the most important question.
"..." Roland was silent for a while, "Because she didn't want her happiness to be built on the misfortunes of others. Because she didn't want to propagate the endless cycle of violence. Because she couldn't bring herself to kill anymore," Fixer went through the reasons, and Medea couldn't help but notice that despite the seeming similarities, this Angela had chosen a different path from the her own.
…Good for her.
"It was very noble of her," eventually Mash voiced her and her senpai's opinion.
"Well, yeah, can't argue with that. Anyway, that's all there is to that story. Hopefully, there won't be any more of these history lessons…" Roland heaved a sigh of relief. "Any more questions?"
"Can you give me an example of what can be achieved with Light?" Medea was the first to ask, Da Vinci's eager nods accompanying the question.
"Well - you are looking at it. My body is made of Light. As well as those guys' as well."
A confused silence spread throughout the group.
Librarians gave Roland a questioning look.
"I see…" Medea could guess, but she didn't think he'd admit it so easily, "What does that entail, exactly?"
"We can't leave this place without an anchor of some sort," calmly said Eugene, "It's also what allows us to use Key and Battle pages."
"And what does that mean for Roland as a servant?" Leonardo asked.
The man in question scratched his head, "Well, I have a skill that is named 'Body of Light'. It grants me passive magic resistance at D rank."
"And?" Ritsuka proded.
"And nothing. That's kinda the only thing I get out of it."
"Hm, can we harvest Light from you?" Da Vinci pondered, semi-seriously.
That was enough to send Roland back a step in apprehension.
"You want me dead or something?"
The reaction made smiles break out on everyone's faces.
"Is there anything else you could do with it?" Medea asked next.
"Mmm, sure," a snap brought a book to Roland's hand, "Basically, everything in the Library can be extracted from paper. You give a mental command and with a help pf Light…" his hand reached into the paper and, a second later, a plate of steaming pasta appeared in his hand.
"Ta~da," he presented the plate and the group was quick to examine it.
"Looks real enough." Ritsuka commented, hey eyes meeting with Roland's.
"That's because it is. Laws of physics, despite being utterly disrespected in the City, still exist. So, to create something it takes energy. And Light is…"
"A form of energy," Da Vinci nodded.
In Medea's vision, both the plate and the pasta itself were of vibrant gold. Not unlike the librarians or Roland, or this entire place.
"If we had enough Light, we might have been able to even make this pasta real and bring it back with us to Chaldea," Roland lamented.
"How can we replenish Light?" Da Vinci, having grasped how this could potentially be beneficial, went straight for the kill.
"Well, you could pour every ounce of energy Chaldea has to spare into me. Mana can be turned into Light, with some energy lost, but..."
"But at that point it would be rather wasteful," Da Vinci nodded and settled down.
"Nevertheless, thanks for answering all of our questions," Mash was the one to say that, sounding actually grateful.
Roland pondered for a second, but realized that this is the best time to get to the next part of this little tour.
"Well, there is another way, follow me."
Everyone exchanged curious glances, but walked after the Patron.
Their path lied to the door opposite of the one they entered the lounge from.
Behind it was another long hall, but this one felt… off. Lighting was a bit dimmer and the atmosphere a bit more silent. It had a distinct feeling you get in one of those rooms everyone visits only when needed. At least, that's the feeling Ritsuka got after walking along the corridor.
"Welp, we are here," Roland stopped in front of yet another pair of doors, but these were special. They were made out of thick black metal, with hexagonal patterns running along the whole structure. What made them even more unique was the faint line of white light pouring out.
He pushed them open and the group was greeted with a very… calling it strange would be a bit of an overstatement. By the metrics of magi, it could've been written off as a ritual room with a twist. A twist being a giant ball made of hexagons, with a small window in the middle and many pipes at the back of it, all connecting to the wall behind it.
"This is where we burn books," Roland said, his voice a tone lower, matching the more subdued atmosphere of the room.
"B-burn?" Mash asked with a slight hitch.
"I don't know how exactly that process goes. From what I know, the Library tears the book and then extracts any kind of experiences the person might have had, turning them into books of their own," Roland said, as if not noticing the slight weariness the Chaldeans showed.
"That sounds rather savage, don't you think? Considering that these books are, were people at some point," Da Vinci expressed her concerns, frowning.
"Well, a person never truly dies until all of their books are burned. The books are all equally the person contained in the book," Roland deflected.
"Roland, it just means that we are burning the same person many more times than one," Ritsuka deadpanned, unable to contain the slightly disgusted notes from her voice.
Fixer stood silent, but it was blatantly clear that he was rather desensitized to the entire thing by now.
"If it's any consolation - they were your enemies," Roland simply stated. "Anyhow, this is the way we get the Key and Battle pages, which allow us to fight. Let me just show you."
Roland pulled a book from his gloves, which turned out to be Medb's, and put it in the 'burning' machine.
Instead of dropping to the floor, however, it remained floating in the middle of it.
With this part done, the Fixer closed the window, and pressed a very inconspicuous button on the side.
In their morbid curiosity, the group gathered around furnace. As the process started, the dim white light started pouring by the corners of the hexagons all over the room and especially the machine itself. Inside, they could see how golden pages, layer by layer, started to be torn away from the book, flying towards the many other hexagons, until, eventually, it just burst into a firework of golden paper.
The burst of paper scurried around the furnace, until it was all funneled into the back, where the golden light was lost to darkness.
As the process neared its end, the light once again went dim and the distant shuffling of pages ceased.
The quiet after that was very telling.
"Well, that's…" Roman tried to find words.
"Inhuman?" Ritsuka asked.
"Unique?" Mash said next.
"Curious," Medea joined the line. She picked up on the mana density in the whole area increasing.
"Needs investigating," Da Vinci nodded, and looked at Roland, her eyes saying it all.
"Right this way," fixer helpfully supplied and went towards the back of the room.
To be perfectly honest, to catch a door of black hexagons installed into the wall of black hexagons was challenging (probably why Ritsuka didn't).
With a touch, the thing slid to the side, introducing the group to the half-filled shelves of many different books of varied colors and sizes.
"Here's what happens to a book," Roland motioned to the shelves.
"None of these have names," Da Vinci came closer and examined one of the books.
"Well, it's not our job to do that either. We just look inside, under which floor the book might fall and toss them into the pile, which we then deliver to the interested party."
"Pretty… inefficient, no?"
"Well, unfortunately, Miss Librarian didn't bother with the sorting. She gets the books and what comes later is of little concern as long they arrive where they should. It isn't her who does it, after all," Roland huffed in light dissatisfaction, probably remembering the many instances where he had to break his back sorting and delivering the books.
"So, to get any kind of information we'll have to open them?"
"Yeah," Patron admitted, "Anything you are interested in particular?"
"The two you've 'burned' are one of the more renowned characters of the Ulster cycle and hold immeasurable knowledge from the times of the Age of Gods," Medea was the one to explain things in his stead, as she, one by one, searched through the tomes, opening and closing them, and then sending them to separate piles.
"Emm, Medea, what are you doing?" Ritsuka asked.
"Well, I'm quite interested in looking at what kind of information can be gleaned through these… unique means. I might as well help with the sorting of the literature."
"And now that there are no other floors, will these books just kept somewhere?" Mash asked the unrelated question.
"They'll be collecting dust in some corner, yeah. Not the first time that had happened either," Fixer replied and turned to Medea, "And please, Medea, don't steal those blockheads' work. They don't have much to do as is."
"Wait," Da Vinci latched onto that particular part, "Your assistants exist here all the time? They don't get unsummoned?"
"They stay here," came the succinct reply.
Da Vinci tilted her head in thought.
"That's mighty interesting, especially if we cross-reference this with Iskandar's phantasm..." she muttered.
"Let's get back on track, people," Ritsuka raised her voice a bit. She really didn't want to be in this place for more than necessary. When all eyes were on her, she continued, "Okay, so that's how you can get some more Light, cool. What's next?"
"Next, I show you this," Roland strolled to the shelves Medea didn't touch, and pulled out a bunch of pages with some illustrations on them.
"This right here, is a battle page," he showed it to everyone, "And you can perfectly mimic someone's moves with it."
"Promising. Can you demonstrate?" Da Vinci asked with deteched inquisitivness.
Hand with the page balled into a fist and for a second, a golden light enveloped Roland.
Then, he took a step back and for a second, a ghostly crop appeared in his hand, making a precise and quick hit.
"Unfortunately, to make full use of these, you sometimes have to wear the Key page. Let's just say that some equipment is too unique for Library to perfectly replicate it."
"Incredible," Da Vinci commented, not underselling this at all, "Given enough servants to kill, you could have those assistants of yours outfitted like servants, with powers to accommodate."
"You bet," Roland smirked, puffing his chest a bit. "But that's not all."
In his hands was the page of Cu Alter, which they saw him previously snatching from Destiny. Instead of crushing it, he willed it to melt into his body.
Medea watched with fascination as Roland's presence started to merge with something else, changing to fit him completely, adding a new light to his form.
"So, what was that?"
"Another thing I can do with the Key pages - basically, I absorb them, taking a limited number of specific traits and using them to benefit me. For example…"
Roland closed his eyes, and as if guided by an invisible hand, drew…
"Is that a primordial rune…?" In silent awe, Da Vinci asked.
This place was beyond common sense already. She loved every second of it.
"Ansuz…" he whispered instinctively, and the rune formed fully, "First time I get to do magic. Neat stuff. Oh, I also got his magic resistance," Roland casually replied, taking a no small amount of enjoyment from Ritsuka's reaction.
Thankfully, Mash was there to stop the teasing.
"Roland-san, you mentioned once that fighting here along with any other servant might be detrimental. Why is that? From what we have seen, this place can give many advantages."
"Ah, lovely of you to mention that, Mash. A perfect transition for the last part of our tour," Roland nodded contently and prepared to snap his fingers, but stopped. "Oh, and, stand still when we teleport. Don't want you to slip now, do we?"
Confused, Ritsuka frowned, but then the snap happened and… She realized why he had said that.
All of a sudden, they were above a very deep and dark abyss, standing on… books?
"Wow," Master looked around her, noticing endless, scratch that - infinite bookshelves on all sides. The entrance to the Library looked grand, this... this looked larger than life. Her companions were likewise stumped.
Ritsuka's eyes naturally caught onto the thing she was standing on and she crouched to inspect. They were standing on books, a lot of books. As she tried to take one, she heard a small snicker.
"Be careful not to remove one that holds this thing together. This whole structure is like a very big jenga."
She retracted her hand with haste, eyes darting to the Patron.
"Should've told me sooner," she accused half-heartedly.
Everyone else was too absorbed in the sudden change of scenery, throwing whatever questions they had out of the window, as they tried to get a grip on their surroundings and grapple with what they were feeling.
Leonardo Da Vinci, on her part, was borderline manic with excitement. Not only was she just teleported - the sight proved to be (while lacking in color) very enticing - not everyday you could see this many books just stretch into infinity. She really wanted to put this entire thing on a canvas.
Medea was taken aback by the whole scale of it. This whole place radiated Light, but… slightly weaker, if she had to say. But it was everywhere.
Mash, on the other hand…
"What's that?" Shielder asked, her eyes staying very high up above the black abyss, which she tried very hard not to look into. The lavender orbs were fixed on the gray bridge.
"Right. If you would look below, you'd see a bridge, that's where the ass kicking takes place," Roland informed, and the four got their eyes drafted to the platform of similarly colorless books.
At that moment, Da Vinci's mind finally recovered from the influx of ideas and information and she started thinking. Ritsuka was very careful not to slip as she neared the edge, to get a better look.
"Well," against what was before the bridge seemed… rather dull. It did stretch from one wall to another, and yes, there was a small door, but like…
"That's it?" despite trying her best, Ritsuka couldn't keep the disappointment from her voice.
"Well, what did you expect?"
"I dunno, a colosseum or maybe a big arena or… anything. But that's just a bridge," she waved at the structure, strangely dissapointed.
"Everyone's a critic nowadays," Roland rolled his eyes, but dropped the act after that, "I mean, I agree too. If you had seen what Philosophy or Religion or Social Sciences could offer, you would think of this as even duller."
"That's still doesn't answer the question Mash posed," Da Vinci got the chat back on track.
"Right. So, it's not exactly impossible to fight with others here. It's feasible, but there are caveats. This entire place has a bit of… strange way to limit the fighters' potential."
"How so?" Ritsuka asked, and decided to take a seat while she was at it, her feet dangling above the abyss. Strangly exilirating, that was.
"Everyone who enters that arena will have a certain amount of Light," Roland started and could already see how both Casters wanted to clarify something. He didn't let them. "Later, people. What's important is that said Light serves as a restraint and a power up."
"I… still don't get how that works."
"Basically, to a being of superior strength, they'll have to climb back to their ceiling. People weaker than them, though, will get stronger as they get more Light."
"And how do they do that?" Mash asked, already sitting next to the Master.
Roland decided not to be the odd one out, and too, took to seating next to them.
"How to put it… Library traces your emotions," he said.
"How is that relevant?" Da Vinci grew confused.
"Well, it's related to the way the Light was first collected. To get more Light, you had to first bring it out of a person. That would make their book more detailed, their experiences more vivid and stir more Light out of them. And to do that, they had to get emotional."
Ritsuka seemed to have pieced it together.
"So it traced the emotions. The more emotions they've experienced, the more Light they had to fight with."
"Exactly. And it could be any kind of emotions. Blocking a strike, evading, clashing and coming out on top…" his voice trailed off, "Killing someone, or having some of your comrades killed. Getting hit. Anything went."
"So if we put a servant here…" Mash muttered, "Then they would be severely weakened."
"Yes. But not just that. Light is also the kind of energy you expand upon any action you take. Blocking, evading, using a phantasm. And it's easy to run out of it. And when you do - you are a just a glorified punching bag."
"Can't you just teleport them into the abyss?" Medea asked.
"No can do, unfortunately. This place has rules which even I can't break."
"Peculiar," was all the Witch said, but this Reality Marble was clearly of a very unique variety.
"So if someone we bring along runs out of light… they'll just be unable to act." Ritsuka concluded.
"And it takes time to get it back too, so… It's a matter of practice, really. To be able to perfectly make use of it and not overdoing it. The four I keep in the lounge can die and be revived. Everyone else though? Booked."
"Well, you've made your point fairly clear," Ritsuka had to admit, that these kinds of restrictions were rather hard to take advantage of without much preparation. And considering she couldn't even take the field, potentially just snatching a spot which could've been filled with someone useful - it was making the idea seem even worse.
Roland has a team here, and they seem to be good enough people - and maybe-probably combatants. So maybe it was a good thing she wasn't able to persuade him into going here all together back then.
"That's not even the biggest problem," turned out, that wasn't all. "Library was built out of a Lobotomy Corporation facility, remember? Well, what happened to all the Abnormalities that it housed?"
Everyone exchanged unsure glances.
"The right answer was that they too, were turned into books. And Angela, trying to get every edge she could take, utilized them to her advantage."
"A moment, I'm writing," Da Vinci stopped him, making the suspense all the more palpable. "Do continue."
"As the emotion level rises, us Librarians are given a choice what Abnormality page to pick. Those tended to do all sorts of finicky things. If you and your team experienced mainly positive emotions - you got more positive cards. Those had only the benefits. If your mood was down in the dumps… you got the short end of the stick. Something that could both help, but also damage you and your team."
"No power is without a cost, I see," Medea nodded to herself.
"You got that right," Roland snarked, but sighed. "The thing is, those pages were made with a very specific purpose of giving us the edge. And tuned to be just that. Put another person into this equation and…"
"Some terrible thing might just happen," Da Vinci said for him, and put a dot in her journal. "Correct?"
"You're only asking out of politeness, right?" Roland gave the inventor a lopsided grin.
"Why, of course, it is rather easy to work out how this place works now."
"I'll just add, then, that there is another kind of page that is basically like an ultimate attack."
"Oh-oh, can you show?" Ritsuka, though, was quite excited at looking at something like that.
"Sorry, emotion level three and above only kind of thing," he shrugged, his tone apologetic-not.
"Anyway, back to the madhouse," better yet, he dismissed any kind of dissatisfaction she might have had, and they were back in the lounge.
Ritsuka very gracefully flopped onto the floor, bottom first, as she appeared a good half-a-meter into the air.
"Woah! Ouch!"
The Casters managed to not suffer that fate by not sitting.
Roland, though, wore a very crafty grin.
"You sneaky, slippery bastard," Ritsuka swore under her breath, rubbing her butt, sending a not so subtle look of impending vengeance.
"Whatever do you mean?" the only thing he needed to complete the 'totally innocent' look, was to start whistling.
Shameless.
"Be nice, Bossman," half-heartedly, Destiny admonished her superior.
The group of Librarians had already spread throughout the whole area. Dakota resting in an armchair, Destiny reading something at the table, Arthur… for whatever reason, he was just sprawled on the floor. Eugene was, instead, on a very comfy sofa.
"Oh, come on," Roland whined,"I've been putting on a serious front for this entire tour, can afford some mischief, no? It was getting kinda stiff, with all the explaining." Roland reasoned, and Ritsuka could admit that he was somewhat right.
Even if she hated it being carried out at her expense.
"Mean to say you hated that?" Da Vinci said, her eyes turning to Ritsuka, conveying the subtle message.
…leave it to Da Vinci to set up for a devious counter attack.
"What? No, I…"
"You didn't enjoy it Roland? Wasn't it just great though?!" Ritsuka was quick to play along. And she wasn't lying either. Morally-dubious means aside, this place was unlike any other.
Mash didn't understand anything. The Shielder was just nodding cutely, pressuring Roland even more, despite not meaning to. Medea looked at this with some exasperation, just shaking her head at their childishness. Didn't stop a smile from breaking out on her face, however small.
"Hey, don't put words in my mouth…" Roland caught onto their ploy. "You're just messing with me," he said, relaxing back into squishy cushions.
"Ah, we've been caught," Ritsuka noted shamelessly, returning the favor.
"Alright, whatever," Roland stood back up, clasping his hands together, "I had this last thing planned for this excursion, so I'll leave you in the care of these four," Roland said and turned to each of his underlings one by one."Eugene, make sure Mash is comfortable."
Without much fuss, the redhead stood up that second.
"Sure"
"Arthur, do whatever Medea asks of you."
"As you command," he nodded with a very dignified kind of smile. He stood up and paced to the Caster, then bowed, "Milady, I'm at your service."
"My-my," you could tell that Medea was a bit on the fence with this kind of approach. Though, she didn't want to make a fuss over it.
"Destiny, you…" Roland looked at Destiny, then, at Da Vinci, "You guys try not burn this place down while I'm away, capisce?"
"You wound me," Destiny retorted, with the look of a victim. "I would never…" and then she turned to Da Vinci and flashed the most predatory smile ever.
Da Vinci, for her part, was more than satisfied with this kind of company - mirroring the smile, which was somewhat more benign.
"And Dakota," Roland turned to the menace, disregarding the "You have your shit together. Just asking you not to kill anyone. Ritsuka is in your care."
"Sure, whatever," the reply came back disinterested.
Good. Dakota is at her calmest when bored. Besides, Roland trusted Ritsuka to handle her well. She can keep up with the likes of Jalter - Dakota wouldn't be a problem.
"Alright then, don't thrash the place - it's you who is going to be cleaning it afterwards," and with that - a snap. He was gone.
Everyone scurried in their own corner - Mash with Eugene on the sofa, Medea and Arthur at the table, Destiny and Da Vinci in the corner - discussion animated and very verbose. And then there is Ritsuka and Dakota - in armchairs, seizing each other up.
Dakota clicked her tongue, and then leveled Ritsuka with a stare from beneath her forehead.
"Well, what'cha wanna know? I'm not blind - can see that you want something."
She did. So many questions she could ask. About the City. About Angela, about the librarians themselves. About the Library and the stories it holds. However, it really was a no brainer.
Master knew well enough why Roland did all of this. He not only kept his promise, but also… exposed himself. Ritsuka realized that this was a show of trust. She had a feeling, though, that this place - the Library - was the final piece of the puzzle. It's here that the Roland she knows came to be. So there wasn't another question she could ask.
"What did Roland go through here - in the Library?"
Dakota heaved a long sigh.
"Why'd you have to ask the hard question…" she rumbled under her breath.
"Do you want the long version or the short version?" she asked, eyes behind the shades almost pleading.
"The long one," Master smiled oh so sweetly, as the librarian's face fell.
*****
"Can you tell me about this… Ma…" Medea stopped herself midword. To call Angela, at least to her - a machine - seemed improper. "Angela."
Arthur looked at her with a bit of stunned expression. This lady in front of him didn't seem like the kind to ask about other people - all dark and purple and mysterious.
She'd be disappointed to hear what he had to say, though.
"Can't say I know a lot," Arthur shrugged, "Most of what had happened to Angela happened in that time loop."
"Of ten thousand years, if Roland is to be believed," the Witch nodded, "Can he be believed?"
"Oh? Oh, yeah, totally. Can't say I remember any of that, though. No one does, except for some of the Sephirah."
"Like whom?"
"Binah and Hokma, I think. From what I know, Angela's design also made it so that she perceived time a hundred times slower…" Arthur mentioned seemingly off-handedly, but Medea got the message.
The AI was stuck in the loop for not ten thousand years, but for a ten million of her subjective time.
A fate worse than death, even when not considering the environment. She was sure it was not ideal, however. You don't create the likes of this Library when life treats you well.
Yet, you don't let go of your goal just before achieving it either.
"Tell me, please, of the journey Angela had," she asked calmly. Perhaps, it was the regret of her life still lingering in her chest, but…
She wanted to know if there really was another way.
"Sure," Arthur smiled good-naturedly. Almost looking understanding.