Chương 105: 104 - Premonition

What evil bewitched us to kill our father, I'll never know. I'm writing this letter hoping that it reaches you and that you will avenge our sins. Now that my mind is clear and my life is ending, I can see the patterns. It started before you were born. A man approached me, then a woman. Both were dressed in velvet. They knew what I wanted, and so did I. What I wanted was simple. More years.

Your grandfather sat at every winter table unhurried and unlined while our bodies ran their course beside him, as your father's had. What they asked of us came afterward. By then, we had already done the worst of it, and there was nowhere left to go. I am writing so you understand: we were not simply cruel. We were persuaded. We persuaded ourselves. More years. We ruined everything, and now the years we so dearly wished for belong to them. I don't know if this letter reaches you. I don't know what you've been told.

All I know is that I'm dying. Do not come back, Kam. We are no more. Bide your time. I'm sorry. — Uncle Natar. Letter recovered in the ruins of the Pangalan family's estate. The stacks of the first floor of the Iron Library towered around Alexandra as she finished her fifteenth book of the day. This daily had been one of the most boring she'd experienced so far, but she was finally done.

Read fifteen books (0/15) -> Quest Completed: +10 exp, +1 DEX Daily Quest Streak: 59 -> 60 She could have repeated her tactic from when she'd unlocked her Reading skill, but she had a better idea. Instead of reading short but useless books to save time, she headed for the flora section and picked up the thickest volumes on herbology.

Reading 8 -> 9 Basic Herbology: Study herbology to the level of apprentice (1/1) With her level in Reading steadily rising, and her high intelligence and dexterity attributes, she was capable of fast reading and not wasting time on turning the pages. She quickly generated the Training Quest for her new skill. It was about identifying plant varieties.

"Shouldn't be too hard," she whispered. Done with her task, she stood up from her chair. Alexandra slid the last herbology volume back into its gap on the shelf and stretched her arms above her head until her spine cracked. She sometimes wondered how the Iron Library had been built. There had to be centuries of accumulation just on the first floor. On a rare cloudless day, she'd peeked at the top of the tower. She couldn't tell how many floors it was.

Some said it kept going until it pierced the sky, but she dismissed the notion. It wasn't as tall as the skyscrapers from her past. In any case, it was ancient and vast. The ground floor alone split into countless paths, each branching into narrower corridors of shelving that turned without warning, doubled back on themselves, or opened suddenly into small reading alcoves ringed with lanterns that were always lit.

The shelves themselves were dark, cold to the touch, bolted together in frameworks that rose to the vaulted ceiling and required rolling ladders on rails to navigate their upper reaches. The ladders drifted slowly, creaking, their sounds echoing through the library at all times of the day.

She navigated the flora section, past the mosses and lichens, past a narrow gap between shelves that smelled of cedar, past the small reading table where someone had carved a small drawing into the wood so long ago that it had smoothed to near-illegibility. Alexandra was halfway to the door when she stopped. Kam. She hadn't seen the boy in a while, and suddenly wondered how he was doing. The lifeforce alcove was hard to access, but it was only a fifteen-minute detour.

She turned around and made her way to the alcove. It hadn't changed. The ladder on the ground, the hexagon of shelves reaching for the ceiling, the lantern throwing its yellow cast over everything. Kam was in his chair, the one he'd called his spot, but he wasn't reading. His hands were on the table. He was looking at the space between them. Alexandra set a hand on the entrance shelf and studied him for a moment. His hair was the same. His posture was the same hunched curve.

But the grey was gone, replaced with the brighter weave of the next rank's cloth. She stepped into the alcove.

"You ranked up." He didn't look up. She pulled the other chair out and sat. He still didn't move. Not a flinch at the scrape of the legs on the floor, not a blink. She'd seen him go quiet before. It was his default. But this was different. His eyes were open and empty. Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

"Kam." He didn't answer.

"Remember me?" No reaction. She waited. She had time. Seconds turned into minutes.

"My grandfather died," he said, eventually. She looked at him.

"Wasn't he supposed to have a year left?"

"He did." A shimmer surfaced from the depths of his eyes.

"They said it was time." He paused.

"He had more left." Alexandra frowned.

"They couldn't wait any longer." His voice was flat.

"So they made it faster." The lantern shifted.

"Who's they?" she asked.

"My family. Who else?" She looked at him.

"They know about my skill," he said.

"They want me home." He looked at the shelves behind her.

"I have three days to answer."

"And if you don't?" He didn't answer.

"Kam. Can they come here?" A beat.

"The academy has protections."

"That's not what I asked." He looked at the shelves.

"My eldest uncle has contacts with the Keepers. I don't know how deep." She gritted her teeth. Alexandra hated the idea of going to Raymond for help. In fact, her paranoia told her he'd manufactured this situation to get her indebted to him. For him, pulling a thread on Kam's behalf would cost him practically nothing. Platinums? He had hundreds working for him. Against that, she'd owe him something. Something more than the debt she was already accumulating. Raymond wanted her willing.

A coerced ally was a liability. If she went to him for this, she'd be handing him leverage. But maybe she could help Kam. Even through his stoic demeanor, she could tell the boy was distraught.

"I'll see what I can do." He nodded. He doesn't believe I can. She didn't correct him. No false hope, and it was probably for the best anyway. His eyes came back to her. Black and flat as always, but something in them had shifted.

"I gave him lifeforce. He always said it was enough. That he didn't need more." He stopped.

"I think he knew what they were planning." Alexandra bit her lip.

"Kam." He didn't say anything.

"I'm sorry."

"You did nothing wrong," Kam said. She was taken aback.

"What?"

"Don't be sorry. It's not your fault."

"That's not—" she said.

"What are you going to do now?"

"Keep studying." He turned, looked at the shelves.

"I can't go back. They will use me." Alexandra exhaled.

"Have you eaten?" He looked at her as though the question had come from nowhere.

"Today," she added. Kam said nothing, which was its own answer. She stood up and pushed her chair back in.

"Come on."

"I'm not hungry."

"That's fine. Come anyway." He didn't move. She waited at the entrance of the alcove, one hand on the shelf. The lantern breathed its yellow light over the hexagon of books. She watched him. He watched the table. Neither of them spoke. Then he stood. They walked through the library in silence. The creaking of a distant ladder followed them out. The refectory was half-empty at this hour, the long tables populated by the tired and the solitary. The smell of bread and onions hung over everything.

Alexandra collected two bowls of a healthy-looking soup without asking and set one in front of Kam when they sat. He wrapped his hands around it but didn't lift the spoon.

"They made it faster," he said again, as though this had been sitting on his mind this whole time.

"They killed him."

"I keep thinking about it." He stared into the bowl.

"He wasn't in pain. He was lucid." He stopped.

"Why?" Alexandra lifted her spoon to her mouth. The soup was warm. Hearty.

"There are two of my uncles," he said, after a while.

"They run everything. They're the ones who…" His jaw tightened.

"They're getting old. They couldn't wait any longer. But still… Their own father." Alexandra understood. If Kam's grandfather was the only Ruby in their family, his lifespan had to be longer than his children.

"I failed," Kam said. She shook her head.

"I did," he said.

"I couldn't save him."

"It's not your fault." Kam didn't blink.

"I know."

"You want revenge," she said. He didn't deny it.

"Kam." She set her spoon down.

"Whatever you're thinking—""I haven't decided anything."

"You have. I can see it." He looked at her.

"They're old Platinums," Kam said.

"Old age will reach them before me." He paused.

"I don't know how. I will make it happen."

"What if they come to you?" He met her eyes.

"They'll try."

"And?" He shrugged. Alexandra thought of Louis. Wasn't he the same, chasing after Lila who outleveled him several times over? She was worried. But even her paranoia told her that Raymond wanted her cooperation. Surely, he would protect her friend to pull her to his side. Her expression shifted. Kam was still looking at her. She noticed. But she couldn't focus on him now. Her breathing quickened. Her instincts made her summon her journal. Slowly, she flipped the pages, unsure of what she was looking for.

When she landed on her Adventurer Party, she froze. Adventuring Party Members (2/3): Alexandra Ward Willow Dumries Louis' name was gone. She didn't move. Across the table, Kam had finally lifted his spoon. He was staring at the far wall, chewing slowly, still somewhere else. The refectory went on around them. She looked at the page again. Two names where there had been three. She didn't know when it had changed. She didn't know what it meant, and she wasn't sure she wanted to know.

She closed the journal, set it on the table, and picked up her spoon. The soup had gone slightly cool.