[Melas] Chapter 96: Library of Taw (Patreon)

Since we returned to Jahar’taw, I had mostly been taking easy jobs with the Hunters Guild— it wasn’t because I wanted to take jobs that were considered ‘easy’. It was because all the jobs available that didn’t involve Abominations or leaving the city were simple things like investigating Kobolds in the sewers or guarding crops from Giant Worms.

Yes, Giant Worms.

I stared at the undulating white creature as it wriggled on the ground, pinned by my magical bindings. It was the size of a large car. It was taller than me standing up while it was lying flat on the ground. I grimaced as disgusting green liquid spewed out of its mouth while it bared its sharp shark-like teeth at me.

I glanced around the empty field and nodded to myself.

I sent a Fireball down its throat and it exploded in a goeey mess. I wiped the slime off my mask and began to leave the field.

“Job’s done,” I said to the Dwarf farmer waiting back in his house. He gave me a dubious look.

“Really? Ye dun took care o' tha Giant Worms?”

I nodded, casually pretending I understood anything he said apart from ‘Giant Worms’. “They’re all dead. Left a bit of a mess. But I’m not being paid to clean it up.”

“Ah, thank ye lassie, ye did a good job. Will get me lad ta clean tha mess up.” He smiled at me and I smiled back.

I knew I was wearing a mask, but I didn’t care; I liked being expressive with my facial expressions, so I did it anyways. Plus, there was no one to judge me for doing it except for me.

Not unless there’s someone else stalking me with some kind of x-ray magic.

I sighed as I left the farmer’s house, after having collected my payment for the job. That’s right, I thought and glanced around the empty street with only the occasional cars driving by that was surrounded by only fields of crops. There’s someone watching me no matter what I do.

It was an incredibly unsettling thing to realize; not only had Saintess Lilith tracked me down to Qala’taw, having followed me for God knows how long, but Elara had also been following me from the very beginning.

I was being stalked— every move I made was being monitored. I felt a shiver of fear run through my body, but managed to steel myself. I’ve managed to get by just fine without knowing that, what difference does knowing now make?

I returned to Gennady’s warehouse an hour later, having walked the whole way back. I continued to feed myself lies just as I fed lies to others. No— now that I know this, I need to do something.

I nodded and glanced up at one of the glass windows of the three storeyed building. She’s there. Good.

I entered the warehouse and greeted Elda on the way in— she was chatting with Gennady. They were engaged in their usual banter, although it was more rowdy than with just the two of them since many of the ex-pirates were participating.

“Oi, Melas,” Gennady called out waving a mug of ale. “What ye been up to? Didn’t see you this morning.”

“That’s because you weren’t up this morning.” I rolled my eyes, pausing right before the stairway up. “How’s Sevin? Ginah?”

“Sevin’s been busy tinkering as usual,” the Dwarf said and gestured vaguely outside of the warehouse. “Ginah’s been… uh…?”

“Aren’t you the one helping her with your partner, Erzhan?” Elda snorted, kicking her legs up to the round wooden table. She turned to me and waved a hand dismissively. “The Captain’s fine. She’s just been busy helping him with some stuff.”

“Stuff?” I cocked my head.

“Yeah. Erzhan hired her as a bodyguard for a month, remember? And he was more than impressed with her fighting skills. So now he’s gotten her and a few of the best of the Crew as a part of his private army.”

“I see.” I nodded knowingly. Glad she’s doing fine. I started heading up the stairs and did double take. “Wait, private what?!”

“Private army.” Elda repeated herself with a straight face.

I raised a finger slowly. “Uh, isn’t that illegal?”

“Why wouldn’t it be?” Both the Dwarf and the Human pirate gave me an odd look. I hesitated, feeling a nervous sweat build on my forehead.

“Because… he owns a company and isn’t a noble?”

“Bah.” Gennady shook his head and laughed. “Companies all over Taw have their own private armies. The nobility in Taw barely even exists beyond formality now— I can barely name five families that even have any influence beyond their gold.”

“But what does Ginah do then?” I asked, frowning.

“Just protecting Erzhan’s goods as they’re transported in and around Jahar’taw. If he’s pleased with her performance, he says he’ll look into putting her as the head of his forces that’ll be bringing minerals and natural resources to Laxis.”

I opened my mouth, but Elda chimed in and jabbed the Dwarf on the shoulder. “So you do know what Ginah’s doing.”

“I forget, alright woman? Leave me alone.”

“Hah, of course you did old man.”

I sighed, deciding not to say anything else. So things are going well, huh? Gennady did tell me Erzhan had been looking to open up some factories in a place with cheap labor. I walked up the stairs and found the room I was looking for.

I entered it and found Lisa waiting there, flipping through the pages of a leatherbound book. She didn’t even notice me push the door open. I cleared my throat.

“Ahem.”

The young woman blinked and glanced at me. “Ah, Melas.” She slowly closed the book and smiled her signature smile. “You’re back.”

“I am, clearly.” I shot her a grin and she stood up, bringing the book with her.

“These tomes you keep asking me to buy,” Lisa started and gestured at another two books on the table beside her, “they’re quite interesting.”

“Aren’t they supposed to be… heretical stuff?” I asked, raising a brow. “As in, painting the Church in a bad light and praising magic?”

“Well, I never liked the Church in the first place. Didn’t I tell you that?” The young woman shook her head and continued. “No, I don’t really care about what they have to say about the Church or magic. Their interpretation of the Goddess of Light however… it’s fascinating.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that they believe in the same Goddess as us, you know? The Goddess of Light— except, She’s the Goddess of Darkness. And it’s not because they believe She’s evil. It’s the opposite. They believe that She’s one responsible for creating both good and evil. She’s a bringer of balance and not just what’s good.”

“Don’t tell me you’re becoming a fanatic now,” I said, sighing.

“No,” Lisa laughed and waved a hand off. “But what they say does make sense. The Devil can’t possibly be the bringer of all that’s bad because he’s no longer in this world. He was banished by the Goddess when she brought an end to Damnation. So why is there still evil, see?”

I was about to retort with something snide, but I paused. Bad things happen… because someone is behind them. Maybe if I was still who I was before I died, I would have believed it was all chance. But now I knew that someone was the cause behind my suffering.

A false god.

I felt myself shudder as I considered what that meant. A false god and a Devil. Could they be the same?

I shook my head, snapping myself out of my own ruminations as Lisa went on and came to an end.

“...so it’s not actually evil. It’s just what’s necessary to bring about balance— and the fact that they call Her the Goddess of Darkness is just a symbolic thing. They don’t think She’s evil or anything like that. Honestly though, they should have thought of another name because I always assumed these heretics believed in an evil version of the Goddess.”

“I don’t think the Dark Crusaders need a better PR team,” I muttered, remembering a man I thought was good, but actually manipulated me to simply believe that he was. “So, these are the books I asked for?”

“Yep. Just as you asked— everything you can find about Thaumaturgy. Jack helped me out a bit. But he’s still wary of contacting too many of his old friends in case his enemies here realize he’s back.”

“Enemies?” I picked up a book and leafed through it. Yep, this is Thaumaturgy, alright. Everything written in it was so abstract— the concepts were so nebulous. And magic was supposed to be enchanting, irrational; however this went beyond just not making sense. At least Geomancy, Pyromancy, and the other schools of magic had some sort of science behind it. This was pure mana manipulation.

“He wasn’t… exactly friendly with the Dwarf underworld.” Lisa grimaced and I nodded.

“That’s expected from him.” I flipped through a few pages and stopped. This is… Arcane Clones? The name caught my eye because I thought it would let me create fake versions of myself. However the spell was actually just a mimicry of other spells in different magical schools. So, if I learned this, I could create a Fireball that wasn’t actually made of fire but mana itself. Or a Frost Javelin that was actually a Mana Javelin. Interesting.

“No, it isn’t.” Blinking, I glanced up at Lisa as she defended her partner. “He only came to hate Dwarves after living here in the Taw Kingdom. I think it might have something to do with Goblins, actually. Because he knows quite a lot of them.”

“He does?” I gave her a dubious look. She shrugged.

“Apparently. That’s how I found that book you’re holding. The other two were a lot easier to find, but I assume they have less of those ‘spells’ you want.”

“Mhm. This grimoire has Tier 4 and Tier 5 spells. The others only go up to Tier 3, and maybe one or two Tier 4’s.”

“Didn’t you say that nobody uses the Tiering system for magic?” Lisa smirked, crossing her arms. “I should tell Gennady that he’s rubbing off on you.”

I ignored the comment and closed the book. “Thanks Lisa,” I said, nodding her way. I turned around to leave the room but stopped right at the door.

“Did you need something else?”

“Uh…” I hesitated, chewing my lower lip. “Do you think you can find me any grimoires or books about… space magic?”

“Space magic?” The young woman blinked.

“Or dimension magic. Something like that?”

“...I mean, I can look into it. But, uh, I don’t even know what that is.”

“Didn’t think so.” I sighed and rubbed at my temples. “Just try to see if you can find out anything about it. But don’t worry about it too much.”

I waved at her and left the room.

It had been eating me up since the day I met Elara; the Demon promised me a chance to return to Earth. And while I rejected her offer, I couldn’t help but be intrigued by it.

Was there really a way to travel through worlds? Surely with magic something like that was possible, right?

I didn’t know for sure, but I had to look into it. That was why I was standing here, in the middle of the bustling street of Jahar’taw’s inner city. Gennady stood next to me, arms folded and a scowl on his face.

He had led me here— we weren’t in just any street corner of the mountain city. We were next to the House of Or’tag, a few streets away from the Taj Palace. And while both grand buildings stood out in the mostly dull brick city of Jahar’taw, with their lavish decorations and vibrant colors. There was another building that stood out, particularly in this part of the city.

It was the Library of Taw.

Jutting out of the ground before me, the monumental structure stood out like a plateau; it was not tall, but it was large. The entire block of land ahead of us was taken by the building supported by white marble pillars that was antiquated in this modern (for this world) city.

It seemed like a building I would find in the Free Lands, and yet it was here in Jahar’taw.

“Why must I come along with you to this damned place,” Gennady complained with a huff.

“Because you said you had something to do in Or’taj. And we’re right next to it, aren’t we?” I turned to him and smacked him on the shoulder. “Don’t worry. You can just show me around for a bit and then you can go off and do your business with the government.”

“I’m not doing business with the government. I’m arguing with them. You should come to one of their assemblies, Melas. It is a mess.”

The Dwarf called me by my real name as he led me up the steep, white stairway to the library. I didn’t care that he used my name, since I wasn’t in disguise or anything. I just looked like an ordinary girl to anyone who saw me.

“If there’s anything about Space Magic, it wouldn’t be here,” Gennady said, harrumphing as he waited for me at the top of the stairs. I reached him shortly after— not out of breath, but still surprised by how far I had to walk.

“I’m not looking for Space Magic specifically. How about enchantments? Or tinkering some kind of… portal gun?”

“That sounds stupid.”

I shrugged. “Why do you hate the library so much anyway? I expected a Scientist like you to love a place of knowledge like this.”

“I hate it because this is where he usually resides.” The Dwarf grit his teeth as he pushed past a crowd of busy Dwarves leaving the large building.

“He?” I cocked my head.

“Bertrand,” Gennady said, turning back to face me. “The Human who took my job.”

Author's Note:

I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. I was busy with an essay so it came out a little bit late. But I got through everything I planned to get through this chapter, so I'm kind of proud of it?

Let me know what you think.

Also, I'm sure you've all noticed this, but my name is now MelasD. I'm going to be doing a little bit of a rebranding. Reason being that I'm tired of having numbers in my name which kind of ruins a lot of things for me. The D of course, stands for delta. So you can call me that. Or you can call me MelasD. I don't really care.