"I don't get it, Minette," Keiren said, hefting the book against his chest. "You heard the bells, you ran to dinner..."
"And I forgot to return the book," Minette answered.
"This?" Keiren asked, hefting the book again. "This must weigh at least twenty pounds! How could you forget to return this?"
"I... uhh... was thinking of something else at the time."
"Like what?" Keiren asked.
Minette gave him a suspicious look. "None of your business," she said.
They walked among the empty shelves in the darkened Guild libraries, watching for people at various intervals.
"What were you doing with the book, anyway?" Keiren asked, "Master Warwick hasn't given us an assignment in weeks."
"I was... reading."
"Like that's a surprise," Keiren said, skeptically. "What else would you do with a book, anyway?"
Minette stopped and turned to face him. "Look, help me get it back on the shelf already," she said.
"Not till you tell me what you were up to. Was it for homework at all?"
"Well, no..." Minette said, her voice trailing off.
"Extra credit?"
"No, not that."
Keiren raised an eyebrow. "Was it... from the forbidden shelves?"
Minette's eyes went wide. "Ah, no... it was for... ah... extra credit. Yes, extra credit."
"You just said that it wasn't!" Keiren said.
"Ah, well... so I was wrong," Minette answered. She laughed nervously.
"How did you get into the forbidden shelves?" Keiren asked, incredulous.
"Well, nobody was looking, and I... where are you going?"
"I'm going to see exactly what this is," Keiren said, heading towards a desk that had a lone lighted candle on it. "Besides, I need a rest."
"We've got to get that back on the shelf!" Minette whispered hoarsely. "Who knows if Master Zerah's still awake!"
Keiren deposited the book on the table with a loud thump. He inched it closer to the candle, trying to make out the words that were engraved on the leather cover.
"Keiren!" Minette said, approaching him.
Keiren traced the book's title, feeling both surprise and outrage at the same time. "Gale's Grimoire?" he asked.
"Shh!" Minette whispered.
"You took out Gale's Grimoire?"
"Shhhh!"
"I didn't even know if this actually existed until now!"
"Shhhhhhh!"
"Oh, knock it off, Minette. Master Zerah can't possibly be awake at this hour."
As if in perfect response to Keiren's statement, a door at the end of the room suddenly opened and a silhouette fell across the floor.
Keiren could see the outlines of the figure's thick dressing robe, as well as the strands of white hair that caught the light of the tallows in the outside corridor.
Master Zerah took a few steps towards the apprentices, stopping only when he finally loomed over book, candle and table in a form that Keiren only remembered seeing in his nightmares.
There were a few moments of silence.
"So," Master Zerah said, simply.
Minette broke and ran.
"Minette!" Keiren shouted, more out of frustration than fear. He felt a heavy hand clamp itself upon his right shoulder and looked up into the aged, scowling face of the Guild Librarian.
Master Zerah placed his other hand on the book, running it along the leather covers as if reassuring a child. Keiren felt a single sliver of terror run down his spine. He had heard some of the stories.
Master Zerah regarded him for a few minutes. Then, after what seemed like an eternity of thought, the elder Metrian let go of Keiren's shoulder. "Get back to bed," Master Zerah said.
Keiren stood there with his mouth open. "What?" he asked.
"Get back to bed."
Keiren continued to stare at Master Zerah, watching as the librarian cradled the heavy book into his arms as though it were no lighter than a feather. Master Zerah then looked into the young man's stunned expression, held up a free hand, and then snapped his fingers.
The ensuing thunderclap was the loudest thing that Keiren had ever heard, and before it had passed, he was already running back down the library in blind panic.
Master Zerah waited until he heard the sound of the door slamming behind the young apprentice, and then set about putting the book back in its rightful place.
* * * * *
"You ran away!"
"I did not!"
"Yes you did! I almost soiled myself standing there!"
"That's disgusting, Keiren," Minette said. "You got away, didn't you?"
"I think he only let me go because he wanted to go back to bed! I could have been missing forever, for all you care!"
"Well, I don't," Minette said unemphatically. "You can just take your book and go away."
"You took out the book! You only asked me to help you get it back!"
"Fine help you turned out to be," Minette snapped.
Both of them then lapsed into a sudden silence, which was partially because of the realization that they were passing Master Zerah's desk at the time.
The aged librarian looked up from the scrolls he had been scribing, meeting both Keiren and Minette's eyes with a gaze that haunted dreams both twilight and evening. His bone-white hair glowed softly in the morning light.
Keiren and Minette both took one look at his eyes and then ran, the sound of their falling textbooks and rapid footsteps echoing through the corridors.
Behind them, Master Warwick placed one hand on Master Zerah's desk. Both Metrians regarded one another carefully.
"Zerah," Warwick finally said, "you're a fiend."
Zerah smiled.
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