Chapter 7: Chapter 7: Down the Hatch

They scanned the shelves until they found the little book sandwiched between ‘The Diamarta Family: How One Family Led a Kingdom Undisturbed For a Millenium’ (Esta snickered as Wolstan read Undisturbed) and ‘The Unique Types: Separating Fact From Fiction’. It was wrapped in strange black bindings that didn’t match the others on the shelf.

He took Nedonis Origins and skimmed through it. It was much less of a book rather than the long-winded screed of a madman who believed humans were created by Drenids and the government was keeping people away from the Middle Ground because the one true Drenid god slumbered there.

“Anything interesting?” Esta asked. 

“Nothing at all, I’m losing brain cells just reading the-” Wolstan started. Something shiny fell from the back of the book. Esta picked it up and held up a small bronze key. 

Wolstan furiously flipped to the last page, found a note, and read, “There’s a hatch behind the library. You might find something interesting there.”

“The mystery deepens, shall we?” Esta asked.

“Sure…” Wolstan said but cold unease started tunneling through his belly. He chanced a look at the librarian but she was happily ignoring him with a smile on her face. The Drenids beside her watched her every move with greater scrutiny.

He put the book back and started away from the shelf but something stopped him in his tracks. He looked over to the book about the unique types and just stared at it. The book ensnared his attention for reasons he couldn’t quite comprehend, something in the back of his head whispered for him to take it. Something he wasn’t sure he liked…

“Wolstan?” Esta said.

Wolstan blinked and shook his head; the whispers stopped. “Right, sorry, I don't know what came over me. Let’s go.” He said, not risking giving the book a second glance.

They walked out of the library as inconspicuous as they could manage and made their way to the back where a metal hatch sat waiting for them just as the note described. It had been hastily covered in dirt, if someone wasn’t already looking for it they might not have noticed it.

Esta cleared away the dirt revealing a little keyhole. “Moment of truth.” She said. She put the key in the lock and turned it until it clicked. 

Wolstan tried to lift the hatch but his meager strength was no match for it. He stepped back panting, a burning soreness coursed through his arms.

“Stand back,” Esta said and whipped the hatch open as if it were no heavier than a door. 

“Show off…” Wolstan said playfully as he stepped to see inside. He may have been joking but he had no idea how that tiny librarian would have opened the hatch on her own. She didn’t seem to own a Drenid.

Looking into the hatch, its dark depths seemed to go on forever beyond a rickety wooden stairway that served as the only guide into the darkness. 

The unease Wolstan felt grew stronger, he was certain now that they shouldn’t be there. “That librarians up to something, and it doesn’t seem like anything good…” 

“Relax, I haven’t let anything happen to you thus far, have I?” Esta said and flashed a smile. Some of Wolstan’s trepidations melted away. Just seeing her smile seemed to calm him, he was almost worried it was some kind of [Wendigo] Skill.

“R-right! I guess we've already come this far, haven’t we?” He said and stepped down into the hatch. 

The neglected wood creaked with Wolstan’s every step, thrice he felt he might fall through but he didn’t want to look weak in front of Esta so he kept going. He gave a sigh of relief as his foot left the last step onto soft, moist dirt. 

They ended up in a long dark corridor with shelves brimming with books lining either side. The smell of rot hung heavy in the air, Wolstan covered his nose but Esta didn’t bother. 

“This can’t be a good environment to store books, why would they do this?” Wolstan asked.

“Like I said, when your father took over he had a number of books burned,” Esta said and tipped back a swollen book. ‘The way of the Zohcus’ just like I thought, it's about training and raising Zohcus Drenids. It seems some of the librarians didn’t take kindly to your father’s plan to ban books.”

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“So the librarian wanted us to save them?”

Esta shook her head and pried one of the books open. Its pages were faded and molded over. “Most of these are too far gone. If she wanted to show us something it's something recent. Let’s keep looking.”

Wolstan got to work searching the decayed tomes in hope of finding something undamaged but he didn’t see anything of note that wasn’t covered in mold. He walked all the way to the end of the corridor when he spotted a little pillar against the back wall holding a small book. Unlike the others, it wasn’t fat with water or rotting.

“Esta.” He called as he picked it up. Its title read ‘The Icorlite Flower’ and its cover sported a strange blue flower dotted with black spots. 

“What did you find?” Esta said. Wolstan passed her the book and she scrutinized the cover for a long time. By the way she scrunched her face she saw something Wolstan didn’t. “This isn’t possible… This book is brand new, no one could have researched this…”

“What is it?”

“Read it,” Esta said and handed the book back as gently as one might give away a newborn. Her hands trembled like she held something sacred.

“The Icorlite Flower, said to be crafted from the blood of the mythical Drenid creation goddess, Drerena, can grow in any soil, in any season. As resilient as the plant is to weather, it’s as fragile as any flower when it comes to anything else. They can be destroyed via crushing, cutting, or the flames of a mad king who didn’t respect Drenids.”

“What?” Wolstan said after reading the last line.

“Shush, keep going!” Esta said. Her eyes bulged and her fur bristled like an excited cat.

“Known uses for the flower include application to wounds to make them heal faster for both Drenids and humans alike, a cure to sanity for humans as ingestion mimics the effects of mercury but to a far greater degree, and of course the advancement of a Drenid to its fourth and most powerful form when aligned with a like-minded hunter.”

Wolstan raised a brow. Drenids only had three forms they changed into as they grew in power, this was the first he heard of a fourth but he didn’t think someone would go through all the trouble of hiding the book for a joke.

He looked to Esta but she just stared at the book hungrily, obviously expecting more. Wolstan quickly flipped through the rest of the book but it simply went into further detail on the flower, where they could previously be found, and how a Diamarta king had his army go to each Drenid village burning every flower in their wake.

Wolstan was about to give up on looking for the book’s secrets when he found a note on the second to last page.

“To the reader of this short novel I only have two things to say. One, thank you for taking a chance on a Librarian trying to make amends for the mistakes of our species. And second, as you turn the page, I beg of you… Do the right thing.” He read.

As he turned the last page a small packet fell to the floor. Esta gasped and bent down to find it filled with tiny blue seeds.

Esta’s gawped stupidly at the packet as if they’d come alive and speak to her. It was a long time before she said, “This- This can’t be, can it?” She looked from Wolstan back to the seeds rapidly while caressing them like a child.

“If the book is telling the truth then they are,” Wolstan said and smiled. He didn’t become a hunter to use Drenids to fight but the thought of having a Drenid with a form only he had access to was enticing. It might even make talking to his father easier if he could present the flower to him. “What do you think it meant by ‘do the right thing’ though?”

“It’s obvious isn’t it?” Esta said. “We have to grow them. If we do, we can get a bunch more seeds and deliver them to Drenid villages. We can bring back the plant!”

“Or, you could hand them over and turn yourselves in for trespassing.” A voice echoed through the tunnel.

Wolstan and Esta wheeled around to see the two Drenids that had been guarding the librarian blocking their only escape route.

In their excitement, they forgot to close the hatch on their way in.

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