Literally. I knew Ez’s health wouldn’t hold up long, working in those mines.
We turned into the Elementai hallway, but were blocked by Kallie and Marcus. Marcus appeared nervous, while Kallie was about ready to blow her top.
“Are you okay?” I asked. They’d obviously been looking for us, if they were here in the Elementai cellblock.
“I’m pissed!” Kallie snapped. “All the Elven books from the library are missing!”
“What?” My eyes widened.
“Yeah! Some dickhead checked all of them out and didn’t bring them back!” Kallie fumed. “I asked Madame Rayne who might’ve taken them, but she’d forgotten who wanted them, and they didn’t use the library system to check them out, so there’s no record.”
“How are so many people asking about Elves? They’re a really fringe subject,” I said.
“A little bit is taught about them during the modules on the Great Supernatural War, and since not much is known about them anymore, the prison only has so many books in stock on Elvish lore,” Marcus said. “Some idiot probably took them for a paper and didn’t bother to bring them back.”
“Maybe, but this is too much of a coincidence,” I pointed out. “All the Elvish books go missing right when we need them? Someone took them on purpose.”
“That sounds like a stretch, pidge,” Charlie said. “You’re forgetting how careless everyone is at this school.”
“Plus we’re the only people who know about the prophecy, and what we’re looking for,” Kallie pointed out. “And it’s not gonna be one of us.”
“You’re right.” I trusted the people in this group. All of them had promised me they’d help me find Forevermore, and I had no reason to doubt them, nor did any of them have a reason to try and prevent me from fulfilling my destiny. After all, the sooner I did, the sooner we’d all understand what it meant to be a demigod, and that was information we were all craving to discover. Some moron had grabbed the books we needed for his dumb school project, then decided to keep them. Those books were probably languishing in somebody’s cell right now.
“Can we buy the books?” I asked.
Kallie whooshed out a breath. “No. I already checked. They’re out of print. And there’s nothing valid online about Elves, not to mention every book thatisavailable about Elves now is prohibited by the prison. It’s on the restricted list. You can’t order them.”
“I swear the Warden is hiding something.” I bet he was withholding information about Elves becausehewanted to uncover Forevermore first, and didn’t want to take the chance a prisoner would stumble upon it by piecing clues together.
“If we can’t get our hands on those books, where else are we going to look?” Marcus asked.
“I can talk to Professor Hemlock again,” I suggested. “She might know something about Forevermore.”
“It’s the best chance we got,” Kallie moaned. “We’re basically starting all over.”
I took a shower and changed my clothes. I had to hurry to talk to Hemlock, because I had a class soon and there wasn’t much time in between. Thankfully, Hemlock was alone in her classroom when I entered.
She shook her head when she saw me. “Ava-Marie, if you’re going to ask me again about the functionality of some magical plants as objects of self-pleasure, I have to remind you that there are subjects that teachers shouldn’t be discussing with students. Particularly when you ask the entire classroom at large what they use. During a test.”
“This is actually about something else. But that would bereallyinteresting if you knew. Phallic objects are very important aspects of supernatural culture,” I said.
Hemlock couldn’t fault me for asking why some of our potion ingredients looked like dildos. Opal and I had both agreed the magical underwater tuber we’d been given to examine in our Supernatural Anthropology course looked curiously like a dick.
Hemlock sighed. “Ask away.”
I pondered how much I wanted to risk. “Have you ever heard any rumors about… maybe… a hidden city on Darke Island?”
“Forevermore,” Hemlock stated, and my heart skipped a beat. “Yes, I’ve heard of it, but only in theory. The runes on the door you found speak of it, but I’m unsure if the runes are literal, or a metaphor. So many have turned this island upside down looking for ways to open the doorway, and nothing has ever been found. I think it’s a wild goose chase.”
“But how can you be certain of that?” I asked.
“We’ve had people surveying this island for the past one-hundred years, searching for the way through to Forevermore. Not a single clue has arisen that would lead us to passage. It’s like the Elves didn’t want us to open it,” Hemlock insisted.
“Why not? The runes speak of the demigods, like the Elves wanted them to pass through.” I was careful with my words, as to not reveal myself as a demigod.
Hemlock’s expression grew concerned. “I understand, as an anthropologist, you’d be interested in discovering and studying such ruins of a forgotten city. However, if it is real as the legends say, it is best it remains undisturbed. There are some people in this world who do not have intentions as pure as you— people who would use Forevermore for their own twisted will.”
“Does that mean there’s someone dangerous looking for passage? Like the Warden?” I asked.
