Page 87 of Echoes of the Banshee

“This is a nightblind dorm. Why don’t you live in a shifter house?”

“Because I don’t want to.” She opens a door to a tiny room with two beds. It smells decidedly human in here.

“You know the spiritborne dorms have full sized beds.” She looks at me then kneels in front of a tiny dresser. “And private bathroom.”

She presents me with a pair of elbow length silk gloves.

“These are perfect, thank you so much!”

“Sure,” she says a little shyly as she stands in front of the mirror and straightens her skirt. “Ready?”

We head towards the library and talk of little things. As we split off I call after her, “Hey Fable.” She stops and turns back.

“Yeah?”

“Your leg isn’t cut.”

Thea

Well That’s Ominous

The sun is setting as I leave my dorm, freshly showered, hair braided tightly and Fable’s gloves covering the skin on my arms. I cross into Otherfell and make my way to a building I’ve never been in before.

There’s a sign on the wall giving directions. I go down a flight of stairs and then turn left.

The double doors are closed. I take a steadying breath before pushing them open and stepping inside. Small tables are scattered in the middle, with the walls lined with bookshelves.

There are half a dozen goblins staring at me in horror. I scan the room and don’t see a librarian so I approach the first goblin, who recoils from me.

“Where’s the librarian?” I ask in a whisper.

His swallow is loud.

“W—we don’t have one.”

“Oh.” My face falls but then I plaster on a smile. They’re already scared of me, don’t want them to think I’m upset. “Could you point me to the section on gemstones?”

He points a finger towards a section in the back and I make my way there. Stopping to drop my bag on a table. The bookshelves are almost empty, only three shelves filled on this one. Almost all of the books are in Graven so it might be a bit more difficult than I thought. I grab a few that look promising and the only one that’s in English and set them on my table. I sharpen two pencils and then start to carefully turn the pages, hoping to figure out what kind of stone it was in the dream I had of Jerimiah.

I can feel eyes on me the whole time I work. All the goblins moved their seats so that they didn’t have their backs to me and I’m sure they aren’t able to focus.

After I get everything I can from the book in English I move to the second. It is slower because my Graven really is rudimentary. I sigh and look around the room, the goblin a few tables away from me jumps. I stand and walk towards him, putting my hands behind my back again.

“Excuse me, can you point me to a Graven dictionary?”

He shakes his head no.

I nod and go to the next table, there are two goblins sitting there and one stands and rushes away.

“Hi, can you—”

“I heard,” he cuts me off. “Over there.”

I follow his directions and find the dictionary. I spend the next two hours translating what I’m working on. My phone vibrates and I check it. The boys are done with soccer practice so I take note of the page I’m on and then neatly stack the books on the table. I place the cleansing spray I bought beside them and pack all my things.

I approach the goblin that helped me with the dictionary knowing that they’re all going to be listening.

“I’m sorry, I had expected a librarian. Do you want me to cleanse and re-shelve the books or leave them on the table?”