Lifting Spirits (Tide!)

[Eckhart_Von_Musel]

"Oh no! They don't have it?!"

Susie Rainfeather triple-checked the bookshelf, panic rising in her chest. The big levitation exam was in three days- she needed to study or she'd flunk! There was a book that Professor Dewdrop had reccomended- "Lifting Spirits: How to Make Things Go Up"- but it looked as if had already been checked out by another student. It just wasn't fair!

Shaking nervously, the girl tiptoed through the library's book-laden corridors. "What if the book isn't returned in time?" Susie thought, beginning to hyperventilate. "What if the Professor calls me up for a demonstration and I can't do it? What if everyone laughs and I fail?" Tears were beginning to well up in the girl's eyes now as her eyes desperately searched for something, anything that could help her. "What if I do so badly that I get ex- oof!"

Having not looked where she was going, Susie ended up walking right into somebody! With a small cry, the girl fell onto her behind. She looked up, tears beginning to roll down her face. "I-I'm s-sorry..." she said, voice shaking. "I-I didn't mean too..."

[Tide]

Valkyrie gritted her teeth at the impact, finding her footing. Her first day here and she couldn't avoid a mishap! She snapped automatically in a strict Connlaothian timbre, "Tch, look where you're going, you-" Catching herself, the disguised lich tried to cool down. It was only a girl. She'd worked herself into hysterics it seemed. "... You have all the grace of a mountain troll. But it's fine. No harm done."

The innocent wretch was crying. Val supposed something had already set her off. Offering a hand, she made an attempt at soothing rather than scathing remarks. "Come on, get up. Tell me what's wrong." This could mark an opportunity.

[Eckhart_Von_Musel]

Susie looked up at the strange adult, visibly frightened. "Is this a teacher? I've never seen her sitting at the high table..." she thought, sniffling. "What if she reports for being clumsy? Can I get in trouble for that?"

"U-umm..." she mumbled, taking the woman's hand and pulling herself up. "I n-need to study for my t-test, but the book I need was c-checked out already..." Susie looked at the woman nervously, readjusting her pointy hat. "Um... sorry, I should have been more careful..."

[Tide]

"I have no use for sorry. Just do better." Poor worm. She would not survive an hour of the trials Valkyrie had endured. But inequality was an invariable fact of life. This much, she knew. "All this over a book? Then just ask after it. Come on, I'll show you." Her grip held fast as she pulled the girl along with her.

The librarian was a harsh older lady, but Val was a harsher, even older lady. Firmly placing a palm on the front desk, she caught and held the woman's eye. "Hello. We'd like to inquire after a certain book." At this point she opened her hand, giving Susie free reign. That unflinching gaze turned on her. It could only say 'your move'.

[emeraldknight]

"Oh, a student". Glinda looked up at the two. Susan, and an unfamiliar woman. "What is a Connlaothian doing in our halls?" She snorted disdainfully. The Connlaothian seemed to be helping the student ask for a book. Deciding to just get things over with and go back to writing her letter, she looked her in the eyes and smiled, a practice she'd been mastering for decades. "Hello, Susan. What can I help you with?"

[Eckhart_Von_Musel]

"I-I-I..." Susie stammered, panic overtaking her again. It was all happening so fast! Who was this weird forign woman? And now she had to talk to Miss Fare? What was going on?

"What if Miss Fare gets mad at me and sparkles me? What if the Connlaothian lady gets sparkled too? What if there's a big fight? I'm so screwed!"

"U-umm... I-I need to find a book?" Susie squeaked, trembling. "Um... "Lifting Spirits: How to Make Things Go Up"... t-that one..."

[emeraldknight]

Glinda's facade of a smile immediately fell when she heard what was being asked for. "How about another book? I'm sure there's something else you could study?" She was almost pleading. "The book isn't available right now, okay? It should be ready in maybe, two to five weeks. Possibly months. We're containing the sit-no, it's been borrowed, that's that." The forced, stretched out smile returned, as she attempted to hide the incident. "This library has too many secrets!"

[Tide]

It mattered not whether this librarian engaged Val, but she was spoiling the endeavour with her obvious effort at misdirection. "Ansgar's blood, it's only a book! On levitation, no less!" Her other hand impacted the desk. She knew a thing or two about reaping in presence. "We want it now. If there's an issue with that, we will find a solution. Please, enlighten me regarding who's 'burrowed' it." There was no attempt to conceal the acid dripping from her voice.

[Eckhart_Von_Musel]

Susie flinched as the woman slammed her hand on the desk. "H-hey!" she stammered as heads began to turn in their direction. 'I-it's not t-that big a d-d-deal! I c-can find a-another book!"

"Oh no! I'll be banned from the library for sure now!"

[emeraldknight]

Glinda jumped a bit, quite shaken by the woman's forceful demeanor. Cocking her head to the side, she half-snarled, "My apologies, I shall enlighten you. The book is on strike. It's protesting in the courtyard out west, and is refusing to be borrowed. I've contacted the mage-knights, but they won't get here for a few days. You're free to make an attempt to capture it, though. Some of the underclassmen have made a sport of chasing books around the grounds. Anything else?"

The strike was one of many that had taken place over the last few months. Usually it was sorted out
within a few days, but they always started up again soon. This one had lasted two days now, and the participating novels and spellbooks were being quite forceful with their campaigning this time.

[Tide]

"No, no, that's alright. We can get it." She made a point of answering every call. Otherwise, she may as well just waste away in isolation.

All at once her manner had switched from hostility to inquiry. "On strike, eh?" Rubbing her chin, Valkyrie stared off at distant bookshelves, spectral synapses racing to determine the cause. "I've dealt with other living books... quite clever really, some can recite any passage on demand..." Their sapient behaviour was surely an accident if they were so disorderly. Perhaps an exponential spread was responsible for this sordid mishap.

"Right, well." It was now officially an open case. Turning to the girl with a splayed hand, Val reaffirmed the situation. "There's your answer. The book burrowed itself. Let's go and track it down, then maybe we can convince it to lend itself to you for a while." She nodded to the library's exit. Unfamiliar with the school's layout, she expected Susie to lead the way to the courtyard.

[Eckhart_Von_Musel]

Susies eyes widened as the mysterious woman managed to pressure the librarian into giving up the location of the book. Miss Fare was notoriously tough, especially on foreigners- that this woman was even allowed in the library seemed like some kind of fluke. Nervously, the girl nodded. "T-thank you Miss Fare..."

Susie apprehensively began to lead the woman out of the library and into Wyrdwood's long, twisting corridors. "U-um..." she stuttered, beginning to pick at her fingernails. "T-that was really nice of you..." She looked up at the woman, staring at her nose- eye contact was always hard. "Are- are you a teacher?"