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Levi stood and moved toward the door, his movements controlled and deliberate.
Unwanted guests. At this hour. After Reven's been here for less than two hours.
He glanced at the mushrooms on Reven's face. They were still glowing faintly, pulsing with irregular light.
If they tracked him here, it's because of the corruption he's carrying. The divine fragments. The plague aura.
"Stay here," Levi said, his voice calm but carrying unmistakable authority. "Don't move. Don't leave this room. Do you understand?"
Reven nodded, his face ashen. "Is it the church? Did they find me?"
"I don't know yet. But if it is, this building has protections. You're safer inside than out." Levi moved toward the door, then paused. "Father Reven, whatever you hear, whatever happens downstairs, do not leave this room. The Library will protect you as long as you remain within its boundaries."
He stepped into the hallway and closed the door behind him.
Luna appeared at the top of the stairs, sitting primly with her tail curled around her paws.
"Meow," she said pleasantly.
Three armed inquisitors. Already inside. They have a plague detection artifact. It's glowing.
Levi descended the stairs, adjusting his posture, his expression, his entire presence. By the time he reached the ground floor, he looked different. Not physically, but in bearing. Like someone who knew secrets the world had forgotten.
Alright. Time to look like I know what I'm doing. Act mysterious. Act confident. Don't let them see you're making this up as you go.
Three figures in white robes trimmed with gold stood in his bookstore. They wore armor beneath the robes, visible at the joints. Each carried a longsword at their hip and a holy symbol around their neck, a sunburst medallion that glowed faintly.
The leader held a small crystalline sphere that pulsed with sickly green light, the color of infected wounds and rotting flesh.
A plague detection artifact.
And it was pulsing frantically in her hand.
The leader was a woman, tall and severe, with sharp features and eyes that had seen too much burning. She turned as Levi descended the final step, her hand moving to her sword hilt.
"You," she said, her voice clipped and professional. "Are you the proprietor of this establishment?"
"Good evening," Levi said, his voice carrying a quality that was difficult to define. Old. Patient. Like someone who had seen centuries pass and found them mildly interesting. "What an unexpected pleasure to receive visitors at such an hour. Though I must admit, most guests wait to be invited before entering."
His tone was mild, but the implication was clear.
The woman's eyes narrowed. "I am Inquisitor Maren Vale of the Eternal Sun Church. These are Inquisitors Kern and Dravos. We are pursuing a wanted heretic under emergency authority. The door was unlocked."
"Was it?" Levi glanced at the door, which stood open to the night. "How careless of me. I must have forgotten to lock it after my last customer left."
He walked calmly to the door and closed it with a soft click.
Act natural. Like you close doors in front of armed religious zealots every day.
The three inquisitors tensed, hands moving to weapons.
Levi turned back to them, his expression pleasantly neutral.
"Now then," he said. "You mentioned you're pursuing someone. How may I assist you?"
Vale studied him with the intensity of someone trying to catalog a new type of threat.
She's trying to figure me out. Good. Let her wonder.
"We're tracking a heretic priest. Father Reven Reposo. Last known priest of the Plague God. Wanted for mass murder and crimes against divine law." She held up the crystalline sphere. "This is a Holy Relic of Detection, blessed by the High Priest himself. It resonates with divine fragments of plague corruption."
She gestured to the artifact, which was pulsing with that horrible green light.
"And right now, it's telling me that something carrying those fragments is in this building. Very close."
Levi looked at the artifact with polite interest.
I have no idea how that thing actually works. Time to sound educated.
"Fascinating," he said. "I've read about such artifacts. Pre-Heresy era construction, if I'm not mistaken? The craftsmanship on those is quite remarkable."
Please don't ask me to elaborate.
Vale blinked, thrown off by the response. "You've studied holy relics?"
"I've studied many things," Levi said with a small, enigmatic smile. "Books, you understand. This is a library. Knowledge is our currency." He paused. "But you haven't introduced yourselves properly, and I haven't offered you mine. You may call me the Librarian."
"The Librarian" sounds way better than "Levi, interdimensional customer service representative."
"We don't have time for pleasantries," Vale said, her voice hardening. "The artifact is detecting active corruption. Strong. Concentrated. The heretic is here."
"Is he?" Levi's tone remained mild.
"How curious. You're certain your artifact is functioning correctly?"
Just keep questioning everything. It makes you sound knowledgeable and buys time.
"These relics don't malfunction," Vale said sharply.
Levi tilted his head thoughtfully. "Perfect accuracy. What an interesting claim."
The artifact pulsed more intensely, casting sickly shadows across the bookshelves.
Vale took a step forward. "The signal is getting stronger. He's here. In this building. Where are you hiding him?"
"I'm not hiding anyone," Levi said calmly.
"I operate a bookstore. I had several customers today. If your artifact is detecting residual traces of corruption, it could be from anyone who passed through."
That's actually plausible. Thank god I'm decent at improvising.
"This isn't residual," Vale said.
"This is active. Present. The source is here right now."
She turned to her subordinates.
"Kern, Dravos. Search the building. Every room. Every corner. Find him."
The two inquisitors moved to obey.
"Ah," Levi said, and something in his voice made them pause.
"I'm afraid I must object. The ground floor is a commercial space, yes. But upstairs is my private residence. You'll need proper authorization to search those areas."
Vale's hand tightened on her sword. "We have emergency authority. A heretic who poses an immediate threat to public safety can be pursued anywhere."
"Can he?" Levi's expression remained pleasant, but his eyes had gone cold.
"And who determines what constitutes an immediate threat? Your artifact? You? The church?"
"The law," Vale said.
"The law," Levi repeated. "How convenient that the law always seems to support whatever the church wants to do."
Why did I say that? That was stupid. Stop antagonizing the armed people.
Vale's face flushed. "You're obstructing a lawful investigation."
"I'm asserting my rights," Levi corrected. "There's a difference."
The artifact in Vale's hand suddenly blazed with blinding green light.
All three inquisitors looked at it in shock.
"Impossible," Kern whispered. "The signal just tripled in strength."
Vale's head snapped up, her eyes scanning the room.
"He's moving. The heretic is moving through the building."
Shit. They're going to search upstairs. I need a plan. Any plan. Something better than "stand here and hope they leave."
Levi felt a notification bloom in his peripheral vision.
[SYSTEM ALERT]
New Mission Available
Mission: Deal with the Invaders
Description: Hostile forces have breached Library sanctuary. Neutralize the threat.
Reward: Variable based on resolution method
Accept Mission?
Yes. Please. Give me literally anything to work with here.
Levi accepted without hesitation.
Okay. I can't fight them. That's suicide. I need to lead them away from Reven. Make them chase me instead. How do I do that without getting stabbed?
He made his decision.
"Inquisitor Vale," Levi said, his tone shifting subtly, becoming more formal.
"I understand your frustration. Your artifact is telling you something is here. But you're looking in the wrong place."
Here goes nothing. Time to bullshit like my life depends on it. Because it does.
"What are you talking about?"
"Your artifact detects plague corruption, yes? Divine fragments of the Plague God?"
"Yes."
"Then perhaps," Levi said, and now his voice carried weight that made the air feel heavier, "you should consider that this building itself carries such fragments. Not because a heretic is hiding here, but because this is a library. A true library."
I think I read something like this in a book once. Or maybe I'm making it up. Either way, she's listening.
He turned and walked deeper into the bookstore.
"Do you know what that means, Inquisitor? A true library doesn't just store books. It preserves knowledge. All knowledge. Including the knowledge your church has tried very hard to erase."
Sound confident. Sound like you know secrets. Don't sound like you're guessing based on vague memories of orientation materials.
Vale's expression sharpened. "What are you saying?"
"I'm saying," Levi said, reaching the back wall of the bookstore, "that if you want to understand what your artifact is detecting, you need to see what lies beneath the surface."
He pressed his hand against the wall behind his woring desk.
It rippled like water disturbed by a stone.
Thank god.
A golden portal opened, massive and circular,.
The true Library of Noctis.
Vale and her subordinates stared, their faces going pale.
"What is that?" Kern whispered.
"The Library," Levi said simply.
"The real one. The bookstore is just the entrance. What you see there is what I actually maintain. A collection of knowledge spanning dimensions and realities.
He stepped toward the portal, then paused and looked back.
"Your artifact detected plague corruption here because the Library contains books on plague. Actual, living records of divine disease. Texts written by the Plague God himself before your church declared him heretical. Tomes that carry fragments of his power in their very pages."
Vale's artifact pulsed frantically, the green light almost blinding.
"You're lying," she said, but her voice wavered.
"Am I?" Levi gestured at the portal.
"Your artifact is reacting to what's beyond this threshold. Books that your church burned. Knowledge that your Eternal Sun tried to extinguish. Divine texts that prove the Plague God was never the monster you claim."
I'm definitely embellishing. But her artifact is going crazy, so maybe I'm accidentally right?
He smiled, and it wasn't kind.
"If you want to find your heretic, if you want to understand what plague corruption truly means, then by all means, follow me. Step through. See what your church has been trying to suppress for fifteen years."
Come on. Take the bait. Chase the mysterious librarian into the scary portal. You know you want to.
He gestured at the portal.
"Unless, of course, you're afraid. Unless your faith isn't strong enough to withstand the truth."
That's probably going to work. Zealots hate being called cowards.
Vale's face flushed with anger. Pride. Zealotry. The inability to back down from a challenge.
"We're not afraid of heretical tricks," she said, her voice tight.
Perfect.
"Then prove it," Levi said. He stepped through the portal. "Come see what real divine power looks like. Come see what your church has been hunting. Come see what happens when knowledge refuses to be burned."
I have no idea what's going to happen in there. But at least they won't find Reven. That's something.
He vanished into the impossible space beyond.
Vale stared at the portal, her hand on her sword hilt.
Her subordinates looked at her, waiting for orders.
"It's a trap," Dravos said quietly.
"Obviously," Vale said. "But if the heretic went through there, we have no choice. We don't retreat from heresy."
She raised her holy symbol, which blazed with golden light. "The Eternal Sun protects the righteous. If this is a trap, we'll burn our way out."
She stepped toward the portal.
"And if that man truly does have forbidden knowledge," she added, "then he's as much a heretic as the plague priest. We'll arrest them both."
She crossed the threshold.
Kern and Dravos exchanged glances, then followed.
The moment all three inquisitors were through, the portal snapped shut with a sound like a book slamming closed.
The bookstore returned to normal. Quiet. Peaceful. Empty.
Luna sat on the counter, licking her paw.