WARHAVEN

Twenty-Eight

The library spanned five levels, connected by grand staircases. King Augustus explained as we walked through, that there were two bookkeepers who kept everything in order. They tracked what came in and what came out of the library. There were protected records of what books were taken by who, and when. He said this was because there were books that held very sensitive and detailed descriptions of the factions. These books held the secrets, abilities, weaknesses, and the ins and outs of how the other factions ran their courts. They even included timelines and expansive maps of their land.

"Did every faction have copies of these?" Maybe it was a dumb question, but it seemed like information that the factions would like to keep private, why give it up to a potential enemy?

"No, when the War was going on, the faction leaders came together and decided to set up a safety measure, to avoid the books getting into the hands of someone evil. They came to a unanimous decision that if the factions fell, they would be magically transported to our inventory, as we were the biggest faction with the largest army. Unfortunately the worst case did happen, and the books showed up here as each leader and possible heir got killed." We walked the library aisles as he explained and I listened intently as I looked for any familiar titles.

"So, maybe I misunderstood, I thought the factions were at war with one another?" I looked at him and continued, "Like I said before, why would the factions give up their priceless information to their enemy?"

He made a low, 'ahh' sound and responded, "I assume you have the information from several different creatures. It was a very odd war that ensued. Nothing like it has happened in history," he continued as we made a right and walked along a hall with end caps of different art pertaining to the books within the shelves. To the right was a massive wall of floor to ceiling windows, framed with detailed wood, clearly hand carved. ", You see, it wasn't the leaders of the factions that were at war, it was the subjects. The leaders had learned how to suppress their instincts, to live in peace with their natural enemies, but the subjects had a harder time doing that, although they were trying, and it had been working pretty well for hundreds of years, then one day," He took a deep sigh and sadness covered his features.

"One day, the killings happened, six children were slaughtered in each faction's biggest city. Their heads were placed on spikes in the center of the biggest villages. This sparked outrage, of course and the factions blamed one another. No one ever admitted to the crime. It was incredibly odd. The same morning, five wolves, five witches, five vampires, five faeries, five dragons, and five gnomes. What was so odd was, they were split. One child belonging to each faction was there. For example, the biggest city in the vampire faction was Perwin. We woke to one child of each creature, slaughtered in a circle, a gnome child in the center of the circle, surrounded by one wolf, vampire, fairy, witch, and dragon. The same set up in each faction's biggest city." He explained.

"That is absolutely sickening. Those poor children and their families. No one ever found out who did it?" I stopped, looking at him with a little bit of hope. There is no changing what happened, but getting justice for them may have given that people a bit of rest. He pulled a hand from behind his back where they were clasped and pushed my hair that had fallen forward behind my ear. His fingers ran along my cheek and he ended up gently caressing my jaw. His fingers left trails that felt like stars on my skin. They were so warm despite him being a cold vampire. I thought our skin was the same temperature...

It caught me incredibly off guard and I could feel the blood I had with my breakfast, pooling in my cheeks. My heart had started to act up and I realized I wasn't breathing, at least not enough according to my sudden lightheadedness. I felt my lips part on their own, and I made a small whimper. I had an incredibly intense urge to kiss him, just to get a taste of his perfect lips.

I took a large step back and wrapped my arms around myself before I did something I knew I would regret. I still fully intended on escaping his captivity, and if I started to have feelings for him, it would make it much harder to leave, and to continue living in this castle, where I did not belong. I had never had a man look at me so intently, and it was overwhelming. On top of that I still didn't trust the young King before me.

He had looked away, out the window and cleared his throat before answering my question from before, "No. We still don't know who committed the murders. I will never stop looking." I was glad he seemed to care so deeply about the lives that were lost. I felt somewhat bad for playing a hand in bringing up this topic, so I asked another question.

"Did you say...gnomes?" His eyes met mine and he cocked his head slightly to the left, a confused gesture. I remembered he mentioned gnomes in the list of children, but I wasn't aware that gnomes existed, at least not apart from the ceramic garden gnomes. That couldn't be what he was referring to, could it?

"Yes. Gnomes." He said, and I could tell he was shocked I didn't know about these creatures.