Rising Shards

"Syval, I'm just going to come out and ask. What's going on with you, Aira, and Kalei?"

It was a lot more direct than I ever could be about this. Definitely a lot more direct than Syval expected. Lillia didn't care that a bunch of other people were around us in the library, in that moment it was just us and Syval.

"I, er, that's..." Syval nervously shuffled through comic books. "Maybe we can talk somewhere less crowded?"

Lillia followed behind Syval like a cat casually approaching its prey, each step both elegant and terrifying. Syval tried to act cool but I could tell this was going to be a whole thing as he powerwalked into the bigger bookshelf stacks.

"Hm...maybe I should read this book later, seems promising, heh..." Syval said as he pulled a random book about an inch out of the shelf, not even reading its title before putting it back. "But, uh, this isn't a great place to talk, is it? Maybe further back..."

We continued to follow as Syval took a twisting path through the shelves, alternating between going left, right, and forward, leaving me wondering how big the boys' dorm library was because the girls' dorm didn't have this kind of a shelving labyrinth within it. Lillia had her arms crossed, reminding me again that I never wanted to be on her enemy list. We finally reached the end of the rows.

"This seems private enough, yes?" Lillia said. "If I wasn't suspicious before, I'll say I'm very suspicious now. I'll ask you again. What exactly is going on with you, Kalei, and Aira?"

"Well...it's kind of a funny story," Syval said, eyes darting around. "It all started when I, uh...oops!" Syval then pretended to trip as he hugged a row of books near him, knocking them all over and running for the back wall. I heard a clanging sound as Syval darted through a doorway, with Lillia close behind.

"Geez, I wanna go after them but I feel like Stella would be mad if I left this mess behind," I said. "If you wanna go after them I don't mind, though."

Oka flicked me. "If my boo wants to pick up the books first, that's what I'm doing too. Lillia will be fine on her own for a sec."

There weren't too many, and having a librarian for an older sister meant I had some rudimentary ideas about call numbers and shelving at least, so it didn't take us too long.

The title of the last book I had to put back jumped out at me. "Oh, hey!" A book about gender identity exploration, this was perfect. I showed it to Oka. "You think this bad girl could help me crack some eggs?"

"Maybe! You should just take it," Oka said. "If anyone gets mad I'll just say Berin said it was fine."

"Heh, thanks," I said.

The doors from the back wall lead to a hallway. I hoped we hadn't missed much, but Syval was still babbling and Lillia had his back to the wall now.

"I was being polite before, but now you've upset me," Lillia said. "Not only did you attempt to flee, you threw innocent books on the ground."

"I'll pick them up! I promise!" Syval said.

"And put them back in their proper order?" Lillia asked.

"I...can try! Book sorting is confusing, c'mon!" Syval said.

"We got em," Oka said, raising her hand as she and I each took a spot by Lillia's left and right.

"And put them back in their proper order?" Lillia asked.

"Yes, we did!" I said. "I'm pretty sure, at least."

"Excellent," Lillia said. I could've sworn I saw actual fire in her eyes as she turned back to Syval. "Then I can focus all my attention to getting answers. Now—wait, huh?"

Syval was halfway up to the ceiling, floating. "O-oh? How odd...my flight power is...triggering on its own?" He swam through the air like it was his first time flying. "Better...go get some help."

He sped up as soon as he touched the ceiling, looking like some kind of posessed demonic entity as he fly away with his back to the ceiling. Lillia chased after him. Oka and I tried to join her, but two steps in we slipped on something on the ground and toppled over.

"What the...?" Oka said as she sat up. "Oh dang!"

It took me a bit longer than it probably should have to realize what she was "Oh dang"-ing about, the substance we had slipped on was a bright blue slime, presumably belonging to new resident slime girl Raytris.

"Oh, gosh, I'm so sorry!" I said as we stepped out of the puddle. "If that is you and not just...residue of you."

Raytris' head and a hand giving a thumbs up formed out of the puddle, then she went back to puddle form.

"Um...does that mean you're OK?" I asked.

"If you are, just gonna say you should get out of the hallway, someone could get hurt if you stay there," Oka said. "Heck, we almost got hurt there!"

Raytris' head popped up again, this time with two hands pressing fingertips together, looking apologetic for her actions. Oka looked down the long hallway.

"And we lost Lillia," Oka said. "I mean, we could get her now but I fell down so I don't really wanna run anymore."

"Sometimes fate gets in the way of answers," I said. "Which is what they said in Tower's third season where they had to find an excuse after fans got super mad for the show not answering anything about the 12,453 mysteries they set up and the constant moments where things were about to be revealed only to have some random thing interrupt."

"Well, this certainly is random," Oka said. "She left her wagon back in the library too, didn't she?"

"I think so," I said. "Maybe we could get that and that'll be us contributing to the mission?"

Oka shrugged. "Works for me."

"Hey! I know you're back there!"

"Or multiple random things," I said as Myles Althea searched through the hallway. Raytris hid behind us, but Myles pointed past our feet where the slime girl snaked around.

"I saw that!" Myles said. "C'mon, I just wanna talk."

"What's going on exactly?" I asked.

"Well, Ash went to the roller derby arcade with Caeda and Chickadee, I really should've gone but the bus picked them up super early—" Myles started.

"What bus? Roller derby? Huh?" Oka said.

"Don't worry about the details," Myles said. "Just like that's why I'm by myself today. And because I missed the message from Octa about today's mission."

"Oh..." I said. Mom sent the devils on a mission, huh?

Myles winced, realizing she just brought up a sore subject with me again. "Sorry. Anyways, I ran into Raytris. Me and her had history in our old world, so I was thinking today would be a good day to clear the air between us. Then she ran away."

"Maybe you went a bit too Lillia in your approach," Oka said.

"I dunno what that means, but you're still probably right," Myles said. "I just...we went through some stuff in our old world, and Raytris was...a significant difficulty. So I maybe came at this a bit too hot."

"Aw, but she's nice here," Oka said. "Aren't you, Raytris?"

"She's a person, you don't need to talk to her like she's a cat," Myles said.

Raytris shifted into the shape of a cat, letting Oka scratch under her chin.

"Very funny," Myles said.

"Was she like a super bad guy where you came from?" I asked.

"She was working for the bad guys, but..." Myles sighed. "But even with the struggles, Raytris doesn't remember anything from back home, so like..."

"If she doesn't remember, you don't wanna blame her for it?" Oka said.

"Yeah," Myles said. "I figured we could hash it out and not have it hanging over things."

"I think that's a nice idea," I said.

"I agree," Oka said. "Raytris, you wanna talk it out with Myles? We can hang around to make sure she doesn't go all Lillia fire breath on you."

"I can't even do fire breath," Myles said. "I don't think, at least. Unless you meant that metaphorically."

"Kinda did, yeah, but it's alright!" Oka said.

After thinking it over, Raytris shifted into her full bodied form, still hiding behind Oka and I.

"I won't hurt you, seriously," Myles said. "I just wanna clear the—"

Myles was interrupted by a horrible blaring sound. The hallway descended into a bloody red as warning lights switched on and the main lights went off.

"Lockdown procedure initiated. This is a test of our lockdown capabilities."

"That's...new...?" I said right before metal walls dropped down from the ceiling, turning the hallway into something more like a prison cell.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!