Beautiful Ocean Moon

Tobias and A Library?

“Mira?” Rayna called my name questioningly. I looked up to see that eyes were on me. “You good, you suddenly had this far-off look.” Lily said concerned. “Seth, when you and Jax came back from helping the servants it looked like something was bothering you what was it?” I asked Seth holding off on answering Lily for a moment. Lily blinked surprised but knew it had to be important for me not to answer. “Well while we were helping Tobias kept asking questions about the investigation and not in a direct way. It was like he was questioning what we knew and then when I would give certain answers it was like he was trying to play them off as wrong.” Seth paused and rubbed the back of his neck shaking his head. “Just something about it bothered me.” He added. “Lily, what kind of seal was the circle.?” I had an idea but I wanted confirmation first. “A lock seal that uses one’s blood to create the lock.” “So that the only person who could open it was the person whose blood was part of the seal.” I finished and she nodded. “You clearly have something figured out.” Ares said. “Why send the kings sword?” I suddenly asked and everyone looked confused. “Why did the king request that his sword send someone to investigate a little village that isn’t on the main trade route? Why do that when he has a team of people that do that job. It makes no sense especially when he also sends his heir, an alchemist, a dhampir, and two Kitsunes.” At this point everyone seems to be coming to the same thought as me. “We aren’t just here to investigate the disappearance of a whole village.” Asher voiced everyone’s thoughts. “Yes but why and what part does apparently Tobias play in this?” Rayna asked. “When I was fifteen my father told me of a very special village that stood up under the first Kinga rule. He said the village was so small and that they only traded for goods they didn’t buy or sell anything. He also said that the most impressive thing about this village was its library.” I paused allowing my words to sink in. “The thing was that no one ever saw the library in fact the villagers would change the subject if someone asked about the library.”

“It wasn’t a library.” Ares said rather than asked but I answered anyways. “No it wasn’t, he said it was an information epicenter. A home for an information guild which was perfect if you think about. Merchants, tradesmen, travelers from all around and when they passed the village there was no doubt that they would gossip.” “The village your father told you about and this one have to be the same. It’s the only thing that makes sense.” “But then why make the villagers disappear and not just kill them and take whatever information they could?” “The seal hasn’t been broken has it Lily?” She shook her head no at my question. “Then my guess is that they don’t know how to open the library and they can’t just kill the villagers without a way to open the door without destroying the information. And they won’t risk that at all.” “They probably haven’t tried yet.” Ares said and we all looked a him. “The man that found the village said the blood he found was still wet in some spots which would mean that the villagers couldn’t have been gone long for one. For two since the report the village has been under supervision and the patrols have been amped up around here as well. So whoever took them wouldn’t have had a lot of time to try to break the lock.” “We won’t have a definite as to why until we check that building out but we can’t until tomorrow. However Tobias is concerning so we need to make sure he doesn’t know when we go.” Asher said. “At least until we know more and we can figure out what game he seems to be playing at.” Ares said also. “Right, well for now let’s get some sleep the storm should break enough for us in the morning to get to the village and we should all plan to stay there for the night.” I said and then turned to where the beds where and went to mine. Luna and Anubis where both already laid down. Everyone else followed suit and soon the cave was filled with sounds of sleep. I was about to fall asleep when I heard “Mira we should talk.”

Rolling my head to the side to see who spoke I wasn’t surprised to find Ares staring back at me. Blinking I sat up caring and slid from the bed, moving to him and then passed him to the cave entrance. I stopped just inside the cave and found a rock to sit on Ares followed me. “Apologies for last night.” He said just as he sat down next to me. I blinked surprised that he was saying sorry but I nodded my head accepting it. “What were you not saying about Tobias?” He asked after my acceptance. I wasn’t surprised by that I knew had to have noticed how I was directing the conversation earlier. “When we first arrived Tobias was the one to greet us but if was dismissive in a way. The way he was phrasing his sentences and the way he was looking at us, it was just dismissive. He had seen that we flew in via a dragon and had seen Leland but he didn’t acknowledge either one let one even try to point out where Leland could take Onyx to rest. He made a clear point to ignore them.” I paused and Ares nodded, he seemed to be following along so far. “When it became clear that Leland was taking Onyx to the makeshift barn I would swear for a split second that Tobias looked angry. But it was gone just as fast and he took us to the camp. Once there he was dismissive and rude like he didn’t care who he pissed off so long as it wasn’t you. And now granted I didn’t formally introduce myself but tell me do you know of anyone that would willingly risk the sword of the kingdom's ire by being rude and disrespectful to the people the sword sent himself.” I paused again allowing my words to sink in. “Why risk it? And what gives someone who is out-ranked the courage to do it? Those are the two questions that do not make sense at all unless.” This time I just stopped and looked at him for a minute. “Then when Seth pointed out that whenever he answered some of Tobias’s questions a certain way, Tobias would say he was wrong. Tobias for whatever reason has a role to play but at the moment we can’t answer that question.” I was done after that and Ares took a moment before giving a small shake of his head. “He’s not an ordinary servant that is all I can tell you.” Ares said and I got the feeling it was because he wasn’t sure. I stood up and went to walk away but then I paused and looked back at him. “By the way why aren’t being your normal asshole self?” I asked him and he lifted his head and raised an eyebrow. “You’re an ass and you know it I’m not going to mince words your highness.” While my words seemed rude and out of line I can tell Ares realized that I was genuinely asking why he was behaving differently and then I watched the smug look appear. He stood up from his seat and then I made the mistake of blinking because the next thing I knew I was pressed against the cave wall. Only this time Ares wasn’t holding my throat he had my arms pinned above my head and his body pressed to mine pinning it as well. I could feel every inch of him along me and it felt dangerously intimate. “You are right I am an asshole but we were targeted today. Not me, not you, it was both of us meaning that however caused the rock slide was hoping to take us both out. So being my normal asshole self as you put it would not have done anything but distract us however I know I took last night too far but don’t get used to this because tomorrow.” He didn’t finish his sentence, he didn’t have to but then he moved my right arm down and suddenly his head was buried in my neck his lips pressed against my jugular. “Tomorrow little red I will be one and you will be right beside me.” His lips brushed against my throat with each word and I couldn’t stop the shivers. I felt him grinning and that’s when I finally came back and pushed him off. “Goodnight little red.” He said as he turned to go to his online bed. I hurried over to mine and saw that Luna was watching while Anubis slept, I didn’t say anything just laid down on my side and cuddled her and before long I was deep asleep.