Chapter 37

**Merianna**


I had taken Noch’s advice and took a look around in the memory vault as I snuggled up against Thyrion and physically ‘slept’. It reminded me a lot of Astral Projection, only I was basically projecting around in my own mind at this stage. I wasn’t delving too deeply in any of the memories in the vault. I only drifted from one memory to another, having short bursts of reminiscence spark in me before I moved on to the next one. Being dragged emotionally and somewhat physically into another memory wasn’t very appealing at this stage, given everything that had happened lately.

It made me thankful to Noch for having constructed this space. It also made me curious as to what memories he himself was hiding from for him to have created this way of segregating memories in the first place. Saying that it was useful was an understatement.

Well, I *was* feeling thankful up until the point I started feeling that I was being watched in the physical world. Dragging my consciousness out of the vault’s fog, I opened my eyes slowly with a frown.

Once my eyes were opened, I found Noch’s eyes barely a foot away from my own face. Without thinking about it my right hand automatically shot out to try and punch him. Unfortunately he managed to dodge my blow this time with a cackle.

“Good morning to you too, Demon Spawn!” He grinned happily.

“When your face is the first thing I see upon waking up, I really do wonder if there is anything good about it at all.” I muttered.

Our exchange must have woken Thyrion as I felt him shift and hug me tightly from behind as he took a deep breath. I smiled and touched his face that was just behind my neck, which only made him snuggle against me even more. My heart melted as I tickled his cheek.

“Looks like we have company.” I said to him.

“Chase them away.” Thyrion muttered as he kissed the back of my neck. Goosebumps raced over my whole body and I desperately wished that my fist had landed on Noch’s face. At least then he would have been more likely to listen when I told him to get lost.

“Unfortunately said company dodged me.” I moped unhappily.

“Well it was either that or sit with a broken nose this time around.” Noch pouted. I knew that pout was all for show. He was definitely smug under that pout of his.

“What are you doing here Noch? In our room no less. Without knocking mind you.” Thyrion groaned from over my shoulder.

“If I had knocked you’d have chased me away right at the door and not given me a chance to say anything!”

“Damn, my plan was uncovered.” Thyrion deadpanned.

“Alright you two.” I piped up. If the two of them really started going at it they could put my own tiffs with Noch to shame. “So, again, what exactly are you doing here?”

“Well now my dear little Demon Spawn. I imagine that you aren’t quite happy with just sitting in your room doing nothing while everyone else is running around outside, hunting for information on the guy that did this to you.”

I had to admit it, he had a point. I didn’t like sitting around in my room the whole time while everyone else was busy outside.

“And so!” He continued. “I thought of something that would be a perfect fit for you since you aren’t really able to be fully active just yet.”

I raised my eyebrow at him skeptically. Usually when he said something like this, it ended up being something that I hated but ended up doing anyway because I had to. “It’s going to be something that has to do with documents or paperwork, isn’t it?”

“Hmmm, you’re on the right track but not quite right.” He grinned. He didn’t freely elaborate right away until I glared at him.

“Alright, alright. Sirus brought some new materials to the Library that are from the previous cycle. I assume now that your memories have been stabilized, you’d be the only other person besides me that’d be able to actually read and sort them.” He explained.

I blinked at Noch in disbelief for a moment. “*New* documents? From the *previous cycle*?” I asked just to make sure that I didn’t misunderstand what he said.

“That is indeed what I just said.” He grinned.

“But, how can that be? I thought everything that was related to the previous cycle was in the vaults of the Council?!”

“That is generally where the majority of the most dangerous of the old texts are stored. That doesn’t mean that they have uncovered all possible hidden texts of that time though.” He explained.

Now that was something I hadn’t even thought of before. The possibility of anything physical surviving from the time before the cataclysm was miniscule. The chances of stumbling across something like that were even smaller than that. And now putting on top of that the possibility of reading those documents before the Council even heard about them…

“I’m in. I want to see what those documents are for.” I declared and immediately started pushing myself up from the bed.

Thyrion heaved a dissatisfied sigh as he sat up with me. But he didn’t let me get off the bed though. When I went to swing my legs over the side, he clamped his arms around me in a tight hug and plopped his stubbled chin on my right shoulder. No doubt to glare at Noch.

“Can’t you leave a patient alone as was instructed by the doctor?” He grumbled unhappily.

“Now now, I know you are catching up on some much needed quality time. But this is definitely important. Plus, she isn’t going to do anything physically demanding. Sirus has brought some seriously comfortable couches and armchairs into the Library recently, so she won’t be uncomfortable either. The doctor didn’t say that she wasn’t allowed to strain her brain and eyes.” Noch chuckled. He knew his argument was solid and that Thyrion didn’t have any room to complain about it further.

And apparently Thyrion knew this well enough as well. “I still don’t like it. Especially since I can’t help.”

“Gain the memories of the ancients then maybe you’d be able to assist.” Noch teased.

“You aren’t allowed to touch or wake her up if she falls asleep while reading.” Thyrion threatened, completely ignoring Noch’s jibe.

“I promise!” Noch sighed impatiently. “If sleeping beauty falls asleep I won’t touch a hair on her head or even look her way. Now come, let’s go!” He said as he walked out the door. “Knowledge awaits us!”

I giggled as Thyrion hugged me even tighter with an unwilling grumble. “Come now, it’s not like I’ll be moving the whole library when we get there. Just reading is fine. If it was paperwork I would have told Noch to go screw himself so colorfully that he would actually have wanted to try it out.” I said as I ruffled his hair over my shoulder.

He chuckled and squeezed me with one more hug. “Now that would have been something I’d pay to see.