Chapter 38

**Merianna**


Meeting Sirus again had about the same gut reaction that seeing Jasnine and Raska had. First I couldn’t believe that he looked so young yet still looked so much like I remembered. It almost made me feel that I was finally around the same age as everyone else in the Order, which I never would have dreamt of in the past since they all were so much older than Nelia and I when we first arrived.

I also immediately noticed the changes that he had made to the Library. Very good changes at that. He had created comfortable reading nooks in a few choice corners on each of the three floors among many other things, and had brought the new materials that Noch had mentioned to one of them on the first floor.

Settling in to read the books and documents felt like I was settling into an expensive and comfy bookstore that doubled as a cafè. Which wasn’t helped by the fact that there actually were snacks and coffee on little coffee tables next to the comfortable couches. Even Sirus was taken aback by the snacks and drinks, but then brushed it off as Dorris having popped in while he wasn’t looking. Which was very very likely. I hadn’t seen her since that time she had screamed at the first sight of me, but that never meant that anyone in the Order was ever out of her sight.

Noch and I had quickly settled into our reading positions and started eliminating important documents from ones that were mundane or irrelevant.

By the time I looked up from whatever I was reading again, my eyes felt strained and tired. I didn’t even know how much time had passed. It was surprisingly interesting going through the documents and reading a language that I hadn’t seen since the previous cycle, but most of them were irrelevant to what we were actively looking for.

It was then that I noticed Noch and Sirus chatting on the other side. A tick of irritation tapped at my conscience as I eyed them over the rim. Turning back to the first page, I tried to ignore them. Only, it didn’t end up working out that way.

“You’re joking! There’s no way!” Sirus said in surprise.

“I swear by my staff! There was no other way to stop that idiot.” Noch replied gleefully.

The tick of irritation cracked the moment they started chuckling together. Noch was the one that brought me here with the intention of sorting out all these old documents because no one else could help. How could he sit there across from me with empty hands, chatting to Sirus about something that clearly had nothing to do with the task at hand?

The new book I had started reading automatically got catapulted straight into Noch’s head and hit him with a satisfying thwack.

“OI!” He yelled indignantly as he rubbed the side of his face with a pout. “What did I do?!” As he rubbed his face Sirus had quickly scooped up the book from where it had landed and checked it over like it was his precious child.

“You’re sitting there yapping away happily with Sirus when we still have this whole pile of books and documents to go through! I am not going to be the only one straining my eyes over these texts while you take it easy and chat the day way!” I yelled indignantly.

“How could you throw this book so violently?!” Sirus interjected as he cradled the book I had just tossed.

“Indeed.” Noch joined in. “What if that was the book we were looking for?”

“It’s a *cook book*!” I exploded. I almost went to grab another book to toss into his thick skull, but Sirus dived in between us and swiftly rolled the trolley out of my reach.

“Cook book or not, it’s still something from the previous cycle! Please treat it with care!” He cried.

“It has the preservation inscription anyway, it’ll be fine even if I tore its pages apart.” I glowered.

Sirus looked like he wanted to faint at the prospect of that much damage being done to these books. “Any more talk of that and I won’t bring these books anywhere near you anymore.” He threatened weakly. If anyone had said those same words to him, it definitely would have been a very real threat to him. But sadly I was the one he said it to.

“Fine, give all of them over to Noch then since he seems to be done with the ones on his end.” In fact it didn’t look like he was anywhere near done. He still had mountains of the unsorted ancient documents lying on his trolley and surrounding his feet as well. Since my trolley was nearly empty, that just went to prove how unproductive Noch had been.

Noch pouted from his side. “It’s not my fault that sorting is so boring.”

“Yes, boring indeed. And who did you rope into helping you with this boring task?” He didn’t say anything to that, but the pout still stayed where it was.

I heaved a sigh and decided to mention what I had been thinking for the past while anyway. “At this rate we might as well go visit the Council and ask them if we can go have a look at the documents in their vaults.”

Noch’s pout instantly turned into an unpleasant frown. “No. Not unless there’s no alternative.”

I frowned at his directness. He seemed even more against the Council now than he did before I died. “What’s wrong? Didn’t we have a nice bonding moment with the Council back when we fought against Dermon?”

Noch groaned as he scratched the side of his head. “Yes, you could call that bonding back then. But they just ended up even more rotten after that incident than they already were.”

“What about Councilor Ferina? Is she still a part of the Council?” I asked curiously. Ferina was about the only one on the Council that Noch actually trusted back then.

“Yes, she’s still there. But that doesn’t mean that the rest of the Council supports her view of us.”

“What about Council Head Jernok then? He didn’t seem too bad back then.”

“Hah, that guy always tends to go with the flow of the rest of his assistants who always outnumber him and Ferina.” He said bitterly. Somehow it made me feel like something had happened in the time after my death that made Noch dislike them even more.

“Did something happen between you and them in the time I was gone?” I asked worriedly.

“Something did indeed happen.” Sirus said with a heavy sigh.

“Those bastards only arrived after everything had ended here at the castle. During the Hunter’s attack, Fog had sent a s.o.s message to the Council, asking for their immediate assistance in the battle. But even though we always assisted them with all their attacks and apprehensions without any questions asked, they had to take their sweet time to get an approval to mobilize their own warriors from all the other Councilors.” Noch bit out.

“By the time they finally managed to arrive, it was too late. The battle was finished and damage control was being implemented.” Sirus said with a helpless shrug.

“So, since then you guys haven't really been in that much contact with the Council anymore?” I asked.

“Right. Ferina and Jernok seemed somewhat genuinely regretful about the incident, but the other Council members clearly never really liked the Order from the start. We were always a continuous threat to their influence and standing after all.” Noch huffed.

“So then even the Council stopped sending their new members here to be trained, right?” It made sense to me now that new recruits would have stopped coming to the Order so soon after the incident.

Sirus shrugged. “If you think about it, saying that something like the Hunter attack could happen again, was the best excuse for the Council to cut off the support to the Order that new recruits always brought in.”

I groaned. It did make sense, even though I didn’t want to admit it. “But, at the rate this is going,” I pointed to the books and documents around us, “we might need to make a visit to their vaults anyway.”

Noch looked like he wanted no part in that inevitable meeting at all. And hearing their side of the story, I completely understood.

“I don’t like it.” He groaned bitterly.

Chuckling, I turned back to the documents that were still by my feet. “Well, you don’t need to like it. In the meantime, let's make sure that there isn’t a nugget of relevant documentation hiding around here somewhere. That’s when we’ll know that the Council’s vault will need to be our next stop.”

Noch’s frown tensed even more and etched deep grooves all over his forehead. “I hate it when you talk sense.”