As he passed the door, Varus paused, he raised a hand upright beside his head to signal that she should halt. Lithia however, saw nothing, and bumped directly into his back. “Hey! Don’t just stop like that without warning!” She said and stepping back, she rubbed her nose, “Your bones are hard.”

  “I did signal to stop.” Varus pointed out. It wasn’t exactly an apology, but she chose to respond as if it were.

  “Oh well, it’s fine, why’d you stop?” Lithia asked with a little wounded voice.

  Varus didn’t answer her directly, instead he went and cracked open the door of his cottage, “Tuesday, Hannah, I need you to do something. Our guest ended up bringing down many ravens, and they left feathers behind that I need to turn into quills. Whoever gathers more will get an extra helping of dessert tonight.”

  “Yay!” They threw up their hands and cheered, smiles etched on their faces, Varus stepped out of the way of the door and let them scramble past him on all fours. It was one of the curious traits of their kind, they could move as easily as their animal heritage, or as easily as their human heritage, and transition seamlessly from one to the other and back again.

  Their tails swished about as they began scrambling to gather the scattered black feathers.

  Lithia watched the scrambling youths as they tumbled over one another, pouncing or snapping the tumbling black plumes, and the seeds of doubt about the nefariousness of the Elder Lich in front of her withered away. But about one thing she was still curious, at least at that moment. “Why do you have them gathering the plumes? Is it just to keep them busy? Tire them out? Or is it for some dark magic ritual?”

  Varus walked away, prompting her to resume following him again.

  “You have siblings, don’t you?” He guessed.

  “Y-Yes…how did you know?” Lithia asked and touched her left hand to her forehead, “Did you read my mind? Am I under mind control right now?!” She raised her voice an octave as her imagination began to run wild, but Varus only laughed.

  “No. It is because I remember being alive, and I remember the way parents would give their children tasks to tire them out. But no, the reason here is because I simply need more quills, and raven feathers work very well for that. Now… as I was saying…” He cleared his throat, coughing into his hand, and walked swiftly to the hollowed tree he’d turned into a small library.

  Lithia looked at the ornate structure and blinked her bright blue eyes several times, “You made this?”

  “I did.” Varus answered, “My magic doesn’t work on wood, so,” he reached out and touched the surface of the door, running the bones of his fingers along the smooth surface, “I spent the first…what was it…” he thought for a moment, looking away into the distance as he cast his mind back into a span of time that now seemed nearly endless, “perhaps two months, trying to get it just right. Thankfully I found a wrecked wagon that had some preservation potions still unpilfered, and I coated the tree once I had it sanded down. I was always good with my hands, you see.” Lithia whistled as her wide eyes took in the little structure with its swirling polished patterns of flowers, birds, and other creatures.

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  “It was a lucky find.” He added and opened the door, she hesitated at the entrance.

  ‘Okay, he’s an untamed Elder Lich but… if he wanted to kill me, he could have already done that. And so far all he’s done is make me look stupid. Besides, if he really is the author…’ The lure of the unread volume was too much.

  She took the step across the threshold but Varus seemed not to notice her reluctance, instead moving his finger along the shelves that were cut into the very inner walls of the tree, “Ah, here we are.” Varus plucked the leather tome from the shelf and extended it out to Lithia.

  For a moment she looked at the book, reading the title over and over again. “So… you really are Varus?” She asked, her hands stretched out and closed around the volume, it was thicker than the others in her collection, but the title was clearly etched with the same hand as the others.

  “I am.” Varus answered with a simple dismissive shrug.

  “Do you know why I became an adventurer?” She asked and looked down at the story that sat between the clasped fingers of her hands.

  “You said my story inspired you. That was rewarding to hear. Every author loves to know their work is beloved by their readers.” He responded, though he couldn’t smile, he substituted a slight opening of his jaw and hoped it conveyed his intent well enough, even if his casual voice did not.

  “Yes, but… it was more because I knew the only way I’d find any other volumes is if I started traveling. I searched every library and bookshop in my city, I inquired with every wandering merchant. But even when somebody had heard of the series, nobody knew of any other volumes. She raised her eyes and stared up at him with hero worship in her gaze, “Do you have any idea how frustrating that was?!”

  Varus almost answered, but she ran roughshod over his intentions.

  “Very. It was very frustrating, dare I say, maddening! My family wouldn’t pay for me to travel for such a petty reason, so I joined the adventurer’s guild like your character did, and that paid for my expenses to go from town to town, city to city!” Lithia exclaimed and then flipped the book open while she rambled on in an avalanche of frustrated words.

  As Lithia spoke, Varus wished he could still whistle. ‘She did all that, just to find out the ending to a story she hadn’t finished yet? And I thought I was a fanatic about these things…’ He chortled a little, it was high praise, in a way, and he was tempted by his vanity to just let her read on.

  But instead, he reached out to touch her on the shoulder, “I’m sure you’d like to read, but if you don’t mind, I need to explain things…those things.” He added, when the sound of Tuesday and Hannah’s tumbling intensified.

  “That’s my pile, no cheating!”

  “No it’s not, those blew off my pile and landed on yours, I’m just taking mine back!”

  They yipped and hissed, and between them and Varus, it brought Lithia back to the real world.

  “Right… right, but then you don’t mind if I linger long enough to finish this, do you?” She asked and held the book up, closing it on her finger to mark her place.

  “Be my guest.” Varus answered, and seemingly satisfied, Lithia sighed, put her back to him, and stepped out of the library to go finish the strangest job of her short life.

  Meeting Death