Sofya could never have imagined that there would be even one UrbFan that involved humans who shifted into animal forms that were also running for political office. Now, she had discovered that it was an entire sub-sub-genre, and there were more problems in a related universe.
“Seriously, now we’ve got werelion senators?” Beale groused as he and Sofya made their way to a public library. “Why are we dealing with a glut of politically-active shifters all of the sudden?”
Sofya shook her head, equally baffled. “Your guess is as good as mine,” she replied, leaning on her cane less and less but still feeling more comfortable with it in hand that without it. “At least this one isn’t a best seller like the last one. I’m pretty sure the only reason why the last one had sold so many copies was because it was a new book in an established series. This one is a stand-alone, new author, indie published. I’m shocked it even showed up on the Library’s radar, to be honest.”
“The ways of the Library are most mysterious,” intoned Beale, earning him a strange look from a woman walking through the parking lot toward the drugstore next to the library. She sped up, clutching her purse a little tighter, and Sofya tried not to laugh out loud. She didn’t try all that hard, to be honest, and Beale glared at her as she giggled.
“I’m not the only one who’s out of place here, you know,” he said haughtily, attempting to sneer through another brightly patterned face mask. The combination of his attempted facial expression and the bright red teddy bears marching across his nose and mouth just made Sofya laugh that much harder.
Beale threw his hands to the sky in what Sofya hoped was mock exasperation, and the two of them entered the tiny library branch in the strip mall in the very small town. Frankly, Sofya had been grateful they’d been able to find it at all - the book containing the anomaly had been printed with only a very few copies, and the digital editions had been removed from all outlets due to some kind of copyright dispute. The Library had indicated there was one copy of the book publicly available at this small library branch, and the agents were going to have to be very careful in how they retrieved it. It was going to be one of the few times something would be returning to Prime from the Library after being taken in for cataloguing, and Sofya wasn’t entirely sure how it would all work out.
A small bell rang over the door as Sofya and Beale entered, and a young woman with bright blue hair looked up from the book she was reading at a desk up front. Her mask had designs stitched on it that represented several of the major YA book series, and Sofya found herself taking a liking to the young woman immediately. From the way Beale straightened up next to her and straightened the collar of his teal polo shirt, Sofya assumed Beale had also taken a liking to her.
“Hello there! Welcome to Rivera Beach. Let me know if you need any help finding anything specific, or just help in general. Otherwise, feel free to look around. We’ve got limited capacity right now, but that shouldn’t be a problem. I’ll let you know if a big group comes in or anything.” Her smile crinkled the corners of her steel gray eyes, as though she were smiling extra-big to make up for the mask, and she gestured toward the shelves in front of them as she spoke.
Sofya nodded her thanks and started moving toward the urban fantasy section. Beale stayed behind, heading to the desk and the young woman behind it. “This is a lovely little library, I have to say,” Sofya heard him start with, and she rolled her eyes with her back turned to them. Leave it to Beale to start flirting with the staff the second he got within range. At least it would keep him out of the way while she looked for the book.
For such a small branch, the urban fantasy section was fairly large and had a wide variety of titles and authors. Sofya noticed there were a great number of independently-published titles from authors whose names she didn’t recognize, and were probably pen names at that. It wasn’t common for a library to take an interest in what was essentially vanity publishing, and it made Sofya wonder why this branch in particular had dedicated so much of its resources to the niche type of books. Odd or not, it was the one place the Librarians had been able to track down an available copy of the book they needed, and so Sofya began scanning the shelves for the title on her list.
Back at the front desk, the librarian beamed at Beale. “Oh, we do all right,” she replied. “We’re kind of a specialty library branch, if you can believe it. We mostly handle indie books, the kinds of things that you won’t find in most of the major branches. I see your friend has found our urban fantasy section - that’s one of our more popular areas. I keep telling my boss that we should break it down into more specific sub-genres, but he’s afraid that it would frighten the people who aren’t as clued in to the more niche stuff.” She winked at him, and Beale returned it with a grin she couldn’t see but could probably feel through the mask.
Beale didn’t really know what the librarian was talking about, since UrbFan was so not his genre, and his universe didn’t spend a lot of time talking about other universes, but he made a mental note to tell Sofya about this when they left the library. It was possible this branch could be useful in the future if they needed to get a hold of other books that were less popular or common. “Well, I’m glad to hear there’s a branch of the library out there for those of us with discerning taste,” he drawled to the librarian, leaning forward on the desk and toying with a golf pencil next to a note pad near her elbow. “I’m Beale, by the way.”
“Rosemary,” the librarian responded, and she gave him a wave. Beale was still not accustomed to losing handshakes in Prime, since it wasn’t something he had to contend with in his universe, but he’d been to enough foreign universes to know that he needed to follow the lead of the locals when it came to the greetings. He waved in response, and Rosemary giggled a bit, then her eyes widened in surprise at herself. Beale decided he should probably dial back the charm a bit, or he’d end up getting himself in trouble with either Sofya or his girlfriend Kelly - probably both. He leaned back a little from the desk, and watched Rosemary’s shoulders relax ever so slightly.
While Sofya and Beale were in Prime, finding the copy of the book that the Library required, Niles, Nuereddin, and Veronica were working their way through the backstory of the book in question. Nuereddin was happy to note that there weren’t any devil trees this time, though seeing the world made of concrete and steel was a bit unnerving. While he knew that he wouldn’t do well outside of their home universe, he wished he could have brought Lomo with him to have that little element of comfort in such a strange place.
Similarly, Niles felt out of place in a universe that contained so many people, all moving with such urgency and drive. Veronica had explained that the universe was based on a place in Prime called Washington, D.C., and it was similar to one that existed in her universe as well. While it was apparently the seat of power for the rulers of a rather large land, Niles didn’t see any of the signs that indicated a ruler. There were no servants, for one, or people who were clearly in the upper classes that worked directly under the leader. There were very few banners flying, and those that were had stripes and stars that were crowded very close to one another, not like a war pennant at all. Niles pointed these things out to Veronica.
“Well, seats of power are different in different kinds of universes,” she explained, looking around and trying to keep nearly everything in sight at once. Even though she had spent a significant amount of time in a city in her home universe, it had made her uneasy there, and it was worse when it wasn’t her home turf. Who knew what could be hiding in the shadows? Things in this city were so much different from the way she remembered them in her universe, but so similar at the same time. She focused on answering Niles’ questions. “This land isn’t ruled the same way you rule your land, really. The person in charge changes every few years, instead of being in power for life. And the people are able to choose the next person to lead them.” She tilted her head, remembering some of the history in her universe as well as some of the stories she’d heard about in Prime. “Well, sort of. At any rate, there isn’t one person who decides they are going to lead the entire land - there are lots of people who lead smaller portions of the land, and one person at the top of it all, but he doesn’t have all the power. There are others who balance his power. Again, sort of.”
Nuereddin shook his head in disgust. “Rulers. People choosing who’s going to rule over them. People worshipping kings. All of it is a mess. I say, each person should do as they want, and so long as it doesn’t cause any harm, they should be left alone.” He scowled as he remembered his last encounter with the tax collector. That was a dwarf who had forgotten where his loyalties lay, and Nuereddin and Teodor had been quick to remind him of the proper way to be a dwarf.
Niles, on the other hand, was astonished. “The people choose their leader? But why would they get a say in who leads them? Their job is to be led, to follow the laws and obey their ruler or face his wrath. Nowhere is there space for choosing a leader. And smaller leaders under a larger, ultimate ruler - well, that makes sense. There are heads of clans that handle things in their individual clans that don’t require my review, so they’re able to make some decisions on their own. But even then, my advisors live with those clans and they have the force of my voice to veto any decision made by the head of a clan.” Niles shook his head in disbelief, then jumped out of the way of a large baby stroller being pushed by a woman speaking loudly into the air and barreling straight ahead, not even attempting to move around Niles. In fact, she shot him a dirty look as she moved past, and he felt a sudden urge to apologize. He wasn’t sure why, and the feeling was incredibly unnerving.
He pointed back at the woman, speaking to Veronica again. She and Nuereddin had both stopped when they saw Niles’ impressive dodge. “Why is that woman shouting at nothing? Why is she shoving a baby in a wheelbarrow that’s bigger than my second wife’s bed? And why do I feel like I did something wrong when she almost ran into me?”
Veronica shook her head in bewilderment. “I have no idea on any of those things. I don’t like this universe at all. Come on. Let’s find what we need and get back to the Library, where it’s safe.”
“Well, at least until the Centaur Races begin,” Nuereddin commented as they continued down the sidewalk toward an extremely tall, thin building that didn’t seem functional at all. “The centaurs aren’t the best at stopping suddenly, either, especially on the tile floors in the Library. They slide around, get their legs tangled up, it’s a big mess.” He grinned as he remembered the last big crash as they continued toward their goal.
Back in the library in Prime, Sofya was discovering just how broad the selection of independently-published books really was. The space was small enough that she could still hear Beale speaking with the librarian - Rosemary, apparently - and it sounded like either Rosemary or her boss, Jacob, were fans of the more obscure types of sub-genre. Rosemary dabbled in writing fan fiction herself, she told Beale, though she refused to divulge her pen name. Sofya knew that Beale would neither know what to do with that information nor care all that much, but poor Rosemary wasn’t quite ready to let someone she knew in real life read her works. Sofya had a sneaking suspicion that the next chapter of Rosemary’s story would include a character that looked a startling amount like Beale.
Fortunately, the fiction part of the library was shelved alphabetically within the genre, so Sofya finally managed to find the book after searching the shelf twice. It was no wonder it hadn’t shown itself the first two times - the printed book was a slim volume, the spine hardly wide enough to hold the title in any kind of readable font. The cover had been sealed with a plastic case, and Sofya realized that part of the difficulty reading the spine came from the fact that the spine was broken. Either the book had been read so many times in its short existence that the spine broke, or someone had folded the book back while they read it. Sofya shuddered at the thought of such sacrilege, and took some relief in knowing the plastic case would prevent that kind of abuse in the future.
“Found it!” Sofya called as she walked up to the desk, waving the book in her free hand. “You know, this is the only place I’ve been able to track down a copy anywhere? My best friend said that she read it when it was online and she thought it was the best thing ever, but the links were all broken and the ebook was taken down from the stores.”
Rosemary took the book from Sofya, wiping it down with a disinfectant wipe almost without thinking. That would be another reason for the plastic case, Sofya realized, and it made her wonder if all of the books had something similar in place. The librarian started briefly when she saw the cover, so quickly Sofya thought she imagined it. “Huh. I kind of remember seeing something about this online…” She flipped the book over to the back cover to scan the blurb about the book.
Sofya was willing to wait patiently for the librarian, but she could see Beale was starting to get bored. He had pulled out his cell phone and was playing around on it. Even though he couldn’t get any signal when he was outside of his own universe, he had a few games downloaded to the phone itself that still worked regardless of where he was. Sofya stretched her neck a bit, and saw he was working on one of the coloring book applications again. This time, it looked like he was coloring a picture of Winnie-the-Pooh. She couldn’t help but smile, and she was grateful again for the mask that concealed her delight.
“That’s right!” Rosemary exclaimed, in the kind of not-quite-whisper that librarians seem to claim as their right. “I heard it was online, and then it was pulled from the free sites because the author was publishing it and putting it up for sale, so I convinced Jacob to order a copy for the library. By the time it got here and we processed it, it had been pulled from sale. Something about a hacker adding content the author didn’t intend, or something?” Rosemary looked from Sofya to Beale and back, her eyes quizzical.
Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.
Sofya felt her face pale as she realized the implications of that statement. If a book had been pulled from sale because the content no longer matched what the author wrote, then the anomaly her team had been sent to investigate had to be severe, and had done a significant amount of damage. It might be irreparable, and it was almost certainly a cause for concern for the universe itself. The universe which, at that moment, contained three of her team members. When she met Beale’s eyes, Sofya could see her own fear mirrored there. They needed to get this book to the Library, and fast.
Veronica felt her skin crawl as she moved off the main walkway onto a side street where one of the main characters in the universe was supposed to live. The neighborhood was beautiful, filled with homes that had stood the test of time and most likely were extremely expensive (however such things were measured in this universe), and even though there were quite a few people out and about, things were peaceful. There was no reason for her to feel ill at ease or off-kilter, and that was why she felt both of those things. Everything was too quiet, too perfect, too peaceful. There was no conflict anywhere.
Nuereddin seemed a little better off once they got into a neighborhood, but he didn’t appreciate how all the homes were on top of one another, with hardly any space between them. There was very little green space at all - a few shrubs that had been manicured to the point of looking like things he would whittle when he had nothing else to do, and little patches of brilliant green grass that were unnaturally short and cleared of all other plants. From previous excursions to universes set in ‘modern’ times, he had learned about this idea of ‘lawns,’ but it had never made sense. Why destroy nature everywhere, then create a little patch of fake nature for the front of your house? It was so fake it wouldn’t even grow on its own!
Niles was equally baffled by the neighborhood, but for different reasons. There were so many people in such a small area, and they all seemed…different from each other. He saw people with a variety of skin colors, and their attire reflected status that he would expect to be much lower in the social order, alongside people with refined apparel that clearly cost a great deal and meant the owner was substantially more successful and important. It finally occurred to Niles that some of the people must be the servants of the more successful people - that would explain the different apparel. He didn’t know why the servants were allowed to wander freely in the streets, but he supposed some masters were more lenient than others. There were very few children, and the ones he saw were but babes, held by their caretakers or allowed to toddle about in the patch of green in front of the house. However, each of them was separated - the caretakers didn’t bring them together to watch as a group, which would have allowed a much more efficient use of resources. As a group, there would only be need of two or three caretakers at a time, leaving the others to carry on with the other duties of the houses they served. However, with each child separate, or only with one other, they each required their own caretaker. It saddened him to see good resources being put to use in such an inefficient manner.
Veronica was scanning the numbers on the houses on the street, muttering under her breath as she tried to remember which was the house for their protagonist. “Come on, come on,” she said in a low voice, walking slowly down one side of the street with her eyes fixed on the addresses and ignoring the strange looks her behavior and her companions were starting to gather. “I know you’re here somewhere…there it is!” She pointed at a large house on the corner, and Niles and Nuereddin followed to see what there was to see.
The house stood out for several reasons, not the least being because it was the largest building in the neighborhood. It had three stories, with what looked like a tower in one corner. The house looked to be the same age as the other houses in the neighborhood, but somehow appeared more worn than the others. The gutters hadn’t been cleaned properly in several months, at least, and the shutters on the second-story windows were missing a few of their slats. All of the windows were intact, at least, but many of them had a cloudy quality to the glass.
The steps leading up to the front door were sturdy enough, and so Veronica climbed them, trying to exude a confidence she didn’t feel. Between the neighborhood and this house, Veronica’s sense of danger was increasing with each second. She still didn’t know what, specifically, was causing her to fear this universe, but she hadn’t had this strong of a reaction since The Incident in her home universe. She had to hope it wasn’t anything that dire.
She waited until Niles and Nuereddin had joined her on the top step before taking a deep breath and reaching for the doorbell. Before she did so, however, she noticed that the doorframe appeared damaged, and the door was slightly ajar. She looked at the two men in turn, trying to get their opinions on how to proceed without speaking.
Nuereddin was starting to feel a similar dread to what Veronica was sensing, and he always felt that the better part of valor was getting the hell out of town and going back to his home. He nodded his head back at the stairs going away from the door, hoping like hell that Veronica would listen to him and they could return to the semi-normalcy of the Library.
Niles, meanwhile, wasn’t willing to leave just yet. He knew that Veronica had a plan, to speak with the protagonist in the backstory of the universe and see if they could give the team any insights of what they might be looking for in terms of the anomaly. It was standard operating procedure when starting an in-universe mission, and in his mind, there was no reason why this mission should be any different. Niles didn’t dismiss Nuereddin’s idea of leaving right away, but he wanted to make sure they understood what was happening before they decided to leave or move forward. It would be so much easier for all of them if they had a way to communicate amongst themselves that would allow them to speak without potentially bothering the opponent or alerting them to the team’s plans.
Veronica eyed the door closely. It was a bad sign - nothing in their report had mentioned the protagonist experiencing a robbery or assault in their home in the days leading up to the main action, so already the team was finding an anomaly. She pulled out the miniscule camera that Beale had helped her figure out previously, thinking fondly again about her old Kodak 35. The new one had the benefit of being extremely small and portable, as well as not requiring film and allowing her to see the images she had taken immediately. Veronica hadn’t been the best photographer in her universe, but she was capable of taking photos when needed, especially when the team was involved in retrieving anomalies that may not be easy enough to take back in hand.
She took a few pictures very quickly, showing as much of the damage to the frame and how far open the door was before anyone could get any closer. Once she had documented enough of the strangeness, she nodded to her two companions and shifted out of the way to allow Niles to step forward so he could ring the bell. Veronica told herself it wasn’t because he was a man and she was a woman - it was because Niles was built like a brick wall with hair, and it would be easier for him to take a swing at whatever may be on the other side of the door first. Nuereddin stood next to her, clenching his hands into fists, and Veronica felt herself relaxing just a bit knowing that there were two people with her who could handle physical altercations if it came to that.
The doorbell sounded a long, deep tone, ominous and more like a bell from a run-down church than a residential building. Niles stepped back from the door, giving himself room to move and to be out of immediate reach of anyone who may be on the immediate other side of the door, and then all three of them waited. And waited. And waited.
Veronica felt herself getting more and more tense as they stood there on the porch. She felt exposed out in the open this way, and fought to keep from crossing her arms across her chest. She forced herself to maintain a straight, open posture, focused on the door of the house in front of her while allowing herself to hear the sounds coming from the street around her. Evidently, her little band had attracted some attention from the neighbors, because she could hear some of them on the sidewalk in front and on the side of the house. “What do you think they want with Keith?” “Dunno. Looks like they could be cops, maybe?” “Nah, that one is way too short - he’s probably like a circus performer or something.” “What’s somebody from the circus want with Keith?” “I don’t know - I’m just saying, that’s what the little dude looks like.”
Veronica’s reporter’s instincts told her to go talk to the neighbors, who obviously knew the person they were trying to get in touch with, and get some information from them - what he was like, when the last time they saw him was, if they knew of anyone who would have a problem with him, that sort of thing. However, the universe they were in was not meant to be a crime story, and treating the neighbors like witnesses to a crime would potentially open or thin the walls between the universes in an unsafe manner. Seeing as their job as Library agents was to protect the walls between the universes, it struck Veronica as a bad idea to potentially cause deliberate damage. So she held still, and she waited, trying not to fidget.
Nuereddin was not doing well with waiting patiently. He really didn’t appreciate being called “the little dude” by the audience they’d gathered, and while he wasn’t positive what a circus was, he had a feeling it was not something the average person would be in. He hated being in universes where he stood out so much, but there were so many more Tall universes than there were properly-sized ones that he felt like he had to just keep his head down and work through it. At least he knew that his team members wouldn’t think of him that way, and he could feel from Veronica’s closer presence that she knew he was upset by the comments. Nuereddin took a long, slow breath and let it out just as slowly, trying to remember the breathing tricks Sofya had shown him about how to get through stressful or painful situations. If he focused on his breathing, then he wouldn’t have the ability to focus on the idiots behind them. Long, deep inhale…slow, steady exhale.
Niles was in a conundrum. As the largest member of the team and the one with the most experience fighting one on one, he was expected to be the first line of defense for the rest of the team when they came upon things that would attack. He was prepared for that, and understood his place in such situations with no problem. This case, however, wasn’t cut and dried. It looked like there should be something willing and able to attack them - after all, it had done damage to a pretty heavy-duty door already. But it hadn’t come out, and there was no sign that it was going to. Niles didn’t even know if whatever caused the damage was still in the house, and he was beginning to feel a bit silly just standing outside waiting for nothing. He reached up to ring the doorbell again, thinking that he would wait for a minute after ringing the second time, then suggest to Veronica that they just go in and see what there was to see.
The door came flying open, wrenched open wide by a wild-haired woman in disarray. “Oh thank God you’re here. You have to help.” She turned and ran back into the house, going up a curving staircase that was just off the front receiving room, and leaving the door open. The team didn’t hesitate to follow, though Niles did take a moment to close the door behind them after Nuereddin came in - it wouldn’t do to have the neighbors come barging in if something had gone wrong.
The woman was flying up the stairs two at a time, somehow managing to keep her bare feet from slipping on the hardwood floor. The stairs continued in a spiral, and as Veronica followed immediately behind the woman, she realized that they were most likely inside the tower. Veronica was doing her best to keep up with the woman, but her sensible black flats were having a hard time finding purchase on the slick steps, and she had to catch herself from falling twice as she ran after the disheveled woman. The woman didn’t even look back, just running and seeming to trust that the team was following her.
Niles followed Veronica and overtook her after she almost fell the second time, putting his arm around her shoulders to keep her upright. The stairs were just wide enough for the two to pass each other, and without words Veronica indicated that Niles should follow the running woman closely. He dashed off, determined to catch up, while Veronica stopped to catch her breath.
Nuereddin was moving steadily up the stairs last, pacing himself as though it were an endurance race rather than a sprint. He got up to a step below Veronica and stopped, looking at her with concern. “Are you all right?” he asked in a low voice. He wasn’t sure why he was speaking so quietly, but it felt like shouting or even speaking in a normal volume would somehow violate the sanctity of the space. Nuereddin leaned a little closer to Veronica so he could hear her answer.
“I’m fine, thanks, just needed to catch my breath,” Veronica responded, her breath slowing and coming more easily than it had been a moment before. She also spoke quietly, and she turned and continued up the stairs after speaking to Nuereddin, moving more slowly now but still making progress to the top of the stairs.
After another turn, they caught up with Niles and the running woman, catching a glimpse of her blue hair flying behind her as she ducked into a room. Veronica walked more slowly, less out of a concern for catching her breath now and more out of a desire to avoid running into a room containing unknown numbers of people or things. Nuereddin stayed right beside her, also moving cautiously, while Niles was ahead of them, standing in the doorway of the room. Judging by the curved walls and the small space in which they stood, Veronica figured that they were standing in the top of the tower.
Niles hadn’t moved from the doorway; he wanted to make sure the rest of the team saw what he did before making any sudden moves. He felt his shoulders relax when he caught a whiff of Veronica’s perfume and the musk of Nuereddin’s leather jerkin, and knew they were at the top of the stairs. He needed them to come quickly, but he also needed them not to panic or do anything too rash. He did his best to express these concerns with his body language, as he wasn’t sure how loud he could safely speak. He slowly beckoned for the rest of his team to join him in the doorway, and waited.
Nuereddin ducked under Niles’ arm so he had a better view of the room, and froze. The woman they had chased up the stairs was kneeling next to a cot, upon which a man had been strapped. The woman was wiping the man’s forehead with a cloth, murmuring to him in a voice too low for Nuereddin to make out, and gesturing (with very small movements) toward the team members in the doorway. The man didn’t move much, though Nuereddin was pretty sure it was because he couldn’t, rather than because he didn’t want to. The straps holding him to the cot were wide and tightly bound over his chest, legs, shoulders, and each wrist and ankle, with one final, thinner strap running across the top of his forehead. Whoever had done the job had made a point of tying the man down as thoroughly as possible, preventing him from moving at all costs.
Which is probably what had saved his life thus far, given the bomb that was resting on a thin glass tray over his broad chest. As Nuereddin watched, the man inhaled very slowly, and his chest just missed hitting the tray by the slightest of margins. Nuereddin had no idea how long he’d been in that position, but just watching him lie like that for a minute was enough to give Nuereddin the shakes. He ducked back under Niles’ arm to get to the hall and a bit of air.
Veronica and Niles followed Nuereddin out of the room and huddled together next to the top of the stairs. “Well, I think we know why we couldn’t get in contact with Keith,” Veronica stated plainly, hugging herself against the sudden chill she felt upon looking at the poor man in that position. It had reminded her of things she’d rather forget, and she was certain she was going to need a bit more than her usual one cider to get to sleep that night.
“You’re from the Library, right?” The voice startled all the members of the team, particularly Nuereddin as it came from directly behind him. He whirled around and had his fists up and ready without realizing it. The woman from the front door looked down at him with a face full of worry and gave a small, exhausted smile. “I know. I didn’t mean to scare you. But you are Library agents, aren’t you?” There was a plea in her voice that hadn’t been there the first time she’s asked the question.
Veronica cleared her throat and stepped up, not walking in front of Nuereddin but managing to make herself the woman’s center of attention. She held out a hand for a handshake. “Yes, we are. And you are?”
The woman met Veronica’s green eyes with her steel gray ones, and shook her hand firmly. “Rosemary,” she replied. “I’m the author. Somebody is trying to destroy my book.”
