Chapter 6

Leahe grudgingly slid on her newly cleaned white dress and metal armor, wishing she could be wearing something more fitting. She also slid on her white winter cloak, waiting for Emilie to change into her armor.

"You should put on your armor," Emilie had said. "It's better to be safe than sorry incase we run into one of those Dark weapons,"

After a while, Emilie came out of the bathroom wearing her white dress and armor, a light blue cloak draped over her shoulders. Her expression was grim as she slid two small daggers into her sleeves. "Let's go. It's almost twilight."

"Make sure you don't forget the books," Leahe reminded her.

The two girls took off into the wide open space from her house inside the hill, the three books tucked under Emilie's arm. The sun shone its last few rays before disappearing from behind the library in the distance.

Leahe felt a chill run through her spine even with her thick layers as the wind whipped her black wings, ruffling the feathers. Another breeze whipped past, and she sped up her pace, already imagining the warmth of the library.

Roy was sitting at the librarian's desk in the light of a small leaf lamp, examining a small stack of papers on the desk. He looked up at them as they entered, adjusting the glasses on his face. He already wore his dark blue suit and metal armor.

Hey, I suggest we get moving now," Leahe told him.

"Yeah um—What do you have there?" Emilie asked.

"A document of books checked out for the library. I have a record of everyone who ever borrowed something, and some names are crossed out, which means they returned their books. This one here—" he held up the yellowest, oldest looking page from the pile,"—was the first record ever since the library was first built ten years ago."

Leahe glanced at the papers, staring in awe at all the names, dates, and book titles. There weren't as many as she thought there would be, but it was still a lot. Three question marks that were written on an old sheet of paper were circled furiously in red, "The Demonic War, 4 volumes" written next to it. The date written was about a year ago in April.

He pointed at the circled words. "That's the guy we're looking for. Except we don't know who he is, just what he looks like. I have very old camera footage from that very day, except it's not quite good quality as it got a bit damaged during the first attack on the old base.

"Let's see it." Leahe leaned over to look at the computer on the desk.

Roy pulled up a couple files on the computer, then clicked on a video that stated the exact date when the books were checked out. The video showed the old library in their old base, a little less fancy than their current one, but still elegant nonetheless.

He fast forwarded to a slightly blurry image of a man coming in from the entrance, looking around. Younger Roy walked towards the man from his desk, and even though there wasn't any sound, she could tell he was asking him what he was looking for. After a few pauses of silent conversation, Roy walked towards the very back of the library, through a dark wood door that looked like a storage room. The man followed him, and the scene switched to the inside of the storage room. Roy handed him four dark colored books, and the two exited the room back into the vast library.

"But look," Roy rewinded a couple more minutes back, so they could see the empty library, the old Roy and the man still in the storage room. As the video played slower, Leahe could see a dart of black flash past the camera, a small girl with silver and black daggers flashing beams of black light at different areas of the room, disabling cameras. A beam of light crashed into the camera as well, but the girl must have missed, because it only wobbled and kept recording. She flipped out a camera and took pictures of the room, hiding in the corner. The girl suddenly stopped in her place as "current" Roy paused the video and turned to face them.

"I- She was the girl from the alley!" Leahe gasped.

"Yes, and that is exactly why I believe you were sent to capture the other girl. The Puzzle Master has a theory, one she won't share, and it's our job to guess and figure it out." he explained.

"What are we waiting for? Now that we kind of have an idea of what we're looking for, it's time to go." Emilie marched out the door as Roy turned off the computer, pulling off his dark green cloak from the back of his chair.

Suri was waiting for them at the exit of the Valkyrie base, back at the tunnel. "What brings you here this late at night?"

"Mission for the Puzzle Master," Leahe said hurriedly.

"Oh? Sis, I'm sorry but since your accident down there the Puzzle Master has not allowed entrance or exit to and from the outside world and the base. It's for your own safety."

"C'mon sis, this is important. The Puzzle Master thinks we're all in danger, and we're hunting a Dark weapon."

"Dark weapon? That sounds quite dangerous. Sorry," she didn't sound very apologetic.

Leahe pressed her lips together in frustration. "Suri, I swear to lord that I will be back by morning. This is a very important mission—"

"I know the Puzzle Master didn't send you here. So what the heck are you doing? Tell me, so I know you aren't going to get yourself killed!" her grip tightened on the curved blades as her eyes hardened.

"Sis, this is not a suicide mission. We'll be really quick, and destroy the weapon on time," Leahe spoke quietly.

"And what if you don't?"

"Suri, we need to destroy this weapon quickly before it goes into the wrong hands, and we really need to leave. Please, just this once!" Emilie added. "If we don't find anything, I promise you we'll come right back."

Suri surveyed the group and sighed, her shoulders sagging. "Fine. Just this once, and you better be back by noon or I'm coming out there with a patrol squad,"

"Please don't," Leahe whispered as Roy led the way through the tunnel.

The threesome immediately lifted off and out of the tunnel once they were out of sight of Suri.

"Come on guys, we wasted some time back there, so we gotta move fast." Roy said, fastening his hood over his head.

Emilie nodded, then swerved in the opposite direction, flapping away.

"She suggests we fly in opposite directions so we can find her easier. Stay within a good distance, and you know what she looks like, so we should be good," Leahe explained, then took off in the other direction.

She soared over the dimming lights of a town and dipped down to examine the area, staying well out of eyesight. Looking around, she slowly drifted down to get a better look at the area. The streets were well taken care of, and most people were already fast asleep in their homes. She landed softly on the ground and decided to creep along the roads to check for any suspicious behavior. She soon found a man was stumbling across the road, shivering in the cold winds. He was dressed in rags and his hair was unkempt.

Checking if her wings were well tucked beneath her cloak, she cautiously walked towards the man.

"Hello there, sir. I'm looking for a pair of people, a man with sandy blonde hair and a girl with short chopped black hair and glasses. Have you seen them around?"

The man turned towards her direction and smiled, revealing crooked yellow teeth. Leahe felt a chill run down her spine, and backed up a few steps.

"A pair of people, you say? How about you give me your pretty little cloak there, and I'll tell you," he offered.

"I'm sorry, sir, but I need this cloak."

"Surely you want information, do you not?" The man wasn't smiling anymore, and Leahe protectively wrapped her cloak tighter around her, carefully hiding the silhouette of her wings.

"How about another offer?" she asked, and as soon as she said the words, the man lunged towards her, grabbing fistfuls of her cloak. His feeble arms tore the soft fiber, leaving her wings and armor exposed to the cold winds.

Immediately the man's eyes widened, and Leahe sprinted toward him.

"You—"

Quickly, she breathed a cool mist from her mouth that knocked him out, cold, to the ground. Picking up her cloak from his clutch, she dusted it off and secured it around her.

There was a swish of air and Emilie touched down to the ground next to her. "I was flying directly above you from the next town and saw you in trouble. Need any help?"

"Yes. Emilie, this man said he could tell me about the man and the girl, but I had to knock him out. Can you—" she gestured toward the man on the floor.

"Of course."

Emilie bent down and touched her hand softly to his forehead, her fingers emitting a soft glowing light as she did. A few seconds passed, and she finally removed her hand, staring at Leahe.

"He was lying. He has no information on any of those two descriptions, and he just wanted your cloak, it seemed."

Leahe felt slightly disappointed. "Well, thank lord we avoided a huge scene. Hopefully he realized it was all a dream—"

Her voice was cut off by a scream in the distance, and both girls looked up into the sky.

"Oh no..." Emilie covered her mouth with her hands.

"It looks like Roy is in trouble," Leahe said grimly, a small flame of worry growing in her stomach.