As if sensing her idea, Lunis knelt and laid on his stomach so she could see the game too. “Do you think I should put the pirate hat on my avatar or the beret?”
Sophia grinned at her dragon and leaned close. “Pirate hat all the way.”
Chapter Four
The portal door that led to the Great Library had been sealed since strange things started happening at the Gullington due to the move. However, now that the Great Librarian, Paul, was in place, and the library in a fixed location, it could be reopened.
Sophia stood with Quiet in front of the door and gave it a cautious look. “I think it’s safe to open it, but just in case.” She pulled her sword from its sheath and prepared herself for whatever came through the door once they unlocked it.
Quiet nodded minutely, and a clinking sound like a key turning a lock came from the door.
Sophia slid to the side, prepared to open it and fight whatever soared through. “Ready?” she asked the gnome.
He mouthed the word, “Yes.”
She whipped the door back in a fluid movement, brandished Inexorabilis, and searched the familiar area for dangers. The front entrance of the Great Library appeared as it normally did with row upon row of shelves going on for as far as one could see. However, a black and white cat stood casually in front of the first set of shelves and licked his paw.
Plato glanced up at the sight of Sophia, seemingly unsurprised to find her there holding her sword and ready to kill whatever monster she found.
“There you are,” Plato stated matter-of-factly. “When you’ve finished acting like a hero, you can pop in here. I have jobs for you.”
Sophia looked back at Quiet and nodded. “Looks like all is clear. Thanks for unsealing it.”
The groundskeeper didn’t say another word, simply turned and strode down the corridor of the Castle, whistling as he did.
“I like that chap,” Plato commented when Sophia strode into the Great Library. “Liv could take a page out of his book.”
“And be quiet,” Sophia supplied.
“You said it, not me.”
Sophia strode into the largest library in the world, noticing that it appeared the same as before and yet, strangely different. She couldn’t quite put her finger on why though.
“It’s the lighting,” Plato stated.
“What’s the lighting?”
“The difference you’re spotting,” he answered.
Sophia raised an eyebrow at him. “Stay out of my head, lynx.”
“That’s impossible,” he retorted. “If you’re done playing ninja, then you’ll see why the lighting is different. Come through.”
Still tentative, knowing that changing the Great Library’s location had caused all sorts of problems worldwide and with the portals, Sophia took each step with careful deliberation. She peeked around the corner and looked toward the main entrance.
Before, the Great Library had looked out on Zanzibar at the front. The banks of windows that ran the building's length on both sides had the perfect views of the white-capped ocean. However, what she saw in the Great Library's new location was the exact opposite of a cascading sea and colorful Stone Town.
For as far as she could see through the banks of windows was brown. The flat city that lay around the Great Library was so monochromatic that at first, it hurt Sophia’s eyes. Sophia initially thought she’d time-traveled into the past because the city streets weren’t filled with cars and traffic lights but rather donkeys and carts.
“Where are we?” Sophia studied the large stone structure in the distance that rose higher than all the other buildings.
“You know this area as Timbuktu,” Plato answered through a yawn as if this revelation was a bore-fest for him.
Sophia whipped around. “Like the Mali Empire? That’s where you put the Great Library?”
“It fit the requirements,” Plato stated.
“What are these requirements?”
He shrugged. “There are quite a few, but for instance, there needs to be a certain grounding force for the Great Library’s location. That structure in the distance is the Great Mosque of Djenné.”
Plato had indicated the large adobe structure that rose high above all the rest.
“That’s the grounding force,” Sophia guessed.
“In Zanzibar, it was the ocean,” Plato offered. “This one, well, I wasn’t taking any chances after the Great Library was found and nearly destroyed.”
Sophia nodded, not wanting to chance anything happening to the incredible place that housed every single book ever written, except for two that were in her possession.
She understood what Plato meant about the lighting. The desert of Timbuktu brought in a yellowish light that created an eerie glow. “What does the Great Library look like from the outside?”
“A modest dwelling,” Plato answered.
“That seems about right.” Sophia remembered that the Great Library had looked like a shack perched on a rock when it was in Zanzibar. She loved the irony that the most powerful place in the world appeared as anything but.
“You need me to do something?” She recalled what he’d said about him having jobs for her.
“My taxes, chiefly,” he replied dryly without missing a beat.
Sophia laughed. “Rory can help you with those if he’s not working on his novel.”
“He is,” Plato stated. “And he doesn’t know how to hide certain things. Too morally strict, that one.”
“Why in the world does a lynx have to do taxes in the first place? Do you even exist to the United States government?”
He scowled at her. “I exist, and I have feelings. And when you make money, the IRS knows about it.”
Sophia shook her head at the enigmatic magical creature. “You’re very strange.”
“True,” he chirped. “Anyway, I’ll do my taxes since I suspect you’re the wrong person for the job.”
“Good call.”
“However, I need you to go to Happily Ever After College and reopen the portal to the Great Library since you’re the one who sealed it.”
Sophia nodded. “Yeah, and I guess you can’t open it from this side.”
“I can do all sorts of things,” Plato retorted smugly. “I simply choose not to. Why do things when I can require you to do them?”
“How endearing of you,” Sophia joked.
“Well, you need to go there for other reasons too.”
Sophia thought for a moment, trying to remember if there was a task that she needed Mae Ling, her fairy godmother’s help with. She couldn’t think of anything presently. “What are these other reasons?”
“I’m not sure what the question is,” a voice that wasn’t Plato’s replied. “But if you’re looking for answers, you came to the right place.”
Chapter Five
Sophia spun around to find Paul, the man she and Liv had recruited at Plato’s direction to take the Great Librarian role. He wore long burgundy robes and looked very regal standing with his palms pressed together as if in prayer with a placid expression on his face.