Paradox followed the magician down a short flight of steps, listening to him as he talked. He asked her about going to academy. She looked at him skeptically. "I don't believe I would be able to do that," she said quietly. "I'm not really one for schools, I like to learn on my own." They went down the stairs into what appeared to be a large study area. She wandered around it for a while, admiring the delicate ink blots and pieces of parchment. She found a door to the edge of the study behind a closet. Curiously she opened the door and stepped inside. 

This room was old and dusty. It didn't appear to be used much. She heard voices in the room and walked away from the door. They got louder the further in she went. She bumped into something with her foreleg and the floor lurched forward with a loud creak. She felt herself rise steadily upward, out of the darkness and stood perfectly still. Suddenly she was standing on the middle of a stage in what appeared to be a large lecture hall. Hundreds of eyes stared down at her and a spotlight glared down on her as it focused in. A loud voice announced her arrival. "My my, does the Professor know how to make a grand entrance. Ladies and gentlemen, I present you with Professor Andraxia and her lecture on Cheese-Making."

Cheese Making? Professor Andraxia? She had no clue on how to make cheese and she just stood in shock for several seconds before saying anything. "Hello everyone," she announced, casually. She stepped forward, hoping with all her might she could bluff her way through this and find the magician again. "As you were told I am going to give you a very brief lecture on making artisan cheeses. But the most important thing about making cheese isn't actually the process, it is the ingredients that you use that make all the difference. Cow milk for instance is the most common milk used in the making of cheese. It's relatively mild and is suitable for most kinds of cheese, however it is not as rich or thick as certain milk types."

She walked around the stage as she got used to being in front of the large group.

"Yak milk, less common than cow, is more nutritious and slightly thicker than a common cow's, but is essentially the same thing. Goat cheese on the other hand is much richer and thicker than cow or yak's milk. They have very high butterfat content in comparison and is prefered for making semi-solid cheeses. Goats are kept primarily in more mountainous regions, where having a cow would be unpractical. Sheep milk is similar to goat, but not nearly as popular, even though both species are often kept together. It isn't as rich or high in butter fat as goat's milk, and is runnier than a cow's. Rabbits, pound for pound, have the best milk. It is rich, nutritious, and very thick. The only drawbacks to rabbits milk is that it is very difficult to get large quantities of it. Because of this, rabbit's milk is reserved primarily as a delicacy for nobles."

"That concludes my lecture on cheeses and milk types," she said looking around at the audience. She didn't want to bore them. "Thank you for your time everyone. Please have a good day." She walked back behind the stage and slipped around the curtain as she heard the start of applause from the auditorium. Once she was hidden she broke off in a sprint to the closest door she could find, looking desperately for the magician.

As they parted from each other to look at separate parts of the wing, it was a moment or two later that he realized he’d forgotten his book on the table. He looked towards her, making sure she was all right on her own before quickly flickering away, back to the table he had been at earlier. As luck would have it, the book hadn’t yet been reshelved, and he quickly took it up and flickered back to the North Wing. Only a few seconds had gone by and luckily she didn’t seem to have noticed.


His eyes scanned the room, looking for anyone that was free and would be able to assist him. A man, maybe five years older in physical appearance than himself sat in a particularly parchment covered corner of the room. The feather of his quill scittered through the air as he quickly wrote and he made his way over towards him, unable to keep from looking at what it was he was writing. It seemed as if he were transcribing one document into a completely different language. Even if he’d wanted to know what it said he couldn’t possibly tell.


"Excuse me…?" He was sure to keep his voice soft in respect of others in the room and took a half step back when the man looked up at him. Dark circles rimmed his eyes, indicating that he’d been at work for quite some time but in no way seemed as if he was close to stopping. "Would you be able to assist me…?"


Rather than take up his time, he simply stood behind his shoulder, listening to everything he had to tell him about the book he’d brought, who had written it, and the proper language to look up in order to decipher it. Despite having pulled him away from his work, he seemed quite animated and in good spirits about aiding another. In the end it was Naota that had to gently step away, not wanting to keep him from his work for too long. However he was sure to get his name should he return for more assistance.


When he moved from the table back to the more open area of the wing he saw that she was gone. His blood felt as if it had gone cold. She could have just decided to continue on her own… Though he doubted it since she’d asked him to take her around the library. "Or something has happened to her since you weren’t paying attention." He locked his jaw, working his best at not responding to the daemon that spoke in his mind. To be honest he was surprised that Minasé had remained silent for so long…he hoped he was wrong though.


He spoke back to him, having an internal conversation in his mind that he usually kept from doing if he could help it, "If you saw where she went then I suggest just telling me." He moved with long strides through the wing, trying to keep it off his face that he was talking to him mentally, "Well see, if you were more responsible then you might have seen where she was on your own. Are you asking for my help…?" Never.


Running about wouldn’t get much done, so instead he stopped and leaned back, eyes closing and trying to focus on everything around him. Minasé was more flared and only made it that much more difficult, but a flash of hooves caught his attention. His eyes closed tighter, focusing on the sound of hoof against wood. The word whispered passed his lips without him realizing it, "Stage…" Stage. Stage!


The hooves picked up and his eyes quickly opened as he too darted from where he was, weaving and moving as fast as he could to try and find her and nearly colliding when he finally did. Only very narrowly did he manage to flicker against the wall and out of the way of those powerful legs, "I’m sorry! I didn’t realize you had gone!" His eyes were wide, the green of his irises glowing brightly from worry as he looked her over to make sure she was all right.

Paradox ran down a hallway, hooves clattering loudly and several people turned to look at her. I can say with utmost certainty that if I never have the opportunity to do that again, I will be just fine. She thought to herself. A man was pushing a cart loaded with books and she leaped over it. She saw an open door and ran through it, almost flattening the magician. He flashed himself to the wall with his teleportation and she stopped, her hind hooves digging into the carpet. He rushed up to her, apologizing profusely. She stared at him, his eyes were large and bright. She realized he was quite worried about her.

She stepped over to him slowly and grabbed his shoulders with her hands. She felt his racing pulse through his skin. "Hey," she said looking at him. "It's alright. It's okay. I'm not a foal, I can take care of myself, usually. You don't need to worry, just calm down." She smelled something sharp about him, no he definitely wasn't all human. She looked him in the eye, as if she could see his soul in his eyes. She had the same feeling of internal conflict within herself, it happened, only being part human, but the beast too, was never far away.

She let go of his shoulders and started walking into the room that she ran into. It was strange. The wooden floor was now turning into dirt and cement. Tables were scattered around the room, but not holding books or parchment and other writing utensils. Vials of blood lined one of the walls, and she read small tags on them, human, troll, dragon, elf, dwarf, fairy, centaur…And many others she didn't recognize. All species and races it seemed where on this wall. She walked over to the tables, each containing assorted vials and dishes with a variety of tissues on display.

She ducked under a curse that was floating in mid-air, the curse itself contained within a pentagram. She looked at all of this in a mix of wonder and horror. A bookshelf stocked to the brim was in a corner, and crystals of varying kinds were embedded in the walls and glowed on occasion. This workshop was very dark compared to the Northwest Wing and the Atrium. She turned and looked at the magician, her ears flicked back and her tail swinging nervously. "Sorcerer, what is this place?"

The touch of her hands on his shoulders brought him back. She was fine, of course she was fine, but his eyes still did a once over on her just to make sure. Over time he'd grown far too paranoid regarding the safey of others. That added to his constant worry of someone he'd deemed himself responsible for even if it was temporary. But on top of that, he knew that there were places within The Great Library that could be considered quite dangerous to those that were still green to the area.


As he followed her into the next room he was proven right. Thank goodness they hadn't collided and fallen into this room, or worse. This wing, The Northwest Wing, was where he saw the fingerprints of Chae the most. He was probably bias seeing as he had plenty of memories to conjure up of their time spent in a particularly tricky dungeon together. So many dead bodies used for aid, and she'd always made it seem so effortless. It was impressive, but intimidating…which didn't happen with him often. He was still kicking himself for not having realized that she was ascended back then.


The ground smelled of earth, earth tainted from the bodies of the deceased, like a sickening perfume. He rose the back of his hand up to his nose, his heightened senses picking it all up too easily and with more strength than he would have liked. His eyes moved to the vials of blood, focusing on Rosenite and being distracted momentarily. "You could reach out and take it." He looked away, back to her, "We're in The Northwest Wing…if there was any place to see Chae, this would be the room where your odds were the greatest."


His steps were careful as he moved about the room, being sure to not so much as brush anything in here. Necromancy had never been a field he'd taken interest in, it made him…uncomfortable, to say the least, being a hunter of one classification of the undead. Even still, he couldn't deny how impressive and intricate it all was.


"This wing is for the necromancy workshops…one of Chae's specialties. To be honest, I don't venture in here too often. If there was ever a room where you didn't touch anything, this would be it."

Paradox listened carefully to what the magician had to say. Necromancy. The magic that is used in conjuring up the spirits of the dead. She shuddered at the thought, she didn't want to meet anything that wasn't alive. She flicked her ears back and a ripple went through her under her skin. She walked carefully, hooves echoing loudly on the concrete floor. She ducked under another pentagram and walked towards the back of the room. There were several rows of large square drawers on the walls, she'd seen similar drawers through the window of a morgue, but never up close.

She walked towards them. They were bright shiny metal and all were closed. She sniffed them, the smell of death seeping out of them. She stopped and looked at them, briefly before continuing to walk forward. She ducked under another curse and heard a faint rapping. She flickered her ear, thinking she had imagined it. She heard it again and froze. The sound was coming from one of the closed doors. She looked at it curiously and then she heard a voice. 

"Help me!" The voice was pleading and high, like a child's. She hesitated, remembering the magician's advice about not touching anything. The voice called to her again. "Help! Help me! Somebody let me out! Please!" Desperation was making the voice higher and higher. "Let me out!" It was almost a scream. Paradox reached her hand toward the handle. She felt the cold metal under her fingertips. She tightened her grip and opened the door. 

The force of the poltergeist escaping forced the door to slam back against the other drawers with a thunderus clang. She let go of the handle in enough time to avoid her hand getting crushed. The evil little ghost laughed at her, his form the shape of a young boy. He picked up a bottle of unknown fluid off the table and chucked it at her. She ducked and the glass shattered against the drawers. The ghost grabbed for more objects to throw and flew just above the tables in an attempt to knock over as many things as possible. Suddenly the air picked up in the room, spinning violently in a circle around the ghostly apparition. Papers flew crazily around the room, as it gradually turned into disarray.

Everything about this room made his skin crawl. He and the undead didn’t exactly mix, and while this was also a workshop, knowing what it was for was more than enough to make the hairs on the back of his neck stand straight up. Though even he had to admit how interesting it all was. He kept his hands clasped behind his back, not so much worried that he’d be tempted to touch anything, but more didn’t want to take a chance of knocking anything over. His attention was continuously brought back to the vial of Rosenite blood and it bothered him how much he wanted to take it up for himself.


If there was time he’d see if Chae would be able to tell him a bit more about that race. It was possible that it hadn’t been her that brought in the sample, but it was at least worth a shot. In the last year he’d learned a little more than he ever would have wanted to about Rosenites, yet he still felt underprepared when dealing with them. Not that they proved more of a threat than any other race, but seeing as one of the deities of Revaliir was one and he had a rather complicated predicament with her daughter, the more he knew: the better.


Before he could complete his thoughts something flew quickly through the air, causing his eyes to widen and a blade to be summoned between his fingertips on instinct. What…? His eyes narrowed, trying to focus on its translucent appearance, "That’s a…" Spirit. It wasn’t often he dealt with them. This one seemed to be a particularly, and ironically, lively one. His blade dispersed and his shoulders went down, eyes halving in light irritation as things were thrown and energy was swirled. He called out to her over the rush of air, "How did it get out…?!"


His arm rose up, blocking debris with his arm and ducking away from curses as best as he could. It didn’t matter how it got out, it needed to go back. He moved through the room, peering into where Paradox had been, taking in the wall of drawers with the lone opened one. That must have been it.
 

Without another word he struck his arm out, fingers splayed as a cone of energy shot out: creating a purple glowing ring around the poltergeist. When he closed his fingers everything in the room stopped and fell to the ground, the spirit however was frozen in stance, succumbing to his paralyzing field. Now the room seemed eerily silent despite how it was back to the quiet it had been before the freeing of the poltergeist.


"How Chae works with such things abounding in her domain is beyond me." His fingers opened again, arm staying out as he moved the paralyze field, bringing the spirit with it as he walked to the opened drawer, "We should clean before we leave or she’ll be more out of sorts than any mess he could have made." His eyes moved to the trapped ghost in indication before guiding him back into the drawer and pushing it closed with his other hand.

Paradox watched the magician put the ghost back into it's correct box on the wall. She nodded at him silently, still partially in shock about what had just occurred. She bent over and started gathering up the papers that had flown to the ground after the ghost had knocked them off the table. She shuffled them and made them into nice piles on the surface before moving on to picking up some glass from a shattered flask. "I'm sorry," she said to the magician, still slightly embarrassed. 

The glass tinkled softly as she dumped it inside of a box filled with other bits of glass. "I heard him crying out and I didn't think for a second…They sound so much like children. Well, they are children, most of them. I forget that they aren't alive." She stopped picking up glass for a second. "That would be awful though," she commented and continued to pick up the glass. "To spend all of eternity, trapped in the body of a child, whose only destiny is to cause destruction forever. Never leaving this earth for the next or seeing loved ones."

She finished cleaning up the glass and other assorted things before standing still and leaning against a table. She made sure not to touch anything and clasped her hands together in front of her. She flicked an ear and watched the magician. "What are you?" She asked him, still talking quietly, as if being loud might set off another object in the room. She walked towards him, almost silently except for the soft scuffing of her hooves on the ground. She stopped in front of him and looked down at him, curiously.

"You don't smell like a man, but you look like one." She bent down and sniffed his hair again. She looked at his eyes, part human and part alien. She looked him over from head to foot, the masquerade could fool most mortals, especially humans, who lacked a good nose. She turned her head to the side, a crooked smile on her face, before offering her hand to him. "My name's Paradox. What's yours?"

Such a mess, well it wouldn’t be too much of a problem with them working together.  He gathered things with his hands while mental arms reached out and moved things into their proper places at the same time.  Using so much of his psionic energy would end up draining him if he wasn’t too careful, but he wanted this all to be done in a timely manner.  The corner of his lips turned up in a sad half smile as she spoke about the poltergeist.  The trapped part he could understand to a degree, but the rest…no.  It was indeed a tragic fate, and now he couldn’t help but wonder just why Chae had him sealed up in the first place.  Perhaps some type of experiment.  He shuddered trying to think of what she may or may not be wanting to accomplish.
 
As he put the last of the papers on a sideboard he looked back towards her, “It’s all right, no harm done see?  You were being compassionate, certainly don’t apologize for that.”   His palms rested against the desk as he leaned back against it, letting his muscles relax for the brief time they’d be here as he listened to her speak.  His eyebrows rose to her question and his eyes blinked open wider as she sniffed his hair.  Despite how very different that was, his features eased back down with a soft laugh, shaking his head a little bit.  He was still coming to terms with what he was and he didn’t wish to make someone wary of him.  That was the last thing he wanted and all he could think about ever since he’d made the discovery, “It can’t be too horrible being a monster, you always were…The only difference is now you know.”  
 

He straightened from his lean, extending a hand towards her in offering, “Paradox?  Was that name chosen for any particular reason for you…?”   His head tilted to the side, “My name’s Naota Uharu.  And your nose is right: I’m not human, not fully at least, for now let’s leave it at that.”   Despite the subject he smiled, winking at her playfully before pushing away from the desk to start and walk from the workshop.

Paradox stepped back from Naota after they shook hands. He winked at her and smiled and she stared at him curiously. He turned away and she rolled her eyes to herself. She would never understand the two leggers. He started walking into the next area of the library and she followed behind him, ducking under hanging objects and floating enchantments. She made sure not to touch anything and held her arms and tail still until they reached the hallways that connected each wing.  

They entered the East Wing, or at least that's what she read on the sign over the doorway. Already she liked this room better than the last. It smelled of herbs and soil and made her feel slightly more at ease. There was a large container of water with a spout in a corner of the room and was made out of clear glass. She saw an assortment of instruments on several surfaces that appeared to be made out of fine metals and ceramics. She was mindful of a very large table in the center of the room and made sure not to bump it.

Shelves covered the walls with a variety of different artifacts and natural items from a variety of different races. She gave a small smile as she admired what appeared to be Centaur belongings on one of the shelves. Four leather hoof covers, a form of saddlebag, and a long handled bardiche, one of the variety of poleaxes that were used by her kind. She picked it up and shifted the weight back and forth across her hands. It felt good, it felt like home. She spun the poleaxe through the air with expertise, avoiding all the nearby alchemy equipment as well as herself and Naota. 

At last she was done admiring the old weapon and reluctantly leaned it against the wall. She turned to the magician, ready to answer his question and ears forward. "My name was given to me by a fellow traveller, a long time ago,"  she said with a smile. "He gave it to me because I am a living paradox. A contradiction. A man and a beast. My race was conceived by accident, a twist of fate from the meddling of the gods. We are unnatural and should not exist, but here I am, alive, man and beast united in one body. A living contradiction." She hesitated and looked at him curiously for a second. "Like yourself."

What seemed like the fragrance of earth’s very soul itself enveloped this wing.  It was a welcomed contrast to the dank and death that had been in the last wing.  As they moved through he had the urge to remove his boots to feel the soil easier, even if it was only scattered.  The sciences in this form may not have been his expertise, but he still loved nature and the calm it was able to bring.  His fingers ran along the table, tracing out lines where the wood was particularly worn and he imagined people hunched over busy in study.  What were they like?  Which spots were their favorites and why?

His attention was taken by Paradox as she moved a hefty weapon with so much ease that even he was surprised.  A scholar he had expected, but not a fighter.  Or maybe she had just taken up an interest in weaponry.  With her curiosity he wouldn’t have been surprised.   “Have you ever had to use one of those against someone before?”  His eyes followed her as she rested it back down and his heart felt like it jumped into his throat as she finished speaking.  That was the only indication of any anxiousness though.

“I’m glad that you can take a name like that and hold it with such pride but I’m not sure why you’d think I to be a contradiction.”  He smiled, but it was more nerves than actual contentedness.  Rather than keep to the subject he moved to a different section, looking at a splay of vials that were being slowly filled with oil: drop by drop.  Each one came from its own plant, and just by watching for this brief moment he could see that the process would take an exceedingly long time to be finished.

“You must know a great deal about the goings on in this wing.”  He looked back at her over his shoulder.  It wouldn’t have surprised him in the least given how much time she spent in nature herself.  Now that he thought about it, there was a high possibility that she could get on quite well in this place with the others.  Maybe after they’d explored the entirety of the library she would consider it.  Curious minds were always welcome here, and she certainly had enough of that.  He turned his head back to the vials, leaning closer with his hands behind his back to inspect them.