The Demon Queen Wants To Live.

"You really just put your hands on her stuff? You really are stupid, Lena."

Ren's voice carried. It was not its volume so much as it was impossible to ignore. The Sigil on her arm blazed, and the air shimmered with heat.

Lena had not moved. Her two companions had, however. One of them had taken half a step back. The other was looking trying very hard to appear taller than she was. She was currently standing on the tips of her toes. "Stay out of this, Ren." Lena's voice was sharp. "This has nothing to do with you. Mind your own business for once."

"You grabbed my friend’s bag and you threatened her. I'd say it is every bit my goddamned business."

Friend? I had not given her that privilege. I almost pointed this out. Lena spoke first. "She's sitting at our table."

"Your table?" Ren laughed. "Don't see your name anywhere here. You've got a big head for someone who barely even made Sigil. Claiming the furniture now are ya?"

That was likely the wrong thing to say, even I knew that. I could see it in the way Lena's jaw set and in the flare of blue across her Sigil. Lightning crackled along her forearms, dancing between her fingers. The dining hall had gone still around us.

Ren had not defused whatever this was. She had poured oil on it, and then lit the match. I had known many generals with the same talent. Lena's mark pulsed and the air around her hands crackled.

"Fine." Ren's voice dropped. "Let's do a ranking match then. You and me. Tomorrow, in the yard. Actually, scratch that. Let’s do it in the Arena." She cracked her knuckles. "What do you say? If I win, I get your slot. You win, I’ll shut the hell up. Come on, what's the matter? If you're really such hot stuff, it should be easy, right?"

Lena went still. A ranking match. The girl had put weight on those two words. I did not yet know what it meant, but these girl seemed to think it important.

Lena's mark dimmed. "Watch your back, half-breed." The words were aimed at me, even thoughts she was looking at Ren. Lena rose from the bench, and her two companions followed. They moved to the first table without so much as looking back.

The dining hall slowly resumed its noise, and this time, many people were looking at Ren instead of me. Ren dropped onto the bench next to me. She was still breathing a little fast. She looked at me sideways, as if waiting for something. Gratitude, perhaps. Or praise. "What business was that of yours?" I said instead.

Ren blinked. "What?"

"I did not ask for your interference. I was handling it."

"Handling it? All you were doing was eating!"

"Yes. I was handling it by eating."

Ren stared at me. Then she shrugged. "Whatever. Lena's always pissed me off. Walks around like the Divine’s gift to Arianeth just because her daddy is the Marquis. I thought I told you not to sit here?" She paused, as if waiting for an answer. “Well, whatever. I guess you did good. It was funny to see her face do that at the end."

I did not tell her I had simply forgotten her warning about the table. There was no need to diminish whatever image she had constructed. The moment the girl had settled, my thoughts went elsewhere. To the place they had been circling for some time. I turned to Ren. “Lead me back to the measuring hall."

Ren tilted her head. "The measuring hall? Why the hell do you wanna go there? The broken Arbiter's being hauled away piece by piece -thanks for that, by the way. They made everyone leave. The whole place is-"

"Where is Ash then? Have you seen her?" I cut her off.

Ren's brow furrowed. Then her eyes widened and she nodded. "Ohhh. Hmm….” She seemed to be thinking. Though, that was an ability I was unsure she possessed. “Last I saw, all the instructors were crowding around her, asking her all kinds of questions. Who the hell knows where she ended up." She shrugged. "She'll be fine, yeah? The Instructors are always annoying when they see someone with potential. And she’s a human so…." She trailed off.

I said nothing. Being accosted by these small men and women would explain her absence. It did not quite justify a retainer being late to attend to their Queen but it would save her a beheading. She would handle herself. I hoped she was alright.

Then I frowned. What, exactly was I to do now? The resonance chamber I had been to was likely useless to me now. Ash was somewhere I could not find, and somewhere I did not trust this girl to lead. Perhaps I should march over to the Archon and demand to see this chamber he mentioned? No…I would do that with Ash. It was a dilemma.

"Girl," I said.

Ren stared at me. "My name is Ren. You know my name, come on."

"Tell me where I might learn more."

Ren stared at me even harder. "More about…what?"

"About everything, of course." I said. “Places like this Academy are known to have facilities like this. I believe you call them ‘libraries’.” The one in my fortress had been called ‘The Black Archive’. Humans did have rather simple names for everything.

Ren's head tilted the other way.. "You mean like…the Athenaeum?"

I had never heard this word. It made me immediately more interested. Now this was a suitable place. "Yes," I said. "Lead me to this ‘Athenaeum’."

Ren looked at the hall around us, then back at me. Something shifted on her face. Oddly, her face brightened. "Alright, can’t say I get the appeal of that stuffy place but whatever," she said, standing up from the bench. "Let's go."

---

The Athenaeum was a building unto itself. It rose from the Academy's northern quarter, its shape carved from what must have been the same pale stone as the upper walls of Koralis. I stared at it from the outside. Then stared at Ren. “What?” She asked.

“This was not part of your ‘tour’.”

The girl shrugged, put her hands behind her head, and started walking. “Yeah, cos it’s lame. It’s just some books.”

Ash. I will forgive you if you spare me the company of this girl. I pulled the satchel closer and followed behind Ren, and stepped through the entrance. It was a pair of arched doors, flanked by large pillars that bore carvings. The carvings were in the shape of what were clearly meant to be dragons of some kind.

Even after centuries of living, I still did not understand the human and elven obsession with Dragons. Hydras had always been markedly better. On that, I and the Beastkin had always been in agreement.

Inside, the space opened upward, and my breath stopped. The central atrium stretched from the ground floor to a glass ceiling so far above that the light filtering through it seemed to arrive from a different sky entirely. Balconies ringed each level, there were at least five of them, and from each balcony, shelves extended inward. Row after row after row, stretching into distances that should not have been possible within these walls. Into distances that were not possible in these walls.

Then, there were the books themselves. They moved. Here and there a volume would lift from its shelf, drift through the air, before settling into a waiting person’s outstretched hand. Lanterns hung in the open air between the balconies, casting warm light downward, and they were not attached to anything at all.

Staircases wound upward along the atrium's walls, and as I watched, one of them shifted. The lower steps remained where they were while the upper flight detached, and reconnected to a different balcony on the floor above. A student walking up it did not break stride. I could not help but suspect the entire reason the steps had moved at all was because of him.

In my time, knowledge had been hoarded. Each race kept its own, guarded it jealously, and killed to protect it. The Dwarves had carved their secrets into vaults of stone that even I had struggled to breach. The Elves had woven theirs into living wood that burned when read by outsiders.

Something stirred in me. Something that had nothing to do with the Cradle or the Requiem. A hunger I recognized, one that had driven me longer than any other. My oldest and my sharpest. I reached for the word adequate, and found it wanting. Why had this fool girl not shown me this place first?! I stepped forward.

"Card first. I don’t recognize you." A woman sat behind a desk near the entrance. She was thin, and spectacled. The woman was currently frowning, and she held out one hand without looking up from the ledger in front of her. Said arm had a Crest, one in the shape of a book made out of black ink.

Ren looked at me. I looked at her. Then, at the woman. "I do not have this card you speak of."

"Then you do not enter."

"Then make one of these cards for me."

The woman looked up. Her gaze moved over me. She was perhaps the only person in this Academy whose gaze didn’t go to my horns at all. Instead, she looked at my uniform, then looked at Ren.

“She’s new?”

Ren nodded. “Yes, only been a few days.”

The woman sighed, reached beneath her desk, produced paper, and slid it across the surface of her desk without commentary. She looked back down again. "Just fill this form out. Your card will be ready in three days."

I took the form. The questions seemed to be carved into the paper itself, all in neat, small lettering. I stared at them, then looked at Ren. “You just answer the questions then give it back to her.” She said, as if she were explaining something to an idiot. She sighed and stepped closer. “Channel a bit of mana or Essence and think of the answer. It’ll write itself out.”

Everything I learned about this Athenaeum just made it sound stranger and stranger. I looked back at the woman. A mark in black ink. A Sovereign and something to do with…books? I looked back at the questions. Most of them were rather simple.

Full Name? I channeled the barest of Essence and thought of my answer. Lysanthia. Just as Ren had said, the words carved themselves on the empty space in front of the question.

Family Name? I channeled Essence again. None. Demons did not have family names. I wondered if that was true for half-demons.

Place of Residence? I paused as I read this. I had lived in one place for the majority of my reign. That place was gone now, and so I did not have an answer. I wrote The Dark Tower anyway. Another name came, one I banished.

I heard a sound from my right. I did not turn, but I was aware of Ren, standing three paces behind me, her head craned to read over my shoulder.

Emergency Contact? I did not understand this question. The words were plain enough, but the concept behind them was foreign. Ren leaned closer. "It means who they should tell if something happens to you," she whispered. "Like if you get hurt or something."

Now I understood what this was, though it did not make the answer come any easier. In every emergency I had ever faced, I had simply resolved the matter myself. A part of me considered writing Ash's name, but why would I? If I were dying, I would not wish for someone to tell Ash. I would simply not die. I glared at the form. I thought the word: Unnecessary. Ren let out another sound, one that was louder than it had been last time.

Reason for Visit. This, at last, was a question worth answering. To acquire all the knowledge contained here.

I looked at Ren. This time she had let out a sound that could only be a groan. Her cheeks were pink, and she was pointedly shaking her head. I ignored her as I moved to slide the form back across the desk.

The librarian picked it up. She read it. Her left eyebrow rose a fraction of an inch and held there for a long time. She read it again, more slowly. "Three days, you’ll get your card in three days. Come back here then." she said, and filed the form without further comment.

I made to move deeper inside the library. Ren scrambled to follow. "Three. Days." The woman did not raise her voice. “You can wait. This place isn’t going anywhere girl.”

Girl?! I considered my options. They were limited. I did not know what I was supposed to do for three entire days. It did not matter that I hadn’t known this place existed an hour ago.

"Hey!" Ren slid in beside me, producing a small wooden card from somewhere in her uniform. She held it up with a flourish. "She's with me, Madam Oris."

The librarian regarded Ren the way one might regard a city where rebels kept appearing. Then she looked at me. "If she damages a single page Ren-”

"She won't! Probably."

The woman sighed. She waved us through. Perhaps this Ren was not entirely useless after all.