The plan was simple: sneak into the library, stay quiet, pretend Rhea was just a very precocious half-elf child with poor fashion sense, and absolutely, under no circumstances, draw attention to ourselves.
It was a bad plan.
"Why do the shelves smell like old socks?" Rhea whispered, wrinkling her nose as we stepped into the musty main hall of the Aldelshire Library. "Is that normal for knowledge storage?"
"Books don't smell like socks," I hissed. "That's... that's parchment and ink and... centuries of dust. Knowledge has character."
Rhea looked unconvinced. "It has athlete's foot."
I elbowed her gently. "We're guests here. Respect the books."
She sniffed dramatically. "I shall try to respect the mold."
To even get in, I had to borrow the ID badge of Marvin, the half-blind record keeper who owed me three favors and still thought my name was Elric. I'd also stuffed Rhea into a hooded cloak two sizes too big and gave her my old glasses for disguise. She looked like a very small, suspicious professor.
"This hood is eating my face," she mumbled, trying to pull it down. "Why must I dress like an enchanted potato?"
"Because," I said, pushing her hand back, "you're technically illegal."
She narrowed her eyes. "Are you saying I'm a crime?"
"Yes. An adorable, incredibly dangerous, and deeply illegal crime."
The library was quieter than usual. Only one old mage was snoring softly at a table in the far corner. Perfect. I guided Rhea to the children's section first, hoping to distract her with picture books and fairy tales. Safe material. Light content. Nothing that would trigger a fireball or summon forgotten gods.
"I found a story about a girl who talks to animals," she said, settling into a beanbag shaped like a cloud. "She marries a talking bear. Is that normal?"
"Surprisingly, yes. In this kingdom, romance is whatever sells."
She flipped through pages with genuine curiosity, occasionally giggling or frowning. I watched from a nearby table, pretending to read an old herbal tome, but mostly admiring how... normal she looked.
Normal was rare with her.
"Elias," she whispered an hour later, tugging on my sleeve. "Can we go to the adult section now?"
"I'm not sure you're ready for books on taxes, Rhea."
She scowled. "Not that kind. Real books. Magic stuff. Spells and war records. Things that smell like... importance."
I hesitated.
Letting her anywhere near active magic tomes was dangerous. Last time she flipped through one of my spell scrolls, it aged the window plants five years. But her eyes were bright—curious, eager, almost... peaceful.
"Alright," I sighed. "One aisle. No glowing, no chanting, no summoning, and if a book talks to you, you don't talk back."
She saluted. "Understood. No book flirtation."
"That is not what I said."
We moved to the restricted wing—restricted not because it was dangerous, but because most people found it incredibly boring. Histories, pre-war treaties, obscure magical theories. Dustier than a dragon's sock drawer.
Rhea ran her fingers along the spines, whispering names. "So many voices… all locked in pages. They're humming."
"They're humming?"
"To me. Not like people. Like... echoes. Some are scared. Some are proud. Some want to be opened."
"That's unsettling."
"That one wants to bite you," she added, pointing at a brown leather volume. "I don't like it."
Noted.
She stopped in front of a particularly large tome, bound in dark gray hide with no visible title. Her hand hovered over it.
"Elias. This one's loud."
I glanced up from a shelf labeled "Pre-War Laws of Magical Arbitration." "Loud how?"
"It's not saying words. It's feeling at me. Like recognition. Like... like it knows me."
I stood beside her. The book didn't glow, or pulse, or scream—thank the gods—but it did vibrate, subtly, like a beast inhaling.
"I think you should back away."
But Rhea ignored me. Her small fingers touched the cover.
FWUMP.
The book snapped open.
Pages flipped themselves, like caught in a storm of invisible hands. Dust exploded outward in a golden cloud, sending us coughing and ducking. The old mage in the corner stirred, snorted, then went back to sleep.
On the center page, black ink rearranged itself.
New words scrawled across the parchment, long and curling like calligraphy:
"The Queen Still Breathes."
My stomach dropped.
Rhea stared, wide-eyed, breath catching in her throat.
"I remember that phrase," she whispered. "From the dream. The voice said it before the throne collapsed."
I snapped the book shut, heart pounding.
"Nope. Absolutely not. We are done. This is how cursed adventurers die in caves. Or explode in public. Or worse—get noticed."
"But Elias—"
"We are leaving, Reva—Rhea. We are walking out, returning Marvin's badge, and pretending this never happened."
She hugged the book.
I blinked. "What are you doing?"
"It wants to come with me."
"It's a book, not a puppy."
"Books are puppies of the mind."
"That sentence gave me a headache."
After a mild standoff—me trying to pry the book from her arms, her ducking behind a shelf and threatening to incinerate the Dewey Decimal System—I compromised.
We copied the strange phrase onto parchment and returned the book to the shelf. Rhea only agreed after whispering "I'll come back for you" to the binding.
The book... shivered.
We walked out quietly. As quietly as two fugitives from literary justice could.
Later that night, while Rhea sat curled in my reading chair, scribbling fairy tale ideas in her sketchbook, I stared at the parchment.
The Queen Still Breathes.
She hadn't used her full power in weeks. Her behavior was improving. She laughed more. She sulked less. She tried hard to be kind. But if this book was reacting to her… if it recognized her...
Then how many others would?
"Elias," Rhea mumbled, not looking up.
"Hm?"
"Will you still like me... if I remember who I was?"
My heart twisted.
"You're not who you were," I said softly. "You're who you are now."
She glanced up, eyes golden in the candlelight.
"And who's that?"
I smiled. "My favorite illegally disguised enchanted potato."
She giggled, snorting. "Worst nickname ever."
"Someday you'll appreciate it."
She fell asleep on the chair before midnight, hugging her sketchbook.
I sat beside her, watching the contract mark on my hand faintly glow. The book's words burned in my mind.
The Queen Still Breathes.
But for now, she was just a girl.
And I would fight the world to keep her that way.
To be continued…