The next day we went through what had become our morning routine at the tavern before separating. Stone went toward the outer part of the city, Hrig, Kyren, and I headed through the inner gates before separating. It was a gloomy day, the clouds were pregnant with rain and the sun had only managed brief peeks down on the world below. I didn’t particularly mind rain, I liked the sound it made bouncing off me.

We made it into the library just as the first few telltale tings started ringing out from my helmet. The outside of the building was relatively nondescript, stuffed between the magistrate’s office and a bank. Inside it was gloomy, with only candles lighting the building with any light the windows would’ve brought in significantly diminished by the storm outside. It was surprisingly organized, and clean, with only the design of the building itself and the smell of rotting books showing its age. Hrig and I were among the only four people inside, with one man studying, and another standing at a desk at the end of the room, writing something in a ledger.

I began approaching the man at the end of the room, assuming he was a librarian, and it was at that moment I became distinctly aware of how loud a suit of armor is in a large echoey room. As I approached him, I watched the man slowly put down his quill, close his ledger, raise an eyebrow, and scowl. By the time I reached him I understood, even with my limited personal experience with body language, that I was perhaps the most disdained piece of scum he had ever had the displeasure of seeing.

“Ser, I’m afraid you’ll find no monster to slay here, no giant rats, or goblins to run through, and certainly no snipes to hunt.”

Hrig approached the desk as well, much more silently than I had. “Are you sure?” she asked with a cheeky smile, ”I’ve read books full of such things.”

“I apologize for my manner of dress. I have made an oath to Dur not to be seen outside of my armor, but I still had some research I needed to do here. I apologize for the noise I’m making, and will in all honesty, likely continue to make.”

The man sighed and I saw a bit of his contempt for me leave his expression. “I must be being tested.” He pulled an amulet out of the folds of his robe and showed it to me. It was a golden coin engraved with a scale, the symbol of Dur.

“That explains why this place is so well maintained.”

The man managed to turn his scowl into something approximating a smile. “Well, the place isn’t too busy today, honestly it’s not too busy anyday. Is there something I can help you find?”

I let Pebble’s researching instincts take over. “I need a reference on the lives of the royalty, any older religious texts with information on rituals that honor all gods, and whatever you have on dragons and their extinction. History, preferably not just tales of knights slaying them.”

“I, however, will take any books about knights slaying them.”

“Hmm, well I could guide you to some books, but that’s a rather eclectic mix and while I understand your oath I’d prefer not to listen to you clanging all throughout the room.” He thought for a moment. “How about you sit down and I’ll bring you the books I think would be most helpful.”

“I’d appreciate that Ser, thank you.”

The man nodded and started to weave his way through the shelves. I sat at the nearest desk and waited for him. Hrig returned first, holding a book titled, ‘The Duke’s Hammer’. She put her feet up and began flipping through it.

Shortly after that the librarian came pushing a small cart loaded with books. He put them into two separate piles, with reference materials at the top.

“Unfortunately we don’t have much in regards to church ritual, much of that is oral tradition, but I did find this rather old prayer book.” He placed it in a third position in front of me. “Let me know if you need anything else.”

I nodded my head. “Thank you Ser, you’ve been very accommodating.”

He nodded and thumbed his pendant. “Anything in the name of Dur.”

After that I began poring through all of the material in front of me. I started with the prayerbook. It included many prayers I was familiar with through my meals and several I’d never even heard of, including a section for minor mantras to lesser gods. Toward the middle however I found something interesting. A short prayer for protection.

May all the gods

Lesser and greater

Protect me from one

Who hears no prayer

Keep his whims at bay

And his flames that slay

From all of those

He sees as his prey

The content of the prayer seemed to indicate something draconic, but it was clear that the prayer referred to only a single entity rather than dragonkind as a whole. Aside from that the prayer book was a bust, so I moved on to the historical books on dragons.

One was simply a list of dragons killed, who killed them, and what kingdom they hailed from. I saw no indication of Aurum’s name, though there were a few that were close. Another was a more general history of dragon slaying and it was there that I found that while the earliest dragon slayings had been commissioned by kingdoms sick of unruly dragons pillaging livestock or destroying villages, the later ones had been issued by the temples. Priests of every god began offering payments to any individual who could kill a dragon, regardless of whether or not they’d been disturbing anyone. Shortly after that dragons went to ground, taking the form of humans, elves, and other races in order to blend in and survive, but eventually even those were found and killed by dedicated hunters until there were none left. I wondered if perhaps Aurum was one dragon that managed to hide all this time, but based on what I’d seen in the shipwreck I had a feeling he wasn’t much for hiding.

Finally I moved on to the books on Caedun’s royal line. There were many ups and downs throughout its history. Recognized bastards, usurpations, cousins fighting over claims, it was quite a spicy bit of history, but most of it was superfluous to what I was looking for. Eventually I found it, a small line in one book detailing how a queen, pregnant with the king’s child, had been the only survivor of a shipwreck. That had occurred more than eleven hundred years ago.

So, the current king was descended from that queen. Due to the incestous nature of royal marriages, he was as full blooded as any other king at this point, but I wondered how cautious I would need to be of him. If he was a descendant of that dragon I’d seen in that vision, it was a concern, but that had also occurred more than a thousand years ago. There were likely many people descended from dragons, who may not even be aware of what lies within their bloodline.

I was snapped from my study by Hrig shaking my arm. I was surprised as she’d seemed completely absorbed by ‘The Duke’s Hammer’, even seeming to be blushing at times. She gestured around the room with her eyes and at that moment I noticed that the library was completely full. There were more than a dozen dwarves all around us, some leafing through books and others looking directly at us. All of them had weapons at their sides.

I calmly closed the book in front of me and placed all of them in front of me back onto the cart the librarian had used. I then simply sat, and waited with Hrig, not making any sudden moves. Another dwarf entered the room then and though he was wearing less armor I recognized him immediately. It was Rock, the man I’d taken my shield from.

He sat down in front of me, a wide smile on his face.

“Hello bastard,” he said with a sneer on his lips.

“Hello, loser,” I responded, wishing I could return his expression.

“I’ve come for my shield. Give it to me and I’ll spare your friend here.”

I noticed then that the men above us began drawing crossbows, while the men near us drew their weapons.

“Even if you spare her, I don’t think she’d grant you the same kindness.”

“You and her may be strong in a one on one fight, but come now, you’re outnumbered.”

Hrig and I laughed, “We’re actually more used to fighting outnumbered,” I said.

“Fine, be that way.” Rock snapped his fingers.

Hrig dove under the table as a half dozen bolts shot down at us. I simply turned my back toward the majority of shooters, blocking the bolts with my shield. Rock’s men attacked me while I was sitting. I threw the chair back and rolled under their blows before they could strike then I threw myself back up. I considered drawing my sword, but I was concerned about knocking over the bookshelves.

Hrig launched herself out from under the table and into Rock’s chair, pummeling him with blows that quickly wiped the smile off his face. She only ceased her attack when two of his men attacked her with swords forcing her back.

The men I was engaging began attacking in earnest. I caught one’s shortsword before it gained momentum and threw a swift jab for his face, knocking him out cold. I then used the hilt of the shortsword to club the shoulder of the other dwarf forcing him to drop the mace he was holding. From there I dropped my elbow like a hammer into the top of his skull.

It was then that a bookshelf fell on top of me. I heard the librarian cry out as it slammed into me, driving me to my knees. I then felt a hammer slam into the shield on my back through several books. I was tempted to simply throw the shelf back toward the dwarf with the hammer, but I didn’t want to create a domino effect and so instead I rolled forward and let the shelf fall the rest of the way, cringing as I heard a page rip when I rolled over one of the books.

Hrig was finishing up with the two dwarves who had engaged her, knocking one out with the copy of ‘The Duke’s Hammer’ I realized she was still holding. From there she leapt onto the ledge of the second level, pulling herself up just as two more crossbow bolts whizzed by her. The crossbowman nearest to her had his nose broken with the palm of her hand and the further one went to fire at her again, but didn’t have time to as Hrig threw his companion at him, causing them both to roll across the floor and hit a wall of books which promptly rained its contents down onto them.

I got around the bookshelf and the dwarf with the hammer took a defensive stance, I decided then to be cheeky and pulled out my shield. He tried to get underneath it with a low swipe, but I dropped it, feeling it take a portion of his energy. He tried a few more times to get around it, but I blocked him every time and could feel his blows growing lighter. Finally I simply fell onto him, shield first, knocking him straight onto the ground. He didn’t get up.

By the time I was done Hrig had taken down all of the men on the second level. I looked around for Rock and found him behind me, at the librarian’s desk, holding a crossbow aimed at me. He went to pull the trigger, but at just that moment the librarian popped out from behind his desk and slammed a massive book into Rock’s head, knocking him flat onto the ground.

The librarian looked at me. “Brigands! In my library! The absolute nerve!”

“I’m uh, sorry about the mess. I’ll help you clean up.”

“Don’t bother, I’m going to get the city guard, they’ll clear this filth out of here. Besides, I don’t trust anyone else with putting books in their proper places.”

“In that case, do you mind if we leave? I’d prefer not to have to deal with the guard.”

“Yes, that’s probably wise.”

“I will be taking this one though,” I said, lifting Rock and tucking him under my arm.

“Any chance I can keep this?” asked Hrig holding up her now thoroughly dented book.

“ ‘The Duke’s Hammer’?” he laughed, “Go ahead, that romance was last season's great hit, I’m sure someone else will donate a copy soon now that ladies are moving on to ‘The Barbarian’s Sword.”

She nodded her thanks and we walked out of the library with our prizes in tow.

…

We moved quickly, not wanting to draw too much attention to ourselves, and we quickly found an alley we could tuck into. Hrig poured some water on Rock’s head and I gave him an open handed slap, waking him up.

“Wha-,” his eyes were foggy, but as soon as I came into focus they narrowed and he spat in my faceplate. I calmly ripped a piece of his tunic and used that to clean myself.

“How did you find us?” I asked.

“It wasn’t hard, you left an easy trail to follow.”

“Maybe not for someone with a brain, but you? I’m certain you had help.”

“Talen told me where to find you, where you were headed.”

“Talen!? He’s here?” asked Hrig.

“No, he told me in Cirros. I’ve been on your trail for some time.”

“Well that’s a relief at least.” I said to Hrig. “Well, I would appreciate it if you could stop following me and maybe get on with your life.”

“Only if you give me the shield. And also die.”

I sighed. “I like the shield. Though honestly if you’d just asked to begin with I probably would’ve given it to you. Now I’m fairly certain even if I do give it to you, you’ll still try to kill me.”

“Liar, you’d never have given it up.”

“He really would have,” said Hrig. “He doesn’t really have the best understanding of the value of things.”

“Listen, I could just kill you, but how about instead you just promise me you'll take a little break from trying to kill me.”

“A break?”

“Yeah, a break. How about in, oh, six months we meet here. From there we can arrange a time and a place. You can fight me, or I’ll even fight a champion of your choice. Whoever wins gets the shield.”

Rock frowned, “I’d prefer to catch you unaware.”

“Well, I could just kill you now if you’d prefer.”

“What’s keeping me from just gathering more men and attacking you?”

“Nothing I suppose. Though the men you gathered… not so impressive. I think within six months you may have better luck either training yourself or finding a suitable champion.”

Rock thought on it for a minute. “Deal.”

I held out my hand and he shook it, from there Hrig and I left the concussed dwarf to figure the rest of it out himself.

“Was that a good idea?” asked Hrig.

“Not at all, but I’d prefer not to kill anyone while we’re in the city. Besides, I just don't see him as much of a threat, but if he does bring a legitimate champion for me to fight, that could be interesting.”

Hrig chuckled. “I’m starting to rub off on you, I see.”

“Yep, you’re a terrible influence I’m afraid.”