His exhale knocked into the back of his throat. It didn’t just work on humans, the void crystal could sense the potential of magical beasts too.

Emerging from the gray pit, a singular shard formed with a pen-sized diameter that reached about half-his pinky. He scooped up the shard for Gushi and together they examined the piece. Diamond-speared and prismatic, this crystal had a more formulaic appearance to usual fantasy-designed pendants. Unlike the outer layer of blue on Lark’s crystals, Gushi’s had a bluish-silver coating and inside there were bright camera-like flashes.

What could that mean?

Puzzled, he half-turned towards Sphinx to reveal their little ruse when a small splitting crack could be heard. He really did not want to turn back around, but little, innocent Gushi tugged his shirt.

Lark puffed in his cheeks and peered down into the pit. “Oh… Gushi.”

The evidence looked though someone had taken a laser to cleave an orange in half and they fell skin-side; two perfect domes laid side by side. A clean-cut down the center concealed any rough play, but the we-are-so-in-trouble groan escaped him. What are we going to do, now? He looked at Gushi who looked back at him, and at the same time, they both sagged their shoulders.

“Sphinx?” he called over. “The Void thing broke… by itself.”

Sphinx who was touring Nympha around the star-gazing machine, cried out, “It did what?” The two rushed over, perplexed by the sudden splitting.

“Also, this is Gushi’s.” Lark mildly handed the blinking crystal over to them. Nympha swooped it up first. Her glowy-blue pupils squeezed shut as she attempted to study the phenomenon. She held it away from her body, giving it to Sphinx no less than a moment after she went temporarily blind. “Unusual. Could be that the slime has an affinity to light though.”

“That doesn’t seem right,” Sphinx muttered, smacking the pieces together as if they could be glued back.

“Do magical beasts get aptitude tests in Celestia?” asked Lark.

“Normally, no.” She cleaned her face with her paws, rubbing her teddy-bear ears back. “Beasts typically have a clear lineage because they don’t go out their way to cross-breed. In highly unusual cases though, beast tamers will identify their pets affinities if they show unusual skills. One noble house known for doing this are the Gullivans as sometimes their griffins will show affinities for metal, wind, or rarely lightning.”

“I’ve never heard of a Void Crystal breaking though,” she quietly added.

Meanwhile, Lark had propped Gushi back on top of his shoulder and the two looked over the now empty basin. “Hey, it’s empty!”

A loud ‘what’ screeched from both Sphinx’s and Nympha’s mouths. All their faces hovered over the basin. “How could the gem dust disappear too just like that?” Nympha said, her tail swung back and forth faster than a turbine. She sat on the rim with her paws faced forward and sniffed. “Is that…water?”

“You smell water?” Lark interrupted.

“No, though I probably could. You see there…” Her tail twirled down into the side of the basin, sliding down the geometric lines, then came up to smear something wet across Lark’s cheek.

“It’s starting to fill in.”

While waiting for the water to finish running its course, Sphinx interjected, “Well, something had to keep the plants alive here.”

Around the library, there were at least five different species of plants and trees. Some branches infused with the bookshelves and others held up lights like lamps. Only one was near the strange spire and it housed a small, empty birdcage. Whatever lived there must’ve lived a pretty nice life, seeing as its cage was clean and plated with gold and silver. The librarian must’ve cared dearly for it too because there was a large pillow in there (for a bird), which strangely was shaped just like Sphinx’s makeshift cloud chair. Since, coming here though, Lark had tried not to look at it too much because it reminded him that this place was ancient, and surely, the bird was long gone.

Or was it?

He squinted and the open cage door, finally feeling where the stares might’ve been coming from since they arrived. Feeling stronger with his familiar at his side, he said in a low whisper, “Nympha, is something over there?”

She shushed him, impatient to see what would happen next. “It’s done.”

Filled to the brim with very pure water, the geometric lines inside glowed and the light raining down from the chandeliers reflected off the surface and bounced towards the plants in the room. A miraculous light show, Lark would’ve said, if not for the two pair of yellow eyes staring at him from the cage.

He gulped, pretending to be focused on the dancing lights in the room. “H-hey, Nympha you know what’d be so funny?”

She barely listened to him, while nodding at the glyphs inside the basin. “If you’d go check out that cage over there, it’d be like a perfect fit for you.”

Nympha turned to him with a very crossed look on her face and he smiled weakly. “Is something bothering you, little one?”

Lark puckered his lips, nodding shamelessly and laser-focused onto the cage.

She sighed, taking a quick glance at the moving lights, and said, “Maybe it’s a temporary thing and the basin will return un-flood later.” Nympha relaxed and tugged on Lark’s finger. “Go with me.”

Grimacing immediately, his head shook no, but he was being pulled towards the cage anyways by an invisible force like a master guiding a pupil into a dark forbidden forest.

She stopped about halfway between the spire and the densely wooded tree. Long, broad trunks seeped into the wall, making cracks where it liked and in the center, a hole carved out like a willow tree sat the intimidating, empty birdcage. Sure, it was empty inside now, but there were two, yellow beady eyes perched above the cage’s jeweled bauble staring them down.

“Sphinx!” A growl lingered after calling his name. “Who is this?”

The self-claimed guide and protector was back dusting the desk, which faced the other side of them. “Huh? Oh him—Pisces—He’s the Librarian’s spirit familiar.”

The strange flutter in Lark’s stomach returned, when the two keen, circular eyes thinned into crescents. A wisp of silver outlined the creature’s feathered body. “Wel’comes to the Professor’s library.”