-- Violet Seven Days Ago --

"Stupid water." I pulled myself out of the pool, rolling onto solid stone warm from the day's heat.

I begrudgingly stood, leaving the heat behind dripping water. "The whole thing is stupid, and I'm soaked!"

"Arrggggg!!!" I screamed

'Breathe Violet breathe. I was getting angry at nothing, there is no reason to be angry right now. You need to'

"Mam do you need help." My train of thought completely derailed by a random passerby.

"ARRRGGGGGG!!"

"I'll take that as a no."

I gave the man my best glare as he backed away hands up placating. Realizing I was in the wrong and he only offered to help I said. "Sorry. Long day."

The man shrugged. "Happens."

I took off my lab coat in an attempt to not help dry off. "Where am I?" I asked.

"Healer district. An Le Notre."

"Thank you. Now, why the fuck am I here?"

The guy gave me a look that said 'How should I know crazy lady?'

"You know what that doesn't matter. I need to change clothes." I gathered myself. "Thank you for trying to help, I need to figure some things out."

"Hope it works out."

"Me too." I waved goodbye to the man and headed to my guild dripping a trail of water the entire way. By the time I reached the guild, I decided to only ever go to the crystal in a swimsuit, or a wetsuit, never wanting to relive this experience.

Opening the door, I'm greeted by one of the receptionists, I was too caught up in being miserable to look to see which one. "Welcome back. Is it raining?"

"Nope."

"Then congrats on the level up." They said cheerily.

I mumbled thanks and walked to my room. In the midst of changing my phone fell to the ground. "Ah, Fuck. I need to contact everyone."

I stared down at my phone trying to power it on. Only to find the entire thing dead. "ERRRGHGG" I lifted the phone to slam on the bed but caught myself before just plugging it in instead. "Just take a shower that always helps." I left my mobile to charge as I made my way to wash the day away.

I spent a good 20 minutes in the hot shower before finally feeling human again. I practically fell onto my bed, legs hanging off the side. My wet hair was wrapped in a towel, reluctantly I grabbed my phone and turned it on.

It took a minute for the device to start and connect to the network, while it was connecting I saw the date, we had been gone for almost 2 months. "Keepers death."

'No wonder I had 20 new voice-mails and well-meaning texts from my parents. Even before we left I didn't know if I was ready to talk to them again, but seeing their messages gave me a warm feeling. I looked at the last text from my mom: "We miss you. Hope you're doing well."

They had been part of my life for too long for me to cut them out, despite what had happened I still missed them. To the point where I would never respond to their attempts to reach out only sending little updates on what I've been up to. When I became a healer, when I finished training, when I finally made a team again, but right now I felt I should extend an olive branch. I sent a single text to my mother: "I miss you too. I still need time."

The text was barely sent when she responded. "Take all the time you need, we'll be here." It made me want to tear up, I might have if I didn't decide to go through the rest of my texts. The one that stood out was finding the group message from Aster. "What stupid thing are you going to do? And what does he mean not come back?"

I messaged the group trying to get some type of answer, but seeing no one responded to Aster, I didn't get my hopes up. I spent the next couple of hours sending text after text and waiting for some type of answer, nothing no response. I was alone. With nothing else to do, I decided to figure out what was going on. Although, one look outside at how late it got, I decided to wait. "Tomorrow."

The next morning, I found myself standing outside the gate to the mayor's mansion. "Get out here and face me you old dick," I yelled toward the house.

"You torture me and my team for a month and can't fucking face me!" I was making a scene right outside, it was the easiest way for me to see him.

"Coward!" When no response came, I jumped onto the metal barrier violently shaking it. "Face me!!!"

The gate opened. I was stunned that they actually opened the entrance. I hadn't expected that, I was hoping they would send a representative or something. 'This is much better.'

I confidently made my way through the gate, and up to the door, as I approached a butler opened the entrance, he looked familiar but I couldn't quite remember if he was there last time. "This way. The mayor will see you now."

I glared at the man before passing into the mansion, letting him lead the way. When the passage behind me shut, that was when it hit me how bad of an idea this was.

'Why did I think this was a good idea. He did something to Aster why wouldn't he do it to me.' I began to look for an escape route when we made it to the entrance to his office.

"Through here miss Thyme," The manservant said opening the door.

Times up. "Thank you."

I took a step into the mayor's office.

The man was sitting down at a little table with 2 sofas drinking tea. The door wasn't even closed before I laid into him. "WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU DO TO US?"

"I did nothing." He said calmly.

"You torture us for a month, and claim you did nothing?"

"That wasn't me and that was apparently an accident."

That month was a keeper-shitting accident. You're the one who sent us on the damn mission. Do you even know what you put us through?"

"I'm sure I'll find out."

"What's that supposed to mean? You were monitoring us, weren't you? You sick fuck."

"I was not, and it was you and your team's choice to take the quest."

I scoffed at him "Sure right before you try to butter us up as some kind of chosen. Then you immediately try to pit us against each other."

The mayor raised an eyebrow. "I don't recall that."

"You isolated Aster from the group. Then had him removed all while calling him a fool." I pointed out to him.

The man stayed silent drinking his tea calmly his eyes only widening for a moment.

"And where the blight is Aster? What did you do to him?" I demanded.

He looked confused which caught me off guard. That was the first time genuine emotion shine through his calm demeanor. "What do you mean? We only through him outside."

"Then why did he disappear right after leaving?" I asked, now confused and concerned. 'What happened to you Aster?'

"I'm not his keeper, it could be any nefarious purpose or he could have just realized you were better without him." He said vindictively.

"What the fuck was the point of that quest?"

He smiled "To create a hero."

I lunged at him only to find the butler suddenly behind me grabbing my shoulder, attempting to hold me in place. I dragged him a few feet forward before stopping, the man's eyes widening just as surprised as I was. I felt I could break out of the man's grip but I felt it would be good to use this moment to calm down.

"As the conversation has devolved it is time for you to leave. You can find more information at the library." The Mayor said

"We're not done," I said as the butler started to pull me out the door. I was feeling petty and forced him to drag me out.

"Oh, I know. Next time bring your whole team for the next quest."

I was being dragged out refusing to be even a bit helpful, laughing at the idea of coming back.

The man tossed me onto the stone streets right outside the gate .

"Ow." I picked myself up and straighten myself out.

"I think you should look up your info about the quest." He said while closing the gates.

I gave the manservant my best glare. "Why?"

"To understand." The gates closed and the butler faded into the shadows disappearing.

'I need to calm down. I'm going to get lunch, then I'm going home. Then I will figure it out from there.'

I eventually made my way back to my room, having had time to calm down and think. I pulled out my phone smirking.

"A library? Why do I need a library? I have my phone."

Looking down at the screen I began to search for information.

I got a lot of results for video games and stories, but nothing that had anything to do with ours. I tried to cross-reference the specifics of what we went through, and again just nothing that was even remotely relevant. The next couple hours were spent going over every possible combination I could think of and concluded, that there was nothing.

"Why isn't there anything on the network?" Then something else occurred to me. "I've never seen anything on classes either." With a new goal, I resumed searching. This time I was looking for information on classes. I only found basic information on them, a brief summary of them, where they can be found in the city, and the animal associated with them. I even looked up the shadow guild and everything was just stories, nothing definite about it being real or here. Even when I looked up my class there was very limited information.

"The entire network is filtered?" I realized

I looked up the library and found one in the entire city. On their webpage was a tagline, Information for when you're ready.

"What does that mean?" I shrugged "I guess it means I have to go to the library."

I made my way to the library into order to figure out what was going on. It took me almost an hour to reach the building on foot. 'Why didn't I take the bus?'

Entering the library I found a large man wearing a tweed jacket, and a massive shield on his back sitting behind a desk, reading a book. 'Not what I expected.'

The man looked up. "First time at the Library?"

"How'd you know?"

"Door didn't open."

I looked behind the man to the door, which was indeed closed. "How much?"

"First time is 20 coppers this will include a card and tablet, then 5 coppers every other time."

I began to pull out 20 coppers, as it seemed reasonable. "What are they used for?"

"The card will register you to use our library, give you access to the books, and also store the books for you to read?" The man said it like he'd said it a thousand times. He then continued, heading off any question I might have had. "The books can't be removed due to circumstances, so you place the card on the title to store it. Then place the card on this tablet to load the book. The man pulled out a small crystal screen, the size of a normal sheet of paper, and a quarter-inch thick."

"Why isn't it just on the network?"

The man let out a long tired sigh. 'How many times has he been asked this?'

"To prevent damage to new trainees futures, also to prevent rot. If you want to take out any books it will be 5 copper per book."

"Thank you." I handed over the money.

"Now I just need a drop of blood for the card, the tablet is already paired." Might as well, he pulled out a small needle and I dripped a bit of blood. The man grabbed the item from me, then typed something on his computer and handed it back.

"And there." The librarian handed me the devices "Lastly, some books are level restricted, and can only be read at certain levels. Others can only be seen by certain classes, or for other affiliations."

"Say what now?"

"So our long lives can be as interesting as possible for as long as possible. Material is restricted as you grow?"

I started to walk to the now open door behind the man. "This place is weird."

Before passing through I looked back. "I'm looking for something, can you help?"

"In the library, there will be a bunch of terminals, you will be able to use one of those for your search."

"Why can't you just point the way?" I asked annoyed.

"I can't say. Welcome to the library." He said smiling.

I entered into the library floor.

Inside the building, the first thing I noticed was its size. It was impossibly huge, many stories higher than could possibly be here. The building itself was only 4 or 5 stories tall but from here I could see at least 10, and I couldn't see an end to the shelves. The other thing that surprised me was the number of people in here, there were hundreds of people walking up and down the isles and at the scattered tables. There was even a little section near the front with a banner that said: "Welcome to the World."

I ignored that section and found the nearest terminal to begin my search.