#necrotaus

The man and the fox both looked up, and the man flashed him a smile as he regarded him fondly with a warm amber gaze.

“I’m sorry sir!” The golden fox yipped in its animalistic tongue. “I was going to let you know he was here, but he distracted me with the good scritches.”

“You’re fine. How about you go back to shelving books while I see what he wants?”

“Yes sir!” With a little shake the fox dislodged itself from the hand and rose, soon dashing off between the shelves to return to its duties.

The guest finally stood up fully again. His asymmetrical suit was made of a shimmery golden-brown material with true gold and magenta accents. The odd ensemble included mismatched sleeves and a cape over one shoulder, with his magenta lapels framing his warm auburn brown skin. His hair was brown at the top but faded into a deep sapphire blue at the ends, including a blue veil over his left eye.

“Rhodes! It’s so good to see you,” Necrotaus purred. “What have you been up to?”

“I suppose it has been a while,” Rhodes frowned. He had no idea how long it had been, as his sense of time had never been the best and living most of his life in a realm with an essentially meaningless day-night cycle had only exacerbated it. Months? Years? One of the two. “Well, I started working on a new project recently.”

“Oh, yes? What kind?”

“It’s a book, not surprisingly I suppose. I thought maybe I would do a bit of writing about… us.” Rhodes trailed off a bit, unsure.

“Us?” Nec’s eyebrows rose.

“Keepers, I mean.” 

“Oh.” Nec let his brows fall again unceremoniously. “That us. Well, that sounds like an interesting choice– what exactly are you putting in it?”

Rhodes let his senses wander for a moment, just enough to affirm that there was no one around them within earshot. Even the kitsunes were busy with their duties in other sections, leaving the two of them entirely alone. “I was thinking about making it more like an informational guide, talking about some things to expect in it but the majority talking about all of the past and current keepers, explaining some of our strengths and weaknesses. Sort of, an introduction for a new keeper, a reference that we could give someone so that they could recognize the others and know who to possibly go to for help, you know? I feel bad that I haven’t already written something like it, honestly. I feel like it could have helped quite a few keepers before now get their feet under them.”

“Ah, a compassionate endeavor, as opposed to just record keeping. I daresay it sounds like it could have its uses, but of course putting any of that knowledge to paper would come with plenty of its own dangers as well.” Nec pondered this.

“Of course. I figure I would keep it here in my personal chambers, and I would put all types of seals on it, of course. I wouldn’t be putting anyone’s big secrets in it anyways, other than possibly the flaws we’ve been given. Do you think that would be too much?”

“Hmmm.” After a moment Nec shrugged. “Maybe. I doubt you’d be able to get all the keepers to tell them to you, at least, or to consent to having their information written down at all. Several of them have been working to be all but forgotten by time, after all. Committing their existence to paper works against that– and if you write it, it’s almost inevitable that at some point or another that fact will have consequences.”

“Do you think I’m tempting Fate too much by doing this?” Rhodes frowned seriously. “I don’t want to cause anyone strife. Though, then again, there’s a few of the others that knowing how to cause them strife would be a great boon to a young keeper…”

Nec chuckled. “What I know is that currently it is information that remains unwritten, and as such keeping it in that state goes against who you are as a person. If you’ve set your heart on it, it will likely happen sooner or later, whether anyone wants it or not. Whether it takes one year, a thousand, or ten thousand, the information will be collected and categorized so that it may not be forgotten. It will help some, it will harm others. The same can be said for almost any book in this library, can’t it?”

Rhodes sighed and looked up. Around them stood his life’s work– The Great Library. It was an ever expanding sanctuary of wood and stone, a maze of shelves and railings extending above them to magical chandeliers and marble ceilings that let natural light in without wearing down pages of the books held inside. A carefully crafted and meticulously maintained building with a singular goal, to hopefully hold a copy of all the universe’s knowledge under one roof. Despite being nowhere near finished, Rhodes has stopped even considering regretting the sisyphean nature of his task many years ago. He knew it was impossible, but that fact would never stop him from continuing his work. “I suppose so. Then it’s no different from the questions I’ve found answers for previously. Maybe it’s simply poetry that I should be destined to write it, then; it will be my own contribution to the preservation of all knowledge. That it will help some and harm others is just the nature of our job, a nature it shares with this realm. As long as it will help some, then it will be worth writing.”

Necrotaus nodded. “If you get it written quickly enough, you may even be able to help Eighteen. He has a long way to go still, and I doubt he’s met all his predecessors yet. Have you met him?”

Rhodes pulled himself back down out of the archways and pillars where he could see the kitsunes going about their work shelving books and noting where they needed to expand sections. “I’ve talked to him a handful of times, I believe. He has a black outfit, right?”

“Head to toe.” Nec agreed, smiling fondly. “I remember when I went through my monochrome phase. Black’s a terrible color for it, too- I bet he already has cooling enchantments on that coat of his. Have you heard that he’s using many names? I think he’s had the longest run of all of us so far with that tactic.”

“That rings a bell.” Rhodes hummed to himself. “I think he was calling himself Night when I met him. Or… Murk? Oh dear, I already don’t remember.”

“You can understand why I’ve taken to calling him Eighteen.” Nec let out a laugh.

“I feel bad minimizing him down to just a number, though.” Rhodes frowned. “A number that likely doesn’t even mean anything to him, only to us.”

“Would you rather I refer to him by his most memorable features, then? Black Hat? Black Trenchcoat?”

“Mmm.” Rhodes threw Nec a sour look. “No, those are even more dehumanizing, I think. I guess Eighteen will have to work for now until we get something else out of him.” He sighed. “How’s he doing? Have you talked to him recently?”

“Not personally, no.” Nec shook his head. “I’ve bothered him a few times in the past but recently I’ve just watched him now and then from afar. He almost got in with Semsenir, but they had a falling out at the last moment and now he refuses to work with him from what I’ve seen.”

“That’s unfortunate.” Rhodes rubbed his chin a bit. “Sem would have been a good partner. Any idea why?”

Nec shrugged a bit. “Moral differences, I think? Eighteen isn’t from a human world. I’m not really clear on the details, I haven’t really asked, but I think Sem told him about something he didn’t like, and they’ve slid further apart from there. He’s definitely changed, but not for the better.”

“I’m sorry to hear that. I should do some research on his race… Shoot. I know he told me.” Rhodes furrowed his eyebrows. “He’s not an elf, but they are superficially similar. Kalicrysonth, I think it was called?”

“Sounds interesting. Do you think they’re endemic?” 

“Probably, given that I hadn’t heard much about them before I doubt they have any kind of interstellar travel. I must have something about them around here, though.” Rhodes ran through the sections of the library in his head, wracking his brain to remember where he’d heard the term before. “We shouldn’t assume anything of course, but anything about them should help us understand where he’s from.”

“I think I might just go have a nice long chat with him myself.” Nec smiled to himself. “Maybe even put him through a test. Something that should give me a good read on how he thinks. The data will be invaluable no matter what he decides to do, don’t you agree?”

Rhodes frowned, and took a couple slow steps towards his friend. “Nec…” He gently put his hand on Necrotaus’s arm, looking into his eyes. “Nec, please go easy on him. Please don’t hurt him. He’s already got Scarcist for a mentor, I’m sure that can’t be good for him. Please don’t stress him any more than you have to. He deserves our help, not our hindrance.”

For a moment Nec’s smile disappeared, but he replaced it with a warmer smile as he let out a breath and his shoulders relaxed. He placed his hand on top of Rhodes’s, patting it to assuage his worry. “If you request it, then I’ll go easy on him. I’ll make it something simple. Barely an inconvenience. You know I’d do anything for you.”

Rhodes was almost too aware of Nec’s brilliant amber eye boring into his own brown ones, the weight of his gaze crushing him. He’d seen those eyes, Nec’s eyes, in many different states that flitted through his mind as Nec’s hand trapped his. Wide with wonder, dull with fear, cold with analytic fervor, wild and magenta with lust for power. They were soft now as they looked at him, comfortable, calm in the way that an ocean is calm the evening before dark clouds gather and the wind picks up to create a storm that throws boats with its waves and wrecks them against the rocks. Barely contained. Waiting.

“I know.” Rhodes breathed, barely above a whisper.

Several heartbeats thudded loudly in Rhodes’ ears before he felt Nec gently release his hand.

“I’ll let you know how it goes, then.” Nec responded cheerily. “And you can tell me what you found out. We can have tea over it, and we’ll both be informed. Sound good?”

“Um… Yeah. Tea. Sounds good.” Rhodes pulled his hand away and nodded, subtly taking a step back. “I’ll look forward to it.”

“Great!” Nec beamed. “I’ll see you soon then, Rhodes. Always a pleasure.”

“You too,” Rhodes agreed, wincing internally as he did. If Nec sensed the tinge of hollowness in his tone, though, he made no reaction. Instead, he whirled around in a flash and strode off with purpose. Before he reached the end of the shelves space had twisted and warped around him, enveloping him until he he had disappeared without a trace.

Rhodes let out a sigh of relief. He leaned on the nearest shelf for a minute, letting his heart calm down again. Once he had gathered himself he pushed off and headed to find one of his assistants. He had no idea when Nec would be back, but he had to make use of the time to make their next meeting valuable and efficient. Maybe if he was lucky, he’d even be able to convince Necrotaus to leave the newest keeper alone.