Hours and hours had crawled by, and Giselle found her eyes crossing and blurring in the library as she poured over texts, manuscripts, documents, books, and more. Who would've guessed after leaving the demonic imprisonment that had made up the past few years of her life, she would find herself reading until she could barely see straight? It certainly wasn't what she had first imagined she would do. Though, the demons stipulation on not seeing Gild put a swift hold to her first priority.

The sun was setting, and a few librarians had come around with fascinating little lanterns. The lanterns held a small flame that provided a glow much larger than what she expected they would, though the light was soft enough you could look into it without hurting your eyes. She asked how they could leave a flaming lantern at desks piled with dry parchments, and the librarian had given her an odd look and walked away.

“They are magical flames,” Lara explained. “They are entirely enclosed and fed with magic. If the glass breaks and any oxygen or nitrogen gets in, the materials our air is mostly made of, the flame is suffocated and snuffed out. They literally cannot survive outside their enclosure, and pose no risk to all the books. Wonderful, isn't it?”

Giselle had to agree with Lara. She had always used magic for big, grand things, or at least imagined doing so. But someone had invented this little lantern and spell, and probably made tons of money selling it to places that had a fire risk. Which encompassed nearly everything in the world. What an idea.

“Do you know where the library got the lanterns?” she asked Lara.

Lara frowned, “No, we bought them shortly after I started working here. They are still a fairly new idea, and had to be imported from some town along the river. Haetinscrate I think it was called. Wherever that university that focuses on magical items is located, that's where we imported them from. Some hotshot student had invented them, dropped out, and immediately started selling them to any library they could visit. Well worth the investment if you ask me.”

“Absolutely. Do you know how much they cost?”

“I don't, but I know they weren't inexpensive. It was a large discussion, but viewed as a necessary investment. The head librarians bought a few at first and tested them, trying to get the flame to spread. At one point, they even threw the lantern into a pile of oil soaked paper, but it still didn't light it on fire.”

“Absolutely fascinating, I wonder if there is a record of who sold them to the library. I would very much like to find them and talk to them about this.”

Lara tapped the book she was working on. “Shouldn't we work on finishing this first?”

Giselle sighed and turned back to whatever document she was on now. She was just procrastinating and doing anything to avoid reading more dry historical accounts. The long sheaf of paper she had in front of her somehow managed to turn the retelling of demons and Seraphim fighting for eternal dominance into a dry lecture.

She read about how when demons were first discovered, it was postulated there must be an opposite to the demons. This was thousands and thousands of years ago, just before the Great Sundering and the invasion of demonkind into the Mortal Realm. Giselle flipped through the pages, skimming.

She was fairly well versed in what had happened, in fact, she took a special interest in it when she was younger. Who wouldn't want to learn about an epic fight between what seemed to be good and evil as a child? Essentially, the demons waged a massive war, exterminating many of the more developed races until only elves, humans, gnomes, and dwarves were left. This book theorized some small pockets of orcs might exist, but Giselle doubted it.

The Seraphim came from their realm into the Mortal Realm and assisted the last of the mortals in fighting off the demons. Once the war was finished, the Seraphim were so drained by the fight they had to enter a long slumber. To help the mortals in case something should ever return, they forged the Spear of Larnath.

Giselle perked up. The book had actually referenced the spear! And what's this about a deep slumber for the Seraphim? Paladins and clerics drew from the Seraphim for their power, but if the angels were sleeping… She shook her head and made a small note. She would come back to that when she had some free time. Circling back to the Spear, she continued to read.

“No one knows where the Spear is located as of the time of this writing, or where the Seraphim have hidden it. In fact, it has become something of a legend, and many believe it to be either a tale made up by the survivors to placate what was left of the world, or simply a legend that somehow got introduced along the way. It is not unlike the entirely false tale of the Mace of Gnar…”

She broke from the page again, shutting her eyes tightly and rubbing them.

“Find anything useful?” Lara asked. Giselle shook her head.

“Not yet, though this book did actually name the Spear, so that's moving forward. Then it started to go off on a tangent about other weapons that turned out to be fake. Why do historians have to make their books not only dry, but so full of tangents that it becomes even more unreadable and dense?”

“They are probably paid by the word, “ Lara murmured as she browsed another book.

“What?”

“They probably got paid by whoever commissioned the study by the word. So, a longer book meant more money.” Lara shrugged, looking up at the gnome with tired eyes. “You see it in academia a lot.”

“That is ridiculous,” Giselle said, rolling her neck and getting a few satisfactory pops. She turned back to the book and kept skimming until it mentioned the Spear again.

“All that has been left behind for the Spear is a poem, though no one is certain its origin or if it is referencing the Spear itself. It has only been referenced in conjunction with the Spear when told through oral tales, before written history started to truly take place…”

Giselle ran her fingers over the page until she came to the poem.

“Center of the sands, in no one’s lands, when all light has ceased, you will meet the beast.”

“What?” she mumbled. She read the lines over and over again. This was all the book had? After mentioning it, going on little text adventures to indulge itself, this was all it would tell her? Groaning, she pushed back against her chair, letting her head fall back.

“Nothing good in there, I take it?” Lara asked.

“It all led up to some stupid poem! That's the only known information about the Spear, is some damned poem!”

Lara nodded, “Center of the sands, in no one’s lands, when all light has ceased, you will meet the beast.”

“You know it?” Giselle asked.

“Of course,” the librarian shrugged. “We all read that poem. Anyone who wants to know more about the Spear does. We talked about it for days and days trying to deduce what it could possibly mean.”

“And you only thought to tell me about it now?”

“You never asked.”

“Well what did you theorize or deduce about the poem?”

“We never settled on anything specific. It was generally agreed to take the poem more literally than others. So the center of the sand probably references the middle of a vast desert.”

“What's the biggest desert you know of?”

“Kahari Desert.”

“What else did you talk about?” Giselle pushed the book to the side, focusing on the woman.

Lara frowned and looked up, thinking. “No one's land seems obvious, though if the poem is old it could reference anywhere people did not traditionally claim as their own. A desert would make sense, and the Kahari is one of the few that had no documentation of being permanently inhabited. Some nomads call it home, but I wouldn't really call it their desert.”

“When all light had ceased also seems obvious,” she continued. “You would need to be in the right place at the darkest hour. A new moon in the middle of the night, maybe with clouds? But that wouldn't make sense, how would clouds affect anything?”

“And the final part is where we all got stumped,” Lara shrugged, looking back down at Giselle. “You will meet the beast? Does it mean something is guarding the Spear? Is there a test or something? And how would anything survive that many years guarding a single object. It would need to be magical in nature and could be anything.”

“Assuming all of this is true,” Giselle pointed out.

“Assuming it all is true,” Lara agreed. “So what do we do now? Keep reading? It’s getting kind of late, we can always come back tomorrow and read some more.”

“I’m tired of reading. I think we have a reasonable lead, let's try acting on it.”

“What do you mean? All we have is what I told you, and that's loose hypothesis at best, amateur guesswork at its worst.”

“How far is the Kahari Desert from here?”

Lara looked mildly shocked. “At least a few weeks on foot. You can't be thinking that is where the Spear is? That desert has been combed hundreds of times over the past centuries, I think someone would have found it already.”

“Is there any way to go faster?”

“We could hire some wyverns to take us there. That would cut down the trip time considerably, but it's costly.”

Giselle slammed the book shut and stood up, smiling. “Well let's go get some funds in order and get to the Kahari.”

“Giselle,” Lara said, not moving. “You can't be serious. Like I said, people have been over that desert countless times looking for the Spear there. What difference would it make if we went? How are we any different?”

“I have a few tricks up my sleeve,” Giselle said, hopping off the chair and walking towards the exit. “Come on, let's get that wyvern flight arranged.”

Lara huffed and got up from the table, hurrying after the gnome.

“You know, I’ve always wanted to fly on a wyvern,” Giselle said.