Chapter 13

"Sam, did you find anything in that book?"

"No. Amazing that out of the thousands of books in this repository, this is the only one on otherworldly beings. Hey, librarian!" He walked over to a young woman stood behind a tall desk. "Why is this all you've got on otherworlders?"

"Maybe because they're otherworlders? Have you tried checking in their world?"

"Some repository..." She lifted her gaze and lowered her glasses.

"Tens of thousands of books and scrolls and only one of them is dedicated to this subject? Pitiful."

"Sampson, I will hurt you."

"You must be trying to hide something. What else do you know about them?"

"If you actually read books instead of just looking at the pictures and maybe, I don't know, talk to someone, and I mean like anyone at all, you'd know that any works written about otherworlders, published or otherwise, are immediately destroyed once finished by some unknown force. The only reason that one is still intact is because, get this, it isn't... finished. Gasp! It's a journal."

"So coming here was pointless then?"

"No. You did learn something."

"And what's that?"

"That coming here was pointless." Sampson decided to end the conversation there and depart.

"Jane."

"Yeah?"

"We're going to find the millipede." Jane's face lit up.

"EEEOOOO!"

"Shut up."

As soon as they left the building, they boarded the same dragonfly and flew off to the north east, towards the Noverian kingdom. Again flying at close to Mach 0.5, they got there in almost no time at all. They dismounted the dragonfly and approached the entrance to the kingdom's underbelly.

"Okay, Jane, before we go in, you need to change your clothes. I know you love that plain, white chef dress, never seen you wear anything else, you sleep with it, probably shower with it, you probably even came into this world wearing it-"

"I did!"

"-but we are trying to NOT stand out when we enter this place, you understand me? Stealth." Just then, her tunic and hat transitioned from white to black, perfectly matching the colour of her skin.

"How's this?" Sampson took a second.

"Yeh... better. Just keep your head down and your mouth as tightly sealed as possible and we should be able to get through this place without attracting trouble. Remember, this is a crime-ridden world."

"Gotcha gotcha gotcha. Lets just go already."

"Okay."

Upon seeing the foreign landscape, Jane was blown away. "Woah! Look at this place! ThOsE tUNnElS ArE AmmmAAz-" Before she could finish marvelling at the place, Sampson quickly covered her mouth and pulled her back outside.

"What are you doing?"

"Can't I-"

"No! You can't. You can't be excited, you can't cheer, you can't breathe! You're existing way too loudly for this place! Just shush and follow me!"

"Fiiiiine."

"Thank you." Just as they were about to re-enter, Ezarin emerged. As they locked gazes, several things happened. Ezarin's eyes widened, Sampson's narrowed and a huge grin emerged on Jane's face. Ezarin immediately, almost reflexively, began to flee right back into the Underbelly.

"THERE IT IS! THERE IT IS! WAIT! I WISH TO LEARN FROM YOU!" As they pursued her, Sampson found that the millipoid was much faster than he had expected. So much so that it wasn't long before she was completely out of his range and sight.

"I see..." he said, finally ceasing pursuit.

"Damn that hunter...! My claws to his eyes...!" As Ezarin continued to curse and frantically search the area, a silhouetted figured manifested itself from her shadow. She looked down and her heart almost stopped. About a metre away from her face was a fanged, jet-black face grinning back at her. Before she could jump away and scurry off, she found herself unable to move.

"Wait! I wish to learn from you!"

"W-w-what in the M-Maker's name are you?!"

"I'm an ebalusp, and you're the creature from my dreams!"

"Get away from me!"

"Only if you promise to teach me."

"Teach you what?!"

"Teach me how to do the things you did to your pursuer's sister, Queen Iva."

"W-what...?"

"Yes, I wish to learn at the feet of the master." Ezarin was somewhat taken aback.

What seemed to her to be a situation leading to the swift end of her life quickly turned into a plea for mentorship. She stared back at Jane for a moment more, still being made to feel uncomfortable by the piercing, red-eyed gaze. "Fine... I shall... teach you," she mumbled, reluctantly.

"YEESSSSS!" She emerged fully from Ezarin's shadow and hopped onto her back, enabling her to move again. "Where should we go, master?"

"Away."

"Huh?"

"From me."

"But I wish to learn from you."

Ezarin, still taken aback by it all, somewhat returned to her senses. "Away from the hunter."

"Hunter? You mean Sammy?"

"Sammy?"

"Sampson."

"Yes, that... that one."

"Okay." Ezarin found herself shrouded in some sort of black mist... or vapour. "Only I can see you now, Master."

"What do you mean?"

"I have shrouded us both so we may now walk amongst the masses, right before prying eyes without being pried."

"I see... wonderful." Ezarin scurried out of the necropolis with Jane still relaxing on her back. Once they were out, Jane's tunic and hat transitioned back to white, but the shroud remained active.

"Where are we headed, master?" No response. "Your cave is perhaps not save if you've had to flee from it." Ezarin stopped. "Oh, I read Jane's mi-... oh wait I'm Jane! I meant I read Sammy's mind and saw him firing arrows at you." Ezarin wondered what she had gotten herself into then carried on. ~She's real... she's real! She's super duper real and she's going to teach me!~ Jane lightly traced round the top of Ezarin's head, making her shudder and thrash her off.

"What was that?!"

"Sorry, master! I just couldn't help myself!" Ezarin then proceeded to scurry off ahead, leaving Jane behind, much to her dismay. After much scurrying, she eventually reached her cave.

Instead of remaining in the upper lounge-like area she usually stayed in she travelled further down through a tunnel into what appeared to be a second lounge. Unlike the upper lounge, this one was crawling with millipedes. She scurried past them without looking or trampling any of them, as though they had some sort of hive mind and knew when and where to shift along the ground to not get trampled.

She took out the new device that Aljilani had given her and set it down by the entrance. ~Excellent. Now, I'm alone again and no one can find or reach me. Not even that... hunter. Heheheheheheh...~

"Great! Now can you teach me, master?" Ezarin whipped her head around to find the same slender black creature, dressed in a white chef's tunic and hat grinning widely back at her. Who in the Makers are you and what do you want with me?!"

"I told you master, my na-"

"I'm not your-" She pondered for a moment then began to smirk sinisterly. "Alright... I shall teach you..."

"YAY!"

"First lesson..." She very slowly circled around Jane as she spoke. "You must first... understand."

"Understand what, Master?"

"Understand... that you... are... BANISHED!" With the completion of the eleven layers of circles Ezarin was carving into the ground as she talked, Jane vanished. "Eheh... heh heh heh heh heh HEHAHAHA! Finally!" ~What in the Maker's name was that creature...?~