The Library Meeting

Simon drudged through the dark streets of early morning Alexandra. The snow crunched by his feet as his footsteps were illuminated by the street lamps.

It did not take long until he finally made it to where he wanted to go: the grand Alexandra Library. The building was one of the most prominent attractions of the city.

And why wouldn't it be? The building itself was several stories tall, made of white marble and granite.

The Library was made to look like a temple, with pillars and inscriptions in dead languages carved by the top that meant something about learning.

Most of all, it was highly profitable both as a tourist hot spot, and as a museum, so much so that to enter it, you would have to pay for a ticket, and the fines for not returning books were excessive. 

Simon walked up the granite steps of the Library, headed towards the right side of the entrance where the receptionist's desk was located behind a glass pane.

Inside, he could see one of the workers, some middle-aged man, swaddled with a coat and a blanket, enjoying a nice cup of tea.

With a sigh, Simon knocked on the glass pane, showing off a nummum.

"Oh? At this late an hour? Ah, it's you; come right in, Peter."

He opened up a slot to accept the nummun in before turning over nine decels. The standard ticket price was one decel, and since ten decels made a nummun, it was a fair change.

"Here you go." And he gave Simon a ticket to which he nodded.

"Keep the wife happy, Jonathan." He tipped his hat to the guard, who laughed. 

"Happy wife, happy life."

To that, Simon grinned and walked into the entrance, placing the ticket, a small metal card with strange red sigils on it in the shape of an eye, into a small card slot.

Instantly, the door opened up just enough for him to pass into the Library.

As always, it was grand. The floors were made of marble and carefully carpeted with a fur-like substance to muffle the sound of footsteps and provide comfort.

Polished bookshelves filled with books of all sorts line up the sides of the buildings as everything was illuminated by bright chandeliers.

Usually in the morning it was crowded by people, many of them getting the deluxe pass which were fine decels. This allowed them private rooms to read in.

Before, there was a problem with the homeless using their money to try and get to sleep here, but they've been driven out by raising the prices.

Simon looked up at the ceiling, finding the symbol of an eye inside a mouth—the symbol of Epithet, the organization that owned the Library.

They upheld themselves as champions of knowledge. Anyone can learn, as long as they have the money for it.

It was just good business. If only there were a way to sneak into the Library. However, Simon had not found one, yet that required more effort and money than just walking up the front and paying for a ticket.

So here he was now, walking upstairs to find the section on cipher decoding before finding a few ancient ones about older techniques.

He grabbed them, sat down on one of the tables, and began to read, with the documents on another page. However, halfway through, a familiar voice echoed behind him.

"Oh? I was just beginning to miss you~." The carpet muffled the sound of high heels as a beautiful, well-endowed, white-haired woman wearing a tight suit sat down in front of Simon.

"Welcome back, Peter. What are you doing here?"

This was Aurora, a private detective that Simon had befriended over the course of her stay in Alexandra. 

Initially, she was a police detective back in the capital city of Pax Sanctorum. However, her superiors decided to have her hang her badge and discharge her.

But that won't ever stop a woman with a cause and desire for some justice. However, she chose to set up shop in a hell hole like this, which should say something about her psyche.

"Reading obviously, what about you? I see you have your nose in other people's businesses and not one in a book."

Aurora smirked, placing her chin on her hand. "I was just done reading, actually, and meeting with some informants."

She leaned in a little closer. "Especially the one right in front of me~ I'll make it worth your time."

The detective slid a nummun to Simon. "Tell me Simon, what do you know of the Imperium Sanguinus?"

Simon gently took the nummun. "You must know that they arrived a few days ago and that they immediately strong-armed most of the gangs here, right?"

Aurora nodded. "A strange turn of events, isn't it? Without any resistance too, but I did not detect them using any Magick at all, or at least any registered Magick. Anything else?"

"I saw big old Franklin talk about them while heading to the Clocktower a few hours ago. That's probably one of the places they head to from time to time."

He made a mental note of this in his head. He was manipulating Aurora also to be someone to watch Camila for him from other angles.

"Ah, I was looking for something like that. You're ever so reliable. Perhaps you should become my understudy, Peter~."

She gave him a sweet smile, one he knew that she trapped many men with. But he won't follow in their footsteps.

"I humbly decline. I rather like where I am now. Free and undisturbed."

"You mean homeless and…" 

Aurora took a quick look at the book he was reading.

"Perusing ciphers?"

"Yes, so that nosy little gumshoes won't know what I'm writing about."

"I could always just grab my own decoder and see what you're up to."

Simon looked up from his book and gave Aurora a small smile. "You can certainly try."

"Hah~ is that a challenge? You're on then…" Aurora stood up.

"Sadly. I'm going to have to postpone that challenge for other work… goodbye and thank you, Peter."

She waved him off as he nodded. "Goodbye to you too, Aurora."

And with that, she walked out of the Library, smiling slyly.