The Redo of a Novel's Villain: Moira

32 - Winter Showcase III

Elijah ran down the hall with quickened breaths. After figuring out the trick locating the bombs was a breeze let alone dismantling them. With three down and two more to go, the whole situation seemed to be going smoothly. He entered the library, a bit wary of any students hiding from the crowd or off to enjoy an hour or two of quiet free time. Fortunately, Eelia seemed to smile down on him that day as he didn't come upon any living presence.

He settled somewhere in the centre, took a deep shaky breath, and spread his mana. The familiar vision too complex and shapeless to understand formed in his mind. Even though he could see just fine, it was as though an over-saturated film laid over. And amongst the terrain of aurora-like waves... Elijah felt conflicted.

Confused.

He knitted his brows and frowned. What was going on? Where was it?

Elijah shook his head and scanned the area once more, perusing through the ocean of colour, but as nothing turned up and his mana was stretched thin so did panic and fear. A deep-rooted fear. That of uncertainty. The one thing that scared him the most ever since coming here. Not death, not pain, not demons nor monsters nor man.

Uncertainty.

Because what if? The mere possibility of something outside of his calculations was terrifying. Plot deviation was inevitable, he knew that. The butterfly effect was a thing, and he knew that. But surely... surely this wouldn't have changed? How?

He clenched his fists and let go of the grasp he had on the magical lines overlapping through space. After cutting off the connection everything reverted to normal in a blink of an eye but this time vertigo overtook him as he wheezed. His mind spun as his brain spewed out excuse after excuse.

Is he in the right place?

Did he remember wrong?

Did he need to check more?

He racked his brain, his heart thumped, and he felt cold sweat germinating on his back. Taking a deep breath, Elijah recommenced it again. The view of the swirling colours invaded his senses and he tried so desperately to find anything out of the ordinary. There must be something—a clue at least.

He caught onto something.

It was brief, vanishing quickly but it was there. Like a fish checking out the hook, he could feel the reel bob from the stimulation. And from what he could tell from that brief point of contact, it was up.

Elijah ran forwards. Through the multitudes of bookshelves, seats, and desks. He arrived at the other side of the library where a spiral staircase led to the second floor that was more like an indoor balcony. He booked it up the stairs despite his lungs' harsh protest. Physical fatigue paled in comparison to that of mental, and he was desperate. Arriving upstairs without so much as breaking a sweat 'aside from the creeping disconcert, he surveyed the space around him.

The upstairs library was mainly a place to explore astrology and other such practices; evident by the murals painting the marble floors, large armillary spheres, and astrolabes in the centre directly under a large glass dome. He peered upwards through the vault displaying the oddly clear night sky for winter. Elijah waded through the pile of books and scrolls strewn on the ground and cautiously walked past the machines.

There was something odd about the place. Nothing dangerous, but an odd sense of déja vu that he can't quite put his finger on.

Footsteps echoed through the chamber as he searched through the layers of mana to no avail, and as the seconds ticked by Elijah's impatience began to thin. Perhaps he did remember it wrong, or maybe sensed lingering remnants of the bomb, or even possibly a demon. Either way, the chances of the bomb being in the library began to become less and less likely to him. So what was he doing here, wasting time? He should be dismantling the remaining ones, not letting paranoia eat at him.