Chapter 50: Hand Over the Prisoners
"If you manipulate time like that, it won’t be long before you’re killed by the Time Wraiths."
Viva frowned.
"The what?"
"The Time Wraiths. Think of them as the wardens responsible for ensuring time stays linear."
Viva still looked completely confused, and Percy just huffed in amusement.
"Forget it. You don’t need to know about that. It’s not like you’re planning to manipulate timelines anytime soon."
Ka-Cha!
The sound of the library door opening pulled Viva’s attention away from the conversation, and Viva turned around to see three students entering the library. There were two girls and a boy, and Viva quickly began to smooth down her gown once she saw them! Even if she was wearing an attire she would prefer to never be seen in, Viva still wanted to be presentable!
Two of the students were looking around the library curiously while one of the girls came up to the librarian’s desk and spoke in a calm voice. She had long red hair and blue eyes, and her voice had a pleasant tone to it that would make most people lower their guard around her.
"Hello, are you the librarian?"
Percy smiled at the redhead.
"Yes, I am. How can I help you?"
"My friends and I were looking for certain textbooks for our class. Would it be alright for us to look around for a bit?"
The other two students had already begun moving up the stairs, and they were looking through various books curiously. Percy just closed his eyes and let out a calm sigh to try and relax himself before he turned to Viva and said.
"Rita is downstairs organizing my lab. I’m sure she needs some help."
Viva blinked, and she turned to Percy with a small frown.
"What? You want me to go help her now?"
"Yes, I want you to go now. Just make sure you don’t get in her way while she works."
Viva was obviously not happy about Percy’s command, and Percy could tell that she had a lot to say, but Percy didn’t care about her annoyance, and he just gestured with his chin for her to leave. Viva huffed, and she finally trekked away from the librarian’s desk and headed towards the elevator.
Once Viva was gone, Percy finally turned back to the redhead in front of him and spoke in a perfectly calm voice.
"I don’t know who you think you’re fooling with this illusion, but I don’t appreciate vampire soldiers waltzing into my library pretending to be students. If you do not give me a legitimate reason for your presence here in the next one minute, I will kick you out."
The redheaded girl felt her eyes widen in shock, and she actually took a step back! How in the world did he see through this!? She was sure that her illusion was perfect, so there shouldn’t be any way for the librarian to see through it!
Percy was still waiting patiently for the redhead to say something, and she looked to the side for a moment before the illusion around her body slowly began to bleed away to reveal the Vampire General, Lyra. Lyra was wearing her full uniform, and the aura around her body became a lot more imposing once she appeared! Up on the stairs, both Galen and Tiran also felt their illusions bleeding away, and the three soldiers eyed Percy with hostile gazes.
But Percy still did not give any reaction to this, and he simply said.
"What can I do for you?"
Lyra huffed as she joined her hands behind her back, then she stepped forward and spoke:
"I have reason to believe you are harbouring a pair of fugitives within this library. Two criminals who escaped from a war and ran across time. Do you understand the basics of time travel?"
Lyra narrowed her eyes when Percy still didn’t respond, and she continued.
"Well, if you do not, then all you need to know is that their presence in your time will cause significant damage to the future should they remain here. We have come to bring them back, so hand them over."
"How am I supposed to believe that you are actually telling the truth?"
Lyra frowned.
"Does this mean you actually know who I’m talking about? You have the fugitives here?"
Percy hummed.
"I do."
"Then give them to me. This war is between them and us. It is none of your business-"
Percy raised his hand to stop Lyra in her tracks, and he spoke:
"Like I said: how am I supposed to know that you are actually telling the truth? Right now, they are still unconscious, so I’d rather hold onto them until they wake up. When I question them and confirm your story, I’ll hand them over."
Lyra tightened her hand into a fist!
"If you have any questions, then I’d be more than happy to answer them! Those two are criminals! You have no right to keep them from us!"
"I think we’re done here. You may leave."
Lyra was rapidly losing her patience, and her red eyes flashed with power as she stepped closer and spoke to Percy in a very low voice.
"You do not want to get on my nerves, librarian."
Percy actually smiled at the threat, and Lyra felt a blood vessel pulse in her head when she saw this! Was this librarian making fun of her!?
Up on the stairways, Galen and Tiran were watching the confrontation between Lyra and Percy with curious expressions on their faces. They could both tell that the librarian wasn’t normal. The fact that he saw through Lyra’s illusion so easily made that obvious. But what was even more shocking was the fact that the librarian was so relaxed in the face of Lyra’s anger! There was already an aura of power surrounding Lyra, and she looked like she would burst at any moment! Most mages wouldn’t dare to stand in front of Lyra when she was like this!
’Keep looking.’
Tiran suddenly sent a message to Galen through a mental communication, and Galen nodded as she kept moving through the library. Right now, Galen and Tiran were looking for any traces of the medallion that they had initially come here for.
Lyra’s demand for Percy to release the vampires to her was a legitimate one, but it was mostly a cover to allow the other two to search for any sign of the medallion. If the medallion was really here, then they could retrieve both the medallion and the prisoners at the same time!
Galen traced her hand over the books beside her as she tried to feel for the familiar magic signature of the medallion. There was a faint tingle somewhere in the back of her head that told her that they were close, and Galen did her best to follow that feeling towards an elevator shaft that would take you down below the library.
Viva had used the elevator to go down, so the carrier wasn’t available, and Galen wondered if she had finally found what they were looking for!
’Is the medallion somewhere down there?’
Galen narrowed her eyes, and she took a step back when she saw that the elevator was moving up. Someone was coming out from the basement, and Galen waited patiently to see who it would be. But the moment the elevator appeared in front of Galen, and she saw who was in there, she felt her eyes widen in shock!
"You-Grk!"
A hand lashed out and grabbed Galen by the throat, and Galen choked as she was lifted off her feet! Everyone turned to see what was happening, and Percy frowned when he saw that it was Rita! Rita’s face was twisted into the nastiest scowl he had ever seen, and her beautiful appearance made her seem like an angel of death in that moment!
