This story is part of the Wanderer series.
“What do you know about the legendary mage, Chiyoko?”
The name almost brought Nozomi to a full stop.
“Well, the name has been resurfacing in scholarly circles again, hasn’t it?” the man sitting next to her replied.
She tipped the sandwich away from her and tilted it left and right, pretending to examine it as a guise for why she abruptly stopped her bite.
“There are new stories to tell, aren’t there?”
She could not tell whether or not she saved the situation, as the long hood of her cloak blocked her view of the two men. She could only hope that their uninterrupted conversation signaled a lack of suspicion.
“What new stories?” There was a hint of sarcasm in this man’s voice.
“They say she has finally died.”
“And you believe that nonsense?”
“I… have no reason to doubt it.”
“We are talking about someone who lived five centuries ago!”
Nozomi saw a shadow wave across in front of her, then a light thump on the table to her right. The man must have waved his arm in dismissal.
“It was determined she was alive… They found her daughter, who was still young and supple… and she talked about the mage like it was just yesterday and how she was trying to find her.”
“A child’s nonsense is what I say to that.”
“The high elders at the Castle of Gaia determined this. Out of all people, would you doubt their analysis?”
“The scholars of Gaia have been wrong before.”
“The daughter recognized her mother’s face in the Hall of Ancestors. Without any solicitation.”
Nozomi gripped her sandwich a little tighter, her fingers digging into the loaves. She still regretted her naive actions from all those years ago.
“How do we know she did not mistake it for a mother that looked very similar to the legendary mage?”
Finally swallowing her previous bite, Nozomi took a big bite off the top of her sandwich. She realized she was eating too slow to look like she was not listening. As the conversation developed, she found herself rooting for the skeptic.
“That I do not know. I would have to read further into that. I’m sure the high elders had other context to make such a determination.”
“Bah! Scholars like you are just blindly gobbling up whatever the Gaia elders spit out. Exhibit some skepticism, for heaven’s sake!”
“Sure, maybe I am giving the high elders too much benefit of the doubt, but you cannot ignore how enticing of a story this is to investigate, can you?”
The man did not reply. Nozomi did not hear another word from the two for a few moments; a few seconds; a minute. The loud chatter of the tavern took over her atmosphere once more as she nibbled her food, eagerly waiting to hear the two men speak again.
“No, I have not,” she finally heard the man next to her say. She missed his companion’s question.
“The high elders are still searching for her. Even if she is gone, they still want that library.”
“I would not put it past them.”
“I heard the United Republic is interested in it as well.”
She heard the man puff in disbelief. “Since when did those politicians find interest in libraries?”
“I do not know. They put out a bounty for it.”
“A bounty?”
“Yes.”
“What is this? A hunt for a criminal?”
“Their way of functioning, I suppose.”
“Find it yourselves! is what I say to that.”
“Either way, there are great powers who want to find this library first.”
“Hmph!”
“Or perhaps the two nations are working together to discover it.”
“Perhaps… I still have my doubts about the existence of such a library, but it is very difficult to explain away all the accounts of it.”
“It would be a great library to lose, for certain.”
Nozomi heard the man sigh a long sigh, the table resonating as he circled his ceramic cup against the surface.
“If it exists, yes it would,” he said in a remarkable shift in tone.
“Imagine if you could travel the world… for five centuries! mind you… and collect knowledge and write records about events across the two continents… on an invisible ship… an invisible ship that can fly anywhere without detection.”
“A scholar’s dream, I would agree.”
The two men went silent again. Then, shortly after, she felt the floor rumble as she heard a screech or chairs dragging against hardwood. The table space in front of her lightened up. Turning her head to the side and peeking out the corner of her hood, she saw the two men were gone, their seats vacant.
Quickly finishing up her sandwich, she got up and left as well, musing over the gossip she just heard. There was no immediate cause for concern, she judged. They were missing information she knew herself. However, their conversation showed a growing interest she had to be careful of.
There were other people searching for the same castle as she was. Just not for the same reasons.