Santi pressed his hands against his ears to muffle the sound of the muted screams that escaped from deep inside the bookworm.

"Any chance you'd spit him back out?" he asked, wincing. "I'm having second thoughts."

The bookworm shook its head. It curled up on itself to digest, and the noises soon stopped.

Santi knew that nightmares about this night were unavoidable. He only prayed that the screams wouldn't haunt him for the rest of his life. He was the Keeper of Knowledge. Guardian of History. Protector of this island's accumulated wealth of magic. In the right hands, the Library's books would usher mankind into a new age of enlightenment. In the wrong hands, the power brought death and destruction.

The thought of this power falling into the hands of the Banished Ones made Santi shiver with fear. He would fight to the death to stop history from repeating itself. And so, even though he wanted nothing more than to curl up with a book and forget the rest of the world existed, he forced himself to make a phone call.

It took Arctos a few hours to arrive at the Library, which gave Santi enough time to stop being a trembling mess.

The councilman's identity was, as usual, bathed in shadow, but Santi didn't need to see his face to tell that even Arctos was surprised by the gigantic bookworm sprawled around the office.

Arctos stepped around the sluggish worm and conjured a chair to sit on. "Tell me everything again. From the beginning."

Santi's brain protested, but his mouth obeyed. He told Arctos about the missing books, about George's elaborate plot to shamelessly pilfer knowledge from the Library. They shared a cold fear when Santi mentioned the Banished Ones.

Once the librarian finished, Arctos said quietly, "George came with the highest recommendations."

"From who?" Santi asked.

The councilman shook his head. "I would prefer not to say until I have investigated this matter thoroughly."

Santi nodded. The implication of a council member recommending a member of the Banished Ones was hard to consider. He trusted that Arctos would get to the bottom of it.

"I was going to write you a letter requesting more assistants," Santi said. "But now I'm not requesting anymore. I demand more assistants. I can't do this alone."

"You've fulfilled your role admirably so far." Arctos pointed out with a note of teasing in his voice.

Santi gave him a flat stare.

Arctos cleared his throat. When he spoke again, it was businesslike. "Seeing the poor choices that the Vox Populi has been making lately, it is time to ask if you have any recommendations. Do you have anyone who you would like to recruit as an assistant?"

Santi gave the question a moment of thought before nodding. He gestured to their feet. "Arctos, meet Tony the Bookworm."

Author's Note

This story started off as a bout of procrastination. That grew. And grew. And grew. In 10 days, it was its own fully fledged short story. In 3 months, it slowly made its way through the editing process and ended up on fictionpress. I don't know what I'm going to do with it from here.

A big thanks to my reviewers, especially Douglas and Liz who helped me improve the manuscript. My editing skills are comparable to that of a sieve trying to hold water. But I try. Thanks also to all the readers who followed along - I would love to know your thoughts too!

But at the very least, as always, I hope you all enjoyed reading Librarian as much as I enjoyed writing it because there's no such thing as time refunds. ;)

Augie

15/06/2014 - special thanks to TRasa for his comb through.

20/06/2014 - and a shout out to R Ficst for doing another round. :)