I wasn't in Oule's clinic...
My heart sank at realization. For the first time Vanir had taken me somewhere other than where I wanted to go.
It was a strange feeling, akin to your eldest child rebelling against you for the first time. Granted I didn't have any children but this is what I imagine it would feel like if I did.
I felt bewildered, I felt betrayed but most importantly I felt scared.
The room around me was a gargantuan library. Bookshelves as tall as spires surrounded me in what I could only describe as a mindbending fashion. Some floated, some were anchored to the ground, whole others hovered between both states.
A strong smell of ink and aged parchment filled the room, giving it a warm feeling despite the horror it's otherworldly appearance inspired.
Strangest of all was a wooden swing in the middle of the library on which a beautiful woman in Victorian clothing swung back in forth. The swing hung a little more than twenty meters off the ground but the woman on it didn't seem to mind.
[Where the hell am I?!]
I felt my thoughts scatter and fragment at the scenery around me. Awe, fear, confusion, I didn't know how to feel.
This wasn't power any Nexi I had seen before was capable of.
The woman on the swing smiled at me and when she parted her lips her voiced boomed through the library.
"Welcome!"
Despite her cold eyes, there was an undeniable enthusiasm in her strangely familiar voice.
It was the woman from earlier!
"You seem distressed?" She asked, adjusting the round glasses on her face. "Do I frighten you?"
I didn't answer, scared that a single wrong word might spell my death. That's what made her next words so strange.
"My apologies, I didn't mean to frighten you. It's just we didn't get to finish our conversation from earlier."
[S-She's apologizing?]
I found it strange that a Thorns Agent, one with as much power as her no less, would be apologizing to me.
"N-No, its fine" the words came out in the form of a whisper but somehow she heard them, nodding in approval.
"Great! You know I've been wanting to meet you for a long time."
Her eyes said it was to gut me alive but the enthusiasm in her voice said the complete opposite. I couldn't even begin to understand what was going on in this woman's head.
But experience warned me to be cautious.
"Why is that?"
Her unnerving smile widened.
"My superior has been talking about you a lot recently. A black haired black eyes warrior that fights like its his last day on earth. He doesn't know I'm seeing you right now though."
She made what I assume was supposed to be a friendly gesture telling me to not tell her superior but her sharp gaze made it look more threatening than friendly.
"You're a rather interesting man so I won't tell him I met you today. We wouldn't want your head to fall from your shoulders, now would we?" She let out a laugh akin to the sound of the caw of crows and the ringing of bells.
Despite the immense fear her last statement had caused in me, my curiosity was greater.
"What do you mean I'm an 'interesting man'?"
"Rest well, Denzel Nightingale. I'll be watching you."
She provided no answer to my question, only waving her hand. My vision blurred and Vanir appeared at my side before I finally disappeared.
When I opened my eyes, I found myself in the makeshift tent Gelda and I lived in.
[...]
[...]
[She knows where I live...]