2022-04-03 A Late Night Call - Gerhard

Leaving Daring Academy, I shuffle up Castle Road, making my way towards the inn. The city is quiet at this time of night, and I do not see a soul during my walk. As soon as I reach my room at the Three-Headed Dragon, I collapse onto the bed and I am asleep before I even have a chance to think.

It isn't long, though, before someone has grabbed my shoulder, trying to shake me awake.

"Come on Gerhard, get up! If you don't get up teacher is going to give you extra work again... Come on, get up!"

"Erm? Henri? What time is it?"

"It’s the middle of the day idiot, you stayed up all night again reading, I told you it was a bad idea!"

I open my eyes, sitting up from the desk that I have fallen asleep at. The walls around me are filled with books and objects for demonstrating various ruins, and the blackboard ahead of me tells me where I have awoken: "Ruins of the Ancients and their Hidden Mysteries"

"Shit! I'm late for my next class," I exclaim, leaping to my feet. I grab the few pieces of parchment that I was using as a make-shift pillow and stuff them into my satchel. "Do you have notes I can borrow? I don't think I caught any of that."

Henri laughs, pushing me out of my desk and towards the door. "That's a you problem! Come on, we're both going to be late for the next class if you don't hurry up."

I grab the last of my things and start making for the door. Looking back over my shoulder, I ask Henri, "What class do we have next?"

"Conjuration 101: The Basics of Planar Portals" he replies, and we step outside of the classroom.

---

"Henri? Wha.. where are we?" I ask, as we step through the doorway not into the hallways of our academy, but the stacks of an enormous library. Daring Academy has a big library; this is massive, easily two or three times as big, with books and tables as far as I can see.

The Call is now in my hand where before there was only parchment. I look around wildly at the change in setting.

Even though this is a dream, or maybe because it is a dream, Henri replies. "We’re in the library! You know, your favourite place in the whole world?"

Henri no longer looks like the classmate I had all those years ago. Instead, he looks the same as he did just a couple of weeks previous, when I finally found him in Dis. The same, except for one small change: his eyes, previously only laced with silver, are now perfect silver orbs.

I step towards him, hesitant, reminded of what happened the last time I tried to touch him. I reach a hand out, slowly, and place it on his shoulder. He is real, and solid, and here, wherever here is.

"Henri… look at what he has done to you…" I mutter, taking in Henri's new eyes, the smile that never leaves his face. I look at him, and past him, to this library that we find ourselves in. "Where have you taken me? This isn’t a normal library."

"What are you talking about? I’m fine, no one has done anything to me. This is the library where we’ve spent years studying, don’t act like you don’t remember! What has gotten into you?" Henri replies, looking at me. His pupil-less eyes make it hard to see where he is staring.

At his question, I remember one thing that had gotten into me recently: the silver, from that cane I found on Thuldanin. I check my arm, though, and the runes that were written there have now disappeared.

I look back at Henri. "I’m sorry Henri, I don’t know what’s gotten into me. Maybe I just need to catch up on sleep." I take my hand off his shoulder, making my way towards the stacks. Maybe if I play along a little, try to keep Henri talking, I might learn something that I can use to free him.

I run a finger along the spines of the books. Each and every one of them is blank. I'm about to ask Henri why, when I hear it.

Him.

"Oh I’m sorry to disappoint you dearie but unfortunately I don’t know this many books." The accompanying chuckle sends chills down my spine.

I turn, and in a smooth motion I've nocked an arrow, bringing my bow up only half way. I am met with a sight that I have been dreading since I met him in The Nine Hells those weeks ago.

Mister stands, both hands on Henri's shoulders, a smirk on his face. I move to bring my bow up, to say something, to try to.. bargain, again, but before I can, a shimmer of light passes over both of them. Before my eyes, the two of them split into four: two identical Henri's, and two identical Mister's.

"Where am I? It’s not enough to make me walk the Stairs to find you anymore?" I shout at Mister. I cannot tell them apart; to my eye, they are perfectly identical. Even their smallest of movements are mirrored between the two.

The two Mister's speak in unison. "Haha, we’re in your head dearie! This is a dream, I thought you would have figured that out by now. You have a choice to make."

"What is it?"

"The choice is very simple! You have to pick one of us. I’m sure you’ll figure it out."

At this both Mister's seem to whisper something into the Henri’s ear. A wide joyful smile spreads across Henri’s face, and he grabs Mister's hand. Both pairs start running down opposite stacks in the library: one to the left and one to the right of me.

---

My breathing quickens, and I can feel my pulse in my neck. My palms are damp, and my grip on The Call has loosened. I have to choose? But what if I choose the wrong one? What if I can't save him? What if..

I peer down the stacks to where I can see Henri and Mister running away. I don't have much time.

My breathing is getting quicker, my pulse faster. I don't know what to do. I need to make a decision, but I don't know how.

It's Henri that saves me once again, as he has done countless times before. A word, spoken in the dead of night so many years ago, that pulls me back.


I pause, and take a deep breath, in through my nose and out through my mouth. I feel steadier, now; sturdier. I take another, and another, and I listen.

The Call has led me to Henri before, maybe it will again? I grip my bow and focus. The sound I hear is clean, and clear, and ethereal, and comes from both hallways. This isn't working. I start to breathe quickly again.

If I cannot hear a difference, maybe I can see one. I get up on one of the tables behind me and try to get a better look down the two hallways.

The hallway on the left hand side is filled with as many books as one would expect from a library of this size, but it is filled with other things too: ropes, chains, strips of some kind of ethereal matter, and various forms of ground stakes. Henri and Mister can be seen running away from me.

The hallway on the right hand side has the same number of books, but unlike the left, its miscellaneous objects consist more of javelins, spears, and large crossbow bolts. I can see Henri and Mister, but it looks like... there are three Mister's?

"Better one-on-one," I mutter under my breath, and run to the left side.

---

As soon as I make progress down the corridor, I get the overwhelming urge to loose an arrow. I give in, too exhausted to fight the feeling, and pull back. I only have the one arrow left in my quiver, so I try to make it count, aiming for Mister's back.

I pour all of my will into The Call, and let the arrow fly.

As the arrow leaves my bow, it hums and glows with silvery energy. It flies through the air and hits it target perfectly, right in the middle of Mister's back. A second later, chains made of the same silvery energy erupt from where the arrow hit and begin to wrap around Mister, shooting into the ground to restrain him.

I run forward, catching up to them. Mister is restrained, but he doesn't seem to be fighting the chains that hold him to the ground.

I stand between him and Henri, panting from my run to meet them. "Did I choose correctly?" I ask.

"Haha dearie, there was no right or wrong answer here, I simply needed to know which you would prefer me to do. You can go ahead and wake up now, I’ve completed my upgrade, thank you."

And as he speaks those words, the library vanishes, and I sit bolt upright on my bed back in the Three-Headed Dragon.

---

I pat myself, trying to figure out if this is real or just another part of the dream.

"Oh this is very real dearie"

I stop and look to see Mister sitting at the end of my bed, his hands gently running up and down The Call, the surface of which seems to try and reach out slightly to meet his fingers.

"And don’t worry I won’t take it personally that you tried to shoot me in the back. What’s that saying... 'It’s all water under the bridge', but I must be off now I’m afraid. You might not think it, but I have a very busy schedule. I shall give you a Call soon: I’m still not finished with you just yet."

Mister gives a sly wink and slowly melts away in a cloud of silver mist.

I sit, stunned, waiting for this to be another trick. A moment passes, and another, and Mister does not return.

I leap forward, reaching for The Call, checking where Mister had run his fingers over it. If it was damaged, if it could no longer take me to Henri... I try to send those thoughts from my mind.

The surface seems perfectly normal. It looks the same as it did when I took it home from Daring Academy.

I set it down, gently, resting it against the bed post. I shuffle until I am sat next to it on the bed, my feet on the cold floor of my room.

At this time of night, with the city sleeping, there is nobody to hear as I sob into my hands, my tears carrying me off into a dreamless sleep.