A beautiful and silent Sphinx has watched me

through the shifting gloom

 
ISOLDE'S POV

"Nothing is interesting in any of these books. Let's go to the Sphinx's layer. I reckon she has something on the more interesting races," Akira's loud demand for the tenth time made a few students look towards us.

This brat has no understanding of the concept of patient.

Or libraries.

The librarian made a shushing motion with her finger held up to her lips.

"Can you please try to keep your voice down? This is a library, for Sol's sake,"  the first words I utter to him since the revelation, they came out with more spite than necessary.

In answer to that, he gives me an obnoxious toothy grin.

Great, be ruder to him, Izzy. It's not like his father rules this place or anything.

So to make up for my earlier harsh remarks, I put on a fake smile on my face. 

His face looses its earlier smile at that for some reason.

"I was just saying we should go the advanced section and get some books on a more fascinating races, maybe the demons. Think about it, we'll get better marks," and with that he had me sold.

I really wanted to do well in my first-ever assignment.

"Fine, let's go," I feel like I agreed way too easily. But I wasn't above giving in to the temptation of educational validation.

We get up and give the books we already took to a knowledge-seeking spirit  roaming in the form of an orange fox.

We walk towards the Sphinx's layer at the far end of the library; passing lady Bliss, a smiling sentient female statue with blindfolds.

Goosebumps rise on my hands as we got closer to the slumbering Sphinx. I have never been to this section of the library.

At our footsteps, the sleeping creature woke and immediately began his riddles in a solemn voice,

"The instant my name is spoken
I am broken;
What am I?"

This was one of the reasons I was scared to venture into this area. Her riddles must be answered or we shall not pass.

"Silence," the answer comes from beside me. I snap my head towards Akira.

Silence! That was it; that was the answer.

The ancient one spoke again, "Correct answer, Young Sun-forged. Now a riddle for your companion."

Great! Now I was going to embarrass myself in front of the noble brat.

"Please ask away, ancient one," I say, faking confidence. 

"Foolish men have wasted me,
Average men have spent me,
Wise men have invested me,
Yet all men succumb to me;
What am I?"

What could it be? What is that one thing that's constant in everyone's lives be it a fool or a wise man?

Just when I was about to give up, the answer came to me in the form of long forgetting words from the village's old midwife.

"The answer is time. Man; rich, poor, foolish, wise; all are a slave to the wheels of time, always in motion it is. It and death are the only two things common in everyone's lives," I repeat the words of the old lady with confidence, knowing full well I got the correct answer.

"Wise words, knowledge seeker. You deserve to enter my layer," with that the humongous beast moved its front paw and the door to the advanced section became visible.

We bid the wise being our thank you before entering her layer.

The layer was a mixture of runes and metallic mechanisms engraved on the walls. With ancient glyphs on the walls and giant clockwork in between, the layer spoke testaments of time and history. Thousands, maybe millions of books were scattered here and there. It was probably embarrassing to gape at things with open-mouth but I did just that!

 Knowledge spirits in the form of owls and foxes were running or flying with books in their mouths. One such spirit, a baby fox, came to us and dropped a book in front of us.

I look at Akira questioningly to see him already staring at me. Was there something on my face?

I motion towards the fox with my hands and Akira looks away immediately. His ear look red for some reason.

Akira bend down and pats the fox on his head. He straightens up with the Book in hand and reads the title out loud, "Demonic races and their history"

Guess the knowledge spirits really do know of everything.

But why did they feel like we seek to know about the accursed ones?

We took the book and walked out; again passing the slumbering Sphinx.

With the promise of meeting again tomorrow, we part ways to join our respective group of friends.

Bang! The sudden noise was accompanied by the shouts of a girl as we were dining in the mass hall ,"You listen here, very well, Eboni Abdallah, you dare to take my place , I shall end you."

We look back to see our dorm representative, Esmeralda Garcia, standing in front of the first year nobles table with her finger pointed towards our roommate, Eboni Abdallah.

Eboni, for her part, looked completely nonchalant, still focusing on the thick book she was reading. The other first year-noble kids too looked unbothered as they continued to chat amongst themselves. 

What even was going on with the more popular bunch? Gods, I was so out of the loop.

Fortunately for me, I have the local gossip mill, Dhara as my friend, who quickly got down to explain the fierce political conflict between Eboni and Esmeralda.

"So here it is, Esmeralda is the un-crowned queen around here. She's not a noble, however. Just a rich commoner from downtown. Her father owns a chain of restaurants. I heard her father has a restaurant inside the fort! But everyone knows she was only popular because there were no noble girls in the Academy for the past two years. And now the tables have turned because Eboni Abdallah has entered the scene as well as two other noble girls. Esmeralda is threatened. She's worried for her dorm representative position if Eboni tries to go for it. And from the whispers around, she already has," Dhara finishes without any pauses.

Now that I got the gist of the situation, we focus back on the drama like the rest of the students here. The situation, apparently, has escalated to the point of Eboni actually answering back.

"I'm the queen," Esmeralda screams to Eboni as if to establish dominance.

"Queen where? In the land of the witless?" Eboni answers back, without looking up from her book.

Esmeralda doesn't seem to be the sharpest tool in the shed as she sputters a bit at Eboni's sarcasm. With her tear stained cheeks and red eyes, she looks to emotionally destressed to come up with an appropriate answer.

"You think you're so superior to me, huh?" Esmeralda shouts again; her face flushing in anger.

Gods, this girl was loud. Was she born aboard the Jolly Rogers?

Eboni, on the other hand, was perfectly composed as she replies, "You're inferiority complex is perfectly justified, love."

"She does have a point. I mean, Esme looks quite the circus performer in her clothes. I guess, she only wears them because of the price," Arthur gives his fashion judgment.

What? I don't see anything wrong with her clothes.

"You're the proof that Nobles are all arrogant pieces of work," Esmeralda stomps her feet like a petulant five year old.

"And you, my dear, is the proof that God has a sense of humor," Eboni replies with a bored expression but this time there was an edge to her words.

That probably made Esmeralda reach her limits as she takes a glass of juice and tries to dump it on Eboni. But before she could put her thoughts to action, the dark-haired boy's pet snake coils itself around her hand in a flash and the drink spills on her instead.

"What did you do, Naeem? That was a new dress! Do you know how much that cost me?" Esmeralda screams again.

"What exactly about me gave you the very fine idea that I am an expert salesmen of atrocious looking female clothing? And you deserve it," The boy says, patting the snake that was back to it's spot around his neck. 

However I can't help but notice the acidic tone in his harsh words.

Esmeralda looked like she was about to cry. But she didn't.

 A tough cookie, I would have to give her that.

Instead, she stomps her way out of the hall after staring hollowly at Naeem for a while.

I hear them laughing as soon as she leaves. "God's, is a headache was a person, it would be her," the boy with skull-like markings on his face says.

The whole hall burst into laughter at that.

But I do not feel like laughing. What I feel was bad for Esmeralda. I mean, she wasn't the nicest person out there and sure, she had her flaws like usual rudeness, arrogance, and a bit of flaunting.

 But she also loved to do her work. She always plans new things for the dorm with enthusiasm and always listens to complaints. And she always makes sure to solve any problems submitted to her. 

 She wasn't all too bad, if not a bit slow when it comes to witty replies when distressed. 

"Guess, we got to enjoy the taste of a fine circus for free. Damn, those rich kids," Arthur says with a sigh.

I sigh too. I suddenly felt very insecure.

I felt like the Noble kids might joke about me too. They might be laughing at the poor new girl with her second-hand sweater and skirt who didn't even recognize the Grandmaster's son.

I looked at them, just in case, to make sure they were not laughing at me. And as soon as I did, Akira's eyes met mine.

Was he looking at me?

GLOSSARY 

*Sphinx: Egyptian mythological creature with the face of a human, the body of a lion, and the wings of a falcon. Famous for asking riddles to travelers.

*Jolly Rogers:  A famous pirate ship, thought to be the vessel of infamous Captain Hook, the archenemy of Peter Pan.

*Oedipus: Guys, please, Search for yourself. It's embarrassing...
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