The sneak going awry

No matter how much Lucy would stare at her watch, time would only go forward. 1900 hours did her eyes see correctly, and yet her heart moved her legs to punt at the concrete of the library. Though she was furious, she knew very well she made a grave mistake by off-putting her trip to the library. Now all she could do was see the library's very own lights turning off, all she could was throw herself down to the stone steps leading to the library.

Indeed, great Luna is floating up there in the night sky; shining brightly as a diamond, illuminating the rocky roads and the tall treehouses. Staring soberly with dry eyes down the main road she came from, many carriages flew past as drawn by those mighty robotic steeds. Looking down at her boots, the grime and dirt all over it couldn't justify the wasted effort getting here; sighing, she self-erected herself and began walking down the flight of steps. The lightning bugs pulsed their green spheres of light as she walked past their electrical current, the mantises chirped as they heard her somber steps, Lucy's sight tunneled by her regrets and a heart slowly acquiescing to accepting defeat.

As Lucy stares up at the milky way above, under her breath did she dare to pray for a miracle. And upon the seventh step did she fell back on herself when a carriage rudely pulled up besides the stone steps. As her hands patted off the dust on her dress, her ears burnt as she heard a slight chuckle emanated from a familiar voice. Her head tilting upwards, did Lucy's eyes cry upon seeing her hand reaching out to her. Like a possessed tree-hugging sloth, Lucy grasped her and wouldn't let go of that suited beauty. Her lover mockingly coughing a bit, Lucy only squeezed her. Wheezing in pain, Lucy then let go of her with a smile creeping wide on her face. Lucy's love not noticing her smile, she wheezingly spoke:

"I-I was looking all oh-over for yah, but then you te-teleported a very per-rilous message that shoulda been sent hours ago! Lu-see, I coulda made the entire trip here done in 'bout a minute . . . Oh ho, what's with the devilish smirk? Gots yah a plan?"

Lucy's righthand flipping and swatting away the loose strands of hair, her left leg steps forward and closes the distance between the two. Her hands wrapped their fingers around the belt-loops of her butch, yanking her forward as she pulled her. Resting her head on her bosom, she spake:

"Oh please, yah swashbuckler. Y'know already me plan, me Phtero-"

With Phtero's face flustered, she was still being angered by Lucy's lack of alerting and decided to cut off Lucy:

"Lucifer, don't cutesy me now by shortening me name – Phteroto Arma – to Phtero now! . . . Næ give me those looks and those staining tears, I already washed this blouse! Ah, look at you being gigglish; be grateful I ain't in a ticklish mood, oh y'would be kakling like there be no tomorrow! Now, methinks y'wanna break into that great palace of books and scrolls t'return?"

Phetero's arms wrapping around Lucy, she pressed her head closer to her bosom. Wrapping her fingers with Lucy's hairs that were as silky as the silkworm's strings, Lucy giggled before she spoke:

"Heh, heh, heh . . . Just as 'tis true that yer wondering what spell I cast on me hairs, equally be it true that I don't want to be stamped with an 'overdue' insignia. Y'know how ugly it looks on one's records, especially in this bustling town that's a-looking and acting like more and more those robotic steeds?! I worked very hard to earn a reputation amongst the community 'ere, I shan't let a silly stamp mark the beginning of me own end! . . . Now, I need to ask if y'still possess the backdoor key? Y'know~ the one from our janitor friend?"

Phetero's eyes open wide, her hands check her dress-pant's pockets to feel the cold-metal. Yanking it out, their hands covered each other's mouths as they squealed joyously. Lucy then pulled out the scroll she kept safe in her knapsack, and Phetero went back into the carriage to pull out two lanterns with a singular light-port. Both snapping their fingers, light began emitting through those ports; snapping again, the light quietly simmered away. Carefully trailing by the walls of the library, tiptoeing along as practice for the inevitable breach into the great palace of books and scrolls. As they were about to turn around the corner, they both peeped the corner – with Phtero above and Lucy below due to their heights – and saw the coast was clear.

Sliding across in the moonlit-night undetected, they soon flanked both sides of the door. Their eyes making one last scan of the perimeter, their heads nodded at each other when they felt the coast was clear. Phetero's key-holding hand sliding the backdoor key into the rusted knob, the door clicked unlocked after a few jangles. Lucy's free hand pushing the door open, only a slight creek echoed in the night air; their hearts pumped loud as they listened closely for any other noise, but only their hearts and the occasional street noise pierced their eardrums. Tip-toeing inside, they quietly creaked the door back into position without fully closing it.

Snapping their fingers, their lanterns lit up the recently polished-hallway. Moving as noiselessly as possible, their hearts could only hope no staff would detect the yellow-light emitted from their definitely non-security lanterns. But before they could leave the hallway, they heard footsteps approaching the door that lead to the library proper; panicking, they snapped their fingers and let their lanterns' lights simmer off as they hugged the wall as much as their bodies enjoyed gluing themselves to the polished-walls. Opening the door, a janitor whistles on by as ze merrily walks by zir own beat. Phetero recognizing that whistle then whispers loudly to her own friend, but ze not recognizing Phetero's whisper freaks out before Lucy bear-hugs zir closely. Ze calming down, as ze recognizes that tight squeeze anywhere, begins to whisper annoyedly:

"What port o' Hades did ye both swam from that in the darkness ye both crawl into 'ere without setting off an alarum? Ach! Forget about it! What haunts ye both to be stalking past closing hours? Ye both know that he's manning the watch tonight, in preparation for the inspection tomorrow conducted by the provincial inquisitor?"

As Lucy plays with zir janitorial-tie from behind, she responds to zir calmly:

"Oh, Sappho. Muse yer anger just a bit more, and we'll all be in trouble together. And – if me voice be fair, then hear this next couplet me Sappho – if that wretched head-librarian has to organize one more item, so let the provincial inquisitor bite 'em. 'Tis næ like they were on the best terms with one another, especially after the head-librarian scandalized himself by analyzing a void-spell with neither a magitechnomancer nor an anti-void zealot. Albeit 'twas the previous provincial inquisitor that gave him a slap on the wrist, yet meheard a rumor that the head-librarian had to bathe that wrist in ice for forty-days. The new provincial inquisitor, mehears, has scouts that trail his every move – perhaps paranoia but they themself are right to fear that wretch."

Phetero fixing Lucy's untying of Sappho's tie, Phetero bends to zir ears and whispers:

"Shall I spell out the obvious? Well, we be here to return a scroll y'hear. Mesays we got a good shot since we got y'here real early on this night, so tell me y'muse: y'think we got a shot at returning it without the head-librarian noticing?"

Sappho taking Lucy's arms and spinning her to zir front, ze brought them both close to hear zir response:

"Lucy and Phetero, just promise me that y'won't dirty the damn floor . . . Okay, I see y'both nod. Hear me, oh hear me whispers! The head-librarian is on his nap now after inspecting the floor from front-to-back, left-to-right; y'gots, say, a hour t'scoot yer pretty feet from 'ere to the drop-off bin and back. Currently no golems are active, yet don't tick off any o' them under any circumstances! Now I dunno if he closed the drop-off bin's lid, but count on it being closed shut; methinks ye both can find the master-key behind the front desk, generally is always there. Capische? Now get moving before I get dragged in ye two's wild escapades!"

Sappho nonchalantly walking away with a whistle, Lucy and Phetero dusted each other off and spot-checked for any grime or dust remaining on themselves. After their careful check, they snapped their fingers as they entered the door Sappho came a conversation ago from. Walking through without a noise, they both proceeded towards the front-desk of the library with their feet attempting to creep quietly. Every squeak they accidentally made, they paused and awaited for a noise back. For now they were safe, which pepped their spirits a bit every time they accidentally squeaked here and there. Then their lights illuminated the front-desk, cheering them until Lucy nearly fainted as they got closer. A golem was awaiting them behind the front-desk, albeit it appeared as stiff as the bookshelves all around them. Phetero catching Lucy before she really collapsed, Lucy got a hold of herself as she was set back up by Phetero.

Both checking all around the golem guarding the front-desk, no key shined on nor near the golem's proximity. But as they were about to check another section of the library, a faint glimmer pulsed behind a slightly-closed door. Lucy lighting up the general direction, that glimmer became a shine; Phetero giving Lucy her lantern as she then climbed over the counter, she soon creaked the door open. Tip-toeing back to Lucy, she grabbed her lantern and checked the room to see the key was behind a magically-sealed glass-case. Phetero's pointer-finger curling at Lucy, Lucy inched closer without climbing the counter to see what bind aura'd the case. Seeing the security-color on the glass-case, she sighed as her mind through her empty-hand attempted to map out the exact bindings. Seeing them for what they were, she solved the magic-codes and disappeared the binds.

Upon the magic-binds being vanished away, Phetero carefully lock-picked the glass-case's lock with a triangle-lockpick and her hair-clip. Wiggling the tools a bit, she eventually found the sequence that clicked the lock open; slipping her fingers and snatching the key, she left not a fingerprint on the glass. Handing her lantern to Lucy as she climbed over the counter again, her foot mistakenly squeaked the polished-floor a bit too loudly. Snapping their fingers to unlit the lanterns, they hunched behind the counter and heard a quiet growl from the front-desk golem; soon the light of security bursted to life, like cones-of-vision did the light scour the library immediately around it. Growling, it turned off its own security-color as it remained in place while it mumbled itself to sleep.

Almost wiping their own foreheads before pulling their hands away, they soon realized how sweaty their bodies were. Realizing further that it wasn't them, they sensed the library getting subtly hotter. Getting a move on, they tried to keep their cool but they couldn't stop sweating which freaked them more out. Soon they were dripping sweat, slowly but surely; cursing under their breaths, Lucy questioned if that magical-bind set off a temporary-curse or the library was always hot at night. Soon their accidental squeaks became tiny consistent squeaks that put them on the edge along as their body became more self-dampened. Finding the drop-box in time and blessing the One that no golem was guarding the drop-box, Phetero unlocked the drop-box as Lucy slipped the scroll just on right in. As they both hugged each other, they hummed quiet praises to each other.

However, they knew 'twas only the beginning of the night as they eked their way towards the counter. Then the library's internal chime-system rung to life, the library soon was flooded with security-colored lights. Crouching behind some bookshelf aisles they knew would be too tight for golem-pathing, they cursed themselves for taking too long to get out of the library on time. Both reckoning it must be the middle of the hour, they watched as golems travelled to and fro places; holding their breaths and letting their hearts be their only noise whenever a golem or its search-light peered too closely to them. Eventually the golems returned back to their positions, and Lucy and Phetero still bit their sweaty lips in fear that they might be edging it for the night.

Phetero and Lucy eked again their way towards the counter near the room which contained the glass-casing. Doing the motions again but praying that they wouldn't slip-up, Phetero managed to get the key back in place. But both Lucy and Phetero were getting exhausted by the amount of heat and sweat wrapping around them, yet soon a cool breeze chilled their bodily-sweat and they began to shiver violently as their heat died down. As Phetero attempted to set the lock back into place with her shaky hands, Lucy was struggling to conjure up the spell for the glass-case without timidly shaking her lantern. However, they managed to pull it off despite generating more noise than they preferred to make; Phetero eking back to Lucy, Lucy assisted Phetero this time in climbing over the counter. Safely landing on Lucy's side, they made the trek to the door they came from.

As they saw the door, the library's lights began to bathe the whole area and both of their visions were burnt for a short bit. As their eyes recovered, their hearts leaped up into their throats as something blocked the exit-door. It appeared as the head-librarian, but it was twitching very rapidly; colourless auras permeated the air around, corroding things as its auras ebbed and flowed. Then they heard the real head-librarian's voice scolded all three of them, hearing his footsteps thundering down the aisle with his personal golems stomping right behind:

"WHAT ARE YOU WHIPPERSNAPPERS DOING SWEATING-UP MY FLOORS AND MAKING ALL THESE NOISES THAT ARE PERTURBING MY CHERUBIC-SLEEP!-"

Phetero and Lucy lying at once:

"This void-creature was chasing after us, help us head-librarian!"

The head-librarian's golems' arms blocking the head-librarian as they stampeded towards the void-entity, Lucy and Phetero got away from the aisle. Seeing the void-creature lurch forward with great haste, Phetero and Lucy grab each other's hands as they bolted away from the fight which was to ensue. The golems' fists charging up their security-color, they pummeled the void-creature which took the first blows laughingly in pain; then the void-creature head-butted the golems, sending them into the air with a giant crack upon them. Lucy checking her knapsack as 'twas going all down, she then discovered she dropped a blank scroll down the drop-box as she held the scroll that needed to be turned in. Alerting Phetero of the discovery, they both cried as they began rushing towards the drop box with great haste.

As the head-librarian saw his golems flying, he snapped his fingers which burned his hands with many colors:

"You annihilation of all beings, I shan't allow your privative anti-essence to permeate annihilation any further! Be reintegrated back into becomingness, you pure void-creature!"

Charging up for a brawl with the void-entity, Lucy and Phetero meanwhile sprinted to the drop-box. Reaching there in the nick of time, Lucy loudly puffed the scroll into the drop-box and Phetero alerted the other golems towards the incident. Meanwhile, the head-librarian kept blocking every blow and strike the void-creature threw; cursing under his breath, he was wondering where back-up was. Stampeding along with a dead-tired Lucy and out-of-breath Phetero, the golems bolted into the aisle that the head-librarian was slowly being pushed away from. Hearing them finally, his fists made two powerful blows against the void-entity that sent it flying back; teleporting away from the aisle, the golems soon filled up the aisle in their charge towards the void-creature.

At the front-desk, his eyes scanned all around for who he originally caused the ruckus. Upon seeing them lying right-next to the front door, panting their bodies out, he screamed:

"WHIPPERSNAPPERS, GO THROUGH THE FRONT-DOOR! ALERT THE WHOLE TOWN, BRING IN THE ANTI-VOID ZEALOTS! GET THE HELL AWAY FROM HERE, I DON'T KNOW HOW LONG I CAN CONTAIN IT! GO!"

Taking their cue, they exited through the front-door as he pressed the button that unlocked the doors. As soon as they got out, the front-doors locked again; yet they didn't care as they rushed to their carriage, and soon they saw that Sappho was waiting with zir harp. Sappho lending zir hands to both of them and pulling them up, ze closed the carriage doors and whipped the mechanical-horse to life. Screaming, ze directed:

"Anti-Void zealot's temple, 3rd eastern street from main street! . . . Okay, the carriage's moving. I feared that something was wrong, and it seemed like there was an interloper amongst us. I already alerted the zealots, they shall be rushing here soon. As we're traveling to their temple for safety, I shall play some harpy tunes – so rest now since your great anti-heist has been pulled off successfully."

Slumping their backs on the carriage-seats, they all peered out the window to see a whole line of carriages flew past them that sparked of many colors. As Sappho enjoyed zir harp, the tunes flew into Phetero's and Lucy's ears as their eyes saw the great palace of books soon bathed in even more lights. And just as the trouble erupted and the lights flashed with all the anti-void zealots rushing in, as soon as it started to dissipate. Returning to their seats, they could only wonder what will happen when morning arrives.