AMLB 01

Adriana’s Magical Library and Bookshop 01

Disclaimer:

This is a collaboration between HiddenMaster, Kitsu, and DragonGrimoire, commissioned by Sonata.

This story contains a curious, lovable spider. She is adorkable, she is wonderful, but she is spider. If arachnophobia be your thing, I’m sorry, but she may trigger you as she skitters around chasing rogue books and scrolls.

This story may contain in no particular order: depictions of violence, fantasy racism because humans can be awful, unhealthy power structures in society as a ruling elite take advantage of the lower classes, references to sexual content that will not amount to smut but there is a bunny girl who alternates between monk thoughts and wanting to indulge in drinking and lewd debauchery, a developing system of faith, nobles being horrible, magic nobles being horrible, a revolution, warfare, and more.

There is a great ass in this story. His name is Bitey. He is a donkey and will bite a bandit’s throat one day.

Spood is a spooder who spoods spoodily in… actually not Spooderville, she left that a while ago, but still spoodey.

Tommy waited in line in the blazing summer sun.

In better times, he’d be coming in with a full cart loaded with vegetables, grain, honey pots, maybe even a herd of goats for slaughter if it was a real good year.

Yet now, he only had his old ass of a donkey, Bitey. Tommy didn’t like Bitey. Bitey didn’t like him. But, Bitey was the single toughest animal Tommy had ever seen who’d taken the drought, the wolves, the fucking manticore that tried to eat him and either hit back or led it to something that could take it down.

In other words, it was the only animal Tommy felt was reliable enough for a trip to Epheas, the capital even if Bitey was an utter asshole of a donkey who’d bit him five times on the trip.

Slowly, the line progressed, the sun seemingly angry at everyone who dared to be up and about at this time of day. Tommy knew he needed a bath, but, well, that was for people who weren’t about to lose everything and possibly have to sell themselves into slavery to not starve.

Finally, Tommy was at the gate and a guard waved him up.

“State your purpose,” the guard said lackadaisically, like he wasn’t really seeing Tommy.

 “Tommy of Suther’s Creek. Here for Information. Need help solving a problem on the farm,” Tommy said.

“If ya need information, Adriana’s is the place you’ll be wanting to go. Other libraries and bookshops aren’t exactly welcoming to commoners,” The guard said cheerfully, seeming to suddenly focus on Tommy a lot more.

“I was afraid of that,” Tommy gulped as he was waved in.

He’d heard about it, of course. There was a new dark lady in town, one who’d deal even with commoners, for a price.

This wasn’t his first, second, or third option. But Tommy had a wife and child on the way. So, dark lady or not, he would seek her out.

~~~~

Traveling through the rich city convinced Tommy of a lot of things.

One thing was that everyone was so busy in the city. Because he didn’t have a load of produce for sale, no one seemed to give him a moment. Even asking for directions to Adriana’s bookshop was an iffy ordeal that took three tries before someone took pity on him and gave directions.

The other thing was the casual wealth. Oh, it wasn’t on the city streets. That was for the commoners.

But in Epheas, you always knew who was above. The nobility lived in the second terrace up the mountain in their grand and walled mansions you could see from the right vantage points, and then the arcane magisters lived above them, so high up as to sometimes reach low lighting clouds.

Tommy shuddered. He’d looked up there earlier and felt like something looked back. Good folk didn’t deal with magic if they could help it. It was beyond their station and commoners only ever got hurt.

He hoped he hadn’t picked up bad luck from the glance at the Magisters’ Heights.

Eventually, eventually, he reached Adriana’s and was…

Surprised.

He’d expected a dark mansion nestled in a secluded spot, with a murder of Dire Ravens watching out above in dark, skeletal trees. The building would be foreboding, the aura freezing. It’d have been all the finest quality, but it would have been made to make you feel small.

That was not what he’d seen.

Instead, he saw a building — no, a home, that would have fit perfectly into his village if it wasn’t for the size. It was four stories tall, but otherwise looked incredibly welcoming. Unlike much of the city, it wasn’t gray stone or marble for the higher ups, but was made of lovingly carved wood. Windows were lit up, leaving a cheery light to come out and the front was a lovely garden full of flowers and nice smelling herbs. It even had an elf managing the garden, and he hadn’t seen many elves around in his whole life.

Still, this was the domain of a dark lady. He stepped through the threshold after walking people come and go, and then he was in.

The inside was… well lit, with books, tables, and more. Some paintings of nice landscapes were on the walls. Yet, what caught his attention was the front desk.

There, he saw a dark haired, beautiful woman with a small circlet on her head wearing a blue dress that was simple yet suited her perfectly. She was in the process of handing a book to a smiling little blonde girl in her own yellow dress, who, on receiving it, giggled and skipped off to a corner of the room to read it.

This…

This was not what he was expecting, at all. The building was one thing, but he saw nothing foreboding whatsoever, just comfort and more books than he’d ever seen in one place. Even the village apothecary didn’t have this many.

He stepped up to the desk.

“Um… excuse me. Miss Adriana? I am Tommy, and I need your help,” he said, voice suddenly raspy and self conscious of how much he must smell after the hot day on the road.

“Oh?” she asked, turning to look at him with all five of her eyes. “Well, you’re new. What can I help you with today Mister Tommy?”

Tommy’s mouth went dry. He’d thought those had been gems or jewelry on her head, a circlet or something. “I, er, have a problem, down on my farm. Down at Suther’s Creek. The crops just, they just keep withering and I don’t know why. I was hoping I could get some help,” he managed, if just barely. She looked so normal but then he kept getting drawn to the eyes on her forehead that were even now staring at him.

“Well, this is a Library, and it is a place of knowledge, but I should probably ask…” she placed a clawed hand against her face and propped an elbow on her desk. “Why did you come to a Library when the other farmers were closer? Did they just not want to help or something?”

Tommy swallowed. “They’ve helped, as much as they can, but while they’ve had a bit of it, it seems like my lands are hit the worst. With taxes up soon, they have to focus on their families,” he said. Left unsaid was the fact that with them doing that, his own family was going to be left out to suffer. “We tried everything, from digging a new well, drainage ditches, and they aren’t dying, but aren’t growing right, either, but that’s only a matter of time.”

“Ah,” she nodded, standing up fully and smiling. “I may have a solution, but we’ll need to check the books for reference to see if it’s that.”

With that, before he could say more, she swept off to another section of the library. Behind the counter, she’d looked human if with more eyes. Of course, his eyes now bugged out as he saw a gargantuan gray and black striped spider half was her legs. She moved with eerie precision across the library, up to a nearby wall, and then straight up it, legs easily navigating and carrying her up across the shelves barely disturbing the books in the process.

The only reason he didn’t scream was that no one else in the library reacted to the monster with hostility. Even the little girl from earlier was happily reading in a smaller chair in a little alcove by a window.

“Well, it could be that the soil quality is low, which I have a book for fixing,” the spider-woman claimed as she plucked a book from a lower shelf. “And I do have a few books on water quality as well in regards to plants you may wish to read…”

She reached to the top shelf, turning to him with a wicked smile. “But it might also be a fungus, so this will help as well.”

Tommy stared, shocked and getting a little numb to the repeated shocks this spider woman had inflicted upon him. Then, she plopped books in his arms.

He looked at the books, back to her smiling face, back to the books, and back to her. “I don’t know how to read.”

“Don’t worry,” she said with a pat on his shoulder. “I can help you learn.”

~~~~

Tommy had expected to have to sell himself into slavery if not his full on soul, to get the knowledge he needed.

Instead, he got a free lesson on his letters, enough to spell out things if need be. It was a foundation no one had ever bothered to give him, and this spider monster— no, this spider woman, had just gifted him, just like that. She’d taken the time to establish some math too. It was confusing, but a bit more understandable than the letters to some extent as he was able to click a lot of the traditional farmwork he did in with it and even realized a few ways to save here and there.

Finally, though? She gave him a solution.

“So, according to your people, the fungus thrives in poor soils like in the hills around my farm, and it is eating at my crops roots?” he asked.

“Yes, actually,” she nodded. “And it may be best if you could find some way to dry out your soil a little more, like mixing clay or sand with the soil at certain levels to help it drain faster and pull the excess water away from the roots, unless you actually… Well, never mind.”

Tommy nodded. “I see. Are… are you sure I can keep this book?” he said, pointing to a book she’d literally put together in the past half hour from notes and writings on care and dealing with the fungus problem on his farm. For free.

“Well, I do expect you to study it and make your own copy at home if you want to keep a copy, but you should return after harvest to check in and bring the book with you,” she explained. “It is good practice for you regardless. And there are plenty of pens, ink and paper you can borrow from the front desk for doing so.”

Tommy took the offered stylus, the book, and the other writing supplies and hugged it to his chest. His eyes were a little moist.

So few wanted to help. He’d asked travelers, merchants, even dared to approach a magician for help and no one had given him the time of day. But one trip to meet with a spider woman, someone he’d been afraid would eat him, and she’d turned around and given him more than he’d ever expected.

He sniffled, just a little.

“Thank you, Miss Adriana. Truly. I’ll take good care of your book. I’ll copy it down. It… it might take me a minute, but I’ll get it done,” he said.

“I’m sure you will,” she chuckled, waving him off. “Well, don’t be a stranger, come visit if you need anything, or just want to chat.”

Tommy nodded. “You’ll always have a place at my farm if you need it, as humble as it may be, Miss Adriana. Thank you, and goodbye,” he said, tipping his straw hat to her.

He left the city feeling more hopeful than he had in a long, long time, perhaps even more hopeful than he had been since he was a child.

~~~~

AN:

HiddenMaster: And here we go! New spoider story heck yeah! This one is going to be fun. Adriana’s a fun character and setting has some serious potential.

Kitsu: The foxxo dragged a spood into Shenanigans! And I think the spood was enthused. It sure sounds like it.

TheBug: Honestly if the foxxo wouldn't be this persistent with the shenanigans, I doubt I would have sat down and agreed to this. But as it was said I'm eager to explore this world that I have thought out for my little Spood.

BookDragon: I’m also working on this! I’ve been enjoying my vacation so far, but I’ll be back soon >:3

HiddenMaster: You shall!

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