“I don’t have an invitation,” Wave tried to evade.
Chrissy’s eyes widened comically, and Diana burst out laughing.“Heavens and hells,” she gasped, trying to inhale.“You really are out of the loop.”
“We are both Winnies,” Chrissy said primly.“So, you’ll have your invitation printed out on gold paper if that’ll get your ass moving.”
“What about the dark goddess?”
“She’s Zirkon, but we don’t hold that against her… much,” Diana said, finally getting her cackle under control.Wave sighed internally.None of them were Grif’s thank the spirits, malevolent and benevolent alike.According to chats she had during orientation, Grif’s were the hardest to get into, and Wave had decided to use them as an excuse not to join inanysorority.
“Why aren’t you living in the sorority houses?”
“Because we were friends before coming to Tracthesian Academy and we wanted to stay together, despite Ginny’s questionable life choices.”
Chrissy’s eyes narrowed on Wave.“Are you coming?”
“What are my chances of getting out of this?”
“Zero,” Chrissy and Diana replied at once.
“Then I guess I’m coming,” Wave couldn’t help but snort when her mind slipped into the gutter.“But no heels.”She looked pleadingly at Chrissy.“I’ll be good and stay at least an hour if you give me ballerinas.”
“Two hours,” she immediately countered.
“Deal.”Wave considered asking for more concessions, but really, the shoes Chrissy had given her were now her prized possession and the most comfortable thing she had ever worn, so she nodded.“I gotta run.See you later!”
Thelibrarywasquietingdown.Mrs.Riverson just needed someone to man the front desk until closing time, while she worked on shelving the difficult books.Wave still wasn’t allowed to tangle with them, so she used the time to do her coursework.
Once she was done with that, Wave was tempted to look for anything that she could find about her father but wasn’t sure where to start.She had been thinking more and more about him.He had been a guest lecturer at the Tracthesian Academy.
One more tiny reason for her coming here.She wanted to see if she felt any connection to him, not that she expected to, but still.Wave sighed.Really, her plan to find anything was on truly thin ice to begin with.Nothing tied her father to the faculty library, guest lecturer or no.
Tears prickled at the corner of her eyes, and Wave dashed them away, furious with herself.She felt like a failure, like she was letting him down, because no matter what the reports said, it hadn’t been an accident.Someone had killed him.Father knew how to protect himself against lightning surges.
Wave wondered if Tracthesian Academy kept archives of reports, like human libraries did with newspaper clippings.Probably not.Why would they have access to CF’s reports?Still, she typed the request into the search bar.First hit was an intranet article.
Council Force.Established by the High Council after the second Grim War, the highest interspecies…
Wave scrolled forward.Several articles about the CF’s history, their election rosters, and former and current members.She doubted the names would say anything to her, so she kept scrolling.
Nothing.
Wave returned to the search bar and typed ‘Council Force reporting’.This time, there were a few extranet links to police reports, but nothing that seemed a legitimate source.Intranet articles were guidelines on what and how to report a thing to the CF.
Dismissing that avenue of search, Wave opened the program for the library’s internal search.According to Mrs.Riverson, it held only a small part of the Tracthesian Academy’s collection.Digitalizing all the books that didn’t want to be digitalized had been too big of an undertaking.
It was one thing to go over every book, type in the info, and load it up.It was quite another if the book in question took offence and fried the system.According to Mrs.Riverson, the culprits were often surprising.
Everyone would expect a spell book to have opinions and take precautions.A book about weather patterns a couple of thousand years ago, on the other hand… Fifty years ago, an unsuspecting assistant had tried to log in the information, and the book had crashed Tracthesian Academy’s whole electrical infrastructure.
Wave pulled up all the listings that were tagged with Council Force.There were a lot, but none of them were recent.From a glance, most seemed to be stuff that had actually been transcribed to the university server.
Another dead end.
“What is a lovely thing like you doing here all by your lonesome and looking so morose?”A voice distracted her from her musings, and Wave looked up quickly.On the other side of the desk stood a man who looked to be in his mid-thirties.
He was smiling at her, but Wave got the distinct feeling that he was sizing her up.Both her power and bra size.He had almost fully white eyes, with only a hint of gray in them.No clear pupil or iris, and pale gray lashes.Tall, blond, handsome,asshole.That was Wave’s conclusion, but she pulled up a professional smile.
“How can I help you?This library is for faculty only.”
