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Back inside the pod, Camellia changed the configuration of the levers, and they started floating upwards again, past other floors filled with druidesses performing and creating, past the presently occupied quiet room, to the very top floor, made of the stoutest logs.
There was a single massive pair of doors with knockers made to look like the heads of grasshoppers clutching golden rings bedecked with flowers in their palpi.
Camellia pushed open the doors and revealed a library with high wooden shelves filled to the brim with books new and old, standing on a plush, green carpet. The curved walls were several times the height of the shelves, and the midday sun shone through the massive window set into the farthest wall, casting its light on the shelves.
A few feet away from the doors was a sizable circular desk helmed by an individual with periwinkle skin, long pointed ears, and long, slicked back sky-blue hair, their eyes skimming over something on their PC. As the trio approached the desk, the individual looked up and smiled.
“Hail, sisters!” They said quietly but cheerfully. “I don’t recall ever seeing the one behind you, Camellia.”
“She just got here!” Camellia stepped aside to reveal the girl. “This is our new friend, Ingrid! I invited her.”
“Ah!” The individual stood and curtsied before Ingrid. “Welcome, Ingrid, to our coven’s library. My name is Aeverie, and I serve as the head librarian. If you need assistance, please don’t hesitate to come to me or anyone on my team.”
“Uh--thank you,” Ingrid stammered. “So...like...what kinds of books do you have?”
“We haven’t been here long, but our collection has been cultivated from all over; as diverse as our coven is, I doubt you won’t find something of interest to you. Some of them were even written by our very own druidesses! There’s a sizeable collection of fiction, but quite a bit of it is natural studies: Ornithology, arbology, botany--”
Ingrid perked up when she heard “botany”. “Um...do you think you could point me in the direction of the botany books?”
“Absolutely!” The elf put out a small wooden placard before coming out from behind the desk and beckoning Ingrid to follow her.
The natural studies section started near the front, a little more than halfway down the row of shelves. Given the sheer length of the rows, Ingrid admittedly found it to be a bit of a walk, but getting to see the balconies and alcoves the library had to offer made the journey well worth it. The botany books found themselves on the second row.
“If you’d like to brrowo anything, please bring them back to the front desk,” Aeverie explained, motioning like she was mixing something in a bowl. Instantly, vines began to grow from her fingers, snaking back the way the pair came. With a flick of her wrist, she shook the vines from her fingertips.
“These children will lead you back, but please, take your time!”
As the librarian left, Ingrid began to scan the spines of the books arrayed before her. So many of them were written by individuals bearing names she wasn’t sure her mouth could pronounce, and her mind was utterly boggled.
“Excuse me,” began a soft, accented voice somewhere from Ingrid’s right. “Do you need help with anything?”
“Yeah, actually, I was...um...” Ingrid turned in the direction of the voice...
And was suddenly met with a woman a head taller than her, wearing a striped shirt under a jean jacket, carrying a stack of books in her muscular arms, with coiled, light brown horns standing stark against her curly black hair. Though Ingrid maintained eye contact with her, part of her brain couldn’t help but make note of the girl’s furry white goat legs well within her periphery.
“Er, I...” she began, suddenly feeling the words she was about to say become scattered in her brain at the sight of this person.
Come on, Ingrid! Speak! Make mouth words! Stop wasting her time! You literally saw a bunch of centaurs playing polo today! This is nothing new!
“I was...interested in learning about what kinds of plants are out there...”
The goat girl perked up at this. “Oh! Then I would definitely recommend ‘Flora and Fauna in Other Indiana’ as a starter!”
The girl reached up and plucked the book from its place 2 shelves above Ingrid’s head and handed it to her.
“It’s by a gnome from Other Muncie that I see around here sometimes. This way you can expand your knowledge a bit at a time until you’ve learned something about all the Others!”
“Wow!” Ingrid exclaimed, examining the the purple book. “Thank you so much, um...”
“Xenia! I’m a faun and a library assistant,” the girl said, ducking her head respectfully. “Please feel free to grab me if you need any help. I’m especially useful around plants!”
Ingrid chuckled nervously. “I’ll keep that mind! Thank you!” Clutching the book to her chest, she turned and hurried back to the main desk, wondering why her heart was pounding so loudly in her ears.
--
“There’s one last thing we need to give you,” Camellia began as she saw Ingrid to the door. By this time the foyer had cleared out and it was just the three of them.
“What’s that?”
The older woman reached into the pocket of her robe and produced an amulet with a length of string looped through the top. As Ingrid accepted it, she realized that the amulet was, in fact, a compass made of dark, petrified wood, etched with flowers.
“This works the same way as the fairies, but you can use it at many times as you need to until you’re well-versed enough in our ways to create a portal wherever you are.”
Ingrid stared blankly at the two. “Whoa, what? You seriously think I’d be able to...?”
“You took in stride the existence of a coven of druidesses doing magic inside a giant stone bagworm. It’d almost be a sin not to let you at least try,” Esmeralda responded.
“Now...go home, get some rest, and think long and hard about the source of your powers,” Camellia continued, taking Ingrid’s free hand in hers. “I think you can really make something amazing here.”
Though she wasn’t sure she agreed, Ingrid still nodded. “I’ll be back soon, then.” With that, she headed towards the door, holding Camellia’s hand for as long as possible before letting it slide out of hers.
“We’ll be here!”
--
When Ingrid got home, it was 4 in the afternoon, and her parents were still at their own tasks, or asleep, or whatever.
She silently closed the front door, walked up the stairs to her room and lay back on the bed, holding the book to her chest, and let her mind drift.
If not for the book, Ingrid could have argued that she’d dreamt the entirety of the past two hours.
But it was real. It was really real. She had walked down those balconies, and seen those dwarves dance, and seen those centaurs play polo, and...
Met that girl at the library.
Xenia.
What did she say she was? A faun?
A faun who was “especially useful around plants”, in her words.
She seemed knowledgeable. Pretty too.
…
What?
Ingrid shook her head to clear her thoughts, sat up and cracked open the book, and before long was completely engrossed in plants she’d never seen or even imagined before in her life.
When she drifted off to sleep some hours later, she dreamt of flowers blooming where she walked, or birds eating from her hand where seeds appeared from the aether.
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