Binarius by Kendra McMahan

Nothing moved,
other than what appeared to be the book on the table throwing a
tantrum (if books could throw fits) which ended by nearly smacking
Firinne in the face as it flew back to its shelf. “Well, this isn’t
going well” she muttered to herself. “Maybe that was too broad of a
question? Focus. Think simple.” She stared for a while through the
window towards the moon. She didn’t need to say anything out loud
but she did anyway. “The life of Fia and the lives of all her
creatures are in trouble…we need to save Fia.” After all, that was
the root of it. It wasn’t just Citrine Castle, her mother, or the
corruption at Archen Castle. There were surely problems that
Firinne wasn’t even aware of.
    At first, there was nothing but
silence following the echo of her own voice. She put her head down,
thinking to herself that it was useless when she heard the friction
of pages. On the highest shelf to the right of her, there was a
group of books circling around each other, appearing to consult one
another. Another book flew down and joined. After about five
minutes of this, books had come and then gone, there were three
books that floated towards the lonely desk and its troubled
student. They landed softly on the desk and stacked themselves
neatly on top of each other. They were bound in leather which
indicated their age, as people of Fia had stopped using animals for
such things long ago.
    Gently, she grasped the book on the
top. It was beautiful. There were swirls of gold engravings on the
crimson front cover. As she opened the book, a smell of antiquity
blessed her senses. She traced her fingers down the soft pages and
read:
     
    Kristellis Spectralli.
    Prophesy of The Clandestine
Guardians
     
    Below, there was a cluster of
crystals sketched out in ink. Firinne began flipping to the next
page and for a moment, the page was littered with fine, ink letters
but before she could read any of it, they slowly started to fade
away. After this, the rest of the book was blank. Hastily, she
grabbed the next book. This book was dark blue with silver
engravings. The first-page read, Currantus
Electrolifi . Below was another ink sketch
depicting lightning trapped in orbs. As with the first book, all of
the pages were blank. The third book was white with black
engravings. Sonicus
Leviti , apparently another prophesy given
by The Clandestine Guardians, depicts objects in a forest, floating
in mid-air. Firinne didn’t understand. Why had all of the pages
disappeared? What use were they if they were blank?
    Exhaustion had begun to set in. She
had had enough. She stood up with her traveling bag (which she
resolved to carry with her at all times now) hanging by her side.
She grabbed her crystal and turned to leave. There was a loud crash
as the books on the table spread themselves out and simultaneously
banged themselves down on the desk.
    Once the books knew (if books could
know) that they had gotten her attention, they lifted themselves
from the desk and formed a line at the same level as her bag hung
at her side. One by one, the books nestled themselves into her bag.
Surely she would be in unknowable trouble for taking books,
especially ones as ancient as these, from this room. Yet, she
couldn’t help but now feel a certain kinship with these books. It
was as if they wanted to befriend her. She didn’t know what use
they would be, but surely there was a reason for their insistence.
She gave a final look to the cathedral of books in thanks and
headed to the twin doors for the journey back to her
chambers.
    As she opened the door, she almost
fell backward from shock. There was a little, old woman standing in
front of the door.
    “ I’m so sorry to startle you dear.
I couldn’t sleep and thought I would do a bit of reading” the old
woman said.
    “ No, really it was my fault. I
should have been more careful.” This was silly of course because
how could she have known that someone was trying to enter the room
just as she