Linnea went flying, topping head-over-heels. Oz jumped, grabbing onto Aisling’s arm. Almost instantly, he released her, as the heat of her skin burned into his arms. “Aisling, no!”

“She was about to eat you!” Aisling snarled.

“She was just asking a question!” Oz said, moving in front of Linnea. He held both his arms out.

“You dare kick my face?” Linnea demanded. Cracking and snapping, her body shifted behind Oz. She raised her chain blades and leaped right over Oz’s head, slamming Aisling to the ground with all six of her spider legs. The two girls went rolling, struggling wildly over the marble floor.

She does have the hourglass. Oz blinked a moment later, startled back to life as they slammed into a shelf and toppled all the books down on themselves. “Hey!”

The girls ignored him, continuing to fight.

Oz looked around, then wrinkled his lip. He threw his hand out. “One Thousand Book Slam!”

From all over the shelves around them, books vanished, reappearing over the girls a moment later. They flooded down on Linnea and Aisling, smashing into them like a wave. Aisling shoved Linnea away from her and rushed backward, fleeing the books. Linnea flipped over onto her back and flailed with all eight limbs, desperately kicking books away.

“You two. Stop it! Seriously. Stop it. How many times do you have to destroy my library before you’re satisfied?” Oz cried.

Aisling frowned.

Linnea fought her way out from under the last of the books, spluttering as though he’d dumped water on her. “I’m not the one kicking people’s faces!”

“You jumped over me to attack her,” Oz reminded her.

“She deserved it.”

“And you both deserve to pick up all these books while you think about what you did,” Oz said, crossing his arms.

Linnea grumbled, but knelt, picking up the books again.

Aisling stared at Oz. “You don’t see it?”

“See what?” Oz asked. He paused, then joined Linnea in picking up the books. It’s my fault this time, too. Sorry, books.

“She’s hungry. She wants your flesh,” Aisling said.

Linnea flicked her eyes up and down Oz’s body, then met his eyes, waggling her brows back at him.

Oz shoved her a little. Did you miss the part where I broke up with you? He tossed a book at Aisling. “Stop worrying about who wants my flesh and help me pick up the books. Also, stop fighting in my library. Next time you two want to go at it, there’s a World Door and a whole grasslands out back. Take your fight outside.”

“Yes, sir,” Linnea said, fluttering her lashes.

“I hear and obey,” Aisling muttered. Her brows furrowed, but she didn’t say anything else.

Oz looked at her. It’s not that I don’t sympathize. Her parents died to demons when she was little. That’s the kind of shit that can fuck you up for life. But she can’t pin that trauma on every demon she comes across.

Linnea’s in a bad situation right now. It would be cruel to throw her out. I might as well cut her neck myself, save everyone some time and her, some pain. Maybe in the future, I can get her out of the Mages’ Quarter, and she can escape, but not for a long time yet. I’m not powerful enough, nor do I know any techniques to allow that.

If I did, I might just escape myself.

Somewhat begrudgingly, Aisling picked up a book and went to set it on the shelf. As she did, Oz threw his hand out. “Aisling, wait. That book goes a little higher…”

Under Oz’s direction, the three of them quickly put the books back where they belonged. Setting the last book in place, Oz wiped his forehead, satisfied, but at the same time, dissatisfied. I need a better organization method. Something so that Aisling and Linnea know how to organize the books at a glance, rather than having to rely on me to tell them where the books go.

The little white tags at the bottom of a book’s spine with a few short labels on them flashed before his eyes. Oz’s eyes lit up. Exactly! I need a tag like that. Something like that, so that anyone can glance at a book and guess where it goes!

But how am I going to do that? I don’t have enough paper, unless I rip the leaves out of hundreds of books. I suppose I could buy paper and an adhesive, but… Oz put a hand on his chin, shaking his head. I’m in a world with magic! Why limit myself to the library science of the mortal world?

He picked a random tome off the shelf and flipped it open. No author, but that’s typical. The title… let’s see. It’s a kicks-based basic martial tome, Sky Stepping Manual. Let’s abbreviate it by the first three letters of the title, ignoring ‘the,’ so SKY, then follow that up with a code for the manual’s contents. Kicks, martial, basic manual, so BMK, for Basic, Martial, then Kicks, moving in order from least to most specific. Oz pressed his finger to the bottom of the tome’s spine, pushing a tiny amount of his qi into the book. A silver character appeared, embossed in the spine.

“What’s that?” Linnea asked, curious.

“Touch it,” Oz encouraged her. Let’s see if it works for anyone else.

She pressed her finger to the character. Her hand glowed for a moment as she inserted her qi. A moment later, her eyes widened. “Whoa! What do those letters mean?”

“They’re organization codes.” Oz quickly explained his thought process to her. “To put it simply, other BMK manuals should be placed near it, organized in alphabetical order of the other code—so something with the title code SKI or SKL would go before SKY.

“With this, basic martial manuals will all be organized next to one another. If you’re looking for fists or sword manuals, you know to look for BMF or BMS manuals, which will be themselves organized alphabetically around the BMK manuals. Once you find the large category, you use the title code to close in on the specific manual you want.”

“It’s an excellent idea,” Aisling said quietly.

Oz rubbed the back of his head and laughed lightly, embarrassed. “Ah, thanks. I was already organizing them this way. I just didn’t think of adding the tags until now.” It was stupid of me not to think of tagging them. There’s no way I’m going to be the only one organizing this whole enormous library forever.

“I don’t think the library has ever been so well organized,” Aisling told him, looking deep into his eyes.

“Oh… really?” Oz glanced away, not sure how to handle the compliment. She’s not really complimenting me, but she kind of is complimenting me. He glanced back, sneaking a look at her face, only to find her still patiently watching him, eyes as earnest as ever.

Linnea sighed loudly. “If you two are done making eyes at each other, should we go figure out what to do with the assassin you threw into the basement?”

Aisling startled. “What?”

“Oh, right.” Oz showed her his hand. “An assassin snuck in with the kids earlier and got me in the hand. Poisoned me. That’s kind of why I need all the detox herbs… though it doesn’t hurt to have lots of copies of everything.” Plus, it disguises why I’m purchasing the herbs. I don’t want the whole world to know I’m poisoned. Oz cleared his throat, looking at the bag, still lying abandoned by the door, then nodded at Aisling. “Thank you, by the way. I appreciate you going out of your way to help me purchase things.”

“Of course,” Aisling said. She waved her hand, and the bag floated over to land in her palm.

“Er, I’d appreciate it if you kept the part about me being poisoned quiet…?” Oz prompted.

“Naturally. I wouldn’t consider otherwise.”

“Even from Sachairi?” Oz tried.

Aisling hesitated, then nodded. After a moment, she sighed. “Master Dho will figure it out, whether I tell him or not, so don’t blame me when he does.”

“Fair enough.” He figured out that I wasn’t Ossian, despite having never met Ossian before. He’s sharp. Dangerously sharp. Oz hooked his thumb over his shoulder. “Could I ask you to take those to the pill room real quick?”

Aisling vanished. Oz’s hair went flying. Before it settled, she returned, waving her hand in front of her face to dispel the smoke. “Done.”

I didn’t need you to do it that quickly. Oz chuckled under his breath. He gestured them on. “Come on, then. Let’s go see how our little assassin is doing.”