Neutral Omens

"I thought I was the only one who noticed books missing," a reflective, patient voice said from the corner, slightly hoarse, as a pale face and brown eyes gazed at the shelves. A book was held loosely in long-fingered hands, normal, with bitten nails.

From:

"When it's this obvious?" Loki gestured towards the satanic shelves. "Anybody who remembers what it looked like a month ago would have to notice."

He regarded the stranger for a moment. A human obviously, so he had to be harmless. Plus he had quite a nice collection of scars. Loki appreciated scars. They were marks of battle and demonstrated their owner's courage.

"You wouldn't happen to know where I can find a book on fiends? I'm trying to study up on the background of all the strange beings here."

From:

"Here?" Remus shook his head. "I thought I saw something before, but it looks like it's missing too. You know, to this date I don't even know why there are medical books, Satanic books, romance novels, and yet no historical books, or anything resembling a dictionary or encyclopaedia."

He noticed the man eyeing him and tugged his motheaten sweater down over his bony and scarred hand. A fruitless attempt, but the man hardly seemed to care. The werewolf touched his hair nervously, too - it had grown shaggy and wanted cutting, care. "Do you work here too?" Remus asked finally. "I recognize your voice."

From:

Loki sighed. "Any idea what the title was or what it looked like? Maybe it's just wandered onto the wrong shelf."

"I saw a few historical books a while ago. Might have two or three back in my room, in fact," he admitted feeling a vague hint of guilt. "For pleasure reading in between my research. Wonder where they all went to."

He had more that two history books in his attic nest, but it couldn't be hat many. Or could it?

"Work? Oh no, I just live here." He was sure he'd remember a man like this. The scars were quite memorable. "And I'm sure I haven't met you before. I'm Loki, Loki Lyesmith."

From:

"Roman Lupin," the werewolf replied absently, staring at the shelves again. "I work at the front desk - perhaps you called one night. Not that it matters."

He shook his head, feeling the unkempt strands brush his forehead with chagrin. "No, there's not even an index for them. Believe me, I've looked. What sort of research are you doing that requires books on fiends, Loki Lyesmith?"

From:

"Ah yes, that would be the night I called O.. Grimnir." Loki realised. He'd been surprised not to hear Ezra's voice at the other end back then, but hadn't thought much about it at the time. He'd had more pressing problems.

"No index? Who is running this library anyway? I'm all for relaxed atmosphere, but this is rather sloppy."

From:

Remembering Loki's warning, Uriel nowadays only carried a few books at most at once. Now she had two books in her hands, titled, Kama Sutra for Tentacle Monsters and The Care and Feeding of Incubi. In reality they were of course just ordinary books about pregnancy, but she didn't want anybody to see her running around with suspicious-looking books.*

This time, she was careful enough to inspect the library for strange auras before entering. Loki was there, she noted, along with somebody else. She didn't know who it was, only that it was neither an angel nor a demon. Deciding to take the risk, she opened the door.

Loki was talking with a strange, scarred man in front of the shelves she vaguely remembered to have belonged to satanic books. She hadn't read many of those -- a couple of them, yes, but not many -- so she didn't often go to that part of the library. However, a picture rose from her mind, a picture of shelves much better stocked.

"As far as I recall," she said, trying to hide her nervousness about meeting a completely strange person, "there used to be more books in that shelf."

---
* Uriel still hadn't fully grasped the concept of "suspicious-looking books". In her opinion, any book that didn't imply that she was pregnant was perfectly good reading material.

From:

"And yet another who agrees with us. Good afternoon," Remus greeted her. "If it's such a problem, should we go to the higher-ups? If this library had proper care and upkeep..."

Remus smiled. "There's a boy named Adam I've heard about - he owns this place, doesn't he? We could ask him about it, if nothing else. I can go and talk to him about it, or a few of us could go."

He glanced down at the worn covers of the book he held, and half-laughed. "It's an odd world, you know. There's this man whom I work with - he's nice, but he loves books. Perhaps you know a Mr. Fell? He might- But maybe I'm mistaken, he does work at the front desk and we are understaffed as it is."

From:

"Kama Sutra for Tentacle Monsters, Uriel?" Loki shook his head at her. "What in the world do you want with that? Their anatomy isn't compatible with ours, you know."

"I'd rather not involve Adam." Loki told Remus. "Surely there is someone else we could turn to?"

"Ezra Fell? Haven't talked to him much, but he seems to be just the type. Keeps this large stack of books on the front desk, doesn't he? I don't think I've ever seen him without a book."

From:

Uriel shook her head as well, rolling her eyes. Making sure the strange man couldn't see the book's real title, she let its disguise slip long enough for Loki to see the real name, Perfect Pregnancy.

"I'm afraid Adam is the one to turn to," she said to Loki. "He more or less runs things around here. You don't have to talk with him personally, you know." She didn't know why Loki didn't trust Adam. Considering who the boy was, she had probably more of a reason to distrust him than the god.

"Ezra Fell?" Well, that name was certainly familiar. "I believe he even owned a book shop once. For a rather long time, too. He'd probably be the best librarian this Manor could get." She frowned then. "However, if that leaves us short of a receptionist..."

From:

"But we've got Remus here as a receptionist. We could just lock the doors outside of his working hours." When Loki had set his mind to something he didn't let such trivial things as practicality get in his way.

"Yes, Ezra. Why don't we just forget about Adam and go directly to Ezra?"

From:

Remus watched at the exchange between Loki and Uriel with a bemused look. "Actually I was happy working nights... but I'll be willing to work days again," he added, looking at the both of them.

"Isn't Adam the one paying us? Although we should talk to Mr. Fell - I'm not sure how pleased he'll be if it's a surprise."

From:

Uriel blinked. "But he does love books!" she exclaimed. "I am certain he would love to work as a librarian!" She was honestly confused that the stranger could even consider that such a surprise might be unpleasant to Aziraphale. She also honestly didn't even notice slipping to her more formal way of speaking. "He owned such a fine bookshop for centuries. Surely he could never object to receiving the chance to work with such vast amounts of literature again, however peculiar the choice of subjects among those books may be."

She looked at the man, realizing that Loki had called him by some name. What was it? Ah, yes, Remus. "Forgive me for forgetting my manners in such a rude way," she said then, forcing herself to forget her nervousness about facing a complete stranger. He was only a human, after all, even though his aura did bear the mark of a wizard. "I do fear we've failed to meet before."

From:

"See," agreed Loki happily. "No need to ask Adam."

From:

"You wanted to see me about somethin'?" asked Adam, stepping into the library. He waved a cheery hello to Uriel and Remus and smiled at Loki.

From:

Loki started, gave Adam a sidewards look, then as casually as he could make it stepped behind Uriel. Maybe it wasn't fair to expose the pregnant angel to danger like that, but she wasn't scared of Adam, carried daggers wherever she went and knew how to use them. Loki on the other hand felt sick and weak, had no idea how to counter Adam's powers and didn't even have a single wolf with him.

From:

Adam stepped forward, concern creasing his brow. "You feelin' okay, Loki?"

From:

Remus turned gracefully to the door, hiding his own surprise and a smile at Loki's antics. "Good afternoon, Adam," he said kindly. "I'm sure he's fine; you startled us. How long have you been there?"

From:

"I'm fine." Loki assured Adam hastily. "Just fine."

He retreated a little further behind Uriel.

From:

"Hi, Remus." Adam gestured back at the door. "I just walked in. What's up?" He peered at Loki again, clearly worried.

From:

"Well, we were wondering where certain pieces of literature have decided to disappear to," Uriel said. At the same time she made sure to stay between Loki and Adam. She had been both surprised and shocked when Loki had chosen to hide behind her, and she had no idea why he wanted to hide at all, but if Loki didn't want to face the Antichrist, it would be cruel to force him to do so.

"A suggestion was made, however," she continued, "that the Manor might benefit from a librarian. We even got as far as to suggest a person whom we considered good for such a task, but it would cause other, rather problematic questions as of who shall work where and when."

From:

Remus cleared his throat quietly. "We've suggested Mr. Fell."

From:

"I'm sure he'd like that," said Adam. "He can find all the books that've gone missin' and catalogue them and get them in order and stuff. But then who'd run the front desk?"

From:

Uriel could hardly believe she was even considering suggesting this. However, she needed something to do. And besides, sometimes the best way to hide something was to put it in plain sight. Perhaps, if she appeared to have nothing to hide, nobody would wonder about her female appearance.

So, despite herself, she spoke up as a thought crossed her mind. "Well... I could perhaps give it a try," she offered, a bit shyly. "I'm not exactly sure what to do, but if somebody could explain me the basic points of the task, I should be able to handle it just as well as anybody else. It is not like I have much else to do, anyway, so I would definitely have the time."

From: