After a tense moment, Ylva nodded. “We understand. We will be with you shortly.”
With that, the demon turned and began walking back towards her throne.
The attendant, Nel, took Juliana by the hand and led her off through one of the archways around the ring.
“Come on,” she said, “it’s just over here. We have snacks and drinks if you’re interested.”
The tone of her voice made Juliana think the attendant was slightly too excited. While her eyes were still shadowed by her cowl, she sported a large smile.
“We don’t get many visitors apart from Eva and she never spends all that much time here. Technically I’m free to leave and wander–”
She continued talking, but she also pushed open a set of doors. Juliana lost all track of Nel’s voice as she stared, open-mouthed, straight up.
Walls of books stretched so high into the sky that they faded off into the clouds. There were no ladders and no staircases, just endless walls of books. The room itself wasn’t that large, perhaps half the size of the school’s cafeteria.
The sheer height made Juliana dizzy. She had to force herself to look back down.
Dark wood made up most of the floor. A dark red rug had been laid out in the center. Three human sized chairs and one Ylva sized chair were arranged around a small coffee table.
“Extraordinary, isn’t it?” Nel also stared up at the sky. Her hood had fallen off of her head to reveal short black hair. “There are tons of places like this here. Some rooms are more plain, but then you come across things like this and it is just like, ‘wow.'”
Juliana approached the nearest section of the bookshelves. Her hand ran over the spines of the books. Not a single one had a readable title. She walked around the entire room to find none of the ones she could reach had English titles.
Turning back to the center of the room, Juliana found Nel seated in one of the chairs. Once again, her hood was pulled down to cast most of her face into shadow.
“Tea?” Nel asked with a tilt of her head. She was already pouring a glass from a very ornate, silver teapot that Juliana must have missed when she first walked in. A small plate of cookies sat out as well.
“Sure.” Juliana walked over and took the seat nearest to the attendant. “You weren’t here back in November.”
“Nope. I have only been here two… three… has it been a month already? What day is it?”
“Last weekend of March. Saturday the twenty-sixth.”
“Almost a month then. It’s hard to tell without any clocks or sun. I sleep when I’m tired which I think is different from my usual sleep schedule. Whatever that means. I can’t say I had any kind of regular sleep schedule since before November. It is much nicer this way, I’d say.”
Juliana took a sip of her tea as the girl continued to talk. It had a slight tangy taste to it, not one she could place. Not surprising; Juliana didn’t consider herself any kind of tea sommelier.
The girl herself twittered on about her living conditions at such a rapid pace, Juliana could barely understand half of it.
“So,” Juliana said as Nel’s ramblings died down, “am I to ask you questions?”
“No. I mean, not unless you want to. Like I said, I’m new to all this stuff. I’m sure Lady Ylva will answer any questions about herself far better than I could.”
“Ah,” Juliana said as she took another sip, “I’d have expected someone who constantly lives here to know about the owner.”
“I inadvertently bound myself to her service for an indefinite period of time. It isn’t bad,” she said quickly. “I have yet to catch her trying to murder me.”
“Speaking from experience?”
“You could say that I’m well versed in knowing when the person I currently serve is trying to get rid of me.”
Juliana didn’t know what to make of that. She took another sip of her tea instead of commenting.
Without a conversation going, Juliana sank into the surprisingly comfortable armchair. She leaned back and stared at the sky. It wasn’t blue, but white. It looked a lot like a wide version of the column of light over Ylva’s throne.
“Um, you’re Eva’s friend, right?”
“I suppose so.”
“I don’t–I mean, she doesn’t seem to like me very much.”
Juliana took a long drink of her tea while she waited for the attendant to continue.
It took a lot longer than Juliana expected. The girl fidgeted and sighed several times before she finally continued.
“I’d have asked your professor since she seems closer to my age, but I don’t think she likes me much either. She definitely doesn’t like Lady Ylva.”
“So I noticed.”
“Lady Ylva is very kind to me, far kinder than I expected in any case, but she isn’t much for talking. It’s been a long time since I’ve had regular conversation, you know?”
Juliana didn’t, but she nodded along anyway.
“Even before I got here, I was practically isolated from everyone. I was just wondering if maybe you would stop by once in a while.”
“I don’t have a way of getting here on my own. I can’t teleport or anything.”
“Oh,” Nel’s shoulders slumped down and her face hid further beneath her hood, “I understand if you don’t want to.”
