Keeper of the Lost Cities: Rebuild [COMPLETED]

Chapter Forty-One - JENSI

"If I were a Pyrokinetic, I would totally light this place up," Jeri breathed as she walked into Ulla's library. If she hadn't spoken, maybe Jensi would have believed she was in awe of the enormity of the place—books stacked from ceiling to floor across the whole room—but there was no chance of that now.

"You have a thirteen-year-old pyromaniac as a Foxfire student," Amy said, raising a brow. "No wonder so many people are anti-Pyrokinetic."

"Uh, Pyrokinesis is the most epic ability of them all," Jeri argued.

"And that thinking is what got our world into so much trouble in the first place," added Jensi.

Amy rolled her eyes. "Relax, guys, it was a joke. Ever heard of humor?"

"HUMOR IS MY SERVANT!" Jeri bellowed, to Jensi's frantic shushing. Ulla didn't allow him or Fernan in the library, but she was taking a nap, plus it was the oldest library Jensi could think of other than the Archives. With the humans being reinstated, the Council had also started a History Education program through the elves' major library—which meant it was packed almost all the time.

Jensi wasn't worried, though; if any information on anything was somewhere other than the Archives, it would be here.

Except... he didn't really know what he was looking for.

"So, is this place alphabetized or sorted in genre?" Amy asked. When Jensi gave her a blank stare, she let out a hysterical giggle. "Categorized by age range? Word count? Anything?"

"Maybe we should figure out what to prioritize first," he suggested, before she could have a mental breakdown. When he studied the place, he understood completely why it was so intimidating. There must have been thousands of books, maybe more, all on shelves that spanned over a dozen in count on each separate wall. Floor-to-ceiling windows, thick red drapes held up by a mechanism above them, broke apart the monotony of the bookcases. It was like a library for giants.

"What are we 'prioritizing'?" Jeri asked, scowling. "That sounds like something an old, stiff lady would say."

"Ye old stiff lady, what direction shall we head in first?" Amy asked in a fake accent, flourishing into a bow.

Jeri giggled, but Jensi only rolled his eyes. "We need to help." He left out what he was really thinking—that if they didn't figure something out, that would mean they—he—was useless. Just like always.

"Branch out, look for really old books," he said. "The Purities don't like the humans—there must be a reason. And if there's one to be found here, it'll be in an ancient document talking about human-elvin relations. At the very least we'll find out our world's complicated history, which could help the Council repair relations with the other species."

"Don't you think the Purities just hate the humans because they do?" Amy wondered as she went to the nearest shelf and started scanning the texts.

"I don't believe hate is born from nothing. There has to be a reason—even if their parents indoctrinated them or something, they had a reason for what they believed. It stems from somewhere."

Amy sighed, and Jensi watched her as her gaze followed Jeri until the young elf had pranced off. When she was gone, Amy met Jensi's eyes, then glanced away quickly. "So... you've thought about this a lot," she said slowly, pulling out a tome and flipping through its pages.

"Well, the Purities have been a problem for a year now, so... I've considered things before."

She snapped the book closed with a bam. "And do you think it's the right way to approach everything—the Human Reinstatement Program?"