The Obsidian Void

One: All Work, No Play

Twelve Years Later

Princess Artemis was spending her morning, as she often did nowadays, out on the training ground, sword in hand. As she expertly slashed her way through another batch of training dummies, she made a hasty retreat to scan two pages of the book she'd left to the side. Once she'd absorbed the pages' information on the functionality of land ownership taxes, she returned to slicing her way through inanimate enemies while muttering the passage over to herself.

She'd been repeating this cycle for at least half an hour now. Or at least, that was how long Monty had been watching her for. Who knew how long she'd actually been going for. He'd be surprised if it was anything less than an hour.

"Your majesty?" He said, hoping to break her from the endless loop for a moment.

Artemis looked up at the source of the distraction and sighed. "Yes Captain?"

Monty smiled at her annoyance, "You know, one of these days you're going to wear yourself out doing this Artie."

Artemis scowled and set down her sword, picking up the book and slowly reading through the next few pages.

"Is that all you wanted to tell me, Captain?"

Monty walked up to her and lowered the book, forcing Artemis to take a moment to acknowledge him.

"I came here to deliver a message to you." He said, "But I also wanted to make sure you were keeping yourself safe."

"I'm only getting some practice in Monty, I'm not exactly scaling a mountain here."

"I know, and I'm as impressed as ever by your dedication, but please make sure you're looking after yourself while you-"

"What was the message, Captain?" Artemis snapped.

Monty sighed in defeat. Artemis dismissing attempts to sway her from work had become a worrying trend recently, and it was starting to concern him more and more.

"You're needed at the library." He said, "Apparently it's very urgent."

"Yes, of course it is." Artemis replied, packing up her things and heading for the door, "Well thank you for letting me know Captain, I'll be on my way."

She turned her back on Monty and strode out of the training ground, planning to deal with this situation as quickly as possible so she could return to practice. In fact, since she was going to the library anyway, she might pick up a few new books while she was there.

***

Artemis pushed open the grand wooden door of Tuviera Library, stepping into the familiar foyer with its warm and welcoming atmosphere. She looked around for any sign of someone waiting for her, noticing a stray pile of books on a nearby table. Looking at them closer, it seemed as if someone had recently been reading a number of old legends and folktales.

As much as she wanted to focus on the task at hand, Artemis found herself fighting an urge to curl up on a chair by the library fireplace and flick through their pages. It'd been so long since she'd had a chance to indulge herself the way she had when she was a kid.

She was snapped out of her longing daze when a familiar voice began bouncing off the library walls.

"Artie! You made it!"

Artemis turned her focus to the top floor and the figure at the top of the stairs.

"Hello Quinn. I presume it was you who called for me?"

"Presume?" Quinn laughed, running down the stairs two at a time, "That's a fancy word, I'm not a visiting dignitary Art."

Artemis rolled her eyes and approached the bottom of the staircase, somehow even less enthused about being here than she had been before.