Chapter Text
Deacon, Chase, Prunella, and the keys found themselves rushing home in a hurry.
After the discovery of the Ex Libris book, the group had stood there in shock before Deacon promptly shoved the book in his jacket and zipped it closed. They all made a silent agreement to smuggle it back home and read it there.
That’s where they found themselves now, in the now dark house. They had rushed by the kitchen on the way up to the attic, making their way past the now forgotten casserole on the stove. Grandpa Ralph must have been occupied at the time, as he wasn’t in the kitchen or dining room.
They would hopefully see him later, after they figured out what to do with the Ex Libris book.
As they made it to Chase’s room, Deacon was already taking the book out from the inside of his jacket, shoving it under his armpit as he was the first to climb up the ladder to the attic. The others followed him, and they found themselves panting once secured in the room.
“…okay,” Chase huffed out between breaths, “…what do we do now?”
The keys, now set down on the table where they usually kept the books that were to be entered, were deep in contemplation. They seemed worried.
Deacon sighed as he set the book down on the same table as the keys. “Well, I’m getting the impression that we need to… enter the book?”
Prunella spoke up then, “well, duh.” After a pause, she added, “can I come?”
“Kid—” Chase started.
“Fine,” Deacon sighed. “I feel like you would enter the book regardless of what we say.” He turned his head to the book as Prunella did a little celebratory jump, “should we… read it, first?”
Chase, still reeling from Deacon’s immediate permission towards Prunella, shook his head to clear his doubt. “Well, maybe that would be smart, actually,” he muttered.
The three humans glanced hesitantly at the leather-bound book. The gold letters on the cover only seemed to taunt them.
The keys watched on in worry as Chase stepped forward, grabbing the smooth book in his hands. He briefly wondered what would happen once he flipped the pages, but his wondering didn’t last too long.
As he opened the book, he was… practically blinded by the light that shone out.
“Agh—!” Bright rays of golden light immediately poured out of the open pages, and Chase almost forgot how to function.
“Dude—! Close the damn book!” Deacon yelled, his eyes shut tight as he attempted to shield Prunella from the assaulting brightness.
“Shit—!” Chase gritted his teeth as he forced the book closed. Closing the book was harder than he thought it would be, like his body was refusing to work right. Eventually, the book shut tight and he threw it to the ground; luckily, it didn’t open back up as he threw it. “…sorry, guys, I panicked.”
The book sat, seemingly harmless, on the floor. Everyone stared at it, suddenly much more nervous than they had been previously.
Silver finally spoke up after a moment of whispering to her fellow keys, “I’m not sure opening it is the way to go, Chase…”
“Well, no duh,” Chase sassed, annoyed. Upon realizing his mistake, he quickly backtracked, “wait, no, sorry. I’m not mad, I’m just…” he sighed, “frustrated, is all.”
Silver frowned but nodded, understanding. “It’s okay, Chase, I understand you’re scared—”
“I’m not scared—!”
“And we all are. It’s okay!” Silver reached an arm out to him, and Chase quickly extended a finger to hold her hand with. She patted it gently, “we’re in quite the situation, Chase. You're so close to finding out everything about Ex Libris. About us keys. About your buddy.” Chase blushed and looked away, “and I’ve found that knowledge is terrifying, Chase. So it’s okay to be frightened.”
Silver took in a deep breath, continuing when Chase looked back to her, “we’re in this together. All of us.” She looked pointedly at her family, and both Goldie and Bronze nodded in agreement (although Bronze did so reluctantly).
Chase stared at Silver with gratitude in his eyes. “Thank you, Silver, really. No matter what happens… I’ll protect you guys. And we’ll save your family.”
Silver nodded hesitantly. “Okay… then, I think the next step would be to enter us into the book.”
Chase frowned, but Deacon beat him to his next question, “Wait… if this really is it, and we end up finding out what’s up with Ex Libris, then… how will you guys join us in the book? You won’t know what we do in the book unless you’re there with us, and there’s no way you could enter the book as yourselves—!”
Bronze took his time to interrupt his holder. “That’s where things get confusing,” he said slowly, and everyone stopped to look at the key, “once we enter the book, we most likely won’t be in key form. Since this is probably an entrance, that means as soon as we keys enter, then we will enter as our keyple selves, as you all call it.”
Chase’s eyes had widened as Bronze spoke, “so… this is really the entrance to Ex Libris?”
Bronze stared at him out of the corner of his eyes, skeptical, “…it’s one of the entrances. And the only entrance I know about as of now.”
The humans all glanced at the book sitting innocently on the floor.
Stupid book entrance thingie, Chase thought grumpily. Acting like it’s not taunting us right now.
The book proceeded to continue lying there tranquilly.
Deacon sighed after the heavy silence, lifting his head, “okay, then. That means there’s only one thing left to do.”
The group nodded in agreement. After mysteries and clues, Buddy and Olive, they had finally found what they had been looking for since the beginning. Since Chase had first gotten Silver. It was time to enter Ex Libris.
They now had access to everything; the rest of the keys, the secrets to Ex Libris… and Buddy. Chase had a feeling deep in his gut that this was it. He would finally see Buddy in person… Chase wondered if he was any different in person from how he was in the books.
But Chase couldn’t imagine that. He liked Buddy just the way he was.
Now he just had to mentally prepare.
The group shuffled around in their last preparations for their entry. Chase still had his backpack, so he just kept it with him as he hung back to carefully pick the book up and place it on the table. They were really doing this, for real this time. The thought couldn’t seem to process in his head. His fingers traced the book’s spine as he contemplated.
A small, gentle hand stopped his fussing over the book, and he quickly took his hand away. “Sorry, Silver,” he said as he noticed the key, “I just… I know your family is in there, and they need saving…”
“You don’t have to be brave for us,” Silver reminded him sternly, “we can do that for ourselves. What matters is that you put yourself first, as we all will for ourselves.” She took her hand away, lifting her chin to meet Chase’s eyes, “we will always be a team, but I need you to not be selfless and to look after yourself. Whatever happens, happens, and it’ll all be okay.”
Chase frowned, not understanding. “Silver, what do you mean by…”
However, before he could finish, someone was tapping him on his wrist. Chase looked down to see Prunella, who was holding up her backpack, silently asking him to check if her packing was okay.
Chase ruffled through the backpack idly as he thought back to Silver’s words. Why was she so adamant about him taking care of himself..? Was she afraid he might sacrifice himself or something?
…Now that he thought about it, that could be the logical reason behind her words…
Disturbed, Chase left Prunella to repack once he found that she had only stuffed survival gear into her backpack. Although, maybe the few snack bars could be helpful… but binoculars?
Once everyone was deemed ready, they stood around the leather-bound book that was set on the table, bags in hand.
“This is it,” Deacon said softly.
“…yah…” Chase mumbled, shifting his feet.
Prunella crossed her arms, “well, let’s get this over with, then!” Since no one else was making the first move, she gently picked up Goldie, everyone else following suit with their respective keys.
“We shall vanquish the Enemy, young Pru!” Goldie proclaimed before ultimately popping into his key form. The other keys followed suit, not after a gentle pat on Chase’s thumb from Silver.
The holders stood at attention around the book, and Chase was the first to make a move this time. Reaching out a shaking arm, he slowly entered the key into the book, the other two hesitantly following suit. Upon twisting at the count of three, a bright, blinding golden light filled the dark room, and the holders all disappeared with a loud, ringing pop.
Chase was falling face first, clouds zipping past his head as he plummeted. His eyes watering, he could vaguely see towering island mountains and a vast ocean through his tears. Before a scream could rip out his throat, there was a flash, and he wasn’t falling anymore.
He landed hard on his knees in a… oh no… not again…
Another stupid library.
Chase could do nothing but to kneel in despair. Not… not another one…
Okay, in retrospect, that would actually be pretty obvious since they were now in Ex Libris.
Oh shit… we’re now in Ex Libris…
Chase lifted his head to observe his surroundings, but before he could get a good look, he heard a small oof next to him and saw that it was silver… still in her small-person form, but there regardless.
So Bronze wasn’t lying about the keys being able to enter as well…
Chase looked down at himself to see that he was still wearing the clothes he had been wearing previous to entering the book, which just so happened to be his teal hoodie.
He heard multiple more small and big oofs as he went over to make sure Silver was okay. She was rubbing her head, glancing around the library, her eyes showing no signs of recognition. That made sense, since she did say that she had mainly not been let outside the box Ex Libris kept the keys in.
The other keys and holders were all groaning at the harsh landing, slowly getting to their feet. Chase got up too, and finally got a good look at the library. It was full of towering shelves, books packed tight into every space they could fill. Although everything was massive and tall, it resembled an almost normal library. Nothing was special about it; in fact, it was quite small compared to other libraries Chase had been to.
Deacon caught on to Chase’s thought process as well, “do you think this is, like… a side library, or something?”
Chase was frowning as he settled Silver onto his shoulder and pulled his hood up. It was strange… maybe this was just a doorway to a bigger library? That is what Ex Libris was, right?
Before anyone could ask any more questions, they all froze in their spots when they heard… footsteps, just outside a large wooden door at the front of the library.
With frightened gazes at one another, the group began to scramble chaotically, running in all different directions. Chase whisper-shouted at everyone as he found a separate door, “get in, get in!” He commanded, opening up the door for everyone and ushering them into the broom closet.
The footsteps became louder as the door closed behind them. Chase would have asked for a headcount had he not just heard the door to the library quietly open and shut. No one let out so much as a peep as footsteps came closer.
As Chase listened, he noticed that the footsteps seemed light, like that of a child, yet confident.
The footsteps came closer to the door, and to everyone’s surprise, a voice came along with it. A young boy spoke quietly enough that Chase had to strain his ears, “the alarm just went off, it was somewhere around here…”
A small voice spoke back, too quiet to hear, and the boy chuckled nervously, “you think it’s them? Are you sure?” The voice said something back. “Maybe…” the boy mumbled, “we would have to put our plan into action if they’re here, then. Not that there’s much of a plan now…”
As the two voices got closer, the group managed to hear the second person, all of them holding their breaths. “We have enough of a plan, Corbin. That is all that matters.”
An audible gasp rang from the keys as they heard the voice, quickly covering their mouths. There was a pause in the footsteps just outside the door, and then suddenly there was the sound of the person charging forward and turning the door knob that led to the very broom closet they were hiding in.
Chase could do nothing as the dim library light poured into the closet, the group staring in shock at…
A dark-skinned boy, maybe around twelve, holding… a crystal key person in his hand.
Goldie, Silver, and Bronze, gasped even louder at seeing the key. “Nini!” They all exclaimed, suddenly struggling to get down from their holders. Upon being set onto the ground, the keys rushed up to the see-through key who was also gently placed on the floor.
The keys all embraced as Chase stared on in wonder. “Nini..? He thought aloud, noticing that the key person looked much older than the other keys. He glanced up to see the kid, Corbin, staring down at the reunion, before slowly meeting Chase’s eyes.
“They're the parent key, Crystal ,” is all he quietly explained.
Chase wondered vaguely why the boy hadn’t reacted strongly to their arrival, but he could question that later. He glanced back down along with the other holders, somewhat in shock. Silver and Crystal (or ‘Nini,’ as the keys called them) were the only two crying, but it seemed both Goldie and Bronze were very close to doing so as well. They were all taking turns hugging and laughing, greeting each other in a way that displayed nothing but a family bond.
Chase watched with a strange feeling in his chest, bittersweet. He knew what it was like to have a parent, but he also knew what it was like to lose one, too. He was glad that the keys had one, at least. That made him genuinely happy for his little friends.
Deacon seemed to notice Chase’s conflicting emotions and gently placed a hand on his cousin’s shoulder. Chase silently nodded at the comforting interaction.
Once the keys finally wiped their tears away and ended their greetings, the boy, Corbin, finally spoke up, “I’m assuming you’re the imposters,” he said promptly.
Deacon, Prunella, and Chase shuffled awkwardly. “Uh… if you mean we’re the ones who found Silver first, then yes, we’re the imposters,” Chase muttered.
Corbin nodded, “well, that’s the end of that, I suppose.” His eyes hardened, “you guys will do.”
“Uh… do what—?” Deacon started, but Corbin interrupted.
“Come, we don’t have much time. We must make haste; the guards might patrol this area soon.” With that, he scooped up Crystal and the rest of the keys and turned on his heel out the doorway.
The group all but fell out of the cramped broom closet as they attempted to get out in an orderly manner. They scrambled after the brisk-paced boy (seriously, the fact that an eleven or twelve-year old had longer legs than Chase was just down-right evil) as he hurried to a small nook deep within the library.
He reached up to one of the higher-up shelves, and, on his tippy-toes, used his finger tips to pull a book towards himself.
And then the wall to their right ultimately sunk into the ground.
Chase and the group gaped at the secret entryway, which led to a dark passage, as Corbin stepped in.
“C’mon!” He called, making a large gesture with his arm to get them to follow him, “it’s not like there’s spiders or anything… well, at least not ones that bite.” He grinned mischievously before disappearing behind the wall.
Sharing worried glances, the only thing Deacon, Prunella, and Chase could do now was follow the boy who could either lead them to their deaths or to the keys.