Work Text:
Sasha, on principle, tried not to stay at the Institute after hours.
Her hours were 8 to 5, Monday through Friday. No earlier, no later. She arrived on the dot, and routed her way to and from the London underground. It hadn’t always been like that. The first month that she worked at the institute, she spent hours in the library, researching. She had been hired for the artifacts division, but her employee badge granted access to what she truly wanted. Knowledge.
Gertrude found her there. Piles of files and three books encased in plastic boxes, and a bin of disorganized photographs that hadn’t been assigned to the right artifact yet.
“Hard at work, I see.”
Sasha jumped, bumping her head against the bottom of the desk. She crawled out from under it, the fallen files now stuffed under one arm. An older woman stood in front of her. Her large cardigan should have swallowed her, but instead it was somehow menacing. Her hair was in a tight bun, with a pair of glasses attached to a silver chain perched on her nose. There was a soft clicking as she tapped her left foot.
Sasha was a foot taller, but that did not matter in the face of Gertrude Robinson.
“Hello..?” Sasha offered a hand out to her.
Gertrude stared down her nose at it, before taking it into a strong grip. She shook once, swiftly, before dropping her hand back down.
“I see where some of my files have gone.” Gertrude said, taking a file from Sasha’s arm.
“Uh- I, well.” Sasha glanced over at the rest of the desk, quickly pushing some files that she knew she shouldn’t have under her notebook. Gertrude snorted and Sasha’s face burned.
“You work in artifact storage, correct?” Gertrude peered up at her before looking back down at Sasha’s file.
“Yeah?” Sasha said. Gertrude stared at her again, and she straightened her shoulders.
“I mean, Yes.” Sasha said, leveling her gaze with Gertrudes.
“Do you like it?” Gertrude began to organize the files in her arms and on the desk in front of her, pushing the photograph bin over to the edge. Sasha watched as she seemed to choose a random order. She frowned as Gertrude finally went to grab her notebook.
Gertrude paused, raising an eyebrow at Sasha.
Sasha’s eyes widened as she realized she had been asked a question.
“I don’t think anyone would truthfully say yes to that.” Sasha said, laughing slightly.
Gertrude smiled at this, and stepped away from the desk. She still had Sasha’s notebook in hand. She perused a few pages. Sasha stood still, biting her lip and twisting one of her long black braids.
“What do you know about Leitners?” Gertrude asked suddenly, snapping the notebook shut.
“Leitners? Evil books- each with its own intent and purpose, often very powerful. We seem to call any awful book a leitner, although not every book we have is actually marked with the Leitner Library marking.” Sasha grabbed at the first information that popped up in her mind. Sasha thought for another minute, and took her chance, leaning onto the table facing Gertrude full on.
“I actually have a theory. I think that all these books are clues to something bigger. Each of them have such specific curses? I guess you could call it? But they each lead back to very common human fears.” Sasha glanced around for one of the clear, plastic boxes that held the books.
“Like this one. It’s a maze book- it looks like one of the ones I had as a kid. But when you start going through it, you get stuck and can’t get back out- we’ve only had one person reportedly escape.”
“And what common human fear would a puzzle book lead you to?” Gertrude asked.
“That’s just it- you have to walk around as if you are in that maze. It’s our world, but it’s the maze’s reality. I think it’s the fear of madness- I mean think of Nero in Rome.”
Gertrude stared at her for some time, a small smile tugging at her mouth. Sasha shifted awkwardly, stacking the three files she had pulled out.
“You have a few more than this in storage, don’t you?” Gertrude asked.
“Yeah, three or four.” Sasha pulled a face, “I had to write in one. The Memory book. I still don’t know what I lost to it.” She shuddered slightly.
Gertrude made a similar face of disgust.
“And you haven’t tried burning it?” Gertrude asked.
“It’s knowledge.” Sasha said, frowning.
“Some knowledge is too dangerous.” Gertrude said. She leaned forward. “You seem very intelligent. You should consider becoming an archival assistant, I could use some brains around me.”
“Whose brain do you need?” A new voice joined them, and a young man stood by the table. He had dark brown hair and tanned skin, and dimples.
“Oh, Tim. Hello dear, how are you?” Gertrude seemed to shrink before Sasha’s eyes. She was now more cardigan than woman, and she leaned slightly on the desk as if she was missing a cane.
“Elias sent me looking for you, said he had some important things to discuss. Much too high for my pay grade.” Tim smiled at Gertrude, offering out his arm.
“Have you met Sasha?” Gertrude’s voice now slightly wavered and her bun of gray hair now gave an almost grandmotherly look.
Sasha narrowed her eyes at the old woman. She winked at Sasha as Tim extended his hand out to her.
“I’m Tim.” He said. He smiled widely, and Sasha noticed a small gold earring on his left ear.
“Nice to meet you.” Sasha said, taking his hand.
“I can’t believe we’ve never met. Are you a researcher here?” Tim asked, dropping his hand back to his side. Gertrude rested against his other arm, but she still held Sasha’s notebook, which she was flipping through again.
“I work in Artifacts Storage.” Sasha said. She reached out, grabbing onto her notebook. Gertrude looked up at her, her cold stare back for a second before a smile flickered onto her face.
“I’ll just be needing that back.” Sasha said, smiling widely.
Gertrude held on tight to the book, her thumb holding the book open to the middle. She stared at Sasha, smiling back.
Sasha smiled a little wider.
Gertrude relinquished the book back to Sasha. Tim glanced between the two of them, his eyebrows raised in a silent question. Sasha shrugged, smiling at him and flouncing back down into her office chair. She folded the open page and stuck her notebook into her satchel before flipping open one of her files.
“Well Elias waits for no one. Lead on.” Gertrude said, leaning into Tim’s arm. She pulled her cardigan tight around her shoulder and smiled at Sasha.
“It was lovely meeting you, Sasha dear.”
“Likewise.” Sasha said, watching as she and Tim walked out into the rest of the library. As soon as they were out of sight, Sasha reached for her satchel. She pulled out the notebook and opened it to the page that Gertrude had been looking at.
It was blank.