James Islington - The Shadow Of What Was Lost

She looked up as voices approached, cutting through the relative silence of the library.

“I apologise, Administrator Gil. I just don’t know where it is.” It was Raden, one of the dozen or so other Shadows who lived at the Tol. He sounded frightened.

“Look harder.” Gil’s tone was curt, bordering on angry. Only a few rows of shelves separated Asha from Raden and Gil now; she could hear everything they were saying clearly.

“Perhaps if you waited until Haliden returned,” Raden said, a note of panic in his voice. “We’re only in here for transcription, but he’s the librarian -”

“I don’t have time to waste waiting on that El-cursed Bleeder,” said Gil coldly. “Fates, I’m not even supposed to be in this El-cursed situation to begin with. So find me the El-cursed book before I lose my temper.”

“But -”

Asha leapt to her feet as there was a crashing sound. She darted along the aisle to see an entire bookshelf had been toppled, with Raden lying helplessly on top, a look of shock on his black-scarred face. The short, squat man in the blue Administrator’s cloak loomed above him.

“What are you doing?” she exclaimed.

The Administrator didn’t take his eyes off Raden. “Nothing that concerns you, girl. Best you stay out of it.”

A flash of anger washed through Asha. “I certainly will not,” she said, stepping closer.

Gil turned and there was a blur of motion; the next thing Asha knew she was on the floor, shaking her head dazedly, tasting blood.

She twisted to stare up at Gil in shock, not quite believing what had just happened.

“You can’t do that,” she said, running her tongue over her split lip. Her astonishment turned quickly to anger. “You can’t just hit -”

“Of course I can. Who’s going to stop me?” Gil replied, tugging his cloak as if to prove the point. His weasly eyes gazed at her in amusement.

A wave of fury swept over Asha, and she scrambled to her feet.

“Lissa. It’s okay.” Raden was only a little older than Asha, but he spoke with the resigned, dolorous heaviness that many of the Shadows she’d met had taken on. As if any life, any joy had been sucked out of him. “It was my fault. Administrator Gil was right to chastise me.”

Asha hesitated, as she still did every time someone used her new name. Then she gaped at Raden, gesturing at the books scattered across the floor. “He attacked you because you couldn’t find the book he wanted. That’s not even your job .”

“It was my fault,” Raden insisted.

“You should listen to him, girl,” said Gil, not even looking in her direction. “You’re fairly new here, so I won’t give you the beating you deserve. Next time, though….”

Asha’s anger flared again; she made to move towards Gil, but a hand on her shoulder restrained her. She turned to see Jin standing behind her, the unofficial leader of the Shadows at the Tol shaking his head in silent warning.

Asha hesitated a moment, then with an effort let her taut muscles relax.

Gil looked up a second later, nodding to himself when he saw she wasn’t protesting. “Good. You’re learning,” he said cheerfully.

Then he noticed Jin, and his face paled a little.

"Administrator Gil," said Jin with cold politeness.

The blue-cloaked man looked uncertain for a moment, then his face hardened. "You need to get your people into line, Jin," he snarled.

Jin looked unconcerned. "Did you do this?" He gestured to the fallen bookshelf, then at Asha. "Did you strike Lissa?"

"She tried to interfere -"

"You’re overstepping." Jin said the words softly, but there was a definite menace to them.

Gil scowled. "I don’t think -"

Jin stepped close to the Administrator, right up to his face so that the height difference between the two was accentuated. Then he leaned down, whispering something in the other man’s ear.

When he’d finished, Gil had gone white as a sheet. He turned back to Raden, looking more sick than angry now. “You’d better make sure Haliden finds me that book as soon as he returns, or… there will be consequences.” His tone was unconvincing this time.

“Of course,” said Raden obsequiously, bobbing his head.

Still looking shaken, Gil left without another word.

Nobody moved until Gil had exited the room. As soon as he was gone, Raden scrambled to his feet and rounded on Asha.

“You’re lucky you didn’t make him angrier,” he said furiously, brushing himself off. “What were you thinking? Acting like that only puts us all in danger, you know.” He turned to Jin. "And you. I know what you said to him, and I want nothing to do with that. I’m not going to -"

“Enough, Raden.” Jin held up his hand. “Lissa has only been here a few days; I did it for her sake, not yours. If he harasses you again, I won’t intervene. You have my word." He sighed. "You should get cleaned up, and then get back to work.”

Raden muttered something under his breath, but gave a brusque nod and walked away.

Asha stared after him in astonishment. She touched her lip gingerly; it was swollen, but would heal soon enough. “I was just trying to help.”

Jin gave her a rueful look. “I know. A lot of Shadows are just convinced that they’re not worth helping, unfortunately.”

She turned to him. “Isn’t there… something we can do about Gil? Can’t we report him?”

Jin smiled, though there wasn’t much amusement in the expression. He was perhaps thirty, though the black lines across his face made telling his age difficult. Asha thought he would have been handsome before becoming a Shadow; his curly black hair framed strong features and piercing hazel eyes. “To whom? Administration?”

Asha hesitated. Administration wouldn’t lift a finger to even investigate the accusations of a few Shadows. “The Council?”

Jin shook his head. “They’d be sympathetic, of course. To an extent. But they have about as much control over the Administrators as we do.”

Asha gritted her teeth in frustration. This wasn’t the first time she’d seen Shadows being treated poorly since she’d started working here – mostly by Administrators, occasionally by the Gifted. It was the first time it had been anything worse than verbal abuse, though. She hadn’t thought that sort of thing would be allowed to happen within the walls of the Tol.

"What did you say to him, to make him leave?" she asked eventually.

Jin hesitated, giving her a considering look.

"I told him you were under the Shadraehin’s protection," he said. "Have you heard of him?"

Asha shook her head at the unfamiliar name. "No."

Jin watched her for a long moment, then nodded to himself, gesturing for her to follow him. "There’s something I want to show you. Something I think you will appreciate." He held up a hand as he saw her questioning glance. "I can’t explain here. Just trust me on this."

Asha frowned. "Very well," she said, trying not to sound skeptical.

They left the library and were soon winding their way down several unfamiliar passageways, the flow of red cloaks around them steadily decreasing as they walked further into the Tol. Finally they entered a short hallway that was entirely abandoned, with only one door at its end. Jin stopped in front of the sturdy-looking oak and after checking that there was no-one else around, produced a key.

The lock clicked and the door swung open on well-oiled hinges, revealing a dimly lit staircase spiralling downward.

Asha stared at it. "Where exactly are we going?"

Jin glanced over his shoulder again. "It’s something only a few of us Shadows know about. And we’ll be in trouble if we’re caught going down here, so we should get inside," he said quickly. He grimaced as he saw the uncertainty on her face. "You want to know why Gil backed off? The answer is down here."