The first day of Sentio's new job, Cacopheny went with him. He hid in the shadows, of course, so no one could see him and be upset by his presence, but he wanted to be there. He was curious, for one, about this library Sentio admired so much, and he wanted to support his bond in his new, exciting, and somewhat daunting adventure. Sentio knew he was there-- he didn't keep the bond closed as often, these days, what with his shadows being more cooperative, Sentio being more mature and able to handle them when they weren't, and Sentio's own nervous admission that he felt better knowing the half-demon was there and not... gone.

Not that Cacopheny had any intention of leaving. Not like that, not again. He wandered some, once winter and Akija's illness had passed-- he found he started getting restless when indoors for too many hours at a time, now, as if those months of running and being under the endless sky had taken away his last fears of open places-- but never too far, and never too long, and never without telling someone. Akija came with him, sometimes, and Chario, or sometimes Sentio when he was not busy with school, but he was content to learn the mountains around the city by himself while the others were busy.

The rest of the household all had things to do that did not include him, which bothered him a little. But what could he do? He practiced his magic, some, under Deiv's watchful eye and not under it. He read a little now and then, though it was more of a duty to make sure he didn't forget how than out of any enjoyment, like Sentio's avid reading. He cleaned the house a little, but it didn't really require as much time and attention as he had to give-- and besides, most of the shadows complained the whole time, making it an unpleasant chore.

When Sentio got his job-- an internship, he called it, not quite a job, but since Cacopheny wasn't entirely sure what the difference was, he used the easier word-- it made him wonder whether there was something he could do, like that. A job. Like what Akija did with her magic, selling charmed items through her father. Except his magic made dragons uncomfortable, and he really couldn't do the kinds of things with it Akija could do with hers. Most of his skills were only useful to him: hearing shadows, moving himself from place to place, using shadows to communicate or move things-- or restrain people-- and hiding weren't terribly useful to anyone else, not to mention there were usually more efficient means of doing the same thing other ways. He could affect a few things via their shadows, like keeping his coffee hot-- oh, claws, having his coffee back after his return was almost as good as having Akija back-- or making something a little heavier or lighter, but not much and that was harder to do.

And though he had heard that some people did it, selling sex simply wasn't an option. The only person who got that-- who would ever get that, he hoped, now-- wasn't going to pay him for it. She mostly really did it for him, not because she wanted anything more than to be touching, which was an odd enough situation to begin with, and besides, he wouldn't want to charge her for something he would freely give her to the best of his ability.

So really, the only things he was particularly good at-- magic and sex-- were pretty much useless in getting a job. Even Sentio couldn't come up with something he could do that he wanted to do and where someone would deign to hire him. Thus, he wandered around, avoiding people who weren't "family", and had plenty of time to invisibly follow his bond to work his first day.

The library was impressive, all right, and more than a little overwhelming. He was certain the burly "librarians" watching the door had sensed him, but because Sentio had his new badge-- and because they might have been warned that this new intern might have the scent of demon on him-- they let them through, anyway. Cacopheny, though he was already very small, bundled up in Sentio's shadow under his feet--

And we always thought being "walked all over" was a metaphor.

More of a lifestyle, really.

A familiar one, too.

How amusing to make it literal!

--he tried his best to make himself even smaller.

::It's okay,:: Sentio told him, sensing his nerves and reassuring him warmly. Inexplicably, that seemed to steady Sentio, himself. ::They wouldn't stop you, anyway. You have as much right to be here as any of us do.::

Cacopheny doubted most of the dragons here would feel the same way, but he sent the sense of a smile along his bond's shadow, anyway.

The fussy Water dragon who met Sentio didn't notice him, at least, so he relaxed once they were past the lobby and started on their tour. Sentio had been in here before, and Cacopheny had contacted him while he was here before, but neither had really seen the whole place. It was huge, and complicated, and full of more than just books on shelves in the main library floors. Below the parts where anyone could go, there were corridors full of old magic scrolls, artifacts, artwork, ancient suits of dragon-sized armor, the bones of long-dead creatures, anything Cacopheny could imagine and more. His head and Sentio's were both quite full before they got back to the main library.

"You've been on the main floors before, yes?" the Water-- who had introduced himself as Comance and who seemed oblivious to almost everything except the books which were his passion-- asked airily.

"Only a couple times," Sentio admitted, "and only with my professor showing me where to go."

Comance sighed. "I'll give you the tour of that, as well, then. It is where you will be working, so you must know it well, to direct people to what they need."

Sentio nodded eagerly, following after the awkward Water dragon and radiating determination to memorize this, at least, if nothing else. Cacopheny tried not to make his amusement too obvious and distracting, or embarrassing, but it really was funny to watch his bond try so hard and be so excited. It sounded terribly boring, to Cacopheny, though some of the things in the floors below had intrigued him as they had not interested Sentio. They didn't intrigue him enough, however, to make him want to go back down any time soon. No one would be glad to see him, he knew, and he was happier being unnoticed.

For the most part, Cacopheny ignored the droning explanations Comance gave for the different parts of the library, until one word caught his attention: "This is the section where we keep our demonic collection," the Water was saying. "It's mostly just for show; none of us can read it, though we keep trying, anyway. It may be an enchantment on the texts themselves, or it may be part of the same problem that keeps us from picking up and understanding their language: it's simply too different from ours, at the base."

Sentio purposefully kept his mouth shut about his own understanding of demon-speech, though Cacopheny could tell it was a struggle. Comance obviously hadn't caught the whiff of demon on him, and didn't recognize him as that Sentio Canaric, who had bonded a half-demon, and Sentio didn't want him to make that connection. Things would probably be easier that way.

"This is Oralia," Comance said, indicating a human-formed Earth dragon who looked like she would be happier in a forest clearing than a dark library, pouring over equally dark books. She was currently pouring over one of the demon-books, which was spread out over a massive, though human-height, table. "She's our best linguist, and she seems to take personal offense to being unable to work out the demon script."

She looked up long enough to wave and smile tightly, and Sentio smiled tentatively back, coming to peer over her shoulder. Cacopheny did, too, curious what his native speech would look like on paper. It was a jagged sort of squiggling, in a dark red ink, and went down the page instead of across like dragon-writing-- not to mention backwards, compared to dragon-writing. No wonder the dragons were having so much trouble figuring it out.

And then Tselienne smote her sister down with tooth and claw and took the family name, and all the power that went with it, for herself. Her brothers called her their leader, extolled her many strengths, and swore to her their fealty-- ugh, blood and claws, who wrote this shit?

Cacopheny was so startled he fell out of his shadow, landing heavily on his rear but hardly feeling the pain, staring at the book. Oralia let out a startled shriek and Comance danced back with a cry of surprise. Sentio, looking around a moment in panic, took a couple seconds to find what the problem was. "No, no, it's okay!" he exclaimed hurriedly, holding up a hand. "This is Cacopheny. Uh, he was-- he was--" Faltering on explaining exactly why a half-demon had come, invisible and unannounced, into the dragons' library, he shrugged helplessly.

"Trespassing?" Comance suggested, glaring.

"Spying?" Oralia squeaked from behind her hands.

"No, no, of course not! He was-- keeping me company."

It sounded rather pitiful, as an excuse.

"He vas nerfous," Cacopheny explained, picking himself up calmly. "I came so he vood not be. I vill leave if you vant, but I can rrrrread ssat." He pointed at the book. All three dragons stared at him, and he felt a little put out that even Sentio looked shocked. "Vat? I can."

"You said you couldn't read," Sentio said weakly. "Back in school."

"I couldn't read ssat." He cast the book in question a slightly suspcious look, himself. "And I had vorgotten I could read ssis."

Which, though it obviously confused the two librarians, Sentio understood perfectly. It was, after all, the truth. Even now, Cacopheny wasn't at all sure how he'd learned to read demon-script, but it was undeniable that he could. Rao had to have taught him, but he didn't remember it. Maybe one of the others did. He would have to ask them.

Oralia finally got over her surprise, and Comance was busy shooing away other dragons who had come to investigate the noise, or to scold them for being too loud. "You can read Caetran?" the Earth linguist asked excitedly.

He stared at her for a minute before he remembered "caetran" was the official word for "demon" and he nodded mutely.

"What does this say?" she pointed to the passage Almadir had just been reading.

"Issss about somevon killingk her sister and takingk over her family," he said, frowning at her. "It iss very dry."

"Oh, gods," Oralia breathed. "We'll get you whatever you need, if you just translate these for us." Her hand stroked the pages absently as she stared at him.

Sentio chuckled at his stunned expression. "Looks like you got your job."