Cold feet
Deep in the bowels of the Library, something was happening to a certain deck of cards. Unfortunately (or fortunately) no one was around to notice because it was smack dab in the middle of the night (actually early early morning but let's not ruin the story). Colors wriggled and waggled, jumped and slid, moving with a life all it's own. Before long a pair of tiny feet slapped down onto the chilly stone floor. Whispering a soft shuffle, the small body slipped over to the other side of the room, leaving behind the dull lifeless deck of cards.
For a moment the body stopped and struggled with something on it's feet. It wobbled and wobbled before falling over with a muffled thud. Shadow's from the candle on the wall wobbled for a moment obscuring the activity by the bed. When the light steadied, whatever the figure had been doing was finished. Carefully it clambered up onto the bed, worming it's way down under the blankets. Turning around the figure scooted close to the woman already in bed. As it fell asleep, the figure tucked it's chilled feet against the human heater.
"Iian..." Nara complained sleepily, twisting away from the icicles that were brushing up against her upper thighs. The ice chased after her despite the woman's attempts. Forced to actually wake up Nara huffed. Blinking the sleep away from her eyes Nara sat up in her bed.
"Iian. I said-" The woman's jaw dropped open at the toddler now sharing her bed. If it weren't for her job's propensity for creating random toddlers, it was entirely probable that one of the scrolls spontaneously unsealed. With a heavy sigh, Nara closed her eyes, concentrating.
Her eyes flew open and stared down at the red-headed toddler. Trying her hardest not to curse, the woman slowly stood up on her bed. Trying her hardest not to rock the bed, Nara gingerly stepped over the toddler. The boy rolled over restlessly but didn't wake.
As soon as her feet touched the floor Nara hightailed it out of there. The woman skidded into the hallway, stumbling on the slight change in the floor level.
Slap, slap, slap! went the bare feet through the halls of the Musaeum. "Iian! IIAN!"
With a slam, one of the doors flew open. Iian came stumbling outside, half-dressed. Grabbing the man's arm, Nara began dragging him back towards hall with her room. Skidding into the hall, she finally began to slow the pace. "He's asleep so keep quiet."
"He?" Iian replied quietly. "Shh..." Nara whispered, gesturing towards the door. The man nodded and ghosted over to the door, feet whispering against the floor. Bending around the door-jamb, he scanned the room. Not seeing anything particularly out of place, he stepped into the room. Creeping over to the bed, he took a look at the sleeping toddler. For several long minutes he stood there before letting out a sigh of relief. Of all the things it could have been.
Still, just to be on the safe side, the man began to investigate the room as quietly as possible. Everything was normal, exactly as it had been before Nara had gone to sleep. The woman in question had tip-toed into the room, staring at the toddler. Finishing up his investigation, the only thing of interest that Iian could find was the dead deck of cards. Palming them, he joined his partner at the bed. Two changes, one kid, and one colorless deck of cards. They'd both been in the business long enough to understand what that could mean.
"He's not a scroll kid," she said quietly. "I thought he might be for a minute, even if it would have been weird, but he's not." Resting a hand on her shoulder, Iian handed over the deck. Silently Nara turned them over and over, staring intently.
"You think..?" She asked putting the pieces together like he had. She groaned quietly. "That man. He said something about a shop, just in case.... I bet he knew," she explained. Iian just nodded as Nara sighed.
"Right... Well... I'll go to the shop he mentioned, and then... I don't know...." The woman crossed her arms staring at the toddler. "We can't return him," she said abruptly.
Iian squeezed her shoulder reassuringly. "We'll take care of him," he said quietly, not depending on their link to make himself understood. Nara turned, caught a glance of Iian's face, and smiled, relaxing against him.
"Okay..." she whispered, hearing all the undertones in the simple statement. Her smile threatened to break her face as she nodded again. "Okay."
"How about Albert?"
"Dominic?"
The two bantered back and forth for a bit, tossing names back and forth.
"You win," Nara said with a smile. "Zane it is."
