After Holden changed into his usual getup of casual clothes with a long, brown coat, he picked up Sable, put him on his shoulders, and walked out of the apartment. The ghost girl followed the two of them, but tried to stay out of sight so she wouldn’t spook Sable.


    “A little warning before you pick me up would be nice,” Sable said, balancing on Holden’s shoulders. “Where exactly are we off to in such a rush?”


    “You want to figure out how the girl haunting my apartment died, right? There’s only one place we can go this late at night that might have some answers. The Grand Library.”


    The Grand Library was a massive library that had the largest collection of books in the known world. It was also one of Thanador’s seven wonders, because the library itself had several entrances located all throughout the world. To be more specific, it was like the library was in multiple places at once. One might find and enter the library building in Chrimoria, while another might find and enter the library building somewhere else in Thanador at the same time. Despite the two purple entering the Grand Library from two separate locations, they would somehow find themselves in the same exact place.


    Nobody knew exactly how the Grand Library could actually be in multiple places at once, but it was the case. A merchant once tested to see if it really was the same building by writing a message on the outer wall of the Grand Library, then traveling to a nearby city where the Grand Library was located. To the merchant’s surprise, the message he had written to himself in Chrimoria was written in the exact same place on the Grand Library’s outer wall in that other town.


    The Grand Library was also open 24/7, making it the best place to go for books, public records, newspaper articles, and anything else you might find at a library.


    Chrimoria’s entrance to the Grand Library was on the east side of town. There weren’t any carriages on the road, so Holden had to walk for an entire hour before finally arriving. The moment he burst through the door; Holden went straight to the media section to search through newspaper articles dating as far back as Chrimoria’s founding over five-hundred years ago.


    “What exactly are we looking for?” Sable asked, as he saw the tall shelves of books before him.


    The newspaper articles available to the public weren’t stored in their original form. Instead, the contents of every newspaper were copied, and placed into a book with the content from other newspapers from the same town that were released on the same day. Nobody knew exactly how the Grand Library was able to produce these books. What was even more baffling was the fact that new books with all of the content of the newspaper released that day would appear in the Grand Library right as the day ended.


    Holden continued skimming through the table of contents of several books while explaining to Sable what he was doing. “I’m looking for any articles from before I moved into the apartment about a girl being found dead inside of it. Reports about disappearances might word too. It’s possible she went missing and was presumed dead.”


    Sable’s eyes widened. “And how long is that going to take?”


    “A very long time.”


    Holden had lived in his current apartment and worked as a private investigator for over three years. Furthermore, the realtor had told him that the apartment had been leased to several people for ten years prior to him. However, the haunting wasn’t reported until about two years before Holden moved in, which meant he should start looking at the newspaper articles from around that time, then go backwards from there.


    As expected, it was a long and arduous process for Holden to search through all of those books on his own. Sometime during his search, Holden looked at Sable, who was just lying on the floor, and sighed. “Now would be a nice time for you to grow opposable thumbs, Cat.”


    Sable stuck his chin up. “Don’t blame me, Chopped Liver. I’m just a cat after all.”


    Holden clicked his tongue. “I love how you only refer to yourself as a mere cat when it gets you out of doing any work.”


    “Fine. If it’ll make you happy, I could try asking the staff if they know anything.”


    “That would be nice,” Holden said mockingly while contouring to search through the books of newspaper articles.


    Sable made his way to the reception area of the library by the front door where an elf woman was sitting behind a desk reading a book. There weren’t very many visitors, so the woman didn’t have much to do other than kill time reading one of the countless number of books in the library.


    Sable teleported to the top of the desk so the woman could see him. “Excuse me, Miss.”


    The woman looked over with pursed lips, irritated that she was being interrupted. Then she realized that she was talking to a cait-sith, and her face brightened up. “Oh, I’m sorry, little kitty. What can I do for you?”


    Sable barely kept himself from scowling at the ‘little kitty’ nickname when he responded. “I could actually use your help. For obvious reasons, I can’t really search through the stacks myself. I’m looking for information on a girl who disappeared over five years ago in this town. It’s possible she may have been murdered, too. Could you help me.”


    Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.


    The woman’s eyes sparkled as she gently pet Sable’s head. “Oh, I’d be happy to help you. What town are you in exactly?”


    Sable tilted his head in confusion. “What do you mean? We’re obviously in-. Oh. Sorry. I forgot there are entrances to this library from all around the world. I came here through the Chrimoria entrance.”


    Oh, perfect.” The woman then picked up Sable and held him over her shoulder while petting his back. “I can help you about. But you can’t tell anyone about what I’m about to show you. Okay? It’s supposed to be a secret known only to the employees here.”


    “I promise I won’t tell a soul.”


    “Good.” The woman held on to Sable tightly while walking to the back of the library. The Grand Library already looked massive from the outside. However, it was even more grandiose on the inside, which certainly supported the theory that the real Grand Library existed in a separate dimension. How else could a building be larger on the inside then it was on the outside? In fact, the interior was so massive that Sable couldn''t even see the back wall.


    “This place is truly marvelous,” Sable said to the woman. “I’m guessing it was created using magic, correct? If so, this library must have been created by an entity beyond our comprehension. There is no magic in the world that could make something like this.”


    The woman giggled at the look of amazement on Sable’s face. “Unfortunately, the methods used to create and maintain the Grant Library are secrets even I’m not aware of. All I know of are a few functions that we employees have access to. I don’t even know how they work.”


    “What functions are you talking about?”


    “Let me show you.” The woman took another step forward, and suddenly she and Sable were at the back wall of the library.


    Sable’s jaw went slack. When he turned his head to look behind him, he wasn’t able to see the front anymore. “How is this even possible? At first, the back wall wasn’t even in sight. Now the front door isn’t. Just how far did we travel? And how exactly did we travel in the first place? Was it spatial magic? I didn’t feel any spatial fluctuations.”


    “I have no clue how it works. But anytime employees want to go somewhere; we only need to take a few steps before we arrive. It’s kind of like we’re teleported.”


    “Well, I can tell that’s not what’s happening. Do you see the blue gem on my forehead? It symbolizes that I’m a cait-sith with a talent for spatial magic. I can see the spatial fluctuation that occurs during a teleportation spell.”


    The woman scratched Sable under the chin. “I guess that’s why the Grand Library is one of Thanador’s seven wonders.”


    Sable puréed the moment the woman started scratching his chin. However, out of embarrassment for acting like a cat, he immediately stopped himself.


    The woman opened a door to a back room that was filled with multiple wooden pedestals. She then walked up to one of them, and started speaking. “I want to see all materials referencing the death of a woman from the merchant city of Chrimoria.”


    A book suddenly appeared on the pedestal listing the titles of various different articles, books, and other media that fit the woman’s request. She asked Sable for more information regarding the girl he was looking for. Unfortunately, Sable didn’t have much to go on other than what information he had received from Holden regarding what dates to start searching for missing people or notices of deaths.


    The woman tried thinking of other ways they could narrow down the search. “Do you know what this girl looks like?”


    Sable had lost track of the girl once he and Holden left the apartment, so he had to try his best to recall everything he knew about her. The issue was that Sable was so frightened that he hardly took the time to memorize many of her distinguishing features. “I know that she was a teenager. Early teens I believe. She also had long, black hair, and she likely died in my neighborhood on the west side of Chrimoria.”


    “Do you know the address? Or the neighborhood at least?”


    “No. It’s currently owned by a man named Holden.”


    “Is that a last name, or a first name?”


    Sable hadn’t realized until then, but he didn’t actually know whether or not Holden was using his first name or his last. Any time they went somewhere, people would just refer to him as Holden. “I’m not entirely sure. The current owner is a private investigator. His business is called the Holden Detective Agency.”


    “Okay. Give me a second.” The woman then reiterated all the new information Sable had given her. The pages from the book on the pedestal suddenly started turning. When they came to a stop, there was a list of over a dozen newspaper articles from several dates that went as far back as Chrimoria’s founding. There were even a few books mentioned.


    “Looks like there’s a long history associated with that specific apartment,” the woman pointed out. “It must have been torn down and rebuilt several times if it goes back to the city’s founding.”


    “She could be any of these girls,” Sable grumbled. “Do any of them have pictures of the girl the article is about?”


    “Hmm, cameras didn’t come around until twenty years ago, so only three have pictures. The others just have sketches.”


    “That’ll do. Where can I find all these articles?”


    “Give me one sec.” The woman then tapped the title of each article with her fingers. The articles were than projected like a hologram above the pedestal. “I need a physical copy of each of these articles made immediately.”


    The projections of each article suddenly disappeared, along with the book that had been lying on the pedestal. In its place was a single book without a title. The woman grabbed the book in her free arm, and went toward the door. “Is there anything else you need?”


    “Uhm. No. That should be all.”


    The woman then walked out the door, and returned to the front desk within only a few steps of leaving the back room. She than put Sable and the newly created book on the front desk.


    Sable was at a loss for words. Never in his life had he seen something so amazing. A book was produced out of thin air with every article she had found related to the criteria Sable had provided her.


    The woman opened the book to show Sable what was inside. “Now this should have everything you need. There’s just one thing you should know. This book will disappear if you try taking it out of the Grand Library, so you can only read it here.”


    “That would explain what I’ve heard about the Grand Library. No wonder people aren’t allowed to check out all of the books in this place. They only exist in here. Don''t they?”


    “Those pedestals are impressive, aren’t they? They can produce any book with any content. Whatever they create can’t leave the confines of the Grand Library. Just don’t tell anyone about this.” She then let Sable’s head again. “Okay, Kitty Cat?”


    Sable started purring again without even realizing it. “I give you my word, I won’t tell anyone. Not even that human I came in with.”


    The woman smiled as she picked up the book from her desk. “Speaking of which, why don’t we take this to that man you came in with earlier?


    “That’s fine with me. Not sure how we’re going to explain the book, though.”


    “Don’t worry. We can just say it’s one of the many mysteries of the Grand Library.”