The Library had always been a love and hate thing for Johan. There was no place in the multiverse with more magical lore and knowledge stored in it. It was a place for scholar, protected by forces so vast even elder gods thought twice. But it was presided over by a the Librarian. A ghastly form that had the emphatic capability of hannibal lecter and a thirst for knowledge that compromised for nothing. Not even the end of the world.

Johan wasn’t sure what he was looking for. He shifted trough book after book, tome after tome. The pile beside him grew like a monument to his ignorance of the finer point of magic. He was a mage, yes. But he had cheated, inside him sat the equivalent to a magical nuclear reactor, the arcane stream called into mortal flesh. To him magic was intuitive now, a few spoken words and a few runes. This however, this was old and wise magic. Cold iron and folkloric bane kind of magic. The magic needed to kill a [i]king[/i].

[i] [b]The[/b] King.[/i]

[i][b] His[/b] king.[/i]

“So.” The librarian hovered over his shoulder, a impossibly tall, slender and wiry creature that might be human or similar at one point “Why is the Elves going to war?” The librarian asked as he picked up a few tomes with a whisk of his finger, energy wisps enveloping the books and rearranging them. Johan ignored him, shifting through the tomes on the table. He was looking into divination, flipping pages through the 'Bergadotters Visioner.' A old swedish text banned by the catholic church back during the conversion days in old northern Sweden. Before Nordic Kings and when Central Europe was still talking about vikings as a plague on civilization. 

His eyes stuck on a passage, hardly eligible.

[color=00aeef]“And the king stepped of his throne, wielding Hilring, the Axe of Ice, bearing down winter and death.”[/color] Johan felt a sudden chill as he read the words, felt like the text was somehow making the room colder as he read. “His armies tenfold that of mortal kin, immune to led and fire” Led and fire? There was no led weapons back then. This was a vision of the future all right, complete with bullets. 

[color=00aeef]“Steeped in fire and blood, his boots tread mortal soil, and giants wake from slumber long. Long forgotten magic will burn again, and with the world”[/color] By now he knew it was more then his imagination. Rim frost crawled across the table and he could smell the blood and fire mentioned.

[color=00aeef]“Unless a crown of iron is donned and the spear of odin finds its mark, the age of man shall be no more.”[/color] Johan sighed, sliding down into his chair as he closed the book. A tear made  trail trough the dirty and grim on his face, before it froze.

“Potent. Are they not” 

[color=00aeef]“Her gift was true, beyond anything I ever read.”[/color]

“Indeed. They strung her up you know, the early nordic Christians. Said her words were from the devil. The next day, the church in her village was destroyed by trolls.”

“Her name was Bergadotter. Daughter of the Mountain. I suppose they didn’t know her heritage well enough.” Johan muttered as he tapped the book while in deep thought. “I don’t see a solution..” He stared at the book, as if willing it to give him another way out. For their to be a happy end to his prophecy.

“I do” The librarian said solemnly, flipping the book open, pointing to the engraving of a man wearing a grey crown.

[color=00aeef]“That is not a solution”[/color] Johan snarled, turning to face the creature known as the librarian.

“You are champion of the king. Part of your duties, is to bring the king to bear should he fail his own.” The librarian spoke, producing a book that read “The Courts of Fey” in old fae script. 

[color=00aeef]“But they do not see it that way”[/color] Johan insisted, a sense of panic rising within him

“The old laws are the grounds of magic. They will kneel” The Librarian countered, as if citing the book without even opening it.

[color=00aeef]“I don’t fucking want them to kneel.”[/color] Johan spat, desperation and impotent rage making his voice crack.

“But so they must, were you to save your other home” The librarian made the book vanish.

[color=00aeef]“I would need a army.”[/color]

“No. What you need, is the threat of one.”

[color=00aeef]“...The Excalibur girl”[/color]

“They will not fight Mortals AND Albion. And she can back your claim. I would be wary of the one called Ambassador. The Court of Summer and Winter are sympathetic to the Elven King. They will interfere unless you can head them off… ” The librarian said, getting awfully close to Johans face, making the Magus back away. 

“Anyways. Good luck” The librarian shoved him in the chest and suddenly, Johan was back in the alleyway again. 


[color=00aeef]“...Fuck!” [/color]