Chapter Text
Elias opened the door to his office and stopped.
“Hello, Elias.” The woman with red hair did not look up from the book she was reading.
Elias let out a breath. “Ivy. To what do I owe the pleasure?”
He sat uncomfortably in the chair in front of his desk as it did not look like Ivy would be ceding his own chair.
“Well, the band’s in town.” She sharply turned the page of her book. “So, I thought I would drop by and see if you had anything new in your library. Or in the archives.”
“Find everything to your liking?”
“Mm. Yes. You have many good books. And I’ve been reading through some of the new statements that have come in. Very tragic.”
“Indeed. So, can I expect to find you here for the duration of your stay? It’s not that you aren’t welcome here, Miss Alexandria, but I do keep a tight schedule.”
“Gertrude’s no longer in the archives,” Ivy said.
“No,” Elias said. “She has been missing for a few months now. Occupational hazards are so difficult to avoid. It’s tragic, really, and we can only hope that she’ll be found alive.”
“There is a 96% chance that you killed her. It was 85%, but that changed when you started talking.”
“Your point?” he asked impatiently.
“Since you killed Gertrude and your new Archivist is missing, there is a 73% chance that you are planning another ritual.” She looked up finally from her book. “If that is the case, I have two conditions.”
Elias sighed. “Go ahead.”
“One. If this ritual will physically destroy your world, contact me with this,” She tapped a small object she’d placed on the desk, “and I will come to take and preserve some of your library and archives. Two. If your Archivist is going to be a tool in your ritual — which has a 82% probability of being true — I will be keeping tabs on them for our records.”
“Planning a new musical number are we?”
“Perhaps.”
“And if I do not agree to your terms?”
Ivy laughed. “Do you think it would be hard to ruin your ritual attempt? There is a 96% chance of it failing even without the Mechanisms involvement. Do you think we couldn’t make life miserable for you in the meantime?”
“Fair. Well. I agree to your terms.”
“Lovely.” She looked back down at her book and made no signs of moving.
Elias huffed and left his office. This would complicate matters. He had never dealt with the entire Mechanisms crew, but did have … interactions with their archivist from time to time. She was a nuisance but valued the gathering and preservation of knowledge enough to not be an active threat. Usually.
He would have prefered her not read his diary though. But he had no doubt that any attempt to stop her would have ended with him shot. Some sacrifices were always necessary in the long run.