The Insider System

Chapter 289: The Dagger

"I'm going after the dagger next right?" He already knew this but with the temple in sight Lake just wanted to make sure the Temple Head still wanted him to do this. "Yeah but it might take a while for Tiffany to want to leave. She's going to want to make sure Dawn is fine before she's ready."

Lake was fine with this, he had time to kill until the people that were going to the Metal Domain to destroy the barrier got there so staying in the Temple wasn't that bad of a way to kill time. He would really only care if it took too long for Dawn to get better. "Do you have a library here?"

Lake couldn't help but ask because he felt it was good to read at least a single book about magic whenever he got a chance and thinking back to the other Temple of Light he had been in there was a large amount of books. "There are some books but I wouldn't really call it a library."

Lake only planned on reading one at most so he didn't really care if there were enough to call it a library. "Alright I'll be reading whenever she's ready." Lake didn't want to watch a dramatic reunion so he planned to stay away from the medical room. Splitting off from the Temple Head Lake found someone and asked. "Do you know where I can find some books?"

"I do, what kind are you looking for?" Lake guessed they were asking him if he wanted fiction or nonfiction so he said. "Anything about magic." The man nodded and brought him into a room with mats on the floor and a few stacks of books. There were a few other people inside all sitting and reading so Lake knew he had been brought to the right place. Not wanting to disturb them, Lake gave the man who had brought him here a silent thankyou and went to look through the books.

...

"Tiff the Temple Head just got back with Dawn." Hearing the words that had come out of Greg's mouth she couldn't believe how fast they had been able to return. Chasing people down usually took a lot longer but apparently Lake's skill in tracking things down was the best the Temple Head had ever seen.

Running to the infirmary she saw Dawn in the same bed she had been in just a few hours ago. "It doesn't seem to be the same poison used on Tiffany so it will take us longer than we had hoped to wake her up." Tiff kind of ignored what the doctor had been saying and tapped the Temple Head's shoulder.

"Was it the same people who took me?" the Temple Head shrugged at her question and said. "We weren't able to look at the face of the person who took her because it was destroyed in the fight but it's fine. Our people will be back with more information soon."

After the Temple Head said this Tiff realized Lake wasn't in the room and was worried he had left before she had been able to use him to find the dagger. "Did Lake leave already?" Seeing the Temple Head start to shake her head Tiff was relieved. "Where is he then?"

She wasn't any help here at the moment and because of all the doctors she couldn't really see Dawn at all so instead of standing here looking at the back of a doctors head she figured she could use this time to talk to Lake about what they would do to find the dagger. "He's in one of the reading areas. He said he would be there when you were ready to go."

Hearing Lake was fine with waiting Tiff started to second guess her plan to go see him but the thought of waiting here worried with nothing to do sounded bad to her. She just hoped she came back before Dawn woke up. "I'm going to go see him. I'll be back soon." As she was walking out Tiff got a brief glimpse of Dawn's sleeping face and she was happy to find that she just looked like she was sleeping normally.

Finding her way to the biggest reading room Tiff poked her head in to see a person she thought was probably Lake on one of the mats. Walking over to him she was about to start talking when she realized he was sleeping. Crouching down and taking the book off of his face she realized she was right and he had fallen asleep while reading.

Guessing rescuing Dawn had worn him out she decided to leave him alone but she didn't want to put the book back on his face so she put it on top of the closest stack and started to walk away.

...

Opening his eyes Lake realized something had happened to the book he had been using to block the light. This room was well lit so when he had realized how tired he was he had decided to use the book to cover his face for the small amount of time he would need to sleep. "Where'd my book go?"

Sitting up Lake looked around but saw Tiff looking at him before he found the book. "Tiff, are you ready to leave?" He had only gotten a few minutes of sleep but that should be enough to go look for a dagger he already had. "No, not quite. I just wanted to talk to you about the mission we will be leaving for once Dawn is awake."

Hearing they weren't leaving just yet Lake laid back down on the mat and asked. "How long have you all been looking for the dagger?" Lake was pretty sure it had been around a month since he had stolen it but that didn't mean they realized right away. "I'm not sure. I spend a lot of time indoors but it's probably been around two weeks."

Hearing two weeks, Lake thought back to the first time he had been asked by Lucas about the dagger. At that time he had been spending a lot of time indoors as well so while the days blended together a bit he was sure it had been around two or three weeks ago. "In two weeks you should have a clue of who took it, should I expect a fight?"

...

"I don't think there will be any from who has it but that doesn't mean we won't run into anyone. We might have to travel far depending on where your skill leads us and there are Demon Worshipers everywhere." As soon as Tiff stepped outside the timer for when the first Demon Worshiper found her scent would start since she had a Holy affinity.

This meant if she followed Lake for too long he and her would be battling whoever they sent after her until they found a temple to hide in. "I'm not worried about fighting Demon Worshipers, I was just hoping I wouldn't have to anger another group by fighting them."

Hearing Lake didn't care about fighting Demon Worshipers Tiff was reminded that he was involved in what was happening in the Metal Domain. She had been wanting to ask someone who had actually been there what was going on but the amount of people she had met that had come from there was one and she had been more worried about Dawn the last time they had met.

"So what is it actually like in the Metal Domain right now?" This was the last thing she was going to ask him before heading back to the infirmary but she felt like his story was going to be pretty long.

...

Lake didn't really know where to start with what was going on in the Metal Domain but he didn't think that mattered too much because her question had given him an idea. He needed to get away from Tiff long enough to hide the dagger because there was no way to to just hand it to her at this point without making everyone in the Temple mad at him for wasting their time.

The Metal domain was the only place he could think of that was hectic enough to pull this off. "It's bad. I really don't even know if there's anything we can do about it at this point. We might be witnessing the next Dark Domain." As he was saying this Lake pictured him leading her there telling her that was what direction the dagger was in.

Then once they were there he would be able to lead her into the city once the barrier came down and hide the bag the dagger was in inside a random building. This would also allow him to be around when the battle started so he could show the Temple Head of the Metal Temple that he was helping even if he didn't do that much in reality.

"You really think that will happen?" Seeing his words had affected Tiff more than he expected, Lake shrugged. He could tell his uncertainness hadn't really helped but a few seconds later she said. "I'm going to go back to the infirmary now." Watching her go, Lake wondered if her being this worried would keep her from wanting to go to the Metal Domain even if it was for the dagger.