And the Road not Taken - for Jacob Stone

[luckythief]

Ezekiel Jones is a loyal member of the Serpent Brotherhood but sometimes he wonders if there is supposed to be more to life than this.

Bringing magic back to the world had felt less satisfying than everybody always made it out to be; seriously, with the amount of ecstatic victory speeches that were going around these days you'd think they found an eternal well of pizza. Then again, Ezekiel had never been particularly interested in the whole "bringing magic back" aspect. Reawakened or not, his task is still to retrieve artifacts and get the others into fortified places; that is his purpose, not to be questioned and nothing really changes for him.

Still, he's annoyed. Ezekiel prefers to act from the shadows, so the whole decision to make a grand dramatic entrance and reveal the Brotherhood to the Library seemed so petty and unnecessary. Besides, there was this one thing he always really, really wanted, and that was breaking into the Library – the most secure place in the world, the ultimate challenge. He hopes he still gets a chance of doing that but now that the Library knows the Brotherhood is active again it kind of takes some of the surprise factor and fun out of it.

He had made a cautious remark if it wouldn't be better to reveal themselves to the Library after they brought Magic back but that had ended... rather painfully. After all, what did he know? He's just the thief. The tool. The asset. Know your place.

So much for magic improving everybody's life.

Today's mission is almost mind-numbingly boring. He traverses the ancient temple, sometimes doesn't even bother to deactivate the traps but dance through them instead so he at least has some kind of challenge and approaches the altar with a yawn.

Sometimes he wonders if there's supposed to be more to life than this.

Comments

[bookbrawler]

Sometimes Jacob wonders if this is how things were supposed to be.

Him and Cassie getting saved by Flynn and Eve, getting brought to an actual magic Library was beyond anything he could have ever imagined, becoming a Librarian was a dream come true, and yet--sometimes he wonders if there should be more? With the Brotherhood so active it feels like they're always five steps behind, and he can't even remember the last time he'd been on a mission with Cassie or Flynn or even Eve, they were stretched thin as it was and some days if they just had one more person, or maybe worked as a team more instead of splitting up constantly like this, they'd be able to win a few.

Well. Not much to do for it now, it was go-time and Jake had to get in the temple, and get out before the Brotherhood got here.

He's in a lower antechamber, sweaty and dirty and covered in cobwebs from crawling up into one of the builder's secret access tunnels to avoid the traps, but yeah, he made it! He slips out from behind the movable wall, hidden behind a column, only to see that--

"Oh, man!" How did they get here so fast?! Damn it! After all the trouble he went through. Approaching the altar was one of the Brotherhood--wait, did he hear him yawning? Who yawns at something like this?

Peering behind the column, Jake picks up a piece of rubble--making sure it wasn't anything of value--and chucks it at their head.