all the wrong places (open)

Loren flipped through the tome in front of him, frantically searching for an answer that had so far proven elusive. There was a large pile of discarded books next to him, each one having been rifled through then tossed aside. Normally, the librarian would not have been so callous about any book, no matter how stressed he was. But, despite reassurances that everything was under control, he still felt that time was of the essence. And Loren’s nerves had been jerked about so much recently that he was barely in control of his own actions. With a growl, he reached the end of this particular volume without finding what he needed. Setting in down atop the pile, he spun around and stalked back to the shelf he’d been pulling things from. It had taken him a while to find it—the Atheneum was in slight disarray, something that normally would have bothered him—but navigating books was like second nature to him at this point. If someone looked, they’d see that every book in both the pile and the shelf was on either summoning or mythical creatures. It was a distressingly small selection. Although the Launceleyn had creatures at his beck and call for pretty much every scenario imaginable (the benefits of a stellar education in both magic and lore), there were a few areas where he was lacking. And one was quite large. There were magical keys that had been lost, leading to sealed doors in the Launceleyn Manor. Behind those doors, only the gods—and Remi, who had started Loren’s latest downward spiral—knew what waited. Supposedly, Zariah had held onto them until their disappearance, but the summoner couldn’t trust that his cousin had taken them with him wherever she had ended up. Although he’d searched the Manor, he hadn’t turned up anything on an initial pass. Further searching seemed fruitless, so he’d come here to do what he normally did best, research. He was looking for any mention of anything that might let him find what had been lost. Surely there had to be some creatures out there that could assist him in his endeavor. But so far, all his looking (both for the keys and for a summon that could do what he needed) had turned up nothing. Between that and all the painful encounters he’d had with old friends who were now strangers he was practically vibrating with tension, anxiety and depression competing for top billing in the theater of his mind. LOREN Brought back by satisfaction more times than the cat