"It's okay," Tim assured his friend as the two walked into the Drake estate's library. "Father isn't home. And honestly, even if he were, he wouldn't be paying attention anyway."

A forced smile sat unnaturally on his face. Ever since Tim's mother died, his father, Marquis Drake, had been...distant, to say the least. Absent and neglectful were more accurate. None of the servants gave him any answers when he tried asking why his father now looked at him with something Tim could only describe as disdain, and even the other young nobles his age had grown distant. It was like having lost his mom had suddenly turned him into an outsider.

At least he still had his best friend.

Sure, Tim's father hated that he was friends with a commoner, but that didn't matter to him. His friend was the only one he could talk to anymore who wouldn't treat him like he was made of glass.

"Father keeps his alchemy books here," he told his friend, gesturing at a tall shelf in the back. "He thinks I can't reach up there, and hides the ladder, but I can just climb. Look!"

With surprising agility for a bookworm, Tim scaled the bookshelf easily, reaching the top in mere seconds. He'd been training hard under his family's private armsmaster, and though Tim had been harshly criticized at first, he'd started getting compliments lately. Tim wanted to be a rune fencer, after all, so he needed to be both good with magic and physical combat. His swings were still weak, but he was really quick.

"Here!" He plucked the thickest of the tomes and held it out to his friend, holding himself up by one hand. "This one has all the cool recipes. Like, you know, elixirs! And poisons." And love potions, but he wasn't going to say that. He was just...going to sneak a peek later. Yeah.

Tim moved to steady himself again, but lost his footing when the wooden shelf suddenly shifted off its hinges, sending Tim and over a dozen dusty tomes flying to the floor.

"Ahh!"