by pebble/scifipony
Fandom: The Librarian
Chapter: 1
Characters: Excalibur, Flynn Carsen, The Library, Judson
Tags: Friendship
Warnings: None
Author's Notes: Part One of a series of one-shots. Takes place during the first movie.
In the roughly fifteen hundred years since coming to the Library, Excalibur had been mostly… content… with his new life. He went on regular patrols to keep his new home safe. He occasionally helped Charlene keep the staff — or, more often than not, the Librarians and Guardians — in line. And, on the very rare instances where it was needed, he would help defend against enemy attempts at invasion.
But mostly he sat in silence in his stone. Mourning an era that was long gone, and friends lost to time. Judson’s best attempts at keeping him company were appreciated if not quite successful.
The world continued to grow and change outside, but Excalibur was content to remain in the Library, where time was more of an abstract than a concrete thing. New relics would sometimes be added. New Librarians, new Guardians. The faces of the guards changed more times than he could keep track of. But the Library itself was a steady constant.
So the mythic sword rested in his stone, and let the passage of time wash over him harmlessly.
Then Flynn Carsen walked into the Library for the first time, and everything changed.
This Librarian was different.
Excalibur knew he wasn’t the only one who could sense it. The other relics knew it, too. There was something different in the magic of their home that hadn’t been there before. Even the Library itself had taken to Flynn in a way it hadn’t with any of the previous Librarians. (Except for maybe Judson, but that had been before Excalibur’s time, so he didn’t have a basis for comparison there.)
Judson definitely knew it, too. He’d known before any of them. Excalibur was sure that was why the Scholar had gone to see Flynn before the invitations had even gone out — he’d already sensed a special destiny hovering over this unique young man.
He had a feeling that was also why one of the first places Judson brought their new Librarian was to Excalibur’s cozy little stone in the heart of the main relics wing.
“Oh, this cannot actually be Excalibur!”
The awed exclamation startled Excalibur out of his rest. Not that he wasn’t already aware of the newcomer within their walls, but he hadn’t been expecting such an enthusiastic greeting — or any greeting at all, really. The Librarians generally let him be.
Judson prompted Flynn to draw Excalibur from the stone, and the sword felt a hum of amusement at the idea. Many people had tried over the years, of course. Some may have actually believed themselves capable, others probably only for the fun of having tried. But, in all of history, the only person who’d succeeded was the best friend Excalibur still mourned to this day.
To his surprise, Flynn didn’t even try.
“No, no, no. I’m not worthy, trust me,” the young man had murmured, already backing away to leave the sword to his slumber.
“Well, how do you know if you don’t try it?”
“Because… I’m still not exactly sure why it is that you even chose me.”
And that… well, that intrigued Excalibur. This Librarian that everyone — the relics, the Library, Judson — could already tell was different from any of their previous ones, and he didn’t even know it himself yet. Librarians were a lot of things. Geniuses, scholars, adventurers. One trait they didn’t generally hold was humility. Interesting.
That didn’t stop the sword from threatening their new recruit a few minutes later. Special destiny or not, Excalibur wasn’t going to allow anyone to endanger the Library’s secrets.
Judson gave the standard warning about keeping his work hidden from the outside world, then motioned the sword away from Flynn’s throat.
“Just give Flynn some time,” Judson told him. “You’ll like him.”
Excalibur had no idea at the time how true that was going to be.
It seemed his life of letting time move around him was at an end. This strange young Librarian, from an era so far removed from Excalibur’s own, would drag the sword from his self-imposed isolation. They were time capsules from very different points in history.
And they were going to change the world together.
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