Ember of Invention

Everyone had gotten back into marching order as Theodore took the lead into the extensive hallway. “I’ll keep an eye for traps, I didn’t see any when scouting but the dungeon may have warped again now that we’re all inside.”

Lindle looked around them with suspicion. The hallway was tall and rounded at the top, but a lot of the ceiling and walls were caved in, leaving giant piles of rubble that they needed to navigate around.

As they traveled the hallway stretched on and on, the length feeling unnatural to Lindle. Their pace slowed to a crawl as Theodore scanned every bit of flooring before they continued. So far this dungeon didn’t seem to place a heavy emphasis on traps, but aside from the first one, there hadn’t been any monsters either.

Lindle kept glancing up, the ceiling was far up, but as time passed it felt lower and lower. A tension crept up his shoulders and back. There really wasn’t a lot of room down here. How did adventurers come down into places like this so often? So deep underground at the mercy of the dungeon zone. Who knows when it could decide to drop all those tons of rock down on their heads?

As they went deeper into the dungeon Lindle tried to distract himself by focusing on the details of the dungeon around him. This was apparently supposed to be a research expedition, though clearly the prospect of loot was a big motivator too.

Lindle inspected the hallway as they walked, but he was having trouble figuring out what kind of place this was supposed to have been. There were carvings etched into the walls at certain points, and the area may have been decorated, but it was clearly old and had been heavily damaged. The symbols that were still visible were unreadable to Lindle, it was clearly a language of some kind but he only knew how to speak and write in the common language of the continent, Helvetician.

Lindle looked back for Dorothea. Maybe she would be willing to tell him about what he was looking at, she was a mage and the shaman apprentices usually loved showing off their knowledge. Seeing her, the kitsune mage was clearly having the time of her life. As Theodore and Rosato walked at the front of the group, acting as a vanguard, Dorothea darted from wall to wall, noting down everything she could see in a leatherbound journal. She chatted excitedly to Chip, the cleric nodding indulgently as she pointed to a series of symbols carved into a wall.

“See? I knew it! This was an elven ruin.”

Lindle looked at the symbols. “How does that tell you this place was elven?”

Dorothea paused and looked at him in slight surprise. Had she forgotten he was here? Her face split into a wide grin before she answered. “Lindle come here, I’ll show you!”

Lindle approached and crouched down next to her as she pointed out one of the symbols. “This is the elven symbol for insight! It’s been found in a number of other confirmed elven ruins, places usually of spiritual importance or learning.” She then moved to a different set of symbols laid out on the other wall, half covered by debris. “This symbol means knowledge. I’m betting this place was a kind of elven academy!”

Lindle tilted his head in confusion. “An academy? Is that some kind of elven word?”

Now Dorothea matched his confusion. “What? You don’t know what academy means? It’s just another word for school.”

Lindle looked around. “A school? But it’s so huge! The school back in Glacerhine the church set up is way smaller than this, why would they make it so big?”

Dorothea hummed. “Well compared to Silent Owl Academy in Soarstrum, this place isn’t as big, but we haven’t explored much of it yet.” she huffed. “I just wish it wasn’t so run down. So many of the carvings are illegible.”

Lindle felt a sense of curiosity and awe well up inside him. A massive elven school buried underground for… well spirits know how long! That had to mean it held at least some old knowledge that they might uncover.

She scraped away some of the stone to try and uncover more of the symbols when suddenly it shifted inwards. Lindle, Chip, and Dorothea all froze. Dorothea pushed at some of the debris and it gave. She shouted in excitement. “There’s an opening back here!”

Theodore and Rosato both stopped their forward march to join the rest of them. “Rose, move these bricks.” Dorothea commanded hastily.

Rosato complied, pushing aside massive chunks of rock. As Chip moved his floating flame closer, Lindle could see it illuminate a hidden space. Unable to stay still as a rush of excitement grabbed him, Lindle joined Rosato and started picking up rocks to move out of the way.

As they worked together, quickly they opened up enough space for everyone to walk through, revealing a giant room.

The giant room was filled with rows and rows of towering shelves, reaching towards the ceiling. Books of varying sizes and colors lined the shelves, some stacked in piles on the ground. The shelves were dusty and some had collapsed, scattering old books across the floor.

“A library!” Dorothea gasped breathlessly.

“A library? Like a librarian? I heard you guys mention something like that earlier.” Lindle asked.

Dorothea's gaze was momentarily ripped away from staring awestruck at the area to Lindle with a mix of confusion and… some pity? “ What are they teaching you at that school? I’m going to have some words with the church in Glacerhine when we head back. A library is a wonderful place where people store books and knowledge and librarians are people that manage it.”

She stepped forward, her face alight with excitement. “Don’t you see? We just stumbled on a treasure trove! No one’s ever managed to find more than just a handful of elven texts before, and we found a wagonload! If we could study these we could fully translate their language, we’d learn so much about the elves!”

Dorothea practically vibrated with exhilaration, her fingers itching to grab the nearest book and start reading. Her energy was infectious. Chip looked around in awe, a reverent expression on his face as if he were in a sacred place. Rosato's eyes gleamed with greed at the potential knowledge and loot they could find. Their energy was so infectious, that Lindle started feeling excitement at their discovery alongside them. Theodore's words, however, brought all their excitement crashing down.

“We can’t touch or read these.” He said, kneeling down next to one of the scattered books.

“What? Why?” Lindle blurted out.

“These books are all cursed.” Theodore stated plainly. “Dorothea, come over here and look at this with your mana sense.”

Dorothea rushed over and inspected the books. “He’s right…” Her voice dripping with despair. “These books all have a curse on them that will activate if moved or touched.”

“Can it be dispelled?” Rosato asked.

“I couldn’t do it.” Dorothea responded, her fists clenched in frustration. “It looks like it used to be a security system that the dungeon zone warped. Only people with permission could touch these books and remove them from the library. If any of us tried a lethal curse would be put on us.”

Lindle winced. To come across something clearly so rare only to be denied stung. He looked around as the adventurers fell silent, the weight of their discovery now feeling like a burden. “If people with permission can take the books, would there be some way of gaining permission?” Lindle suggested.

Everyone looked at Dorothea as she stared at the books around them with a fervent intensity, using whatever magical sense she had to discern the nature of the curse and the mechanics behind it. Several minutes passed, but no one said anything to disturb her. Rosato had a look of clear resignation on his face, but Lindle didn’t want to give up just yet.

Eventually, Dorothea looked away from the book, tentative hope blooming on her face. “I think there might be a way. From what I can tell what the dungeon warped was the lethality of the curse and the strength of the binding, but the identifier for who qualifies as an exception to the curse wasn’t changed too much. If this place is a library it might just be a case of finding the equivalent of a library card or whatever the students used to check out books, and we’ll be protected. If we can bring the books outside of the dungeon zone the enchantment should fade and the books will be safe for everyone.”

She got up, a sense of determination coming over her. “This must be the challenge of the dungeon. If the books were unsalvageable it wouldn’t have kept this room preserved and warped the curse this way. I would bet anything it’s hiding the cards somewhere or keeping them as a reward.”

Rosato looked hesitant. “I don’t know… it feels like a stretch.” Dorothea fixed him with a hard stare.

Lindle shuffled a bit before piping up. “It couldn’t hurt to check right? If we look and don’t find them, we can just continue as normal.”

Rosato sighed but nodded. “That’s true. Fine, we can look for a card. But I only want Theodore poking around near the books, we can’t risk anyone touching them by accident.” Dorothea smiled and gave her cousin a brief hug.

After making it clear that no one was to leave the room, Rosato split them up to search the library. With Theodore the one at least risk he looked among the shelves. The rest of them poked around the desk and counters.

Lindle put his full focus on the task. He searched diligently, his giant frame carefully moving debris and ruined furniture into a small pile. He had come on this quest for his own reasons, but he didn’t want his newfound companions to leave disappointed. The Soarians had been far kinder to him than Lindle had expected.

Lindle grabbed another chunk of collapsed wood to move when the rubble shifted, sending several stones falling to the ground in a loud crash, echoing through the library. He winced and went to apologize before he felt the dungeon pressure suddenly increase. The weight cut off his apology before he could speak, looking around he could tell the adventurers felt it too.

Rosato’s eyes widened, and Lindle was close enough to hear him as he muttered the words “quiet in the library” to himself before he quickly drew his sword. “Everyone get ready!” He called.

Around them, the scattered piles of books they had left untouched began to shudder.