The Library

I stepped into the library and closed the door behind me with a soft click. I was the first to arrive and I took a moment to savour the sense of peace that seemed to settle on me in the room. The tall shelves stretched right around the room, interrupted only by the three large bay windows to the right of the room. The windows looked out over the university campus but while the views were spectacular it was the room itself that had always drawn by eyes. In the centre of the long room was the Dread Book. One of only three extant copies in the world and the basis for most of my education over the last six years.

The shelves opposite the window were nearly all full of books written by the Magister, interpretations of the Dread Book, extrapolations, explanations and speculations. All in all probably the most comprehensive body of knowledge regarding the Dread Book as existed anywhere. The result of a lifetime’s work, the Magister’s last fifty eight years of study.

The other shelves in the room were no less interesting, a range of subjects that the Magister had at one point or another interested himself in, nearly all investigated to shed light on some aspect of the Dread Book. I had read a lot of them but understood only a fraction.

I slowly circled the room, enjoying the feeling of peace and the memories that came with that slow walk. Even the elaborate ceiling brought fond memories, memories of staring up and memorising details of the murals when I was trying to avoid particularly dreary texts.

I was surprised the others weren’t here yet. Rather than take down a book I instead studied one of the six slowly rotating globes in the room. The Magister had designed the mechanism that kept each of them slowly turning at a particular pace, mirroring, the Magister said, the slow turns of the six spheres they represented. The globes had always fascinated me, offering a glimpse of spheres not our own and I was always somehow content just to watch them turn and imagine the day when I would accompany the Magister on one of his adventures to them.

I was staring the globe marked Thera when the door clicked open behind me and Simon and Finbar entered.