3A. Biblioplex Mysteries

The sun had barely risen, and already the misty streets of Misthaven were alive with the shuffle of early risers.

Marlena Everbrook, bundled in her dark green cloak against the chilly morning air, stepped briskly toward the towering spires of the Biblioplex. She arrived earlier than usual —early enough to see the first flickers of dawn paint the sky a muted purple. It was a habit that had become necessary to get any time alone in the labyrinthine corridors of the library.

Today, she had been granted supervised access to the second-floor archives—an honor that filled her with both excitement and nervous tension.

She paused in front of the heavy doors of the main entrance, taking a deep breath. The air here always smelled of ancient parchment and polished wood, of ink and dust, and the faintest trace of something older, something more elusive—like the very essence of knowledge itself.

"Going somewhere without me, Everbrook?"

Marlena turned, surprised but not particularly startled. Kiraen Nyrazzrin stood at the top of the stairs, her violet eyes gleaming behind the dark lenses of her sunglasses. She looked as if she had been following Marlena from the moment she left the dorms, her light feet making no sound against the stone floor.

Standing in the early light, Kiraen carefully lifts her sunglasses, but regrets it.
Still very bright up here. But I'm getting better.
She smiles at Everbrook. Shall we go in and get started?
With a firm grab on the handle she pulls open the door.

Though she wasn't expecting company, she's glad to have Kiraen. "Uh... Sure! Of course. Though there was no need to follow me. I would've happily walked with you." She smiles back at the half-drow.

She steps into the Biblioplex and approaches the information desk. Given how early it is, there's hardly a line, which she's eternally grateful for. "Good morning, Rhamud. Those Tutela texts you recommended were quite insightful. Why, I'm already putting together a few Tutela-based prototypes." Marlena pulls up her sleeve, revealing a sleek, wrist-mounted gadget with several runes intricately carved into its brass surface. "I haven't got a name for this yet, but it deploys a barrier in response to danger. Or at least, it will in theory. I'm not too eager to put it to the test, as you can imagine."

"Anyways, you said you'd have someone available to supervise me on the second floor today? Who will it be?" She asks. "Oh, and would you mind if Kiraen came along? She works here too, so I figure it should be fine."

"Impressive work, Everbrook," Rhamud rumbled, leaning in slightly to inspect the runes. "Tutela-based magitech is ambitious. If you refine the etching and reinforce the base sigils, you’ll reduce the risk of feedback when the barrier deploys." His tone held no condescension—only the steady patience of a scholar.

Marlena beamed at the rare praise. "I was thinking the same thing! The current output is still a little unstable, but—"

"Ahem."

The sound, deep and deliberate, cut through their conversation. Marlena and Kiraen turned to see a towering figure emerging from between two of the enormous bookshelves.

Callador, the minotaur pledgemage, carried a heavy magical tome. His thick horns curved gracefully, polished to a gleaming sheen, and a pair of round, wire-framed glasses rested on the broad bridge of his snout. Though his frame was powerful and heavy, his movements were measured, every step careful and precise.

His bright green eyes regarded them. "Everbrook. Nyrazzrin. I trust you’re both ready to go upstairs?", he said, giving the heavy tome to Rhamud.

Yes we are. Ready to get to work. On biblioplex matters. Kiraen eyes Marlena with a small smile.
Kiraens stiletto wand is strapped to her thigh and her only other jewlery is a silver bracelet on her left wrist.

I suppose Callador's supervising us. She couldn't think of a finer choice. While working here in the Biblioplex, she had quickly grown to respect the minotaur's precision and attention to detail.

Marlena shares a look with Kiraen, returning the smile before looking back at Callador. "Yes. Please, lead the way, sir Callador."

While their small group is heading upstairs, she asks Callador a few questions. "So, what experience do you have with the second floor of the Biblioplex? How much more complex would you say it is compared to the first floor? Professor Lorridian said the books there interact with their readers. Just what does that mean exactly?"

Kiraen steps cautiously into the dim, flickering section - the illusion wing. The air hums with quiet enchantments, and as she peers between the shelves, her eyes catch on books that shimmer like heat haze—there one moment, gone the next. Some tomes fade in and out of sight entirely, while others shift in color and texture, flickering from leather-bound to crystal-covered with a blink. The shelves themselves seem to ripple, stretching longer or folding shorter as she moves. Runes pulse softly along the spines, rearranging into different titles when she looks away. Even her footsteps sound wrong here—muffled, delayed, or echoing in reverse.

She pauses, tilting her head. One book seems to watch her back. Another appears upside-down but reads normally. A soft whisper tickles her ear: Are you real? Kiraen grips her bracelet a little tighter and grins. This place is going to be fun.

"It seems Kiraen's already made her choice." Marlena smiles. She decides she'll peruse the illusion section for a little while alongside her. What could be the harm? She steps into the the section and picks the first book to catch her eye.

"The Secrets Within the Unseen... This book seems interesting." She pulls the book from the shelf and opens it to the first page.

What book? A whisper reaches her ear.

This startles her quite a bit, and when she blinks, the book is gone. Or maybe it never existed at all. There's only an empty space that she thought she pulled the book from.

"What in the world... I had it right in my hands." She hears ephemeral giggling from behind her. When she looks behind her, there's no one there, and once she looks back to where the book was, it's there again.

"Oh, I get it. Ha ha." Her cheeks burned indignantly. "You're quite the crafty book, aren't you?"

Marlena reached for the book again, this time keeping her grip firm. The leather beneath her fingers felt oddly warm, as if it were alive. As soon as she lifted it, the title on the spine flickered and shifted—The Secrets Within the Unseen became The Lies That Fool the Eye. Then Reflections of the Mind. Then Nothing at All.

Callador watched the two students with a quiet, knowing expression as they marveled at the shifting shelves and flickering books. Without a word, he reached for one of the tomes and opened the book. At first, the pages were blank. Then, ink blossomed across the parchment as if it had been waiting for an audience.

"Are you ready to see what isn't there?" - came a strange voice.

The words twisted and curled, shifting between languages, sometimes elegant script, sometimes runic glyphs, before finally settling into something legible. As they stared, the air around them seemed to waver. The shelves stretched impossibly high for a heartbeat before snapping back to their normal shape. The floor rippled beneath them, then smoothed.

Kiraen’s eyes flicked to Callador, but he remained unfazed, his green gaze steady as he watched the book’s magic unfurl.

---

He smiled and was about to say something when a pulse of unseen energy rippled outward from Marlena—subtle at first, like the shifting of air before a storm. The runes lining the bookshelves flickered, their steady glow dimming. The illusion magic woven into the space faltered. Shelves that had stretched impossibly high snapped back into their mundane forms. Books that had shimmered in and out of existence flickered wildly before turning utterly still, as if caught off guard.

Then, something far more alarming happened.

The Tutela wards—woven into the very foundation of the Biblioplex’s second floor—began to fray. The protective sigils embedded in the walls and shelves, meant to contain volatile magic and safeguard readers from unpredictable tomes, wavered. A soft crackling filled the air, like static before a lightning strike. Symbols that had glowed steadily for centuries unraveled into meaningless spirals of ink before vanishing altogether.

Callador’s ears flicked, his steady hands snapping the book shut as his deep green eyes locked onto Marlena.

Marlena stares back at Callador with wide eyes as she tries to process what just happened. "I..."

She's no stranger to losing control here and there, but rarely was it so spontaneous and destructive. Questions of what could've brought this wave on bounced around in her head, but they are dwarfed by the fact that Callador seemed to know it was her. Or at least, she felt as if he did. Dread fills her mind, whispering to her that she'll be punished severely for destroying the protective wards.

Fear overtaking reason, she suddenly turns tail and sprints out of the illusion section, leaving Kiraen and Callador behind. She tries to escape deeper into the library as fast as her feet can take her.

Kiraen looks at Callador, trying to guage his response to Marlena fleeting. It takes her a heartbeat to long, to realise that she is supposed to follow Marlena, and if nothing else, make sure that she doesn't anger some other books - with more physical effects.

Marlena! Where are you? Come back. Kiraen goes looking for her classmate.

Marlena manages to avoid Kiraen's notice for now by ducking into the Magical Artifacts & Objects section. She doesn't dare move until she hears Kiraen's footsteps fade into the distance.

What am I doing...? There's nowhere to run. Just own up to it, would you?

However, the thought of Callador's fury stops her from coming out of hiding. She's never seen him angry, but his hulking build makes her afraid to find out what it'd be like. There's also the thought of Professor Lorridian potentially being disappointed in her. What if he doesn't allow her back in the Biblioplex? She can't abide the thought of being cut off from so much knowledge.

What now, then?

First, she figures she should calm down before she ends up letting another pulse loose. She breathes in and out, visualizing the disorderly, corrosive flow of mana within herself. It's vibrating wildly in response to her heightened emotional state. She imagines the mana calming gradually.

"Everbrook," Callador said slowly, evenly, to no one in particular. "What, exactly, did you just do?"

---

Marlena
Marlena pressed her back against the cool wooden shelves, squeezing her eyes shut as she focused inward. In... and out. She inhaled slowly, feeling the flickering energy within her chest, restless and volatile. Like a storm trapped inside her, it pulsed against her ribs, seeking an outlet. She had never been formally trained in controlling it—she had only ever suppressed it. But now, it was clear that wasn’t enough.

Control. Restraint. She imagined her mana as turbulent water, churning and surging. With each measured breath, she willed the currents to settle, picturing a still pond in her mind. The wild vibrations lessened. The tension in her fingers eased. The dissonant hum beneath her skin quieted.

When she finally opened her eyes, the second floor of the Biblioplex was eerily silent. Too silent. The ever-present rustling of books had ceased. The whispers that usually echoed in the illusion wing were gone. Even the air, which had been thick with ambient magic, now felt... hollow. Something had changed.Kiraen
Kiraen slowed her search, her keen eyes scanning the dim corridors of bookshelves. At first, she had been focused on finding Marlena before the girl could blunder into more trouble, but now—now, there was something else.

The atmosphere had shifted. The usual hum of magic that pulsed faintly through the second floor was absent, like a heartbeat suddenly stopped. Even the enchanted books, normally fidgeting with movement, had gone unnaturally still.

She pressed her lips into a thin line, resisting the urge to shiver. The Biblioplex was ancient, a place of layered magics and careful protections. And yet, something had emptied the space. It wasn’t just silence—it was a void.

"Marlena?" she called again, softer this time.

Dorian
Dorian LaCroix strode through the grand entrance of the Biblioplex, looking for his cabal. He had been hoping to find them before his first lecture. Instead, he walked into a commotion.

The quiet murmur of students reading and studying had turned into scattered, uneasy whispers. A few looked up from their work, frowning as if something felt off. The more magically inclined among them seemed especially tense—one girl rubbed her temples as though feeling a headache, while another glanced upward toward the second floor, brows furrowed.

Dorian hesitated. He wasn’t sure what had happened, but the air around him felt strange—thin, like the moment before a spell collapsed in on itself. Before he could ask someone about it, a heavy thud from the reference desk caught his attention.

Rhamud, the elderly mage who oversaw much of the Biblioplex's first floor, had just snapped a tome shut with finality. Without a word, he rose from his chair, his robes shifting with slow, deliberate movement. His gnarled hands adjusted the sash at his waist before he turned toward the stairs leading to the second floor.

He didn’t move hurriedly, but the intent behind his steps was unmistakable. The old librarian was going to check what happened.

And Dorian, feeling the unmistakable pull of curiosity, found himself debating whether or not to follow.

The change in the atmosphere is putting Kiraen on edge. She summons a small ball of light. The very first illusion she was able to cast consistently. She doesn't need it to see with, but she wants to get a feel for the magic, or lack thereof.

The silence and the distinct lack of magic is unsettling to Marlena, but she tries to ignore it for now. Seeing that the only way to handle this situation is to face it head-on, she decides to seek out Kiraen first. She feels it will be somewhat easier to explain herself with a friendly face at her side.

She leans out of the Magical Artifacts & Objects section and looks both ways before leaving it. Even the magical lanterns lighting the place were affected by the wave, casting much of the floor in shadows, but she refrains from producing a light source for now. She scurries past several rows of bookshelves. She remembers how Callador mentioned that not all the books on this floor were harmless, so she tries to keep her guard up. Though, maybe she would like to be attacked by a crazy book right about now. It would assure her that at least some of the books weren't damaged.

She thinks she saw a flicker of light from a few rows over, so she starts heading that way, cutting through the Magical Philosophy & Ethics section in the process. She can only assume that the books would probably engage in a debate with their readers on a variety of topics. While walking, she sees a book regarding the ethics of summoning life with Creatio. She doesn't have much of an opinion on it, but she slides the book out anyway and slowly opens it, intent on seeing if the book would 'wake up' or say anything.

Dorian follows after Rhamud, his worry riding to New Heights ™. His eyebrows nearly touch they're so knit and he says to the librarian, "Careful, sir, something odd had been going on here. I'm at your service if you need a hand."

What he could do to help, he dared not speculate.