Our tired bodies were happy to sleep through the remainder of the day and the whole night. We woke up feeling refreshed, albeit a little sore from the ordeal of traveling through thick snow the day before.

We got into our casual robes and descended to the monastery’s dining room which was now bustling with people. They all looked the same in their white robes, men and women with long white hair, the only difference being that men had equally long white beards as well.

“Hello,” Kai said absentmindedly, and immediately realized the futility of his greeting. “Forgot they’re too busy to talk to us.”

“It’s fine,” I said, and gently pushed him to take a seat at a table while I brought something to eat from one of the tables standing next to the walls.

“At least the food is good,” Kai said as he finished a rather large piece of steaming-hot bread bun. “Are you done yet?”

“Yes,” I replied, as I wiped my mouth, stood up and pointed at the corner of the room. “Please leave our tray in that open closet while I find out where the library is.”

“Okay,” he said and turned around.

“Excuse me, Miss,” I said, to one of the female monk-priests silently eating some kind of broth filled with bread pieces. “Do you know where the library is?”

“Yes,” the woman replied, but didn’t elaborate, and I thought I heard Kai snicker.

“Where is the library, madam?” I asked, mildly amused by the whole situation.

This time, the woman didn’t reply but simply pointed her index finger down a hall and then made her finger turn left. That was all I needed to know, and even though I knew it did not matter to her, I said my thanks and joined Kai who was waiting for me.

“I saw,” he said, before I managed to tell him anything of what had transpired with the female monk-priest. “Let’s go, I can’t wait.”

We walked down the corridor and took a left turn at the first intersection. We were met with a large opening transitioning to a gigantic room filled with bookshelves as far as the eye could see.

The sheer number of books available was staggering, and the height of the bookcases was only dwarfed by the length of the corridors between the bookcases. This was a vault of knowledge and I could finally see why the senior monk-priests would not even bother interacting with us. They were lost in the ocean of information this place held.

I could see many of the monk-priests who had already finished their breakfast walking through the corridors, some of them holding open books and mumbling to themselves, others comfortably seated on one of the numerous brown leather armchairs, while a few were feverishly taking notes from multiple books stacked in front of them on thick wooden desks.

I had never been to the university but I remembered Seika describing it with awe during one of her visits and I could see why she was excited. If the university was half as impressive as this place, it would be enough to charm any book lover.

“Let’s split and look for the book called Restoring Deities,” I whispered to Kai, and moved to start my search.

The system of taxonomy used in the library was very accommodating, as I saw that books were divided into large clusters for each starting letter of their title. I headed toward a sign showing an R somewhere on the opposite side of the colossal hall, and looked at the bookcases I was walking by: books about demons, devils, The Divine, The Divine, dragons and more books about The Divine.

Wait a second. What was that book about dragons doing there among The Divine?

I backtracked a few steps to make sure of the title and realized the book was indeed misplaced, breaking the alphabetical order. A rushing feeling of helplessness started growing in me as I ran down the corridor, taking quick looks at the books to see if there were others that had been misplaced.

The Divine, The Divine, The Divine, shamans. My fear was confirmed. The books were not magically put back into their correct place, which meant that if the single book we were looking for was not in its correct place, it could be anywhere.

As I ran down the corridors toward the letter R, I tried my hardest to keep my hands from finding their familiar way of pulling my hair out of anxiety.

Sure enough, Kai was already waiting for me in that section and pretty soon we had searched almost a thousand titles which would be in the vicinity of the book called Restoring Deities. But it was nowhere to be found.

“It’s probably not here, Myriam,” Kai said, and sat on the floor.

“We just need to continue searching!” I said, without stopping my search of titles which were decreasingly similar to the book we were looking for. “Maybe we can ask Galad. He is the librari—”

“No, I mean it’s probably not out here,” he interrupted me, and pointed his finger toward the middle of the library hall.

A transparent glass room with a handful of high bookcases trapped inside it could be seen there. We moved closer and realized that the glass walls were seemingly impenetrable, with no visible point of entry.

And yet we could see a monk-priest sitting on a comfortable chair inside, reading a book. As soon as we reached behind the monk, in direct sight of what was written within the book, the glass suddenly became black, obscuring our view.

“I see you’ve found your way to the pride of our monastery,” Galad’s voice echoed.

He was sitting on the other side of the glass room’s surrounding walls. We moved toward his desk and greeted him with a big smile, even though the question was burning in us.

“We did indeed,” I replied, and tried to find a topic to discuss before jumping in too quickly to ask where the book was. “You have such a rich selection of books. How come you have some in that glass room?”

“Those books are either too precious or too powerful to be left outside,” Galad replied. “Monks-priests can only enter the glass chamber if I allow them entry and are only allowed to study the books inside the room. Should one of the books exit the chamber, I would be immediately notified and teleported here. Not that it has ever happened, but it is a solid safety measure nonetheless.”

“Understandable,” I said, and tried my best to look inconspicuous as I phrased my next question. “I couldn’t help but notice some of the books are misplaced on the bookshelves. How do people know if a book they’re looking for is out here or in there?”

“Ah, but that is simple, young Myriam,” the man replied. “I know all of the books in there. All they need to do is ask me. I remember all of the books in that room as well as their exact position. Is there something in particular that you need?”

“Not need, but…” I said, and casually gazed at the almost endless bookcases. “Some time ago we came across a catalog of all books related to The Divine and there was one called Restoring Deities, which could only be read here.”

“Yes, I know of it,” he replied, and I could not see any frown or negative sign in his expression. “You don’t need to mask your yearning for restoring The Divine behind false pretenses. But the book is indeed locked in the glass room. Gods are usually killed or banished for good reason. The knowledge about restoring them is a tightly kept secret.”

“Do you mean there’s no way one of us could be admitted into the room to study it?” Kai asked, hints of frustration appearing on his eyebrows.

“Of course there is!” the monk-priest replied with a smile. “You just have to prove yourself worthy first. You have just arrived, and we need to know if we can trust you.”

“That is absolutely logical,” I agreed wholeheartedly. “Is there a way we can help while staying here?”

“You don’t need to do anything specific really,” he replied. “Study your books, ask the monk-priests or me if you have any questions, and try to enjoy the wonder of knowledge.”

“Thank you, priest-monk,” Kai said and gave a slight bow.

“Thank you, Prie— Monk-priest Galad,” I added, confused by Kai’s remark. “We will prove ourselves worthy of the monastery’s trust.”

“I am sure you will,” he said, and turned his head back toward the open book in front of him.

Not having any other choice, we did exactly as we were told. Kai picked up some of the tales he had not yet read about Magaer, as well as some of the other ancient heroes, and climbed up onto a big leather armchair.

I preferred reading a magical crafting book describing methodologies for connecting and binding humans to inanimate objects. I made sure to take meticulous notes on one sheet of paper while I wrote down any questions I had on another. I was planning to go around asking these questions to monks, to show how advanced and deeply interested I was in the subject of crafting magical items.

I noticed Kai doing something similar and he admitted that he would find the monks with the longest hair and ask them questions about Magaer the Great. I smiled and told him his idea was great, and that I would do the same with all the questions I’d come up with. I needed him to be determined to prove how much we wanted to study the book, and that we were worthy of their trust.

The solution to all of our problems was so close we could see it. I just needed to pull through this last little obstacle and then I would be able to return everything to how it was.

I would restore The Divine, but most importantly, I would save Kai from the monster inside him.