I stepped forwards excitedly, wanting to see what Mitch had been right about but he held up a hand to stop me.

“Wait right there for a minute. I’ll quickly check for traps and then you can come in.”

I nodded at him, fighting back my impatience as he darted into the room and began searching it quickly.

My skin prickled as I waited. It felt like someone was watching me. I didn’t think they were though; it was probably just paranoia. It didn’t help that I knew that, somewhere behind me, the Sterlings were making their way through the caves.

I wasn’t sure how far behind us they were though. I didn’t even know how big the cave system was. I’d flitted in and out of the fantasy too much. I wasn’t even sure how long we’d been underground.

Was it still even nighttime? Or was it creeping towards the daytime?

I had no way to tell. I didn’t have my phone with me and my watch had run out of batteries whilst we’d been on the boat. It could have been any time.

There was no light down there either. Just the bouncing beam of the touch attached to Mitch’s shoulder as he searched the room and turned back to me.

“Alright, I think we’re good! Are you ready to discover some treasure?” Mitch called out to me.

I grinned and stepped forwards just as a voice broke through my fantasy.

“Are you finished?” my mom asked.

Irritation flared in me and I refused to return. I couldn’t leave Spinalonga just as I was about to find what we’d been searching for.

“Yes,” I said in both worlds.

Mitch walked towards me, finishing out another torch from his pocket, as my mother looked around the restaurant for our waitress.

It was weird being in both worlds at once. I was seeing everything that happened in Spinalonga but also in my world but it looked more distant. It was kind of like I was watching it on a tv screen. I could feel my body move but I wasn’t exactly attached to it. I had no real control over it.

“Ah, could we get the receipt?” my mom called, holding up her hand to get a passing waiter’s attention.

He paused, despite being laden down with plates, and said, “Sure, I’ll bring that right over.”

“Okay, do you want to know what we’re looking for?” Mitch asked.

I blinked, pulling myself into that world with some difficulty.

A wave of dizziness hit me but it felt a little detached. It wasn’t as severe as it normally was, maybe because I hadn’t truly left the world.

“Yes!”

Mitch hesitated, his eyes flitting over my shoulder to scan the corridor outside.

“Start looking through the boxes and the shelves for any scrolls, books or statutes or anything like that. If you do find a scroll or really old book, don’t touch it. It’ll be really fragile, just call me over and I’ll sort it. Sorry, kid,” he said with a grimace. “I have a lot of experience with old books.”

“That makes sense,” I replied.

It did, honestly. I didn’t want to be the person who picked up a really old scroll or book and destroyed it. Plus, I was pretty sure that I’d heard somewhere that people have oils on their skin that could ruin old books. I was happy not running that risk.

I swept the torch that Mitch had given me back and forth, my eyes widening as I took in the huge room. There were endless shelves, taller than I was, and made of dark wood. Most of them had crumbled over time, meaning that the artefacts and items that had originally lined them lay in piles.

But that wasn’t it. There were also giant wooden crates that sat at the end of some of the rows. They looked like they had been left there in a hurry. Like someone had just dropped the boxes and disappeared.

Confusion hit me suddenly. How would they have gotten the giant boxes through all of the traps? The one closest to me was short but wider than I was. It would have been impossible to carry. There must have been another path, another way in.

“Do you want to start on that side and I’ll start on this one then we can take it one row at a time?” Mitch asked. “One sec, I should put a motion detector and a quick trap down so we have some warning when the assholes show up.”

My skin prickled at his words and anxiety churned in my stomach. I watched him dig around in his backpack for a moment longer before rushing towards the side he’d mentioned.

My heart was beating too quickly. I knew that soon, Sterlings people would arrive and then we’d need to either fight or run. I wasn’t sure which Mitch would do or even which I wanted him to do. He would want to find what he’d been searching for but… would that be worth risking death?

I reached the far end of the shelf closest to the door and shone my torch at the pile of stuff that had fallen, unsure where to start. I glanced back at Mitch who was placing a small device facing the doorway before looking back at the stuff.

I needed to start sorting through it but, as I moved my torch to get a better look at it, I became horrifically aware of how many spiders lived in the wreckage. It looked like there were hundreds. Well, maybe not hundreds but so many. Too many.

A shudder slipped down my back. I didn’t want to touch any of it. But I wanted to help Mitch. I wanted to find what he was looking for before they got to us.

Mitch raced down the row towards me before slowing slightly and chuckling.

“Too many spiders?” he asked, his tone understanding.

I nodded hesitantly, not wanting him to be angry at me. I knew we were in a rush but I could already feel the bugs crawling over my skin and that made me feel horrible.

“Do you want a pair of gloves? They go halfway up your forearms. Well… maybe more for you,” he offered, glancing down at my arms.

“Umm… if that’s okay?”

“Of course, kid!”

“Are you coming?” my mom demanded.

I started to stand automatically, never really returning to reality fully, and began to follow her from the restaurant, my movements entirely automatic. I was still in Spinalonga but I could feel myself moving in Tony’s.

“Alright, they might be a little big but they should stop some of the spiders and creepy crawlies from getting on you. Actually…” He glanced at his shelf for a moment, watching the spiders crawling over the gold statue before nodding to himself. “I’m going to wear some too. It shouldn’t be too bad but I’ve heard these jumping spiders can bite.”

I froze and glanced at the web-coated stuff around us.

The idea of spiders that not only jumped but also bit was so horrible it almost pulled me out of the fantasy. Part of me longed to return to Scotland where I was walking towards the car and half paying attention to Spinalonga, returning only when we had found whatever we were looking for. I couldn’t do that though and the desire was little more than a passing whim.

I wanted to do this with Mitch. It was what I had been waiting for. I would not chicken out at the last moment because of some spiders. I needed to be better than that.

I slipped back into the fantasy fully, just as I reached out to pick up the first whole item from the broken shelves. The spiderwebs stretched and snapped as I lifted the delicate white and blue porcelain bowl. Delicate flowers were painted into the low yet wide rim of the bowl and in the centre was a bird. It was unlike any other I’d ever seen before with long thin legs and a ridiculously elaborate tail.

“Ah, that is beautiful,” Mitch sighed from behind me.

I turned towards him, still holding the bowl.

He was holding a plate, clearly from the same set as the wreckage in front of me. The design was much busier though. Instead of flowers just around the edge, they spread over the entire plate. As overly elaborate as it was, it was still absolutely stunning.

They almost made the plates that my grandparents had look bad. I mean, their ones were obviously expensive and elaborate too but these were just… stunning.

“I hate that we’ll need to leave these here but they’re just too fragile to bring. Sterling’s assholes won’t see the value of them. I’ve tried to teach him before that it doesn’t need to be expensive to be worth acquiring but no, apparently he’s still never learnt. Put that down over here, hopefully, they’ll miss it,” he said, placing the plate down to one side carefully before glancing out the archway. “We need to keep moving.”

I nodded, putting the bowl down before turning back to the shelf. I dug through the rest of the shelf finding nothing more than broken crockery before moving to the next one. Mitch worked quickly behind me, pausing every few minutes to stare out the archway, but still managing to get to the end of the row before I did.

There were countless things, treasures, gold bars even, but nothing similar to books or scrolls. Even the statues I found weren’t right.

The noise from the corridor was getting louder too. They weren’t approaching just yet but the distant bangs and explosions were definitely getting closer.

“Next one,” Mitch instructed when I finally reached the end.

I nodded, following him around to the next row of shelves. We raced towards the far end of it, pausing only to listen intently.

Those shelves were different. I wasn’t sure why but they were more intact. The items on them were placed further apart which might have helped too. I left the shelf at the far end for Mitch to search through, he was faster than me so it made more sense, and started picking over the items.

There were no plates on that shelf, it was mostly carvings and busts. I was just about to turn towards Mitch and ask him if they were the items he was looking for when I heard him let out a soft laugh, full of disbelief.

I glanced towards the end of the row, terrified that Sterling’s people had found us but there was no one there. I looked back at Mitch, catching the look of pure wonder on his face as he stepped back, staring at the top of the shelf along the back wall.

He shook his head slightly, as if to clear it, before saying, “We’ve found it, kid. We got it!”

Excitement washed through me and I hurried to his side, staring up at the top shelf. I couldn’t really see anything on it, I was too short, but I could tell by Mitch’s expression that we’d found something great.

“I knew we’d find it but… damn,” Mitch breathed.

I rose up on my tiptoes and craned my head to try and see what he was looking at but I couldn’t see anything but the tops of some statues. Excitement and impatience washed through me, tinged with embarrassment. I hated not being able to understand immediately.

“What did we find?” I asked finally.

“Okay,” Mitch said, pointing up at the top of the shelf with his torch. “What do you see there?”

I followed the direction of the light, my eyebrows drawing together as I stared.

“Some statues?”

“No, no. Behind the statues. Look at the wall behind the shelf.”

I continued to stare blankly.

It just looked like normal stone and I wasn’t sure what it was that he wanted me to see. It was exactly the same as every other part of the wall around us.

Wait. No, it wasn’t. It was a slight difference but there was definitely something there. The wall was… darker. It was just a little bit darker than the rest of the stone. A portion of the wall, an archway, was made of a different style. And there was something else into it.

The letters were huge, the words broken in half and stuff like together, but they were definitely letters. Not any that I could read though. I wasn't even sure which language it was but I knew that it wasn't English.

“Can you read it?” I asked, my words coming out hushed.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Mitch grin.

“Kind of. I mean, my ancient languages reading could do with some more work but I’m going to take an educated guess based on what I can read and assume it says ‘the cure of the soul’. Basically, it means we’ve found what we’re looking for. We just need to get to it.”

“What is it? What does it mean? How are we going to get there?” I asked, my questions coming out rushed due to my excitement.

Mitch chuckled softly and began taking items off the shelf in front of us and placing them gently on the floor out of the way.

“Start removing all this stuff, we don’t need it. That particular quote was carved into the wall in the reading room of the Library of Alexandria. How much do you know about the library?” he asked, glancing at me.

I wracked my mind but I couldn’t think of anything. I recognised the name, I thought, but I didn’t know anything else.

I shook my head at Mitch, almost expecting him to judge me, but he just smiled softly and continued talking.

“The Library of Alexandria is one of the largest libraries of the ancient world and the scholars who lived and worked there were from all over the world. It was founded back in two hundred and fifty BC and it was part of a larger group of institutions known as the Mouseion dedicated to the Muses, the goddesses of the Arts. I mean, that’s a whole other lesson though. Some people argue that there are three Muses, some say there are nine, it’s a whole thing. We’ll get into it another time,” he assured me.

I nodded, staring at him as I picked up a surprisingly heavy vase and moved it out the way.

I kind of did want to know about the Muses. I didn’t know anything about them, except that they were in that Disney movie, but I couldn’t remember how many of them there were. I was sure it wasn’t nine.

“The person who hired me has been hunting pretty much her whole life for proof that the library wasn’t destroyed,” Mitch continued. “I mean, of course, it was. People argue that it wasn’t actually burnt down by Julius Caesar but it absolutely was. I’ve found enough evidence to prove that, I’d say. That doesn’t matter though. Do you want to know why?”

He glanced over his shoulder at me and I nodded immediately.

A crash echoed through the room and I froze. Mitch cocked his head before glancing at his smartwatch. Somehow it still had battery even though mine had died.

“Okay, we’ve still got some time,” he muttered, almost to himself. “So, it was burnt down in forty-eight BC by Julius Caesar when he set fire to his own ships to limit Achilles’ ability to communicate by sea because the fire spread to the docks. The library was pretty close to the docks because they had a fantastic policy of confiscating all books that came into the ports. They’d make copies and then keep the originals, sending the copied version back to the owners which I think is just incredible. Such a smart thing to do. Oh, be careful with that one!”

Mitch’s warning was too late though. The wooden mount of the bust I’d just picked up crumbled, slipping away from the bottom of the statue and crashing onto my foot.

Brief pain shot through me but it wasn’t too bad.

“Are you alright?” he asked quickly, taking the statue from me and placing it on the floor, his eyes searching my face.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Sorry, I didn’t think that would break,” I said sheepishly, worry burning into me.

I’d broken it. It was probably hundreds of years old and I just broke it. Tears burned behind my eyes.

“That’s fine, ignore it. Are you okay? Did that hurt? Can you move your foot?” he asked, his hand cupping my elbow to help support me.

“Yeah, it’s okay,” I said, wiggling my foot and barely feeling any pain. “Let’s keep going.”

I knew that we couldn’t afford to hesitate, we needed to hurry up. Sterling’s people were too close.

Mitch continued to examine me for a moment before nodding and turning back towards the shelf again.

“Okay, where was I? Oh yeah, the library burnt down. So, it was a tragedy, the library was a great place but some scholars had already started fleeing because of the geopolitical situation at the time and, interestingly, the books appear to already have been removed. The information is a little spotty because of how long ago it was but from what I’ve learnt, there was an organisation that started at the library. Their core goal was to protect and further knowledge so as soon as there was the hint of scholars and information being purged in one hundred and forty-five BC, they started illegally removing scrolls.”

I looked at him in fascination.

“A secret organisation?” I asked.

“Yeah. And I’m sorry I didn’t mention them earlier, kid. I’ve known pretty much since the beginning that we’ve been chasing them but I didn’t want to tell you, just in case. They’re the ones who funded the expedition to Spinalonga. I hid some of the paper from the key but it said they were transporting some stolen goods that I assume will be behind this shelf. Sorry,” he said, seeming genuinely apologetic.

“It’s fine,” I replied quickly.

I just wanted to learn more about the group and his apology made me uncomfortable. I wasn’t used to people saying sorry when they did something or hid something from me, especially not an adult. I mean, my dad apologised for the way my mom acted quite a lot but she never did.

“From what I can tell, the organisation still exists today. They have their fingers in a lot of pies, mostly research and development but also education and some other more questionable ventures. They’ve swept in during a lot of disasters and near misses, always staying in the shadows until necessary. It’s been very hard to learn about them even though they’re everywhere. They’ve become a lot more competent than they were back in the time of the library too, that’s for sure,” he said with a slight shake of his head.

My mind spun and I almost wanted to leave the fantasy and start researching the group myself, even though I wasn’t sure where to start. Would they even exist in the real world? If they did, I wanted to join them.

Spending my life protecting and furthering knowledge… didn’t sound bad. Actually, more than that, it sounded like a good way to live. I’d actually be contributing to the world, making things better.

“Okay, back to the library,” Mitch said, before pausing and listening again. “Nah, I’m hearing things. So, most of the books had already been transferred to the library in the Serapeum of Alexandria by the time it was burnt down. The Serapeum is a temple to the Graeco-Egyptian deity, Serapis, I’ll explain that one later too if you don’t know about them?”

I shook my head, the weight of all of the things I didn’t know feeling a little overwhelming but I couldn’t dwell on it long. Mitch had already started explaining again.

“The books stayed at the Serapeum for a little while but were moved at some point before the temple was destroyed back in three hundred and ninety-one by either a Christian or Roman mob, depending on which report you want to believe. At that point, the group stopped being comfortable staying in Alexandria. They’d mostly been based in the city since their inception but it wasn’t safe anymore. Man, I do wish we could go to the Serapeum though, that place is stunning,” Mitch said, his tone wistful.

“Oh, really?” I asked.

My mind raced, immediately imagining a grand temple made of marble with Egyptian, Greek and Roman Gods carved into the walls. Stained glass was everywhere, illuminating the inside so beautifully and bathing it in colour.

“Oh yeah. I mean, obviously it’s in ruins now, there’s only a single pillar standing but the catacombs are great. There’s not much to see there unless you want to blow a hole in some of the walls but some great items have been found there! It’s pretty much all in museums now though. Well…” he hesitated and sent me a cheeky smile. “It was.”

My mouth dropped open.

“It was?” I asked.

“Well, I had a contract to fulfil and the fake was great. I could hardly tell the difference, the museum won’t for years! That reminds me, kid. If I’m ever going to break into a museum, I’m leaving you in a hotel somewhere and making sure you have enough money to last a few weeks until I can break out of jail again. Of all of the places I get arrested breaking into, the museums are somehow always the worst. I just don’t know what it is. It’s like I have some mental block or something with them,” he muttered. “Alright, give me a hand removing this shelf.”