Leval tower, renowned as it was, still housed many abandoned shadows. Carmine hid in one such place; a private lecture hall, unused for a long while save for spiders spinning their webs in its corners. From the size of it, it couldn't fit more than three, maybe four students at once. Perhaps it was an old classroom the professors stopped using after more students came to enroll, or maybe they just forgot about it.

Either way, its insignificance was Carmine's gain. It was the perfect place for a quiet meeting. A knock at the door came at the appointed time. Carmine cracked it open to see Emmet hooded, but smiling. Their plan matured quickly; only two days had passed since Carmine's return, but Emmet’s ingenuity already had them progress.

"Did you get it?" She asked, pulling the door wider.

Emmet stepped inside, flicking his hand out of his robe with a shining silver key. In a room lit only by candlelight, a soft green glow betrayed runes in the key’s ornate design. The key to the high archive, Emmet actually got it.

"Well done!" Carmine marveled at the key, a smile slicing across her face. "How long can we keep it before your parents notice?"

"As long as we like," Emmet boasted. "This one is a copy. I made a mold from the original key and had a metal-mage from another circle make this one. Since I copied the runes I enchanted it myself. We can slip into the high magic archive as many times as we need."

"So long as we're not seen," Carmine added. "Shall we try it out?"

"No time like the present, especially with our exams less than two weeks out." An urgent tremor lingered in Emmet’s words, and his smile hinged between confident and nervous.

"You read my mind." Carmine pushed him into the hallway, following just behind. “So, where is the door?"

"Hidden, but not that well." Emmet explained on his way to the lift. "It's not really a secret, you know? Just a restricted area. It's in the library. The key fits into the spine of a locked book. We find the right one, give it a turn, and we're in."

"Do you know which one?"

"Well, no, but that's where you come in. It'll be enchanted, like the key, and you're pretty sensitive when it comes to ambient magic. You can probably sniff it out."

"Like a bloodhound?" Carmine raised a brow. "How nice."

"Hey, I got the key. I did good, you said so."

"I did." Carmine gave a sigh feigning resignation. "I guess if it's what I'm good at, I'll stick my nose where it doesn't belong."

"It is a very nice nose." Emmet remarked, scratching his chin with an appraising glance.

"Shut up," Carmine scoffed.

The tower library remained open through all hours of the night. Some students had some messed up sleeping patterns, and Carmine suspected she was doomed to be one of them. A few different professors rotated the role of librarian. In the evening, only one tired professor was the full extent of supervision for students. An unspoken trust existed between mentor and pupil in Leval. Students had free access to the curated tomes the tower had accumulated, and in return the students would be disciplined and responsible with that knowledge, yet that rule was often tested. Many times, Carmine had seen other students up to mischief or slacking between the aisles. Never did she expect to become the worst among them. Now…she began to understand why the exorcists might be necessary.

"Sense anything?" Emmet asked.

"Not yet, Emmet, we're barely through the front door," Carmine replied, gesturing at the wide room ahead of them. "I've been in here dozens of times and I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary."

"We weren't looking before." Emmet raised a finger with an optimistic smirk.

Carmine rolled her eyes and huffed. If they had to examine every inch of the library, they'd be searching for weeks, weeks they didn't have.

"Do you have any clues to where it might be?" Carmine asked. "We can't afford to waste time."

Emmet curled a finger on his chin. "Well…maybe," he lifted his head with sudden realization. "I might have seen the title when I was looking for the key

"Wait, you have?" Carmine gave him her full attention. "Come on, what was it?"

Emmet grunted, tapping his head as he tried to recall. "I was more focused on the key…"

"We just need one word. That's enough to get us started."

"The?" He offered with an uncertain smile.

"Other than that!" She shot him a frown.

"Gate." Emmet said after another silent minute. "I'm pretty sure it had the word gate in the title."

"That's not nothing." Carmine nodded. "We'll split up then. You check the library's index for all the books with that title. I'll head over to the section about spatial travel."

"Why do I have to go through the index?"

"Didn't you say my keen senses would find the book faster?" Carmine smirked while Emmet let out a defeated sigh.

"Fine…if you don't find it, then I suppose the index will."

"Exactly," Carmine waved as Emmet drudged toward the crystal tablet holding the names of every book in the library. "Good luck!"

By this time the library's aisles echoed only with her own footsteps; She had as much time as the night allowed. Unfortunately, locked books weren't exactly rare in Leval. The tower shared its knowledge with students on request, but some of its more exotic books required an approved requisition from a professor. Knowledge is everything; Leval, and by extension the Empire, loathed to see any of its precious collection go missing.

The hidden door may have been impossible to find if all she used were her eyes, but she had another sense. She touched each possible book; Gate to the City, Gate of the Elements, and dozens more, each time extending her arcane sense, searching for lingering sorcery hidden in the pages. Soon enough, she found her answer.

Her gloved fingers brushed over a shelf, and she felt the waiting magic in the tome like a drawn bow.

The Gate to High Magic, a fitting title, she supposed. Using her Circle's arcane brand, she contacted Emmet.

"I'm up to 237," his voice hummed in her ear. "I really hope you're having better luck than me."

"Much better," She replied, her words carried across space to Emmet alone. "I think I found it. Bring the Key."

"Thank the Ancients. I'm on my way." The link went quiet, then abruptly returned. "I can ditch this list, right?"

"Wha-? Yes, just get over here."

"Right. Good. Coming." The link silenced for good this time as Carmine suppressed a chuckle. For someone usually competent, Emmet had trouble breaking the rules. She heard Emmet's steps just before he ran around the corner. He looked left and right before stepping into the aisle.

"I don't think anyone's seen us," He said.

"Just as well. Running in the library, Emmet? When did you become such a rascal?"

"Well, I met this girl, you see," he said, reaching into his robe for the key. "I think she might be a bad influence on me."

"Is she?" Carmine replied as she pointed out the book. "You should keep your distance then." She laughed to hide her nerves.

"I don't think I will- wait, the Gate to High Magic, seriously? I bet dad thought of this." He grumbled, shaking his head as he slid the key into a hole on the book's spine. As it turned, the runes on the key flashed green, and the light spilled into lines on the book's exterior. Suddenly, all the books on the shelf began moving on their own. Both Emmet and Carmine stepped back, as the books reordered themselves, matching their seemingly insignificant spine markings to each other as the light spilled from the keyed book to the others. Within moments, the outline of a door took shape before them.

"Are…are they done?" Carmine asked Emmet.

"Don't look at me, I've never done this before," he said, raising his hands.

"Let's find out." She shrugged, reaching for the key which served as the doorknob. She gave it a pull and the shelf swung open and another library waited on the other side. "This is it." An eager grin split her face as she moved in. "Let's go."

"Guess we're doing this." Emmet followed behind, closing the gate behind them.

To the naked eye, this new section only appeared a league richer. A library is a library, but the books here had a touch of refinement to them: embossing with precious metals, gem inlays, or patterned embroidery covered the tomes in one way or another. They sat on shelves closer to display cases, covers facing out uncrowded and clear of purpose.

To a mage, the entire room hummed with potential. Carmine felt as though she walked into a powder keg, and opening any one book would strike the flint to set the place ablaze. It was perfect.

"This is definitely the place," she said, a hungry elation seeping into her eyes.

"I can feel it too," Emmet agreed, equal parts apprehension and anticipation. "We need to stay focused, we don't have all night."

"You're right. Let's split up again, try to find a grimoire for each of us. What are you looking for?"

"Something about spatial manipulation and creating space. You?"

"Higher healing magics. Anything that relates to restoring wounds or bodies that can't heal with own vitality ideally, but I'm not going to be picky." Such a book likely didn't exist, given healing magics principles, but it would keep him looking.

"I'll keep my eyes open. I'll take right, you take left?"

"A good enough plan as any," Carmine nodded. "We have about eight hours until morning classes. We should be back at our dorms in four by the latest."

"Happy hunting." With a short wave, Emmet split off in one direction, and Carmine pursued another.

What she sought had to be around here too, perhaps in some restricted section or behind another hidden door. Still…a little browsing might not hurt if she found the time. As she passed the shelves, small crystals brightened with magelight to show the tempting titles under their glow. She'd heard of a few of the domains on display. In particular one titled Time Sorcery: The Hidden Hour Of The Day, and Solar Magic; Harness the Sun, both seemed useful. She heard of mages using the latter to forgo eating food, and using the former just for more time sounded useful. Perhaps she'd comeback and have a look if she had the chance, but she and Emmet agreed not to pull too many books at once. If too many went missing, there'd be a hunt. If there were a hunt, her cursed hand would show her deeds. No, she needed patience. She needed focus. She needed that vault.

Redoubling her search, Carmine looked past the books, instead seeking signs of another hidden passage. All paths came to a nexus; a small lounge at the center of the High Magic library. Four statues led to a hearth, burning with blue flame. Luxurious, if dusty chairs all pointed at the warm fire. A plaque written in ancient script lay embedded in the stone. "In knowledge, thou shall thyself discover," Carmine read it aloud. "We'll see about that." She narrowed her eyes, seeing a smaller inscription hidden by dust beneath the plaque's words. As she brushed it off for a closer look, an icy cold shot up her arm. Carmine grit her teeth as the frigid numbness concentrated in the cursed flesh on her right hand. Her fingers spasmed, twisting, moving of their own accord as they reached for the hearth. Carmine gripped her wrist in a panic, holding her arm to her side, as she hoped the episode would pass quickly. While she suppressed her overwhelming revulsion, something reached back from beneath the hearth. Something cold, foul, it held the same wrongness that nested in Carmine's hand after she cast her first necromancy and it sensed her own.

It was here, right under her. She found the vault.

"You okay?" Carmine jumped as Emmet rushed out of an aisle behind her, his face frowned with concern.

"Oh, yeah," Carmine released her gloved hand and raised it to Emmet. "Just…stubbed my finger."

"Really?" Emmet raised an eyebrow.

"I can be clumsy too, damn it!"

"Fine, fine. Shatter my illusion of elven elegance, why don't you."

"You're hilarious." Carmine stood straight, putting her hands behind her back. "Find what you're looking for?"

"Yeah, I think I got a bit lucky with this one," Emmet pulled a book from his satchel. "The Perfect Place, by Desdemona Leval, my grandmother many a great in the past. Seems like it's about the tower and the enchantments it holds. Perfect for me. No luck for what you were looking for yet."

"I haven't found anything either," she lied. "I hoped maybe this place might have an index like the other library, but…" she shrugged.

"This looks like a reading area," Emmet stepped into the lounge. After a few steps, his attention fixed on the statues leading up to the hearth. "Oh hey, we have the same statues up in mom and dad's living quarters."

"You do?"

"Yeah." He walked over to the statues, tilting his head at them, and touching their surfaces. "These are all crooked though."

"Crooked?" Carmine moved in front of the nearest for a good look. The stone sculpture of a man and woman driving an old horse drawn cart sat straight on its pedestal. Carmine noticed the road underneath the cart marred with intentional damage, but nothing out of place. "It seems straight to me."

"That's the issue," Emmet explained, wiggling with a statue with a burning tree. "They're meant to point at each other. The way my mom tells it, they're not separate pieces. They're a parable of how my ancestors' yearning for knowledge founded the institute."

"If that's true…" Carmine glanced back at the false hearth. "Can you show me?"

"If you want, but we'll have to put them back when we're done. Leave no trace…well, except the books we're re taking. Eh, we'll be fine." He waved Carmine over to the first statue, a couple stepping out from a quaint homestead. "So it goes like this: the search for enlightenment begins by leaving our known world behind, for no new knowledge can be discovered in the well-known." He shifted the first statue to face the cart, and moved over. "Knowledge must be explored, within and without. It spurns the gilded road, and ventures to the edge of our world and further still."

"Spurns the gilded path, eh?" Carmine scoffed as Emmet turned the cart statue towards the burning tree. "So says one of the most renowned, and wealthy magic institutes in the world."

"What do you want me to do about it? It was written centuries ago by my ancestors, and not even the ones that actually founded the place," Emmet replied, smirking, as he moved to the burning tree statue. "They probably took some liberties. You know: make it sound more epic than it truly was."

"So what truly was it?"

"My old ancestors had to flee their home due to some natural disaster, and they ran around panicking until they discovered the ancient compound underground, and they built a tower over it for study. Weird anomalies brought in other curious folks." Emmet clapped his hands. "School founded. "

"Oh…that's-"

"Not as grandiose? Exactly why we have a parable and not a historical journal."

"So how does it end?" Carmine nodded back at the statue.

"Right," Emmet started shifting the burning tree statue. "Chaos presents trials and obstacles, but also opportunities never before seen; something new." He pointed the statue towards the replica tower and marched over. "Knowledge becomes a monument, a beacon, to learn and teach, and forevermore be more than you were," he grunted, turning the tower to face the hearth's plaque. "In knowledge though shall thyself discover." As Emmet uttered the words, those same words burned white on the plaque. The entire hearth shifted with the sound of stone grinding against stone. "That's not part of the story." Emmet flinched back as the hearth sunk into the ground, and the stones making its body shifted out, reforming into a stairway leading down into darkness.

Carmine started down, her gaze focused on what lay below, but Emmet moved beside her, anxiously reaching for her shoulder.

"What's wrong?" She asked, trying to hide the anticipation in her voice as surprise. "Whatever they're hiding down here must be their best material right?"

"Well…maybe, it's just…" Emmet looked down the stairs at the Iron door waiting at the bottom. "I have a bad feeling about this."

"We'll just have a look, Emmet. A secret door behind a secret door; you can't tell me you're not curious."

"Fine, but just a peek." Emmet acquiesced. "Let's try to leave everything as it was."

Carmine grinned as she descended one step after another, the sound of her stone-met footfalls drowned in her ears by her own excited heartbeat. She pushed open the iron door with a heavy creak and stepped in. Unlike the high library displaying its contents with a glowing pride, the vault hid its contents behind veil and shutter. More than just books, it contained shadowed display tables of wands, staves and other artifacts chained in place. Carmine wondered why the exorcists didn't destroy these profane objects ever since she heard of the vault in the first place. Perhaps they kept them intact as a means of study, to know one's enemy, or perhaps they simply wanted control. Maybe the artifacts couldn't be destroyed. Whatever their reason, it would be Carmine's gain.

"I don't think this is a library," Emmet said, voice warbled by his uncertainty. "We shouldn't stay long."

"We won't." Carmine assured him. She wanted to orient herself, get a sense of where things were for her next return. A displaced shutter caught her eye. Where all the others were firmly shut, one misaligned with the rest by a fingernail's breadth. Unable to resist temptation, Carmine answered the call. She slid the shutter wider, an iron tang wafting past her nose. Inside lay a few tomes, all too shadowed to make out their names save for the first: The Waters of Life.

Carmine reached for the book when a small sheen caught her eye. Hair, red as crimson, dangled out, caught between its pages. The hairs stood up on the back of Carmine's neck. She felt eyes on her, and not just Emmet's.

Someone else had come down here. Someone else accessed these books, and recently. Someone else had the same aspirations as Carmine.

"I think we're done here." Carmine sealed the shutter, and stormed towards the door. Emmet only lagged a few steps behind and eagerly followed her departure. Carmine approached the first statue in reach and turned it back the way they found it. Just as she hoped, the path to the vault hid itself back beneath the floor.

"I don't think we should have gone in there," Emmet said. "I heard we hold on to artifacts for the exorcists and the empire, but…I think some of those things were made by dark magi. We can't afford that trouble."

"You're right," Carmine said, making sure all the statues returned as they had found them. She heard Emmet's breaths, quickened and unnerved. Carmine cursed herself in her mind. She let herself get too impatient. He wasn't supposed to get involved. "Let's go back to the dorm."

"What?" Emmet looked up from his stupor. "B-but we haven't found you a book yet. What are you going to study-"

"I'll come back another day," she answered. "I guess, I'm a little shaken. I don't want trouble with the exorcists."

"Glad to hear that," Emmet sighed. "Let's go. I don't mind getting an early night."

The two sorcerers left the library in silence. Both unnerved by what they saw, but each with their own reason. Neither spoke on the path back. Already Carmine involved Emmet more than she intended, but at least he'd go no further than one stolen book. He probably could have taken it anyway, had he asked his parents. The one Carmine spied however…

The Waters of Life…perhaps it, or another tome held her answers, but she had new questions to ponder first. That would take another night. This little adventure took a greater toll than she expected.

Carmine opened the dorm room door, and stepped towards her room.

"Welcome back you two," Almyra's voice froze both magi in the entrance. "Having a fun tryst?"

"What? No, it- it wasn't" Emmet stuttered, face growing red.

"She's just teasing you Emmet," Carmine grumbled, familiar with Almyra's games. "What are you doing still up?"

"Waiting for you," Almyra answered, pulling out an unfolded paper sheet. "Vale came by, wanted to talk with you, but you were gone all evening. Left a letter."

"Is that all?" Carmine moved closer, trying to snatch the letter, but Almyra pulled it back with a smirk.

"Not quite," she said. "I wanted to talk to you too," she glanced at Emmet, "in private."

"Fair enough," Emmet jumped at the excuse. "I, uh, got some studying to do." He tapped his satchel and made a quick escape, leaving Carmine to a moment she dreaded for a while now.

She dropped into her seat next to Almyra, facing the central table, only catching her friend in her peripheral.

"Here," Almyra placed the paper on Carmine's lap. "And before you ask, no I didn't read it. Vale said it came in her mail. One for you, one for her."

Carmine furrowed her brow and gave the letter her attention. It was a short thing, but her she focused as she caught Nicholos' sloppy penmanship littering the page.

My dear Carmine,

I trust you have been well. Apologies for the lack of correspondence recently, my own archeological assignments have been taking much of my time of late. Good news, however: I will be stopping in Reefcliff for a brief respite in a fortnight. I hope we can get together, and perhaps you can show me this ship-borne eatery you mentioned in your last letter. Looking forward to hearing from you.

With love,

Nicholos.

Carmine felt a smile tugging her lips as she read the last words a second time. She folded the note and tucked it into her robe, careful to avoid crumpling it further.

"Good news, then?" Almyra leaned on the couch.

"Nicholos is doing well. He's got time to visit soon." Carmine's smile crumbled to a frown. "But he's coming the same day I have my exam!" She grit her teeth, a curse on the edge of her lips.

"Wrong." Almyra raised a finger. "Your exam got moved."

"What?" Carmine turned, confused.

"Vale mentioned Nicholos was coming when she got here. I mentioned the schedule, and since she's faculty, she signed off on you and me trading our exam days."

"You did that?" Relief flooded Carmine's chest.

"Of course I did." Almyra shrugged. "You seemed like you needed a break after…well, you know."

"I…" Carmine smiled, but bit her tongue all the while. "I did. Thank you."

"No need." Almyra shifted, her face's warmth cooling to a serious concern. "Listen, you've been acting a bit…withdrawn ever since you came back."

"Almyra-"

"I know it's your business, but when you're ready to talk, I'll always be here."

Why did she have to be so understanding?

Carmine leaned forward and gave Almyra a hug.

"Thank you," she said, pulling away. "Maybe after the exams, when things calm down…I'll be in a better place to talk."

"Take your time," Almyra agreed before rising. "I, however, am going to take mine in bed. I didn't plan to stay up all night waiting for you two love-birds."

"Almyra, its not-"

"Sure it isn't." The faun smiled as she trotted to her room. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"Yeah," Carmine waved as the door shut…

Damn her.

Carmine didn't deserve her kindness.