“What is all this?” Tank asked, after squeezing himself after their wayward witch. The entire place looked like something right out of a fantasy novel, or maybe a movie about rings, kings and small people living underground in very nice holes. This might just be one of those comfortable holes, made to be lived in and enjoyed, even if it currently lacked the furnishing and, maybe most importantly for those small people, the well-stocked pantry. It had to have formed somehow, either by some strange twist of fate that turned stories into reality or by a person, using great effort and formidable magic.

And that was just the physical structure. Even Tank and Josh, neither of whom were terribly perceptive when it came to things beyond the physical, could feel the change in the air, the difference between the dangerous forest where anything might try to kill you in some horrifying fashion, and this area. Here, there was an aura of peaceful quiet and tranquillity, making Tank think of ancient churches or large libraries from before the change. Places where even a whisper felt too loud and only sombre silence was appropriate.

“It’s certainly cosy, think we should stay here for a bit? If we want to explore the forest, that is?” Josh asked, looking just as amazed by the structure as Tank was. Not that the burrow was really large, just a short access tunnel leading to multiple smaller rooms dug into the hill below the tree, but there was something cosy about it. That perception was strengthened by the aura of tranquillity, giving off the sensation that you could rest here, without having to fear your enemies.

Just as the two were about to enter the room Sue had vanished in just a little earlier, a blue box popped up, charging them to add to the knowledge in the Burrowed Library. Not really knowing what that was supposed to mean, they looked into the opening, thinking that Sue might have triggered something, to see their companion crouch before a statue, reading off a large stone tablet.

The statue, and the entire room it was in, was the only room they had seen thus far with any furnishing. It wasn’t a lot, just the statue, a few stone benches and earthen shelves, not a whole lot of comfort. But there, sitting on the earthen shelves were numerous slates carved from some grey stone, looking quite similar to the one Sue was reading.

“So, what’s you’ve got there?” Tank asked, now directly addressing his companion, hoping that the tablet might give them some answers.

“This is a Sanctuary of Hecate,” Sue explained, remembering something about Hecate being a triad deity, composed of a young girl, a woman and a grandmother, or something along those lines, just like the statue was. Or as the magic of this room had impressed upon her just earlier, composed of Maiden, Mother and Crone. With that realisation, she gestured towards the statue as she mentioned the name Hecate, getting nods from her companions. By now, the rest of their group had entered and were listening, though none of them really knew anything about Hecate, other than that she was a Goddess of Magic or something like that.

“And what’s the quest all about?” Mirko asked, only for Sue to gesture towards the tablet she had been reading.

“I think that the acolytes of Hecate who made this place wrote down what they found out about this forest. We can read at our leisure but we are asked to add our own observations to this library, so future travellers can do so, too,” Sue explained, getting a nod of understanding.

“Like some sort of periodical?” Bea, the fifth member of their group, asked, thinking of the articles she had published before the world went to shit, about her own experiments while reading the articles of others, incorporating their findings and understanding into her own while they were trying to figure out how a tiny slice of the world worked. This might be something similar, only that instead of the metabolism of certain microorganisms, it dealt with the area right around them. Meaning, fewer people would be able to contribute, and those people would generally have less specialised skills but at least all of them were working in the same area, literally.

“Divine review instead of peer review?” Mirko laughed, imagining for a moment some golden light from above, or maybe a metal paperclip, making corrections to a paper instead of sending the paper in and having one’s peers review it.

“Who knows, but I think the idea is similar. If there are more of these sanctuaries, it could work, especially if there is an exchange of information. You know, so somebody coming across murderous plants like those here can cross-reference and maybe understand the mechanisms of the smacking vine or something like that,” Bea nodded, the idea making sense to a part of her that had been buried by the need to survive.

“Let’s get to reading?” Sue added, looking at the many, many tablets, wondering just how long somebody had been swinging a hammer and chiselling away at this much stone. It seemed almost a ludicrous way to record knowledge, outright biblical, and even in that story some of the tablets had been broken. “We better be careful, I’ve got no idea what might happen if we break anything here,” she added, not wanting to find out what the fine for the destruction of ‘books’ in a divinely protected library might be. Because that was most certainly what this was, at least the beginning of one.

Neither Tank nor Josh were terribly interested in the tablets, they had both taken one and read through it, amazed at the even calligraphy and size of the writing, but given that the tablet Tank had grabbed was utterly incomprehensible, talking about potential dimensional stretching and meeting of parallel lines, he soon gave up. Josh’s luck wasn’t much better, his tablet was about the manipulation and combination of crushing vines and needle bushes, with descriptions that made absolutely no sense to him, to the point that it might as well have been written in a different language.

Moving back out of the inner sanctuary and leaving their companions to read, they started to explore the rest of the small but homely hole they had found here. And what they found convinced them that staying here for a bit might just be the thing to do. It was just as comfortable as the shelter they had been living in since the change, even if there were a few oddities. A fireplace with a strange, closed chimney, a toilet without a tank to flush it, everyday objects that hadn’t worked since the change but gave the impression that they had been added purposefully but without a way to make them work. Unless there was a way they didn’t know about, maybe some sort of magic. It wasn’t the most outlandish idea, even if neither Tank nor Josh could really see their companions use their magic this frivolously, they usually kept their abilities close to the chest. Setting an entire dwelling up to work with magic didn’t really fit with that idea.

Walking back to the inner sanctum, they were greeted with a fairly unexpected image. Sue was drawing some odd symbols into the air, looking at them with expectation, only for a splash of water to materialise in the middle of the symbols, hitting her hand and soaking her arm and part of her torso. However, instead of indignation or anger, Sue only let out a happy squeal before going back to the tablet she had been reading.

“Thank Hecate, this library is amazing,” Sue muttered, completely unphased by her troubles. Just a few minutes of reading and she had managed to conjure a bit of water, not a lot but compared to having to wander around and look for bottled water or some more or less dodgy spring? She was happily getting soaked and giving thanks to the Goddess and her acolytes. Without them, this wonderful place wouldn’t exist.

Next to her, Bea and Mirko were doing their own reading, though by the looks of it, they hadn’t picked an introductory text, or maybe theirs wasn’t about something as useful as Water Rune Mastery.

Shaking her head, Sue went back to reading, fascinated at the descriptions and practical value written in stone with carefully chiselled words. They might be here for a while, and they’d certainly give their thanks to Hecate every day they were here. And maybe even beyond that.

Now, she only has to find out what to add to the library. And, maybe more importantly, how to get it chiselled into stone, she had barely used pen and paper for a few years, certainly not for any serious writing. But unless there is some sort of magical laptop hidden somewhere in the burrowed library, stone it is.