I love libraries. I know some people think that's a weird thing for a girl in her early 200s to say, but I really do love libraries. Maybe it's because I have near-unlimited access to the Lapide Palace Library and the Royal Archives in Kiloqua. Or maybe it's because I had so little exposure to it in my mortal life. I honestly don't know why I like them so much. I just do. And the Academy Library is definitely one to be impressed by.

While it's nowhere near as big as the Palace Library, it's almost as old. It was one of the first buildings built on Academy Island, actually going up before the Towers, though those were planned first. But history is boring so let's get down to the details. It has four levels: three above ground and one below. The three above ground levels are open access to students. It's got shelves upon shelves upon shelves of books and scrolls. There's a lot of tables for study areas, a few alcoves for private reading (or making out), computer stations, and helpdesks. The staff is always happy to help.

Then there's the underground level. Very few people have ever been down there. I happen to be one of those few. So do my mates. I just wish I could say the experience was a good one, but murder really does ruin a place. Anyway, it's pretty much the same as the upper levels only there, like, no tech or technomagic anywhere apart from the lights. It's all old books, scrolls and parchment. Some of the stuff is even in protective glass cases. Cool, huh? Students need a pass to access the area (officially) and can't go there without a supervising teacher (officially). Doesn't mean there aren't other ways in there. Sure, the catacombs are off limits, but weren't rules made for breaking?

My mates and I have our own table. Well, we like to think its our own table. It's not but we use it whenever we can because it's big enough for all of us and some of our friends to all work without sitting on top of each other. It's not quite out in the open but also not in one of the alcoves. There's a lot of bookshelves hiding it from view, but still plenty of charging ports for when you haven't charged your tablet in a month which, come on, no one does. Wow, I'm really saying a lot about a table.

Anyway, it was the end of the week and me, Maddie, Sky and Imogene were in our usual spot. Troy and Isaiah were still in class. They were gonna meet us here later.

Maddie was whining about how boring the first week of classes were while Sky tried (and failed) to explain to her how it was important. Imogene was scrolling through Trex, pretending she didn't already have assignments that needed to be done while also, I think, planning an early-term party to celebrate the Academy's reopening. I was trying to do my class readings, get a head start on the term and all that, but kept getting distracted by Sky and Maddie's 'debate'.

"But it's so pointless!" Maddie exclaimed. "We know all this shit already. Why do we have to go over it again?"

"Because every year and every class is different," Sky said, already annoyed at having had this conversation every other term. "While some of it is repetitive, some of it is new and we do need to know it." He turned to me. "Help me out here."

I shook my head. "You made the choice to get involved. You can deal with the consequences."

Sky turned to Imogene. "Im? Help?"

The Firebringer kept typing on her phone. Sky snapped his fingers in front of her face. Imogene looked up cluelessly. "What?"

Sky sighed. "Where's Isaiah when I need him?"

I laughed at Sky's issue as I stood, moving away from my friends to return an extremely boring book to the shelf. I started scanning the titles, mainly searching for my class readings but mostly looking for if there was anything interesting sounding. Yup, just your average book nerd right here. I'm not as bad as Sky but I'm up there.

I found something near the middle of a shelf just a little lower than my height. The title on the spine was written in the Old Language, something which I just happen to be learning to read, write, and speak. I knew a few words and phrases. Nothing I could use to hold a proper sentence, but enough to get by. Plus it helps some of the words used back then still have similar meanings today.

The title said Oluaz é Osei. "Diary of Wisdom," I said aloud. It was weird enough to see something in the Old Language so I tried to pull it from the shelf. The key word there being 'tried'. It didn't budge. I made a confused sound and tried pulling harder but it still wouldn't come out. Then, just to try a different angle because sometimes it worked, I pulled the book down. It went down, and there was a faint clicking noise somewhere behind the bookcase. The book shot back upright, and the bookcase swung open like a door.

For a moment, I just stared at it. Then I said, "Uh, guys? I think I just found something."

The others came to see what was going on.

Maddie had the same expression as me when she saw what I was looking at. Sky crossed his arms and let out a quiet "Wow." Imogene, when she finally looked up from her phone, found her flaming hair turning bright blue with surprise.

Behind the bookshelf, vanishing down into the darkness, was a staircase covered in dust. The air smelt old, stale and manky.

I stepped forward, peering into the darkness, but couldn't see anything except for the first few steps. I glanced over my shoulder at Imogene. "Can you light the way?"

Her blue hair turned red. "Uhm, what?! No. Use a Faelight."

"You glow."

"Have you never seen a horror move?!" She gestured at the darkness. "You're the immortal one. You go get eaten by whatever's down there!"

I rolled my eyes but snapped my fingers to create some silver Faelights. They bobbed beside me as I descended the staircase, Sky close behind me. I could hear Imogene's protests as Maddie pushed her after Sky. The moment the two stepped inside, the bookcase swung shut. My first thought was 'oh shit'. I rushed back past Sky and tried to push the bookcase back open. It was shut tight. I cursed to myself, stepping back.

That's when I saw it: a button next to the bookcase. Having no idea what would happen and calling on the power of Otrix for luck, I pressed the button. There was another clicking sound. The bookcase, thankfully, opened once again. The four of us let out a collective sigh of relief. I closed the bookcase again and started back down the stairs.

Even with the light from my Faelights and Imogene's natural glow, it was very hard to see. The clang-clang-clang of my heels on metal told me just how old this staircase was. No one uses mental staircases anymore. They haven't been seen since long before my grandfather was even born. These ones just kept on going down.

I knew I'd reached the bottom when the clanging turned to a solid-sounding thud. I spread my light across the darkness, revealing the secret it had been hiding.

The room was almost perfectly square-shaped. Three of the four walls—all of them brown with age—were lined with roof-sized bookcases. The fourth had a huge desk and a set of drawers on each side. A curtain was above the drawers. There were books and scrolls everywhere. A layer of dust covered absolutely everything. It was beautiful in a historical sense. I found myself immediately drawn to the books. I wiped away some dust with my sleeve and found all the book titles I could see where written in the Old Language. All the books and scrolls were probably written in it.

"Wow," Maddie said. "How old is this place?"

"Very old." Sky ran his finger through the dust, rubbing it between his thumb and forefinger. "Very, very old."

Imogene walked straight up to the curtain hanging from the wall and tore it away. She whistled. "Yeah, 'old' doesn't even begin to cover it."

Behind the curtain was a large frame filled with three separate paintings. The first we all recognised. It was of the First Photon Queen—the woman my mum is named after (not her nickname, her actual name)—and the first King. The image itself is famous across Lyriumia. There's an identical one in the Royal Gallery. Pretty boring really.

The second was almost as well known. It was of the First Queen's Court all standing tall and proud. All the Rulers of Lyriumia have their own 'Court'. And I put that in quotation marks because very few of them have ever acted the way one would assume a Royal Court acts. Speaking from experience there. The only one I know of who didn't have a Court is my grandfather. Something about only having so much tolerance for other people and not being able to find someone who wasn't a 'yes man'?

The final picture was one we didn't recognise. It was of a man—brown-skinned, blue-eyed, short rainbow hair—and a woman—purple-skinned, blue eyed, blue hair done in a bun. A little girl stood at the man's side, holding his hand. She looked like a mix of the two—brown skin but with blue eyes and blue hair with purple highlights. The woman held a newborn baby. I quickly snapped a picture of the collage with my phone.

The others gave me strange looks. "What?" I asked. "How else do you expect us to find out who they are?"

Sky tapped his chin thoughtfully. "I doubt this place belonged to the First Queen and King, nor any of their Courtiers. Everyone would know about it—" he glanced at me— "especially your mum."

I huffed, "Well, it would hardly be the first time she hasn't told me important family details. I did tell you about Colt, right?"

Sky smiled fondly. "Yeah. Anyway, the point I'm making is that there would be a record somewhere and we wouldn't be allowed anywhere near that shelf." He pointed at the third picture. "I'd guess this place belongs to this family."

"We could . . . ask someone." We all stared at Maddie. She blushed. "Okay, yeah, this place is probably hidden for a reason. A reason we shouldn't try to find."

Sky ignored her entirely. "There's got to be a record somewhere in the Database. It knows everything."

I shook my head. "The Database only knows what's put in it. Anything not there or removed gets lost forever." I placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. "There are some places even you can't hack into."

"Considering the age of the two paintings, I think its safe to say this family lived at the same time as the First Queen." Imogene rolled her eyes at our surprised glances. "Oh, come on. I know shit. I'm taking art subjects. You can tell from the flaking and pigmentation." She pointed at something on the first painting I couldn't see. "See this discolouration? Lyriumian art lasts forever so this must be pretty old to have even a bit of damage." She braced her hands on her hips. "If I had to guess at an age, I'd say this thing goes back to the Time of the Ancients."

Sky whistled. "That's impressive."

Imogene grinned. "Babe, I'm not just a pretty face."

Maddie was looking over the books on the desk. She picked one up and blew dust off it, right into my face. I sneezed, then shot her an annoyed glare. She smiled apologetically. I plucked the book from her hands and put it back on the clean square space surrounded by dust. "We should head back before someone wonders where we vanished to. And we should definitely show Isaiah and Troy."

"Wait!" Sky pulled out his phone. He held it face up in his palm. A flash of blue-green light flew from the phone, covered the entire room, stairs, and entry way, before vanishing back into his phone. "Okay, got a scan." He shoved it into his pocket. "Now we can go."

"Do we have to?" Maddie whined. "Look at this place! Can you even begin to image the history?"

Imogene placed her hands on Maddie's back and pushed the protesting Lyriumian up the stairs. Sky and I shared a laugh before following.

*

It was late that night when the four of us returned to the Library with Troy and Isaiah. We were all dressed against the cold—except for Isaiah. Imogene used a protection charm to shield herself from the water. In hindsight, that would have been a good idea for the rest of us, but we honestly didn't even consider it for ourselves since Imogene is literally made from fire.

The moment we stepped inside the twenty-four-hour open doors, Troy, being the mutt he is, promptly soaked all of us. I sighed and snapped my fingers. A small spell had us dried off. We all glared at Troy who shrugged like this was a regular thing for him to do. Which it is.

Isaiah and Troy were just as impressed by the hidden entrance and room as we had been. Not wanting to risk burning our new discovery down, Maddie and I used our power to light the room with Faelights instead of using Imogene's firelights.

Troy frowned at the painting. He nodded at the man in the third. "I know him from somewhere."

"A magazine?" Imogene offered.

"No." His frown deepened. "I'm so sure I've seen him somewhere before. No fucking idea were."

Maddie, ignoring this mystery, had returned to her fascination with the desk. She was opening drawers left and right, not at all being careful with the obviously fragile items, tossing them onto the desk as she dug in a frenzy. I went over in an attempt to stop her and ended up getting a scroll to the face. Enough said there.

Seeing there was no chance of stopping her, I also begun going through the drawers. I didn't find anything really interesting. A few map scrolls with what looked like the old version of Academy Island and the catacombs beneath it. Everyone knew those existed. Underneath them was something far more interesting. A collection of leatherbound diaries. I pulled one from the pile and glanced at the spine. The letters 'C.A.' were written elegantly in golden ink in the Old Language. I made an interested noise but put it back, too worried about damaging them. Unlike other people at the room at the time.

Somehow, through her rummaging, Maddie was the one who found something very interesting. She held a thick, dark blue book with a title written in cursive white ink. "'Sheen-ee-i.'" Maddie turned to me. "Hey, Hathy, what does this word mean?"

I glanced at the title. The word was Shenéi. Maddie had pronounced it wrong. It's actually pronounced through a mix of the words 'shen' and 'eye'. "'Shenéi' means 'Prophecies'," I said.

"Sweet." Maddie flipped open a random page. "Huh, it's written in modern Lyriumian. Weird." She cleared her throat. "'Year: 771B523M557T355. Prophecy #1 – The Sun will fade and the Beast will rise.'"

"That's depressing," Imogene said, coming to stand beside her. "Do a different one."

Maddie shrugged and did so. "Hey, here's one from this year. 'Year: 771B523M557T247 – The Vessel of Time will stand on the crossroad of life and death as a darkness of old threatens the Worlds.'"