Kelly thought it might finally be her mont to shine.
She didn’t believe this particular location would be the one that revealed everything they were searching for, but at the very least... she could outdo another mber of the Dark Guild. Proving her worth, even in small victories, mattered more than she wanted to admit.
As they continued walking, Kelly realized they were heading back into the main Central Academy building. That alone caught her off guard.
Back into the academy?
Had she missed sothing?
A few monts later, they stepped through the wide, wooden archway that marked the entrance to the main library. The scent of old paper and polished wood hit her instantly. It was a massive space, filled floor to ceiling with towering shelves and organized by disciplines, sections, and even languages.
It was also one of the locations Raze had ntioned in his list of possible hiding spots. Though, at the ti, Kelly had considered it a lower priority. If sothing was hidden here, she assud it would be between the pages of a book, coded ssages, perhaps, or disguised spells. Sothing subtle.
When she had asked Londo about it earlier, he said he’d already conducted a broad search of the books themselves. He had employed a few scanning spells, ones designed to pick up enchantnts or encoded text, but he found nothing unusual.
Now, they were climbing.
The two ascended all the way to the fifth floor, the highest floor of the library. Up here, there were no tos on magic, no treatises on combat spells or energy channeling. This floor was dedicated to fiction.
Fantasy novels, romance sagas, tales of adventure and legends long forgotten. Stories written for entertainnt, not education.
Kelly glanced around.
The floor was completely empty.
Not a single soul.
Even with so many students in the academy during the event, it seed this corner of the library was all but abandoned. She could count the number of footprints in the dust on one hand.
Right... if I rember correctly, Kelly thought, Raze told not to focus too much on the library itself. That’s why I left this section to Londo, it was the longest and most tedious of tasks, but also the one least likely to lead to anything.
The reason, Raze had explained, was simple: back when he was still a student at the academy, he had visited this library dozens of tis and never once noticed anything out of place.
But still, it had been years since his ti here. Things could have changed. And more importantly, there was sothing else Raze hadn’t accounted for back then.
The magical formation they were hunting, it wasn’t one the academy originally possessed.
In truth, it made Raze doubt himself. Sothing so vital... surely it had to have been written down sowhere? The answer was yes. And for good reason.
Because even Ibarin, who had been using the formation, didn’t fully understand how it worked.
He had rely copied it.
The spell was too complex for casual duplication. Creating a functioning magical circle wasn’t just about replicating its design. The runes and shapes weren’t just pretty symbols, they were layered instructions, like writing code in a forgotten language.
Every stroke had to be placed in a specific order. Every rune had a purpose. If you didn’t understand their aning, you couldn’t activate the spell properly, even if you traced it flawlessly.
So soone with deep magical knowledge had to have created the original formation. That ant sowhere, sowhere, a copy or record of it had to exist.
And perhaps, they were close to finding it.
As they approached the back of the fifth floor, Londo finally stopped.
Kelly blinked in surprise at what he was showing her.
A large mirror, mounted to the wall, its fra made of aged silver with delicate carvings that swirled like curling smoke. It looked like nothing more than decoration, sothing a librarian might’ve hung up to make the space feel less claustrophobic.
She hadn’t even noticed it before. But now that she stood in front of it, sothing about it felt... off.
Strange, she thought. A mirror? On the top floor of a library filled with fiction? That’s not sothing you see every day.
"This is the formation I was talking about," Londo said, motioning to the glass. "It stood out. I thought it was weird for a mirror to have a magical enchantnt on it, this is the only one I found like this."
Kelly gave a small, knowing smile as she stepped closer. Of course, it was strange. Most mirrors didn’t have magic embedded in them... except for all the ones she had already inspected around the academy.
"This magical circle," Kelly said confidently, placing her palm against the mirror, "It’s probably just a simple reinforcent and barrier spell. ant to stop the glass from shatter, "
Her voice caught.
Her breath hitched in her throat.
Because the mont she truly looked at the formation...
She realized she was completely wrong.
It wasn’t like the others.
Not even close.
"I know," Londo said, folding his arms. "You think I didn’t check the other mirrors on the way up here? I did. All of them. And this one is different. This is the only enchantnt I couldn’t figure out. That’s why I’m sure there’s sothing going on here."
Kelly’s expression shifted into sothing far more serious as she studied the formation closely. The structure, the runes, the patterns, all of it. Slowly, it began to make sense. A disturbing sort of sense.
The enchantnts on the other mirrors... they were just decoys.
Their purpose wasn’t to protect or reinforce.
They were ant to discourage.
A trick to make anyone who discovered one assu that all mirrors had the sa harmless spells. That way, when they reached this floor, empty, forgotten, quiet, they wouldn’t even bother checking.
And even if they did...
No one would understand it.
No one except her.
Because Kelly had been studying these formations. She had access to files, classified research that even most Dark Guild mbers hadn’t seen. She had worked with Sophie, the guild’s spy-cat, analyzing rare docunts, breaking down lost spells.
And this formation?
This one was unique.
"In order to bypass this magical circle," Kelly said, her voice calm but confident, "and access whatever’s hidden on the other side..."
She looked directly at Londo.
"...you have to use Dark Magic."
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