Chapter 546: The shadows of doubt
Silence engulfed the library as the echo of the void faded. The mana in the air started to curl, under some unseen influence, it formed long chains, curses aplenty. There were multiple ways to avoid one’s mana being encroached onto by such a passive curse, be it burning the mana to do something else or repelling it from one’s body, but Sofia did none of that.
Open your soul to curses dire, the voice said.
Cinthia seemed to have reached the same conclusion, and was cautiously monitoring her chat and health as the curses slowly entered her mana circuit.
“I don’t feel any different. You?” Sofia asked in a hushed voice, taking a few steps forward between the two tall bookshelves.
“Not different at all,” Cinthia confirmed, also speaking softly, “I would say it is dormant, but I have no idea. The chat’s also gone mostly quiet already, they’re just watching now, fourteen of them.”
“Let’s give them a good spectacle, then,” Sofia continued, and, thinking they might be on a timer, she started sharing her first impressions, “The library’s rules are key here. Proving ourselves worthy of the code can mean a few things but I think, whether it’s a code like an encoded thing we have to decipher, or a code of conduct we have to abide by, but either way I tend to think the rules and the code are one and the same.”
“Jumping to conclusion quite fast,” Cinthia commented, “but that might be what we need right now. ‘Open your soul to curses dire, and the library’s rules acquire’ definitely sound like a single sentence, so the two might be related. That might be why the curse is doing nothing right now. Maybe it only acts up if we break the rules?” she suggested.
“Good guess. The beyond the flames part makes me wonder if we’re supposed to burn the place down, but let’s not be rash, could very well be about the candles. And that’s not all, here’s what I had on the scroll before summoning you: Here lurks the Candle-meistre. The writing is on the wall, will your obstacles go up in flames? Does the flame of your ambition yet burn hot enough?” Sofia recited from memory.
“This definitely does sound like we should be burning the books to have a look at the walls behind,” Cinthia quickly said, “but I wouldn’t feel safe doing that before we know what the curse does.”