I had to hand it to the archives. Whatever they may have skimped on, the quality of their bookshelves wasn’t one of them.

Several inches thick, it was proving difficult to rot through at a reasonable pace. Instead, individual spots would take second after agonizing second as magic simulated the effects of fungi on it, slowly chewing through inch after inch till it was down to a thickness I might punch through.

There was no question about what this was doing to me. I squirmed as I could feel my tail re-emerging, poking through my skin. My horns slid back into place, bone and keratin pushing skin aside. My toes melted back into the end of my leg as the hoof reformed. Bones lengthened, flesh moved about. None of it hurt, but it felt weird, prickly and strange. And….good.

It is not like the smooth sensation of making flesh glide with biosculpting. Diabolism felt like a sensation, and despite the pricking of my skin, I couldn’t make myself dislike it. It felt good to have flesh pushed aside, almost pleasant.

Probably not a good sign.

I’d finished the circle, and spent some time with my hand pushed against the center, letting rot seep out into the center and spread from there. Unnecessary, but every additional second would make it easier, and build on that sensation growing-

With an irritated growl, I stopped feeding power into the working. The internalizing of its run-off ceased, and an emptiness pricked at me.

“Did you make it feel that way?” I asked as I moved forward a little, preparing to punch the weakened board.

No. Why would I need to? Diabolism itself has its way of rewarding uses of it.

What did I expect? Even if the answer was yes, the Imp would never say. I punched the center of the board, the feeling of my knuckles smashing against it and wood trying to resist distracting me from that farding emptiness.

One blow. Two. Three, and cracks were forming. Four and my fist was through, hitting the back of several books and sending them off the shelf.

That gave me leverage and from there I pulled on wood, splitting pieces off and tossing them back. A row of books was in the way and I pushed them forward. I grabbed a larger one, laying it across the bottom of the hole so I’d have something to lie on as I moved through. I didn’t want to move across the jagged outline of the hole I’d formed. I didn’t need splinters of any size inside me.

There was enough nastiness in there already.

Emerging from the hole I’d rotted in the shelves, the ceiling of the archives caught my attention. The lack of one.

Looking up at the sky, I stood in disbelief. Above me, the cosmos stretched out. Stars glowed a soft gentle light, a pair of moons cutting a path with their slow orbit through the sky. Occasional comets carved perpendicular paths across it, trailing light behind them in patterns across the sky. Backdropping it all was a deep blue night, honestly, a richer blue than I’d ever seen in my life.

The trailing patterns of lights reformed into new stars, all of them blinking. The comets, I realized, weren’t actually solid matter, looking more like blown-up versions of the arcane lights universalist mages would conjure because they didn’t want to waste the coins on lanterns. Smaller ones littered the sky, forming the stars, thousands of them providing an ambient glow to the entire place.

I opened my eyes into the astral and immediately closed them, tears streaming down my cheeks.

Okay, far too much magic to look at unguarded. The riotous mess of colors meant this place was lousy with spirits. That meant no more diabolism for now. Diabolism was anathema to most spirits, a treat to others. The disruptions in those movements would be a signal flare to any half-decent mage watching.

So many spells were layered across the sky, there’d be at least one.

This all had to be a spell. Outside the impossible astrology and looking like spells, I had not spent that long rotting the bookshelf!

Neither Gregory nor Elise had mentioned any of this! If I made it out of this place alive, there was going to be a very frank discussion with the both of them about preparation, their desire to keep secrets about this place be damned!

Looking down a little did nothing for my emotions. Far off in the distance it looked like someone had just taken this floor and rotated it ninety degrees. And were those little dots moving among those bookshelves people?

No time to gawk. Instead, I moved to put the books back and hide the rotted wood remnants before anyone happened upon it. While doing so, I confirmed a few unfortunate details.

First, I had been entirely correct when I’d said going through that tunnel was going to leave filth all over the plain dress I’d brought in with me. Torn in some places, smeared and discolored in others, the pale blue garment had already seen quite a beating that would help give me away.

Not as much as the second. Internalizing the Infernal energies of rotting a hole through the blocked-off passages had eroded my disguise more than just bringing back my other limbs. I looked at one of my arms. Patches of skin turned a familiar blue...and possibly something else. Those fine scales, like the skin of a fish, like on my cheeks. Those must have always dotted my forearms. I must not have noticed before now. Surely they’d always been there.

Right, they probably hadn’t, but at least they were more like those on a fish than a reptile. Might as well have them be matching if I was being changed.

I sighed, turning my attention to my immediate surroundings beside the artificial sky and the ninety-degree floors in the distance.

The bookshelves were on the tall side, twenty feet, and each with an attached ladder on rails. The shelves were spaced far apart, enough that I could see the four sideways floors without having to move from the middle. They’d carpeted the entire floor, as opposed to just rugs like you’d find in most houses. The Crown definitely had more of a stake in this than Lord Montague, considering his meagre business I’d found when doing research.

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

Then again, I’d missed this place being managed by him. Maybe I just wasn’t that good at ferreting secret business interests out.

It widened further down, opening into an area with multiple tables and chairs, fat cushions laying all over the place. Ah, a den for book-readers, I thought enviously. Before all this, I owned a single, very thin cushion I had worn through to paper thinness. Could I perhaps steal one on my way out?

Sounds broke me out of my thievery-happy thoughts. Boots on the ground, voices in conversation, talking with each other. Further down from me, so not an immediate concern.

The bookshelf down from me groaned, then, to my disbelief, shifted. With a groan two sections of it pushed forward like a door being opened.

I didn’t let disbelief hold on to me for long, running to take cover over by the reading room.

Three humans in blue-gold uniforms pushed forward, lanterns in one hand and pistols in the other. They moved through, sparing a glance for either side before continuing to move through. The next shelf split open, only thirty feet down from where I’d emerged from it. They were gone in a few seconds.

Huh. That was…..no wonder attempting to stare into the Astral had made my eyes water. Was there anything here that wasn’t magical?

Above me came a thrumming, and one of the moon’s shuddered, an invisible force carving into its surface. A chiming noise like a church bell rang across the library as it did so, then a voice repeated the words, now carved into the moon.

Attention all. Entrances between the Third and Fourth Layer are currently closed. The newly installed mechanisms have not properly interfaced with the underlying spellwork. Please do not attempt to travel between those two layers until we fix these issues.

And then they vanished, leaving the surface of the moon blank.

Arcane lights that could search the bookshelves, patrols that could open up passages through them at a thought, a moon that could display messages. Where had this been when we’d discussed me getting these damn records? ‘A few guard patrols typically, they aren’t that hard to evade normally’?

This better result from that reconfiguration they mentioned Lord Montague doing, I thought bitterly as I crept forward some more. If not, we’re going to have a talk about how much bookshelf climbing they thought I’d be doing on a broken leg.

Although even if my leg had been healthy, that route would be out. Given the other parts of the archives at angles to this one, it would be much easier to spot me crawling on top of there. Now, if I had a uniform, that might be different.

More footsteps now, coming from the other side of the nook. I moved to that side, out of view of the passage into this reading room.

“-gormless, hazing little shites. Sure, leave the newbie behind, just happen to close the bookshelf right before he can make it through.”

Huh. Who should I thank for this? I wasn’t fond of anything claiming to be a deity or similar in power, so instead I settled for picking up a book and getting ready.

A guard entered sight, a young human with a full head of red hair. He didn’t seem too focused on anything but complaining about his co-workers. Easy prey. I tossed the book behind his back, landing on the opposite side of the room.

“Is someone there?” The guard asked, creeping towards where I’d thrown the book with their sword drawn. “If you’re a patron, there’s nothing to worry about. I know things may have changed a lot in the past few days, but as long as you’re a legal member-”

I hit the back of the helmeted head with a very thick tome on the mating habits of dragons, sending the guard reeling forward. I needed to move fast, because despite the thickness of the book, through the helmet that should only buy me a few seconds.

The guard was already trying to turn around as I threw the heavy tome at his face. It instead hit his chest but sent him backward.

I shoved him, forcing him to the ground in a clatter of armor. I could only hope no one else heard. I wrapped my arms around his neck, clamping down where I knew the two major arteries were.

He flailed, a fist connecting with my eye, but I held on. A greave kicked my leg, luckily my unbroken one, as pain shot up from my shin.

One-one thousand, two-one thousand, three-one thousand, four-

The guard went limp in my grip halfway between seven and eight, and I let go before I did any permanent harm. Well, any more that I might have. I looked around for something, anything, to tie him up before he returned to consciousness. One of the tapestrys would have to do.

I stripped him first. Only of his outer uniform, which was patterned off the army. No backward-bending trousers, unfortunately, but it would have to do.

In a few minutes, I had a trussed up and gagged guard, who I moved to underneath one of the reading tables. Hopefully, he’d remain undiscovered until well after I’d left.

I checked as best I could for signs of more permanent harm. I might not have concussed him? Perhaps? I hadn’t held back, and it had knocked him out in a single blow, but that didn’t mean brain trauma.

Then again, the book I’d hit him with had been on dragon mating habits with non-dragon races. That meant a very thick book.

I’d left instructions on how to handle him, immediate treatment, and what kind of doctor to see afterward, so that might make up for the probable concussion.

The uniform fit decently well on me. Good. I didn’t want to go around hunting staff members till I found one with the same size of clothes as me. I took my dress off and then started putting the stolen uniform on. Too tight in some spots, not enough in others. It would be enough to serve at a distance.

Well, assuming they ignored the horns. And the skin. Maybe the staff members wouldn’t reflect the prejudices of this place’s current caretaker?

Probably not. Fine, maybe it would buy me a few seconds before the guns started firing.

I went to the ladder on the bookshelf, climbing up towards the top.

Hopefully, I’d just look like a member of the staff trying to get their bearings when climbing up here.

Making it to the top of the bookshelf, I got a better view. There was a third moon of in the distanced, low enough to be hidden by a bookshelf the way the walls hadn’t.

I settled in, just trying to get a sense of the rhythm of this place, anything I could use to move around in here. I doubted the Montague’s instructions would work. Considering they hadn’t mentioned the several moons, probably not.

A fake comet would streak across the sky, dipping lower than the rest, bright light illuminating anything within in view. Silent as it was, the view was surreal, but incredible, seeing those giant balls of pale luminescence dip so close to the ground. Standing on the bookshelf, you might even reach out and touch them as they pass.

Probably not advisable to do.

Soon after, a guard squad would follow through the shelves, spread out covering a hundred-foot swathe of the library.

Give it twenty minutes, and another comet would pass next to where the first one had.

I’d expect something more random, but this wasn’t even the layer with the books they wanted to restrict access to, so perhaps security was more relaxed? I had gotten lucky, I must have emerged from the bookshelf in between the light and the guard patrol.

I couldn’t lie. Considering what this layer was like, part of me wanted to see that third layer.

I waited for four comets to pass, occasionally dipping down back to the floor and walking a fair distance before re-emerging. Hopefully, I wouldn’t raise too much suspicion by doing this, but I wanted to confirm where the comets were heading out from.

They’d dip down from the sky, plummeting towards a specific point in the middle of this center floor I was on, then head out at different angles. They only altered their paths when they would hit the walls, instead changing their path to scan the bookshelves there as well.

What were the odds that was just a misdirection, a way to throw people off the path of where the actual offices for the staff were?

Then again, this was a library. A library with a very restricted list of guests, but still a library. And besides, what other leads did I have? I looked up at one of the stationary moons to have a stable landmark to work off of, then started the climb down.

I had a direction to head.