The monster pushed through the reading desks, scattering them out of the way as it galloped towards Josh. He was frozen against the bookshelf. The cloak’s magical camouflage effect now rendered him effectively invisible, but the creature would be able to probe the area with its legs.

Josh couldn’t think of anything else to do except distract it. He grabbed another book and threw it directly at the monster’s head as it arrived at the entrance to the alcove. The monster immediately snapped towards the book, rising up on its back legs to batter at it in midair, exactly like some giant, misshapen cat.

While it was occupied, Josh gathered up armfuls of books from the bottom shelf and flung them all at the spider. It skittered back, confused. As soon as the shelf was empty, Josh rolled into it, squeezing as much of himself into the space as possible. The bottom shelf was double the height of the higher shelves, but even so his shoulders only just fit, and he had to curl himself up into a foetal position.

He realised he was gasping for air and tried to breathe quietly and slowly, even though his lungs screamed for oxygen. He stared right at the monster, and it stared back, its eyes like black glass. The hairs on its legs raised and stiffened.

Did it use the bristles on its body to sense things, like a tarantula? Was that how it could sense movement?

Josh stayed absolutely and completely still. He had never been more still in his life. All the while he fought his lungs, which only wanted to gasp in air as deeply and loudly as possible.

The monster moved into the alcove, its claws clacking against the wood as it supported itself on the shelves. It towered over him, an abomination of blood and flesh and pale skin in the shape of giant spider eight feet wide.

Its two front legs probed the top shelves above Josh, tapping against the spines of the books. The tapping got closer as it worked its way down. One claw landed on his shelf, directly in front of his face. It was close enough that he could see the yellowed claws scraping against the wood right next to his nose, and the pores on its skin. He could smell it now too, a musky odour, with an undertone of rotten milk.

It only had to move its foot a centimetre and it would knock against him.

It stabbed ineffectively at the shelf above him with its other front leg, then paused, as if waiting. There was a clacking sound and then a loud hiss, and if Josh hadn’t had every single muscle locked tight to prevent himself moving, he would have jumped and given himself away.

After a frozen moment which seemed to last forever, the monster heaved itself up onto the bookshelf above him. He heard clacking sounds and felt the vibrations as it moved around, and then he saw it come into view again, clambering along the top of the shelves and heading away from him, towards the centre of the atrium. At the entrance to the alcove it paused, crouched, and then leapt to the chandelier, where it resumed its watchful, upside-down position.

Josh sucked in great lungfuls of air, trying not to make too much noise. A wash of coldness flooded over his body, and he realised he was clammy and sweating in the cloak. He wished he had never set foot in this stupid library.

Also, unless he got past the horrible spider thing, he would be stuck here until morning. The librarians would come in and find books all over the floor, and they would inevitably discover Josh hiding on a shelf. They would assume he was here to steal whatever valuable thing the monster protected, and he would be arrested. What was the penalty for breaking and entering, and attempted theft? It was unlikely to be pleasant.

So much for sneaking in and out without anyone being the wiser. Maybe being arrested would be better than dying.

You idiot, he thought. You won’t die permanently. Even if the spider thing kills you, you’ll just come back.

He’d completely forgotten that in the heat of the moment. He had to think of this like a computer game.

That idea helped. He was still afraid, but he found himself feeling instantly calmer, enough that he could think clear-headedly about his next move. The only thing he had left to do was to move slowly enough that the camouflage effect stayed in place. Was that possible?

He was already getting uncomfortable from being squeezed up in the bookshelf. The last thing he wanted to do was get cramp while trying to stay still.

Moving at a snail’s pace, he slithered out of the shelf and onto the floor. The spider didn’t react, which meant that it hadn’t detected him. He got onto his hands and knees and crawled towards the alcove entrance, moving his hands a centimetre at a time. It felt like it took hours, although really it was only minutes, but the spider thing didn’t move. It just stayed suspended from the chandelier.

Finally, Josh reached the alcove entrance. There was a distance of about twelve feet to the desk which barred the entrance to the restricted section, about the same distance he had just crawled. He would be out in the open from now on, though.

He kept going. He was still crawling on his hands and knees, even though there was no logical reason to do so. It just felt stealthier, as if being closer to the floor would camouflage him better. He kept his senses extended as far as he could, alert for the slightest tremble of the camouflage effect.

Did the spider thing use its bristles to sense movement in the air and vibrations? Maybe that was how it tracked the books he had thrown. In that case, did its eyes see visible light? Did it have a sense of smell?

Josh now wished he had experimented more with the cloak to find out exactly what senses it was designed to fool. Was it just light, or would it camouflage his body heat and his scent as well?

That was the issue with invisibility. In a society that was sufficiently advanced to create technology that could render people invisible, such an item would normally be useless, because there would be many other methods of detection, such as radar, or sonar, or infrared. If cloaks of invisibility were a thing here, then presumably there must be counters to them. Josh couldn’t rely on it to solve all his problems.

At least it was solving this one.

He finally reached the desk, and slowly got to his feet. He had spent the whole journey looking over his shoulder at the spider thing, and now his neck ached, but the creature hadn’t moved.

It was when he was climbing onto the top of the desk that his foot accidentally hit the front panel with a small thud. The monster unfolded itself, swinging its head around toward Josh, and he froze. He was in an awkward position, with the corner of the desk cutting into his upper thigh. It was rapidly becoming painful, but he couldn’t move while the monster was paying such close attention.

At last, just as Josh thought he would have to dive head first behind the desk and hope for the best, the spider thing folded itself up again. Josh immediately shifted slightly to take the weight off his thigh, and climbed as slowly as possible over the desk.

Once he was behind it, and out of the monster’s line of sight, he rubbed the sore spot on his leg, and let out a long, quiet, relieved breath. He was nearly there.

Ahead of him was an archway, leading into the restricted section. The bookshelves were laid lengthways, which meant that once Josh was behind the first one, he would be out of the spider thing’s line of sight.

He let himself have a short break, and then he got on his hands and knees and started crawling again. Once through the doorway he slipped to the left, so that he was hidden by the wall.

He'd done it.

Of course, he still had to escape from the library somehow, and when the librarians arrived in the morning they would know there had been an intruder, but there wasn’t anything he could do about that.

He pulled a copy of the Alarm spell out of his spell book and cast it on the archway. For the next hour he would feel a tiny flicker whenever something passed through it, so he would at least get some warning if the spider thing decided to investigate this section, or patrol around.

His priority now was to find out about the Dreamer, the entity who had supposedly opened the way to Earth. He got up, and walked as quietly as he could to the first row of bookshelves. It was fully dark by now, so he cautiously lit his candle, wishing he had some matches. He waited, his heart beating nervously, but the monster remained where it was.

After everything Josh had risked in order to break in, he was somewhat disappointed by the collection. It contained much of the same subject matter as the library at High Howe Priory—treatises on Ciandar, the sun-god of Celespire, thick and turgid homilies by clerics of the Common Covenant, essays on the Paragon, fantastic bestiaries, colourful atlases and inumerable history books. Most of the books were richly bound, with lettering or decoration picked out in gold, and ornately decorated hand drawn letters starting every chapter.

It seemed as if the restricted section was set aside to house books for the sake of their value and craftsmanship, not the sensitivity of their contents.

After some searching in the section on the period covering the campaigns of Tylas the Undying, he found a slim volume recounting the trial of a noblewoman who, during the second campaign twenty years ago, had been arrested for the attempted assassination of one of the Seven Heroes, Sir Owain. Curious to see if it would give more details about the Heroes, he flipped through it, and came across a passage where the accused recounted her motive.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

…and though you will say it is treason, I say not, for it is only my devotion and loyalty to our King that persuaded me to this course, for I had seen how Sir Owain stayed closeted many hours with His Majesty, and how the King would follow his advice in all things. Our noble Heroes have sworn to uphold honour, justice and mercy, but it is not their right to dictate to our King, nor to sway him in pursuit of their own ambitions. Have you not witnessed how Ciander now turns His face away from us, and does refuse all offerings…

That was odd. It was the first time Josh had heard of Ciandar rejecting his own worshippers. It hadn’t come up during his conversations with the Abbot. When had that happened and why?

He scanned along the row of history books, until he saw one titled The Mysteries of Ciandar. Sadly, it had nothing to do with Ciandar’s motivations, and everything to do with the author trying to rediscover the secret rites the Ciandaran priests used to propitiate their God. It seemed that gods were fussy about the nature of the rituals performed in their honour, but that knowledge had been restricted to the senior priesthood, many of whom had been elderly at the time of the Sundering, as it was called, and had since all died out.

A second book, titled The Old and New Religions, merely discussed the philosophical differences between the worship of Ciandar, and the teachings of the Church of the Common Covenant. The Church, Josh discovered, had originally been founded to preach morally correct behaviour to the general populace as a way to win back Ciandar’s good opinion. The author, however, pointed out that the greatest sin in the eyes of the Gods was that of hubris, and all other crimes, terrible though they might be, were considered lesser. In the author’s humble opinion, Ciandar’s repudiation of his worshippers was a blessing in disguise, since this paved the way for new philosophies to emerge, which focused on promoting right thinking and respectable behaviour, rather than seeking to placate the gods and turn aside their anger or buy favour with offerings.

Which was all very interesting, but not the information Josh needed. He looked instead for a book about Tylas the Undying. He found three, but none of them gave him any details about how Tylas had torn open the gateway between worlds, merely calling it a dark rite, or unholy magic.

Had Tylas also been a player? Maybe he had been trying to get home. But that didn’t fit with Josh’s theory that the reason Tylas had killed Gwynifer was in order to take her powers and her immortality for himself.

On impulse Josh sought out a book on the Seven Heroes. They had several, so he chose the thickest, on the basis that it would have the most details in it. He scanned the pages, crouched over the inadequate, flickering light of the candle, and there he found his answer.

Gwynifer had once been known as Gwynifer the Dreamer, one of her lesser-known powers. She had been able to walk in the dreams of others, and had possessed farsight, the ability to see events unfolding far away. Tylas had killed her and stolen her magic during his first campaign, but then had been imprisoned. He had escaped five years later, and used that power to bring more outlanders from Earth, but they had turned against him and he had ultimately been killed.

What had happened to his powers? Had someone else taken them, or had they gone to the Guardian? Josh didn’t recall seeing a Dreamerclass on the list, although he had only had a few minutes to look through it.

But now he had a lead. The visit to the library had been worth it after all.

As soon as he had that thought, the alarm spell flickered in his mind. The monster! It was coming into the restricted section.

He hastily looked around for a place he could hide. There was a bottom shelf stuffed with atlases, each one about two feet high. He turfed them out onto the floor and, oh no, the candle, which was sitting in the candle stick and dribbling warm wax onto the floor. Josh ran back and blew it out, then slid onto the empty shelf, curling up tightly.

For a long time, nothing happened. The monster made no sound, and he wondered if it was even in this section, or whether it had stopped in the archway, then gone back to its perch on the chandelier. It was too dark for Josh to see anything.

How long should he wait?

Just as he was wondering if he should crawl out of the shelf and check, he heard a clacking noise. The monster was still in the room with him. He strained his ears, but heard nothing else. He stayed still and concentrated on breathing evenly, trying not to imagine its thin, spindly legs with their yellowed claws reaching out to him in the darkness.

He saw something pale slide into view, down the side of the bookshelf opposite. It was hard to see, but he could dimly make out the great, spidery shape of it, as it lowered itself down into the aisle. It looked as if it had climbed over the tops of the bookshelves. It was poking and prodding at something with its two front legs.

The candle! That was where Josh had left the candle.

The wax would still be warm. Was the monster attracted to heat? Did its eyes see heat, instead of light? It seemed quite at home in darkness. After a while, it seemed to lose interest in the candle, and clambered back up onto the shelves.

Josh waited until he felt the flicker of the Alarm spell again as it passed through the archway and back into the library atrium, and only then did he cautiously climb out of the shelf.

He had six Heat spell scrolls. That meant he could distract it.

He had to blunder about in the restricted section without lighting the candle, all the while terrified that the monster hadn’t really gone away at all, and was waiting to pounce on him in the darkness. He found a place in the far corner, which he though would be in line of sight of the chandelier, not that he could see it. He crouched down, cast the heat spell on the ground, and crept silently back along the wall, hurrying as soon as he thought he would be hidden, and moving around the bookshelves by feel.

The moment he felt the flicker on the Alarm spell he stopped where he was. The monster had entered the restricted section with him again.

He didn’t dare light the candle, because doing that with the flint and steel would make tiny scraping sounds that might summon it. He waited, counting silently in his head until he thought it had been about ten minutes, all the while imagining pale, spindly limbs reaching out towards him, unseen.

Just then he did hear a noise, a brushing sound that came from the far corner, as if something was dragging against the floor. It sounded like it was directly over the heated spot.

Very slowly and cautiously, Josh moved towards the archway leading out of the restricted section.

He heard nothing more from the monster, although for all he knew it could have sensed him, and started climbing back over the tops of the bookshelves. His scalp crawled in fearful anticipation, and he jolted in shock when his questing hand met wall, instead of the next bookshelf.

He was close to the door. He turned and followed the wall, placing his feet with care and still moving cautiously.

His mouth was dry, and he felt suddenly intensely thirsty and drained to the point of exhaustion. He just wanted the night to be over, and to be back in his shabby little bed in his shabby little room at the boarding house.

Keep going, he told himself. You’re nearly there.

He realised he could now sense his alarm spell over the doorway, a slight magical tingle that told him how far away he was. He felt immediately better, as if the alarm spell was a beautiful little spot of safety, even though intellectually he knew it would do nothing to protect him.

He reached it, and his hand found the lip of stone that lined the arch. As long as he kept himself crouched low to the ground, and to the left of the archway, he didn’t think the monster would be able to spot him from where it was. That was assuming that it had stayed next to the heated spot. Maybe it had got bored and poised on the bookshelf above him.

It took every ounce of willpower Josh had to keep creeping silently through the archway, until he was behind the desk. He climbed over it, and crouched on the other side. He was now close to where the librarians had exited the building earlier that evening. If he remembered correctly, there was a short corridor, and a door that presumably led to the outside. He had heard the last librarian locking the door before they left, but maybe there would be a spare key somewhere. At the very least he might find an office or a storeroom or something where he could light the candle and regroup.

He stood up, put his hand against the wall, and kept walking. He nearly walked straight into a wooden plinth of some sort, upon which his questing fingers found a vase. Why did they have a vase in a library?

If he hadn’t been crawling along so slowly, he might have knocked the vase off and smashed it.

He went around it, and on the other side of it he found the wall again. By this point he was somewhat disoriented. Should he light the candle? The monster was still in the restricted section, because he hadn’t felt it go through the Alarm spell again, but if he lit the candle it might investigate.

There was a slight buzz of magic close by, in the direction he was heading, the constant tingle of an active spell. What was that?

Josh put his hand to the wall again and slowly made his way towards it. Maybe he should stay clear of it. Maybe it was a trap or an alarm spell or something. Just as he was thinking he should light the candle anyway, his hands came across a doorframe. Was that the door out?

He groped for the doorknob, but there wasn’t one. There was just a metal plate where the doorhandle would normally be, and that was the source of the magical buzzing.

He paused. What if he lit the candle and the monster came to investigate while he was out in the open? It hadn’t noticed the candlelight immediately the first time.

Or, he could try to open this door and maybe there would be somewhere he could rest behind it. He hesitated, and then felt for his spell book. He flipped to the back of the book, and carefully tore out the last page by feel, then put the spell paper against the metal plate, and cast Chi Siphon.

The rush of Chi made him feel dizzy with sudden energy, but there was a click, and the door drifted open. Josh slipped through it, pushing it closed, and putting his back against it. Then he lit the candle. He felt immediately better as the darkness receded, leaving him in a warm bubble of beautiful golden light.

He was standing at the head of a set of stairs leading down. He hadn’t known there were stairs in the building. Would this lead to another way out?

No, he realised suddenly. This was where the valuable thing was, the precious item which the monster was guarding.

You idiot, he thought. You just broke into their vault.

He went to go back into the library atrium, then hesitated. What if the valuable thing was Gwynifer’s power? What if it was the thing that Tylas the Undying had stolen from her? What if the answer to his quest was here, right now?

It was a stupid idea. Brackstone was an insignificant town in the grand scheme of things. Why would it have a world-destroying power locked its basement?

What if it was a clue? What if it was something that would help him find the Gwynifer’s lost power, even if it wasn't the power itself? He had to check what was down there.

There might be traps.

You will survive, he told himself. He didn’t want to lose all his unclaimed experience, but it was only a few levels. Levelling wasn’t important right now. Surviving was. He checked his character sheet anyway, and saw a new quest.

QUESTS

The Secret in the Library: Defeat the wormspider defending the library and retrieve the valuable magical item from the vault. Reward: 400xp.

The quest system was now trying to make him into a thief instead of a murderer. The only time Josh had ever broken into a secret vault had been with a bunch of friends during a tabletop roleplaying game. That vault had been owned an evil wizard who had deserved it. At the moment, Josh was in the middle of a church library, and even if he didn’t have a very high opinion of organised religion, that didn’t mean they deserved to be stolen from.

On the other hand, there wasn’t any harm in looking at the vault. And the quest experience was lower than it had been for his previous quests, which suggested that, this time, it was more likely to be within his capabilities. Or rather, within the capabilities of a level 9 outlander, which wasn’t quite the same thing.

Josh had gone to a lot of trouble to break into the library and, given the mess he’d made, he didn’t think he would be coming back. This was his only chance.

Decision made, Josh crept down the stairs.