Night 73: Patient Library

[redcladidealist]

[From here.]

The library was quiet and dark when Lloyd entered, barring the light from their flashlights. Lloyd let the light from his flashlight play across the books, the floor, even the ceiling for good measure. He hadn't forgotten the monster that had seemed to slither out of the darkness just a couple of nights ago.

"You guys see anything?" He kept his voice soft, barely above a whisper. If there was something in here, he didn't want to attract its attention. Not that they'd be able to avoid it once they opened that secret door, but hopefully they'd be able to get out before anything blocked their path.

Comments

[firewhichrefines]

[from here]

There were signs enough of recent travel through this area that it was clear there was something of interest in here.

Sasuke hadn't been in the library more than a couple of times, and those had been largely useless for obvious reasons -- in the limited moonlight seeping in from the Sun Room's huge windows, there were only deep shadows and the smell of books.

"Did you find out what the switch was supposed to be?"

[idolism]

He and Sasuke definitely agreed about that. The radio people hadn't shown themselves to be terribly effective at being anything other than a headache. There was something undeniably foolish for voluntarily chasing after a fool's errand, at that, but such was the Institute in general.

Fools fighting fools was the nature of the game. The prisoners just happened to be the most expendable of all the players of the board.

While they proceeded through the halls, the vampire wondered what further game they would face if they chose to head up rather than down, keeping a cursory eye on their surroundings. More talking skeletons? More inscrutable rebel agents? Surely they were guaranteed to face something, given how quiet the halls were. Landel had to be saving his best for the right moment, if he hadn't been thoroughly distracted.

By the time they made it to the library, Aidou was more than ready to see what all the fuss was about with the hidden switch. There had obviously been a way to reach the third floor from the beginning, but to put it in the library? If a wall opened up to some kind of archaic spiral staircase, he wasn't going to be able to hold back his eye roll.

"Yes," he answered, beginning to skim the book spines where the walls and ceiling conjoined in such a way as to support a passage leading upward. "One particular book... quite helpfully hinted at on the bulletin board. At least something useful came out of it for once."

At the speed with which Aidou moved, it didn't take him long to isolate the book of verses at all. He rested his index finger on the book's top.

"This one."

An attempt to move the book resulted in an unnatural pressure and a click... and then there it was, a passage leading to some kind of escalator. Not a spiral staircase, not exactly. Close, though.

[firewhichrefines]

The ease with which Aidou sped through the library might have begged comment on his earlier quip about studying during the day -- but in the rush of night shift, Sasuke could only be grateful that one of them had apparently spent enough time amongst dusty books as a child. This was clearly no library he'd ever seen, though, even given the shinobi penchant to trap anything that needed protection and a few other things besides: whatever mechanism made this work was clearly well-maintained, because there was barely a sound before they were walking into another passage.

[[to here]]