The Room With 1000 Stories

Little Bird

Lena's POV

Was it snow or ash that descended gently from the sky?  Lena wondered. It was getting very hard to tell in darkness as she trudged farther and farther away from where she had left Carter, Quill, and Sam. I can do this she thought as she approached the tall, circular building Arya had pointed to. Even as the sounds of battle grew distant, she did not slow her pace as she didn't know how long she would have before the wights caught up with her.

The heavy door creaked as she struggled to open it. But after closing it behind her, she found the room to be in total silence, evidentially soundproof. There wasn't a single candle lit inside the library. It was just as freezing as it had been on the outside, made of cold stone. Few windows allowed the moonlight to pass and cast light on favored rows of bookshelves while others remained in the shadows. In the center of the room, there was a singular desk with one large book on top of it.

Lena wasn't sure where to begin. Usually, in a library, books would be organized alphabetically by author and the shelves would indicate so. Lena walked over to the closet shelf, filled with both books and scrolls, and pulled out a dusty, green book with scratchy binding. She read the title: "History of the Citadel" by Tajin Montegeu. She picked up a brown, leather-bound book next to it, "Mirriam Clive's Work on Milk of the Poppy" by Jester Clive".

Okay, she thought, So I guess they aren't in alphabetical order. What would she do if she couldn't find a book in a library? The next logical step would probably be to ask a librarian but obviously, that was quite impossible. She glanced over to the desk in the center of the room with the large book on it and cocked her head to the side. Maybe she thought before making her way over to it.

The book was very large with pages almost the size of the desk and so it had to be something of importance. But it was very difficult to even see the writing in it without a light. She traced the raised writing in it with her fingers, trying to see if it was even worth reading but that did her little good. There weren't any candles nearby and so she did what was logical to her and put her nose to the page, bringing it close enough to read. The opened page read:

Targaryen's: the ancestry..........checked out by Lady Sansa Stark. Returned to shelf 6.

The Tales of Nymeria of Dorne..................checked out by Little Finger. Returned to shelf 11.

This was it! A book that acted as a database for the librarian. Surely the Book of the Damned would be in here! Now would that be under "T" or "B" she wondered. She decided to keep flipping through the "T" section of the book, growing more anxious with each page flip.

Creak! Lena jumped, cutting her finger on the paper of the book. The door she had come through was hidden behind bookshelves but she was fairly certain it had just opened and closed. She listened carefully, steadying her breath. Footsteps echoed through the room before stopping, giving way to an eerie, pregnant pause.

She knew better than to call out into the darkness. If she revealed herself to whatever was hidden behind the bookshelves, it could mean death. The footsteps picked up again....they sounded like they were coming from the shelves directly to her left, but when she looked she saw no one. Her nose crinkled at the potent smell of rancid meat.

Creak! The door opened again followed by more footsteps. There must've been three or four of them now hidden amongst the shelves. They'd be on her at any moment if she didn't get out of sight. But the book! She was here on a mission. Her heart was thumping in her chest now. Boom! Boom! Boom! as her fingers traced the book, searching for the book she had come here for.