The Library of Powers

Chapter 11 - Part 3

The next thing he knew, Jackson was sitting on the floor of Bernard Harbour Public Library. Quickly righting himself, Ivory was no longer in front of him. Getting up and searching his vision, she was nowhere to be found.

"Ivory!" he yelled, his voice reverberating across the long halls. No response. It seems the location lock to Bernard Harbour only applied to him. Which was a big problem, The Library was vast. So vast, in fact, that hours could pass outside and days inside without them meeting. Jackson was suddenly very scared. Not for Ivory being found by one of the patrons, which should have been his first concern. Not for Ivory being found by Phoebe Winter, who very well might be prowling the halls looking for a target. But for her possibly being stuck down there alone, for hours, alone.

In a rare self-aware moment, Jackson had a guess as to why. Maybe it was because she was a friend?

Jackson jumped out of the window, falling down below to the "Viking church". It wasn't really so far a jump, and he prepped himself to roll as he hit the ground. What he had not checked for was the trapdoor leading down still open from the last time he had used it. He tumbled through, landing hard on his back atop the rough soil. He remembered at one point thinking this was the ground floor of The Library, until years later when he discovered there were many rooms with a "ground", at very different height levels. Jackson, resigned to having fallen down, decided to take things a little slower from then on. He reached over to open the grate that would lead him out, but when his hand touched the metal, it was warm. No, it was hot. Jackson recoiled his hand. Red marks laced his fingers. Guess he wouldn't be going that way.

He clambered out of the crawlspace and walked over to the front entrance of this section, an intricately carved wood door which Jackson normally would have to use quite a bit of force to open. But when he gripped the handle, he again felt intense heat.

Could something be trapping him in here? He went over to the back entrance, a much smaller door with notoriously creaky hinges. He gingerly placed a finger on the knob of this door, then another, and another. The door was cold. Opening the door, his original theory was dashed as he dashed down the hallway.

The next room was pale twice painted stucco on turquoise tiles, dozens of push exits in dozens of directions. The first three were unbearably hot, like those in the previous room, but the fourth, next to a cactus he was too afraid to check if was real or not, was a normal temperature. Just to make sure, Jackson circled around the room, touching every door, and found that only the cactus one was "working".

The pattern was easy to catch on to. He would go to a new room, find the right exit, and continue. There was a little problem when he encountered one of the long hallways with hundreds of doors, but luckily the exit was directly across from him. This pattern continued until he arrived in a small observatory, where books were piled on the ground with no rhyme or reason. Jackson was surprised, despite having been there once or twice. He didn't remember much of this spot, but was certain there was only one entrance.

He turned right around and tried to open the door, which was now scalding. His next thought was to exit The Library, but he wasn't sure if that would bring Ivory out or not. Worst case scenario she could be stuck in The Library, her real body in a coma-like state forever. Also, something had been leading him here. If it was Phoebe Winter, well there was little now he could do. But he had a hunch that it was The Library itself leading him here.

But he was alone. Jackson decided to head towards the center of the observatory, where the titular telescope laid. Taking a seat, Jackson looked through the eyepiece, not really expecting anything out of the ordinary.

He was right. The eyepiece was aimed indiscriminately. Visible in the bottom right corner was Andromeda, the chained lady. He couldn't see it in the viewfinder, but Jackson knew from enough books on constellations that Cassieopia was just out of view above him.