Eyes of the Dragon

Chapter 06

The Library of Amara was a stone edifice in a sea of wooden construction, made of grey stone, it stood a sharp contrast to the other buildings around it. The roof was vaulted, terminating in a two-story tower built into the front. A set of stairs led up to an imposing set of double doors made from iron-bound oak. Flanking the door on either side were two grotesque gargoyle statues. Etched on the stone above the door is the symbol of a stylized open book.

When he reached the large double doors, Tian saw that they were securely bound. A sign was nailed to the doors that read, "Closed by the order of the Mayor's office."

Tian looked around the entrance of the library, but saw no way to get through the front doors without breaking them. Despite the importance of his mission, he was not ready to casually destroy the property of others. He walked around the perimeter of the library looking for another way inside. There was another entrance at the back, but it was locked up similarly to the front.

Pondering his options, Tian looked over the building once again.

"There it is," he said under his breath on his second circuit, "that is my way inside."

Tian took a running start towards the rear of the building, scaling the outside wall until he was able to leap up and catch hold of an outcropping. Strong hands held firm to the stonework as the young monk shimmied around the lip of the second floor until he found a place to pull himself up to the next level. Unsurprisingly, the second story tower window was not locked, and deftly Tian slipped in through the window. Shutting the windows behind him, he took a moment to survey his surroundings.

In the small room at the top of the tower, Tian saw the remains of an old, simple bed. He wondered who had lived there in the past, for it was clear that the library had not been kept up in a very long time. Next to the staircase that led to the proper library there was a rotting armoire. Walking over, Tian tried to open the old case but it appeared to be stuck. He tried once more and then it opened with a slight crack, only then did he realize that it had been locked. The lock was old and mostly rusted, and inside he found a small glass case. Opening the glass case revealed a miniature looking glass with a cabochon lens made out of crystal.

On the side of the looking glass there was something engraved in archaic variant of the common tongue. Tian read aloud, "Knowledge is the key to understanding."

He kept the looking glass in hand as he walked down the stairs into the actual library. The acrid smell of hundreds of musty tomes and scrolls hung in the bone-dry air as Tian entered. Despite the apparent age of the library, he could see dozens of tall bookshelves that remained in meticulous order. Thick sheets of dust and cobwebs covered the books, and many of the spines were unreadable. In the undisturbed dust on the floor, Tian could see a single set of footprints that had disturbed the dust between the entrance and many of the shelves. He wondered who had been there so recently, the tracks could not have been more than a month old.

"Maybe it was the Serpent or Kharzon," Tian pondered as he looked around the room, "Now to find something about the Eyes of the Dragon...."

As he thought about what he wanted the looking glass in his hand grew warm, and then in an instant he suddenly knew that there was a scroll in the library that would answer his question. Furthermore, he knew the exact location of that scroll. Walking through the rows of shelves, Tian came to stop in front of one and, with the knowledge imparted to him, removed an ancient scroll. It was a large scroll with beautifully carved posts, perfectly preserved and on paper that was a brilliant white.

Unrolling the scroll, Tian looked over the orderly columns of beautiful script, and realized that it was a language that he did not understand. Something familiar about the language nagged at him as he continued looking, "Why does this script look familiar?"