255 The Castle Library

Following Opalina's advice, I take my time on my way to the library. Passing through the many halls allows me to soak in all the details of this brooding castle, from the tattered tapestries and the withered paintings of forgotten noblemen to the many religious effigies of Tenebris Primis. The more of those I see, though, the more I start to realize the implications.

The rest of Dawnstead has loads of monuments and statues dedicated to Luxy, but I've not seen a single one of those inside Castle Mourneheart. Am I inside enemy territory here? I get a distinct feeling that the Gloomcrests worship the Goddess of First Darkness. Not entirely uncommon or anything, but usually, most people worship both of the Twins.

That doesn't always necessarily mean they're bad people, of course. It's not like in the past, Tenebris's followers abandoned the rest of Karnalle to join forces with previous Demon Lords or anything. From what little I remember when I once skimmed the Words of Darkness, worshipping Tenebris Primis is more about living by her values and praying for her not to make your life any worse than it already is. I never saw the point in it. The central conceit towards praying to Tenebris is on a fundamental level, basically just resigning yourself to the fact that she's not going to actively make your life any better. Not that I'm trying to defend her, but at least the core thing with Luxy is that by praying, you hope it motivates her to help you.

I'll admit there's a lot I don't understand about Tenebris worship, so I'm likely talking out of my ass. I've just never quite understood the bizarre duality of religion here in Karnalle... Light and Dark at once, separate but together... still, at least our beliefs live in harmony with one another, which is more than I can say about some of the other realms.

After stopping in front of one of the statues depicting the Dark Goddess as a busty, winged, demon-like being drinking from a spiked chalice, I try and contact Luxy. Still nothing. It's been days since I've last heard from her, so it's starting to make me worry. I was hoping she could have provided some clarification on the whole religious confusion I'm having right now, too.

Ah well. For now, I push the thought of the Goddess from my mind. Luxy is a literal divine being. Whatever's going on with her, I need to remember that she'll be fine, and right now, I've got a library to visit.

Not long after wandering the halls, I find myself at the vast, black wooden doors leading to an unknown treasure trove of knowledge. I throw open them, coughing from the dust, and walk toward into complete and utter blackness. I can't see a foot in front of my face here. Right before I go looking for a maid to provide me light, though, the same familiar blue flames illuminate a series of sconces along the library's stone walls.

The library chamber reveals itself as a vast space with more bookshelves than I can count just from a glance. It dwarfs both of Dewhurst's bookshops by an absurd amount, and I feel like I could lose myself in here for hours. The only problem here is that Opalina wasn't kidding- this place doesn't see much use. Thick layers of dust coat most of the shelves, while spiders skitter about the numerous cobwebs nestled in every dark corner of the library they can find.

Given the state of the Guild, it's nothing I'm not used to.

Since there's no one around to help guide me through the aisles, I head into the unknown with my Bag of Holding in tow. Using my eyes, I scan the spines of entire rows together all at once. The topics covered in this library are all over the place, but I'm still able to eventually figure out the general locations of each subject. I can't say I wasn't expecting it, but I'm still upset to discover there's no section for erotica.

Gut instinct tells me to begin digging through the row of history books, so that's where I start. After rifling through some exciting finds, I locate something specific I was looking for. My hand traces the shelving to find a group of seven thick volumes titled 'The Demon Lords of Karnalle'. They're all here, starting from Orsovis, the Shadow Cast Atop the Mountain, to Bhesar, the Weaver of the Nightmare.

Everyone knows a little bit about the Demon Lords since they're used as boogeymen throughout Karnalle, frightening figures parents love to threaten their children with. Still, the only Demon Lords I know all that much about are the aforementioned Orsovis and... the Licentious Defiler, Zehesiel. For whatever reason, there's a lot of high-quality erotica written about that period of Karnallian history...

As for Orsovis, he was the first Demon Lord. The King of All Sin. His defeat by Rhoivandis Lundreame and his harem led to the Karnallian unification, the establishment of the seven provinces, and what marked an end to the Age of Heroes. It's hard to be ignorant of arguably the most critical moment in history, save for maybe the discovery of Realm travel.

Into the Bag of Holding, they go. My confrontation with the current, as of yet un-nicknamed Demon Lord may be years away, but there's no reason I can't do some extensive research on his predecessors sometime. While I'm here in the history section, I pick up a few interesting-looking books on the Age of Heroes. They called out to me, especially since Opalina commented on my lack of knowledge regarding the topic earlier today. I may read a lot, but whenever it's not erotica, my reading typically comes down to books about Guild business, monsterology, adventurer classes, and occasionally magic.

Unfortunately, most of those topics are absent from the Duke's library save for monsterology and magic. I'd grab some of the sorcery or alchemy books for Zutiria, but there's so much that I don't know what she'd actually be interested in. Not to mention I get the feeling that she's read just about every book on magic in the Realm. It's hard to stack up to her personal library back in Imperalis, where all she had to do was ask for a book, and she'd get it.

On the other hand, I pick up quite a few rare books on monsterology that I'm excited to look through. Anything that'll give me an edge when overseeing the girls on quests is a priority, making more knowledge on the many monsters of Karnalle a welcome find.

Changing rows to foreign cultures, I pick up a few books about Grekka and its Gods, as well as a couple about Hal Moldihr, the Dwarven Homerealm. I'd like to better understand those Realms, what with the constant references Gwin and Nikita make towards their cultures that fly entirely over my head.

I linger in this aisle for a minute, eventually deciding to just take a whole bunch of different books about different Realms and pantheons, including one about the Gods of Merryburrow. It might help with gathering intel on Fleetfoot, if nothing else... as for the rest, there's no telling what kind of people I'll meet in the future. Better to have a book on file than not to.

There was something specific I wanted to look for, but unfortunately, I don't see any reference books that detail different classes of adventurers. But things have a funny way of working out. Just as I'm about to give up and plan on asking Opalina to take me to one of Dawnstead's bookstores, I find it.

Mixed in with the books on warfare and the many combat manuals is a withered red text titled 'Shield Maidens - History and Arts'. I don't even bother to flip through a couple of pages to see if it's any good. I just grab and deposit it in the Bag of Holding without hesitation. Hopefully, this will help Meri, considering her mother never taught her how to be a Shield Maiden. She's done alright thus far, having learned several Arts on her own as well as two of her mother's shield transformations, but she won't get anywhere without actual direction. Since Nikita can't teach her anything about her class, this is the next best thing.

I've been in the library for what feels like an hour now, and I've just about exhausted everything I'm interested in. Luckily, inside the chamber's center is a quiet circle with red leather chairs and lovely coffee tables for one to settle down with their chosen books. I've been walking around all day now, and I could use a break. Opalina said to take my time coming back anyway, so I sink myself into the closest comfortable chair and open up the Bag of Holding to go over everything I've picked up.

Then I stop in my tracks as I hear the sound of the doorway open up. A cold chill enters the library- an odd chill. Not natural, somehow. I can't see the entrance from my seat, and when I rise to look across the rows of books, the door has already closed.

My paranoia kicks into overdrive, and not just because I'm in a dark, creepy castle's library. Perhaps it's naive to imagine my enemies could have infiltrated Duke Gloomcrest's stronghold, but after the battle in the sky this morning, I'm not putting anything past my criminal opposition.

"Hello? Is someone there?" I ask the darkness but am only met with stark, worrying silence. You'd think a castle maid or a servant would answer me back, so that more or less cancels out that possibility. A sharp clattering sound echoes out from a distant shelf, and as the unnatural coldness in the air begins to thicken, I suddenly know I have to act.