Ember of Invention

A flutter of paper echoed a hundred times filled the library as dozens of books took to the air, flapping their pages like demented birds. A chaotic whirlwind of paper and ink surrounded everyone as they tried to draw their weapons and ready spells, but they were all wildly out of position and unprepared.

Dread filled Lindles heart as a flock of books flew into Chip, lifting the halfling off the ground and back into the counter Lindle stood behind. The curse! Was he-

Dorothea shouted above the chaos, interrupting his thoughts, her voice barely audible over the loud flapping of the cursed books. "They aren’t cursed! They’re fake!” A spray of cold magic burst from her hands, freezing the books and causing them to fall to the ground and shatter. Her magic senses must be able to see the difference, though Lindle wondered why she hadn’t seen them before, perhaps they were hiding under the cursed books.

Lindle leaped over the counter to help Chip stand up as Rosato swung his sword to start cutting through the books. Chip got to his feet with a wince, putting a hand to his chest and healing himself.

“Those forsaken things hurt.” Chip called out. He raised a hand, light shining as he prepared to blast them. “[Funnel-”

“No!” Dorothea stopped Chip with a death glare. "I swear to every god below the moon and beyond if you destroy all of these books Chip!"

“You also might burn down the library with us in it.”Rosato chimed in with a flat tone.

Chip aborted the spell hastily. “Apologies!” He changed priorities and placed a hand on Lindle. “You’d think I’d have more chances to use fire in a place like this” The cleric muttered to himself. “[Hestia’s Protection].” He cast on Lindle. A blanket of soft-looking ethereal flames climbed Lindles body. “We’ll draw their attention, go help Theodore, we need to regroup.”

As if to punctuate Chip's words a loud crash came from across the room as Lindle saw one of the shelves topple over, the rest of the area obscured by the other shelves and the flurry of vengeful texts. Lindle nodded to Chip and ran to find the rogue as the halfling went to support his companions

The room was filled with a cacophony of sounds - the whooshing of the flying books, the clang of metal against paper, and the crackling of magical energy. Moving as fast as he could, Lindle pumped his legs across the perimeter of the library, dodging piles of cursed books and dive bombs as the adventurers drew the dragon's share of the flock's ire.

Rounding the corner Lindle skidded to a stop as a massive wooden claw smashed into the bookshelf in front of him. Lindle watched as a massive wooden humanoid attempted to smash its oversized forelimbs into Theodore as the rogue danced in between his legs, attempting to score a cut with his daggers, but it didn’t seem like he was doing much.

The massive construct was almost as tall as the library as it crouched down. Its face was smooth and seemed carved to resemble that of a person, with a flowing beard of moss and flowers hanging from it. The rest of its body was bare.

“Quiet!” the thing demanded. Its voice was a raspy whisper of creaking wood.

Lindle started rummaging through his pouch for something useful with gritted teeth. He couldn’t use fire for the same reasons Chip couldn’t, he had no magical poisons capable of harming a being animated entirely out of wood, and he couldn’t throw accurately enough to hit Theodore with a support potion. His alchemy was useless!

Wait… his alchemy was useless.

He reached inward for his MP, forming the construct. Luckily it was much easier to cast tier 1 spells than it was to cast tier 2, a simple two-dimensional pattern. “[Ice Slick]!” Lindle yelled out for Theodore’s benefit. As the construct took a step a patch of ice formed underneath its foot and the construct slipped. Tumbling it fell with the force of a tree to the floor.

Ever the opportunist, Theodore leaped onto its head and stabbed one of his daggers into its neck. His blade sunk in, but a moment later it attempted to swipe at him and Theodore jumped away to land next to Lindle.

“What the hell is that thing?” Lindle frantically asked as the construct attempted to get up.

“My skill says it's called The Librarian,” Theodore answered, his masked face not turning to look away from it.

That’s a librarian?! What in the beyond had Chip and Dorothea been talking about!? It wasn’t attractive at all!

“It’s stronger than Journeyman tier, I can’t hurt it. It seems weak to fire but we can’t use any while we’re here or we risk destroying the books, and I’m pretty sure that’ll trigger the curse on them.” Theodore continued. “We need to run.”

“Running sounds like a fantastic idea,” Lindle replied, eyeing The Librarian warily as it struggled to get back on its feet. The massive creature let out a low groan, its wooden form creaking with the effort. “We need to regroup with the others and make a break for it.”

Lindle and Theodore started running, the rogue easily outpacing Lindle as they retraced Lindle's path. He could see the party taking out the remnants of the attacking flock of books. “We need to leave now!” Lindle cried out to them.

Lindle could see the others look at him in confusion before their eyes widened and they started running towards him. Towards him? Why would they be…

Lindle turned around in time to see The Librarian's claw, its hand larger than his torso, smash into him.

It felt like being hit by a building. Lindle was sent flying across the room, crashing into the same counter with a sickening crunch. Unlike Chip, Lindle smashed through the furniture. Pain shot through his body as he struggled to get up, his vision swimming. The others were shouting his name, but their voices sounded distant and muffled. Everything was going black…

As he tried to push himself up one more time, Lindle saw his HP.

HP: 7/120

If it wasn’t for Chip's spell and his giant blood trait…

Lindle felt an instinctive flash of anger as he remembered that damned trait. Using the moment of clarity, he pushed through the pain and managed to start standing on shaky legs. As the adventurers ran to his side, he could feel the warmth of Chip's healing magic enveloping him, providing some relief.

Rosato grabbed him and helped him the rest of the way up, wrapping Lindle's arm around his shoulders. He started to drag Lindle away from the Librarian to the exit of the Library, but the Librarian crouched down on all fours and leaped like a dog to cut them off. Was that how it caught up to Lindle?

It tried to continue forward menacingly, but Dorothea pointed her wand at it. “[Binding Ice]”

Ice froze its limb to the floor, causing it to stumble. It struggled, the ice immediately beginning to crack. They turned to look for another escape route.

“There!” Lindle pointed to a door towards the back of the library.

Everyone ran for it, Lindle and Rosato bringing up the rear as Theodore kicked open the door. Behind them, The Librarian shattered the ice holding it with a low moan. “Quiet!” It raced for them as Rosato jumped for it, lifting Lindle like he was a child as they made it through the door.

The Librarian smashed into the wall behind them as they landed safely inside and Theodore shut the door, Lindle turned and watched with his heart beating for it to cave, but the dungeon held firm. Everyone sighed in relief. The Librarian scrambled and moaned, but it couldn’t get inside.

Lindle reached into his pouch and pulled out a healing potion, Pulling off the top he drank deeply, sighing as he felt his pool of Health Points throughout his body refill, the influx sealing his wounds and repairing his body. Lindle had never been so low on HP in his life before. He had never noticed it before, but he had felt… cold, numb, even apart from his injuries without the energy of HP filling his body, a meager 7 points holding him together and away from death. Lindle shuddered

Rosato placed a comforting hand on Lindle's back. “You okay Lindle?”

“Yeah… I’m fine.” Lindle answered, getting to his feet and looking around.

They had taken refuge in what seemed like a small office space. There was a large dusty desk with some chairs taking up the center of the room, worn down shelves occupying the walls filled with old and decaying books. The rug they stood on was threadbare and rotted, barely clinging to its last fibers. Despite its age everything in here seemed extremely expensive.

As everyone took a moment to breathe, Theodore started scanning the handful of books. “No curse here. Maybe these were personal copies?” Dorothea started greedily shoving the texts into her bags. No reason to not grab these just in case Lindle supposed.

“Report?” Rosato ordered as he slumped into one of the chairs in front of the desk.

Chip took a look around the party and Lindle. “We all seem ok on HP, but I’m running low on MP.”

Dorothea echoed the sentiment, and Theodore and Rosato said the same for their AP respectively. Lindle started to go through his bag for some restorative potions, but Chip waved him off.

“It’s fine, we’re safe for now so we can take a short break to refill the old-fashioned way. No need to start building up toxicity when those potions would be more useful in the middle of a fight, which we might need if we have to fight our way out.”

Lindle sighed, but he understood. He was feeling more and more like dead weight, even if it seemed like this group was more than capable of carrying it. He had felt so sure of himself coming out here. Weeks of work put in filling his bag so he could show his worth, to the system or himself he wasn’t sure, but compared to Chip he was just a poor backup when it came to support. Sure he knew they had plenty of levels on him, but he couldn’t just be good for his age, if he was ever going to be more than what his blood said he was good for, he had to be exceptional.

Pushing the thoughts away, Lindle took another look around the room. On the wall behind the desk, there was a kind of indent as the wood was replaced by stone. Lindle frowned, the shape looked like a kind of really tall door, even though it was featureless and had no handle, it was… familiar.

Walking around the desk and past the adventurers, Lindle approached the ‘door.’ Someone asked him a question, but their voice faded into the background as he placed a hand on the door. There was… something swirling inside of the door. The texture, or maybe its taste, was strange. Somehow feeling like entrances, journeys, separation and connection all at once. Without really thinking about it, Lindle moved something in his chest to match that flavor, and everything started shaking.

The faded questions behind him changed to yelling, but he still couldn’t really make it out.

One moment Lindle was there as Rosato reached for him, and the next he was somewhere else.