Multiple studies and minor libraries were scattered throughout the cathedral complex, but the main library was tucked into the basement and rarely visited. Its purpose was less to provide you with information and more to protect the information from getting out. If you wanted to learn, they said, check the university libraries. But the Church’s library had something up on the university’s — their collection of sacred texts and treatises on Gregorianism.

  Alice wandered alone through the theology section. She couldn’t make sense of the endless pathways. The high ceilings only added to the effect. You’d think that all these choices would make finding things easy, but it only muddled her into indecision.

  In one corner of the section, she found a massive book lying on a stone pedestal. The ever-burning torches that lined the walls shone ethereal blue light over its leather cover.

  She approached the book and ran a finger over its title. It was an older edition of their religion’s official bible. If the dust and cobwebs were any indication, it could have been a century old. She sifted through its pages, careful not to damage them, until she reached the sections she was looking for, the books of the prophets who foretold the coming of the Child of Greg.

  The prophecy of the Chosen One wasn't collated into one simple-to-read poem; oh no, it just had to be spread out in bits over several long, boring sections of what were essentially travelogues and diary entries written in archaic language and run-on sentences.

  Alice tried to piece the puzzle back together but only found information she already knew. Long ago, Greg kicked humanity out of heaven and forced them to live on the material plane for breaking some house rules after being tempted by the Devil. The people of Earth lived their lives in perpetual sin, but one day, Greg would come down here himself in the form of his child and show them the way. As she walked the Earth, the child would heal the sick, help the poor, feed the hungry, and beat up the devil. Not necessarily in that order.

  Same old story.

  But then she found something queer. Whole words and sentences were blotted out in ink. One passage read: “And she would redeem humanity’s sins by — ”

  By what? Giving them indulgences?

  Alice couldn't figure out what this had to do with assassinating the queen. Fran didn't even have healing powers to speak of, and she certainly didn’t give a damn about the common folk. Heck, Alice could probably take on Fran herself, so how could she, of all people, beat up the Devil?

  Something was missing, and someone made sure it would stay missing. Alice could feel something tickling at the back of her brain. She just couldn't put her finger on what exactly.

  Whatever. It was time to pack it and abandon this lead for the dead end it was. Now, which way was out again?

  Alice wandered the labyrinthine halls for a while and somehow ended up in the magic section. She scanned the titles and covers and even skimmed a few of the books. These were arcane tomes, incomprehensible to the uninitiated. She was glad she didn't take up a magic-related program in University like Marion wanted her to. General Studies was a totally fine degree; she just hadn't been enthusiastic about starting a 9-5 just yet.

  Maybe it's time to cut the gap year short and start looking for employment like she claimed. Alice still didn't know what she wanted to do with her life. Maybe it was better to do something, anything, than absolutely nothing.

  She roamed around the magic section, having lost interest in finding the way out since her life was equally purposeless on the surface. Then, on one wall of the occult magics aisle, Alice found a metal door covered in cobwebs.

  Her spine tingled as she stared at the frame. Her feet seemed to move forward on their own. She grabbed the rusty handle and turned it, half-expecting it to fall apart, but it didn’t budge.

  By all measures, she had no reason to need to know what was behind the door. Yet she did. It's like when you’re in a restaurant or public administration building and you see a door with a sign that says 'authorized personnel only,' but the sign makes you want to enter it even more. Or maybe that was just Alice.

  After running around the library like a headless chicken, she stumbled back to the head librarian's office by the entrance. Nice old lady. Stereotypical librarian type. But she was a little defensive when Alice asked her what was behind the door.

  "It is nothing," the librarian said, "an old defunct section that nobody uses anymore."

  "A section about what?" Alice said.

  "The natural sciences, that's all,” the librarian said without looking up. She was stamping books one by one into a pile. “Chemistry, astronomy, biology, and such. Nothing of importance."

  "Can I see it, then?"

  "Whatever for?"

  Alice shrugged. "To read the books?"

  The librarian’s eyebrows hunched. Alice was familiar to all the regulars of the cathedral, and she was not known for being a bibliophile.

  "Belmont University's public library has an extensive collection on the natural sciences," said the librarian. "If it is knowledge you seek, you are more likely to find it there."

  "Yeah, I get that. It's just… the university's all the way in Mid City, and the door is right down there..." Alice trailed off. She gave the librarian the best pleading smile she could manage.

  "Very well. I must warn you, however, the books in that section are quite old, so handle them with care. And don't touch anything else."

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  "Righty. Don't touch the books, er, I mean, touch the books with care."

  Alice was expecting to be given the keys, but the woman got up and led the way to the door herself. Alice probably wouldn't have found the door on her own again anyway.

  One by one, the librarian slotted her keys into the multiple locks, each of them opening with a sharp click that echoed through the library. When they were all unlocked, the door creaked open, revealing a pitch black nothingness.

  "You'll be needing this." The librarian handed Alice an ever-burning torch from a sconce on the wall. "I won't be far. And don't take too long." The old woman eyed her warily one more time before trudging off.

  Alice grabbed a nearby book and slipped through the doorway. She propped the door open with the book before it could slam shut, then turned back, raising her torch. The pale blue flame emitted no heat and didn't falter. It drove away some of the dark, but shadows still crept over and around the bookshelves beyond her view.

  She strolled down the aisle, scanning the shelves for titles. Many of the books were in foreign scripts and languages. She recognized a few, though. Logograms from the Orient, numerals and math symbols from the Drylands, and even some in the ancient elven tongue.

  She left the strange books and emerged into a wide open space in the center of the room. A model solar system hung above her from the ceiling. More surprisingly, the sun was positioned in the center and not the Irth. How peculiar.

  She ignored the hanging globes and dived into a section labeled ‘biology’.

  When she rounded a corner, she was met by a skeleton. She yelped and dropped the torch. For a moment there, she thought she was being attacked by one of those animated undead you hear about in adventure stories. This was only a model, though. On a closer look, however, the skeleton didn’t exactly match that of a human’s or any of the other humanoid races. It wasn’t any beast or magical creature she knew of either.

  Yet it stood proudly on two legs in a hunched pose that looked uncannily similar to an ape's.

  Alice picked up the torch, and its light illuminated the mural above the skeleton. It depicted a very hairy bipedal creature riding a tyrannosaurus rex.

  The world crumbled inside of her as she read the inscription beneath the painting. Impossible! Every species of humanoid, the elves, the dwarves, the orcs, and so on, were each created in the likeness of their respective deities. Life was first breathed into the human species by Francesca's dad.

  Alice knew all too well what it was like to be alone and insignificant. Like a single small fish in an ocean of kraken. But this was different. It was like finding out there were a hundred other oceans out there with creatures she couldn't even begin to imagine.

  A loud bang shook Alice out of her stupor. That sounded awfully like... she raced toward the source, heart pounding.

  She reached the entrance. The metal door was shut. She banged on the door and tried calling out the librarian's name, except she had forgotten it, so she screamed for help instead. It was no use. When her voice tired out, she slumped to the floor, leaning against the metal.

  The walls closed in around her. Strange figures seemed to move behind the shadows. Her torch suddenly felt very small.

  Alice took a deep breath. Panicking won't do anything. And the librarian's probably going to check back with her eventually. Right? Might as well use this opportunity to explore some more.

  When her nerves finally settled down, she made her way back to that accursed mural. Now that she had a chance to take it all in, the creature depicted wasn't as fearsome as she thought. Scratch that, it wasn’t scary at all — it was ridiculous.

  She combed through the books on the shelf next to the painting, hoping to find some more answers to her questions, but their content was even more alien than the writings of the first section near the entrance. Diagrams of various humanoid bodies. Letters connected by hexagonal shapes. A strange sketch that looked like a twisted ladder. Utter nonsense

  But one book stood out more than the others. Etched into its spine was a symbol of a purple elephant. Wasn't she just thinking of purple elephants earlier? She pulled on the book, but it was attached to something in the shelf. Suddenly, clanking sounds reverberated behind the walls. She let go, and the book slotted back into position. The walls vibrated, shaking off dust.

  The picture of the ape-like creature split in the middle, and a whole section of the wall slid to the side. Where half the mural used to be, a dark tunnel extended further than Alice could see.

  The humanoid mind is a curious thing. Alice knew that if she were listening to a story about someone else in this exact situation, she would be screaming at them to not step into the creepy dark dungeon on their own, unarmed. But as she stood there at the edge of the unknown, she knew that there would be no going back to her previous life. She could leave right now, apply to a guild like everyone else, and pretend that she never heard of any scheme. She could do exactly that, and no one would know.

  Except for her.

  Alice took that first step and didn't look back.

  The deeper she delved, the more the walls closed in around her. The ceiling was low enough to force a tall orc to hunch. The torchlight struggled against the darkness, illuminating only a few paces ahead of her. She could breathe fine, but it felt like she was suffocating.

  On either wall were carved deep recesses arranged in rows on top of each other, from knee level to just below the ceiling. Piles of remains were stuffed into the recesses. Some of the bones had scattered onto the floor beneath them. Most of the skulls were human, but other species were represented as well.

  Alice was beginning to have second thoughts. She brushed them aside and spurned herself further down this hellhole. Eventually, the recesses ended and were replaced by prison cells on both sides.

  The nearest cell gate hung ajar. Alice peered inside. A pair of metal cuffs hung from chains on the wall, and dark splotches dotted the floor. She could chance a guess at what the stains were. She inspected the other cells. All empty. But not from disuse.

  A foul stench wafted through the hall on a dry breeze from deeper in the dungeon. Alice gagged on reflex. She wasn't an expert on dungeoneering, but she knew the breeze meant an exit to the surface somewhere. She also knew the stench meant fresh death.

  She continued on and soon reached the end of the hall. The passage branched left and right, with no way to know where the exit was.

  A shriek of pain sounded far in the distance.

  Her chest tightened.

  This was far enough. Time to go.

  Alice turned, and a pale gray face hovered in the air before her. She screamed and fell backwards. The torch clattered on the floor and echoed through the walls. What she thought was an apparition resolved itself into the head librarian.

  "Been on a little adventure, have we?" she said.

  Several footsteps were approaching their location from the direction of the shriek. It can't end like this. It won't.

  Alice kicked the librarian on the shin as hard as she could. Bones cracked. The old lady fell over, clutching at her leg. Alice leaped to her feet and made a break for the library.

  The light footsteps turned into a stampede. Raised voices chased her from the darkness. She couldn’t stop to check. Escape was the only thing in Alice's mind.

  She arrived at the natural sciences section and raced to the exit. Luckily, the metal door was open. She ran through and slammed the door behind her. But she couldn’t stop now. She ran and ran through the library and then through the cathedral until she broke through the doors into the bright autumn day.

  She raised a hand to block off the blazing sun, but she didn’t stop running. She took sharp twists and blind turns. She stumbled through alleyways and squeezed through crowds. Anything to put distance between her and the nightmare.

  They would eventually find her if she stayed here in the upper circle, so she made a heading for the nearest of the gates.

  She didn't look back.