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Chapter 3 by TheSecretlyUnlikelyDuck TheSecretlyUnlikelyDuck

What does she do?

Run through the first door she comes to

As the fire continues to spread, so does Lina's panick. She bolts for the the great entrance of the library, it's huge wooden gates already visible. She barely stops in time to avoid a burning bookshelf which crashes to the ground in front of her. In her mad scrabble she drops jer books, stooping to put a few under her arm when she finally realized the insanity of her a actions. The fox-haired scholar spun around, walls of flames in every direction. Finally she saw one clear path, a door on the left which is charred over but not burning. Lina throws herself against it and much to her releif it crumbles inward and opens.

In her rush she barely manages to keep from tripping, as the door opens to a small landing and a spiral stair passage. It leads down into the earth which is not whereas she wants to get out entirely, but feeling the heat of the inferno behind her against her back convinces Lina that she has only one hope to survive. With a nervous gulp, the sheltered historian began to downstairs into the ancient basement where even she has never roamed in all her years looking for tomes in this vast labryth of a library.

After just one twist of the spiral stairwell the passage has become pitch black, so the pale librarian used a simple light spell to illuminate her path. After maybe five minutes she has lost track of how far she has descended when the stairs finally end. The passage widens into a long chamber, the size of a room. Bookshelves line the walls, the scrolls and books weighing then down seem impossibly ancient. Lina stops to look at them, her academic instincts causing her to investigate. The scroll she picks up is in an old elven dialect which is completely foreign to her, and seconds later the scroll crumbles to dust.

Deciding the decrepit books aren't worth her time, the long-haired ginger elf looks around to get her bearings. The antechamber is clearly associated with the library, but who knows from how long ago? A thick layer of dust and cobwebs covers everything. and

On one wall is a huge hardwood door, several massive bolts secure it shut. From the moisture around the door, the stale air smell, and the draft from underneath; Lina guesses this tunnel might be connected to caves. The young scholar to remember hearing from a spleologist friend that the library was connected to a series of caves and tunnels. He told her he'd read histories of them being used, and Lina herself had seen records referencing forbidden tomes smuggled into or out of the great library through secret passages, and her sharp wit quickly deduces that there must he a route to the surface.

Above the door there's a massive stone arch, etched in a slightly less archaic elvish which she could with difficulty read. The etching above the door declared 'Do not enter, under pain of fate worse than ****!'. She shivered, unsure if it was serious or meant to deter the would-be student of the dark arts from attempting to slip out with the spellbook they'd been reading.

Against another stone wall stands another set of massive wooden doors. The slight elf woman quietly recites an incantation as she moves her hand; the door slowly slides opens the slightest crack letting her peer through. On the other side are stacks of books and papers, much like those that until recently existed in the library above. The rows of shelves extend from the floor up more than 40 feet to the ceiling; as far as she can see into the gloomy distance.

Stepping back from the second door, Lina scans the room again. This time she notices they're are a number of smaller doors leading off the remaining walls. They might lead to more rooms or smaller side tunnels, but there's no way to know without checking them out.

What does Lina do next?

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