"Faral!" Herkid called
"Yes?" He answered out loud.
"How old is this sanctuary?"
"I do not know."
"Thousands of years?"
"Perhaps."
Herkid looked as though he might faint from happiness.
"Tsk." Zhu clicked her tongue. "Herkid, I don't know why you keep asking Mr. Knows-Nothing."
Herkid didn't respond. He simply laughed.
Faral, as expected, did not dignify her remark with a response.
After breakfast, Faral guided them through the ruined city.
Although much of Hollowveil had long since been reclaimed by nature, signs of its former glory remained everywhere.
Massive avenues, now split apart by enormous tree roots. Collapsed bridges stretching over dried waterways. Statues worn smooth by centuries of wind and rain. Towering buildings whose upper floors had long since crumbled into the streets below. Everywhere Zhu looked, plants had woven themselves into stone. Nature and civilization had become inseparable.
"This place must have been incredible."
"It was."
Faral's answer carried an emotion Zhu had never heard from him before.
Nostalgia.
"You remember?"
"No."
"...Then how do you know?"
"Because ruins of this scale are never built by insignificant civilizations."
Herkid nodded immediately. "He's right."
He ran his hand along a cracked stone wall.
"The roads alone are wider than most cities I've visited."
"And look."
Mara pointed toward an enormous circular plaza.
"There are carvings everywhere."
The stone was covered in faded symbols unlike anything any of them recognized. Herkid quickly sketched several into his notebook.
"I've never seen this writing system before."
"You won't understand it," Faral said.
"It predates every language currently spoken on the continent."
Herkid looked mildly disappointed but still wrote diligently. "I still want to record it."
"A wise decision." Faral appriciated Herkid's love of knowledge.
"So..." Zhu tapped her chin as she looked around at the rubble. Broken buildings. Abandoned old-world vehicles. It was obvious that something catastrophic had happened here.
"Faral, do you know what happened?"
"No," Faral answered. "But I do have an idea. The lotus carries vague impressions of fire, the earth shaking, dark and dangerous figures moving through the shadows, and screams from countless unseen voices."
Zhu slowly shook her head.
"I knew it had to be something violent."
Although nature had reclaimed the city, it couldn't completely erase the scars of the past. Crumbling buildings, shattered streets, and rusting vehicles stood as silent reminders that this place hadn't simply been abandoned—it had been devastated by something or somethings more powerful than what it could defend against.
Nearly an hour and one rest stop later, Faral finally spoke. "Turn left."
The three obeyed.
An enormous structure slowly emerged from behind a curtain of vines. Unlike the surrounding buildings, this one had retained much of its original shape. Its massive stone columns still stood proudly despite countless centuries. A broken staircase led toward enormous bronze doors hanging crookedly from rusted hinges.
Above the entrance was an inscription carved deeply into polished black stone.
"What does it say?" Mara asked.
"It once read..."
Faral paused. "'The Hall of Knowledge.'"
Zhu looked upward. "Subtle."
"It was a library."
"I gathered." Zhu said, rolling her eyes. The building radiated a strange silence, even the birds seemed reluctant to enter.
"Is this the one we want?" Wiping a line of sweat off her forehead, Mara looking up at the building sprawled out in front of her. It was very intimidating to her.
"Yes Indeed Ms. Mara." Faral answered affirmatively "The library of Hollowveil."
The bronze doors groaned loudly as the three pushed them open.
Dust exploded into the air. Sunlight pierced the darkness through holes in the collapsed ceiling. The room beyond stole their breath away. Towering bookshelves stretched toward the ceiling.
Thousands. Perhaps tens of thousands.
Many had collapsed beneath the weight of time. Others leaned dangerously against cracked walls. Scroll cases lay scattered across the marble floor. Broken ladders rested where scholars had abandoned them centuries ago.
"This..."
Herkid whispered.
"...is magnificent."
He looked as though he might cry.
Mara smiled warmly. "I've never seen you this happy."
"I've dreamed about places like this since I was a child." He slowly walked between the shelves, almost afraid to touch anything. "My father always said books couldn't feed people."
His smile became bittersweet. "But I always thought..."
He gently picked up a cracked scroll case.
"...knowledge feeds the future."
Zhu quietly looked away. She knew enough about Herkid's childhood not to tease him.
Faral interrupted the silence. "The book we seek should be somewhere within the Spiritual Studies section."
"Should?"
"I have not visited the library in centuries."
"Fair point."
______
The search began. They walked past rows of fallen shelves; some were empty, others spilled their contents on the floor but standing upright. Zhu couldn't read much but Feral had shown them the symbols on the book they were looking for.
Unfortunately...
Time had been merciless. The first shelf collapsed the moment Zhu touched it.
"Oops."
"You broke history." Herkid Joked.
"It was already broken." Zhu pouted.
Many books dissolved into dust as soon as Mara attempted to lift them. Others had become little more than mold-covered bundles of rotting pages. Some were written in an ancient script none of them could decipher. Herkid carefully sorted books into piles.
"Unreadable."
"Destroyed."
"Unknown language."
"Completely blank..."
"No, that's mold."
As the hours passed frustration slowly replaced excitement. "There has to be something useful."
"There is."
Faral remained surprisingly confident.
"It survived for a reason."
Late in the afternoon, Herkid suddenly froze.
"Wait."
He carefully pulled a remarkably intact book from behind a collapsed section of shelving.
Unlike the others, this one showed almost no signs of decay.
Its cover was made from dark violet leather reinforced with silver thread.
Ancient runes shimmered faintly across its surface.
"It..."
Herkid swallowed.
"...has a preservation array."
Faral immediately sounded more alert than Zhu had ever heard him.
"Bring it into the light."
Herkid carefully carried the heavy tome toward a shaft of sunlight. The silver runes glowed softly.
Mara reached out but hesitated. "It feels..."
"Alive?" Herkid finished.
Mara nodded.
Faral answered quietly.
"Because the enchantment is still functioning."
Zhu brushed dust from the cover. "What does it say?"
Herkid squinted. "I can't read it."
"Neither can I." Mara added.
Faral spoke.
"The title is..."
There was a pause.
At first, Herkid couldn't decipher the text. Then, without warning, understanding surfaced in his mind. It wasn't the first time it had happened. Whenever he encountered a problem beyond his knowledge, fragments of information would simply appear, as if someone had hidden an immense library within his mind that unlocked only when the right question was asked.
He had never spoken of it.
Not even to Zhu.
"...Foundations of Spiritual Consciousness and Binding Arts."
The three stared at one another. They had found it. Faral instructed Herkid to carefully open the first page. The ancient parchment remained perfectly intact. Instead of ordinary writing, intricate diagrams filled the pages.Circles. Runes.
Flowing lines connecting one symbol to another.
Illustrations of souls, spiritual entities, and human silhouettes.
Herkid's breathing quickened. "This..."
He carefully turned another page.
"...these are spiritual entities."
Another page. "Soul-binding theory."
Another. "Mental worlds..."
His eyes widened. Herkid couldn't read the words beside the imagines but the graphic was enough to understand. "There are diagrams showing different types of mindscapes."
Another page.
His hands trembled. "These..."
He whispered."...these are rune arrays."
Faral's normally calm voice carried unmistakable excitement.
"Yes. This will help with the process of unbinding."
Silence filled the ancient library. After countless centuries...
The knowledge needed to free Faral still existed. It had simply been waiting for someone patient enough to find it. Outside, a gentle breeze drifted through the shattered windows, carrying with it the scent of the Spiritual Spring.
For the first time since they had begun discussing Faral's freedom, hope no longer felt like an impossible dream.
It felt tangible.
And it rested within the pages of an ancient book that had survived the fall of an entire civilization.