Caesar led Victor and the others on a path through the academy that none had ever waked before. From the training grounds, they went to the northern wing which housed the library; this part – or perhaps most of it – was familiar to Victor, as he and Sam had spent many hours here studying. The library was as spectacular as any grand collection of books ought to be, with two rows of desks down a long hall and armies of books stacked in shelves on either side. The ground floor was accessible to anyone – even those from outside the academy – while the second floor was reserved for senior students and initiated members. The way to the third floor was kept behind a locked door, to which only special candidates chosen by Mr. Silver had the key.
As Caesar opened the door he glanced at Hansel. “I feel I must apologise, no doubt you were expecting some kind of special combat training, not a tour of a library. I know how you feel, I was a warrior once just as you are. Let me tell you that training your body, building your muscles, perfecting your swordplay, these are all necessary skills for a hunter, but true strength come from here.” He tapped his fingers against the side of his head. “Strength of mind conquers all.”
Mr. Silver’s secret collection of knowledge was tenfold more dazzling than that of the floors below. There were on display great tomes of otherworldly scripture, texts on monsters of all kinds, journals of botany, travel logs, alchemical manuscripts and scrolls of very ancient nature. Some of the newer texts were written in English while others were not. The older texts were written in many strange scripts; some languages – new and old – Victor could read and understand to a certain degree, however most were completely foreign to him. What baffled him most was the abundance of the strange runes that he had encountered in West Harbour – Rodrick had called it Netherian. Why had Victor not heard of this language before? Where had it come from? Why was it so secretive?
Caesar called for their attention. “Stunning, is it not? For most of our lives the Slayers have been perfecting this collection of knowledge. I have travelled all around the world for some of these books.”
“They are so beautiful!” Sam whispered. She resisted the urge to touch the nearest one. “I can’t wait to start reading them. Will you teach us these languages? I recognise some but many are foreign to me.”
Caesar nodded. “Don’t be so eager, young Sam, for all great knowledge comes at a price, as you may soon learn. Some of these books are very dangerous, and are not to be taken lightly. When you read a book, you will give a piece of who you once were in return, and once you are finished you will never be the same again. You children are remarkably young; did you know that? I bet that to you the world seems incredibly small! The hunger for knowledge is never satisfied. Truth and happiness are two fundamental yet incompatible pursuits in life.”
They all shuffled nervously, even Gretel, and a suspicion filled their eyes as they continued looking at the collection.
Caesar took a dusty leather-bound tome from a display case and placed it on the table, gesturing for the others to stand around it. He laughed. “Now that you are all nice and frightened, there is one book in particular that I want to show you. Silver himself wrote this. Ah, I see you recognise the characters.” He read aloud from the first page, which was clearly the title. “En Valar na Laen: The Grimoire of Nether.” He turned the page. “Now, as you know these types of texts were often addressed to a particular person, such as from a teacher to a student, but this one was written at the time when the academy was founded, and so it was written for all of us. This here reads: urn val ven harven la ke or iren me a, yi men miiyu na krome, yi varan narze i yi mar men arin na iyiu. It says: This text is reserved for he who commits himself to The Truth, and to the preservation of life, and to the perfection of all that is good and evil until the end of time. Everything one must know about every monster that has ever existed is in this book, and it also contains a great deal of content on other fields such as alchemy, but I have only been instructed to teach you monster lore. So, are we ready to begin?”
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