We left our strange and delightful company under a full moon in a palace of sand, a place the cat called the Forgotten Library. Our farewell was brief and cordial—a few flowery words from our feline friend and a deep bow from the boy knight that accompanied him. Then they vanished into the stacks and we were alone, 60 meters underground in one of the most architecturally stunning places I had ever visited.

Above, the dunes shifted and the nocturnal predators of the Garibo desert stalked their silent prey. Never was their so stark a contrast between the outer and the inner.

“The cat suggested we look around before we head out.” Chrysippus reminded, obviously impatient to explore our new setting.

“You go-ahead I feel like I should stay put here for at least a while,” I said, “You’ve got your timepiece on you, right?” He nodded. “Good, let’s agree to meet here in two rotations?” I held my wrist out, wrestling the cuff of my sleeve over the bronze timekeeper wrapped around it. “Now!” I said, as we simultaneously thumbed our respective initiators.

Chrysippus headed northward towards a particularly ancient-looking part of the library. I made my way towards one of four the large armchairs bathed in moonlight. Reaching into my sack, I gingerly extracted the rolled-up parchment the cat had given me three nights prior.

“You too have been enraptured by the prophet’s monologies. Yet you are betwixt and between the group to which you befit. You know not your number nor anything else.” The cat said as he pushed the scroll into my hands, “Though lost itself the athenaeum is exceptional at finding others. Sit in the moonlight and look to the east.”

As I unfurled the finespun paper and held it up to the light. I saw the ink within dance and spring to life. It skittered frantically across the page, swirling, whooshing and finally settling into a schematic—a rough-hewn map of the easterly stacks and a location within.

I made my way across the tessellated foyer into the dimmer lights of the first layer of shelving. My pace was quick as I darted right and left through aisles of massive tomes. As I neared what I guessed was the location on the map, I could see a faint orange glow emanating from the left side of the aisle about 30 paces away.

I stopped in front of an egg-like artefact pulsating a gentle and warm light. below was written ignis accensæ volucris. I removed the oblong orb from its pedestal and placed it into my bag.