Nineteen

Third

The Restricted section of the Luminberg library greeted Euphemia with a different ambiance. It lacked the grandeur of First Empire-era architecture and layouts that the Academy carefully preserved. She was led to a drab concrete and steel girder chamber whose lights were similar to the strobe lamps studios were normally equipped with. Inside the room were shelves sealed with glass doors; painted wooden boards and steel sheets were used to make these casings - something that the canoness normally saw in government buildings. Each of the bookshelves were small orb-like objects that gave off green lights. Nothing else was seen on the shelves aside from the books that were kept inside. Yellowed pages and cracked leather were seen on some of the available books; others even had small white balls that rested directly beside the older documents. Some parts of this section resembled a museum more than a document storage; some of the exhibits had books that withstood constant abuse from aging. Their pages had yellowed so much that long forceps with draughts were provided, but recorder orbs that were put beside them were recommended to be used over lifting their glass barriers to get to the books.

Euphemia was staring at once of these old, frail tomes named Arcane Arts. The title wasn't found at any part of the book covers; Luminbergers must have only assigned the book's name based on what information it held. The glass casing that shielded the book from further aging could not be opened; only a recorder sphere was available for her to use. She hoped that there was something in that record that could help her hasten the awakening of her talents - once she got around to reading it. There were more important matters at hand, and all the canoness could do was hope that something in Luminberg's records would get her anywhere.

There had to be something that led to either of the technologies she witnessed on either Altrecht or inside the Antikwald. Those machines varied in what they did, but the canoness couldn't shake off the possibility that they were made by the same group of people. Euphemia passed by the section where the oldest records were exhibited. The glass-sealed bookcases were replaced by conventional bookshelves; the book covers were given a uniform gray tone. Each of the records bore the Imperial Seal - the rose surrounded by eight beasts of legend. She felt that her movements were being observed, even if the last person she interacted with was the librarian back at the counter. Now was not the time to be too concerned with that feeling.

"So I should start looking for everything related to Reinhardt Göhler." Euphemia looked at the shelves ahead; the uniform colors of the present records would make that task difficult. "I hope Luminberg's cataloguing here is the same as their main library."

And it was just like how the main library sorted their books, much to the cleric's relief. She had to search using names, and Göhler proved easy enough to pick out. There was a section of eight books assigned under him: the first seven being his works from body enhancements and infusing mana with machinery while the eighth book being a short documentary on news related to Göhler's works. Euphemia's fingertips glided on the first five books, until she stopped on the seventh book named:

Mana and Phase-Change Transport Systems: A Working Study

She pulled it out of the shelf; Euphemia's grip focused only on her fingertips, where she worked on sliding the book out while not disturbing the arrangement of Reinhardt Göhler's other works. Euphemia also took the book on news related to the Imperial Scholar. There might be something in the articles that could give her a glimpse of Göhler's past.

She wondered if there was any point looking for him, should he were alive today. His records clearly were not from a man whose existence was far apart from the Duke of Schild - or even Euphemia's. Agnes von Schild mentioned of him once; a family dinner where the estate had guests from nearby domains. The canoness tried to remember what and how the topic of Reinhardt Göhler came about, but she made a sigh being unable to draw it out of her memories as a ten year-old child. Maybe she would be able to remember everything again once she started lifting the pages of both books that were now on hand.

Deeper in the Restricted Area were tables and chairs meant for its visitors; the room implied that anyone who booked an appointment to visit this place had a specific document in mind to search before taking the time to absorb its contents. Six standard tables of steel-framed wood were found; with the chairs sharing the same make and its gray color scheme. A cupboard sat at left edge of the section; an empty kettle was beside a few jars with different-colored lids. Bread and other sweets packed in airtight foils were seen at the lower layers. Nobody took advantage of the cupboard's contents, basing it on how everything was still neatly in place; the dates on the snack items implied that they were not kept inside for long.

Opposite the small snack bar was a counter with three machines. Euphemia immeidately recognized the center device: it was the same recording orb reader Lord Cecil used in his study but bigger in size. The machine at the right resembled a lampshade, but with a grid of lamp strips looking down on flat metal bed. There was the last machine at the left with a depression to mount a recording orb, but it looked to be connected to a printing mechanism. It would have been a boon to the canoness to bring along paper copies of what she researched at this site - Euphemia would be on her guard twice as much though.

When was the last time canoness Euphemia subjected herself to this much reading? While she took a lot more books than the usual Luminberg student during her youth, most of the readings were on subjects she held a degree of familiarity with, not to mention that old Carolus put her in a vastly different curriculum. Most of her focus would be on the search for unfamiliar knowledge - machines and magical energy were fields that sat on opposite ends as far as Euphemia understood.

Her search started with paragraph upon paragraph of how magical energy can be used in tandem with transportation technology. Euphemia waded through definitions, and what the study aimed to achieve - most of what she read was translated in her mind as jargon. She started rather confused and had to read specific sections again to know if there was something she missed, or misunderstood. Minutes, hours and she found herself scanning beyond half of the book. Euphemia began to question if her ability to understand was enough to get information from this single book. She was about to give up and decide to copy the book to be read at the convent when she finally landed on something that seemed to be a good lead:

"...it is best that the main mechanism is to convert physical matter to light. An emitter will then fire the converted 'passenger' to the other end of the transport node. In turn, a second emitter from the receiving node will revert these light particles to its original form..."

It was a similar technology to what she witnessed in the Antikwald. Given that an otherworldly monster appeared in those woods, did it mean that whoever possessed those machines were from another world? If they were, then why a lone creature came out of the void before the machines stopped working?

"...the amount of power made available for phase changing is important... it is better to exceed the required energy units to ensure that the traveler will cross safely..."

Then this meant that there was not enough power to bring out more of those horrors from where they were. Euphemia found all the information too much for her to understand in a single sitting. Göhler's book was truly useful in helping her understand that machine in the Antikwald, but that still left most of the other questions unanswered. A real lead to her father's captors was possible if she could speak with the Imperial Scholar in person. There was that problem of what if Dr. Göhler decided not to cooperate. A random stranger suddenly appearing to ask a question that might mean the loss of lives was by no means welcome.

Her mind was about to ramble on, yet she almost forgot the reason she took out the second book.

Euphemia made up her mind to capture what she needed from Göhler's study. She stood up and approached the machines at the counter. Now that she was closer to it, the lamp-like device with the metal platform had the space to hold a book in place. She put the Imperial Scholar's research on the mechanism and to her surprise, saw it sink a few centimeters into the base, revealing four borders that framed the document.With the lamp apparatus, this was no doubt a scanning light.

She opted to not use the lamp but go with her own method in capturing the information. Recording sphere in hand, weak heat trickled from her palm to the fingertips that put the item in place. A flash of light spanned the book's face. Euphemia flapped pages while the sphere went on a sequence of lighting up in one moment and becoming dim the next. She spent minutes flashing light on the book, spanning dozens of diagrams and texts; it felt that the canoness needed half of the available information to help her make sense of Göhler's technology.

She smiled and returned the sphere to her waist pocket. Euphemia was about to return to her seat when the packed snacks caught her eyes' attention. Luminberg certainly would not mind if she took one piece of pastry to silence her subtly-grumbling stomach. She pulled the packaging open and nibbled twice on a cheese-glazed bread before heading back to her chair.

It was time to find out if there was a means to locate Reinhardt Göhler.

She scanned through news snippets of Kriemreich's internal newsletter; nothing much about him was made available to other publications, save for a few mentions of his name as part of the Imperial Science Ministry. One of the last parts of the compilation sent a wave of despair to the investigating cleric:

"Explosion at Göhler Estate! Five Confirmed Dead, Dr. Reinhardt Göhler Missing"

Euphemia saw a photograph of a crater surrounded by blasted earth and torn foliage. A caption in the image stated it was the place where Dr. Göhler's house once stood. Her gaze was fixed at the page; the canoness' once-probing eyes stopped for a few seconds. She said to herself:

"This isn't the end. There must be something else around here..."

A weak gust of air was forced out of her lips; there was no way Euphemia could continue looking further into the document now that she was beginning to think all her efforts would lead to a dead end. She decided to return to the scanning light platform and copied everything the book had using a second recording orb.

She was looking at that old tome, Arcane Arts. Old Carolus used to talk about that old book being one of his references in teaching the Lady of Schild her talents with light. She walked to the display case, where a recording orb of the book was placed. Euphemia produced the third of her white spheres, putting them both on her hand. There was a violent flash that covered a third of the room; a thin wisp of smoke emerged from the balls. Euphemia replaced the Luminberg sphere to its container. She closed her eyes before whispering:

"Please Father, let me find you."