As freeZe woke up she couldn't tell how much time had passed, there was no way for sunlight to reach her room and there were no clocks in it either. The room she had chosen for herself was rectangular and had polished wooden walls and a carpet on the floor. The bed she was lying in was disproportionally large for her size, it could have easily housed four if not five people.

freeZe sat up and stretched, then she reached over to her right and after feeling for a few seconds she found and pushed the wooden button next to the bed. With a soft crackle the glowstone lamps in the ceiling turned on, illuminating every corner of the room.

Still feeling sleepy, freeZe let herself drop onto her cushion again and just stayed there for a few more minutes. She then reluctantly threw her cover away and stood up. She wandered over to a tall wooden door with a glass pane in the middle. Behind the door was the room's bathroom consisting of an expansive bath tub carved into a wall, forming a small cavern. The tub was fed by a hot spring at its bottom and the overflowing water followed a small channel and disappeared into a steel grate. There was also a sink with a mirror above it. Even though the air was very humid, the mirror wasn't foggy at all as if kept dry by magic, which probably wasn't far from the truth.

freeZe considered taking a bath but then shrugged.

She said: "Maybe later…"

Then she wondered why she had come to the bathroom in the first place and went back to the bedroom. She walked over to the wardrobe and searched it for something to wear. She chose a simplistic nether woolen outfit consisting of some white pants and a blue shirt. There were other things in there too, including an elegant black dress that freeZe would have loved to try on but she felt like going to a base tour in a dress would be a bad idea.

freeZe also took some white shoes from the wardrobe and proceeded to exit her room. The corridor was absolutely silent, she could only hear her muffled steps on the carpet and her own breath, it seemed like she was the first to wake up.

As she arrived at the end of the corridor with the rooms she went down the stairs to the area which resembled a lounge. Down there she stopped to admire a very detailed wood carving in the wall. It showed multiple tall humanoids that looked almost exactly like Fire alongside some regular humans, all were wearing mining gear of some sort and held pickaxes in their hands. freeZe looked for a title and indeed found one in the bottom right corner, it were three words that didn't tell her much, "Beginnings of Drandin". It did however remind her of the mystery that Fire was. Even after spending months with him, she didn't know all that much about him. When she thought about it, it hadn't bothered her that much up until now. In the quarry she had been content with knowing that he would keep them safe, now she was getting curious.

She started walking down the hallway to the main hub. When she arrived there she looked at the different corridors and the symbols engraved above them. One of them had a book symbol above it, below it the word "Library" was engraved into the rock.

She thought to herself. Didn't Fire mention something about the Books of Knowledge? If anywhere they should be in his library. freeZe decided that taking a look couldn't hurt. She started walking down the corridor. The walls were made from the same polished rock as those of the entry hall, of course covered in engravings as well. While walking freeZe took brief looks at some of them, the one that fascinated her the most was that of a robed woman standing on top of a mountain during a thunderstorm. Was the lightning coming from the clouds or from the woman? She moved on.

The corridor soon reached a tall wooden door with golden decorations, it didn't seem to have a door handle. As soon as freeZe approached it she knew why, the door silently swung open and an intense smell filled the air. The smell was overwhelming, it was a mixture of wood, paper, old leather and burning candles. In short, it was the smell of knowledge. freeZe coughed but kept walking forwards into the library.

The library was much bigger than she had expected, the corridor had expanded into a huge, spherical cavern with dark oak bookshelves lining the walls on multiple levels. The whole room was only sparsely lit by candles which freeZe assumed to be magical simply because they hadn't burned down in the slightest.

The bookshelves had labels with different categories, there were books about smithing, books about potions, books about geography and also some categories that freeZe didn't know the meaning of. She started wandering the rows and looked at books of varying sizes, colors and binding materials. Just as freeZe was about to take a strange book bound in metal from a shelf, she heard a voice that was awfully close to her ear.

"Are you looking for something specific?" It asked.

freeZe was startled and turned around quickly. As soon as she had turned around, she was confronted with Shadow's red eyes mere centimeters in front of her face. Had she followed her? For how long? Why?

freeZe stuttered: "N-No…"

Ever since she had seen Fire's sister for the first time, freeZe had found her to be strange. She was quite friendly but there was also something about her that seemed uncanny, freeZe couldn't quite put a finger on it.

Still waiting on Shadow to say something freeZe backed up a step and looked around, something seemed off about Shadow's appearance…

Shadow made a wide gesture with her hand and said: "There must be something you are looking for, just tell me."

Suddenly freeZe realized exactly what was so unsettling about Fire's sister. While she had been moving her hand, her shadow had stood completely still. freeZe couldn't help but stare at it, then suddenly the shadow was waving at her and she heard an otherworldly giggle.

freeZe pointed behind Shadow and said: "Your… shadow."

Shadow replied: "I see, you have noticed her." After a short pause she added: "She's harmless, mostly. She was a byproduct of my… ascension."

freeZe decided not to inquire any further and instead said: "Well, what I was looking for… there is this carving in the lounge that shows multiple people like Fire… who are they?"

Shadow said: "They are the Mencur-Besh. That is Fire's species. I'll not go into detail here, Fire will explain that to you four later. That and a lot more."

Before freeZe was able to say anything else, Shadow had disappeared. No matter how fascinated she was by magic, she couldn't deny that it could be creepy if not downright frightening.

freeZe shrugged and then reached for the book bound in iron again, to her surprise it didn't have a title on the outside. It was a fairly large book and due to the metal cover it was quite heavy. She just sat down right on the floor and opened the book. On the first page there was a drawing of a skeleton, above the drawing was the title "Creatures of the Night, Book IV: The Undead". The author seemed to be someone named Andras Thornhook.

freeZe started reading. The prologue told her a tale of the dangers of the night and referenced previous books and it confirmed her suspicion that Andras Thornhook was a hunter, it wasn't clear of what kind. The text was written in fairly simple words but there was something freeZe liked about how everything was described in short but accurate sentences. The book explained where you could expect different kinds of undead, how they behaved and most importantly, how to kill them.

freeZe shuddered at the description of ghouls, it didn't make it any less terrifying that it was accompanied by a drawing of a hulking, blood smeared monster that had adorned itself with various skulls. She hoped that she would never encounter one of them on their travels. A few pages later freeZe learned that ghouls weren't the worst undead that could happen to her, not by a long shot.

As much as the book fascinated her with its simple yet accurate language and its content, she decided to put it back into the shelf, the iron binding scratched along the wood as she did. As she left the library she couldn't help but suspect something jumping at her behind every corner.

freeZe sighed, she really needed to get her mind off that book. It wasn't just the words or the illustrations, there was something else about it that left a lasting impression in her mind. She quickly walked back into the hub and from there into the lounge, where TehLulz and to her surprise Ambigious were waiting for her.

She smiled and shouted: "Finally you aren't the last to wake up!" Then added: "And I do understand you now, magic is indeed creepy. But not as creepy as ghouls…"

Ambigious apparently stopped listening after the statement about magic and answered: "Finally."