When Adera and Kirrith had refused to let her work in the Art Studios, Tori had been crushed. She loved the Studios, and besides she'd already asked the Chief of the Studios and she'd told the girl that she'd love for her work there. And they'd all been told that, once a clayr Awoke, they could choose whichever job they wanted. It didn't make any sense that her Teacher and former Guardian wouldn't let her work there.

But after a while she'd given up arguing with them and asked them where she could work. And they said, the Library; Teacher Adera even made a vague reference to having Seen Tori working there.

["She Saw you in the Library?" Lirael asked, and turned to Adera. "Please explain."

Adera look embarrassed, an expression that Tori had never seen on her face before. "Edishi told me she'd had a Vision of Torethele in the Library. She might have," the Teacher said, but didn't look confident at all in that statement.

"What's the likelihood of that?" Nick Sayre asked. They turned to face him, and he added, "Well, uh, I mean, Edishi's vision might have been a self-fulfilling prophecy. She saw Torethele in the Library because she was going to ask you to put her there, and you put her there because she saw the vision. So Torethele was in the Library because her mom told you about the vision where she was in the Library. It's a circle – the events cause each other. Even the intent of lying would put Torethele in the Library, which could possibly give Edishi a vision of her being in the Library."

He caught his breath, and looked around at the mostly-confused Clayr; Sanar and Ryelle looked bemused, and even Prince Sameth and Lirael didn't seem to understand what he'd said.

"Uh, if that makes any sense," said the Ancelstierran.

"I understand," Tomer said. "That is one reason why we don't often share our prophecies. Only if we are sure of the future, or if the, uh, 'self-fulfilling prophecy' is seen as greatly beneficial, will we share our Visions with the subjects of them."

"Many of our Visions are self-fulfilling," an older Clayr in the Watch said, "But that does not mean we will not share them."

"Oh, no, I didn't say it was necessarily a bad thing," said Nick. "I meant that it could be tricky, trying to tell whether your actions will directly create that future you've seen. Maybe she couldn't tell," he shrugged.

Lirael looked at him peculiarly for a moment, then turned back to Tori. "Please continue," she said.]

Tori would have chosen anything else but the Library.

Still, she'd gone to Chief Librarian Vancelle's office the next morning, the Chief had approved her, and one of the Assistants gave her her supplies: a whistle (not to be used to play music on); a mouse ("In case something bad happens and no one's nearby to hear the whistle," the Assistant had explained, and the guarantee of the mouse hadn't soothed Tori's alarming reaction to "something bad happens" at all); the bracelet with the emeralds (the marks she'd felt inside, though how she activated them she'd have to talk about later); a belt (no, she couldn't decorate it with beads or Charter marks or even paint); and a dagger.

The dagger, surprisingly, had worried Tori the least; the marks on the blade she knew (she'd used them in a few scenic paintings before), and she'd used blades before in art projects. While analyzing the dagger she'd pricked her thumb (it still hurt) and was reprimanded for it.

Another Assistant had given her a tour of the Stacks and main two levels, and showed her where her "office" was (it was more like a closet). She'd quickly determined that the room needed more space and more decorations, and set to work.

(She'd been reprimanded for that too, two days later, when her intent was discovered.)

["Wait, hold on, they didn't let you decorate your own office?" asked Nick.

"We prefer our Librarians to focus on the books," Haretha explained. "They are welcome to make their offices more comfortable, but any major changes take time away from their work. It's why we prefer for Librarians to be older," she admitted.

"I get it. Thanks. Sorry for interrupting," he told Tori.]

Tori had settled for drawing sketches and patterns and pinning them up, but she'd soon covered the walls and run out of unprompted ideas; so she turned to the Charter marks in the bracelet.

["Have you heard of folding paper?"

"Nick!" protested Lirael.

"Sorry, I thought she might be interested! It's something that's popular in the western countries, folding paper to make shapes. Mostly animals. I'll find a book," he promised Tori.]

The bracelet was no piece of beauty – it was thick, heavy and unwieldy, and Tori could have designed a better piece in her sleep, she'd actually sketched out a few ideas – but it did its job well: no prohibited doors were accidentally unlocked with a swipe, and all the doors that she was supposed to have access to unlocked at a touch. It had seven gems, each with its own complex spell which would normally have challenged any rebellious Librarians.

But Tori treated Charter spells as if they were artistic patterns, with each mark a part of a symbol in the pattern. Just as different symbols would combine to create different shapes, different orders of Charter marks would carry out different functions; and Tori often found inspiration in reversing the process, looking up a Charter spell and putting the symbols that she'd assigned to each mark together.

Anyway, the pattern of marks that awoke the first gem flashed habitually on the inside of the bracelet. A slower eye wouldn't have caught it, or been able to make out the stream of marks, but Tori had created with some friends a shorthand system for many of the common Charter marks.

["Can I see-"

"Nick. No."]

So Tori had jotted them down and discovered the pattern, and honestly it was so easy with the shorthand to figure out the awakening spell for the next gem; and each of the gems built on its lower neighbor so it was not hard at all to awake the next few gems too.

The higher-level gems had completely different spell patterns, though, and Tori hadn't actually been interested in accessing the rooms they unlocked. She hadn't even meant to awake the gems, honestly.

But they were activated, so she began exploring.

["How many of the gems did you wake?" asked the Abhorsen-in-waiting.

Tori looked up; she'd leaned against the wall and gradually slid down the wall till she was sitting. "Um, four. Why?"

Lirael shared a glance with Nick Sayre. "Go on," she said.]

On this particular day – it was only yesterday, but it felt so long ago – Tori had finished her morning book load early, and snuck off into the lower spirals to explore. For all she knew, the rumors of the hidden treasures, armor and weapons and beautiful gardens sustained by Charter Magic were true; and she had wanted so much to find them.

The first few doors had been disappointing: one a dusty old records room before the Fall of the Monarchy; another completely empty, though the floor was paved with tightly-placed brick, no mortar, and the air was hot and humid; a third was a huge room, the floor covered in flowers with a large tree in the center. The last was so beautiful that Tori had sat down to sketch it – she still had the pictures in her waistcoat pocket.

["Can we see them?" asked Sanar.

Tori unbuttoned her waistcoat and fished the pieces of paper out of her inside pocket. The twins took them and inspected them.

"How did we not know of this room?" Ryelle said.

Lirael cleared her throat. "I've, um, I've been there before. I explored the Library a lot too."

Haretha protested, "But if Tori couldn't have accessed it without the higher gems-"

"She's the Abhorsen-in-Waiting," Prince Sameth interrupted. "She can unlock some hidden Charter marks."

"Please tell me you didn't go past the gate," Lirael asked Tori.

The young Clayr shook her head. "Um, no, I don't remember a gate." Lirael nodded in relief. "Why, what's past there?"

Lirael froze for a moment, but recovered herself. "Um, nothing. It looked ominous when I was there, that's all. Please, continue."]

Other than the beauty of the cavern, though, the room with the flowers wasn't very interesting at all. Tori had felt the itch to explore further even before she'd finished her drawings.

She'd pressed on, going deeper into the spiral of the Library, losing track of time.

["One last question," Nick said, and faced the chorus of sighs. "I know, I know. How did no one notice she was missing?"

The members of the Nine-Day Watch glanced around, looking at each other as if they could answer his question, and eventually settled their gazes on Haretha.

"She was new," the Second Assistant Librarian explained. "She hadn't been properly introduced to everyone yet, and she's small and quiet and spent her time alone. Like you, Lirael."

That's not true, Tori thought. I'm not that small, I'm not quiet, they just ignored me. She was about to say as much when the Abhorsen-in-Waiting spoke:

"What you're saying is, nobody knew to look for her."

Tori could hear the disappointment in Lirael's voice. She knew that she'd worked in the Library for a time, but that hadn't sunk in completely. Lirael had worked alongside these women, maybe even Haretha, for years. She knew them still, and she probably still trusted them as well. And they had let a thirteen-year-old run loose with no one to watch out for her.

"Yes," Haretha admitted.

Nick Sayre grimaced and gestured for Tori to continue.]

The light soft-wooded door, the last door that Tori had consciously opened, had lain at the end of a curved hallway. There were other doors in the hallway, but they were all thick hardwood and had cords with seals draped across the entrances; only the one at the end was unsealed – no cord, no wax seal and no lock to possibly deny Tori permission to enter.

So, of course, she had entered.

It had been another records room, sometime in the distant past. The scrolls of paper stacked on the ledges – really, how old were these records that they were written on scrolls? – had disintegrated, leaving the wooden handles they'd been wrapped around to fall down and splinter.

The floor was wooden, that was the first clue that she should have turned back. No, the first clue was the unsealed door; but the wooden floor was the second, and that Tori had ignored it too was just further proof that she should've just been placed in the Art Studios.

The room had been large enough for Tori to lose sight of the door, but not too big to get lost in. The walls were lined with cubby holes for scrolls, with ledges above them. Cracked and broken wooden scroll handles littered the floor.

The far wall was lined with glass, some sort of mural made up of little shards of colored glass arranged in shapes. Tori had heard of them, but she'd never seen one herself. She moved forward, a small Charter-made light in her hand, to inspect the scene, and – and – and –

And fell through the floor.