The library of memories breathed.
It was the only way Seraphina could describe it as she walked through the endless aisles of shelves that curved and folded into one another like veins in a living body. The air was neither warm nor cold, but heavy with the weight of centuries... of truths whispered, forgotten, buried, and waiting.
Here, time did not exist in the way it did in the waking world.
Candles floated without wax or flame, their glow responding subtly to her presence. Shelves stretched upward beyond sight, stacked with books bound in materials she could not name... leather that shimmered like dragon scale, bark etched with glowing runes, crystal spines that pulsed faintly as if aware of her gaze.
This place had guided her sometimes.
But never gave her what she really needed.
