Librarian of the Void

9: A Torn Page

Leo waited until the training hall emptied before looking at the paper.

He did not trust the paper.

That was becoming a general rule for his life.

The instructors had taken the assessment equipment away. Students had left in groups, arguing about scores and complaining about whoever had received a higher ranking. Hannah had been called aside by one of the combat teachers. Owen had disappeared without making another comment.

Leo sat alone on the lowest training platform.

The torn paper rested on his knee.

It was not a normal sheet. The edges were uneven, but the tear looked old rather than fresh. The surface had a grey colour similar to the light from his class awakening. A thin diagram covered half the page.

Several lines crossed at sharp angles.

One line began at a black circle, moved across the page, and returned to the same circle without touching the space in between.

Leo traced it with his eyes.

A small pressure formed behind his forehead.

His System window appeared.

[Record fragment detected.]

[Classification: Lost skill]

[Source: Incomplete]

[Restoration progress: 0.00%]

Leo looked at the torn page again.

The writing along the bottom was faded. He could make out only a few letters.

...step...

He turned the page over.

The back was blank except for a dark stain near the corner.

When his thumb touched the stain, a sentence appeared across the paper.

- Do not let the library remember her.

Leo stopped breathing.

The words remained for several seconds, then faded until the page became blank again.

He read the sentence in his head.

'Do not let the library remember her.'

The sentence did not feel like a threat aimed at him. It felt like a warning left for somebody who had already made a decision. That was more disturbing. Threats could be answered. Warnings meant the dangerous part had happened before he arrived.

It was not a normal warning. It was too specific. Whoever wrote it knew about a library, a woman, and something that could be remembered by a place.

Leo read the faded diagram again. The first line was not merely a movement route. It showed a point, a path, and a return to the point without any line crossing the distance between them. It was a record of an action that should have been impossible under normal System rules.

He checked the paper against the grey book’s symbol from memory. The circle at the centre matched. The seven short marks were missing, but the torn edge showed that something had been removed from the right side.

That meant the page had not been damaged by age alone. Someone had taken the other half.

Leo placed the fragment inside his assessment folder and stood.

Hannah had finished speaking with the teacher. She walked toward him, still wearing her training gloves.

"What is that?"

Leo held the folder against his chest. "Homework."

"You look like you found a dead body."

"I have never found a dead body. It sounds inconvenient."

She reached for the folder.

Leo moved it away before he could think.

Hannah noticed.

Her eyes narrowed. "You are hiding something."

"I am hiding several things. My poor score, mostly."

"Leo."

He hated how often people had started saying his name with that tone. Claire did it when he lied. Professor Ruth did it when he was late. Hannah did it as if she intended to break the word open and check what was inside.

Leo looked at the paper.

He could tell her.

Maybe not everything. He could say he had found a record fragment. He could ask whether she knew a skill called Threadstep. He could show her the warning and let another person decide whether it was dangerous.

Instead, he placed the folder beneath his jacket.

"It is nothing important."

Hannah stared at him for another second.

"That answer is going to become a problem."

"Most of my answers do."

She walked away.

Leo waited until she was gone, then left through the side corridor. He took the long route toward the library, checking the reflection in every glass panel. Nobody followed him.

At the corner near the administration stairs, Leo stopped beside a dark window and watched the corridor behind him. Two students passed while arguing about assessment scores. A cleaning drone rolled from one hall to another. Nobody seemed interested in him.

That should have been reassuring.

Instead, he wondered whether whoever had placed the page in his folder even needed to follow him. If the paper could appear inside a sealed assessment folder, a person could probably watch him without standing nearby. Leo checked his jacket, his phone, and the folder again. Everything was still there.

He hated that this felt like the beginning of a habit. He hated even more that he was already getting good at it.

At the stairwell, he stopped and looked back. Hannah had disappeared around the corner, but her accusation remained in his head. You are hiding something.

She was right. The problem was that Leo did not know whether hiding the truth protected her or only protected himself from having to explain it. He had always been good at keeping difficult things inside. His parents had called it being private. Claire called it being impossible.

The older wing was empty when he arrived.

Professor Ruth had left for a faculty meeting. The front doors were unlocked, but the lamps had been turned low. The library looked ordinary, which was almost offensive now.

Leo entered the staff room and pulled the grey book from his locker.

He placed the torn page beside it.

Nothing happened.

He moved the page closer.

The silver thread on the book’s cover shifted.

Leo’s class window appeared.

[Compatible remnant detected.]

[Record fragment accepted: Partial diagram]

[Investigation progress: 0.00%]

[Restoration condition: Identify the original owner.]

The page lifted from the desk.

It floated over the grey book and slowly sank into the cover.

The silver thread brightened.

A second message appeared.

[Record name incomplete.]

[Record owner incomplete.]

[Record status: Corrupted.]

Leo stared at the words.

"So it is a skill record."

The book opened.

Its pages were still mostly blank, but the diagram from the torn paper had been copied onto the first page. A black circle sat at the centre. Three thin paths extended from it. The first ended abruptly. The second had been scratched out. The third curved backward into the circle.

A new line of text appeared beneath the diagram.

**Threadstep.**

Leo said the word aloud.

The library lights flickered.

The cold returned to the oldest shelves.

He turned toward them.

The shelf where he had found the strange card was no longer empty. A line of grey light had appeared along its side, tracing a shape from the floor to above his head.

A door.

Leo stepped closer.

His reflection appeared in the dark outline. He looked tired, undertrained, and absolutely not prepared for whatever waited on the other side.

The System opened one final window.

[Entry condition updated.]

[Compatible record located.]

[Access to Spectral Library: Available]

Leo reached for the grey line.

Behind the shelf, something tapped once.

Then a second tap answered from inside the darkness.