The Library of Aegis did not care about the impending midterms. It sat at the heart of Zenith Academy like a silent, marble god, its shelves rising so high that the upper reaches were lost in a permanent artificial mist. The air here was thin and smelled of vanilla, old leather, and the unique, dry scent of mana-treated parchment. It was one of the few places on campus where the active mana scrubbers were tuned to a whisper, creating a vacuum of silence that felt heavier than the noise of the training pits.
