Beneath the House of Wind · The Night Court

the Library

Down and down the stairs go, into candlelight and old, patient dark.

Level after level of candlelight and old dark.

Shelves spiralling down through the mountain. A refuge for the priestesses. The place a broken woman put herself back together. We'd have stayed too.

A refuge

Sanctuary for the priestesses.

Not just somewhere to keep books. The priestesses live and work down here among the endless shelves — survivors, most of them, who came for safe walls and quiet hands. They catalogue, they transcribe, they guard the knowledge of an age, moving through the candlelight in their pale robes. Clotho oversees them. Merrill keeps to her scholarship in the deeper levels. Hushed, kinder than the world above. We get the appeal.

The deep dark

The deeper you go, the older it gets.

It doesn't end where the lamplight does. Level by level the shelves spiral down into the mountain — air colder, books older and stranger. The lowest levels are sealed, and for good reason. Down in the oldest dark, Bryaxis was bound: ancient, shapeless, wearing your worst fear as a face. Kept beneath everything. Until the night it was finally let loose. We're still not fine about that.

Where she was remade

Nesta found herself here.

Sent to the House of Wind to climb out of her own ruin, set to cataloguing the library's books — and the shelves became the ground she rebuilt herself on. This is where she met Gwyn Berdara. Where she woke a buried sisterhood. Where she started training as a Valkyrie in the quiet between the stacks. The place that sheltered the priestesses sheltered her too, and handed her back her own life. It wrecked us. In the good way.

Through the doors

Who you'll find in the candlelight.

Swipe to meet them all

The House of Wind The hall aboveThe House of Windthe library lies beneath itEnter The House of Wind →

Nesta Archeron Lady of DeathNesta Archeronfound her redemption hereEnter Nesta Archeron →

Gwyn Berdara FatesingerGwyn Berdaraa priestess of this placeEnter Gwyn Berdara →

Bryaxis The bound terrorBryaxiskept in its sealed depthsEnter Bryaxis →

The Valkyries The sisterhoodThe Valkyriestrained between its shelvesEnter The Valkyries →

Landmarks

Within the Library

The pit / black wellA hollow shaft descending into the dark heart of the world; the library spirals around it. Cassian flew to the bottom and came back white as death.The seventh levelThe named depth where the darkness begins to watch and call your name; priestesses feel it follow them to their doors.Bryaxis's cellThe warded bottom that once held the nightmare-creature; emptied since it left for the war and vanished.Clotho's deskWhere the High Priestess receives visitors and answers in the script of her enchanted, self-writing pen.Merrill's officeThe scholar-priestess's study of realms and Valkyrie history; cataloguer of the twenty-six realms, the last being Time.Reading alcovesTables, cushioned chairs and ancient woven rugs under glass lamps, fireplaces kept far from the shelves.

Wielding all three

From the page

The Library

“Down past the candlelight the shelves kept going — colder, older, into a dark with its own weight.”
A Court of Silver Flames

“The subterranean library beneath the House of Wind.”
A Court of Silver Flames

The File

Where: carved into the mountain beneath the House of Wind, Velaris
Depth: twelve levels, spiralling ever downward into the dark
Kept by: the priestesses of the Night Court
Light: candle and faelight against ancient stone
Below: Bryaxis, bound in the sealed lowest dark
Became: Nesta Archeron's Valkyrie training-ground

We're Caffeine and Curses. The Library started as my design research — so we keep the notes here where everyone can use them. The pages are fan-made, not official; the licensed designs are in the shop.

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