Ghost and the Writer

The Library

The library reminded of a pantheon in design with white walls and marble columns, huge windows, and a grand staircase leading up to the entrance. Being the main library in the city, it was a magnificent building with six floors.

...Huh? Six floors? Hadn't it been five? Mandy had lurked in it for every day for almost two years in college, there was no way she would have mixed up the floor count.

"There's an... extra floor?" the ghost asked, squinting. That was not something you could mask in photos either.

Ian lowered the glasses just to check Mandy's words and... while the building didn't change outwardly in height, the placement of floors differed. Through the glasses, it looked like each floor was higher, without glasses each floor looked a bit shorter forming another floor.

"Spatial adjustment," August confirmed. "Expensive to set up, but a common type of barrier otherwise."

Mandy knew too little about barriers to ask about the details, so she merely accepted it as it was. Yet, seriously, she had pretty much lived in this place but without her knowledge, magical people were reading magical books just on another floor all that time. She felt complicated about not noticing anything being odd at all.

Soon enough the group walked in the library building. As they headed down to the wardrobe, Mandy spotted a transparent sliding door and another staircase heading up from behind it. Ah, so here it was - a separate staircase to get to the elusive extra floor! She didn't recall ever noticing it before, though.

"Just how much of this is real, I mean..." Mandy asked, not knowing how to word it.

"If you remove the barriers, then the staircase ahead would lead up to a fifty centimeters high service floor with no windows in the middle between third and fourth floor," August replied.

Ian lowered his glasses from time to time to check how things appeared to normal people. Rather than appearing as an open staircase with a transparent glass door in front - there was a dark opaque sliding door with two signs - toilets for the disabled and an emergency exit.

So the staircase was real and the extra floor was kind of real too. Different to Mandy's expectations, no one paid them any attention whatsoever as they passed the door leading to the staircase to this supposed 'service floor'. Yet neither August nor Ian looked even remotely similar to service personnel.

"Is there a reason no one minds us going there?" She asked.

"Misdirection charms," August replied. "Normies subconsciously avoid this section and lose interest in anyone or anything passing through. It's also a dead angle for security cameras and in photos, it shows up as an emergency exit and a toilet for the disabled." He almost recited, covering his bases.

Mandy had a feeling August had prepared the answer in advance. Usually, you needed to pretty much pry the answer out piece by piece, which - she would go for! So it actually saved time that he gave a complete answer like this. Mandy felt impressed.

Ian also appreciated the info. "How do they match up security footages?" he asked. As there was naturally a security camera outside and it would soon become clear that more people entered than appeared on other floors.

"No idea," August replied with a shrug. "Ask Kenneth."

Mandy felt like August's replies to Ian's questions were far chillier than those to her own.

As they headed up there was the same sight as on any floor. A reception counter with a few librarians and three passages - two were open and unobstructed, the third was directly behind the counter and one would need to pass through to get there.