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.
All the librarians had bright colored hair and bunny ears on their heads. They looked up noticing the people entering, but didn't say anything for now, even if a couple of them revealed a vary look upon spotting Mandy.
"I'd like access to the advanced sections," August said as he walked up to the counter.
The librarian he was talking to passed him a black obsidian slate and August placed his hand on it.
She was looking at something below the counter and her eyes sparkled over. "Garold August, platinum, is the group behind assisting you today?" Her tone was professional, yet there was an apparent amount of admiration in it on top. Other bunny eared librarians made similar expressions and all wariness towards Mandy poofed without a trace. In fact, now they cast immensely curious looks towards all of them.
"Yes," August replied, not seeming either surprised or happy about this change in treatment.
Mandy didn't think they would be assisting, but that seemed to be how August could slip them all in. Lucky! Yet, if there was an advanced section, then there was also a basic section, wasn't there?
Ian's expression became thoughtful, even a tiny bit troubled at the looks directed at them. Chilli meanwhile had crossed her arms over the hem of Ian's pocket, lounging without care.
The librarian nodded and gave a fine black bracelet to August. As August put it on, it shrunk to fit his wrist, then transformed into a black tattoo. She looked towards the rest. "Please register by placing your hand on the slate."
Mandy followed the direction and did that - again, to her surprise her hand did not pass through the obsidian slate and like with August, the librarian passed her a black bracelet as well. It seemed like even ghosts could get tattoos.
Ian too got a bracelet tattoo and even Chilli had to put her hand on the slate. Ian and Mandy hadn't expected that to be the case, but apparently, Chilli herself had considered her own registration as obvious. Chili was given the same black bracelet as others, yet rather than Chilli dancing hula hoop with it, it shrunk forming a tiny tattoo on her wrist.
"If you have any questions, come here, otherwise - have a nice stay!" The librarian smiled at them all, before returning to do something behind the counter.
Mandy had expected them to at least ask their names at some point, but there were no questions like that coming. Was registration completed just by placing a hand on the slate? Just what kind of information passed through it? The librarian could read it was August just from that, but what about the rest of them, who weren't even guild members?
Mandy thought they would be slipping past the counter, but August turned to head right, so she followed after him, Ian did too.
Ian moved up his glasses to his head. Looking through them had started to make him dizzy. Even if it looked like a normal library part, there was a flickering space shifting sensation like everything was stretching, then shrinking, straight lines became curves, then straightened again, it reminded some of those psychedelic cartoons where buildings came to life. Without the glasses, though, things were normal. Ian guessed it had something to do with that 'spatial adjustment' thing.
"What did that black slate do?" Mandy whispered to August as she was used to being quiet in libraries.
"Read a tiny bit of your aether signature and registered you all as my assistants," August replied with an amused smile, repeating the same thing the librarian had already said it would do.
"... How would they call any of us?" Mandy asked. It didn't sound like their names appeared anywhere or perhaps those could be taken out from those aether signatures?
