"Should I open it now…?"
The words slipped from my mouth in a low murmur as my hand hovered over the knob.
I could feel the cold metallic surface even through my gloves in my palm.
A reminder of how long I'd avoided this door.
My research room.
After a small hesitation, I finally twisted the key.
*Click!
My eyes swept over the interior.
Boards covered in cramped notes.
Charts pinned messily, lines crisscrossing in frantic patterns.
Shelves burdened with books so tightly pressed they seemed to suffocate.
Gadgets...half-complete mechanisms...coils of mana-wire...glass vials that caught the faint light strewn across the tables.
It wasn't nearly as vast as I had imagined it to be after so long.
In fact, it felt… crowded and cramped.
As though everything had been piled together in an anxious rush.
I stepped inside.
The faint dust stirred under my boot, and then I stopped.
My gaze returned slowly to the door.
"…Someone was already in here not too long ago..."
