Baines stood in the dimly lit corridor of the Darkan estate, the echo of his footsteps swallowed by the oppressive silence. It took a full five minutes to calm from his outburst, however, his mind churned, the old man's parting words from the library encounter reverberating like a distant bell: Things have changed.
The cryptic message gnawed at him, but he pushed it aside. 'I'll find out soon enough,' he thought. The library's third floor, with its sparse collection of martial tomes, had lost its allure.
His earlier fascination with Aura Manipulation Techniques had faded, replaced by a mechanical determination to absorb knowledge. In just under two hours, he'd scanned the remaining books with Eye before striding out.
