Floor Four resembled a library abandoned by time itself.
Towering shelves of translucent ice rose in endless rows, disappearing into a ceiling swallowed by pale mist. Every shelf was packed with books entombed beneath crystal-clear frost. Through the ice, Nathan could make out brittle pages filled with elegant scripts he couldn't identify, each volume preserved in perfect condition as though time itself had forgotten to age the books.
Snow drifted lazily through the vast chamber despite the absence of any visible openings. Silence reigned as only the faint hiss of falling flakes and the occasional groan of shifting ice disturbed the oppressive stillness.
The temperature dropped another degree.
