Orne Library

Marcus is coming to Orne straight from a Human Physiology lecture, trying to get the dizzying multitude of enzyme types out of his head. This means that he is carrying with him the bulky leather Doctor's bag that his father gave him as a wishing well gift when he left the family home in Boston for Arkham, as a Miskatonic freshman.

The bag attracts more than a curious glance, austere and professional as it looks - but carried around by someone clearly several years away from being able to be a Practitioner! The bag is filled not with medical implements now, but with textbooks and notebooks - as well as a little metal flask in a hidden pocket.

Damn it, trust the great DOCTOR NATHANIEL DAVENPORT to choose a gift that would embarrass his son for the next six years! he thinks.

In fact, the figure an observer would see dragging such disproportionate, overkill bag is a youthful fellow (22, but with a much younger-looking face), shorter than average, with a slight physique, hollow cheeks and an unruly mop of dark hair. His clothing tells of good wealth, but his demeanor is nervous and self-conscious. He often bears a brooding expression.

Now Marcus steps in the silent library, glad to be finally out of sight from the campus quad outside. The old library had a calming effect on him since his very first visit. The occasion was jocular, mind you - a drunken dare with another student, to try and get permission from Doctor Armitage himself, notoriously secretive and cold, to access the Restricted Collection of the library.
Of course, he didn't even get to Armitage, let alone to the Collection.
But something in the atmosphere of the library resonated with him, and before he knew it he had chosen a book from one of the accessible shelves, had found a dimly lit nook, and had started reading.

This is his third visit at Orne. Surprisingly, he found himself intrigued by the occult books on the shelves, and by the atmospheric reading rooms. He had noticed a few others that seemed to have fallen victims to the same attraction.

Ellie slips into the third floor reading room and lets the door close softly behind her. Orne always calms her. It feels orderly, watchful, like a place where answers wait if you are patient enough.

She is twenty, an English literature major, carrying two aging books and a notebook heavy with annotations. Ink stains her fingers. She tells herself she will only stay an hour.

She is here because her latest paper is going nowhere. Every idea feels close but incomplete, and her advisor wants something original. Ellie is convinced the missing piece is here, hidden in a footnote or a forgotten text.

She takes her usual seat and, without meaning to, lets her gaze drift to the steel door of the Restricted Collection.

Ellis Hardy tromps up the stairs to the third floor of the Orne Library, carrying a small stack of books under his arm. Ellis is twenty, energetic. He finds an empty desk and deposits the books on top of it. They are all astronomy texts regarding constellational positioning.

Ellis likes to come to the third floor for the quiet and because there is usually a desk available for him to spread his materials out a bit. For some reason Ellis can't name, perhaps the positioning of the windows, the light seems better on the third floor than elsewhere in the library.

Right now Ellis is working on verifying the seasonal position of the star Fomalhaut. There's something that seems off about the star's location based on his observations from last night and Ellis can't quite get the itch out of the back of his brain. It almost feels like something is missing at that point of the sky, like there should be another body there that isn't. Ellis is trying a "back to the drawing board" approach, going through the basics and doing some geometry work to verify.

Something moving out of the corner of his eye catches his attention. It's Professor Rice, his Latin teacher, walking briskly along the aisle and towards Dr. Armitage's office. Rice has something of a stricken look to him. Ellis waves and Rice vaguely waves back, but Ellis isn't sure if Rice even really noticed him before disappearing into the stacks.

Jocelyn looks up from the chapter she is reading: "Cadzow, Donald A., Native Copper Objects of the Copper Eskimo. (Indian Notes and Monographs.)" The plates are intriguing and she is half imagining herself on an expedition to the Northwest Territories of Canada, digging up objects from the icy ground.

She watches the two young men who come in, more to rest her eyes than anything else. Undergrads by the look of them, still very wet behind the ears. She’s seen them before of course, it’s almost as if there’s a small club of folk who take the extra staircase for an extra bit of peace.

Jocelyn herself is almost a decade older than them, with lines starting to form at the sides of her eyes. She reckons she maybe needs glasses because she is always finding herself squinting, but she hasn’t got around to booking an appointment yet. Although her light brown hair is shoulder-length, it is as usual tied up in a bun so as not to get in the way. She’s dressed in a sensible skirt, with a sensible blouse and cardigan and very sensible, slightly scuffed shoes.

With a sigh, she turns back to her notepad. Just a couple more pages to digest then maybe she can go for a soda. She wonders if cousin Ellie is here. They do often meet here and Ellie is always good company. Jocelyn drags her wandering mind back to her studies.

The Orne Library settles back into its familiar routine - silence punctuated by the soft whisper of turning pages, the occasional murmured exchange between students, and an isolated cough from a hidden corner of the library.

Then ...

The door to the stairwell bursts open with a sharp bang, before easing shut again with a subdued whisper.

A tall, slender man steps out onto the third floor, a pipe clenched thoughtfully between his teeth. He removes his hat and smooths back thinning white hair, never once looking up from the folded newspaper in his hands. His eyes move slowly across the page, rereading a particular column with evident interest.

You recognize him immediately as Dr. Henry Armitage.

Still engrossed in the article, Armitage slowly crosses the floor toward the imposing steel door of the Restricted Collection. As he walks, he absently digs through his coat pockets, clearly searching for something. Whatever he is reading has his full attention.

"Henry," comes a voice in a careful, too-loud whisper.

A nearby librarian looks up, already prepared to hush the disruption, but lowers her eyes again when she sees who has spoken.

A second man steps out from between the stacks and approaches. You recognize him as Professor Warren Rice. He is younger than Armitage, well kept, but with a serious look to him.

The two men talk in hushed tones just outside the Restricted Collection door. Armitage turns the newspaper slightly so Rice can see the article. Rice scans it quickly, his expression tightening. He makes a dismissive gesture, as if to wave the matter away, but Armitage doesn’t seem to agree.

After a moment, Rice exhales and nods. He claps Armitage lightly on the shoulder, murmurs something inaudible, and then turns away, heading for the stairs and out of the library.

Armitage remains.

At last, he produces a heavy ring of keys from his pocket. He tosses the newspaper onto a nearby table and focuses on the keys.

For the first time in a long while, Dr. Henry Armitage stands alone - unguarded, unhurried.

Marcus' attention is piqued.
What could possibly be in that article, absorbing Armitage to this extent? he thinks.

Stepping closer with the excuse of returning a book on a nearby shelf, he tries to identify the newspaper the scholar is holding.

Ellis sees Dr. Armitage rush in and his secret conversation with Prof. Rice. He was about to try and signal Rice again, but the professor was gone much too quickly. He's caught, somewhat fascinated, by seeing Dr. Armitage about to open the foreboding locked door to the Restricted collection.

Ellis thinks to himself
I wonder what has Armitage and Rice looking so spooked. Something to do with today's paper, it looks like. Maybe they have a copy here I could look through.

As Ellis sits and ponders, he notices Marcus Davenport sidling closer to where Armitage dropped the paper and giving it a look over. Ellis waves at Davenport, hoping that Marcus is willing to share what the two men were reading.

Ellie looks up from her notebook when the stairwell door closes a little too loudly, her pen pausing mid sentence. She had not realized how completely she had sunk into her work until the sound pulls her back into the room.

She watches Dr. Armitage cross the floor, the newspaper in his hand, and feels that familiar tightening in her chest. Whatever has his attention has weight to it.

Ellie glances toward Ellis and then to Marcus, noting how both have shifted closer, drawn in despite themselves. She tells herself it is none of her business, then quietly closes her book anyway.

If something has unsettled Armitage badly enough to reach for the Restricted Collection, she wants to know why.

Marcus sees Ellis and waves back. Once his friend is close he whispers, "looks like Armitage is concerned about the missing students in Vermont, judging from that headline..." he nods towards the Advertiser on the table.

"You know... Jeffrey and Devine..." he adds. "and it sounds like Robert Blaine went to Vermont to try finding them... To no avail. But I wonder why this concerns Armitage so much?"

Hearing the whispers, Jocelyn looks up with a scowl on her face. She is about to shush the two boys when she spots her cousin Ellie. She smiles and raises a hand then sees that Ellie is also looking at the pair. Assuming Ellie knows them, she decides not to say anything. She does find herself wondering what they are so animated about, though...

"Good question," Ellis responds. After a second of deliberating he adds. "Let's see what he says."

Ellis walks closer to Dr Armitage, "Is something wrong, Dr Armitage?" he asks point blank. "You seem troubled."

Surprised by Ellis' directness towards the legendary scholar, Marcus finds himself quickly grabbing a random book from a bookshelf and sitting down within earshot, feeling a little like a child caught red-handed doing something bad.

He sees the two young women that are also in the room looking in his direction, and makes a quick embarrassed grin.

Ellie looks up as Ellis steps forward, her expression sharpening despite herself. She had not meant to listen, but Marcus’ whisper had carried just enough to snag her attention.

She closes her notebook quietly and rises, moving a little closer under the pretense of reshelving a book. Close enough to hear, close enough to see Armitage’s face when Ellis speaks.

Ellie offers Jocelyn a small, questioning glance, then turns her eyes back to the scholar. Whatever answer comes next feels like it will matter, and she does not want to miss a word.

Robert Blaine was well known to the student body. He came from money - old money. Tall, lean and powerfully built, Blaine was an athlete, as well as an intellectual. He was member of the university's wrestling team, and debate team. He was confident, sociable, and popular.

Things changed after the expedition. Blaine threw himself into the search for the missing students. He was there when Boyd Patterson was found. He was never the same afterwards. He continued to search, even after the official search dwindled, but eventually returned to campus empty handed.

These days, Blaine spends most of his time deep in the bottle. When he is seen in public, it’s usually in the Orne library - especially the third floor. He seems obsessed. Searching for something.

Jocelyn can't help herself. She has to stifle a giggle at the boy being so self-conscious. With Ellie close to whatever is going on, she is sure she will find out eventually what is going on here, so she looks back down at her monograph so as not to attract attention.

That object could almost be a listening horn, she finds herself thinking.

Ellis takes the newspaper and reads the article, being careful to try and collect everything he can from the words on the page. After a moment thinking, he hesitantly responds in a low voice, hoping it won't carry too far beyond himself and his elder.

"One student dead from a fall. Fall from where? What could he possibly be climbing? And two others missing. How? What could they possibly have been doing where one person could fall from a great height while the others just disappear? Was anything even left behind? A tent? Car tracks? It says no trace was found. I have no idea what it might have been, but I would think something happened there."

Ellis stops and takes a moment. Did he maybe go too far? Was he missing something much more obvious in front of him? After a beat, he finishes with a question.

"What do you think about it, sir?"