Perhaps she had been too sanguine. Too confident in her guts.

But of course, that had been simply a minor inconvenience. It wouldn't affect their long-term goal - not a chance.

She grinned as she sucked on her cane. Life was finally treating them nicely.

It better did, after 3583 years.

***

Perhaps he had been too optimistic. Barging in with his theory on coinciding universes and expecting that a new dimension would magically appear out of the blue.

That wasn't the goal of inquiry.

The submarine arrival time had been decreased by six hours, so that they could get there faster due to the circumstances the Golden Union had put them in.

That left him with 22 hours.

And 20 days until the supernova hit Earth.

***

The half-present research team decided to work by itself in the grand meeting compartment that day, which was designated for 20 people at least and possessed a thorough set of technological equipment and some mild experimental models used for research and other scientific endeavours. It seemed as if Led's sudden bout of uncertainty had worn off on their exhausted faces; but, if one were to seriously consider the matter, the past weeks had likewise taken a toll on them. Meddles, Smith, Mills and Arlene were all present; they had been, by the looks of the running time duration on the PC monitor they were using, staying up all night, despite the better judgement of their own minds. For whenever each one of them finally closed their eyes in the night or day, or in the no-matter-at-all - ruined were their circadian rhythms - their worries spoke through the fragile veil of their conscious, and they were all instantly reminded of their impending end.

At first even to them, people of science, the end of the world didn't seem natural in the slightest, quite like the concept of time travel, or that of alien invasion; an asteroid, however, had seemed the most absurd of them all, since that was what they never could allow and what they were most afraid of. But two weeks passed, and to them, people of science, it seemed more real each day. There were things that only scientists like them noticed; and now even in mundane observations, it felt like doom's signature was printed on their essences, in pointy quill-style darkness. They feared their deaths, of course; but they feared the darkness that would come with their all.

Howbeit, this was not the time for fear. Panic. All traces of panic were to be lost in their souls as soon as possible; they were scientists, not villagers, after all!

They decided to go in the library, as they had to do much research.

Led took the last sip of his coffee and tried to concentrate on the physics again. But he was lost. He just couldn't do it. It was as if it was some physics that was too complex for them yet, as if on another level. His mind felt like that. It refused to concentrate.

His eyes absent-mindedly pored over the contents of the pages, which his hands unfocusedly flicked through, stopping on a random page second page, third page, fourth and et cetera - they just went on and on, never ending, never ceasing to overwhelm. It was some kind of sorcery. They never ended.

"We're going on break," Meddles said, stiflingly yawning. "I can't focus on this book anymore."

"Weren't you the one who started it?" Smith asked. "With all politeness, you really told us to go down on this Joyce work like it's our last meal."

Meddles simply gave him one glance before leaving the library.

"Will you join me?"

"Yes," Smith replied, instantly standing up and following suit. Everyone felt the tension shift in the air; Smith wasn't so easily frightened or unnerved.

"They were good friends in their younger years, probably for 20 years or so," Mills commented, downing his cup of oolong tea like a whiskey shot. "Understand each other since the 20s. But I'm going out there too."

And so he went.

Arlene smiled at Led.

"I'm gonna go too," she said with her typical cheerfulness, and exited the room. The door closed gently, almost muffling her quiet heel-steps outside.

Led's own steps soundlessly clashed with the sound of the air conditioner buzzing somewhere quite far away in the depths of the library.

His tired eyes looked up at the sign on the top of the front wall above the door. Animarum Mori.

He had seen that somewhere, read the words before.

They looked familiar.

He liked the broad space of this library, despite all the strange irregularities he had faced there before. Something drew him to it. He didn't know what. Maybe his fatigued mind was finally going insane.

There was only one other library that captivated him as much as Animarum Mori. The one back in America. His heart used to ache with somewhat intense longing for his homeland during the first few days of the expedition.

How was it called again...? His mind struggled to remember. He wasn't very good with Latin names.

He paced around, trying to recall, to logically think his way to it, but there didn't seem to be any logic surrounding languages.

That was why he hadn't taken literature in his college years, of course.

But wasn't there something unique, too, in the name of the American library?

He couldn't think his way through it. It seemed quite arcane.

Arcane!

Led quickly worked his mind, desperate to remember the rest... - and he remembered.

Arcana Moda.

The matter had spiked his interest. Now he had two Latin names. It was a funny coincidence that two of the world's most extraordinary libraries (one of them the largest) had been given strange names in Latin, eerie, even...

Except it may not have been a coincidence.

"What if we join them together?" Led wondered, half-awake, rushing towards a specific bookshelf, "What if we join them, then translate their names from Latin to English, would I be mad...?" he muttered under his breath while rescuing a dirty tome from its prude shelf confines - untranslated Latin had been abolished largely from electronic search engines - Latin, like Babylonian, had no significant use for the modern society, as it was said in the minister's decree.

Arcana moda animarum mori. Or Animarum mori arcana moda. Someway was correct. He decided to use Arcana moda animarum mori - for now.

He searched through the extensive Latin tome - happily, there were only two letters needed for him to check - and spent what seemed an extensive amount of time on the scrupulous analysis of its contents. There was no clock in the library.

After eons of research, he found them. All four words. Almost all huddled close together.

Arcana moda animarum mori had been the following.

"Souls die in mysterious ways."

"And yours might be the next one on the line."

A/N: yep, something's happening. I'm loving this book and I love how it's turning out. As a bonus I'd like to add some images that carry the "Leddish aesthetic" that I spent too much time creating on Artbreeder.

Haha:) Thanks for sticking 'round!

I really like this one.

And this one.

P.s.: the top one (the one I put on the cover of this chapter) may be in the future made into a cover of TCOA:) Just love the smirk Led catches on there.