Aaron came over and peered through the glass from the outside. “This is strange,” he said lightly, but his face was alarmed. “Is there another tube somewhere in this library? On a different floor, perhaps?”

“No,” said Clementi and Ms. Octavia together. “There are more floors,” Clementi clarified, “but this is the only way out.”

Aaron blew out a breath as he started to realize the vastness of their predicament. “We’re trapped down here unless someone knows how to fix the main tubes, which we can’t get to. And we’re supposed to count on the head mage. Great. Does anyone here know how to fix the system? I wonder if we can do something from this tube to get things working. I… I fixed the one on the Island of Shipwrecks, but this is a different situation.”

Samheed looked dazed. “Lani might be able to finagle something, or at least find the right book on it. Or Claire. But…”

“But what?” asked Ms. Octavia.

“What if they don’t know we’re in here? What if they don’t think to test our tube?”

Clementi’s eyes widened. “So they might not know to reset this one? Is that how the tubes work? Each line has to be tested?”

“I don’t know,” said Samheed apologetically. “I’m just… worried. I don’t like to be trapped. It brings back bad memories.” He dropped down into a nearby chair and put his head in his hands.

Aaron studied the panel, which was completely intact. There were no necessary parts to connect like in the one on the scientists’ island, which is the kind of fixing Aaron was good at. This tube control panel wasn’t broken—it was the main tubes that were causing the problem. Was there anything Aaron could do from here? It didn’t seem like it.

“I’m not sure how we’re going to figure this out,” said Aaron. “And I have no faith in our head mage to be able to fix it, or to come to our rescue even if she managed to. Where do we start?”

Samheed looked up. “I wonder if there’s a way to override the error from here. Again, none of us know the answer.” He rose from the chair and postulated, “It has become clear to me that Artimé has a flaw that has been exploited. Nobody seems to have a clue about how these tubes actually work.”

Clementi smirked at the theater professor and said sarcastically, “If only there were a place we could go to look for information.”

Aaron turned to her. “What?” And then: “Oh.”

“We’re in the library,” Clementi explained for the ones who weren’t tracking with her. She took the highlighter back from Ms. Octavia and started looking at the walls, trying to find the master light component. “There’s bound to be something in writing about the tubes on one of these three floors, don’t you think?” She stopped near the stairwell and touched a small button on the wall. “Illuminate,” she said, and the room burst into brightness, lighting up thousands of books.