“Sounds like a Burner invention,” Glain added, frowning.

“It isn’t. And you think the Codex is your doorway into the Library? It’s a little box they hand you—a curated, careful selection. They tell you what you can read. The Library shows you a fraction of what they have—trust me, I’ve seen tens of thousands of books go through my family’s hands that never appeared on the Codex and never will. If we believe in the existence of the Black Archives, then we must believe that the Library hides what they think is dangerous—and it’s old and conservative, and it believes anything can be misused.”

Khalila stared at him, but her mind was flying; he could almost see the thoughts and connections colliding. “That explains a lot,” she said. “There are holes in the progress being made, the science, if you look hard enough. And I have been gently warned away from certain questions. It explains everything if that research disappears into the Black Archives.”

“That’s why Thomas is so dangerous. His invention inks print on paper, using precut letters. No alchemy, no Obscurists. It prints an entire page at a time. You can make your own books and no one—especially not the Library censors—can stop you from making more, spreading ideas, changing minds.”

He watched them think through that, and was impressed, again, by how quick Khalila was to grasp the implications. Pallor settled over her face. “It would destroy the Library’s power,” she said. “If everyone could print and keep their own . . .”

“Then the Library can’t choose what we learn, can’t decide which science can and can’t be pursued, and can’t place books above human lives, because books wouldn’t be irreplaceable,” he said. “Books could be reproduced in the hundreds of copies. Even in the thousands. Everyone could have them. It changes everything about what they do, from that one simple idea.”

She looked sick. “But, Jess . . . I don’t know what the world looks like once that’s done. Do you?”

“No,” he admitted. “But if the Library overcomes its fears and uses that invention first, it can still be a force for good. It’s been fighting the Burners for centuries, but Burners could be silenced simply by giving them what they want—the chance to freely own books without criminal penalties. Thomas’s press allows for that. It sets the Obscurists free from the Iron Tower, too; they would go back to being Scholars, not slaves, because the whole basis of the Library wouldn’t rest on them. The world . . . The world might be better in so many ways. If the Library agrees to change. But it won’t, if the Archivist has anything to say about it.”

“This is . . . Jess, this doesn’t just challenge the Library. It changes the entire world. What gives us the right to make that choice?” Dario asked.

“Nothing,” Jess admitted. “Except someone has to. The Library’s leaders made the choice for us again and again and again. It’s time someone else had a try.”