Last year, it was discovered that the Detroit Salt and Manufacturing Company had dug an additional mine two miles away. This second mine was operational from 1909 to 1916 before being shut down and eventually erased from the public record.

This hive of tunnels and caves deep beneath the surface was an ideal nesting place for a community of vampires. They occupied the second mine for almost 100 years, hidden from the world and the potentially deadly rays of the sun, and emerging at night to hunt and feed.[Citation Needed]

Detroit Edison estimates the electricity siphoned from their grid to power the vampire nest cost the people of Detroit at least $926 million.[Citation Needed] The vampires also tapped into gas, water, and sewage services.

Earlier this year, a vampire murdered 13-year-old Jennifer Wilson.[Citation Needed] The people of Detroit responded with riots, demanding the authorities hunt and destroy the vampires and their home. Forces from the National Guard and the Army Corps of Engineers eventually discovered the second mine and used explosives to collapse the tunnels.

No one knows how many vampires lived beneath the city of Detroit. Estimates range from a few hundred to more than twenty thousand. A letter to the Detroit Free Press written by someone claiming to be a vampire condemned the destruction of their home and blamed Michigan governor John Sullivan for the murder of a thousand vampires who died when the tunnels collapsed.

Sullivan responded that every effort had been made to warn the vampires of the coming demolition, including radio and television broadcasts, and leaflets dropped into the mine. He said he regretted the loss of life, but stopped short of apologizing, saying his priority was the safety and security of the people of Michigan, and likening the vampire community to a hornet’s nest in a basement.

Chapter 4

“New libriomancers are all the same. So optimistic. So caught up in awe and wonder, eager to learn what they can do.”

“Some of us never outgrow that stage.”

“I’m sorry, who did you think I was referring to when I mentioned new libriomancers?”

“I’ve been doing this stuff for more than a decade.”

“Talk to me when you’ve finished your first century. If you survive. I’m not criticizing you, you know. The passion and excitement of people like yourself have advanced our knowledge of magic tremendously over the years. But it’s equally important to discover your limits, and to accept there will be things you can’t do. To recognize that some problems can’t be fixed by magic. Some can’t be fixed at all.”

“Or maybe you just haven’t looked hard enough for a solution.”