Old books are scattered across the floor. Some are clearly in a different language, some are too old and degraded past the point of legibility, some are readable but focused on esoteric topics full of words you’re unfamiliar with.

“The Ethnobiology of Pre-Colonial North America”

“Shades of Verisimilitude: Reality Considered”

“Notes on Myxogastria Behavior”

Some are merely discarded pages whose source could only be guessed, fragments of larger texts of questionable provenance.

A partially-scorched diagram of some type of pre-industrial machinery labelled “work in progress”

Two sheets of paper pasted together at the corner bearing the phrase “carpe diem” repeated ad infinitum

A creased scrap torn along its long axis, bearing the faint text “countersign: elucidate”

Something here could be useful. Depending on your goal.

But the immediate question remains: which way?

We can show you that a careful push at the right point on this wall reveals a hidden compartment

The well-worn steps up to a door ajar with nothing but darkness to be seen through the crack

A dumbwaiter and pulley system, though it’s impossible to say whether it leads up or down