Technically, there was no library. Just a broken cabinet near the boiler, filled with moldy manuals and donation castoffs.

But Rael turned it into a treasure trove.

She read each book cover to cover, then taught the others how to read it—out loud, in the dead of night, under the blankets with a candle stolen from the chapel.

Rael’s voice was low and steady, tracing words like spells. She taught Akari to read by touch, by sound, by patience.

One night, they acted out a scene from a story where a knight saves a child from a sleeping dragon.

Corin was the dragon. Mirae was the knight.

Akari was the child.

Caeli insisted the dragon won.