"It hasn't been opened since the Great Fire of 1892," Silas finally wheezed. "The knowledge inside is unstable. It doesn't just sit on the page, Elias. It reacts."

Should we explore what happened to inside the Aetheris, or

When Silas the Archivist finally worked up the courage to check the vault the next morning, he found the door standing wide open. The room was empty. There was no sign of Elias Thorne, no smell of smoke, and no shattered glass.

The central pedestal was also empty, save for a single, new page that had appeared at the very end of the Chemical Formulary. It was written in a fresh, indigo ink, detailing the exact molecular weight and boiling point of a human soul.