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“They never responded to my letter.” Jack took off his glasses and polished them with a little cloth. “And I haven’t been able to find any trace of their actual location.”

“Then how did you send them a letter?”

“What?”

“If you don’t know their actual location?”

“Oh, it’s a drop-off, a mailbox, but it’s not a matter of just where but when. Like, put the letter in the box on the first Tuesday of March in 1937.”

It was Adam’s turn to cock his head in confusion. Sometimes he forgot that RCC wasn’t just a location in space but also in time.

“Anyway,” Jack continued. “There’s a scholar who’s supposedly associated with the Archive. I want to go talk to her.”

“Can you do that?” He’d never seen Jack leave the school.

“I’m not always on the job, you know.”

Adam held up his hands.

“All right, when do you want to go?”

Jack replaced his glasses. “I was thinking now, if you have time.”

“Sure, I’m done with work. Where is she?”

“The spirit realm, near the southern watchtower.”

That part would be tricky.

Adam wasn’t on bad terms with the dwarves, the keepers of the southern tower, and they weren’t at odds with the elves, but walking into their territory risked Silver and Argent learning what they were up to. If they were the ones hiding the information about the elven religion, this could tip them off.

“It’s risky, I know,” Jack said. “But we should be quick.”

Quick could mean a few hours. He’d miss dinner, but texting Vic might alert someone, anyone monitoring him, so he discarded the idea.

“All right. Let’s go.”

“I should warn you, it might rain.”

“Despite what old movies tell you, I won’t melt.”

Jack’s expression said he didn’t get the joke.

“‘I’ll get you my pretty, and your little dog too’?”

“Oh. Yes.”

With a nod, Jack pulled on a tan raincoat and spoke to the door. After a moment, it clicked.

They walked out of the supply closet and into a neighborhood. The sky above looked stormy, but only a light sprinkle fell from the green-tinged clouds.

The southern tower was behind them, a collection of brick buildings piled together.

Jack led Adam away from it and into the neighborhood.

In the mortal world this was the campus where Vic and Jesse’s mother taught. They’d met her there for lunch a few times. Three schools shared the space. Here, in the spirit realm, it was still a neighborhood, with houses and historic churches. One row of the original houses remained.

Here, everything was as it had been decades ago, though rain-sodden.