As it turns out, banishing evil and saving the day is a lot more boring than he anticipated. When Wilhelm volunteered — less with the righteousness of someone who strives to do the right thing, and more with the desperation of someone whose sanity hangs by a thread — he worried that he wouldn't be able to contribute anything. But within an hour, he realizes that half the work comprises the mundane and menial. Like scouring bookshelves for volumes on a certain subject, sorting scrolls, delivering notes, fetching little vials of ingredients. Running for coffee, tea, snacks when teammates edge into crabbiness or sag into exhaustion.

Really, it's just a group project, the stakes of which are much higher than any homework assignment. And while he wouldn't describe it as thrilling or even fun, it's better than doing nothing. Better than waiting for night to fall like a guillotine.

As he hands a requested item to a teammate — a stack of notes from another room, a particular tome or vial, a mug of fresh coffee — he can't help but ask:

"So, do you think we're close to figuring this thing out?"