"It was safe haven for scholars during the war."

Two pairs of shoes clicked against stone as Skye and Coulson made their way down the dimly lit corridor of the church basement. "At a time when sharing the wrong ideas could lead to death, men from all over came here to communicate without fear of persecution," Coulson continued. "From what Connolly's told us, the artifact should be hidden somewhere in the library."

"And by artifact, you mean the creepy bird statue," Skye said.

"You could call it that, yes."

"Well, this shouldn't be too difficult, anyways. I mean, how hard can finding one small statue be?"

The pair finally stopped in front of an old wooden door. Coulson pushed it open and observed the room in front of them. Bookcases filled practically every square inch of the large space, groaning under the weight of thousands of ancient looking books and trinkets. Sunlight filtered in through small stained glass windows set high up in the walls, and the room smelled of dust and mildew. He gave Skye a dry look.

"We can split up?" She suggested.

"Ideally we wouldn't. Not all the minds that have visited this place have been good, and there's no telling what might be hidden in these shelves. Unfortunately, our time limit makes it so that we don't have a choice. You take that side of the room, I'll take this side, and we'll work our way to the middle. Call out if you find something, and remember- be careful."

"Got it, AC."

He watched for a moment as Skye started to make her way across the room before he turned towards his own side. Browsing the shelves was very slow going. There didn't seem to be any sort of organizational pattern, and things were very often shoved behind or on top of other things. After a while, Coulson almost found himself becoming bored by the monotony of their searching- at least, as bored as he could get while still being cautious.

It was about twenty minutes later that Coulson heard a triumphant shout, pulling him instantly into alertness. "I found it!" Skye's voice echoed above the shelves. Coulson quickly abandoned his work, weaving his way towards the sound of her voice. He eventually turned the corner to see Skye standing in front of a bookcase that had been shoved into the corner of the room. She was reaching up towards a high shelf for the statue when he heard Fitz's voice on his comm.

"Sir, Connolly didn't tell us everything. Whatever you do, don't touch that thing, it's a tra-"

A wave of energy pulsed through the room, sweeping Coulson off his feet. He just barely managed to roll out of the way as a bookcase crashed to the ground right where he had fallen. Static buzzed in his ear, and he only allowed himself a moment as the room settled to catalogue his injuries (just some scrapes and bruises, nothing serious) before scrambling to his feet. He looked around wildly for a glimpse of familiar brown hair amongst all the debris.

"Skye? Skye!"