The Last Library Ch. 08

The Guardian chuckled to himself at the frustrated lilt in Mera's tone while leaning forward to brace his face in his hands. It would have been much easier if their immortal friend had been able to provide more details, but she had no more idea than they had. Even after much prodding, the best she could say was that there was a helpful presence in this city, at this time, and in "this One" which was her usual label for the current branch of the infinite possibility tree that she experienced with every loop of existence.

No matter how many times Xakelle had explained it, Ashur still could not come close to comprehending the idea that all of existence could change and events could travel down other pathways. It was harder still to imagine living in a never-ending repetition of all of time and space, always being able to remember the divergences and their consequences. The timeless woman was constantly exclaiming, "Oh, it's that One now!" which meant that she had recognized yet another shift.

Unfortunately, although she was immortal and nearly omnipotent, she wasn't omniscient. Her knowledge mostly came from her own memories of the past and future that she had experienced which meant that there were still times and places that she was woefully unaware of. His currently location was one of those and he shared Mera's consternation.

*It kind of is*, he replied. *But I can't think of anything specific that will help us find who we are looking for other than wandering the city. And even then, with you looking into the minds of everyone we meet, we might just pass over our target just because the circumstance aren't right.*

They both sighed in unison at the thought of weeks or even months of searching and, after a few more moments of conversation, Ashur returned to the window to resume his watch of the night.

******

Mera sighed and leaned back in her chair before the auditorium control panel. Ashur had finally left the window when the market foot traffic had died away. With a mental kiss, he gone to bed and was out quickly. She didn't blame him. It had been a long day.

The Caretaker stood up and started toward the exit, already missing her partner. She knew that he was just a thought away and would respond instantly if she needed him to, but it wasn't quite the same. Granted, she had been alone for millennia before his arrival, but it was surprising just how quickly she had become used to his constant physical presence and how hard his disappearance into Xakelle's world had devastated her.

Quickly dampening their telepathic connection so as not to wake him, she started back to the house and firmly looked at her emotions once again. When Xakelle had informed them that he would need to start leaving the Library, it had taken all of Mera's strength not to collapse into a huddling, sobbing mass just as she had when their connection had first been severed by the disappearing Overlap.

The shock of his separation had been numbing at first; letting her return to the house with the intention of gearing up to go looking for him. However, as soon as the reality that she might never be able to find him again broke through, she had collapsed on the floor, racked by sobbing howls of loss and pain. For hours, she remained there alternating between weeping uncontrollably and staring into nothing.

Eventually, she had been able to collect herself enough to start thinking coherently again. She would find him again, even if took her centuries. She had that now. He was her Guardian and, as such, was as immortal as she. That thought alone had kept her from the brink of the madness that had claimed her so long ago and she had started her preparations for the search. Now, with him in constant mental contact, her psyche was mollified, but it still hurt a bit to have him somewhere else.

A dull monotone vibration caught her attention before she could make it to the house doorway and she stopped cold. It was under her feet and in the walls and was unlike anything she had ever experienced here in the Library. She immediately turned and ran for the lift shaft.

Before it could fully reach the top level, the Caretaker was sprinting for the Well. Barreling through the door, she took in the room and the sphere of power that gave life to the magical edifice. The vibrations here were terrible. The solid structures were shaking to a small extent, but the air itself was trembling against her skin. The great orb's shape was distorted into an oblong that rotated in random directions. As she stared in confusion at it, the gyrations stopped for several heartbeats before beginning again. Now the pounding of its movements through the air were juddering her organs and bones.

Doing her best to remain calm, Mera raced to the control panel and slapped her hand down upon the interface pad. Instantly, her mind lit up with information.

*Mera!* Ashur's voice resounded in her skull. *Mera, what's going on!* Her surprise had evidently jolted him from sleep.

*I'm not sure!* She was trying to focus on the what the interface was trying to tell her, but the information was coming to her in jumbled bits. Underneath all of the confusing mass, however, was a sense of urgency and a glimpse of the columns of Writing that she and Xakelle had so humorously surprised Ashur with. There were several places where the normally golden and white Words were flashing red and orange. *I think there's something going on below. Something with the changes we made!*

*Can you fix it?* She felt him yanking his clothes on, although they both knew there was no possibility that he would be able to help from Couset.

*I'm not sure yet.* Yanking her hand from the panel, she ran from the Well and out to the Statues. The vibrations in the floor were stronger now and books were shaking on their shelves. The great marble sculptures were unaffected, however, and stood solid as bedrock. Throwing a burst of power to the magical switches that controlled the lifting mechanism, she slid to a stop near where the top of the stairs would be. The movement of the structure was slow and ponderous, but as soon as she could safely squeeze beneath it, Mera descended to the traveling platform that would let her navigate around the colossal pillars of Writing.

"Where do I start?" she muttered to herself, tuning in circles.

*What about over there?* Ashur said. *That seems to be the biggest cluster of red that I can see. Wouldn't that mean that the systems that are most affected are over there?* In her mind her indicated a cluster of fifteen or so monoliths which were all strobing in bright vermilion.

Not knowing what else to do, Mera threw the platform into motion. *How do you know?* she asked the man who had only been here once before.

*It seemed logical. A metalsmith once told me that whenever one of his pieces breaks, that's going to be the part with the most damage.*

The platform glided soundlessly to a halt near the outermost column.

*Now what?* Ashur was pacing in his room.

*Umm... Just a moment.* Mera bounced on the balls of her feet while she studied the collection of affected pillars. She couldn't feel the vibration down here, but she did notice that the Writing was shimmering in a near approximation of it. Suddenly, every glowing Word disappeared only to reappear several heartbeats later.

*That's just like what the Well did,* she said to herself. She backed the platform away from the area so that she could all of the red pillars at once.

*What are you doing?* Ashur's mental voice was confused and more than a little worried.

*I'm not certain yet,* she replied, *but I think I saw something.*

Still bouncing nervously, she waited for several minutes. Then, without warning, the Writing vanished again. This time, however, she saw it. One pillar was slower than the others to reignite and her platform tore through the air to it. She scanned up and down the immense movements of the Words as they circled the stone. As she did, she held out a hand, trying to get a sense of where the problem was. The feeling of error assaulted her senses until, with a lurch, she was yanked forward toward a phrase.

*This is it! Here's the problem!* Blocking her partner from her mind, Mera dove into the magic of the Lexicon and pulled up the flawed Writing before her mind's eye. It was a simple problem, a mis-judged turn of phrase, but it had cascaded and corrupted the Passages around it. Inhaling deeply, Mera paused to make certain of the change she wanted to make. When she felt certain, she implemented her Edit and replaced the Phrase back into its Passage. Immediately, the Writing around the area flashed a bright gold before settling down into its usual glow. Mera backed away again to inspect the effects of her work.

*What was that?* Ashur had stopped pacing but stood in the middle of his room with his arms crossed.

*I'm not entirely sure. It's not one of the Edits that we made, so it'll take me some time to figure out what happened. I have a couple of ideas though. This whole area is dedicated to the integration of our matter as we pass between certain types of realities. I think the modifications we made to the Library's shield may have overloaded it.*

Ashur blew out a huge breath. *Well, she did say that it was a rush job. I guess it was more rush than we thought. Now what? Do I need to come back?*

Mera was now directing the platform in long rows back and forth across the city-sized space looking for obvious problems. Here and there, crimson light glared dully from single monoliths. These would need attention, but it seemed the emergency was over.

*No, I don't think so. Besides, without a lot more training, there's not really much you can help with. I guess I'm not going to get as much time watching you as I thought. As silly as this sounds, you should probably get back to bed and sleep if you can. I'm going to be at this for a while.* With that, she tuned him out and started her repairs.

Ashur nodded but remained standing. Sleep was definitely out of the question for at a least another hour. He sent his partner a mental kiss and started for the door of his room. Maybe there was someone downstairs who could give him a map.

******

The next few days were busy for both of them. Ashur spent his time wandering the city and trying to figure out how to find their "helper" while Mera worked to Edit the variances that kept popping up. It seemed as though one fix would lead to two other problems. After the third day, she assured him that everything was well in hand, but he could tell that the harried Caretaker was starting to wonder how long that would remain the case. He still had no idea how to find their "helper" and the increasing pressure of the unstable Library infrastructure wasn't helping.

Unfortunately, after almost three weeks of fruitless, frustrated searching Ashur was no closer to his goal. He met with Ternat several times and each time, she hinted at business opportunities that he would be wise to take advantage of.

*I'm starting to find her offer tempting,* he remarked to Mera after the courtesan had left for the fourth time. *Wandering around hasn't gotten me anywhere and I'm going to start running out of money in another month or two.*

He felt his partner's agreement. *It might not be a bad idea. It would definitely get you into different circles and expand your reach. I got the impression she wants to set you up as a trader of some sort, but not of goods. The next time you meet with her, press her on it and we'll see what she's actually thinking of.*

Nodding to himself, he sat back at is favorite place on the window ledge. Watching the crowds below had become a sort of hobby to him and he was often mesmerized by the constantly shifting patterns of movement. He had just started to get lost when Mera piped up.

*You know...,* she started slowly. *If you do start as some sort of business trader, you'll have a hugely unfair advantage.*

*How so?* He knew less about the dealings of this city than just about anyone and hadn't done much more than haggle for supplies or personal goods before or during his military life. How that was an advantage was beyond him.

*You have me, you mindless barbarian! Just think of how well you'll be able to do if I can read the thoughts of the people you're trading with! What merchant wouldn't kill to be able to know how high or low his opponent will go? Plus, I'll be able to find out what other little secrets they have.*

Ashur dragged a hand through his black mane. *That's true, I guess, but it feels kind of wrong somehow. Like I'm cheating.*

*Of course you're cheating, you ninny! Isn't that usually the name of the trading game? How many times have you or your friends been bested by some merchant who knew more than you did? It's called using the tools at your disposal and remember, if it gets us closer to finding whoever it is that Xakelle sent us to find, does it really matter? It's not like you're actually trying to set up an empire here.*

The Guardian huffed out a bit of a sigh and rubbed his hands on his thighs. *I don't know, Mera. Let me think about it for a while.* He was pretty sure she was right, but some part of him still balked at it. He felt that there should be a sort of fairness in the universe and it sometimes irritated him when there wasn't.

*Go ahead, love.* Mera gave him a mental kiss. *I need to go look up a few things anyway.* And with that, the sense of her presence faded to a minimum as it often did when her attention was drawn away from him. He didn't mind since it gave him a sort of privacy to mull over his own thoughts.

&&&

Seye sighed heavily at the thick stack of paperwork on her desk. It seemed that her workload had increased of late; probably an added punishment from her supervisor, Anrit. He had been extra hard on her since they had returned from Fetud Pra and she knew that it was a result of her angering the Prime Shentet. The dressing down she had received in front of that big noble by the side of the road had been bad enough, but then Anrit had spent the better part of a traol berating her once they had finally unpacked the wagons. Since then, the amount of routine paperwork and reference filing that was being assigned to her was getting larger by the day and she wondered how long she would need to endure it. Unfortunately, trying to convince Anrit (much less Vernlat) that she had been forced to circumnavigate the clerks in Fetud Pra's capital of Pethen would be nearly impossible at this point.

Her small desk was one of many in several rows in front of what seemed like miles of drawers full of old records. Most of them were financial accountings of the goings on of Sterora for the last several centuries. The rest were letters, directives, and all of the other penned minutiae involved in running a country. This was where the most junior of clerks were assigned. They spent their days in pulling records for more senior clerks, transcribing decrepit files, or double-checking numbers of their elders.

Which of it was the worst, Seye couldn't say.

She dropped heavily into her chair and pulled the top sheet from the pile. Like the ones below it, the form was a request for several files in the stacks behind her. Pulling a blank piece of her own paper closer, she jotted down the file numbers and flipped the form into one of three boxes on the cart next to her desk. She repeated the process, winnowing her way halfway through the stack before standing and pushing her cart down one of the rows.

This really wasn't what she thought she would be doing after her apprenticeship. She had worked hard at Couset's main college after her parents had passed. With no other family and her exceptional work for the mayor of her small town, it seemed that her only course of action was to travel to the capital and put her skills to the test. She had excelled in every one of her classes and impressed her teachers to the point that several of them had offered her work internships, one of which had transitioned into an apprenticeship for one of the smaller merchant guilds in the city. By the time she was done, she had offers from several of the major guilds, none of which she could accept until, like everyone else in her profession, she had completed her two osapt stint working for the Shentets.

Ostensibly, this was to give every clerk an idea of how the government ran, but she shared the common opinion that the Shentets simply wanted cheap labor and having new clerks toiling for them was an easy way to do just that. Whatever the reason, Seye's term still had a little over an osapt in it and, if it was going to be like this the entire time, she couldn't wait to be done.

As she trundled along, pulling out drawers and the requested files, her thoughts returned to the task that had caused her punishment in the first place. Anrit had assigned her to compile Fetud Pra's military numbers but had forbidden her from outright asking the clerks in Pethen. The inquiry was to be discreet and not linked to the Prime in any way. Uncertain of why, but able to see the reason for circumspection, Seye had thought for less than five minutes before starting her trip around the city.

She knew that, if she were to simply start asking about troops and military deployments, she would be asked "why" which might have led to awkward questions that she would not have been able to answer. Instead, she had visited each of the major merchant guilds that supplied the government and, posing as a Pethen clerk, had asked for numbers and amounts of supplies that would be normal for a soldier, but not for a civilian. From her time here in Couset, she knew that there were certain supplies that were sent only to the army or foodstuffs and other repair items that were only shipped in bulk to military outfits.

Guild by guild, she had compiled the numbers she needed before beginning her calculations. Unfortunately, she had been so caught up in her work that she had missed the departure of the Prime's entourage by several hours and had been forced to run (or jog when her energy gave out) to catch up.

She had not been surprised by the Prime's outburst but had been hurt by Anrit's utter refusal to hear her side. Several days later, he had called her into his office to explain how she had found the information and seemed somewhat impressed by her ingenuity but had not rescinded her punishment...as evidenced by the even larger pile that greeted her when she returned to her desk.

"Well...crap," she muttered. Movement in the corner of her eye brought her attention around to her right and she saw one of her fellow clerks moving to engage her in conversation. While she would normally shy away from conversations to get her work done, another quick glance at the increased workload told her that a quick mental break would probably be a good idea.

Melat was taller than her, but not by much. Like her, he was quiet and tended to keep to himself and was one of the few clerks that she actually enjoyed working with. His mottling marked him as a Sterora native, but the almost non-existent blue tint to his otherwise pastel peach eyes suggested that someone far back in his lineage had traveled here from distant lands.

The thought of far away places brought her thoughts back to the Prime's roadside companion. He had been much bigger than anyone she knew outside of the guards that usually escorted Vernlat on her many excursions to other cities, but he had carried himself differently. His bearing was confident, but his movements had almost seemed awkward. Seye had caught the kind, gentle smile he had given her while the Prime read through her report but had been so focused on her job that she had not really paid it any attention. Now, as Melat made his way to her, she remembered that smile with a little flutter in her chest...and a little lower. Scolding herself for her silliness, she turned her focus back to her co-worker and gave him her own little smile.