Page 18 of The Book that Broke the World

“Try again,” Sternus urged.

Celcha looked pointedly at her hand still on the door. “How long will we have to survive using the centre circle?”

Markeet and Sternus exchanged a look.

“This place is a maze,” Sternus said. “It’s hard enough finding the circle when it’s just shelves hiding it.”

“You don’t know where it is?” Celcha asked, horrified.

“It’s not like we haven’t looked...” The older librarian turned his gaze at the trainees as if considering how they might taste. “But no. We haven’t.”

“We’ll starve,” the trainee Kenton wailed, all his sneering gone in an instant.

“No,” Hellet said, and for a moment Celcha thought he was offering comfort. “Thirst will kill you long before that.”

There is, inside me, an unanswered ache, small but constant, caused by no particular trial or tribulation, simply by the burden of existence, the effort of holding aloft my own sky. Each of us is Atlas and why some are crushed and others effortless is a mystery whose answer will not translate into my tongue.

Existential, by Jesper Lodin

CHAPTER 9

Celcha

While the librarians, Markeet and Sternus, heatedly debated how to proceed, Celcha and Hellet waited by the door with the trainees. It didn’t take long to catch the first whispered accusation, unsurprisingly from Kenton.

“They don’t want to open it. That’s why it’s not opening.”

Angry glances sliced across them.

It was true that Celcha had thought maybe the librarians and their charges deserved at least a touch of worry, but she hadn’t truly intended for the door to remain closed. And now, with her stomach growling, there was no ambiguity in her, she wanted the door open. Touching it yet again confirmed that this wasn’t a case of mixed feelings getting in the way.

Markeet returned to the group. Sweat darkened the man’s crimson robes beneath his arms. “Come on then!” He herded the group to where Sternus waited at the entrance to the chamber. “Right. Well, we’re going to have to hunt for the centre circle. The circle will sustain everyone until they come for us.” The librarian’s expression didn’t inspire confidence. Seeing his own doubt reflected at him he tried to rally the trainees. “I was on an expedition to find it... oh, fifteen years ago, so we won’t just be chasing our tails. We can start—”

Celcha and the children turned their heads to follow the librarian’s gaze back along the corridor. The white door had melted away. An assistant stood behind it.

A sigh of relief ran through the party. The assistants might not be overly helpful, but in a situation like this they wouldn’t walk off and leave them trapped. They would help trapped explorers in the same sort of way that people happening across fledglings that had fallen from their nests would return them to safety.

Tutor Ablesan had told Celcha that nobody knew how many assistants served the library. Two at least, since one had a body suggesting a male frame whereas another had one that looked more female. From reported sightings it seemed that if there were only two they would have to travel very swiftly and with intention to deceive. Beyond that nothing could be said with certainty save that there were not many.

The assistant that had opened the door had the male form. Possibly it was Yute, the one who had greeted their arrival days earlier. After a shocked pause, Markeet thrust his book satchel at Sternus, the flap stretched around the prized tome with the gold lettering. He muttered two words to the younger man then went forward to speak with the assistant.

Markeet returned after only a few moments, looking perplexed. He frowned at Celcha and Hellet. “The assistant wishes to speak with both of you.” After a short while staring at their immobility he fluttered his hands. “Go!”

Hellet advanced towards the assistant and Celcha followed. Most would not have noticed it, especially not humans or canith, but Celcha saw the reluctance in her brother’s steps.

“Assistant?” Celcha decided to take the lead. Hellet was nervous, and she was the older sibling. She was tired of him showing her the way.

“Walk with me.” The assistant turned his gleaming white back on them and paced away. Without looking to see that they were following, he began to speak. “It’s hard for the timeless to perceive the flow. Hard to see the change from this to that. Everything simply is. And yet, contrary to my nature, I struggle to do just that. I look into the current.” He raised a hand to clutch the back of his neck, a curiously alive gesture, at odds with the animated statue that he had first seemed. “And it is difficult for the timely, those carried in the flow, bubbling to its surface, borne along, ultimately drowned in it, to see the crystalline glory of eternity, reflected and refracted through many dimensions, perfect in its imperfections. Language is also caught in the flow and ever-changing. It lacks the capacity to exchange those experiences between us.”

“I... see,” Celcha lied. Ahead of them the white door grew closer. If they went through it, the librarians and trainees would be trapped with only a precious book and the dead metropolis for company.

“For many years I have watched the city that you came through to reach the library. Cities come and go at our gates. Growing from a scattering of huts, flourishing, falling into fire. Few last as long as this one has. And this is the first where canith and humans live together under lasting truce. It holds the first green shoot of the peace necessary for survival and advancement. It is, in the long march of years, a wonder.”

“Built on the backs of slaves,” Hellet growled.

“This brings me to compromise and the inherent imperfection of now. The city is a stepping-stone to something better. Something that is encoded into the structure of the library. I will... admit... to having interfered at times. Coaxed. Perhaps even guided...”

“Why are you interested in us?” Celcha asked. “It offends the librarians when you single out a pair of slaves. It’s the type of attention that could get us killed.”

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