Page 64 of Akarnae

Alex just continued to gape at him as her heartbeat began to stabilise.

“How doth a fine maiden such as thyself cometh to be thus situated?” he asked. “These here dungeons appear unseemly for a lady. Perchance thou might consent upon a knightly escort from such unsavoury quarters?”

Translation:I’ll lead you out. Alex was all for that, as long as he wasn’t about to go ballistic on her again.

“Just to clarify,” she said hesitantly, “you’re not going to chop me up into little pieces, are you?”

“The lady need not fear Sir Camden,” he said. “I be a Protector Knight of the Highest Order. To induce harm on one such as thyself, I would truly hath to lose my head!”

“Yeah, that sounds about right,” Alex mumbled. But in the end, she figured there was nothing for it. “I really should find my friends,” she told him. “Will you help me?”

“A quest!” he cried, joyous. “A noble quest to find thy loyal retainers! Fear not, fair lady, for together we shalt uncover the mysteries of thy kinsmen’s whereabouts.”

He reached down to pick up the sword she’d dropped and secured it into the empty scabbard at his waist. Then he offered her one of his gauntleted arms and, after glancing at it warily, she accepted his steadying grip.

Sir Camden started to lead her down the corridor but after a few steps he paused in front of one of the many doors lining the hallway. When he opened it, Alex couldn’t keep from gasping. Spanning out farther than her eyes could see was a vast, grassy wasteland. If Jordan and Bear were in there, there was no way she would ever find them.

But that wouldn’t stop her from trying.

When Alex moved to step through the door, Sir Camden closed it in front of her.

“Hey!” she cried.

“Thou kinsmen not be through there,” he told her. “And there be naught point in wasting time on useless folly. We shalt continue onwards, fair lady.”

He started walking down the corridor again, stopping in front of the next door. This one opened to a tropical rainforest, and it was so real that Alex could actually feel the humidity in the air as it blended with the cool draught in the stone hallway.

When she moved towards it, the knight blocked her path again, so she asked, “How do you know they’re not in there? Or in the last one, for that matter?”

“I hath been in this here Library for many millennia,” he said. “In such time, I hath discovered many secrets buried within. Thou wouldst do well to favour this knight’s judgement on the matter, lest thou wander off at will and perish.”

He seemed to know what he was talking about, so she decided to follow his lead. That, and she didn’t want to perish.

They continued up the corridor opening doors as they went. Some opened to what Alex considered normal library rooms—the type with actualbooks. But more often than not they opened to incredible sights: a desert, a swampland, a rocky mountainside, a beach at sunset. There was even an underwater city through one of the doors, and Alex was relieved to discover that a protective barrier kept the corridor from flooding.

Unfortunately, that particular barrier wasn’t included with one of the other doors that opened to a monsoonal rainstorm. The water felt like daggers from the force of the wind blowing through the doorway, and within seconds Alex and Sir Camden were drenched. The knight grumbled about rusting, but he was kind enough to wait while Alex rung out her dripping clothes.

Her favourite door by far was the one that led to outer space. Just like the underwater door, there was some kind of barrier that kept atmospheric levels balanced so they didn’t float off or lose oxygen. And the view was simply spectacular. Alex could have gazed upon the twinkling stars and distant planets for hours, but Sir Camden pulled her away.

“Can’t we have another quick look?” she begged.

He just continued to pull her further down the corridor and said, “When questing, one must be fully committed to one’s task, lest one become distracted and conquered.”

She actually found the words to be very wise so she let him pull her away without further argument. And she got her own back when the next door opened to an ancient-looking weapons cache that hadeverythingin it. There were swords and shields, bows and arrows, and crossbows with bolts already drawn to fire. Spears, scythes, maces—even jousting poles.

Sir Camden was enraptured by the armoury and it was Alex who had the pleasure of closing the door in his face while throwing her own interpretation of his words back at him: “Someone wisely told me that when you’re on a mission, you have to be fully committed to your task, otherwise you can get distracted and fail.”

He bowed slightly to her. “True words, fair lady, true words.”

After a few more doors—including a particularly unpleasant one that opened to a blizzard and left Alex covered in snow and shivering from the cold—she couldn’t hold back her questions.

“What’s the deal with this Library?” she asked. “Libraries are supposed to be filled with books. I know this one is… special… but what’s with all these random doors?”

“A question I shalt use to answer thee,” Sir Camden replied. “Perchance two noble knights were to engage in a duel of swordsmanship in order to win the affections of a fair maiden. One such knight hath lived life by his sword. He hath fought in many a battle and won many a challenge. The other knight hath a scholar’s reputability. His esteemed intellectual knowledge of swordplay hath titled him a swords master of the highest order, however, he hath little practice with a blade, but for a few basic manoeuvres. Who doth thou believe would win the duel and capture the fair maiden’s heart?”

“I feel like I’m stuck in the Middle Ages,” Alex murmured. Then she said, louder, “The man with the experience would win. The other guy might know what to do in theory, but he wouldn’t have the practical knowledge or experience needed to win the fight.”

“Thou art correct, Lady Alexandra,” Sir Camden said. “And so true it be with this here Library. Literature may increase one’s depth of knowledge, but not all knowledge be found in literature. Only with practical experience can one truly learn and thus be considered knowledgeable.”

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