The Empty World | The Empty World Sequence [complete | rewriting]

Five (Draft 3) "Supernatural Aid"

Morpheus nodded. "If I understand correctly, the Library of Fiction has all works of Fiction, including those unpublished or incomplete in the Empty World, and fictional works referenced in Fiction."

"¡Claro!" River grasped his meaning.

"Yes," Jorge switched to a form of English, "The library is a most fascinating place. The number of works is practically infinite and growing. It would take eternity to read them all, and perhaps a lifetime to find one work in particular."

"I've visited the film and video section," Morpheus said, "so I can find that again, but I'm looking for a fictional guide to New York City. I figure only the most New York of New York facts would make it into a fictional guide of New York."

"Yes, yes," Jorge agreed, "A guide so perfect it is unwritten and only alluded to must contain the very essence of New Yorkness."

"Yeah. Can you help us find it?"

"I cannot." Jorge patted his pockets. "But there is a device."

Jorge drew a glittering sphere from his right-hand pocket, which looked curiously like one of Jibril's eyes. "No. That is not it." Jorge dropped the sphere back in his pocket.

Then, taking something from his left-hand pocket, Jorge held aloft a somewhat less brilliant sphere. "It is called The Beta. It is able to read works in the library, to provide analysis, and to recall where the works are located."

"Cool," said River.

"Can we use it?" Morpheus asked.

Jorge drew The Beta closer to his chest. "It is experimental in nature and though it reads all languages its interface currently only works in Spanish. I understand your small friend speaks the language...."

"Un poco," River said.

"Of course you should hold onto it," Morpheus assured Jorge. "We would appreciate if you would use The Beta to help us. I should also like a book on lizards, if that is not much trouble."

Jorge loosened his grasp on The Beta and it began to hover, appearing something like a lens or a transparent sphere. "Beta: Modo de Recordar," Jorge commanded and then continued by describing the fictional works they sought.

The Beta responded in clipped machine-like Spanish as it began to move through an aisle of shelves.

It had no mind as such that would enable Morpheus to use telepathy to translate, but he gathered from the repetition of specific words—izquierda, adelante, derecha, sendero, y, bifurcan—that it was relaying directions through the numerous library aisles.

"That was a lot of forking paths!" Morpheus sighed as he finally took Essential 410-Page Guide to New York City, English Edition from the shelf.

He was tired and hungry, which he rarely felt in the Night Regions, and the room didn't smell as damp as those before. Morpheus leaned back against a shelf; it was gray along exposed edges.

"Can I give you a lift back to the entrance?" He asked Jorge.

"These books are just as worthy of reading as any others." Jorge gestured to the nearby shelves. "Besides, I've memorized several titles near the entrance so that I can request The Beta help me find them."

"That would seem wise." Morpheus picked at the edge of a shelf. "Except it occurs to me the change in humidity means the library's new growth is towards the outside."

Jorge's jaw dropped, and then his mouth curved into a smile. "¡Claro! In the time it has taken to walk here, new shelves have been added that will put the titles I've memorized some distance from the entry."