How to Find your Way in the Incomplete Archives

Two

'I will begin here,' the Librarian pulled down a few disorganized scrolls and began to check.

Archaea waited to see a hopeful response but after a while of being ignored, she began to get restless. Her companion was fast but the sheer volume of texts made it impossible to finish the task efficiently.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" she asked at one point.

'Stay away from the shelves,' was the nonchalant reply.

She looked up to see that a semi-transparent ladder had manifested itself and the keeper of the archives was using it to reach higher up in the shelf.

Even if she were allowed to touch the books, there would not be much for her to do. They were covered in scribbles of unknown scripts far too strange for her to interpret. She walked around studying her curious surroundings as she waited.

The only tangible difference between the Incomplete Archives and the Valley of Words was in the variety of their collections. Instead of the well-bound volumes of the other side, the Archives boosted works composed on loose paper strung together with strings, diaries bound in leather, single pages and even, stone slates.

Some of these records had copious amounts of dust coated on them.

'Do not touch anything,' the stern voice rang out in her head.

"Thank you for that timely reminder,"

Her sarcasm went unnoticed. The Librarian responded with a, 'My pleasure,' before turning back to the records.

She searched for the bookkeeper. Having walked off some distance, Archaea was nearing the halfway length of the second shelf. From here, the hooded figure was too high up to be visible.

As she strained her neck to search, a quick patch of darkness scurried across the middle of the bookshelf. The shadow had a certain reptilian quality to it as it hurried along.

She rubbed her eyes and tried to look again but it was gone. It must have been a trick of the lightless hallways, she told herself.

This new idea fascinated her. Similar to the strange way sounds worked here, there was no apparent explanation for it. The shelves, paths and books were all visible but there was no clear source of light in their vicinity.

"But how can we see without lights?" she wondered out loud.

"This is a non-physical space. Your perception here is dependent on the clarity of your mind,"

"Clarity? How does that ..." she stopped herself from completing the sentence and turned around to look. The speaker was standing at a distance, across the passage, at the nearer end of the third bookshelf.

He appeared to be a fair-skinned man in his twenties, yellow-haired, about a hand span shorter than Archaea. He was dressed in a white, heavy, floor-length cloak that wrapped around his entire body. There seemed to be a subtle glow to his skin that contrasted with the darker backdrop of the Archives.

The third rule was to avoid any interactions with the people she might meet. She remembered in time and turned away from this newcomer but it was too late.

"I could tell you more. Are you leaving already?" the stranger called. She did not respond but he was persistent, "Please come back," The voice was an emotionless monotone.

Archaea had misgivings. She did not turn to look. Behind her, she could hear the muffled movements of the stranger. The Librarian was too far away to notice all this.

Fortunately, she had stuck to a straight path. The place where they had started their search was within her line of sight, she only needed to reach it.

"Wait up, miss, we can talk," This time, the voice set off alarms in her head. It was much closer than she had anticipated.

From the corner of her eyes she could see the man. He had crossed the passage between the shelves and was near the second shelf. He did not seem to be in the midst of any motion, standing very still at his new spot.

How did he get there so soon? Did he run while her face was turned?

The barbarian warrior continued to move. She was unarmed but not defenseless.

Archaea had always prided herself in her hand to hand combat skills. Yet her instincts screamed to her to get away from this frail-looking stranger. She picked up the pace.

"I am only trying to talk to you," he called.

This time she jumped away from the source of the voice. The stranger was mere arm lengths from her, on her right. He was standing still as before, nothing about his languid posture suggested any signs of movement.

She switched direction and started to run towards the bookshelf across the passage but then, without any warning, the man appeared in front of her, in front of the opposite shelf, standing as still as ever.

The warrior froze in her tracks.

It had happened too fast for her to see but the man seemed to have jumped down in front of her from his previous position. That was when she noticed the unfocussed look in his eyes.

"What ... what are you?" she gasped.

"A fellow human in these passages. Come closer, we can talk,"

"Stay back!" she darted away in the opposite direction. She could see the row where they had started the search. She was almost there now.

'Get away from the shelf!' The Librarian's words thundered in her head. She swerved in time to avoid the sharp blade that flew past her and stuck into the ground.

The man that had been chasing her collapsed at her feet in a crumpled heap as the barbarian stumbled down on the ground.

Up close, the creature did not look human at all. Underneath the cloak-like cover, she could see an undifferentiated solid body with no limbs. The head had a semi-transparent filament stuck to it that had been sliced off by the paper cutting knife.

The Librarian jumped down to her side, 'I told you not to engage with anyone you see,'

"I did not," she stopped herself.

Arguing was futile. Even if she had not sought out the creature, it had found her nonetheless through her own careless actions.

She had underestimated the Librarian's warning. A feeling of guilt washed over her. She turned to her saviour, "What manner of creature is this?"

'An angler lizard. They lure in their prey with that bait attached to their sticky tail. Touch it once and you will be dragged up into the lizard's maw where you will be ground down by its rows of teeth.'

A chill travelled down her spine, "Is the thing dead?"

'No, I only managed to cut off the lure. It will regrow a new one in time as long as the main body remains unharmed,'

"Are these beasts a common species in the Library?"

'They only exist in the Incomplete Archives, the product of a most unengaging book of horrors, nay, draft of an attempted book. The creatures mentioned are too fantastical to be viable in any environment. Yet they exist here, and, you fell for it,"

"How was I supposed," she soothed her wounded pride, "Nevermind, a true warrior begrudges not their saviour. Thank you, Librarian. Without your help, I would never have escaped it,"

'Well, that is true. I mean, of course you have me to thank,' the bookkeeper sounded flustered, 'But you would never have known what it was, so I cannot blame you in earnest. It is what it is,'

The shy words brought a smile to her face, "That was some quick action with the knife. Are you something of a warrior yourself?"

'Protecting the stories is part of my responsibility,' She could sense a strong will in those words, 'But wait,' The hooded figure rummaged inside their cloak and pulled out a book.

This one had a bound spine, like the ones they had seen in the previous section of the library, 'In any case, I found it, 'The Ruler of the Dark Path'. I believe this is your story.'