How to Find your Way in the Incomplete Archives

Nine

The assumption was logical.

A fictional character was the best possible candidate to fit the profile. A character could move the books from one shelf to another – the rules of the Library allowed that. They were capable of interacting with the records under certain restrictions. Characters spawned in the Library from time to time making it impossible to keep track of all of them. Many went undetected for years.

'I agree that is a plausible view,' the Librarian chewed on the thought, 'But it makes no sense,'

'Why not? It makes perfect sense. Books moved, culprit – some rogue character. Case closed,' the Archivist turned around, 'I should get back now,'

'The matter is not resolved,' the bookkeeper chided their mask-clad subordinate, 'What is our main duty as the Keepers of this Library?'

'To take care of the books?'

'Wrong! Our main duty is to ensure human ideas are not lost. We preserve content irrespective of their significance or nature. Hence why we emphasize separating them by their completion and not on judgemental labels like 'good' or 'bad' for society. Do you understand?'

'Yes, Librarian,' their words reeked of disinterest, 'I understand,'

'With that in mind, what is our goal in this situation?'

'Finding the culprit?'

'Only that?'

'Uhh, not letting it happen again?'

'Correct!' the Librarian nodded in satisfaction, 'Now that you understand, let us look into what we know. These books were meant for the Valley, they must have been indexed to it. But, at some point of time, someone moved them. What does this tell us about the possible booknapper?'

The Archivist strung together the shredded pieces of their limited enthusiasm, 'I know! There are two distinct possibilities,' but they did not explain.

'Go on then. What are they?'

A bored sigh was followed by, 'The culprit can either be a character that was familiar with the story they were moving or it was a character who likes to make trouble,'

'Well, we can rule out the first type then for a number of reasons. Characters that awaken from their story arrive without memories. So knowing their story well enough to feel anything would be out of the question, unless they had help,' the Librarian turned to the Archivist.

'Don't look at me! What did I do?'

'Also, books in the Valley of Words, meritorious or not, are considered complete ideas. As per the Library's current system, they are well-maintained, celebrities of the house compared to the forgotten scrolls of the Incomplete Archives. These three books were meant for the Valley, not the Archives. Surely, even if a character regained their memories and hated their story, no one would willingly throw out their own world. It would be the same as burning down your house because you saw a cockroach,'

'You'll be surprised,'

'What?'

'Nothing. Please proceed,'

'Besides, characters cannot directly touch their stories. So that leaves us with the trickster profile. Someone who moved the books as a prank of some sort. Even that seems a bit of a stretch. I can understand displacement, but taking the books all the way to the Incomplete Archives sounds impossible. For one thing, the Archives remain locked at all times,'

'Tch tch tch' the other wagged a finger, 'When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth,'

'The venerable Holmes,'