How to Find your Way in the Incomplete Archives

Twelve

Archaea knelt down beside him.

"You have to let me go with you, Archaea. What good does it do to keep me safe when the nation has fallen? I understand their intentions but wherever we travelled, you've seen the destruction. All our major towns, noble houses and reserve armies have been annihilated. It's useless! I cannot hope to confront the Blodwenian Army. I could not incite an insurrection even if I wanted to. What use is a King without his subjects?"

"A King is not just a leader of his people. He is a symbol," The Princess spoke to him in a kind tone, "A beacon of hope for the people who believe in him. He is the light that guides them to strive. Even a mere pawn will fight till their last breath as long as the King is alive. You may not see them right now, but wherever you stand, as long as you make yourself known, your army will gather. They may come in the shape of a guerilla band from a broken town, or farmers armed with hatchets or even a couple of Boglanders riding on horseback. You need only show them the way,"

"But," Fremont hesitated between words, "Would they dare when there is no hope?"

The Boglander smiled, "As long as Your Majesty lives, there will always be hope. And the trust is not one-sided. Just as we choose to believe in you, you too, must choose to trust us. Believe that we will succeed. But if we don't, change your tactics and try again. The Shadow will only grow deeper as long as there is a strong source of Light. Sire, I trust we have an understanding?"

He looked up at his kneeling subject, "Then will you be willing to lay down your life for a chance at that hope?"

"It would be my honour,"

****

'Ban?' the Archivist was appalled, 'This is a house of free knowledge where we do not judge the contents of a record by our own standards. Everyone has the right to read everything, even the opinionated,'

'But we don't have any Readers right now. Maintenance Mode!' their supervisor reminded them.

'Well, yes, but it will set a precedent. And then future Librarians will use it to ban other works as and when the socio-political opinion evolves.'

'This isn't a social or political issue. The ban will help us block off the character from escaping their book and disturbing the order of the Library.'

'But the book related to it will be removed from systemic catalogues! It will be a terrible precedent,'

'Don't be such a naysayer. This is only an interim measure until we can get our booknapper under control. Until we have a patch for the power override issue,'

'Excuses', the masked figure slammed an oversized headphone over their ears, 'I cannot hear you and hence I am not obliged to follow this order.'

'We are still communicating over cognitive space. You can hear me even through those useless ear muffs,'

The Librarian was met with radio silence.

'Pretending to turn off the cognitive module won't help. I have overarching access to the shared cognition space in the Library. You, Readers and even the characters can hear my voice in their minds whenever I address them.'

There was no response.

'Fine, I guess I will resort to supervisory action then. From this moment on, I will have to order the Archivist on an indefinite break. They will have to leave the record-keeping office with immediate effect. Thank you for your service,'

They turned around to leave but felt a tug on their cloak sleeve. The headphones were gone.

'You can't do that! What about the sorting of the records? Who's going to handle that?'

'The system does that fine on its own. And I can make time to look it over every now and then. Shouldn't be too much of an inconvenience,'

'What if you run into bugs with the sorting? Or technical problems? Who's going to assist you then?'

'That should be a concern for my assistant. As of now, the post is empty. Oh, and I forgot the most important part, as you are not a registered Reader and no longer required to help with the System, I will curtail your access to the network. You are free to return to your hibernation pod or walk around and read.'

'What? Come on,' the Archivist was grasping at the robe with both hands, 'Don't cut me off from the network. How am I supposed to play online games?'

'As far as I recall, that was never a part of our contract conditions. You can take it up with the Creators. For now, enjoy your break,'

'How can I enjoy a break without the network? What about the socials? And the dramas? You're just pushing me to solitary confinement!' the bookkeeper could imagine the pout on their assistant's face.

'But we're at an impasse, this is standard procedure. There's not much I can do,'

'Fine! I'll hear you out this once. I'm still against the ban though,'

'It's alright. Your unofficial opinion won't affect the outcome of the decision.' They started to leave again.

The temporarily suspended Archivist followed, 'Wait, Librarian. Listen, if it's only for a limited period, we can make it work somehow. Besides, the System may be good at handling bulk classifications but it'll get overwhelming without extra hands, right?'

'Uh huh,'

'What's there to think about? It's a good deal. I'll even throw in an extra work hour for free,'

'Deal!'

'Wait. You accepted as soon as I offered freebies,' the Archivist backed off, 'You're supposed to negotiate more,'

'Do you want to join back or not?'

'Sure, anything for the net ... I mean, my job,'

'Well then, glad to have you back. It's time to figure out the details of the ban, the time period, the restrictions and the books we will block.'