How to Find your Way in the Incomplete Archives

Thirteen

'Really? Seventeen thousand and nothing about the author?'

'I guess they were not well liked,'

'Anything else that we know?'

'Well, we store our fanfics in chronological order. The books we suspect contain some of the later stories. So the timeline of appearance of the booknapper and these stories match up,'

'There was another angle I wanted you to investigate, if I recall,'

'Yes, almost forgot. The mention of her powers. I had it on a list,' the Archivist opened up a floating display on their work desk, 'Here. I narrowed down the count of stories focussed on her powers, close to that section and we found eleven matches,'

'Only eleven out of three hundred?'

'You know fanfiction usually focuses on the unwritten aspects of the story, right? I don't think people go to read them to hear more about her powers,'

'So what do they focus on? The romance?'

'Yes, more like -cough- smut -cough-.'

'What was that supposed to mean?'

'Oh, you know, it's a genre,' the Archivist busied themselves with the display settings, 'Like a whole thing, you can look it up,'

'I know what smut is,' The Librarian pulled the hood forward on their already hidden face, 'I was asking about the whole -cough- thing. Nevermind. Let's try to fine tune our results a bit more,'

'Alright, I'll check for mentions of flying since that's not one of her canonical powers and search,' the display blinked a few times before settling on the new set of results, 'That's seven matches outlining Luna using her powers to fly and out of those, we have three where she fights as she flies,'

'Good job, but our task is far from over,'

'What? How are we going to cut it down further?'

'The old way. We're going to read through the pages and find out which of our three fight and flight ready Holy Maidens holds an unquenched hatred for the Boglander Princess,'

'What kind of name is that?'

The Librarian did not get the chance to explain the origin of one of their current favourite characters because at that moment the siren screamed out a security breach. It was near the shelf under observation.

'Luna must have snuck back in to try her luck again,'

'But I thought the Guardian Protocol was still on?'

'It is, but the gargoyles only attack if the books were affected,'

The keepers of the Library opened up the camera feed.

'Was there an explosion?'

A cloud of dusty shrapnel blocked their views. Inside, they could make out the outlines of two humanoid shapes.

****

They reached the halfway point much quicker than the anticipated five hour mark. The Princess and her Advisor stopped at the edge of the opening. As described by Fremont, there were three caves lined up on the opposite wall.

Arlan consulted the hand-drawn map, "We need to take the first one from the left,"

"Alright, but stay alert, the maze might be nearby," Archaea tightened the straps of her arm guard, "And stay close,"

"Yes, My Lady,"

They walked into the opening.

This area was brighter than the rest of the tunnel. The sandy soil at their feet emitted an incandescent glow but was strangely cool to the touch. Its texture was smoother than normal sand. The grains did not stick to their feet or clothes.

They continued straight to the left in the direction of the marked entrance but, after walking for almost an hour, the cave seemed almost as far as when they had started.

"Something is wrong," Archaea whispered to her partner, "Let's turn back,"

They turned around to return. The entrance seemed as far away in that direction as the caves were in the other. The same predicament presented itself once more.

After an impossibly long time the Boglanders had made no progress in either direction.

The Advisor stopped his master, "We should rest here and get a grasp of our situation. This has to be the trickery of the Labyrinth of Despair. It has the ability to create infinite paths between finite destinations."

"But we didn't see it anywhere,"

"Fremont did tell us it would have reverted to its primal form, the shape of a serpent. Perhaps it can also turn invisible?"

"Even if it were invisible, we would have felt some difference if we walked into a mana imbued maze. I have felt no fluctuations in magical energy since we walked into this space."

"My Lady, this is my hunch but what if the reason we didn't feel anything was because we've been inside it from the beginning?"

Archaea's eyes widened at the implication, "Surely not,"

She did not finish. Arlan pulled out his sword and stabbed hard at the ground near his feet to test this theory.

"See, nothing is ..." her assurance was cut short as a faint tremor shook up the room. It stopped after a moment and everything was still again.

Arlan stabbed a second, third and fourth time in quick succession.

The tremors returned. This time the violent quakes forced them onto their knees. Arlan ducked down onto the floor. The Princess joined him in quick pursuit.

"Look," he pointed overhead.

While they were concentrating on the floor, the air around them had condensed into translucent scales. The scaly walls surrounded them in all directions.

"We're inside the monster," Archaea gasped, "But how?"

They soon had their answer as the giant enchanted creature raised its vicious head. They realised that the transparent snake had been waiting open-jawed at the entrance of the tunnel. The two of them had unknowingly walked into its mouth when they entered.

The four-fanged maw turned toward them in rage but it could not reach its own innards.

"At least, while we are inside its belly, the creature cannot attack," she aimed her longsword and hit at the nearest wall, "We can escape if we cut through here,"

"My Lady, watch out," her Advisor lunged at her, pulling her down to the ground.

"What are you doing?"

"Stay down," he held her still, ensuring she was facing the ground, "It has opened its eyes, you mustn't look,"

The many-eyed head was visible through the semi-transparency of its skin. The golden pupils shone through, drawing their observer into a hypnotic lull.

"Wait, how did you know? Did you look at it, Arlan?"

Her partner did not respond.

"Arlan?"

The hand on the back of her head went slack. She drew her own sword closer and used its polished blade to look at him. In the reflection, his body was motionless. She could not see his eyes. The sword was still grasped in his other hand but the grip on its hilt was weak. She nudged him and the man fell forward without resistance.

The Labyrinth of Despair had swallowed his soul.