Chapter II – The Great Library

“Learning is the salt of life. Lest we forget this, we must build temples for knowledge, not for worship, but to keep the flames of wisdom ablaze.”

-Quote attributed to Maidoch Lesin, a Gefeni scholar active in the second century (years 141-166, to be exact) after the founding of the Zeran Empire.

—

The two held their breaths as the door rose to reveal first a grey and white mottled marble floor, followed by a much darker table that was as wide as the room they were in. Behind it and to the sides stretched tall shelves stacked tight with what appeared to be books. Where they could see, they were long enough to vanish into the horizon. Above, they carried on as far as Exa could see.

Takhris let out the air in his lungs in a sigh of relief and moved past Exa towards the broad counter in front of them. “Come on, now.” He said, gesturing her to follow. “Amazingly, I’ve been here before and can vouch for the safety of this place. This trial isn’t a challenge, but a puzzle.”

Exa was still inspecting the colossal bookcases that seemed to defy the laws of physics – how could they stay up like that? – and had to take quick steps to catch up with her guide. With half a mind still staring in amazement, she asked him, “What kind of puzzle?”

“The kind where you have to figure out what it is and what the solution is. In other words, you have to understand what the fundamental nature of this place is and what it can teach you.”

“I’m not sure I follow,” Exa replied, now more focused on the conversation, the awe of the sheer volume of books fading from her mind.

With a sigh, Takhris looked at her and tried to explain more clearly, “The puzzle areas, like this one, are areas where there is, very unsurprisingly, a puzzle. Sometimes more, but generally just one. I think.” The last words were more of a mumble, Exa barely hearing it, even that thanks to her paying full attention now. “They can be divided into two main groups: firstly, the more common ones are the ones where you are given the problem as you enter or soon thereafter; the rarer variety includes places like this where you not only have to find the solution, but the question as well. Of course, it doesn’t matter which you find first as if you find one, the other should follow soon.”

“So we’re in a place where I don’t know what to do and have no way of finding out.” Exa summarised with a hint of scepticism in her voice. “Essentially, yes.” Takhris beamed. “Great. A wonderful start to all of this.” Exa sighed, her spirits lowered but her mind sharpened with defiance.

“Don’t worry, it shouldn’t be too difficult to find clues, seeing how this is just the first level.” As he finished, they had come close enough to the block of marble to see that it had been chiseled to form a desk, behind which sat a lean, old man with round spectacles and a nose sharp enough to have shaped the rock he was sitting at. Even though he seemed to be deeply engrossed in a thick pocket-sized book, a cock of his eyebrow as he flashed a split-second glance at them showed that he had noticed the entrants. Without looking at them, he reached into the unseen depths of his workspace and pulled out a black and gold bookmark that he slipped between the pages before shutting the book and laying it on the surface. Rising with quickness that belied his age, he was on his feet and gave a quick yet respectful bow to both of them. Exa noticed that the one he gave to Takhris was almost imperceptibly deeper, but something made her think that this was not mere coincidence.

Resting his arms on the smooth and chilly edge of the table that reached to his chest, Takhris leaned forward and spoke about a dozen words in some language Exa had never heard before. It sounded like someone trying to bark with a mouth full of rocks. The man replied in what might have been the same tongue, except that it gave her the impression of the previous speaker talking with his mouth full of water as well. Regardless of linguistics, it was apparent that both of the men understood as they laughed out loud, Takhris’ wings fluttering behind him and the man chuckling with a hand over his mouth, slightly bent forward. Exa felt the blush of shame rise to her face.

Takhris turned to her and introduced her to the man whose name was Hesu Rhemun, at least if she understood the strange pronunciation correctly. He worked – the term should be applied loosely, Hesu specified – here at the Great Library as head librarian after encountering it during his turn through the trials.

“It was an awful time to be a scholar Outside,” he explained in her own language, speaking with a surprisingly light accent. He removed his glasses and unconsciously started cleaning them as he narrated on his past. “A world at war that did not require or care for lovers of knowledge, only for efficient soldiers, brilliant tacticians and scientists who could make even deadlier weapons. It was hardly a place for one such as I who merely wanted to learn and think about what I read. I came to this place originally in the hopes of attaining a high enough ranking to be granted some peace somehow. Once I reached this level, I realised that I would be much happier here and with the help of Lord Takhris here, stayed here to follow my dreams like I never could have in my previous life.”

“But-” Exa started to object, her face full of questions, but Takhris interrupted.

“I think I see what the problem is. Exa, how old do you think Hesu is? I know it might not seem relevant, but just make a guess.” Exa stared at him for a while before studying the librarian. Thinning black hair with white on the temples, wrinkles on the face and hands, a slightly bent posture.

“I’m not completely sure, but I’d guess anything between a hundred and a hundred and twenty.” The old man’s expression went from amiable to quite flabbergasted and he touched his face as if to count his wrinkles while Takhris gave a laugh and said something in the strange tongue they both knew. Hesu’s expression changed to show interest instead of fake shock and his hand started stroking his chin.

“Yes,” he said after a while. “I suppose that would be close to how old I was when I came here. But that was quite a while ago.”

“A bit over three and a half millennia by your count to be exact,” Takhris clarified to Exa whose eyes widened greatly at hearing this.

“That’s impossible!” she exclaimed.

“It obviously isn’t but I bet I’ll be hearing that a lot from you in the future,” Takhris grinned with a glance at Hesu. “Oh, no, I’ve lived long enough to know not to gamble with you.”

“I’m wounded, how could you say that to your hero?”

“Because I’ve read up on mythology and I’ve come across a certain trickster deity once too often. If that were not enough, the odds are still heavily in your favour.”

Takhris snorted good-naturedly, “Oh well, it’s not like you have anything I need.” Seeing that Exa’s mental processes had reached a stable point, he spoke to her. “Why do you think that here, in the domain of the Waking God, there would be something so wasteful as death?” She promptly closed her mouth again, thoughtful.

“However, that was not the point of this line of conversation. Rather, it was to point out that Hesu here comes from a different time, one that you would probably call more barbaric but which did have notable high points.”

“Such as Shazim.” Hesu interjected wistfully.

Takhris nodded with clear agreement. “Such as Shazim, the Jewel at the Heart of the Sun. Not to mention the dancers of the Sky-Clad Roses.” Whatever the two were talking about, it made Hesu turn red with embarrassment, in turn coaxing a mischievous laugh out of the guide. Returning to what so far seemed to be his most serious state, Takhris continued his explanation. “In any case, that time is in the past, now. What is of significance, though, is that back then, Hesu’s species was the dominant race in the world, with, for example, your people subjugated, those unwilling to bend knee and serve, generally as front-line troops or nearly-free labour – expense-wise, that is – were killed, more often than not brutally and sometimes for entertainment.”

Exa paled visibly and opened her mouth, but Takhris went on, “I know that your people don’t commit such atrocities, at least often and not in public,” noticing her indignant expression, he gestured to keep her quiet while he finished. “But the principle is the same now and then, although nowadays the tables have turned almost completely with Hesu’s people being the slaves and you their masters. If he behaved like you want to behave, having been raised by his society to despise you as necessary filth, even if you would think of him in better terms, say as useful furniture, which you probably do, he would still not be committing a much worse deed than what you are doing now, judging him merely by his race. Do you understand?”

Exa’s natural temper flared her nostrils but she was clearly thinking about it. Looking for a long while at both of them in turn, she finally nodded. “I think I do,” she started, visibly picking up the pride she was raised to cherish and shoving it aside. Opening her mouth to continue, she struggled for words before saying, “I’m sorry to have looked down on you simply because of what I’ve been brought up to think about your kind.” She followed with a gesture that signified humility, something that was never directed at the servile races. “I’m sorry what we-”

“Don’t try to apologise for others, just mean what you said about your own feelings,” Takhris interrupted again.

“I did! I am sorry and I promise never to look down upon other races just because others do!” she swore with heat in her voice. “Now, accept my apology,” she added to Hesu, only a moment’s hesitation holding back a final “Please.”

“With joy, milady, though I did not take offense in the first place.” the old librarian said, accompanying his words with a deeply courteous bow. Straightening up, he noticed Takhris’ gaze and followed it to the elevator door that stood open.

“How could you, from a beauty like her?” Takhris quipped and pointed at the elevator so that Exa noticed it as well. “Looks like you meant what you said.”

“What do you mean, of course I did!” Exa retorted, purposefully ignoring the playful compliment.

“Didn’t you notice that the door shut once we got out? It won’t open until you’ve fulfilled the objectives of the floor in question, which you just did by promising to not discriminate other races by prejudice alone.” Takhris explained. Stretching his whole body from his hooves to the tips of his wings, he added, “We might as well be on our way. If things continue going as smoothly, maybe this won’t take a century after all.” Exa was not sure if he was fully joking or not.

“Before you leave,” Hesu said and lifted a book on the counter. “I think you might enjoy reading this, milady. It is very enlightening.” As if remembering something suddenly, he gave a raspy laugh and continued, “Consider it a gift, rather than a loan from the library. I wouldn’t want to be so mean as to force you to come back in a month or two.”

“Thank you, Hesu,” Exa replied with a fraction of a bow. It was getting easier to treat the old man as an equal, but she was sure she had a long way ahead of her. Picking up the book, she gave a smile and a wave to the librarian while Takhris shook hands with him over the marble desk. After an exchange of a couple of sentences in the foreign language and a few laughs, the head librarian sat down again and continued reading his book, immediately immersing himself in the text.

As the girl and her guide walked towards the octagonal chamber, she studied the exterior of the book. After running her fingers along the brown leather cover that had been intricately woven with golden thread in patterns of strange flowers, she opened it and browsed through the first few pages.

Takhris, reading over her shoulder, chortled softly and asked, “Have you ever been to the far west?”

“No, why?” Exa replied, keeping her eyes on the beautifully written and set text.

“The ideas in that are the foundation of most of the societies there.”

“Really?”

“Yes. Interestingly, they were first thought of by one of Hesu’s people thousands of years ago.”

“In the place called Shazim?” Exa asked, finally turning to look at him while holding the place she was at with a finger.

“No, earlier than that, but Shazim was built by men influenced by the same ideals.”

—

In the silent Great Library, as the elevator door lowered itself shut, Hesu could hear the two talk for a while before their voices faded into the ground. It was a delight to meet new people, especially ones so young and intelligent. Though the society she came from did not seem as civilised as it should have been this long after his people lost power, the girl surely had vast potential. Just as he gave a solemn prayer that Takhris would not corrupt her, he reflexively raised his cup to his lips to hide a sudden blush from no one in particular as out of the blue the mental image of the charming young girl in a Sky-Clad Dancer’s outfit entered his mind. Moving a little too quickly, he spilt his hot tea on his chest, causing him to curse a certain trickster deity with expletives that echoed amongst the legions of books.