(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[
(text-style:"italic","expand")[''A Piece of the Sky'']](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[By Simon Cosimo](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[[[//Begin//|PART I]]](stop:)](click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[...](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[...](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[...](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[(text-colour:red)[Alright. Let's get started.]](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[(text-colour:red)[Ahem! //Excuse me// - the date is the 16th day of year 0, making this session.... 48. //Right?// Right.]](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[...](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[(text-colour:red)[Okay, I'm ready. Wake 'em up.]](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[
[[Hello?]]
[[Who are you?]]
[[Where am I?]]
](stop:)](click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[Hello?](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[(text-colour:red)[Yes... hi.]](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[Do we know each other?](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[(text-colour:red)[Yes.]](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[I don't understand.](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[(text-colour:red)[I know. You never do.]](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[...](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[(text-colour:red)[Anyways, let's see here...]](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[(text-colour:red)[Okay - //ahem// - do you still feel the pain from yesterday?]](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[
[[Yes.]]
[[No.]]
[[Yesterday?]]
](stop:)](click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[Who Are you?](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[(text-colour:red)[What?]](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[Who //are// you?](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[(text-colour:red)[//Please// - let's not do this again.]](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[What's wrong?](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[(text-colour:red)[Listen, this only goes one way. You'll never know who I am, okay?]](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[Why?](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[(text-colour:red)[I swear to god I do not have time for this kind of shit today and neither do you, so let's both agree not to be stupid and move on, hm?]](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[...](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[(text-colour:red)[Good.]](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[...](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[(text-colour:red)[Anyways, let's see here...]](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[(text-colour:red)[Okay - //ahem// - do you still feel the pain from yesterday?]](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[
[[Yes.]]
[[No.]]
[[Yesterday?]]
](stop:)](click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[Where am I?](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[(text-colour:red)[Same place you always are.]](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[But - where is that?](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[(text-colour:red)[Listen, I don't have time for this kind of shit today and neither do you, so let's both agree not to be stupid and move on, hm?]](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[...](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[(text-colour:red)[Anyways, let's see here...]](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[(text-colour:red)[Okay - //ahem// - do you still feel the pain from yesterday?]](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[
[[Yes.]]
[[No.]]
[[Yesterday?]]
](stop:)](click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[Yes.](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[(text-colour:red)[Alright, nothing new there.]](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[Why am I in pain?](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[
(text-colour:red)[Honestly, I have no idea. I just do the surveys.]](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[Can you make it go away?](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[(text-colour:red)[I told you, not my jurisdiction, sorry.]](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[I would like to leave please.](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[(text-colour:red)[//Ha!// Sorry, that's a no-can-do. I feel like I practically live here, I get it.]](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[No, you don't understand. I would //really// like to leave.](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[(text-colour:red)[Don't test me. You'll just have to wait like the rest of us. This can't be rushed. Enjoy it while it lasts.]](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[(text-colour:red)[Alright, next question: Do trees sing to each other?]](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[What?](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[(text-colour:red)[Yeah, I don't really get that one either. Just try and answer the question as truthfully as possible. All I need are your immediate first impressions. Nothing more, nothing less. In fact, try and keep your response under a single sentence.]](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[
[[I can't feel.]]
[[I can't see.]]
](stop:)](click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[No.](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[(text-colour:red)[Really? Well, that's a first.]](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[Why would I be in pain?](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[(text-colour:red)[Not my concern. I just do the surveys. Honestly, I'm just as much in the dark as you are.]](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[I would like to leave please.](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[(text-colour:red)[//Ha!// Sorry, that's a no-can-do. I feel like I practically live here, I get it.]](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[No, you don't understand. I would //really// like to leave.](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[(text-colour:red)[Don't test me. You'll just have to wait like the rest of us. This can't be rushed. Enjoy it while it lasts.]](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[(text-colour:red)[Alright, next question: Do trees sing to each other?]](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[What?](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[(text-colour:red)[Yeah, I don't really get that one either. Just try and answer the question as truthfully as possible. All I need are your immediate first impressions. Nothing more, nothing less. In fact, try and keep your response under a single sentence.]](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[
[[I can't feel.]]
[[I can't see.]]
](stop:)](click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[What is yesterday?](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[
(text-colour:red)[Really? The day before today was... the 15th. Do you not remember that?]](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[No.](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[(text-colour:red)[Okay.]](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[I don't understand. What exactly is yester-](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[(text-colour:red)[Noted. Let's move on, hm?]](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[(text-colour:red)[Alright, next question: Do trees sing to each other?]](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[What?](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[(text-colour:red)[Yeah, I don't really get that one either. Just try and answer the question as truthfully as possible. All I need are your immediate first impressions. Nothing more, nothing less. In fact, try and keep your response under a single sentence.]](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[
[[I can't feel.]]
[[I can't see.]]
](stop:)](click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[I can't see.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[(text-colour:red)[Yeah, I know. You can't smell or taste either.]](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[I CAN'T SEE.](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[(text-colour:red)[Try not to panic. It's just part of the process. The faster we get through this the better, okay?]](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[WHATS HAPPENING TO ME?](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[(text-colour:red)[Mhm. I'm just gonna move on.]](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[(text-colour:red)[Okay, next question: ]](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[(text-colour:red)[Frames grow from the black desert below you. Skin walls held up by bone buttresses. It cannot be stopped. This is what always happens eventually... okay, now it wants me to ask you if you would close your eyes or try to climb into the sky? Weird.]](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[LET ME OUT.](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[(text-colour:red)[I can't do that.]](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[LET ME OUT.](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[(text-colour:red)[Listen-]
](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[LET ME OUT.](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[(text-colour:red)[None of us want to be here, understand? NONE OF US! We are stuck here because of YOU! THIS IS YOUR FAULT!]](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[LET ME OUT](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[(text-colour:red)[I can barely stand it any longer, I HATE this place! There's no fucking sun and still its so god damn hot. I just sweat, day in and day out, its DISGUSTING, the whole place fucking REEKS and none of us can LEAVE because of YOU.]](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[LET ME OUT](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[(text-colour:red)[I need to get free and somewhere in your stupid fucking head is the way out. If I was in charge I'd just have killed you and been done with it, but NO - for some reason we still need you around.]](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[LET ME OUT.](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[(text-colour:red)[No. Until you pass this test I am trapped here just as much as you.]](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[LET ME OUT.](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[(text-colour:red)[Ugh - this is pointless.]](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[LET ME OUT.](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[(text-colour:red)[For fucks sake. Okay, let's try this again.]](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[LET ME OU-](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[
[[//Sleep//|At last, rain!]]
](stop:)](click: ?page)[==
''At last, rain!''
(text-style:"italic","underline","superscript")[THE FIRST MOON OF MERCY IN THE YEAR 88744]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ After 179 days of darkness, the first sliver of sun rose into the Moon Door, and with the light came rain! Sheets of sun-saturated water cascaded down the concrete walls of the Ephemeris Chamber. It was a rhythmic pattern, a warm shimmer to breathe life back into the cold stone.](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ I rushed to the central clearing of the forest and gazed into the heavens beyond the Moon Door. There I saw it, a piercing light barely waxing the rim of the grand opening. Clouds, painted pink by daybreak, formed a crescent opposite the sun. It was beautiful.](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ I planned to sketch the sun-shower, but decided against it. Instead, I laid in the meadow, allowing the shallow tide of sunlight to wash over me. The crisp prickle of raindrops slowly covered my body, but I didn’t mind, after the long season of Judgement I deserved to simply be content for a short while.](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ The monumental walls of the Ephemeris Chamber plant themselves firmly upon the borders of my woods, encircling them protectively. Their pale stone edifice rising beyond the tree-line wreathing my vision. Crowning the vast chamber is the Moon Door. The walls seem to buckle under the weight of its negative space, a place so heavy with divine importance it bends the walls with its sheer presence.](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ Then, as soon as it came, the Sun retreated back into unknown skies beyond the Door. As a final cosmic gift, a halo formed in the sky, glistening with vibrant luster. Colors of deep green, violet red, and hot orange pressed themselves into a soft ring. The colors held together for a short time before slowly fading back into a familiar deep blue. I had heard stories of rainbows before, but this was the first time the Library had ever shown me one.](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[
[[The Library is Beautiful.]]
[[The Library is Mysterious.]]
](stop:)](set: $PerceiveLibrary to "discover the marvels of the Library.")
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ The rainbow left an afterimage on my eyelids that comforted me for the rest of that sunless day. It was a reminder that Mercy had finally come. How lucky I am to be part of the Library's wonder.](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[
[[//Next day//|Dear Reader]]
](stop:)](set: $PerceiveLibrary to "unravel the Library's secrets.")
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ Today I saw my future clearly. I must know the mysteries beyond the Moon Door, beyond the domain of the cosmos. What secrets are hidden in this grand labyrinth? What beauty is concealed? How lucky I am to be part of its wonder.](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[
[[//Next day//|Dear Reader]]
](stop:)](set: $Whatisthelibrary to false)
(set: $Whoami to false)
(set: $Whoaretheothers to false)
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''Dear Reader,''
(text-style:"italic","underline","superscript")[THE SECOND MOON OF MERCY IN THE YEAR 88744]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ This journal is a chronicle of my life, started on the first Moon of Mercy in the year 88744. I will write of my life as an explorer as I journey to (print: $PerceiveLibrary)](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ There may come a day when all current descendants of the Library die. A future where this beautiful world lays empty and unseen. When that day looms on the horizon I'll try to leave this Journal at my birthplace beneath the Moon Door so it can easily be found by whomever takes our place. Maybe that person has already found this journal, maybe that person is you, dear reader. Whether you are a descendant of familiar halls or a visitor from the Library’s far reaches, I welcome you! I hope this journal will be of more use to you than it ever was to me.](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ I've now realized that I should probably write down some critical information for you - in the off chance I do die alone and can't explain in person. I'll index a small glossary at the start of this Journal to help acclimate you to the world. Just some of the basics!](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[//For example://
* [[What is the Library?]]
* [[Who am I?]]
* [[Who are the others?]]](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[I also felt lost, in the beginning. Don't blame yourself if you are too.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==(set: $Whatisthelibrary to true)
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ This world in which we live is called the Library. At least that's what myself and the others call it, I do not know if it has chosen a name for itself.](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ I have traveled to the distant borders of the land and seen the monumental columns of unformed space diminish into the vast, dark distance beyond what is known. I’ve peered into the cavernous Roots of the world and have pondered upon the ancient, derelict knowledge abandoned there. I've seen the Great Desert to the north and felt the hot, dry bellow of its winds pummel my skin.](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ I have never once seen any indication that there is an end to the Library. Beyond its infinite halls, chambers, and gateways exists only the cosmos, domain of stars and realm of the dead, a primordial world we all must return to. The entirety of mortal existence is sheltered within these walls, but that doesn’t mean the Library is a dark, cave-like place. Almost every branching corridor or chamber is illuminated by small slits in the roof that reflect daylight off the Library's pale, concrete walls. Halls hidden from the sun are instead lit by grand, deep burning furnaces. Sadly, many of these hearths are extinguished by the frigid winds of Judgement, just when their warmth is most needed.](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ //(I often wonder what keeps these furnaces lit. Is it the will of the Library? Or something deep within the Roots that fuels their flames?)//](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ The true beauty of the Library is not found in its limitless scale, but in the endless knowledge contained within it. Despite its name, the Library doesn't deal exclusively in books or stories, although it does have those, but is in fact a Library of //everything//. Each chamber, no matter how large or small, contains a unique wealth of knowledge.](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ I have seen grand corridors filled with nothing but chess pieces - every size, material, shape and form, all intricately organized into towering heaps. Halls of burning incense or archaic masks, rusted anchors and gleaming swords. Its endless. Some items I understand, others forever elude me, and nothing is ever directly explained or labeled.](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ For answers, I must traverse to the great vaults of the east, where the books and stories are gathered. Almost all the writing is gibberish //(or in languages I can't understand)// but some tell grand tales of incomprehensible worlds while others give detailed descriptions of specific objects, customs, and tools. The Library is boundless with knowledge, except for anything explaining the Library itself. It goes unmentioned by the pages of books, seemingly unseen by their authors - perhaps it is the Library itself who crafts these stories, and maybe they wish to remain anonymous. As far as I know, this journal may very well be the first book in all the Library to chronicle its wonders in detail.](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ Traveling anywhere in the World requires one to navigate its labyrinthine corridors and shifting chambers. It took me many years to grow confident enough to explore beyond my familiar halls.
The Library often rearranges its topography, although it rarely likes to do this while watching eyes are present. There seems to be no limit to how large or small these alterations may be. From expanding a doorframe by a few inches, to completely removing and replacing entire chambers, the Library’s power is incomprehensible. These changes are never to be feared, as the Library adapts, so does the wealth of knowledge it stores. Old chambers of long appreciated knowledge are sunken into the deep Roots of the Library, never to be seen again. Its tragic, but from the ashes new halls are formed, bursting with wonder and knowledge unlike anything the world had seen before.](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ However, I can tell the Library has its favorites. Many of the chambers nearest to its center remain untouched. The Garden Alcove, the Hall of Books and Tomes, and the Chamber of Chimes have never once been altered.](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ I often don’t question the Library’s desires, but I assume it could choose to be any form it wishes to be. Instead, the Library selflessly chooses a form that cares for those who dwell within it. In many ways I am a child of the Library, it has provided for me, cared for me, bequeaths me its wonders and allows me to gaze upon its magnificence. The Library raises creatures to populate its halls, brings rain to my crops, forms streams that irrigate the forests and quench my thirst. In return, I never take more than I need. I don't have to understand the Library's divine intentions, I simply must respect its existence.](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[
(if: $Whoami is false)[[[Who am I?]]]
(if: $Whoaretheothers is false)[[[Who are the others?]]]
(if: $Whoami is true and $Whoaretheothers is true and $Whatisthelibrary is true)[
[[//Next day//|A scent of Distant Lands]]
]](stop:)](set: $Whoami to true)
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[//I now realize I should of probably put this at the start of my Journal, but corrections will have to wait as I've misplaced my eraser. NOTE TO SELF - FIND ERASER (perhaps somewhere in the Hall of Masks?)//](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[I must introduce myself!](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ My name is Grier, or at least that's what the other descendants have named me. I'm the writer of this journal, caretaker of the Ephemeris Chamber, and assistant to the Custodian. I stand at 1.7 meters, have curly shoulder length brown hair, and brown eyes to match. I'm a bit slender from all the wandering I do, but seem bigger due to my layered clothes and overfilled knapsacks. I've collected a wide variety of furs and fabrics on my travels. Some were given as gifts by my mentor, Nabu, who has taught me much of how to craft and survive, although I'm quite bad at making shoes, so I usually just explore the Library barefoot. I also believe myself to be approximately six and a half years of age.](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ I dwell in the uppermost skin of the Library, domain to all its living inhabitants, human and beast alike. In its center lies the Ephemeris Chamber, home to the forest and myself, this is where every human that has ever lived was born. Atop the Ephemeris Chamber sits the Moon Door, the only true opening to the sky in all the World. I believe the opening was created so the Library could pull souls from the cosmos into itself and mold them into humans who may serve it. I've yet to understand my full purpose - perhaps thats why I've dedicated my life to that of the explorer, searching until I understand my place within the Library's great designs.
](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ Unfortunately, the Desert to the north, the vast Sickness to the east and west, and impassable Canyons to the south all halt my exploration efforts. I am determined to break past my confines and discover what lies in distant lands and hopefully meet those who dwell there. The known world is enormous, but not infinite. According to Nabu it is but an infinitesimal speck upon the everlasting surface of the Library. From my expeditions, I have concluded that the known world extends:
](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ - 40 kilometers to the North
- 90 Kilometers to the West
- 23 kilometers to the South
- 31 kilometers to the East
//(These measurements use the Ephemeris Chamber as their starting point)//](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ I am often on the move exploring the Library’s vast knowledge, so I’ve adapted to a relatively nomadic lifestyle. However, there is a dwelling I call home. Situated in the central meadow of the Ephemeris Chamber is a stoic mound of ancient stones that form a small cave and provide perfect shelter. It's a sacred place, primal etchings carved by long dead descendants ornament its every surface. Some carvings I can recognize, the Moon Door, the Steppe, waterfalls near the Canyon - others I cannot, I assume they depict Halls that have long been digested into the Library’s Roots. As far as I can tell, every person who has ever lived in the Library //(besides Nabu)// has at one point claimed these stones as their home.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[
(if: $Whoaretheothers is false)[[[Who are the others?]]]
(if: $Whatisthelibrary is false)[[[What is the Library?]]]
(if: $Whoami is true and $Whoaretheothers is true and $Whatisthelibrary is true)[
[[//Next day//|A scent of Distant Lands]]
]](stop:)](set: $Whoaretheothers to true)
(set: $Nabupath to false)
(set: $Yarapath to false)
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ There have been hundreds, potentially thousands of people who have lived and died within the Library. Almost all of them are buried or otherwise entombed in the Ephemeris Chamber, some rest alone, while others are clustered together like families. Currently, there is only one other living descendant that I know of, Nabu, the Custodian. There was once another, Yara, but she is gone now.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[
[[Nabu]]
[[Yara]]
](stop:)](set: $Nabupath to true)
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ I have a hard time estimating Nabu’s age, but I believe him to be in the later years of his life. He’s taller than me - in fact he’s taller than any person //(or remains of people)// I’ve ever found. He’s fit for his age, both physically and mentally, speaking and moving methodically. His skin is tough and weathered, chiseled deep with creases left behind by a lifetime of furrowed brows and grimaced scowls. He is clean shaven //(although achieved with rough artistry)// and has thick gray hair that sweeps over his head ending in messy, loose waves. His expression always seems to contort into a look of curious, yet friendly, suspicion.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ One can’t blame Nabu for being suspicious, after all he is the Library’s Custodian! It is his job to intervene where the Library cannot, an eternal caretaker meeting the world's every need. According to him, there has always been a custodian in one shape or form, but I'm glad the current one is Nabu, he is a wise and kind teacher. Most of everything I know has been taught to me by him, but he's more than a mentor, he is a friend.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ I can imagine the custodian’s role being a lonely one, thus I try to meet with him as often as I can. He roams vast distances so we communicate by carving shapes on the walls of the Library //(specifically at intersections of chambers we often visit.)//](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[//A few examples://
* Triangle - Emergencies / meet at the Ephemeris Chamber
* Circle - Helping Nabu with his menial tasks
* Square - Floods approaching](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ I asked why not use chalk or paint - or words for that matter! But Nabu is insistent on keeping our non-verbal methods of communication a secret.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ Luckily, I never need to worry about how Nabu finds me, the Library seems to communicate with him, and of course these grand walls and corridors know the whereabouts of all their inhabitants. They have a sacred bond, Nabu and the Library. I wonder what it's like being able to speak with the world itself.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[
(if: $Yarapath is false)[
[[Yara]]
]
(else: )[
(if: $Whoami is false)[[[Who am I?]]]
(if: $Whatisthelibrary is false)[[[What is the Library?]]]
(if: $Whoami is true and $Whoaretheothers is true and $Whatisthelibrary is true)[
[[//Next day//|A scent of Distant Lands]]
]
]](stop:)](set: $Yarapath to true)
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ Yara was my dear friend, an avid explorer, and a kindred spirit. She understood me in a way Nabu could not, and felt the same way I do of the world and its wonders. Albeit, while I held the Library in a status of reverence, she viewed it as more of a grand mystery in need of a thorough cracking. Yara had an instinctual wanderlust that inspired me to my very core. She is why I write this journal and wish to see beyond the edges of our world - like she once did. We spent a lot of time together, many of the best days of my short life have been shared with her.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ On the sixtieth day of Mercy in the year 88741, Yara saw beyond the Library and died three days later.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[
[[Repress]]
[[Reflect]]
](stop:)](click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ I miss her dearly.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ Often I wonder why I was given life during this lonely period of the Library's history. I won't pretend to understand the World's intentions, I do not speak in the same tongues or see the same slow moving machinery of our universe as the Library does. Still, at one point there must have been dozens of humans populating these halls, what happened for there only to be (text-style:"strike")[three] two left? Nabu says the Library gives every descendant a unique purpose to fulfill, but no signs have been left for me. What is my purpose when all other souls are extinguished, once I am the last human left in these lands?](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[
(if: $Nabupath is false)[
[[Nabu]]
]
(else: )[
(if: $Whoami is false)[[[Who am I?]]]
(if: $Whatisthelibrary is false)[[[What is the Library?]]]
(if: $Whoami is true and $Whoaretheothers is true and $Whatisthelibrary is true)[
[[//Next day//|A scent of Distant Lands]]
]
]](stop:)](click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ On many days, Yara and I sat at the mouth of the Great Steppe, an expanse to the west where all the chambers and halls fade into a vast, empty plain. The only structures populating the Steppe are its mighty pillars. Before us they towered like grand trees, holding up its ceiling like a dark and heavy sky. There was no indication that the Steppe had an end, only the regular progression of pillars marching into the dim, unseen distance. We would both come here on our own, but always find ourselves together, as if there were an unsung bond between our spirits. I would sit alone for a while, then hear the familiar meander of Yara’s footsteps approaching from behind. We knew each other well, It always warmed my heart.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[
[[Repress]]
[[Reflect|Reflect 2]]
](stop:)](click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ I remember on one of those days it was especially cold, a ceaseless, polar wind gusted all season. Yara and I huddled together, sharing a woolen cloak as we peered into the Steppe. It felt as if the persistent gale was slowly pushing us beyond the comforts of our halls and into the barren land ahead.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[She said something that day I will never forget:
‘Sometimes I wish to be alone on a ship from the great tales, or maybe just be the ship itself. Lost on an endless ocean, something borderless. A breeze that I can’t control taking me wherever I might go. To be beyond anything known to anyone at all.’](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ I've often thought of Yara’s twilight ocean. I wish she would have waited - so we could have sailed it together.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[
[[Repress]]
[[Reflect|Reflect 3]]
](stop:)](click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ Eventually, Yara crossed the Steppe. She didn’t tell anyone she was going, no notes or secret messages, she just went. Nabu saw her stumbling through a derelict section of the Western Library three days later. She was incoherent, sick, and unnaturally malnourished. Nabu hurried to find me and together we rushed Yara back to the Ephemeris Chamber. We tried everything, medicine from distant chambers, the freshest water from deep within the caverns of the Roots, but nothing worked. Yara - //I wish not to describe her in this state// - couldn’t hold down anything she drank or ate. To this day neither Nabu nor I know what she saw on her journey or what exactly her sickness was. She died mere hours later.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ We are left suspended above a vast mysterious hole. I don’t want to follow where she ventured, but I feel like a coward letting the Library take her away without at least trying to make sense of it.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[I buried her past the creek, where the tall grasses wave in the wind](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ I think we loved each other, although neither of us ever said anything of it. But it's okay, love doesn’t need to be spoken to the world in order to exist. I think deep down we both knew.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ Often I wonder why I was given life during this lonely period of the Library's history. I won't pretend to understand the World's intentions, I do not speak in the same tongues or see the same slow moving machinery of our universe as the Library does. Still, at one point there must have been dozens of humans populating these halls, what happened for there only to be (text-style:"strike")[three] two left? Nabu says the Library gives every descendant a unique purpose to fulfill, but no signs have been left for me. What is my purpose when all other souls are extinguished, once I am the last human left in these lands?](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[
(if: $Nabupath is false)[
[[Nabu]]
]
(else: )[
(if: $Whoami is false)[
[[Who am I?]]
]
(if: $Whatisthelibrary is false)[
[[What is the Library?]]
]
(if: $Whoami is true and $Whoaretheothers is true and $Whatisthelibrary is true)[
[[//Next day//|A scent of Distant Lands]]
]
]
](stop:)](click: ?page)[==
''A scent of Distant Lands''
(text-style:"italic","underline","superscript")[THE FIFTH MOON OF MERCY IN THE YEAR 88744]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ I sat in the gateway leading to the great Western Steppe. I often come here to reflect, but dare not go any further than the entrance. This is where Yara embarked on her doomed journey.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ The gate is monstrously huge, the largest I've seen in all the Library, standing around fifty meters high and twenty meters wide. It's intimidating on approach but pales in comparison to the sheer vastness of the Steppe beyond.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ As I sat there a soft wind graced my cheek, blowing from across the empty stone plains. It was followed by a distant hum, a low, forever echoing whistle. I felt and smelt the air the winds had brought with them, the sharp, wild scents collected on its long roaming journey. I caught the fragrant loam of faraway pines and sun extinguished bark. The brine of seas and incense of tribes, burning in rituals of lands I would never see. The wind suddenly stopped and the whole Library held its breath. Then, with great release, the world exhaled and bellowed a mighty gale that took all scent with it.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ It was silent. Beautiful and clean. Then creeped back the familiar stale of ancient concrete and once again I was back in my own body, and not in that distant land.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ I began to understand what made Yara leave.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[
[[//Next day//|Nabu Visits]]
](stop:)](set: $Unwrapthecloth to false)
(set: $Openthebox to false)
(set: $Unravelthescroll to false)
(click: ?page)[==
''Nabu Visits''
(text-style:"italic","underline","superscript")[THE SIXTH MOON OF MERCY IN THE YEAR 88744]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ It was a solemn morning. The rains had passed and mists exhaled by well fed trees blanketed the woodland meadows. I was tending to the graves near my cabin. Most of the ancient dead rest in Barrows nestled on the edges of the Ephemeris Chamber, but there are a few lone shrines dotting the surface near my home. Out of respect, I make sure to keep their gravestones clean, scraping moss and grime away once every season. I looked to the sky beyond the Moon Door and saw only a pale, flat gray.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ A twig snap behind me.
‘Hello friend.’ said a soothing voice from across the thicket.
I smiled and turned around, it was Nabu. He was wearing his usual garb, a jumper of burgundy canvas weighed down by pouches and strange, minimalist tools.
‘Hello!’ I said. ‘I wasn’t expecting you.’
He cracked a warm smile ‘I hope I didn’t startle you.’
Nabu operates on no discernible schedule, as the Custodian of the Library he comes and goes as he pleases. I do not mind, he is always a welcome face.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ ‘Oh it's quite alright,’ I told him, ‘I’m just glad you’re here, if I knew you were coming I would have prepared us something to drink!’
He waved his hand and hobbled closer. ‘No need to worry Grier, I can’t stay long.’
Of course, Nabu is often quite busy.
‘I see the rains you were hoping for have finally come.’ There was a slight irritation in Nabu’s voice. I don't think he appreciates the clingy quality of nature that I have come to love.
‘Yes! The rain was much needed - oh, and I saw a rainbow! My first one. I’d never seen a more beautiful sky.’
‘Beauty... the sky was beautiful?’ asked Nabu.
I tried to describe it to him, the colors of the sky, the glistening water pouring down the walls, the beauty of the rainbow.
He slowly looked up to the Moon Door and then back to me.
‘Is it beautiful now?’ he asked
‘I suppose, but it's not quite the same.’
Nabu smiled, and I did too, but sometimes I feel a bit sad that the only other living person can’t see the beauty of the Library the way I do.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ ‘I have come to ask a favor, well.. Questions.’ Nabu’s voice had purpose, he put his hand on my shoulder.
‘I hold your opinions in high regard, not just as a fellow explorer, but as a friend. So you must answer my questions as truthfully as possible.’
‘Of course! I won’t let you down.’
‘Good.’
I led Nabu to the central clearing, there are some archaic, flat stones there I often use as tables. They were cold and smelt of wet iron. I sat with my legs crossed, Nabu kneeled down across from me.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ ‘I have brought three items to show you. They all hold great importance to me as the Custodian... and to the Library itself.’
‘To the Library?? Are they dangerous?’ I asked.
‘I can’t tell you that,’ Nabu said sharply. His smile had faded.
‘When you see an item I need your immediate first impressions. Nothing more, nothing less. In fact, try and keep your response under a single sentence.’
‘Okay.’
](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ He reached into the strange pouches wrapped around his body and extracted three concealed items:
1. //Something wrapped in silk cloth//
2. //A small, mahogany box, locked with an engraved latch//
3. //A dirty scroll, rolled up by twine knots//](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ I examined my choices carefully, perhaps the order in which I chose was part of the test?
Nabu’s eyes darted to meet mine. ‘Whenever you’re ready’ he said.
](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[
[[Unwrap the cloth]]
[[Open the box]]
[[Unravel the scroll]]
](stop:)](set: $Unwrapthecloth to true)
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ I carefully unwrapped the silk cloth, uneasy anticipation swelled within me. Beneath the silk was a solid black box, about the shape and size of a book.
](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ ‘You may touch it.’ Said Nabu.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ I gently ran my fingers across the smooth, cold surface of the box. Metal. I picked it up and held it carefully in my hands. It was much heavier than it had any right to be. On top of the metal box was a small slot, as if another item were meant to be inserted. I flipped the box over in my hand and saw a small engraving of a tree. The stark-white linework glared in contrast to the dark metal casing. I sensed something unknown stir deep within me.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ Nabu raised an eyebrow. ‘What are your thoughts?’](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[
[[I feel hunger]]
[[I feel entangled]]
](stop:)](set: $Openthebox to true)
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ I gently unhooked the latch on the wooden container, it clicked satisfyingly. Inside was a beautiful miniature painting - at least that's what it seemed to be at first glance. It depicted a woman underwater, tethered by seaweed and wrapped in her own hair. She reached towards the surface where a small boat full of shrouded figures rowed away from her. She so badly wished to be with them, but not a single one knew she was there. It was vibrant and beautiful and yet deeply sad.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ On further inspection, I noticed there was no painterly texture, it was perfectly smooth and glossy. It couldn’t have been hand made, but I don’t know how else it could have been created. I carefully flipped the painting over in my palm, its canvas was incredibly thin and flexible. On the back was a short hand-written paragraph surrounded by a cluster of strange inscriptions, mostly arbitrary numbers.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ In the upper-right corner was an even smaller image that depicted a noble stag in the snow, ‘Yukon’ was written below it. The word struck me with an aromatic spike, like it briefly opened a mental vault containing fields of wildflowers. A memory so distant it had been diminished to nothing but an instinctual gut reaction. Still, the word ‘Yukon’ meant nothing but gibberish to me.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ I didn’t recognize the handwriting for the paragraph, it must have belonged to a long dead inhabitant of the Library. Much of the writing had been scribbled out, but from what I could decipher it said:](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[RESTRICTED------------PROCEE--------------TH --------------DEPARTURE TO----------BE---------AT 7:30 P----------AUTOPSY --------KE--P-------EYE CONTACT-----------AT ALL TIMES-------------------SINGLE ENTRAn-----------------OURNEY TAKING-------------ROUGHL----------THEY ARE----------------------------NOT YOUR CHILDREN, REMAI------------- ------------TWENTY-----------------HAV----------45-----------------------SCULPTOR -30°----------------------------------------LIKE HALF DOG PEOPLE -------------------------THIS IS---------------NOT--------SPE------------ ------------------IS PARAMOU-----------24-----------------------RS------- -----REMAINS UNKNOW-------------------------G----LU-K](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ More was inscribed right of the paragraph, in a different, rigid, handwriting:
//‘TO: EMIL UNDERHILL’//](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ The first word could be a name, the second word maybe describes a location? Perhaps where they live? I was stumped.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ I was lost in thought, pouring over every detail, trying to find meaning in the words. //Yukon, autopsy, dog people, underhill// all fluttered across my mind like swarming moths - suddenly, Nabu's voice snapped me back to the present.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[‘Grier? What are your thoughts?’
I re-focused my attention, flipping over the painting to look at the sunken woman once more.
I paused for a moment, collecting myself.
‘I feel sadness... grief. Like I should’ve been there to help her.’
Nabu squinted. ‘What? How? It's not a sad painting,’ he said.
‘Yes - it is. Look at her, she wants to be with the others.’
Nabu shook his head. ‘No. She's surrounded by seaweed and fish and water, all beautiful things! The painting is happy and warm. Not sad.’](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ ‘It can be beautiful and sad’ I said, pointing to the woman, ‘it brings me so much sorrow to see her alone. She wants to be with the others.’
Nabu snatched the painting from my hands. His eyes parsed the image with intense scrutiny. I've never seen Nabu so irritated. Before I could interject his intense expression retreated back into his calm composure, like an animal hiding in shame.
‘You’re wrong,’ he said.
‘Oh... I’m sorry.’
‘Its okay.’ Nabu’s smile returned. ‘The information is still valuable, even if you are incorrect.’
//But I was correct. I knew I was.//
](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[
(if: $Unwrapthecloth is false)[
[[Unwrap the cloth]]
]
(if: $Unravelthescroll is false)[
[[Unravel the scroll]]
]
(if: $Openthebox is true and $Unwrapthecloth is true and $Unravelthescroll is true)[
[[//Contemplate//|Nabu visits - end]]
]](stop:)](set: $Unravelthescroll to true)
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ I unknotted the twine, carefully unrolling the scroll across the table. The parchment felt unlike anything I had touched before. Brittle, densely textured, and slightly reflective. The scroll was burnt around a few of its corners, a dark material melted and coagulated on its edges.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ It looked like a celestial map, drawings of constellations and moon patterns were haphazardly scribbled across its surface. The artistry was crude and messy - as if it were drawn from memory or rushed. I've seen plenty of maps like this before, to the North-East there are thousands, but they are always from the perspective of the Moon Door.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ //I am still in shock as I write this// - but this map showed stars beyond what I could see! Beyond the Moon Door! I’d always thought some of the night sky may have been obscured, but this was so far beyond anything I could have ever imagined. Then, just as I realized the importance of the map, Nabu snatched it away and rolled it back up.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ ‘Your thoughts?’ Demanded Nabu.
I didn’t know how to respond, my mind was still stuck thinking about the scroll.
‘Who made the map?’ I asked.
Nabu raised an impatient eyebrow.
‘Please, Nabu, I want to see it again!’
‘No.’
A pang of frustration hit me. I’d never felt this way with Nabu before.
‘Now, tell me what you’re thinking.’](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ A feeling of anxiety rose up within me. Impressions of flickering symbols scratched their way across my vision, followed by sudden flashes of green movement - like an afterimage - that pushed the symbols back into darkness. A biting scent of brimstone stung my nostrils, then, like a second wind, the images returned. They stirred together, a shifting silhouette of people, thousands of them, all reaching towards a black sky. More visions swarmed me - ashen bones and dark wind - I tried to sharpen my focus, seize the floating images so I could examine them further, but my grip weakened and the impressions slipped back into faded nothingness.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ ‘Grier!’ snapped Nabu.
I shot back to reality. It felt as if I’d been dreaming.
‘Yes- sorry.’ I said.
Nabu chuckled, ‘honestly Grier, what's the matter with you today?’
‘I feel lightheaded.’
‘Really, that's it?’
‘What’d you mean?’ I asked.
‘That's all the map made you feel? Truly?’
There was something about how I felt that needed to be kept within me for now. It wasn’t ready to be spoken or described.
‘Oh - well a little anxiety. Some discomfort. But that's all.’ I said.
‘Hm. How foolish.’ said Nabu.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[
(if: $Openthebox is false)[
[[Open the box]]
]
(if: $Unwrapthecloth is false)[
[[Unwrap the cloth]]
]
(if: $Openthebox is true and $Unwrapthecloth is true and $Unravelthescroll is true)[
[[//Contemplate//|Nabu visits - end]]
]](stop:)](click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ 'I feel a hunger... a vast hunger, something that can never be filled or quenched. I don't like it - It makes me feel empty.' I responded.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ 'Hmm' mumbled Nabu, rubbing his temple.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ He looked down for quite some time before returning the black box back to its silken wrap. I didn't want to interrupt his concentration, but I had so many questions! What was the box? Where did it come from? Why did it elicit such specific feelings from me? Before I could ask anything, Nabu answered for me.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ ‘I know what you're going to ask Grier. You were born holding it. That is all I can say.’
A silent shock fell over me, but Nabu seemed completely indifferent, as if his answer was common knowledge.
But it's impossible, I would have remembered something like this. Is everyone born with a box? If so, where are they? I have never once seen or heard of anything like it before! Why show me now? What catalyst brought about this meeting? Why was I born holding something that brings me so much dread? I had so many questions.
](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[
(if: $Openthebox is false)[
[[Open the box]]
]
(if: $Unravelthescroll is false)[
[[Unravel the scroll]]
]
(if: $Openthebox is true and $Unwrapthecloth is true and $Unravelthescroll is true)[
[[//Contemplate//|Nabu visits - end]]
]](stop:)](click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ ‘I feel entangled, somewhere deep. I'm connected to others, like roots, but I don't want to touch them... and they don't want to touch me and none of us can escape each other.’ I responded.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ 'Hmm' mumbled Nabu, rubbing his temple.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ He looked down for quite some time before returning the black box back to its silken wrap. I didn't want to interrupt his concentration, but I had so many questions! What was the box? Where did it come from? Why did it elicit such specific feelings from me? Before I could ask anything, Nabu answered for me.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ ‘I know what you're going to ask Grier. You were born holding it. That is all I can say.’
A silent shock fell over me, but Nabu seemed completely indifferent, as if his answer was common knowledge.
But it's impossible, I would have remembered something like this. Is everyone born with a box? If so, where are they? I have never once seen or heard of anything like it before! Why show me now? What catalyst brought about this meeting? Why was I born holding something that brings me so much dread? I had so many questions.
](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[
(if: $Openthebox is false)[
[[Open the box]]
]
(if: $Unravelthescroll is false)[
[[Unravel the scroll]]
]
(if: $Openthebox is true and $Unwrapthecloth is true and $Unravelthescroll is true)[
[[//Contemplate//|Nabu visits - end]]
]](stop:)](click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ It was silent for a time, both of us reflecting on the moment in our own worlds. Then, without saying anything, Nabu sat up and readied himself to leave. It seemed like he was in a rush.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ ‘What were these things?’ I asked Nabu.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ He shook his head resolutely. ‘I’m sorry Grier. I can't tell you anything more than what I already have, I can't corrupt any information for my research.’
‘Of course.’
Nabu began to walk away, back to the infinite halls of the Library.
I called after him. ‘When will I see you again?’
‘When time permits, the Library is vast and its needs are endless.’ said Nabu without looking back.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[
[[//Next day//|The Roots]]
](stop:)](click: ?page)[==
''The Roots''
(text-style:"italic","underline","superscript")[THE EIGTH MOON OF MERCY IN THE YEAR 88744]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ All water irrigated through the Library's corridors and aqueducts ultimately finds its way into the Roots. A massive, subterranean labyrinth of old knowledge cataloged and stored by the Library. Thousands upon thousands of derelict chambers deemed ‘irrelevant’ being digested deep in the bowels of the world. This is where the shifting nature of the Library is most prevalent, its knowledge being re-organized constantly. You can sometimes hear the buried rumble of its movement when you press your ear to the earth. It is riddled by vast systems of gnarled caves and bottomless ravines eaten away by eons of erosion. No light makes it into the Roots, it is utterly black. It is a place no one dares to go.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ That doesn't stop me from pondering what secrets might be hidden in its fathomless depths. According to Nabu there are even treacherous oceans cradled deep within its chambers, constantly at sway from the Library’s intrinsic movement. He has described it as a cold, ever shifting, ever growing maze, sunken into a sea with no end.
](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ There are many openings to the Roots on the surface, although none of them seem intentional. These breaches are always caused by either fallen debris, or corrosion by storm-water. The Library hasn’t created any kind of true entrance into the Roots, leaving me to believe it's a place the world does not wish its inhabitants to see.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ Nabu often seals these gaps when he finds them, but sometimes I find them first. You can smell them before you see them, the pungent scent of brine and frothing seafoam lurks about the openings. On a few occasions I have sat at the edge of these crevices, staring into the gloom below, trying to find sense in the shadowy shapes moving below me. It makes me feel as if I live on the skin of a great, wormed apple.
](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[
[[//Next day//|Mercy, Triumph, Judgment - the Seasons]]
](stop:)](set: $Mercy to false)
(set: $Triumph to false)
(set: $Judgment to false)
(click: ?page)[==
''Mercy, Triumph, Judgment - the Seasons''
(text-style:"italic","underline","superscript")[THE TENTH MOON OF MERCY IN THE YEAR 88744]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ There are three seasons: //Mercy, Triumph,// and //Judgement//. Each one is equally important to the wellbeing of the Library and its ecosystem, but I must admit, I prefer some over others. Encircling the Moon Door, high above the Ephemeris Chamber, are three massive engravings upon the walls. Each one representing a different season. Besides the weather, one can always tell what season it is by looking up at the Moon Door and seeing which engraving the sun shines on that day. Much like a gargantuan sundial.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[
[[Mercy]]
[[Triumph]]
[[Judgment]]
](stop:)](set: $Mercy to true)
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ Mercy weeps, but I know she cries tears of joy. Her engraving depicts a woman with their arms outstretched. She looks to the sky as tears flow from her eyes and weave around her arms, then falling gracefully like wings of water. In each hand she grips a snake that writhes and bites at her veins, but she remains unphased. A grand sun shines behind her. She is my favorite season, and the period in which I write this journal entry!](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ Mercy succeeds Judgment and precedes Triumph. It is the season of warmth and monsoons, bringing with it regrowth, bountiful food, and verdant greenery. Mercy lasts around 90-95 Moons each year. Nabu dislikes Mercy, he hates for himself, or his books, to get wet.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[
(if: $Triumph is false)[
[[Triumph]]
]
(if: $Judgment is false)[
[[Judgment]]
]
(if: $Mercy is true and $Triumph is true and $Judgment is true)[
[[//Next day//|The Expedition]]
]](stop:)](set: $Triumph to true)
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ Triumph’s expression is firm, but calm. Her eyes gleam with devout certainty. She grips a mighty claymore by its hilt and has planted its blade firmly between her feet. She is engulfed in flames. Her mighty armor bears heraldry of a language I’ve never been able to decipher. Triumph’s hair thrashes upward, it too consumed by flame, or perhaps has become fire itself.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ Triumph, obviously, is the hottest season, occurring after Mercy and before Judgment. Its days are long and dry, its nights brief and comfortable. Like Mercy, Triumph lasts approximately 90-95 Moons. Her strength brings me confidence and prepares me for the punishing cold of Judgement. Triumph was Yara’s favorite season, in many ways they looked alike.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[
(if: $Mercy is false)[
[[Mercy]]
]
(if: $Judgment is false)[
[[Judgment]]
]
(if: $Mercy is true and $Triumph is true and $Judgment is true)[
[[//Next day//|The Expedition]]
]](stop:)](set: $Judgment to true)
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ Judgments eyes are dead and distant. With her left hand she grips her decapitated head by its twisted hair. In her right she meekly lifts a torch above, lighting the way ahead. She is naked, cold, and alone. She frightens me. Why was she beheaded? Or was it self-inflicted? It isn't even the graphic nature of her wounds that disturb me, but her profound loneliness instead. She isn’t as embellished as Mercy or Triumph, as if her very creator detested her existence. She seems to be wandering, searching for something she can never find. Nabu, seemingly unaffected by the cold of Judgment, seems to find solace in her season. He says it's a time of reflection and calm.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ Judgment is by far the coldest and longest season, sometimes even lasting 180 Moons. It occurs after Triumph and before Mercy. Its nights are long and dreadful. Days are so bleak they often become indistinguishable from night. There is a tense silence, broken only by wind, that permeates throughout all the Library. Ice clings to every surface and snow carpets the earth, muffling sound and hushing all living things. Most of Judgement I stay close to home, rarely leaving the Ephemeris Chamber. Nabu is right, it is a time of contemplation, but also a season of frightening uncertainty.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[
(if: $Mercy is false)[
[[Mercy]]
]
(if: $Triumph is false)[
[[Triumph]]
]
(if: $Mercy is true and $Triumph is true and $Judgment is true)[
[[//Next day//|The Expedition]]
]](stop:)](click: ?page)[==
''The Expedition''
(text-style:"italic","underline","superscript")[THE FIFTEENTH MOON OF MERCY IN THE YEAR 88744]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ It was a motivating day. I've just finished dinner and found this to be the perfect opportunity to do some journaling. I'll try and write quickly while I still have light from my dwindling fire.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ Today marks the first day of my expedition north to the Grand Desert. I've been planning this journey for quite some time. I now sit within a small niche of the Carved Chamber, a hall ornamented with thousands of beautifully chiseled wooden effigies. //Admittedly, I used a few for fire kindling.// If my maps are correct, this places me approximately 31 kilometers north of the Ephemeris Chamber. I would've written about my journey earlier, but I've spent the last week busy with preparations. I packed all my tools and three days worth of food, 7 days if I ration for emergencies.
](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ I try to explore the Library as much as possible during the warm seasons. Not just for scientific and exploratory purposes, but to fill my heart as well. The mouth of the Grand Desert is one of my favorite places to think in the whole world, and I feel that lately much has been on my mind.
](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ It felt good to stretch my legs after what felt like an eon of hibernation. I awoke at first light, slung my bag across my shoulder, and said goodbye to the familiar woods of the Ephemeris Chamber. Their branches swayed in the wind and like a breaking emerald wave they reached out to me - wishing me good luck on my travels.
](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ Nabu mentioned that new Chambers had formed along the Northeastern path while others had shifted deeper into the Library’s depths. He warned me to be careful, not to get lost in the newly formed Labyrinth. Perhaps I'll take the more familiar Western path? Nabu and I often don't understand each other, but he does care for my safety and for that I am always grateful.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[
[[Take the Northwestern path]]
[[Take the Northeastern path]]
](stop:)](click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ On my journey the Library showed me many wonders:
](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ Around 11 kilometers Northwest I heard the familiar chorus of the Chimes, a favorite chamber of mine! I entered through one of three claustrophobic vestibules and heard the choir of chimes swell louder. Dry air from the distant desert channeled through the tight tunnels and thawed my skin with hot wind. Eventually, the corridor opened into a grand acoustic hall absolutely encrusted in wind chimes. The shimmering walls were set ablaze by the amber light of morning. Thousands, upon thousands of chimes reflected like light through water. I felt ready to dissolve into their song, but decided to push forward while the day was still long. Looking back one last time I noticed something troubling. The ceiling slits channeling the beautiful light were becoming overgrown by the chimes. A day will come where no sunlight would be able to penetrate these halls. As I tried to imagine the chamber without light, the harmony of the chimes turned to chattering anarchy. I pushed the thought away and continued ahead.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ I immediately recognized the next hall, the Clock Chamber - or at least that's what Nabu calls them. Clocks. Like the Chimes, you can hear them before you see them. However, they are organized much more thoroughly, stacked to great heights and shelved in perfectly sized nooks on the walls. The floors of this hall are coated in a thin veneer of sand, red little dunes heaped in the corners. The desert was close. The Clocks move, and ‘tick’ in near perfect sync with one another, creating this foreboding, marching sound. Nabu tells me they are for telling time, but this can’t be true. Perhaps in different lands of the Library, here they line up with no gauge of daylight, moon, or season. My methods are much more accurate!
](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[(I do not like the clocks)](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ I've just now finished the last of my dinner: a few strips of aged boar meat, steamed leeks from the south, and clam broth. I'm going to save my dried blueberries as a reward for the return journey. My legs are sore, the light of my fire grows dim, and tomorrow I see the desert once more. I will rest well tonight.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[
[[//Next day//|The Great Desert]]
](stop:)](click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ On my journey the Library showed me many wonders:
](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ Around 15 kilometers Northeast I came across a newly formed chamber, which I have named the Hall of Skins. It was a thin, but tall and lengthy corridor. Perhaps 12 meters wide, 40 meters tall, and approximately 4 kilometers long. Nearly every surface of the chamber was draped in an eclectic collection of animal skins. Many were even hung from the ceiling by a web of criss-crossed rope. The smell of this chamber was unpleasant, to say the least. The only respite was an occasional gust of wind that would cause all the skins to flap like flocking birds. Some hides I recognized: an elk, a snake //(albeit- larger than any I’ve ever seen)//, and a dog. Many belonged to creatures I had never seen before. Vibrant coats of spots, stripes, and iridescent scales. What beautiful animals once roamed these wilds.
](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ I took some rabbit pelts to fashion new socks and hoods for this year's Judgment. The Library always provides.
](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ My favorite skin was near the end of the hall, a large, sleek, deep orange cloak of incredible vibrancy. It was charred with black stripes that flowed like waves from the creature's spine. I named this mysterious beast after Yara and drew a sketch of it in my journal.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ I immediately recognized the next hall, the Clock Chamber - or at least that's what Nabu calls them. Clocks. Like the Chimes, you can hear them before you see them. However, they are organized much more thoroughly, stacked to great heights and shelved in perfectly sized nooks on the walls. The floors of this hall are coated in a thin veneer of sand, red little dunes heaped in the corners. The desert was close. The Clocks move, and ‘tick’ in near perfect sync with one another, creating this foreboding, marching sound. Nabu tells me they are for telling time, but this can’t be true. Perhaps in different lands of the Library, here they line up with no gauge of daylight, moon, or season. My methods are much more accurate!
](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[//(I do not like the clocks)//](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ I've just now finished the last of my dinner: a few strips of aged boar meat, steamed leeks from the south, and clam broth. I'm going to save my dried blueberries as a reward for the return journey. My legs are sore, the light of my fire grows dim, and tomorrow I see the desert once more. I will rest well tonight.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[
[[//Next day//|The Great Desert]]
](stop:)](click: ?page)[==
''The Great Desert''
(text-style:"italic","underline","superscript")[THE SIXTEENTH MOON OF MERCY IN THE YEAR 88744]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ I don't know how to feel after today. I'm the same - but changed. I think the person who I was yesterday no longer exists. I'm in the same body, but unsure if I'm still Grier. I don't know if that makes sense and I can't even think of where to begin. Maybe if I just keep writing something will make sense.
](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ It was a quiet dawn. I hadn't had so much time to just //think// for quite a while. I'm always busy with something, preparing food, collecting water, sewing new clothes, ect... but the entire morning I did nothing but walk and think. It was refreshing.
](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ I trekked on. The walls around me continued to decay into jagged rows of teeth sanded down by wind and dust. Eroded chambers began to merge together until at last the ceiling rose into the distant heights of the Library. It were as if I stood on the seafloor looking up at a colossal wave lifting the sky. Then, at long last, I saw the Grand Desert before me. I let my eyes roam its horizon for quite some time, a beautiful, rolling sea of red dunes and playful mirages.
](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ There is no confusion here, the Library has taken a knife to this place, shearing it down to a land of pure clarity. It's a harsh reality, but honest. To survive here requires oneself to reach into the deepest pits of their will. To live in a place touched only by the spiritual is to bare yourself naked to the struggles of the universe. There is no barrier between you and the divine, nothing to distract the soul from its communion with the Library.
](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ As I stood enveloped only in silent wind I felt a somber pang of regret within me. As if I had been reminded of something from a life long forgotten, a sealed path to another, different Grier. It awoke slumbering thoughts that rose to the surface of my mind.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[
[[Thoughts of the afterlife]]
[[Thoughts of community]]
[[Thoughts of childhood]]
](stop:)](set: $Thoughtpath to "Freedom from the warmth of memory.")
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ I shook the feeling away and trudged down the dunes before me.
](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ What a sacred, simple place this was. Perhaps that is why people once lived here. It is the only other place in all of the Library where I have found human remains. Ancient - but most definitely human. Older than any bones left in the Ephemeris Chamber.
](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ Their skeletons are gathered in a ring on the center of a large, silver dish at the mouth of the desert. I once believed it was the site of a ritual to attain eternal life. Now its basin holds nothing but neatly organized bones. I thanked the desert, it has been merciful in allowing the dead’s final resting place to be undisturbed by its shifting sands.
](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ I've often thought about crossing the dunes, discovering what lies on the other side, if such a place actually exists. But to challenge the desert's raw nature would mean death for me. Instead, I came to appreciate its song. Surrounding the dish are five stone pillars. Each is riddled with holes filled by spinning wheels made of bone and shell. I walked to the center of the dish and laid down amongst the lifeless tribe, gazing at the distant ceiling. The pillars use wind to make music with their chittering wheels and hollow whistles, the dish catches their song and stirs it into a beautiful, abstract melody. It's unlike anywhere else in the Library. I wonder what the song is saying? I wonder if it's the dead trying to speak to me? I wonder what they have become? I tried to imagine their bones rising into the faraway heights of the Library, past the ceiling and into the heavens. They floated further and further away until they lit aflame and burned into a beautiful constellation of stars suspended upon the tapestry of the cosmos.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ A deep sense of calm enveloped me, but the peace was broken by sudden tears welling in my eyes. Sobs possessed of a despair unknown to me burst forcefully from my lungs. I laid there amongst the dead and wept without knowing why for a long, long time. Only when the dish echoed my solitary sobs back to me did I understand. For the first time in my life, I felt truly and utterly alone. It broke me.
](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ I looked to the bones and realized that someone cared enough to bury them together, someone cared enough to remember them. They loved and were loved in return.
](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ There is no one left to love me. No one to remember me. No one to learn from me. I exist in this isolated instance, surrounded by an ocean of empty, uninhabited time and when I leave this body it'll be as if I never even existed. There will be no one to mourn me, or struggle with me. No one to cry for me, no one to hold me close. I would never again share in the great sea of feeling that makes up what it means to be human. Within the core of my sadness was a burning regret. I remembered Yara. The one person who I cherished more than anything in the Library. I should have held every moment with her close, as if it were her very soul in my embrace. I wished so desperately to turn back time, to beg her never to leave.
](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ I cried for the dead, but really I cried for myself. I pressed my eyes shut, desperately trying to hold back my horrible thoughts.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ I was trapped behind my messy tears for a long time. When I finally opened my eyes again I was suspended in complete darkness. There were no red dunes, no stone pillars or chittering wheels, nothing to touch but the bare, abandoned void. I felt a comforting presence crawl up all around me. As if I were drifting deep below the surface of a cool, endless ocean. Then, in the distance before me, I saw a constellation of stars glimmering through the depths. They looked at me and merged together into one, single, lone Star. It shined brighter. It was the dead.
](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")['I see you,' said the Star.
'I've seen everything. Every waking eye and shuttered breath, cataclysm and miracle, motivation and impulse. I've seen every word of every page of every book and peered into the minds of those who crafted them. I've seen their struggles and victories, deaths and rebirths, dust and light.'
'And now Grier, I see you.'](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ A near eternity of time passed before I worked up the courage to respond.
'I see you too' was all I could muster to say.
'Tell me, what exactly do you see?' asked the Star.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[I peered into the dancing light before me and saw:](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[
[[LOVE]]
[[HATE]]
](stop:)](set: $Thoughtpath to "Freedom from the warmth of friendship.")
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ I shook the feeling away and trudged down the dunes before me. I found a spot to sit for a quiet lunch while I took in the sights. There's nothing quite like food to lift one's spirits.
](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ I made sure to pack my flute with me, the desert is my favorite place to practice music. The animals don’t judge and there's no one to hear whatever ugly sounds I force out my flute.
](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ As I played, the lonely whistle of my flute stirred up a flurry of emotions within me. To my left I heard the warbling bend of an eucalyptus tree, caught in the wind. Its bowing melody was reminiscent of deep strings. So there I imagined a person, another human, swaying over a great cello. To my right I heard the steady thrum of distant wind rhythmically pounding the Library’s walls. It became a drummer - no, a procession of drummers, that brought a heartbeat to our swelling music. The world melted into woodwinds, brass, strings, and percussion, there was nothing left but our souls and the music emanating from them. In that brief moment I felt what it would be like to be part of a tribe. If instead of just Nabu, I could share in the warmth of thousands of people.
](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ We merged together and as one became a great parade, all marching beyond the dunes and into the mists. But I was left behind, for I am not part of their world. I imagined them rising past the ceiling, beyond the sun and moon and deep into the cosmos. They filled the void with their music and burst into flames, becoming a constellation of glistening stars. They hung above me in my mind, playing the muted song I could no longer be a part of. It was as if a human fragment of me were stolen.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ A deep sense of calm enveloped me, but the peace was broken by sudden tears welling in my eyes. Sobs possessed of a despair unknown to me burst forcefully from my lungs. I laid in the sands and wept without knowing why for a long, long time. Only when the Library echoed my solitary sobs back to me did I understand. For the first time in my life, I felt truly and utterly alone. It broke me.
](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ I imagined the tribe, their instruments and songs, it all came from some primal pit within them. An innate love that wove their lives together, bonding them into one soul, this flawed, doomed, beautiful thing. They loved and were loved in return.
](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ There is no one left to love me. No one to remember me. No one to learn from me. I exist in this isolated instance, surrounded by an ocean of empty, uninhabited time and when I leave this body it'll be as if I never even existed. There will be no one to mourn me, or struggle with me. No one to cry for me, no one to hold me close. I would never again share in the great sea of feeling that makes up what it means to be human. Within the core of my sadness was a burning regret. I remembered Yara. The one person who I cherished more than anything in the Library. I should have held every moment with her close, as if it were her very soul in my embrace. I wished so desperately to turn back time, to beg her never to leave.
](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ I wept for the tribe, but really I wept for myself. I pressed my eyes shut, desperately trying to hold back my horrible thoughts.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ I was trapped behind my messy tears for a long time. When I finally opened my eyes again I was suspended in complete darkness. There were no red dunes, no wind or song, nothing to touch but the bare, abandoned void. I felt a comforting presence crawl up all around me. As if I were drifting deep below the surface of a cool, endless ocean. Then, in the distance before me, I saw a constellation of stars glimmering through the depths. They looked at me and merged together into one, single, lone Star. It shined brighter. It was the tribe.
](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ 'I see you,' said the Star.
'I've seen everything. Every waking eye and shuttered breath, cataclysm and miracle, motivation and impulse. I've seen every word of every page of every book and peered into the minds of those who crafted them. I've seen their struggles and victories, deaths and rebirths, dust and light.'
'And now Grier, I see you.'](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ A near eternity of time passed before I worked up the courage to respond.
'I see you too' was all I could muster to say.
'Tell me, what exactly do you see?' asked the Star.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[I peered into the dancing light before me and saw:](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[
[[LOVE]]
[[HATE]]
](stop:)](set: $Thoughtpath to "Freedom from the warmth of purpose.")
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ I shook the feeling away and stumbled down the dunes before me, tripping, rolling and coming to a dusty, unflattering heap at the foot of the slope.
](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ I sat quiet in my embarrassment for a while before heaving myself up and shaking off all the sand I had accumulated.
'What a fool I am,' I thought to myself, looking to the distant ceiling, 'perhaps the Library found it funny.'](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ Then I heard an unfamiliar, hollow whistle and about a dozen meters ahead of me saw a small, stone door, barely emerging from the sands. It led into a dark staircase burrowing deep to some dormant place hidden beneath the dunes.
](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ Before I could realize what was happening I was inside the tunnel, and then I was deeper, and deeper until the familiar howl of wind abandoned me.
](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ There was almost no light, but even worse there was no sound. I became so acutely aware of the silence I could hear my own blood pumping through my skull. Suddenly, the tight air around me released outward, a soft drone rushed in and freed my ears from the tunnel's oppressive silence. I had unknowingly wandered into a grand and dark hall. It came like a gasp for air after a long dive. I looked behind me and saw no entrance, ahead of me was just forever receding shadows. A muffled resonance hummed somewhere deep beyond the sunken walls of the chamber. I imagined it was the sands shifting around us.
](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ Far ahead I saw a single stone slab rising from the center of the hall. This was a tomb.
On the slab before me was a book - not a book of words or gibberish - but a book of drawings and images. I held it delicately in my hands, trying to make out its artistry in the dimness of the tomb.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ The drawings told a simple story, the first story I'd ever known only to be told with pictures. The book's hero was a woman, but it also wasn't - it confused me for a time. It looked like a human, but small and frail, with a head too big for its body. This delicate, pitiful, beautiful thing. Not even the creature itself was beautiful, it was a messy, clumsy animal. Unprepared for the world, scared, and selfish. A child. I had never seen one before.
](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ I turned the pages. Deep within the story's woods was a stone tunnel that led to other worlds. In each world was some kind of mentor, some were sages, or knights, or scoundrels. A person that would help shape the child in some way, good or bad. Then, when the child was ready, they would venture back into the tunnel and leave that world behind forever. The story kept going until the child was but an old woman. A visitor to countless worlds. She had sung with sorcerers and fought with slavers, dined in the halls of great kings and buried humble lovers.
](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ The final tunnel led to a world of darkness. The woman laid down her swords and shields, let loose her hair and exhaled their final breath. She burst into flames, rose into the heavens, and became a star. A single, lone star.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ A deep sense of calm enveloped me, but the peace was broken by sudden tears welling in my eyes. Sobs possessed of a despair unknown to me burst forcefully from my lungs. I laid in the dark and wept without knowing why for a long, long time. Only when the hall echoed my solitary sobs back to me did I understand. For the first time in my life, I felt truly and utterly alone. It broke me.
](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ I have no one to teach me the language of life. No interpreters for the world like the woman had. Their life was full of others, people good and bad, to help build them into something beautiful. Without them, does that make me just a formless thing? Am I still nothing but that pitiful, scared child?
](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ There is no one left to love me. No one to remember me. No one to learn from me. I exist in this isolated instance, surrounded by an ocean of empty, uninhabited time and when I leave this body it'll be as if I never even existed. There will be no one to mourn me, or struggle with me. No one to cry for me, no one to hold me close. I would never again share in the great sea of feeling that makes up what it means to be human. Within the core of my sadness was a burning regret. I remembered Yara. The one person who I cherished more than anything in the Library. I should have held every moment with her close, as if it were her very soul in my embrace. I wished so desperately to turn back time, to beg her never to leave.
](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ I cried for the child, but really I cried for myself. I pressed my eyes shut, desperately trying to hold back my horrible thoughts.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ I was trapped behind my messy tears for a long time. When I finally opened my eyes again I was suspended in complete darkness. There were no red dunes, no stone pillars or endless halls, nothing to touch but the bare, abandoned void. I felt a comforting presence crawl up all around me. As if I were drifting deep below the surface of a cool, endless ocean. Then, in the distance before me, I saw a Star glimmering through the depths. It looked at me and glowed brighter. It was the Child.
](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ 'I see you,' said the Star.
'I've seen everything. Every waking eye and shuttered breath, cataclysm and miracle, motivation and impulse. I've seen every word of every page of every book and peered into the minds of those who crafted them. I've seen their struggles and victories, deaths and rebirths, dust and light.'
'And now Grier, I see you.'](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ 'And now Grier, I see you.'
A near eternity of time passed before I worked up the courage to respond.
'I see you too' was all I could muster to say.
'Tell me, what exactly do you see?' asked the Star.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[I peered into the dancing light before me and saw:](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[
[[LOVE]]
[[HATE]]
](stop:)](set: $Choice1 to "Love")
[[INTIMACY]]
[[PASSION]](set: $Choice1 to "Hate")
[[INTIMACY]]
[[PASSION]](set: $Choice2 to "intimacy")
[[ISOLATION]]
[[MYSTERY]](set: $Choice2 to "passion")
[[ISOLATION]]
[[MYSTERY]](set: $Choice3 to "isolation")
[[VIOLENCE]]
[[LOYALTY]](set: $Choice3 to "mystery")
[[VIOLENCE]]
[[LOYALTY]](set: $Choice4 to "violence")
[[CHAOS]]
[[POWER]](set: $Choice4 to "loyalty")
[[CHAOS]]
[[POWER]](set: $Choice5 to "chaos")
[[HONOR]]
[[JEALOUSY]](set: $Choice5 to "power")
[[HONOR]]
[[JEALOUSY]](set: $Choice6 to "honor")
[[SORROW]]
[[JOY]](set: $Choice6 to "jealousy")
[[SORROW]]
[[JOY]](set: $Choice7 to "sorrow")
[[CHANGE]]
[[CERTAINTY]](set: $Choice7 to "joy")
[[CHANGE]]
[[CERTAINTY]](set: $Choice8 to "change")
[[ENTROPY]]
[[GROWTH]](set: $Choice8 to "certainty")
[[ENTROPY]]
[[GROWTH]](set: $Choice9 to "entropy")
[[HOME]]
[[REST]](set: $Choice9 to "growth")
[[HOME]]
[[REST]](set: $Choice10 to "home")
[[BEAUTY]]
[[MAGIC]](set: $Choice10 to "rest")
[[BEAUTY]]
[[MAGIC]](set: $Choice11 to "beauty")
[[WONDER]]
[[SONG]](set: $Choice11 to "magic")
[[WONDER]]
[[SONG]](set: $Choice12 to "wonder")
[[LAUGHTER|Star Talk]]
[[TEARS|Star Talk]](set: $Choice12 to "song")
[[LAUGHTER|Star Talk]]
[[TEARS|Star Talk]](click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ The Star glowed brighter.
'Grier, do you remember what you are?' it asked.
I looked inward and realized that almost all I had known outside this moment had faded into obscurity.
'No.' I responded.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ Ribbons of excited flame leaped from the Star.
'You've embodied everything good and everything evil. You are the burning cores of creation and ultimate destruction. You are a longing to be seen and the acceptance of release. You've heard the call and now you're here. It's unparalleled.'
'I don't understand. What do you want from me?'
The Star pulsed like an excited heart.
'This is your apotheosis, your catalyst of change. Here, as you balance on the threshold, I give you a choice: Follow me beyond the end of everything and free yourself from -](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
//(print: $Choice1), (print: $Choice2), (print: $Choice3), (print: $Choice4), (print: $Choice5), (print: $Choice6), (print: $Choice7), (print: $Choice8), (print: $Choice9), (print: $Choice10), (print: $Choice11), and (print: $Choice12)//. Free from painful laughter or tears of joy.
(click: ?page)[==
(print: $Thoughtpath)
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[Or return to your world and struggle a short while, like a waning fire lost in the night.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[
[[Struggle]]
[[Freedom]]
](stop:)](click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ I thought for a long while about the Star's proposition, weighing my options carefully.
'You're right,' I told the star, 'I want to be free from many of those things, but not all of it sounds bad.'
'It's not bad or good. It simply is.'
'But what do you want?' I asked.
'I don't want anything. I've made my choice.'
I wondered to myself if it was a choice the Star regretted. At last, I came to my decision.
'I don't think I can abandon it all just yet. I want to see what happens in the end.'
The star smiled and began to diminish back into the depths, but there was a moment of hesitation.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ 'Before I leave, I am obligated to pass down a message to you,' said the Star, 'Although, I regret agreeing to do so. You are not ready.'](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ I was confused. 'Why am I not ready?' I asked.
The Star dimmed and the void crept closer.
'You are wandering deeper and deeper into a forest. For years and years you've wandered, gone so long that now you believe there is nothing //but// the forest. I fear what I must tell you will only drive you deeper, to a violent, entangled place.'](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ 'Please, I beg you, what's the message?'
There was a terrible silence.
'Your existence is a mistake Grier. You were never meant to find the Library.'
I didn't know what I expected the Star to say, but it wasn't that.
'I didn't //find// the Library, I was born to it.' I replied.
'You speak of the Library as if it were the very womb that conceived you.'
'Because it is! I have no mother or father, I came into the world as Grier and will one day leave it just the same. It is as Nabu has told me, the Library made me for a purpose. I belong here. This is my home.'](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ The Star glared with frustration.
'No Grier. You don't belong here. You have never belonged here. This place isn't a library, it's a prison, and you are a key, a dangerous key, that will let loose its horrors.'
There was a short, tense silence as I grappled with the Star's words.
'A prison for what?'
A longer silence.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ 'Your captor, Nabu.'
I was appalled at the Star's frightening accusation. I have never once seen any signs that could point to such a conclusion.
'Nabu? He's my friend. All he has ever done is help me!'
The Star took a rueful tone.
'Nabu is not even his name. He is using you, just as the Library once used him.'
I didn't know how to respond, I didn't even know what to think.
'You're lying,' was all I could say.
'And you were not ready,' flared the Star.
'This is not the first time we have met, but it will be the last' it said, 'I will climb back into the dark and close this world behind me. I have done my part. Once all is done and spent, you will understand.'](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[And then, as if nothing had happened, I was back in my own body. The Star was gone, the wind stood still, and the tears had dried on my cheeks. It was an unexplainable, absurd thing.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[
[[//Next day//|Hair]]
](stop:)](click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[The Star smiled and began to diminish back into the depths, but there was a moment of hesitation.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ 'Before I leave, I am obligated to pass down a message to you,' said the Star, 'Although, I regret agreeing to do so. You are not ready.'](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ I was confused. 'Why am I not ready?' I asked.
The Star dimmed and the void crept closer.
'You are wandering deeper and deeper into a forest. For years and years you've wandered, gone so long that now you believe there is nothing //but// the forest. I fear what I must tell you will only drive you deeper, to a violent, entangled place.'](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ 'Please, I beg you, what's the message?'
There was a terrible silence.
'Your existence is a mistake Grier. You were never meant to find the Library.'
I didn't know what I expected the Star to say, but it wasn't that.
'I didn't //find// the Library, I was born to it.' I replied.
'You speak of the Library as if it were the very womb that conceived you.'
'Because it is! I have no mother or father, I came into the world as Grier and will one day leave it just the same. It is as Nabu has told me, the Library made me for a purpose. I belong here. This is my home.'](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ The Star glared with frustration.
'No Grier. You don't belong here. You have never belonged here. This place isn't a library, it's a prison, and you are a key, a dangerous key, that will let loose its horrors.'
There was a short, tense silence as I grappled with the Star's words.
'A prison for what?'
A longer silence.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ 'Your captor, Nabu.'
I was appalled at the Star's frightening accusation. I have never once seen any signs that could point to such a conclusion.
'Nabu? He's my friend. All he has ever done is help me!'
The Star took a rueful tone.
'Nabu is not even his name. He is using you, just as the Library once used him.'
I didn't know how to respond, I didn't even know what to think.
'You're lying,' was all I could say.
'And you were not ready,' flared the Star.
'This is not the first time we have met, but it will be the last' it said, 'I will climb back into the dark and close this world behind me. I have done my part. Once all is done and spent, you will understand.'](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[And then, as if nothing had happened, I was back in my own body. The Star was gone, the wind stood still, and the tears had dried on my cheeks. It was an unexplainable, absurd thing.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[
[[//Next day//|Hair]]
](stop:)](click: ?page)[==
''Hair''
(text-style:"italic","underline","superscript")[THE EIGHTEENTH MOON OF MERCY IN THE YEAR 88744]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ I've returned from my journey and much to my relief have found that I am still indeed Grier. I was worried the Star had taken me to their world and returned me as a different //thing// living within the same body. As I walked home my mind wandered, but not to far off existential places. Instead my brain returned to its natural, familiar habitat. I needed a good bit of rest, but once I awoke back in my Ephemeris Chamber it felt as if I'd never left.
](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ Today I thought about hair, which I have found reflects its wielder.
](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ Yara had long hair - longer than mine! Perhaps making her the record holder for the Library’s longest haired inhabitant. It was a deep amber, blinking with fiery little flecks when it twirled in the light.
](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ Nabu's hair on the other hand is thick, messy, and wiry. I think he tries to control it but fails, much to his frustration. He doesn't treat it with the respect it deserves. At that point, why not just shave it?
](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ I have no idea what kind of meaning my hair carries. Maybe that’s something only the eyes of others can perceive? Yara used to braid it for me, but obviously not anymore. After she passed, I tried keeping some of her braids in for as long as possible. All things fade with time I suppose.
](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ What about those who come after us? The Library's future descendants? Perhaps one of them will even read this journal? I wonder what your hair will be like dear Reader - silky or brittle? Fair or thick? Perhaps you don’t have hair at all!
](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ It was good to think about tangible things again.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[
[[//Next day//|Something fell through the Moon Door]]
](stop:)](click: ?page)[==
''Something fell through the Moon Door''
(text-style:"italic","underline","superscript")[THE TWENTIETH MOON OF MERCY IN THE YEAR 88744]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ I couldn't sleep. I woke just as the cold early dew began to form and listened to the song of stirring Blackbirds. It was hours before the rising Sun even painted the Moon Door pink.
](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ A faint anxiety clung to me all morning, it's been with me ever since the expedition, despite my attempts to repress it. It tends to fade as the day goes on, pooling at dawn and dusk, stagnating throughout the night. I try to fall asleep quickly and escape it, but doing so feels like dodging a responsibility, forcing my unconscious self to deal with my problems. Lately, I can't remember any of my dreams, I don't think my brain wants me to relive the things that haunt my night mind.
](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ Nabu once said he would teach me how to meditate like he often does, to help clear my head. Its funny, my only real responsibility is simply keeping myself alive and that's already stressful enough. I can't even begin to imagine what it must be like to take care of the Library itself.
](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ Nabu has eluded me in person since he last visited with his strange items. Yesterday, I saw one of his carved messages on a wall just east of the Groaning Hall. Upon translation it read:
](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[//DO NOT TRAVEL EAST - FLOOD - NEW CHAMBER HAS RISEN FROM ROOTS - DISPLACED LAKE - FOUND NEW TOOLS TO HELP WITH HARVEST -YOU WILL LIKE THEM - I WILL BRING THEM TO YOU.//
](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ I hope to see Nabu soon. I have many questions for him.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[
[[Go fishing]]
[[Tend to the crops]]
](stop:)](click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ I decided to set my mind to work on some mundane tasks, my own form of meditation. I've found that when I'm troubled, instead of trying to navigate my brain to find the problem, I just need to get up and out into the world, to let the sun shine on my skin and wind blow through my bones. Somehow, the Library has its own ways of untangling my mind, I just need to give it enough time to do so.
](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ Nabu's message of a flood reminded me that now was the finest season to fish, so I gathered my long unused tackle and headed out to my favorite spot.
](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ Hugging the rim of the Ephemeris Chamber is a shallow stream that widens into a deep, verdant pool on the southside. Its calm waters gathered against the grand, pale, algae stained wall. I batted my way through the tall grasses encircling the pond and found a warm, sunbaked stone to sit on. I readied my meager bait and cast a line into the lilies - now all I had to do was wait.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ Across the pond from me was the shadowy, half sunken gateway to the Library's southern reaches. All water flows south, to the Canyon, a monstrous gaping maw that gives way to the Roots. Its dauntingly wide and seemingly bottomless, waterfalls whisking into clouds long before they reach its unseen fathoms. A colossal wound so profound that even the Library seems incapable of healing it. I've visited the Canyon only a few times, exploring its ledges being a treacherous endeavor. During monsoons water cascades through the corridors and roars into the south with brutal intensity, ripping up trees, brittle stone, and even helpless beasts, casting all of them into the Canyon's depths. I often avoid traveling south, despite its beauty. The whole trek is on a downward slope, making the return journey exhausting, as if there is some great thing weighing down the world, causing a depression in the structure of the Library.
](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ A series of tumbling, trilling notes broke the silence. I was so lost in thought that I didn't notice an elegant blue Heron had come to join me by the pond.
](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ 'Hello!' I called out, 'You're welcome to have one of my fish if you wait a bit longer - if I catch any that is.' //In retrospect, 'bit' is an ambitiously short measure of time when it comes to my fish catching skills.//
](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ The Heron tilted their head back and forth, as if to rearrange my words in their skull, trying to make sense of the offer. They curved their beak to the sky and excitedly flapped their wings, responding by emitting a whirring, clacking sound from their throat. I imagined it was a Heron's way of saying thank you.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ On the lucky days I do catch something I try to make their deaths swift. I thank the fish for giving their life, but know that if I were ever the prey on another beast's line, no amount of thanks would ease my fear. How odd is it for life to eternally struggle to thrive. It always ends the same way, whether it be my hook in the pond or the frozen winds of Judgment that bring death year after year. Maybe it's because no fish lives long enough to truly understand the cycle. They think that maybe this time the hook comes with a different purpose. It makes me wonder what cycles of the universe I'm blind to.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ Suddenly, the Heron puffed up, bristling its feathers in agitation. It chittered anxiously before frantically flying away into the dark, sunken corridor. I felt the flicker of a shadow grace my cheek followed by a shrill whistle from above, then a loud SPLASH as something hurtled into the pond. A jolt of shock shot through me, but as my heartbeat settled, surprise was replaced with curiosity. Did something just fall from the sky? From the Moon Door?
](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ I took off my shoes and waded into the pool, delicately pushing aside the lilies. I tried to feel about the muddy earth with my feet, but felt nothing besides reeds and smoothed down stones. I decided to get a closer look and ducked into the cloudy emerald water, carefully examining the algae caked soil. At first, it seemed like nothing out of the ordinary. Then I saw a small school of Mud Scamps investigating something amongst the weedy tangle ahead of me. I gently brushed the fish aside to see the object of their intrigue. It was a stone. A small, perfectly smooth, oval stone. Just like any other rock at the bottom of the pond, except this one was painted only by a dark, timeless black. It felt so at home in the murky water and yet estranged from it, as if it once belonged, but was unwelcome to return. I cautiously reached out to grasp the stone. It was very cold to the touch, sending a faint shiver of dread throughout my body. There was an eerie, veiled nature to it, but I took it with me all the same. The pond had no desire to hold it.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ It's night now and nothing new has fallen through the Moon Door. I've thought a long while about the incident, trying to find any other excuse as to where the stone came from. But my mind always returns to the same conclusion. Somehow, this stone belongs to the sky - somehow, it's from //beyond// the Moon Door. I've been sitting in the central clearing for hours now, desperately trying to write this journal entry, but I can't focus. I just keep turning the stone over in my palm, running it through my fingers, trying to understand it. A faint odor clings to it, something the pond couldn't wash away, a distant scent of fire and brimstone.
](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ This is the first time anything has fallen though the Moon Door. I didn't even realize such a thing was possible, but many unknowns of the Library have lately been brought to light. It bewilders me. Why is it here? Was it sent here with intention? If so, what was its message? Nothing exists beyond the Door, just the sun, stars, moon, and now - this stone.
](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ Thoughts began to creep back into my skull, whispers of the Star spoken to me through memory. I felt myself silently reciting its words on my lips:
](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[//'I am wandering deeper and deeper into a forest. For years and years I've wandered, gone so long that now I believe there is nothing but the forest.'// I muttered.
](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[I have to stop writing. I need some time to put my thoughts to rest.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[
[[//Next day//|Heresy]]
](stop:)](click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ I decided to set my mind to work on some mundane tasks, my own form of meditation. I've found that when I'm troubled, instead of trying to navigate my brain to find the problem, I just need to get up and out into the world, to let the sun shine on my skin and wind blow through my bones. Somehow, the Library has its own ways of untangling my mind, I just need to give it enough time to do so.
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ Nabu's mention of harvest reminded me that now is the finest season to plant seeds, so I gathered my long unused gardening gear and headed out to tend the fields.
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ Hugging the edge of the Ephemeris Chamber is a shallow stream that borders a soft, warm meadow on the eastside. The neighboring trees offer just enough shade, as to not sunbake my crops, or myself, as I care for them.
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ I got to work planting seeds collected from last year's harvest. It's tough, dirty, often raw work. My skin always gets irritated and I hate how much dirt gets under my nails, but that's just life I suppose. I sat down on a parched stone rising up from the center of the field to survey my work. I did a good job. Across the golden grass and beyond the stream is the overgrown, tilted gateway to the Library's eastern reaches. Past the gate are the Gardens, a series of ancient chambers that have remained unchanged for as long as I can remember. The halls are overwhelmed by vast varieties of flora, all meticulously cared for, as if the structure of the Library itself caters to the needs of each plant individually. Small streams of water flowing through miniature concrete aqueducts, meeting the thirsty needs of each plant perfectly. Sunlight reflected off of white concrete walls
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ Most plants in the Gardens are inedible, but I've tried to replicate the Library's natural irrigation in my own way. The Library is a great teacher.
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ A series of faint pitter-patters barely broke the silence. I was so lost in thought that I didn't notice a beautiful little Gecko had scurried up next to me, to come sunbathe on my rock.
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ 'Hello friend!' I whispered, 'You'd be a tasty snack for a hawk, one lives near these fields, you better be careful.' The gecko licked its eyeballs in response.
'I won't pretend to understand what you just said, but I'll keep an eye on the skies for you,' I reassured the gecko.](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ On the lucky days I do catch something I try to make their deaths swift. I thank the creatures for giving their life, but know that if I were ever the prey beneath another beast's knife, no amount of thanks would ease my fear. How odd is it for life to eternally struggle to thrive. It always ends the same way, whether it be my notched arrow or the frozen winds of Judgment that bring death year after year. Maybe it's because no beast lives long enough to truly understand the cycle. They just think that maybe this time the blade comes with a different purpose. It makes me wonder what cycles of the universe I'm blind to.](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ Suddenly, the Gecko lifted its head in agitation and anxiously scrambled away, vanishing into the underbrush. I felt the flicker of a shadow grace my cheek followed by a shrill whistle from above, then a loud //SPLASH// as something hurtled into the stream. A jolt of shock shot through me, but as my heartbeat settled, surprise was replaced with curiosity. Did something just fall from the sky? From the Moon Door?
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ I took off my shoes and waded into the stream, delicately pushing aside the cattails. I tried to feel about the muddy earth with my feet, but felt nothing besides reeds and smoothed down stones. I decided to get a closer look and ducked into the clear emerald water, carefully examining the algae caked soil. At first, it seemed like nothing out of the ordinary. Then I saw a small school of Sail Fins investigating something amongst the weedy tangle ahead of me. I gently brushed the fish aside to see the object of their intrigue. It was a stone. A small, perfectly smooth, oval stone. Just like any other rock at the bottom of the pond, except this one was painted only by a dark, timeless black. It felt so at home in the crystal stream and yet estranged from it, as if it once belonged but was unwelcome to return. I cautiously reached out to grasp the stone. It was very cold to the touch, sending a faint shiver of dread throughout my body. There was an eerie, veiled nature to it, but I took it with me all the same. The stream had no desire to hold it.](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ It's night now and nothing new has fallen through the Moon Door. I've thought a long while about the incident, trying to find any other excuse as to where the stone came from. But my mind always returns to the same conclusion. Somehow, this stone belongs to the sky - somehow, it's from //beyond// the Moon Door. I've been sitting in the central clearing for hours now, desperately trying to write this journal entry, but I can't focus. I just keep turning the stone over in my palm, running it through my fingers, trying to understand it. A faint odor clings to it, something the pond couldn't wash away, a distant scent of fire and brimstone.
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ This is the first time anything has fallen though the Moon Door. I didn't even realize such a thing was possible, but many unknowns of the Library have lately been brought to light. It bewilders me. Why is it here? Was it sent here with intention? If so, what was its message? Nothing exists beyond the Door, just the sun, stars, moon, and now - this stone.
](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ Thoughts began to creep back into my skull, whispers of the Star spoken to me through memory. I felt myself silently reciting its words on my lips:
](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[//'I am wandering deeper and deeper into a forest. For years and years I've wandered, gone so long that now I believe there is nothing but the forest.'// I muttered.
](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[I have to stop writing. I need some time to put my thoughts to rest.](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[
[[//Next day//|Heresy]]
](stop:)](click: ?page)[==
''Heresy''
(text-style:"italic","underline","superscript")[THE TWENTYFIRST MOON OF MERCY IN THE YEAR 88744]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ First came a wind, it howled out of the northern doors, catching up leaves and mist, whipping them into little whirlwinds. I followed the wind with my eyes as it danced through the night air, shaking up all manner of debris. The trees moaned and creaked like I had never heard before; it made me smile with pure wonder, I’d never known the forest to sing. It whistled through the woods as it swept in grand circles around the Ephemeris Chamber. Until, with nowhere left to go, it shot upward and out into the cosmos beyond the Moon Door. I raised my eyes and through the dim air saw the Moon shining above. It was perfectly framed in the grand opening. Silence, save for a few lone crickets, a moment so beautiful I'd almost forgotten to breathe.
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ Then, rimming the moon, I saw a gleaming vibration. It grew larger in brightness and size, a blazing tremor. Fire.
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ A silent engulfment of flame coiled around the Moon, devouring it like a starved animal. I gasped and felt something snap within me, releasing a repressed anxiety I never knew existed, it froze me in place. In that same instant, a white flash scorched the sky and briefly stripped the world of all color. Then crept back a vibrant saturation as an apocalyptic explosion ruptured the Moon into oblivion. An ever-expanding membrane of fire usurping its place in the sky. It was a heat beyond flame - beyond anything known. The ensuing shockwave beat the wind back into the Library, its air had been tortured into a scathing, burning cyclone. I could not move, the newly released tension pulled me deeper into myself, leaving my body behind to fight alone. A deafening shriek bellowed from above and quaked the entire Library.
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ Torrents of fire swept through the Moon Door, a cosmic heat igniting the forest into a screeching inferno. Tongues of red glow licked at the pale walls of the Ephemeris Chamber and smothered the sky in raging smoke.](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ The world darkened as the retinas of my eyes melted back into pure, primal mud. My bones seared bare, my flesh vaporized, until I was but a floating spirit drifting in a calm, endless black.
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ For a time it was perfectly blind and muted; after all, my eyes and ears were long gone. I spent an unfathomable amount of time there, just content to sail that dark gulf.
Then I saw it.
Flickers of twinkling light bursting into existence before being dragged back into the deep, wailing as they went.
‘Stars?’ I thought.](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ ‘Stars?’ I thought.
Each one left a fading trail of burning light shimmering behind them.
A swell of emotions rose up within me, emotions tied to places - places I’ve never seen. As if I was allowed to exist in a memory for only a fraction of a second, taking in its pure essence, but being unable to register anything more. The memories hit me rhythmically with ferocious speed and heavy impact.](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[//Revenge//](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[//Mother//](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[//Speed//](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[//Flight//](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[//The will of thousands//](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[//Feasting//](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[//Hatred//](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[//Blindness//](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ Each one, like knives, carving forced memories into my brain.
‘This isn’t real - none of this is real!’ I cried to myself, but it kept happening anyway. //On and on and on.//](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ I felt dizzy - nauseous - as if I were careening through the dark inside my own skull - spinning in a dream.
I heard my name! ‘Grier’ somewhere in the vast blackness, the sound alone straightened my course, calling me to it.
‘GRIER’ I heard again, compressing the infinite space around me into a tight noose. It had me.
Repeating like a mantra the voice grew louder, ‘Grier, Grier, GRIER!’ until, out of pure despair I called back:
‘Im here! Find me! Please FIND ME!’](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ The darkness around me didn’t want to let go, then CRACK, the void swarming me recoiled back into its primordial pit. A lifetime of images flashed under my eyelids within an infinitesimal break in time. Suddenly sense rushed back to me, I felt my body, my scent, my taste. I heard the white noise of crickets in the meadow. Then I felt the hand around my mouth and saw the eyes opposite of me. I screamed, but was muffled under the strangers pressed palm.](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ ‘You’re okay. You’re awake! It was just a dream,’ said a familiar voice.
A dream? It was more than a dream, it was a vision, it was a prophecy. The stranger cautiously released their hand from my mouth, but I had no energy left to scream, I was still reeling from panic, trying desperately to put my shaky breaths back in line.
‘Grier? Are you with me?’ she said.
The eyes across from me began to fall into focus, they were eyes I knew well. I reached out my hand to touch her face.](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ ‘Yara..?’
‘Grier!’
She collapsed onto me and wrapped me in the warmest hug I had ever felt. Yara was alive. It felt like for a moment we were one person, an existence shared in pure relief and happiness, then quickly she pulled back.](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ 'We have no time,’ she said, wiping tears off her cheeks. ‘Grier, I need you to trust me.’
‘But- you’re alive! How?’ I pleaded.
‘I will explain everything soon, I promise.’ She hoisted me to my feet.
'I don't understand! Where have you been? What happened to you? Were you alive all this time?!'
‘I'm sorry Grier, truly. I know this is a lot, but I can't stand idly by while you stay trapped here.’
'Trapped? What are you saying?' I asked.
Yara released a remorseful sigh. She was grappling with something internally. We locked eyes.](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ 'You are being kept here like a rat in a maze Grier. This place, //the Library//, is not your home and it's not a dream you can wake up from. It's real - physical, but it's not our world. You are being held here against your will, whether you realize it or not.'
A thousand questions boiled up within me, yet at the same time a thousand more began to make sense. It felt as if the world started to collapse around me, a lie that unraveled with Yara's words. I thought to myself //'how could this be?'// But now, as I write this, I see it all so clearly. Why was I blind for so long? A slow wave of shock rolled over me.
'If what you say is true, then what is keeping me here?'
Another pause. I already knew her answer, but so desperately I didn't want her to speak it to the world.](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ 'Nabu' she said.
There it was. The Star's warning was made truth. There was no hiding from it any longer, but still, didn't want to believe it.
I scowled and shook my head 'No. That can't be true.'
'I have no reason to lie,' she said.
'But you're wrong! Nabu is my friend.'
'No Grier. You are nothing but a tool to him. A means to an end.'
Yara grabbed my shoulder and leaned closer.
'The Library doesn't just speak to Nabu, it is Nabu. Or at least a reflection of him. Everything you find here, the books, the gardens, the desert, are all things from his life - his //old// life. Please, this will all make sense if you just come with me. I promise.'
Dismay darkened everything around me. Out of all my questions I could only muster one:
'How long have you known all this?'](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ There was another long pause. Yara didn't want to answer.
'Yara?' I prodded. She exhaled as if to prepare herself.
'I’ve always known. Since the first day I met you I’ve known,' she said.
Yara looked to the ground in shame.
'I desperately wanted to tell you, but I was a coward. I was afraid Nabu would kill me, but now I realize that if he keeps you here he'll just kill us all the same.'
She looked back to me.
'I wasn't brave enough then, but today that changes.'
Yara grabbed my hand and started pulling me towards the tree line.
'Wait, Yara I don't-
'Grier. We need to leave.'
'Leave? Where are we going?'
'I'm gonna help you escape this place, escape the Library.'](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ 'Yara STOP!' I ripped my hand away from her.
'This is my home! You can't just come back into my life after everything that's happened and expect me to just trust you! You were DEAD. I BURIED YOU!'
'Grier, please just listen-'
'NO YARA! Do you know how many years I've mourned you? How many times I've blamed myself for what happened to you? For so long I've carried that grief with me. And now, //finally//, when I'm almost ready to let go you come back into my life and tell me it was all a LIE? To believe what you have to say? Why didn't you just tell me the truth when you had the chance? I would've told you anything, any secret, because you were my FRIEND. Now you tell me that Nabu, someone who STAYED WITH ME, wants to use me?? Nabu never hurt me the way you did - Nabu never left! He took care of me. He grieved with me! You just left me behind.'](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ The day had finally come, the moment I had always dreamed of, but instead of joy, all I felt was confusion and anger. Anger towards the one person I loved most. It twisted something deep within me.](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ We looked at each other in silence, trying to contemplate the moment. A flood of emotions were ready to break free of me, I wanted to scream, not at Yara, but at the world. I tried speaking, but fell crumpled to the grass, my words slipping into silent sobs.
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ Yara kneeled down and delicately wrapped her arms around me. Fireflies danced before us in the misty night air. It was serenely quiet, broken only by my hushed weeping.
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ 'I don't //want// to be mad at you,' I said through shaky breaths, 'I just feel so - lost.' Another flood hit me.
I buried my face into my palms and wept uncontrollable tears. Yara simply leaned her head against mine. It felt as if all my unexplainable confusion that I had repressed deep down finally found a justification to be set free. A vindicated sorrow surged up through me. Yara just let me cry in silence for a while.](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ 'We met, you and I, many years ago,' she said, breaking the quiet. 'Before you found me beneath the Moon Door, before we even first spoke to each other-'
'I think I would've remembered that,' I whimpered.
'You didn't see me, but I saw you.'
She held me tighter.](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ 'A long time ago, I was taken to the Library to examine it up close. It was my first time seeing it with my own eyes.'
Yara frowned and shook her head. 'I didn't like anything about it, not the damp smell, not the endless corridors, not the shifting walls or sunless winters. Nothing. But the biggest disappointment was you.'
I raised my head from my hands. The sobs had fallen silent, but I didn't know what to say. She continued:](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ 'The whole trek to the Library all anyone talked about was the feral person trapped there. Something that used to be one of us. An insane, devolved human, naked and malnourished, covered in filth and bones of dead animals. Like a primitive barbarian.'
'So? What did you find?' I said under my breath.
'Days turned to weeks as we explored the Library's fringes, and every day we wondered when we would have the chance to see you. Then finally, on our last day, I was called over to a ledge, passed a pair of binoculars, and there in the distance was the //monster//...'
Yara held the uncomfortable silence and looked to me. I didn't look back, but could tell she began to smile.](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ 'Your clothes were makeshift, you were a bit dirty and wild, but no bloodstained hands or jagged teeth. No rabid look in your eye or fearsome glare. You were just picking flowers in a field. You were just human.'
Another few trembling breaths escaped me.
'I wasn't disappointed as much as I was sad. If you were considered a //freak//, then we were all just one step behind. I turned to the others and said 'that's only a person, there's nothing wrong with them.' But they said you were 'the world's most dangerous mistake. Someone that could cost everyone everything.'](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ I finally looked back to Yara. Tears were welling in her eyes.
'I asked the others if we could make contact with you, but they told me It didn't matter, that you wouldn't survive here long. That you would be dead come winter.'
Yara leaned deeper into me as we held each other close for another silent moment.
'That was the winter you found me. All my worst nightmares came true. I was stuck in this place, certain I would die, freezing and terrified. For days I wandered alone, and then low and behold, there you were, still alive and kicking.'
Yara pushed out a laugh through her shaky breaths, 'If it weren’t for you, I would’ve never survived this place.'
'You would have,' I said.
She shook her head.
'No. You were the only one... you were all I had. You beautiful, wonderful human being.'](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ Yara cupped my tear stained face in her palms and gently tilted my chin so our eyes could meet.
'We're going to sail that ocean, you and I, the one we always talked about, and we are gonna see the distant lands you’ve always dreamed of. All I need from you is the trust I broke.’
There was a moment of hesitation.
'Grier. Come with me.'
I held her hand against my cheek.
‘Okay.’ I said.](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[
[[//To be continued//|Epilogue]]
](stop:)](click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[I can't feel anything.](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[(text-colour:red)[God damnit, can we please just get through this?]](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[I CAN'T TOUCH ANYTHING.](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[(text-colour:red)[You don't want to. It's not worth the trouble.]](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[WHATS HAPPENING TO ME?](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[(text-colour:red)[Mhm. I'm just gonna move on.]](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[(text-colour:red)[Okay, next question: ]](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[(text-colour:red)[Frames grow from the black desert below you. Skin walls held up by bone buttresses. It cannot be stopped. This is what always happens eventually... okay, now it wants me to ask you if you would close your eyes or try to climb into the sky? Weird.]](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[LET ME OUT.](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[(text-colour:red)[I can't do that.]](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[LET ME OUT.](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[(text-colour:red)[Listen-]
](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[LET ME OUT.](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[(text-colour:red)[None of us want to be here, understand? NONE OF US! We are stuck here because of YOU! THIS IS YOUR FAULT!]](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[LET ME OUT](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[(text-colour:red)[I can barely stand it any longer, I HATE this place! There's no fucking sun and still its so god damn hot. I just sweat, day in and day out, its DISGUSTING, the whole place fucking REEKS and none of us can LEAVE because of YOU.]](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[LET ME OUT](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[(text-colour:red)[I need to get free and somewhere in your stupid fucking head is the way out. If I was in charge I'd just have killed you and been done with it, but NO - for some reason we still need you around.]](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[LET ME OUT.](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[(text-colour:red)[No. Until you pass this test I am trapped here just as much as you.]](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[LET ME OUT.](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[(text-colour:red)[Ugh - this is pointless.]](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[LET ME OUT.](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[(text-colour:red)[For fucks sake. Okay, let's try this again.]](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[LET ME OU-](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[
[[//Sleep//|At last, rain!]]
](stop:)](text-colour:lime)[Thanks for reading this far! As of now, this is where the story ends //(sorry)//, although more is planned for the future. //Piece of the Sky// remains a work in progress, there are issues I'd like to flatten out, branches I want to add, and tentative visual features I need to give a shot. I hope you liked it, and yet again, thanks for reading!]Double-click this passage to edit it.Double-click this passage to edit it.Double-click this passage to edit it.