The Library With No Books - The Keepers: Part 2

The Library With No Books
The Keepers: Part 2

“Soooo… where should we go?”

   As Khaldor had more urgent matters to take care of, the three topsiders and their guide Cailu were left on their own in this unfathomable maze of the Keeper’s library. This place had a lot to offer, but the guests didn’t know where to even start, so Meline looked at Cailu in hopes to get some ideas or answers from him. However, Cailu seemed to be about as lost, the Haedian hadn’t been in these parts of the Crystal Mind archives.

“Truthfully, I don’t know. We can just go somewhere and ask a clan member for help, like Khaldor suggested us to do.”

   Cailu looked at his companions with uncertainty, he definitely wasn’t much of a help in here. Having had enough of others’ indecisiveness, Aethone picked a passage and without saying a word, started heading down from it. To Meline’s and Cailu’s confused looks, Caelan simply shrugged and followed her.

   They crossed the corridor, which ended in another spacious room. This hall with several Haedians working in it was tastefully designed to offer the perfect atmosphere to conduct studies, exchange knowledge with fellow scholars or just to have a relaxing break in the corner with dim orange crystals that surrounded a comfortable area with beanie bags and plaids. Fortunately the topsiders were too excited to waste their precious time here sleeping. Aethone glanced towards Caelan and she couldn’t help but smirk when seeing Caelan’s face as he had stepped into academic paradise. When Meline had admired the beauty of this place, she approached one of the Keepers.

“H-Hi, hello! May I disturb you for a moment?”

   The young scholar lifted their gaze and smiled gleefully in response. Cailu stepped out from behind Aethone to see who Meline was talking to and Caelan was already standing in front of one of the shelves, taking a closer look at the novel storage crystals.

“Oh! The topsiders! And Cailu! Hello, Khaldor asked us to aid you if needed, so of course! How can I help you?”

   Aethone found it odd how this Hae already knew about them, Khaldor ran off in a completely different direction. Her thoughtful frown probably startled the Haedian as she was at least three times bigger than him, but his focus hopped back on Meline as she continued.

“We would like to learn more about your library and especially how those crystals work. I’d be very grateful if you showed me how to read them.”

“But of course! Where would you like to start? History? Science? Chronicles? Cooking recipes?”

“Uhmm… I’ll let you decide, I’d just like to see how they work.”

   Meline grinned sheepishly. Caelan clearing his throat made the Vayrons and Tyrians turn their heads towards him.

“If I decipher it correctly, this sign on the shelf here says ‘Qeteh’s Chronicles’? Perhaps we can start with that.”

   As Meline and Aethone stepped closer, they only now noticed how the marbled shelves were labeled. Someone had gone through the tedious work of engraving the archaic letters into the shelf edges, that the girls had trouble understanding as it barely resembled the written word they were using on the topside.

“Quite right you are, it’s actually Memoirs, not chronicles. But yes, we definitely can start with that.”

   The eager young lad took the crystal off the shelf and started to explain how to correctly hold one. He also lectured them on how these crystals can break under certain circumstances, but also boasted how much information each individual crystal can store. When he took a moment to breathe, Caelan couldn’t hide his curiosity.

“May I ask, how are these crystals made? Is it some certain type of gem you mine and polish or is it the same as the illuminating crystals around us?”

“Well, deep under the library we have the workshops where the storage units are made, maintained and in some cases, repaired. The raw material currently comes from the Brutes clan as our own mines are temporarily closed due to geological surveys and mappings. It’s a special type of gem, we call it the indicina crystal, that exhibits natural magical properties that we can utilize to record and read… well, everything.”

“And this, indicina crystal, can it maintain its properties and the information inscribed in it outside of the library? Or perhaps in the Above?”

   Caelan was obviously like a kid in a candy shop, the idea of having water-and fade proof means of storing vast amounts of information sounded too good to be true. As the Keeper was explaining, Meline and Aethone were also actively listening while also trying to analyze the similarities between their written language and the glyphs carved into the shelves. Aethone also noticed how the storage crystals closest to them were glowing slightly brighter compared to the ones further away.

“Uhm, well, we don’t yet know how they preserve outside of the Beneath, but I’m more than happy to collaborate on the matter of testing it.”

   Nobody noticed how Cailu was smiling his genuinely happy smile again, he was still extremely glad to see how well the Haedian clans welcomed the topsiders, while Meline, Aethone and others who had occasionally joined them had left a good first impression of themselves.

“I would be honored to conduct research in that matter. But first, may I request you to demonstrate how you access the info inscribed in these?”

   Caelan directed the topic back to the main point with a warm smile. The Keeper gasped as he had lost in the brainstorm on how he’d contribute to the grandiose collaborative research.

“Ah, yes, right. Of course. Please, gather around me, I’ll show you.”

   Meline and Aethone were forced to take a couple steps away from the shelves to meet the Haedian’s request, while Caelan and Cailu were already in perfect positions. The Keeper cleared his throat and once again reminded how to hold the crystal properly between the forepaws for reading it. Then he did his best to explain how he connects with the magic inside it, which allows him to skim through all the info that’s in there to find the certain spot he wishes to focus on. After having a moment to concentrate, the inside of the crystal activated, thousands of tiny specks racing through it as the Hae was looking for something. The guests could see how he found the right spot as the specks suddenly stopped, now remaining in place. The young one moved one hand underneath the crystal to hold it while using the other to pull magic out of it, making the specks leave the crystal as glowing tiny dots, which then gathered into a luminous mist. The mist started to take shapes, forming glyphs, words and then sentences up in the air above the gem, perhaps somewhat looking like a magical book page.

“So, this paragraph here starts with Qeteh’s childhood memory of her first swimming race. Qeteh is a member of the Depthstriders, so obviously there’s going to be swimming involved. Ahem, yes. Here she describes the excitement and anxiety she felt, then…”

   The young Keeper made a swiping movement with his free hand in front of the text, which then instantly shifted into new symbols and sentences.

“... and here she describes who else were participating and how they gathered at the starting line.”

   Meline, Aethone and Caelan all had their mouths half-open from the sorcery before them. Cailu already knew how these worked, so he was busy doing his best not to burst out laughing at the topsiders’ reactions.

“These… symbols appear backwards to me, how does the crystal know which way to display them?”

   Caelan was yet again the one to ask one question at a time while Meline’s and Aethone’s heads were about to explode from them.

“Hmm? Oh, right, sorry, I forgot to explain that before. When the crystals are processed, we inscribe polarity in them so they can adjust accordingly how they’re held. That’s why you first need to hold it between both hands, that’s when the crystal reads you to ‘know’ which way to display the text.”

   Then the tutoring Haedian’s face suddenly shifted in devious realization.

“However, it doesn’t need to be in text, you can also do this.”

   With that, the Haedian patted the crystal, after which the symbols disintegrated and the glowing mist reformed back into a shape of a pre-teen Haedian, who was swimming in the water, other Haedians around her faintly visible. Needless to say that Cailu couldn’t hold back from bursting into loud laughter as the topsiders were left completely dumbfounded by the mindblowing yet delicate art of the Keepers.