carrarn
patreon
Kernstalion: 26: Lost and...
🕑 Added 2021-03-20 13:04:55 +0000 UTCAs I felt the soft mattress against my flesh, I almost wept for joy, and it almost made me forget the fact I was not in Sandr- no Eliandra's room. It would take some time to get used to calling her that, but she had been very clear, and I knew her well enough to know it was no joke.
Propping the pillow up behind my back, I scanned the room. It was a whole lot smaller than the one Eliandra had, but compared to my sleeping places the last few weeks, it was much, much better. Fog hung in the room, and with a grin, I looked at the small nook in the back. The black stone there was glistening wet, and I had to resist the temptation of going inside again.
A hot shower, or close enough in a world that didn't even have plumbing! Eliandra told me they were only inside certain buildings because the hot water source needed very difficult, hard to make enchantments. I didn't care. While standing below it, I had felt almost normal again, and wherever Rathica's main temple would be, I wanted it to have showers!
Although I was sleepy, I forced myself to get up and get dressed in the pale shirt and brown pants Eliandra had handed me. My leather stuff was hanging across a stone rail at the other side of the room, water dripping in the pool below it. I'd have to clean that later, but right now, I wanted to look around.
I left my ax on the bed. It should be fine, and if someone ended up trying to take it, they would be in for a nasty surprise.
The hallway beyond my new room's door was empty, the other doors closed. As I moved through it, I heard nothing from inside. The inhabitants must be all out, training, or whatever they did here. Stepping out of the hall, I arrived in what looked like a mess hall—long tables with benches in the middle and a massive kitchen in the back of the room. I vaguely remembered moving through it on the way here.
Two routes led away from the room, and without knowing where to go I just to the left one.
A short while later, I was almost lost in the maze-like castle. Every corridor looked the same, and there weren't any people to ask for help or directions. Stomping forward, through another corridor I wasn't sure if I'd passed before or not, I turned a corner and stood before two massive wooden doors. A thick layer of dust lay on the ground before the door, and two old torches hung forgotten on the walls. It was the first time I saw this much dust while in the temple, and I curiously examined the doors.
Although closed, they had a massive knob on each side, and I saw no lock. Deciding a quick peek couldn't hurt; I pushed the right right door. As if from static, a jolt moved from my hand into the cold metal, and then the door swung open slightly. With a quick look at my hand, I peeked through to find a massive library sprawled out before me. Stone shelves filled with books towered as high as the ceiling and stone railings lead away into the depths of a room that had no business being in this castle. Stepping inside, I stared at the ceiling that must be thirty meters tall. High above, massive chandeliers filled with oddly burning candles cast an eerie light around. It took me a moment to figure out what was wrong with them. They didn't flicker or move!
Almost mechanically, I moved towards the nearest bookshelf, looking at the words on the band. I couldn't read even a single character of the angular hieroglyphic language. Annoyed, I continued on, walking through the library.
I had no idea how long I moved through it, occasionally finding books with markings that seemed familiar but that I couldn't read when I came to a wall lined with books bound in pale green leather. The words on the band were dark brown as if burned in instead of written. I froze as I looked at the line on the first book and understood the words perfectly.
"The history of Elgul, twenty-second king of the Sun elves," it read, and as I looked at the other books on the shelves, I found I could read all of them.
Scanning the books, I felt my interest increasing until I heard a ping from my status. With a groan, I quickly looked at it.
> 152/200: Knowledge
Were you kidding me? So, I'd finally found a library with plenty of knowledge, and now I was almost at the maximum that I could learn?
Deciding if I would fill it up, I'd at least wanted some magic and began looking for anything about magic. After ten minutes, I almost cried as I leafed through another book about history, not a trace of magic inside. Having to read every few lines to see what a book was about, I'd gotten another six points of knowledge just like that.
When I reached a hundred and ninety knowledge, I stopped in disgust. I had almost prayed to Rathica twice, just to get some help, but managed to hold back. I didn't know what the consequences were of me trying to get her attention while I was in the middle of Flowhearts temple.
I glared at the massive bookshelves as I put a book about the proper ethics when dealing with some long-dead Queen back. It was about time to head back and find something to eat. As I turned around, I spotted something moving in one of the side paths leading away from the shelves with Sun elf books.
My annoyance at my limited knowledge made way for trepidation, and I crouched down at the side of the bookshelf. Staring at the path, all I saw were leather-bound books, old and brown. Sneaking forward, I looked through the narrow path between shelves. A shadowy shape the size of a mouse shot around the corner at the end.
What the hell was going on now? Did these guys have mice? I'd seen no traces of them, no droppings or nibbled corners. Standing up straight, I moved towards the corner the thing had disappeared behind. Another narrow path and the shape disappeared around the next corner.
I stopped. That had been a coincidence, right? Or was I being lured somewhere? Wondering what would want to lure me towards anything, I continued forward. This was a library in the middle of a temple of a benevolent deity. What kind of evil mouse could possibly still be here?
Curious, I moved towards the corner just in time to see the small shadowy blur move around another corner. Definitely no coincidence. The timing was too perfect. Moving forward, this time, I almost ran, and again the blur disappeared around a corner in a timely fashion.
Soon I was more than a little lost, but I didn't care. Eliandra would send people to come and find me if I wasn't back in time, and I could always go and yell a bit.
The library seemed endless as I followed the small shadow deeper and deeper inside. I expected spider webs and dust, but everything was so clean I couldn't find even a single spec of either. Finally, I began seeing a change. It started with the occasional stone shelf being made of wood and continued until I was walking through a hall with fully wooden shelves filled with smaller books. Most were leather-bound, but some seemed to be made from other materials.
Curious, I picked up a small booklet and felt a wooden-like structure to the cover. Opening it, I saw the drawing of an insect and lines of an unreadable, large font text beside it. The page beside had another insect and more text.
A study book? For children, maybe? I leafed through it quickly, only stopped almost at the end when I saw a size scale. There were a small humanoid figure and a line of ever-growing insects behind it. The smallest insect was twice the size of the humanoid, and the largest filled the entire right side of the right-hand page. If this was correct, the thing that looked like a mutated grasshopper on steroids was the size of a house.
Putting the book away, I moved further into the library. What I guessed was probably half a day since I entered the library, I stepped around a corner into a pantry. A massive square fireplace stood in the middle, surrounded by four empty, wooden tables. Stools stood around them, all neatly arranged.
The shadowy blur disappeared to the other side, into a much wider hallway. Moving after it, I noticed that the tables were also clean of dust. The wide hallway wasn't that long, and at the end was a wooden railing. Beyond it, I saw a tall, oval bookshelf that seemed to wind away on each side.
Wondering if this was a pocket plane or if the doors had been teleported to another spot on this world, I moved to the wooden railing and stopped while my mouth fell open. I stood before what must be the largest, single-piece bookcase in the whole world. As I stared up, there was no end to it, and I couldn't see the ceiling anywhere. Left and right, the wooden railing that lined the wooden plateau seemed to go on for hundreds of meters before it began curing around the circular bookcase.
Every few meters, a wooden staircase led down to the floor that was twenty meters below. Massive tables stood, scattered haphazardly below, with chairs, benches, and stools around them.
The small shadow that I'd been following disappeared below one of the tables close to the side of the king-size bookcase. Curious, I moved towards the nearest staircase. It didn't creak at all as I moved down, and stroking the wooden railing, the wood felt soft and warm to the touch.
At the bottom of the staircase, the shadow swished from below the table and along the bookcase's left side. Unlike before, this time, it didn't disappear, but I still only saw a shadow. It stopped at an odd wooden column in one area of the bookcase, then it disappeared.
So, I guess we got where we were heading?
Moving to the square, I saw it was a two-meter wide, wooden panel with two sundial-like circles on it. As I looked up, the thing seemed to continue to the top, if there was a top. Words and lines stood below and beside them. On the left side, a list of words moved from top to bottom of the bottom. One word jumped out to me, as I could read it. It was in the Sun elf language! Instinctively I reached out and touched the word.
A tinkling sound, like dozens of miniature bells, made me jump back. The words beside the sundial's shimmered and changed, and suddenly I could read them. All of it was now in the language of the Sun elves.
The words and lines were simple instructions. Turn the left dial to rotate, turn the right dial to move up and down. With a childlike sense of wonder, I put my fingers on the left dial. The texture of it was different from the rest of the wood, and as I turned it, the books on the shelves began moving in the direction I rotated. Looking closely, I released the shelves where actually the things that rotated. I stopped and turned the other way. Soundless and without any apparent trouble, the bookshelves turned the other way. Looking up, I saw it was the entire thing, all layers that rotated.
With a little fear, I put my finger on the right oval and rotated a fraction. The entire bookcase lowered into the ground, but the control panel's markings stayed at the exact same place.
Grinning like a little kid, I began rotating the bookcase, moving it up and down. There were books of all kinds on the shelves, small like a hand and big like an entire table, making me wonder if anybody could even lift it. Grey, brown, and white leather-bound tomes. Books with wooden covers and stone covers. Even rolled up scrolls of an oddly textured yellowish.
After playing around with it for a while, I began inspecting the words on the wooden control panel. Most dealt with rules, not turning it if someone else was using it, memorizing what spot you took a book from, all that stuff.
Thinking for a moment, I wondered why I had been led here. Initially, I'd thought I would probably find some book on a shelf somewhere that would teach me magic, but I didn't spot the shadow anywhere. Making the bookcase go up and up and up as I thought, absently looking at the books, I stopped. Feeling my skin rise, I stared at a book in front of me. A single, yellowish eye in the middle of the spine stared back at me. It had heavy lids, made up from the same brown leather the book was made from, and a leather wrinkle as an eyebrow.
Looking sideways, I saw more books with eyes, all of them staring at me without blinking.
"Hey guys…" I muttered. The eye closest to me blinked, then the eyebrow lowered, and the eyelids narrowed.
Was the thing scowling at me? I shivered as I saw all of the other books doing the same.
"Right, sorry for bothering you. I think I'll be going now…" I muttered. I was about to make the bookcase go further up and hopefully get rid of the creepy books when the eyes began blinking and looking left and right quickly.
Now what? Were they trying to hypnotize me? After a second, I frowned as another idea came to me.
"Do you want anything?"
I almost slapped myself. Why the hell did I ask that of a wall filled with creepy eye-books?
The eyes looked up and down quickly before staring at me intently. Getting the feeling that I was getting in over my head again I smiled weakly.
"Listen, I need to go now. I'll come back tomorrow, alright?" The eyes began going ballistic with movement again, but this time I continued scrolling until they were out of view.
No matter how much I liked books, this was just asking for trouble.
As I continued scrolling, I saw patterns in the types of books. Every so many shelves the books on them changed. I saw books with covers resembling wood to massive metallic tomes with runic inscriptions.
Deciding I had better try and find my way back, if I even knew how, when the next section of books drew my attention. Simple brown leather, the backs were adorned with icons. Some with fire, others with water, and I stopped.
How large was the chance that these had something to do with magic? Fire, and water perhaps? Swallowing, I decided to give one more of my remaining ten knowledge points up to my curious nature.
Remembering the water magic incantations I had seen in the yard, I picked the first book in a long row adorned with a silvery drop of water on the spine.
The words on the page were blurry and indistinct but seemed vaguely familiar. If only they would just come into-
The words sharpened with a snap, and I could read them. The hairs on my arms stood up straight, and I stared at the book aghast.
The text was in English!
