The World's Biggest Library

General Summary

We stepped through the portal and back into the coliseum. I blinked and looked around me, and saw the Naga looming above us. “Sun is falling, my toys are back and my pets are hungry. Run little rabbits, run!” The Naga queen yelled at us. We ran. A wolf appeared and bit at me. I shifted into a wolf and lunged at it, worrying its legs. “Addie! We don’t have time for this,” Cap yelled running by. “Aetherium,” and I turned into a wisp, and could no longer fight it, but it could no longer fight me. I turned and ran. We ran by building after building with windows busted in or doors off their hinges. We turned a corner and a large imposing building stood before us. Bronze doors towered, twice the expected size. Cap and Milli struggle to pull the doors open and we tumbled in and they shoved the door closed behind us. I turned in a circle and see a large building with lots of hallways and bookshelves. Near the wall of the room stook a large desk with dozens of small drawers in it. On the wall lay three wires with bells attached. Cap walked over and pulled a wire and far away a bell rang, then he opened a drawer and found hundreds of small squares of parchment about the size of my hand with writing on it. I shifted back into a human and said, “While I’m this strange ghost form, I’m going to float upstairs and look around.” “Addie,” Cap said as he started stuffing cards into his pockets, “If you concentrate that spell will go away. It should end soon, so don’t be caught floating mid-air.” BROTHER OX I floated up to the next floor and see more bookshelves and rooms, so I float up to the third floor. I saw a vaguely man-shaped figure dimly lit by the light he carried. I willed myself solid again and walked towards the man. Only, he wasn’t a man, or at least not completely normal. He towered over me, and his head was a bull’s head with short horns jutting out of his brow. He wore monk’s robes and carried a staff with four metal rings on it. He reached a table full of chairs, pulled one out, and sat waiting for me. I walked the final few feet, and sat down across from him, “Hello, my name is Addie.” “I am Brother Ox. I keep the library. You are welcome here, but there are two rules. Don’t move the books. Read one book at a time,” he lumbered with his deep voice. “We thank you,” I answered. “We are hiding from a Naga who is trying to change us.” “The king’s daughter,” Brother Ox answered. “We’d suspected as much. What happened?” “They sought survival in a hostile world. This place became a sanctuary of all developed knowledge and skills,” and he started to return to his book. “Who are they? The Mani?” He sighed and closed his book again, ”The Andromani sought knowledge of the changed and ways to use that knowledge against them. The Coramani sought knowledge in machines. The Cassiomani sought unity and oaths. All of the Cassiomani swore to the king, and he was wielding the power of a nation. King Agarra chose poorly and shared his power with his two children. His son was sent forth with forerunners to find a new and safer home.” Brother Ox sighed and looked out towards the coliseum, “Valika, his daughter, had a plan, but it disturbed the King. The islands could not support them as they were. So she turned their oaths back upon the kingdom under the waves. All she has and gained is from her father’s loan.” “Where is the king and heir?” I asked trying to sort through all of this knowledge. “Valika has separated the king’s mind, soul, and body. The Queen died in the wars with the changed. The heir, it is unknown just where he is,” Brother Ox pointed to a painting hanging on a nearby wall. “You can see his likeness there.” I followed where he pointed and gasped in surprise. “We saw him, he looks like Wolfie.” “I do not know this ‘Wolfie,” and he started to open his book, then closed it again. “Before I return to my book, is there anything else you would know?” I sifted through the long list of questions I had, “Is Ezra one of the Cassiomani?” Brother Ox laughed, “Ezra, no he’s a man with a large hole in his heart constantly trying to fill it with new toys. No, he is not a Cassiomani. Think and you will know what he is.” “What is Baba Yaga?” “That creature?” Brother Ox’s voice dripped with derision. “I’m sure you could search and find a book somewhere.” “Thank you Brother Ox, I will leave you to your reading,” I said and walked back downstairs. “I don’t know about any of you, but I’m for sleep,” Lili said once I got back downstairs. “I ag-” then I saw Cap rummaging about in the closet and trying on cloaks. “Cap, there is a very large bull-headed man upstairs who gave me two rules, and he seems rather particular about his library staying in shape. I would not take anything from here without permission.” “Oh, right then,” Cap said and started putting cards back into the drawers, stuffing them into random drawers as he pulled them out. I finally got to sleep. Inside, and not while under threat of attack. It’s a rather glorious feeling.

REALLY, IT’S RAY ISLAND?

The next morning as we wandered about in the library, Cap found a map. “Look,” he said pointing at several marked spots, “There are several shrines listed out here. The Man on the Moon, the Lady of the Forest, and a few other spots here.” “Cap, Addie!” Milli cried out, “I see Wolfie out there. I’m going to follow him! Lili are you with me?” Before we could catch up to them, they ran out the door following him. It looked like he was heading straight out of town, no longer randomly moving about.
We followed a bit behind and ran through the gates which were guarded by two large humanoid figures, but we ran past as fast as we could, but they never bothered us. “Addie,” Cap pointed towards a small shrine on the path we were following, “That be the Man on the Moon shrine. I need to stop there.” We stopped and Cap poured water into a bowl and meditated. I don’t know what he achieved, but he seemed a bit more resolved, maybe. We followed them for half the day. After a while, we climb up the stairs to get out of the middle valley and head East towards Villa Reviva. As we walk along the road becomes better kept and we finally emerge into a clearing with stone buildings and at the far side is a tower next to a cliff.

Report Date

23 Dec 2021