Just outside wonderland exist a tower that not many people have ventured through. It was an awe-inspiring building that reached the skies and beyond and nobody truly knew how high this thing actually went. If you went inside the place was filled with books and scrolls, a recursion that puzzled the residents of the nearby Wonderland, the Free Cats and even the surrounding Dreamland could ponder all the contents within it’s walls.
Inside were not just a myriad of tomes and scrolls but also beings that frightened most people that tried to investigate it, known as the Librarians. The Librarians were mystical creatures made of smoke, with a skeleton for a head and eyes made of rubies. On their skull were strange symbols and letters that to any onlooker would seem like random assortments of graphs but to the Librarians each carried a meaning and no two librarians had the same symbols inscribed on their skull.
The Librarians would sort through the books and rearrange them in a pattern they had figured out eons ago. The age of the tower and the librarians within was unknown and many legends and myths started to circulate around it.
The oldest resident of the Elcarim, at least the oldest anyone knew about was Saint Nicholas or Santa as he liked to call himself. Santa as far as anyone knew was recorded in most books on the history of Elcarim was the first to appear in the realm and even he did not know much about the tower. Santa like most people was rather afraid of it.
The Librarians did not just appear scary but if you looked into their ruby eyes they’d steal your memories and inscribe it into an empty book. Whether that was just a myth that the surrounding people made to keep young people from exploring the tower and walk into their possible demise is unclear, perhaps the Librarian simply wish to catalog the rows upon rows of books that they keep.
However before it stood 000-444444444 (Tri-None Novem-Quad) better known as Nova. Nova was a Cyclock, a race of beings created to watch the time stream and the multiverse. For reasons beyond her knowledge she was assigned to guard specifically the time stream of Elcarim. It was confusing to her as to the broader outside multiverse, Elcarim was rather insignificant. The only thing noteworthy about it was that it existed as how it came to be was not even known to the Cyclocks, perhaps one of those things that went beyond even their knowledge
Nova with her bi-colored short hair, that of pink in the back and purple in the front, leather jacket and most notably only one eye she stood out among a crowd. While there was no rule that she couldn’t be seen by the locals, Nova tended to work better alone and didn’t like people too much. Some she found quite interesting to be around though, but not many of the locals met her criteria of companionship.
The reason she was in front of the tower, which had been dubbed the Dreamland, was to acquire a tome from within. Perhaps her status as a Cyclock may hold some sway over the librarians. Nova felt that her girlfriend Dotti would’ve been more suited to do this task, given she was the head librarian of the Wonderland Library. However she was busy running errands for the current regnant.
Nova entered the tower and was immediately greeted by a librarian, their eyes were emeralds instead of the usual rubies which stood out.
“What business do you have here?” they asked.
“I’m 000-444444444, Cyclock of the House Tri-None. I come here to seek a tome of the founding of this realm” she said, trying her best to sound intimidating and less her normal casual self.
“A tome like that exists, but without a librarian you will never find it before this universe and in fact, this time stream ceases to exist. Not enough time, even for a Cyclock. Also if you go into the wrong door, who knows what effect that might have on you” They replied, their ghastly form dancing around her. The librarian sounded almost giddy.
“Will you help me?”
“Hmmm, perhaps. A favor from the cyclocks owed is a valuable thing!” they said. Nova noticed the odd way it spoke, jumbled and with grueling tone”
Nova nodded.
“Alright, the tome you seek is The History of Garamond the Evergreen. It’s on floor 16, shelf 4, row 21, 4th from the left. Just whisper to the tome ‘L-G-U-A-A-A-A’ make sure to pronounce each letter or it won’t work”
Nova made note of that, before she could properly thank the librarian they were gone, and she was left to wander the first floor, attempting to find some kind of elevator or stairs, she however found none and proceeded to go towards the front desk that was in the middle of this floor.
“Excuse me, how do I get to the 16th floor” she asked the woman attending the information desk. It was simply a circular floating desk around a big pole that lead to the what she imagined being the top of the tower. Perhaps the pillar that held this tower from being unstable.
“Floor 16 you say” she mumbled before typing something on her computer. “Oh. You must be looking for a “lost” tome. Well, in order to get to that floor you need to warp there. There are no stairs or elevators, the librarians just pass through the floors. I’m sure you got the exact location. As a Cyclock you should be able to just warp there. Be careful to picture the exact place”
“Alright, Thanks for your help”
“No problem”
Nova focused on the 16th floor of this tower, really picturing it in her mind and sort of used her ability to have some manipulation of time to manipulate space as well, turning her wrist as she imagined it. Everything blurred around her and rearranged itself to be that of the 16th floor of the tower. It was as if the world was melting around her and changing shape and color until it eventually resulted in the desired floor.
“Ah, good that it worked. I thought I had gotten rusty” Nova said, to no one in particular. There were no librarians on this floor and it seemed dark and decapitated. The floor was filled with cobwebs and dust all over the place and it was lit only by a few lanterns that hung on the walls. This floor seemed to be much older than the area where she came in which looked much more modern and sleek in comparison.
Looking around her she looked for shelf 4, which proved a bit difficult in the light but eventually she managed to find the shelf in question. It was filled with a lot of tomes, some looking more ancient than others. She was afraid of touching any of them too much for fear they might crumble in her hands. She wondered if she’d be allowed to be there if she wasn’t a cyclock. To her it seemed like all of this was a collection of forbidden lore of the multiverse.
“Let’s see” Nova muttered. She spoke Wonderlandian more than anything else but was also fluent in Cyclockian and had dabbled in Neverspeak although she found resources on that near extinct language rather scarce. She pondered if information about it would be available in this library as only a few people in the universe spoke it fluently and texts containing writing in it are treasured by many as more valuable than high art.
Nova shook her head and tried to put her personal hobby out of her mind, she was on official business after all.
“Shelf 4” she continued. There was no one besides her, but she had a habit of talking out loud to herself. “Row 21, 4th from the left”
She found the book, which was smaller than she expected, only about the size of a typical paperback novel. However it was leather bound in a skin she hadn’t seen before, black with red glowing veins on the spine. She was about to take it when she remembered her instructions. She whispered to the tome “L-G-U-A-A-A-A” making sure to pronounce each letter.
Following her whispering, the veins glowed even more, piercing Nova’s sensitive eye. It hurt her eye badly, causing her to flinch and close her eye shut, gasping in pain.
“Darn”
But she realized that what was happening was that information from the book was flashing before her eye even as it was closed, it was as if she was looking at it through her mind’s eyes. Hundreds, thousands of images and texts flashing rapidly, so fast that it was incomprehensible. She was not warned about any of this and it hurt her eye more and more the longer this went on. Her head began to pulse with pain, and she began to grow nauseous.
“AAAAAHHHHHHH” she screamed, wishing for it to stop.
FLASH! FLASH! FLASH!
The information kept flowing into her, and she felt that her head was on the verge of exploding like a gel filled jerkberry. However, after screaming one last time from the pain she finally passed out, losing consciousness.
When she woke up she was floating throughout some sort of void. Everything was black, and she could not feel anything, not her body or herself, just an awareness of the void.
She tried to move or speak, but she couldn’t. Nova was conscious yet somehow not. Before she even could question what state she was in, there was another flash, and she was back in Elcarim, but instead of being at the tower, she was in a strange bed. A woman seemed to be tending to her as she awoke.
“Oh you’re up!” the woman said in Wonderlandian.
“Where am I?” Nova asked, trying to get a grip on what just happened.
“You’re in Wonderland’s Healthhut” she answered. “We found you babbling to yourself outside the royal palace before you passed out. We brought you here and gave you some healing potions”
“Ah, well. Thank you…eh” Nova muttered.
“Ganieda. I’m the royal court mage”
“I see, so you work for Lourdes then?” she asked.
“Indeed. Now don’t strain yourself. We have some food coming. We’ll need to run some tests to check what happened before you can leave, you’re welcome to stay until you feel better. Are you alright?” Ganieda gave the impression that she was a really calm and kind person. Her hair was gray which flowed down to her lower back, yet her face looked youthful. Pinpointing her actual age was difficult as she had an ageless quality to her. Nova did however feel safe.
“Yeah, just kind of out of it”
“Well I’ll get you some dinner then. I’ll be right back” she said and left.
Nova pondered what had happened in that tower, she only had vague recollections of what had occurred before she blacked out but the feeling was still ingrained in her mind. She knew things now, things that perhaps she shouldn’t have known or that nobody should know. Things about the universe and why Elcarim existed were lodged in her mind but when she wanted to yell them out to Ganieda as she recalled it, she couldn’t. The knowledge was there, but she couldn’t say it. Trying to write it her hands just shook and would bring out nothing but squiggly lines. She took out her telepad and tried to type it, but her body betrayed her once more.
This was nothing short of a curse, the knowledge she sought was there, but she was muted by the sheer gravity of its importance. Silenced by the act of knowing itself, she just lay down and looked up at the ceiling.
“Knowledge was kept from lower beings for a reason” she muttered to herself.
Notes
The cyclock race was created by Brandon Longstreth, based on a public domain fanpro image and is open source. Nova was created by me based on Brandon’s creation.
Ganieda also known as Gwendydd is a character from a Welsh legend and therefore has never had any copyright.