Throne of Time - Chapter 72: Around the Sequential Library (Patreon)

At the beginning of the term, Suria was able to help Maut-mai with her artisanry assignments, thanks to her previous class and having a much broader base in glyphcraft overall. As the lessons built past the point Suria had studied, however, she didn't always understand all the references and couldn't really help. To her credit, Maut-mai only got frustrated once before she realized it was unreasonable to lean on Suria, then she began focusing on her own studies.

They still had two classes in common, which made it easy to talk back in their room, even when they seemed like entirely dissimilar people. Maut-mai was excited about new developments in Foundations and Suria tried to reach back to her memories of when those ideas had been new and interesting to her too.

For Introduction to Glyphic Combat, Maut-mai was doing reasonably well while Suria was one of the top students in the class, occasionally pulled out for more difficult lessons. She felt like she was polishing her combat instincts, particularly reaching for her runebook first, but there had yet to be any specialized lessons on runebook usage or comparing different runic exercises. When she was forced to compete with other students she usually came out on top due to her greater experience.

Thankfully the early struggles over the room and money mostly faded away. For one, Maut-mai was happy with her changes to their dorm room, and it really was nicely situated, with only small families and a few couples nearby. Perhaps more importantly, she had softened in the way she had during their first loop together, seeming to forget about the Water Society and its games.

In every session of Combat Perception, Suria had been able to ask Orinyan a new question or two as she tried to refine weaknesses in her current set of skills. He had been extremely helpful in providing an outside perspective on the mental spells she was learning in her other course. At the same time, some of the same questions came up from other students, some of the tangents went in familiar directions, and she heard some of the same jokes. As fun as it was to be in Orinyan's class, she shouldn't take it over and over or what she enjoyed about it would begin to erode.

That day, after a particularly interesting tangent on different types of illusion spells, Suria thought that it had been long enough. She needed to start making more movements toward the library and this was one of her best shots.

"What about the Sequential Library?" Suria asked during a lull in the conversation. "That's information-based, so is it Perception?"

"It's certainly not part of the Perception department," Orinyan said casually. "I may be a librarian, but that's unrelated."

"But the library itself sorts information, doesn't it? I thought that would be the same thing."

"Beyond the bounds of this class, sorry. Anything else?"

Suria settled back, a little stung that her question - of all the ridiculous things that had been asked in the class - had been rejected. Something else came up soon, and it was still interesting, but she spent the rest of class wondering if she'd gone too far somehow. The Sequential Library was a core part of campus, so surely it couldn't be all that forbidden just to ask.

After class she pulled her books into her satchel and headed out, trying to think of different approaches. She could always spend some of her favors with other loopers, but she had been hoping to save those for persuading them to join her. Jeilin would probably tell her whatever he could, but she wouldn't get a chance to see him again this cycle.

Before she got far, Suria saw Orinyan just ahead of her, casually leaning against the wall with his hands in his pockets.

"So why do you want to know about the library?" he asked. Still smiling, but not quite so broadly, and Suria realized that she hadn't been simply brushed off.

"To be perfectly honest..." Suria bought a little time with the phrase, though she knew almost immediately that she couldn't really be honest. "There are some other students who were talking about sneaking inside and getting into the forbidden sections. I was trying to figure out exactly how dangerous it was."

"If there's something you want, you can ask me for it. The restrictions can be a little ridiculous, so I'll get you anything that isn't actually harmful."

"But why are the restrictions ridiculous? Shouldn't we have a more coherent library system?"

"Well..." Orinyan gave her a long stare, glanced around the corridor, then gestured for her to follow. "Come on, this way."

They headed to his office, which wasn't particularly large, especially compared to the thrones' offices. Orinyan didn't seem to keep much in his, just a shelf filled with papers for classes and a few piles of books. He sat back and swung his legs up on his desk, then glanced toward the sole other chair until she sat down.

"I wouldn't do this for most first year students," he said, "but you're surprisingly competent. Students like you chafe against restrictions that don't seem to make sense and it sometimes gets them into trouble, so an explanation might be better than rules."

"I admit I'm really curious," Suria told him. "That curiosity would definitely push me to rush into danger unless you satisfy it now."

"So I'm just doing my duty as a teacher, huh?" Orinyan grinned and rolled his eyes. "But really, it's not that big a secret, it's just that a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing. What do you think the Sequential Library is? And don't be a jester and say 'a library'."

"I'm not sure. It seems like it must be some kind of vast information spell... or maybe a spatial spell. I know how each of the three doors leads to another copy of the library."

"That's only partially correct. The Sequential Library - the entire cube - is actually like a passage into a realm that gathers knowledge. When you go through one of the doors, you aren't entering into a spatial spell, you're actually dipping into that realm."

"When you say a realm... is that just a manner of speech, or is there a big ocean of books out there?"

Orinyan waved his hand vaguely. "The library is a sorting mechanism, let's say. It places order and structure onto something that otherwise would be inaccessible. Now, the first few layers are well-managed by us, sorted and curated just like any library. But if you keep going, eventually you enter wild territory. It's not really a library anymore, just a collection of knowledge... and there are lots of ways for knowledge to be unsafe."

"And it just keeps going?" Suria asked breathlessly. The idea of potentially infinite books within reach...

"Maybe there's a limit at the boundaries of human knowledge? Or maybe the spell itself starts to fail at some point. Let's just say that the limits are something librarians argue about."

"You have to know that I'm even more curious than before now. Just how does it become dangerous?"

"Well, to give one example..." Orinyan tilted his head back and stared toward the ceiling. "If you head forward and right from the door, the cubes start to lack floors. We've built a few walkways, but they tend to crumble. If you fall... well, you're probably falling into a kind of nothingness you don't come back from."

"And that's a necessary part of the spell, somehow."

"More like it's how the library adapts in order to include knowledge that it otherwise couldn't support. Bear in mind, the Sequential Library is older than any of us, and it was built up over generations of mages. No one person actually knows fully how it works, and sometimes you could say it just makes decisions for itself."

"So the library is alive?"

"No, it's an unthinking spell machine. But it does contain some things that are alive."

Suria considered for a time, but knew that wasn't enough. "I have a feeling that it's more than just lacking floors."

"Of course it is." Orinyan grinned lazily at her. "This is just one theory, but I think the further you get from the anchor point in our world, the more abstract the definition of 'knowledge' becomes. So, for example, it might try to create an archive of all the monsters in the world."

"Does that really exist?"

"It hasn't been found, but it would explain why there are monsters in the deeper archives. Nothing should be able to walk in, and it's not like monsters have their own libraries. Anyway, the point is that you don't know what you might run into, and it might very well eat you."

"I see." Suria sat back and tried to consider how she could get more information without seeming clearly suspicious. His answer would likely have been good enough for most earnest students. "Listen, I don't want to get my friends in trouble, but how much danger are they in? Are they going to risk getting themselves killed if they try?"

"Well, the Sequential Guard would probably stop them from getting far."

"Surely students have found ways to sneak around before."

"That's admittedly true." Orinyan cast a spark over his finger and began tracing squares in the air. "The blocks around the entrance are all well-controlled and safe. Go two or three doors in any direction, however, and dangers start to appear. Keep going and the shelves start looking like jaws with books for teeth."

"But it's generally known what's in those?"

"Oh, sure. Go left and you find books that are non-magical but sensitive, leading into some truly ancient archives. We keep all the combat books to the right, and those are restricted for obvious safety reasons. Straight ahead requires seals to access because that's specialty knowledge. We added some barriers to keep students from going too far that way."

"And these directions... that's an organization built into the spell?" Suria asked.

"Maybe? I think it's more like the Sequential Library is organizing a path through the realm of knowledge based on those lines, but it gets abstract the further you travel from the start."

"What about if you go right one room, then forward one?"

"Don't get greedy." Orinyan waved his hand through his own drawing of light and dispersed it. "Those parts are organized too, but you don't have to worry about those for a few years at least."

"Thank you for answering." Suria gave him a sheepish smile. "How can I not be curious?"

"Oh, I don't blame you for that." Orinyan swung his legs off the desk and swiveled to a proper sitting position. "Just take this seriously. If your friends are sneaking through one or two doors to grab a book... they probably shouldn't, but that's not a big deal. But going deep into the library is a mistake. Don't let anyone convince you to try it."

"I'll remember that, thanks."

Suria kept her smile on her face until she left the room, then couldn't sustain it. She wasn't just planning to enter the Sequential Library; she was the one who needed to convince others. Apparently their attempt to explore deeper could run into monsters... and she had the feeling that wasn't actually the worst they could face.

As if for some cosmic irony, Suria was actually headed directly to the library afterward in order to meet with Qanti. The other woman had been busy with her soul armor, but they finally had time to talk about her soul talisman and hopefully - finally - take the necessary step forward to start using it. Suria was grateful for the addition to her runic capacity, but that was just the beginning.

When she entered the library, she couldn't help but view it through different eyes. The doors in the walls weren't just entrances to copies of the room, they were descending into a realm of infinite information... it boggled the mind to think that Darkmoon University had something of such power and danger right in the middle of campus.

In any case, her sights were set decidedly lower: she just needed to meet up with Qanti in one of the reading nooks. Suria spotted the other woman and walked over to join her. Qanti held up a finger for a time as she finished reading a page, then closed her book.

"How long do you think it will take?" Suria asked. "I expected the next step to be easier after I formed my soul talisman."

"You've formed it, but not awakened it." Qanti gestured toward herself, circling a spot just above her stomach. "Beyond just forming a place for a spell, you need it to be actively linked to the rest of your soul, and you're not there yet."

"More meditation?"

"You probably need to do more, but you can handle that part. Today we need to work on your stylus technique."

Suria got out her stylus and practiced pushing her soul into it alongside her mana, which came far easier than before. When it came time to use that to mark her soul, however, she always struggled. According to Internal Granite, this was actually another potential dead end, since she wasn't literally marking a glyph on her soul, but the book was frustratingly vague on what she was actually doing.

"Don't worry too much about that part yet," Qanti told her. "You won't feel the feedback until your talisman is properly awakened."

"That's not what we're doing now?" Suria asked.

"You're focused too much on the book. Remember what Professor Huen told you? You need an excess of mana to awaken the talisman. That can literally be mana potions, or a storage crystal, or anything... but it's pointless to try before you're ready, so we'll cover that later."

Of course Suria had been told that, and she had related it to Qanti, but apparently it had meant more to the other woman than it had to Suria. Another reminder that she couldn't handle everything entirely on her own, because it would have taken her many loops to master the soul talisman solo. Even with help, she wasn't sure whether or not she could finish it before the end of the cycle.

As they packed up their things, Suria decided that it was better to ask than to wonder. "Qanti," she said carefully, "I was wondering if y-"

"Your library run?" Qanti shook her head. "I must decline."

"And there's nothing I can do to convince you? Wynchard and Adwyrma have agreed."

"No. I'm sorry, Suria, but I won't bend on this. Not when I'm finally getting close. There are things in there... you could lose mind or soul and end up eliminated for good."

"Then I won't push you any further." Suria raised her hands in surrender. "Maybe if you master soul armor, I could teach you mental defenses, though? I'm working on that this loop."

"Soul defenses first," Qanti said firmly, but she smiled as she rose. "Good luck, Suria."

Then Suria was alone in the library. Despite the other students, the librarians, and the guards, she felt as though the walls expanded forever until they were all just specks, suspended above a vast ocean that could easily swallow them all...

-

For a brief period, Throne of Time was actually the #1 story in the Ongoing category. It only took one bad rating to knock us down, but that's just how things go on RR. I remain grateful to everyone who has reviewed on RR, allowing us to even compete at these ranks.

We are getting closer to the end of the first book, but I am not concerned about running out, as I have made enormous progress on the second book of ToT. There are some authors who can write complex plots chapter to chapter, but even with all my notes, I need some editing to maintain quality. Once these new chapters are fully edited, however, I intend to give patrons some bonus chapters. Please look forward to those, and thank you for your support!