Archive Ch.8

Three hours later Nic was seriously reassessing how freely he would be asking questions in the future. He found himself far less eager to delve the mysteries of the universe if doing so was liable to result in so much walking. Enlightenment was not worth the blisters.

Not that the library was making it easy to hold to that oath. After just the first hour, Nic had realized this place was not operating under standard physics. If it was, they’d have long ago reached the opposite side of the castle, by simple distance traversed if nothing else. Not only had that not happened, but they also hadn’t even left the first room, despite that flying in the face of all observed logic. The vaulted ceiling alone made no sense, always just beginning to curve without ever once coming down to ground level.

Jordi seemed entirely unphased by any of it. He led the way through the endless library as if he were simply out for an afternoon stroll. Rare were moments of silence, the delver filling it with everything from random factoids to short stories to entire songs, all spoken with an unabashed confidence to which Nic could only aspire. Even Dewey got in on the action, cheerily beeping along with a rough backing rhythm. It was so infectious that Nic found himself singing along every now and again, though it quickly faded as he was reminded just how bad a singer he was.

Nic was in the middle of another such burst of insecurity when Jordi suddenly stopped, raising an arm for Nic to do the same.

“Hold up,” he said, his tone turning serious.

“Problem?” Nic asked. He looked up past Jordi’s arm, finding nothing but another aisle, the only notable detail being a t-shaped junction some ways ahead. Nothing out of the ordinary so far as Nic could see.

“Maybe,” Jordi said, pointing at the floor next to Dewey. “Stay here while I check.”

Nic obeyed, watching intently as Jordi advanced down the aisle. All semblance of his previous jaunty self was gone, replaced by a slow, methodical soul that didn’t take so much as a step without triple checking the ground first. Literally so as he produced a collapsible baton from his belt and used it to prod lightly at the floor ahead of him, waiting several seconds before risking a step into the space.

He did this for several moments, slowly inching his way along, eyes methodically scanning every surface, muscles tense with control. He’d advanced roughly a dozen feet in the manner when he suddenly wrenched his baton back as if something had tried to grab it. He squinted at the spot, reaching forth with the baton again and lightly waving it in a wide arc. Nic could tell something was off about the way it moved but was too far away to really tell.

“What is it?” he called.

Jordi didn’t answer, continuing to wave the baton, edging further forward each time. The further he reached, the stranger the movement became, Nic finally putting together that it was slowing down in midair, as if it were being pushed through water rather than air.

Before he could absorb anything else, Jordi pulled the baton free and turned around. His smile had returned, the hyper-serious soul gone as quickly as it had appeared.

“Come here,” he said, waving Nic towards him. “Just stay behind me.”

Still confused but just as curious, Nic approached, taking cautions steps of his own as he closed the distance. Dewey followed, rumbling along with far less concern though keeping quite close to Nic in the process. When they got within a stride of Jordi, the delver raised a hand to stop them, then pointed down the passage ahead.

“Normal looking stacks, right?” he asked.

Nic looked, finding the path ahead just as he had described.

“This another trick question?” Nic asked.

“Humor me.”

“I…yeah, looks normal.”

The shift in Jordi’s smirk told him that was both the wrong answer and the one he’d been after. From his belt he retrieved another object, a small metal washer, which he proceeded to flick into the space ahead like a coin. It flew precisely as expected, flipping end over end as it arched slightly up into the air. Things only grew strange when it failed to fall back down.

Instead, it continued forwards down the hall in a straight line, spinning the whole time. It sped up as it flew, moving fast down the hall until it reached the junction whereupon it suddenly stopped, spinning lazily as it hovered in mid-air between the three aisles.

“Uh, what?” Nic asked.

“Gravitational anomaly,” Jordi said. “Just one of the tricks the Library likes to play on us.”

Nic opened his mouth to ask further questions but found he had too many to pick just one. What did trick mean? What other kinds of anomalies were there in this place? How had he spotted this one? Was play a turn of phrase or was there actually some intelligence at work? Was this dangerous?

And those were just the ones most immediately relevant to their situation, Nic had several more piling in on the mental traffic jam. Thankfully Jordi seemed to grasp Nic’s predicament and began speaking without prompting.

“Poetic, of course,” he assured. “It’s not actually the Library’s doing so far as we can tell. Think of them more like weather or natural parts of an ecosystem, just with less organic stuff.”

Nic nodded at the explanation, finally managing to get some words out.

“Are they all like this?”

Jordi shook his head. “Nope, this one’s pretty basic matter of fact.” He smiled, as if recalling a fond memory. “Some of them can get weird.”

Nic was very tempted to push for more details when the smile suddenly vanished from Jordi’s face, shifting back towards serious.

“You usually don’t see them this close to the entrance though. That part is odd.

Nic cast his companion an incredulous look, trying to tell if he was joking. He found only a politely questioning smile.

“…We need to have a discussion about how you define scale sometime,” Nic said.

“I look forward to it,” Jordi chuckled before clapping his hands. “But first we have to get through here.”

“Couldn’t we just go around?” Nic asked.

“We could but it’d be another two hours at least.” He pointed at the junction, where the washer still spun. “The books we’re after are just past there.”

Nic glanced between the junction and Jordi, an unimpressed expression painting his face.

“Place isn’t intelligent huh?”

“So far as we can tell,” Jordi shrugged. “Come over here and suit up.”

He turned away, crouching next to Dewey as he manipulated the controls on his back. The arms on top, already folded, somehow collapsed even further, several clamps extending to pin them securely in place. While the mechanism worked, Jordi detached lengths of rope from the exterior casing, unspooling them to reveal they were harnesses. Three loops lashed together, meant to go around the legs and waist, all converging on a heavy metal clamp where the pelvis would be.

“Going to climb down?” Nic asked. “We have enough rope for that?”

“Not us.” Jordi smacked Dewey on the back. “This one’s going to be doing the griffon’s share of the work.”

“How’s this now?”

“You’ll see.” Jordi held out one of the harnesses to him. “Put this on.”

Nic did so, slipping in through the loops and pulling them tight against his legs. Jordi did the same, his movements much more practiced, such that he was finished while Nic was still working the straps into place. When he finally finished, Jordi walked over and pulled on the clamp, hard enough that Nic had to take a step forward. That seemed to satisfy Jordi going by his nod and he turned back to Dewey.

Pressing a button on his back, the CAT began to trundle forward, coming to a halt just before the start of the anomaly. When it stopped, Jordi approached one side and gestured at the same point on the other side, where a ring sat mounted to the structure.

“Hook on there,” Jordi said. “Be careful not to step too far forward.”

Nic did so, snapping his harness clamp into place on the ring with a satisfying clank. Jordi did the same on his side, testing the connection of both, nodding with satisfaction at the results.

“Alright, we’re going to move forward slowly. It’s going to feel weird when the gravity shifts but just let yourself fall where it’s trying to pull, and you’ll be fine. Sound good?”

Nic nodded. “Sounds good.”

With a smirk and a nod of his own, Jordi pressed a button on his wrist and Dewey’s wheels began to glow a dim purple. Spellcode of some kind, going by what Nic could see through his eyepiece, but he didn’t have time to scrutinize it as the CAT began to roll forward, forcing Nic to start walking. Though it moved slowly, Nic’s tether was too short to let him get more than a step or two behind.

Though even this he didn’t have long to think about. True to Jordi’s word, Nic felt a force begin pulling at him almost immediately. He almost fell forward but Jordi saved him, grabbing Nic by the collar and hauling him back.

“Lean back the way we came from,” he said. “Point your toes and let yourself fall in feet first.”

Difficult as that sounded, Nic did as instructed, doing his best to lean back while keeping upright. It was an awkward maneuver, especially while still having to keep pace with Dewey as the bot advanced. Just as he thought he might fall again, the same force grabbed hold of his feet, this time far more strongly. Instinctively he fought it, trying to pull his feet back but he was already caught. Even if he’d wanted to, Dewey wasn’t stopping, and he was summarily pulled in.

Suddenly the world rotated ninety degrees, the direction of up shifting from the ceiling to run parallel with the ground instead. Nic felt a sickening lurch in his stomach as he found himself falling forwards, or what had once been forwards, towards the open hallway. He yelped in panic, vision spinning as his mind tried and failed to make sense of what was happening.

Then, just as quickly as it had begun, everything stopped. With a snap his harness tether went taunt, leaving him strung up and hanging from the side of Dewey’s body. Not the most comfortable of positions but it at least provided a definitive anchor point to use for reference.

“You still with me?” came Jordi’s voice. Nic twisted to look over his shoulder, finding the delver hanging casually from Dewey’s other flank, feet braced against the side and a knowing smirk on his face.

“Bwaa?” Nic said, whatever words he’d been intending to speak slurring together on their way out.

“Sorry,” Jordi said. “No real way to explain what it’s like ahead of time. Kinda just have to hold your nose and jump in.”

Jordi reached over and grabbed Nic by his shirt, taking some of his weight and allowing Nic to orient himself properly. He mimicked Jordi, bracing his feet against Dewey’s side, finding a convenient metal bar for just that purpose.

“Hey, now you’re getting it,” Jordi said. “Comfy?”

Nic nodded, looking around at their surroundings again now that the room had stopped spinning, though it had failed to return to where it had started. He was struggling to accept the new direction of up, his brain still stubbornly insisting that the “wall” next to him should be the ground, despite all evidence to the contrary. A disorienting experience to say the least, though it slowly faded as they advanced down the aisle. Or descended? Sharpe this was confusing.

“Right, so,” Jordi’s voice cut in. “Things will probably shift a bit in the middle of that.” He gestured at the junction. “Nothing to worry about, just need to hold on tight and brace yourself for another round of spinning.”

“Oh good,” Nic said, voice dripping with thickest sarcasm. “Maybe I can get your jerky back this time.”

Jordi chuckled. “Trust me, if you were gonna puke, you’d have done it already. Voice of experience.”

Nic couldn’t help but laugh, though more in disbelief that Jordi could ever fall prey to something as pedestrian as motion sickness. Further thoughts on the subject were interrupted by a sharp beep from Dewey, Nic looking up to see they had reached the junction proper.

“Alright,” Jordi said, leaning back on his tether. “Same as last time, point toes, fall in. Try to-”

Whatever advice he’d been about to share was lost as something struck Jordi in the side of the head.

*

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