Chapter 0. The Library Of the Worlds

When I woke up, the first thing I saw was a gigantic library, with never ending bookshelves. I was standing in front of tall two-winged doors made from dark wood which was decorated with visages of many different creatures.

I look around, but other than books, there is nothing else. I can’t even see my own body, so I don’t know what I look like. And when I am talking about my appearance, I should also mention that I don’t remember anything, I don’t know what my name is, nor who I was before I found myself in this library, nor do I know what I am supposed to do here… I am lost.

So, I do what everyone in my place would do… I explore in hope that I will find something.

Book here, book there, books everywhere... they are calling me...

I don’t know how long I walked, but at some point, something started to change. Now other than only bookshelves, sometimes I can also see chairs and tables as if to encourage someone to sit and read; the long bookshelves are becoming shorter, and now I can see that new corridors leading in different directions are starting to appear.

But I ignore all of this, I just go the same way I started, why? I don’t know, just something is telling me that if I go any other way, I will never find the main corridor again, and the same thing tells me that whatever is at the end of the road is important.

The calling is getting lauder... more desperate... as if I am doing something wrong...

More time went by and there is more and more furniture that would let me sit and rest, even books started to tempt me more actively to read them, how? By flying around me with their titles exposed so that I could see them. Some are even... singing to catch my attention? Don’t ask, I don’t know how a book can sing.

The screams... what if these are not normal books?...

I think I am close to my goal, why do I think so? Well, things started to “attack” me, like books started to fall on my head at random moments, chairs shoots as if something threw them at me strong enough to shatter the wood they were made from. Whatever is controlling these props starts to be more frustrated... or desperate, I only hope it won’t throw at me the walls, it would be hard to dodge them without entering other corridors.

My head hurts... the screams are too loud... they are begging me to save them...

I think I jinxed it; I can see librarian desk in the distance, but there is one little problem… Everything is falling apart, I mean it latterly, most of the walls behind me have already fallen, and books in front of me are already starting to fall out of their places on the shelfs. Not wanting to be buried alive under books and walls I start running, I run as fast as I can, but the books are falling faster, and of course life (Am I even alive? Am I in afterlives? What is this place?!) can’t be easy, so now I have to also doge furniture’s that are charging (can a chair charge at someone?) at me as if they were some kind of cannon ball (By the way, what is cannon?)

The screams are slowly silenced... is it my fault...

I am ten meters away from the end of the road, but It doesn’t look like I will make it, everything has fallen, all books are on the ground, and I am not able to go through them fast enough, I can feel the pressure of the wind on my neck, it means the walls behind me are falling close to me… I won’t make it, I hear walls around, they are breaking… but just four more and I would be in save place… and I am close enough to see someone… but darkness swallows me before I see more.

I couldn’t save them... no one saved me.

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When the last wall falls, and poor soul disappears from my library, I can only think about how sad it was. This was a soul of an old arch mage, when she appeared here, she immediately ran into the side corridor, not knowing that she will never come back as the same person… if she even will come back. But she managed to find the entrance once again, I don’t know how long it was for her, what I know is that she lost a lot of her memories, mostly the ones from her childhood. After that she sidetracked three more times, every time she lost memories, from teenage times, adult time and finally from her time as an old arch mage, her last fifth try to reach me was the most successful, but she had too little determination left, she didn’t remember anything so she wasn’t in hurry, the saddest thing is that, even if she managed to reach me, she wouldn’t be able to do anything, after all, the cost of my services are memories, which she didn’t had at the end.

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While I am thinking about this poor soul, I hear a voice from a different corridor, but it is strange, this corridor doesn’t have any worlds, every corridor should contain worlds, so why this one doesn’t?

I wait for new guest to arrive, normally I would try to guess when soul will accomplish it, in second try? Third one? Fifth? Or maybe never? But this one… what can I say… it has zero distractions, there aren’t any worlds to catch its attention, nor any branch roads it can go, it has the easiest path to me I have ever seen, just straight path, if there wasn’t set distance limit, it could have seen me from the moment it entered!

So, I wait, because I want to speak with soul that was rejected by every world, and therefore lost its right to choose its new life.

It takes a while but finally I can hear it well.

“Am... hello? Anybody here?”

Its voice is quiet, and comfortable to hear, I would even say it is a little feminine… oh, I shouldn’t make it wait so I response quickly.

“Welcome, forsaken soul, what can I do for you?”

I know what I can do, but I want to know what it wants me to do, why? Because that way I can learn more about it… but I must have spoken it, at least I think so, after all why else would it jump and give out short high scream.

“Holly… God! Dude, you shouldn’t scare people like that!”

I don’t care, but of course I say

“My apologies, it wasn’t my intention.”

I lie, I wanted to give it a little jump scare, and I am satisfied with what I accomplished.

“Ok… can you tell me where we are, and why you called me ‘forsaken soul’?”

Hm, interesting, it is quick to calm down and catch important details.

“We are in The Library Of the Worlds, it is a place where every ‘World’, or like some calls them ‘Dimensions’ or ‘Universes’ are stored in the form of a books, and why I called you forsaken soul... well every soul that enters this space has its own main corridor that is full of ‘books’ that want them, your corridor on the other hand was empty, it means there wasn’t any world that wanted you, so I called you forsaken.”

At the start, its face was bright from curiosity, but when I finished speaking, it was emotionally devastated... funny.

“I won’t lie, it hurts to know I am rejected by every world, but is it really that bad?”

Its voice is even quieter than before, but I can still hear it.

“Not necessary, you see, in normal circumstances, if someone wants to reach me, they have either accomplish whatever destiny these worlds have for them and do it for every ‘book’ on the way here, or they have to rush here ignoring these worlds, oh and they can’t leave the main corridor, otherwise, they will probably never find it again. But you didn’t had any ‘book’ nor side corridor to distract you, so you arrived here on the first try, with fully intact memories, and therefore you are probably the only person ever that will be able to get a good deal with me”

The last sentence I say with big smile.

“By the way… who are you?”

I didn’t expect this question, so I am a little slow to answer, but in the end, I tell him.

“I am librarian, or The Observer as some calls me, my job is simple, read books and make deals with souls that somehow finds me”

I almost laugh at its face, so much disbelief and confusion!

“So you are some kind of GOD?”

“NO! Don’t even dare to compare me to THE CREATOR, he hates it, and I am not going to deal with him, one wildfire in library is enough… so many worlds perished then… everything because some dumbass started to pray to me as if I created this place… Oh sorry, bad memories.

My little outburst frightened this poor soul, but better one scared soul than billions of billions of worlds being destroyed.

“So, what you are, if not a GOD, some kind of god, a deity?”

I am sure its curiosity must be one of the reasons it died, but whatever, I will satisfy it.

“It depends on perspective, deities are local gods, they cannot enter this realm, so no, I am not deity; gods on the other hand are entities that created at least one world/universe, they can enter the library, but they cannot interact with ‘books’ that they didn’t create, but they can create new ones, or repair the old ones, so I am not a god, since I cannot create worlds, only observe, so just call me Observer or librarian.”

“Hold on… what do you mean repair old ones?”

This time I don’t answer its question but ask my own with a smile.

“Do you want to make a deal?”

I think I was scammed… I mean... I got its whole memories as payment, but it was just twenty years of memory in a world without any supernatural elements, and where life expectancy is at least seventy years… and what it got for them… poor me… scammed by a human of all possible creatures… ”sob”...