Deep in a library filled with knowledge mundane and world-changing. A near-infinite amount of possibilities that could propel a civilization from the Stone Age all the way right to space. Space where a moon orbits an earth where an impossible library resides within an office building. Here a man is desperately going from tome to tome, stack to stack, through shelf after shelf hunting for a spell, incantation, cantrip, artificing, tracking advice, a book of prophecy anything that would let him hunt down his lost book. All the while a doll watched on amused, and playing with a tablet she had found in the office.

It was after his third hour Nicki’s emotions finally boiled over. “This is just so frustrating!”

“Why? You have just about every spell in the multiverse here?” She asked sounding genuinely curious.

“That’s the problem! There’s too many.” Never did he imagine that he would have too many options for searching for his book. After talking with the one wizard he thought it would be relatively simple. He had no idea the amount of work it would actually be.

Drystia’s head fell to a tilt, “Not following.”

Nicki took a breath putting his thoughts in order, “There are too many spells or techniques. The majority of them won’t even work in my world.” That had been a big kick in the pants. “Then there are the ones that might work there, but I barely know anything about actually using mana on my planet. I’m kind of limited outside the office.”

“I thought you read Rixar’s book.”

That was true kind of. “I did. Here. There’s a ton of metaphysical junk going on with the book to teach a novice. Doesn’t affect me here.” Which was a fascinating aspect of his powers. It had even made him understand the usefulness of the book and exactly what it could do. “So I’ve been trying to read it at home. I’ve barely made it past the first two chapters.” The book was really hard to read even with his mana control.

“That’s not much.” She said curious.

Nicki laughed, “It’s surprisingly a lot. I know just enough to cast spells but there’s not enough mana around to cast them. So its. Pain in the butt finding one I can even work with.”

“Why don’t you just search on your computer for what you need?”

Nicki stared and blinked at her.

“You forgot you could didn’t you?” Drystia replied barely holding back a laugh.

“Maybe. And is there even a search for books on there?” Nicki wouldn’t be surprised if there was. Sure he had been on the job for a while now but he did tend to get a bit of tunnel vision. Drystia on the other hand had been exploring.

Drystia turned her tablet around and pointed to an icon on the home screen one that looked to be a stack of books and labeled book search.

“This place just has too much of everything its hard to keep track,” Nicki replied defensively.

“Keep telling yourself that.”

“So can we read the book from there or do we still need to find it?”

She was silent for a few minutes as she looked over the tablet. “Looks like we have to find it. But check this out.” She sounded excited.

The world shifted warping until they stood in front of a bookshelf with a glowing book.

“Neat.”

#

In a van filled with surveillance equipment outside of a high-end apartment downtown. Just close enough to a construction sight to not be suspicious. A woman is attempting to watch the camera looking for anything conspicuous. Except she couldn’t even remotely focus.

Shit. Shit shit. It’s real. It’s real.

Holy fucking shit it’s Real.

Or you are going crazy again Alice.

That had been on a loop in her head all day. Ever since she read the book last night, she had been freaking out at the possibility it was real. Thanks to that she didn’t sleep at all last night. So sleep-deprived she had almost convinced herself it had been a hallucination. That was until she tried to read it again. This time she got as far as Ma before passing out. She barely heard her last alarm waking her in time to be late.

“Bennet you alright?” Detective Mercer asked concerned scaring the shit out of her and causing her to freeze.

Did he know?

“Bennet?”

“Sorry sir. Late night.” And she was sure that tonight would be the same.

Detective Mercer looked her over for a minute before, “Keep your eyes peeled.” Then he turned to the other two men. “Any word on the people that showed up the other day?”

Ah yes, then there was that. Not an hour after he had returned a bunch of people in expensive black vans and suits entered. Just from a glance Mercer had explained they must have some military training. When they showed up Alice had to fight to not just run out of the van. Somehow she had kept it together till the end of the day. The entire time she couldn’t help but wonder, Who the fuck is this guy!?

To say she was stressed would have been an understatement.

Tim answered looking in the log. “Nothing concrete. The plates came back for a company called Black Card Insurance.”

“Insurance?”

“Yes sir.”

“The hell would insurance be there?” Mercer asked looking to anyone for answers, except none of them did. Except for Bennet, and she felt sweat drip down her back. Did they notice the book was missing?

“Well, keep an eye out, and see if we can find out more about them and why they’re there.”

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

The rest of the day felt like forever before her relief came and she could go home.

Opening the door, with her imagination going wild all day she half expected those insurance people to pop out of nowhere and grab her. Instead, she was alone. The book sat on her shelf hidden in plain sight. She was immediately drawn to it needing to know or get rid of it.

Ok, I can just bring it back. Toss it through the window, or maybe on the fire escape. And then I’d never know for sure if this is real. If I could ever prove I wasn’t crazy. She held the book tight her hand moving across the cover. Why am I even considering this? She couldn’t lie to herself. She knew why. Because I want it to be real.

Alice held the book up and began to read, almost immediately passing out.

#

In a place of sugar, confection, chocolate, and candied sweetness. Where syrup flows like rivers, and lovely little raspberry robins sing. A place where magic is hidden in a recipe, and cast with a bit of fun. Here there is a university made and remade from cake fondant, and coated in a thick layer of frosting. Here in a little room an old Gingerbread man icing cracked and cookie crumbling is teaching the next generation of magic makers. The candied children’s lemon of drop, red gummy wish fish, those cookies of ginger and sugar coached in icing. A dessert class of magic.

“I delved deep into my own ingredients searching for truth. Every year we search for answers within and without.” Gingorad Phineas spoke to his class, leaning upon his licorice staff. Light and magic appeared above him illustrating his words. “Whether it be our sugar, or flour, or the very plants they came from. We search for the answers. Where does the sole of the Gingerbread people reside, at what moment in the confection, and when is it added in?” The illusions showed two empty bowls, “Is it somewhere in that dry mixture of flour, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, allspice, and cloves?” The first bowl is now filled with dry ingredients, “Or hidden within the brown sugar, molasses, or butter.” The second bowl was filled with wet ingredients, and the two began to combine as an oven appeared.

“Maybe it’s when we are baked together. The heat combines the ingredients of life bringing us forth soul and all. We don’t know. Yet, we are searching and that is, what I like to believe a wonderful journey.” Gingorad turned wistful watching his illusion creating more of of his people. “There is even the possibility of the love gifted in every batch that brings us to life.” His voice cracked at the end as his throat grew dry and he coughed.

“Professor is your illness why you’re giving this lecture?” One of the young Gingerbread men asked.

They had been asking him that same question every year since he began to crumble, and he laughed it off like always. “No. This is the same lecture given every year. But it is true. I am well past my expiration date and grow staler by the day. With every step, I crumble a bit more. Yet, I will continue teaching the magic of baking till the end.” The illusion followed his words showing him standing on a stage with his students walking across as graduates.

“Professor.” It came out as a soft whisper from the student.

Gingorad shook his head and the illusion disappeared to a small cloud of powdered sugar. “That’s enough sad talk, today we are closing in on the finals and many of you have yet to make an enchanted candied confection.”

He stepped behind his desk and grabbed a tray of different candies labeled with the temperature, ingredients, and directions below it. “Remember it’s about each and every ingredient not just the magic we’re mixing in. It’s important at every step things are prepared correctly.”

The rest of the class students took detailed notes on the tray items and worked on making their own items. There were a few successes but more than one failed. Either the temperature was off or they didn’t pull the candy right. Thankfully nothing exploded this time.

Gingorad Phineas had been working at the academy for years. Helping to mold and shape the next generations of confectioners, bakers, chocolatiers, and decorators. It’s probably the only reason he has lived as long as he has. He’d been keeping the crumble away for the last eighty or so years a feat no one had yet to replicate. His time was soon, one of his lungs had recently crumbled and he lost three gumdrop buttons. Soon he would end. He just hoped he would at least finish his final class. That was his hope as he lay in his bed and pulled up his favorite mallow blanket, and closed his frosted eyes, only to open them in a new and strange foreign world.

#

In an office somewhere on a moon, a doll is sitting behind a desk looking seriously at an empty manilla folder. Having left Nicki deep in the library, hunting through books.

“Uh-huh. I see. Yes. It appears you’ve lived an interesting life.” She said lowering the folder and looking at an empty seat.

Drystia smiled imagining an excited teen sitting there. “I see you are excited about your next adventure and I am here to facilitate that for you.”

She points to the inside of the folder excitedly, showing it to the imaginary teen. “This right here. It seems you’re already a master swordsman. That is quite the achievement at one so young.” She said sounding impressed. “I must ask how you achieved this?”

She rolled her eyes at the imaginary response. “Of course, I could read it but hearing it from a Hero such as yourself.”

Drystia waved the folder like a fan as she happily replied, “Yes I am powerful, and my dress is impeccable such fine taste thank you.”

“Oh, you were found by a mysterious master on a hilltop who swore never to teach again at least until you begged him to be taught.” Disappointment thick in her voice. “A bit cliched.”

“Yes, it is cliché doesn’t mean it’s not amazing.” She consoled the imaginary being.

Suddenly her face turned angry, “No you’re a cliché.”

“That is very rude, my hair is perfect!” How dare they assault my lovely yarn lochs. Then another insult shot from the imaginary teen.

“A ratty doll!? You are being exceedingly rude. I, in my magnanimity will ignore that and send you to a new world. One only moderately--”

“What did you say!?” She pulled her sword pointing it forward.

“Thats it your getting reincarnated as an old man.”

Cough cough.

Drystia froze as she looked down on the chair. There sitting looking quite amused was a small gingerbread man.

“I hope I’m not interrupting anything.” The old gingerbread man said with smile.

Shamefaced she lifted the empty folder to hide, only to find it now filled with the life of gingerbread scholar. Her mind went through the file pulled through his final days.

“Its alright i only caught the end of it.” He said consolingly before he asked. “So did I finally crumble?”

#

Nicki sat up at the sudden awareness that always preceded a new hero. He looked at the stacks of books he was perusing hoping to find something. He sighs. This is going to be hard. Nicki would have to balance hunting for the book and his Heroes. He couldn’t slack off and just send them away to wherever. That wouldn’t end well. Nicki began to walk taking a step and turning around a shelf. Then all at once, he was in front of the entrance. While he hadn’t explored the place fully, he had learned to understand his domain and was determined not to learn more of it. He was just taking his time, or at least that was what he told himself as he spent as little time as he could in the office. Just enough time to learn a few tricks of the place. He might still be dealing with some issues after being shot.

Nicki opened the door to the office only to find a doll talking to a gingerbread man. It was such a strange sight Nicki froze as neither even noticed his entrance. Then he heard her speak.

“Well, there’s a lot of options,” Drystia responded to something the gingerbread man said.

Is she trying to send a Hero herself?

“But not to an afterlife?” The cookie’s voice was old and sounded loose.

“If you want to think of it like that.” She said shrugging. “Since this is after your life.”

“But no paradise waiting?”

“Depends on you. Though, I’ve learned that there is no light without dark.” She said sadly. “It will be up to you to make it a paradise.”

Nicki watched on amused and proud. She was doing rather well with the little gingerbread man. He remembered his first, a sword and he had just used an old Arthurian legend as a template. If he had known what he knew now…he would have done the same. Watching her he smiled as the well in his head began to spin and shrink or grow with options as they went through where the little cookie would go.

She eventually noticed Nicki but he waved her to continue so she did, and all at once the wheel stopped spinning as a place was chosen and Nicki stepped out of the way for the cookie to step through. The Gingerbread man looked amused when he saw Nicki before walking through the door into his new life.

The room was quiet for a while before Drystia turned to Nicki, “So. How’d I do?”

“Pretty good.”

* * *