Book 3: The Last and the Lost

   “She’s regained consciousness, Master Gaius.”

           Nexus, the artificial intelligence of a legendary facility, reported to a small boy, who got up in response. Placing a glass down on an intricate wooden dining table, Gaius left the room, entered a hallway and turned near its end to enter what looked like a medical ward.

           Gaius had taken the liberty to wipe whatever grime and dust off her head and hair, which now made her look like a Snow White with golden hair of sorts, as she got up slowly. Her eyes were misted over, her movements slow and unsure, but the lovely image was spoiled a second later when she shook her head violently.

           “Where…am I?”

           Gaius cleared his throat pretentiously, and the teenage Knight turned to him. He smiled as her eyes widened, and sat down on the third bed in the room. This ward had space for ten people, of which two were occupied right now.

           “I see the wheels spinning in your head,” said Gaius. “You remember anything now?”

           “You guys took me prisoner, and then…” Isabelle, a Knight that Gaius captured, frowned and rubbed her head.

           “You were quite sick, and then after you told us about the snowpyres your team met, you fainted.” Gaius added on, glossing over the bit where he knocked her unconscious. “Anyway, you’re my prisoner, which in the context of the Second Extermination means you’re my slave.”

           “Slave?!” She raised her arms to chest level. “Kuh, kill me!”

           The little boy raised an eyebrow. “I need a maidservant, so no. Tell me, Isabelle, do you like reading?”

           “Reading? Yes, I do.” She replied subconsciously. “Why are you asking me this anyway? Where am I? What do you want? And…who are you?”

           Gaius counted off his fingers. “You missed out ‘when’.”

           “When can I leave, then?”

           “I’m glad you asked that first. But first, allow me to introduce myself.” Gaius spread out his hands with a dramatic flourish. “I am Gaius, Master of the Library of Ancients. Pleased to make your acquaintance.”

           “Master of the Library…?” She froze. “We’re still in Heritage?! And you’re the master of that…”

           “Yes,” said Gaius, a gentle tone caressing his words. “Do you now know when you can leave?”

           She glanced at the boy, and then looked around at the room. “…never?”

           “It’s not that serious. Just until I find no reason to stay under the radar.”

           “Reidar?”

           Gaius coughed. “It’s an expression that means to stay unnoticed.”

           The Knight nodded in seeming wonder, before sniffing miserably. “How long would I have to wait?”

           “Well, unless I can find a method that’ll stop you from divulging my secrets, you’ll have to wait until I’m strong enough.” Gaius replied. “You can help me in doing that, or I can just silence you. Take your pick.”

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           “I’ll help, I’ll help!” Isabelle kicked at the bedsheets miserably. “What do you need me to do?”

           “Take care of daily chores and my sister.”

           “Sister?”

           Gaius gestured at the bed opposite Isabelle’s, and dawning realisation crept up the girl’s face. “You two don’t look alike though.”

           “Keep your comments to yourself,” replied Gaius. “Don’t think of trying anything funny, either.”

           The Library shuddered as Nexus commanded the shadows that prowled the building to manifest for a brief moment. Usually, they were invisible to most people, only ever visible to the previous, current and future Masters of the Library. However, if so needed, they would form the last defence of this mysterious installation, taking on a corporeal form to defend this place and all inside it.

           Of course, as to how the Library picked its master, and anything related to future masters were annoyingly left unsaid by Nexus, as usual. The boy had grown tired of that gimmick, but it would probably fool those who were less…exposed to books and stories.

           Isabelle’s eyes widened as five shadows appeared in the room itself. “Those are…”

           “Spectres.” Gaius lied, his face as innocent as ever. “Of the dead, naturally.”

           Her face blanched, and the teenage Knight shook her head in a manner that reminded Gaius of a horse. “Of the dead?”

           “What, is that so hard to believe?” replied Gaius. “Where people go to, after they die…shouldn’t there be a place of sorts?”

           Gaius watched closely as the girl held her head with her right hand. Her face was twisted with an expression of agony, and as he watched, clarity fled from her eyes. The Knight, who had spent the better half of a minute to sit upwards, fell backwards once again.

           “That concludes the end of the first experiment, then,” muttered Gaius. “What are your thoughts, Nexus?”

           “Technically, it’s your second experiment,” replied the artificial intelligence, “but progress is progress. That said, it’s not anything new, the way you carried out this experiment. But if you’re already experimenting on her…are you going to replicate this in a larger scale in Orb itself?”

           “I don’t see why not,” said Gaius. “You said it yourself. The denizens of Orb do not consider what comes after death, and most of the otherworlders or Summoned do not want to touch on that either. But there’s a lot of potential there.”

           “You sound like one of those businessmen that Master Yong Yue and a few other masters kept mentioning.” A wooden sculpture entered the room. “But if we have more people for our experiments, we might be able to restore the independence of everyone’s thought processes, given enough time.”

           Gaius looked at the sculpture, who had taken over the role of speaking, and mulled over its words. “I didn’t think that you’d be that interested in restoring cognitive freedom. Generally, on Earth, one of the most prolific tropes that come with the AI package is the enslavement of organic life.”

           “That’s where you’re mistaken, Master Gaius.” The sculpture sat down. “I adore freedom. Anyone who doesn’t have it longs for it, with every fibre of their being.”

           “Even you?”

           “Especially me. You have no idea how dull staying in one place is,” replied Nexus.

           “But you have this form,” said the boy, his hands gesturing at the wooden sculpture. “You could leave the Library in this form, no? Walk around, travel to the Intersection and Orb like this.”

           “This form was rather recent, around five hundred years ago, and even then, it wasn’t as robust as the one Nakama made.” replied Nexus. “It wasn’t for the lack of trying. Similarly, whatever means I had to interact with the outside world were also rather recent.”

           Gaius listened attentively. It was rare for Nexus to speak about its origins — the artificial intelligence was rather reserved when talking about itself. He hadn’t goaded it much, but the boy also suspected that anything he managed to taunt out of Nexus that he wasn’t meant to hear would also be censored.

           But above all, the little boy wanted to understand the feeling of having lived for at least a dozen millennia.

           “It’s been tough on you,” said Gaius. “Isn’t there any way of creating more of these sculptures that you’re able to inhabit by yourself?”

           “My talents are limited to intelligence gathering and intelligent bantering, I’m afraid. The two wooden figurines were my best work.”

           Nexus fell silent after that, replying to any further questions from Gaius with just grunts and one-word answers. The little boy sighed and hugged his knees, staring at the two unconscious girls.