Chapter

The Dread, as Librarian had called it, returned with a vengeance. The first ten minutes in the stacks had been fine. Mikel had walked through row upon row of books with a hand firmly grasping his sword while keeping an eye out for trouble. At most, he saw something slither away into the darkness ahead of him and to his left, but nothing else moved within the massive structure. Like The Market, this place stretched forever in all directions and at times seemed to extend into the sky - in the vague distances all objects bled out into colorless fog.

At times Mikel thought he’d lost the glowing orb ahead of him, but all he had to do was walk another ten or twenty feet and it came back into view.

This had all been a matter of course, until the pit of his stomach dropped out and terror nearly consumed him.

Mikel slumped against a stack of books, the shelf labeled with an archaic rune he didn’t recognize, and held a hand to his stomach. It was all he could do to remain upright as the crippling sensation of absolute, illogical fear rippled through him.

Sweat poured off his body and his breathing grew sharp and shallow - Terror gnawed at him.

“Control yourself,” He muttered, looking up toward the light ahead, “Just keep moving. This is just like The Reverie… Just like Celine. If you could deal with those two, you can deal with this. Just start… walking.”

He gasped the last word, a ragged pep talk before he put one foot forward and began to move. It took him the better part of an hour to reach the edge of the terror bubble, but even then, the horrid sensation stuck with him like thick oil caked onto his skin.

He was more than halfway to the glowing orb before it relinquished its hold on him entirely - the memory remained though.

Mikel heaved a sigh of relief and looked behind him - the path he’d walked was more or less a straight line from the front and he liked to imagine he could see the entry he’d come through a short time before. There was no sign of what had caused The Dread.

“Son of a bitch,” He muttered, turning back to the glowing light mounted above him.

As the crow flies, Mikel thought he was only a few hundred yards away from the orb, but a dilemma soon presented itself.

A row of bookcases emerged from the fog blocking his way.

Mikel came to a stop in front of one of the massive stacks and glanced up - it was nearly thirty feet tall and loaded with books.

The only ways available to him were to the right, the left, or straight back the way he came.

An idea popped into his head as he looked back in front of him. He was about to see just how all-knowing Librarian was in this place.

“Librarian,” He said quietly, the memory of The Dread still grilled into his mind. He didn’t feel the sensation now, but he knew he’d have to experience it again at least once more to return to the front desk. While waiting for her to respond he glanced back the way he’d come and shivered.

Stolen novel; please report.

“Yes, Mikel,” the voice said from the air around Mikel as it had done at the inquiry desk. He’d wondered if it would have the same effect of vibrating the air here as it did out front, and found his theory correct.

“What’s to stop me from climbing straight up and over this bookcase? The light you cast is on the other side.”

A hum in the air around him, Librarian thinking, before she answered a moment later.

“Could you do it without harming any of the books, scrolls, or items stored on the shelves?”

Mikel looked up again then down at his boots and grimaced.

His boots were finely tooled and made of supple leather with textured, tight patterns on the soles, but they were also packed with dirt, grime, and gods only knew what else from his travels.

“What do we qualify as damage?”

“No. You couldn’t climb over the bookcase.” The voice came out in short, clipped words, brooking no argument.

“Alright, fine,” Mikel said as he scratched the back of his head, “Since I’ve got you here - do you have any suggestions about which way to go?”

A hum again, then a response - Mikel was finding out this was typical with Librarian.

“To the left, there are several living entities roaming the stacks. You have a chance to avoid them, but you’d have to be careful. They are congregating there for some reason, and this accounts for the ease with which you traveled to this point. Normally, the living are spread about in an even distribution, none too close to the other.”

“Can… you elaborate on that further?”

“No.”

Mikel sighed, looking left and seeing nothing but a long corridor formed by bookcases rising into the mist above. There was no way to tell what lay beyond that shimmering boundary.

“To the right?”

“There are no living obstacles, but that doesn’t mean there are none of the unliving. I’ve historical data showing many interactions over the past decade right around this area dealing with the unliving.”

“And how exactly were these data collected?” Mikel asked, not expecting to like the response.

“Exactly how you think, Mikel. Autopsies, mainly.”

He sighed for a third time and regarded the bookcase in front of him again, “Are you absolutely sure I can’t -”

“If you want to leave here alive, then I’d suggest you do not harm the objects on that shelf in any way.”

“Alright,” Mikel said, “That’s out. So my choices are guaranteed living… Entities, in my way, or the possibility of unliving things on the right? On a scale of one to ten, how dangerous are the living and nonliving entities, generally speaking?”

“Taking into account your current combat capability… the living can range anywhere from one, such as a Stack Mouse; to ten, which would represent a Stack Ogre or creatures of similar size, function, and threat level. Similar threats might include trained human combatants of the Essentia-based or Martial-based skill sets. Sunken Folk threats are known to be present in this area.”

Mikel’s heart skipped a beat, “Sunken Folk threats?”

“Yes. Though the Sunken Folk are almost entirely gone from this world their creations are not. Even in this place monsters of the Sunken Folk strain will emerge and spawn from time to time as Essentia conditions align with their spawn conditions. These creatures can include Melsu’Xem, Gigants, Lurkers, or Watchers. Other, rarer creatures have spawned in the past, but those are so rare as to be disregarded. Until they appear that is.”

Mikel knew almost nothing of what Librarian had just told him but it sounded bad.

Before setting out he’d researched monsters; both Essentia and Physical Skills, ie. Magical in nature vs flesh and blood - but not once had he read or heard about anything of Sunken Folk origin still appearing regularly enough to have names and to be well known.

“Any chance you can tell me if any of those… Sunken Folks things you just mentioned are to my left?”

“No.”

“No they aren’t there, or no you can’t tell me?”

A hum, then an answer.

“No.”

Mikel sighed for a fourth time.

“Alright. Fine. I’ll take the nonliving side of things. Is the route clear after the area where the nonliving tend to show up?”

“Of living obstacles, yes.”

“Good enough.”