Sharon lingered alone in the narrow space between bookshelves. Only Ariadne remained behind with her.

The Librarian and David had skittered on ahead. Sharon could hear his excited orations as he and David disappeared around a corner. A call of “Left!”, “Right!” or “Keep going!” punctuated the indistict murmerings. With each call, the voice faded further, until Sharon could hear only the soft purring of the cat at her feet.

She should have felt lost. She was lost. Yet, she found Ariadne’s presence reassuring. She didn’t know why, but the cat made her feel safe.

Sharon meandered toward a T-intersection. As she strolled, she allowed her fingers to stroke the bindings of the books which filled the shelves flanking her either side. She filled her lungs with air. It was as though she could smell the immense bulk of pure information that surrounded her.

When she came to the T, Ariadne headed right, and Sharon followed. They went on like this, sometimes taking the right, sometimes the left; sometimes continuing forward when they could have chosen other directions. At each intersection, Sharon took her cue from the cat.

After following the cat around a particular corner she stopped.

“I’ll never find my way out of her on my own,” she laughed, half to herself, half to the cat.

Sharon turned to face the intersection through which they had just passed. “Let’s see something,” she said, this time, speaking more to the cat than to herself. She retraced her steps and peered back around the corner.

Her face grew flush. The route she had just travelled looked different. Was it the books which lined the shelves? Were there more softcover now than hardcover? Thicker spines? Thinner?

She started further down the path, further back the way she had come. To her right, an intersection beckoned her. Another two intersections emerged to her left.

Sharon shook her head. “These weren’t here before,” she whispered.

Sharon stared down the passage between two shelves. Each shelf was stacked with papers, notebooks, and a few hardcover books. Some of the books had been shelved with their spines inward. Others were stacked horizontally, one on top of the other. The overhead lights flickered and buzzed. Sharon wondered how far the passage continued. It was too dim to see from where she stood.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

She lifted her right foot, and took a half-step into the greyness.

Sssssssssssssssssssssssssssss!

Four sets of claws dug into Sharon’s ankle and shin. Stunned, she looked down.

“Ariadne!”

The cat hissed again. She followed with a gutteral whine. Sharon stepped back. Ariadne released her grip. Sharon turned her back on the darkened passage and renewed her trek.

“No more detours,” she assured the cat.

How long they continued on, Sharon had no idea. She was again stroking the shelved books on either side of her as she progressed. Fewer of the volumes were hardcover, she noticed. Many were now spiral-bound paperbacks. She paused to thumb through one. Numeric charts; machine code; wiring diagrams: technical manuals.

Ariadne leapt onto one of the shelves, knocking a tiny notebook onto the floor. Sharon stroked the cat under the chin. Ariadne purred.

Sharon brought her eyes close to the cat’s. “How much further?” she asked.

Sharon began to take Ariadne into her arms. She wasn’t sure how the cat would respond to being held, but Ariadne leaned into Sharon’s chest and stepped off the shelf.

Still cradling the cat, Sharon crouched down to retrieve the fallen book. It was a spiral-bound volume, like the others that lined these shelves. The cover read, in small, type-written capital letters:

ARCANE MATTERS

It struck Sharon as odd that amidst all these apparent tomes of applied engineering she would find a notebook with contents so …

“Arcane.” She mouthed the words, and opened the cover. Ariadne leapt from her lap onto the floor.

Sharon raised herself to her feet as she thumbed through the notebook. She found pages of hand-drawn diagrams: exploded-view drawings, lists of screws, resistors, voltages and wiring schematics.

“What can we build with this, Cat?” She addressed Ariadne, not expecting a response. Ariadne blinked.

Near the front of the notebook, Sharon found several pages, headed CONTENTS. She skimmed the titles and subtitles: Spinor Alignment; Hyperbolic Manifold Array; Tilt Modification.

Tilt.

Sharon lifted her eyes from the text. She now applied her attention to a distant ringing. How long had that sound been lingering, just below her perception?

Ding! Ding-ding-ding!

She resumed her journey, still clutching the notebook. Now it was Ariadne who followed Sharon. Sharon continued through the labyrinth. Each time she was presented with a choice, she took the path where the sounds she had been hearing became more distinct.

The chimes were now joined by whirs and pinging. The indistinct chatter of human uncountable human conversations filled the air. It sounded like a party, just behind the bookshelves.

Sharon pick up her pace. The din of the chatter, the bells and the electronic ditties intensified.

She took a final turn and stopped.

Sharon now stood in a doorway. The space beyond was filled with game machines — pinball, video consoles, shoot-em-up games. Young people, most of them David’s age, milled about in small groups. Many of them huddled around one of the various games, egging on whoever happened to be at the controls.

One of the games — a pinball machine emitted a sudden, shrill siren call. The boy at the control pumped his fist and shrieked, “YES!”

He turned toward Sharon, grinning. It was David.

“Free replay!” he shouted, and gestured back toward the machine. “Best pinball ever!”