Chapter 58 - Staircase to the Abyss

In the ancient library of the dead god, Yuzu and Argus ventured solemnly into the gloomy darkness.

Yuzu walked ahead of Argus, but only by a step, her left hand hovering over the illusory string that extended from his body like a glistening white spiderweb. It extended into the shadows, beyond the sphere of orange light that was lit by the candles in their hands.

The Hall of Records loomed around them as they passed by the endless shelves of books that towered up into the darkness on each side, their faces barely lit by the flickering light. They passed table after dust-covered table, past statues and sculptures and antiques of all shapes and sizes. Above them the wiry forms of chandeliers hung from an impenetrable darkness.

When Yuzu touched the thin, delicate strand that lead into the darkness the only vision she could see was that of her and Argus walking forward through the shadows, candles outstretched in their hands revealing nothing.

After countless steps the rows of tables and the shelves on the walls abruptly ended and there were no longer chandeliers above their head. The width of the hall increased until the walls couldn’t be seen in the light of the candles. They continued to walk forward in the darkness until the tables and shelves had all disappeared behind them.

Now all that Yuzu could see was an inky void around her, and the shifting grey fog at their ankles.

He comes here by himself every new moon? Yuzu wondered to herself. The atmosphere was oppressive and eternal. She was scared to speak, her imagination conjuring up terrors in the darkness beyond. She glanced at Argus, who was looking ahead with a serious expression while deep in thought.

After a moment he noticed her gaze and said, “We have left the Hall of Records. Ahead of us is the entrance to the Stacks, the first section of the library.”

A wide, circular dias made of marbled stone slowly came into view directly ahead of them as they continued to walk forward at a steady pace. It rose up to waist height above the floor level. As they approached Yuzu noticed that there was a meter wide gap in the floor around the dias that extended the whole way around. The grey fog poured endlessly down into the gap in a silent, dreamlike waterfall.

Straight ahead was a plain ramp with no railings that arched slowly across the gap in a gentle incline that lead to the top of the platform.

“Watch your step.” Argus said simply. “I haven’t yet seen the bottom of that hole.”

“Where does it go?” Yuzu asked, not daring to venture close enough to the edge to look down it.

“Down into the Stacks.” Argus replied, “Only the Hall of Records and this chamber is above ground. The rest of the library descends into the earth. The staircase we are about to go down is a spindle from which thin bridges extend off into the myriad chambers below.”

“There are no railings, but don’t worry, the space has been ‘altered’ so that falling off is impossible. You can’t even fall from the gap in the floor up here.”

“Then why did you tell me to watch my step?” Yuzu asked.

“It was a joke.” Argus said matter-of-factly, “To lighten the mood.”

Yuzu frowned, not finding it funny at all. Oppressive atmosphere notwithstanding, Argus hadn’t even smiled or made any indication that he was joking.

The boy scratched beside his ear in thought, “I guess I need to work on my delivery.”

“I guess so.” Yuzu said.

They walked over the bridge and made it to the platform. It wasn’t too wide, only about 6 meters in diameter, and unlike the smooth floor up until this point there were shallow grooves engraved into the stone. In the flickering light of the candles Yuzu couldn’t make out the pattern clearly, but the engravings seemed both geometric and fluid in nature.

In the center of the platform another bag had been left on the floor. Argus went over to it and pulled out a large leather bound notebook with thick, starchy pages. The pages were bound by a thick twine in such a way that it was easy for them to be removed from the book. Yuzu stood over top, looking down as he opened it up. Drawn in thin, precise lines was a diagram with a line that spiraled from the top of the page down to the bottom. Many lines extended out from the spiral column at various points. The lines were numbered and noted in a strange script that Yuzu did not recognize, with the top lines having more detail and notes than the ones further down.

“Did you draw this?” Yuzu asked.

“Yes.” Argus said, “It is a record of my exploration in this place. At first I tried to explore this place sequentially, from high to low, but I quickly discovered that there is no obvious order in this library. In general, the lower you go the more older the records, but aside from that I can’t seem to glean any system of organization.”

Yuzu frowned as she found she couldn’t make any sense of the diagram. Argus ran his fingers along the page once from top to bottom. Then he carefully removed the page from its binding. Yuzu noticed that there was an identical diagram of the page he had removed.

“I’ve memorized the contents, but my memory plays tricks on me. I keep two copies, in case I lose one during a visit.” Argus said. He removed a satchel bag from the bag on the floor and slung it across his shoulder, then folded the page with the diagram carefully and placed it inside.

“Can you still follow the string?” Argus asked.

Yuzu nodded. The glittering string led to the far end of the platform where a staircase jutted out from the side. It spiraled down into the darkness.

Once again, Yuzu led the way a few steps in front of Argus with her hand hovering over the thread. It wound down the spiral staircase that descended at an even rate around a cylinder of empty space the same width as the circular platform. It felt like they were descending into an endless abyss, with the light of their candle only able to illuminate the stairs directly around them.

Even though Argus had said that it was safe, Yuzu didn’t dare to walk near the edges. She kept her steps deliberate and measured, so as not to trip and fall. The stairs were even and at a comfortable height for walking.

Before they had descended too far they came upon a meter-wide platform that extended from the staircase out into the darkness. It seemed to hover in mid-air without any supports, defying the laws of physics.

“There are many of these. They lead to various rooms and chambers.” Argus said. “Most are filled with books. They are organized roughly by locations or events, although some are centered around a specific topic.”

“What does this one lead to?” Yuzu asked.

“I don’t know.” Argus said, “As far as I can tell, the contents in the chamber at the end of these upper paths are random and nonsensical.”

“An entire chamber of nonsensical books?”

“Filled with gibberish from cover to cover.” Argus nodded quietly. “I don’t understand either.”

They went down the staircase for a while, passing many such paths. Argus would describe in brief what he had found down the end of the paths he had already explored, most of which were historical records of long lost kingdoms and peoples.

“There are many books, and even entire chambers that I have to avoid because my intuition tells me it’s too dangerous.” Argus said. “One day I hope to find the key to unlocking those areas.”

“What are you looking for?” Yuzu asked.

“I don’t know. I only know that there is something here that I once understood, a long time ago.” Argus said quietly.

After some time Yuzu stopped in front of a platform. She looked down it quietly.

“The string goes down this way.” She said.

Argus pulled out the paper from his satchel and looked at it, “I’ve been here before. This chamber contains the records that describe this library. Its origins, its layout. This is where I learned about the Hall of Records.”

They began walking down the platform. Once again they were enveloped in darkness as the spiraling staircase behind them disappeared into the darkness.

“You didn’t find what you were looking for in there?” Yuzu asked.

“There were only a few books that I felt were safe to read.” Argus replied. “My understanding of the library still remains very shallow.”

As they walked forward a massive wall came into view, filled with endless shelves of books. Row upon row of narrow platforms wound around the wall spaced ten meters apart from each other, just barely wide enough for someone to walk down. Yuzu held her candle up as they approached, to see if there was any break in the wall of books.

“The walls of the spindle are lined with these shelves. Their contents are relatively normal. Stories written by people and historians. They are not sorted at all, its as if Okuron simply wanted to store books written by others, without needing to read them or access them.” Argus explained.

“If the books out here are written by others...” Yuzu had a thoughtful expression on her face as they reached the wall. An open doorway led into a tunnel, leading out through the side of the vertical chamber. Argus nodded, confirming her unspoken conclusion.

“The real value of this library is not in what others have written, but in the knowledge of Okuron Himself.” Argus said. “These chambers hold His thoughts, His experiences, His memories.”

The walls of the tunnel were made of smoothed granite and curved up to the roof evenly, like they were walking inside a half-cylinder. It was the smallest architecture she had seen yet, only just taller than normal ceiling height.

The tunnel ended after a ten meters at an engraved stone door.

Argus produced the golden astrolabe from his pocket and held it up to the door. A bright line shone from the relic, illuminating the engravings on the door. With a low rumble the door lowered into the ground, revealing a dark chamber beyond.

This time Argus led the way forward, holding out the astrolabe in front of him. He had already extinguished the candle as the chamber began to glow with a soft grey light. Yuzu extinguished hers as well. Runic lines lit up along the walls and ceiling, culminating at the top where a crystalline chandelier hung suspended in the center of the room.

The six tiered chandelier, which was more than two meters at its widest point, sucked up the white light in the runes and began sparkling with an opalescent light. The light refracted through the crystals, giving the illusion of rainbows, though the light it shed was a pure white that was reminiscent of daylight.

The chamber radiated with a hallowed aura that made Yuzu want to bow her head in deference as she followed Argus into the center of the room. He looked unaffected, his green eyes dazzlingly vibrant as he looked to and fro within the room.

The shelves in this chamber were freestanding away from the wall and radiated out from the center of the room in columns. They were ‘only’ two meters tall, a fact Yuzu found unreasonably reasonable in this place. As expected, the shelves were all packed with books. The titles of most of the books were written in the strange, complex runes that had given Yuzu a headache at the entrance to the library. She decided to not let her gaze idly wander.

“There.” Yuzu said, pointing towards one of the shelves where the illusory thread lead.

They walked to stand in front of it and Yuzu reached up to pull off a heavy, leather bound tomb off of the top shelf.

“I think I’ve looked at this one before...” Argus said, receiving it from Yuzu and flipping open the pages. “The contents of it are somewhat bland. A detailed history of the origins of the construction materials in the library.”

“No.” Yuzu said softly, “There’s more.”

As she had touched the tomb, the thick yellow pages of the book had begun to glow with an illusory white light. It was not something that Argus could see, but to Yuzu it felt like the pages were alive with a soul of their own.

As she looked at it in wonder, she noticed that there was a golden cord wrapped around the book, as if binding it. She reached out to it and a golden knot appeared where she touched it.

As she wondered what the cord was, Argus looked up at her with a decisive look in his eyes.

In a low tone he told her,

“Release the knot.”