Chapter 6

The sound of rocks being erratically disturbed broke the afternoon silence. An occasional grumbled oath could also be heard by anyone sitting peacefully on the edge of the stony plain. That same observer would also be able to see a lone, tall biped stumbling his way along through the field of medium sized stones.

Although the nuggets of the irregularly shaped granite weren’t large enough to make for stable purchase, they also weren’t small enough to simply step on easily. To make matters worse, their natural spacing made it impossible to find easy footing between them; making each step for the ill-tempered traveler a conscious effort of coordination.

He muttered and groused as he made his way across the boundary of the steppe and onto more hospitable ground. Moving twenty or so paces along, he stopped and sat tiredly. He heaved a large and long sigh before leaning back and sinking the rest of the way down.

“Damn. Damn. Damn.” The large man repeated his epithet several more times to the sky before sitting back up and removing his shoes. Although they were in good shape and had not been noticeably damaged by his trek across the angular rocks, the feet within them were still very sore. He rubbed them for a few moments and realized that it had indeed been some time since he had trod anything more uneven than fine sand and grass.

Replacing his shoes, he stood and started to wander further away from the rocky field that had given him so much grief and into an area of short dry grasses and weeds. He could see lumpy bent trees of some sort in the distance and hoped that there would be some way to get water nearby.

After a few hours of walking, he reached the sparse woodlands. At the edge, the weary traveler looked in all directions as well as up into the trees themselves. This was not his world and he had no idea what surprises were waiting. Finally, he turned to look once more at the harsh area where he had arrived in this strange place.

“Where the hell am I, Mera?” he asked the empty air. There was no response and he had mostly not expected one, however there was a small part of his mind that missed the other presence that had been sharing his thoughts for the last few months. He hadn’t realized how much he had become accustomed to their mental conversations and, now that they were gone, he was going to have to readjust to being the only one in his head.

Giving his lonely head one last rueful shake, he took the first steps forward into the woods.

For nearly an hour, Ashur trekked into the oddly familiar woodland. During his short time traveling with his blue companion, he had seen worlds that were vastly different from the one he had grown up in. Places with differently colored skies, alternate plant and animal life, and even some where the very air was abnormal to him. This place, however, was so close to the planet of his birth that he felt that, if he walked far enough in the right direction, he might find his way back to the kingdom of Oudromore.

The Guardian chuckled a bit. He wasn’t surprised that he hadn’t thought of Oudromore as “home” even though it was where he had been born and, for the most part, raised. With the death of the last of his comrades, he had been basically set adrift in the universe. Granted, he certainly could have rejoined the army and, in the course of time, become reintegrated, but the fantastic existence he had found with his partner and lover made the idea ludicrous.

Thoughts of the azure Caretaker made him stop for a moment. He wondered if Mera was okay. He knew that she had been physically unharmed at the time he became trapped here, but her mental state might have been shaken by his disappearance. She would find him, eventually. With her ability to traverse among the various universes and realities via her traveling platform, he knew it was just a matter of time before she came upon the right place ... and time was something they both had plenty of.

His worry stemmed more from the shock she would have had at his abrupt severance from her own thoughts. As Caretaker, her domain was the mind and she had reveled in their mental intimacy once he had been able to connect to her that way. How much more was she missing the psychic bond? Would she be fighting her depression and breakdown again? He hoped not.

His musings of their mental relationship brought his own powers to mind. Mera had once told him that their abilities stemmed from the Library and would be diminished in other worlds but had not elaborated more. Ashur had no idea if his own power to change his physical body was still available to him and decided that discovering his limitations now was much preferable to coming up short in a hazardous situation later on.

Finding a convenient log to rest on, he held up one of his hands and concentrated on letting the power inside of him flow down his arm. It felt sluggish and slow; as though he was trying to shove cold honey through the tissues of his body. After a full five minutes, the middle three fingers of his hand began to elongate and stretch. Not bothering with any other major alterations, he focused on the one simple task. Another five minutes ticked by before the changing digits stopped.

Ashur blew out an explosive breath and used his other hand to wipe the sweat dripping into his eyes. Although pushing the energy hadn’t really taken much effort, the mental control he had needed had far surpassed the exercises Mera had been drilling him in. If he found it necessary to make any changes or heal himself here, he would need to be prepared both in time and strength. The rapid modifications he had been able to effect in the Library would not be the case here. With a resigned sigh, the Guardian wiped his face again and set about the task of restoring his hand before moving on.

By the time the sun was starting to set, Ashur had found a stream and a tree that was old and large enough to hold him. Combined with his earlier mental efforts and his laborious escape from the field of stones, the rest of his hike had exhausted him.

He worried that he might have lost some of the situational awareness learned during his time in the army and wanted a resting place that might give him a measure of safety. He didn’t delude himself that bunking down twenty feet up in the “S” curve of the tree would keep away any nocturnal predators so he used the cord that held the Staff to his belt to build a crude tripwire tied to his finger. It was the best he could do with the supplies he had and he resolved to spend part of the next day gathering materials as he traveled.

As for the Staff itself, he had no worry. During his preparations, he inadvertently dropped it. Less than halfway to the ground, the magical rod defied gravity and floated back up to him. Reassured that it would still behave as he expected, he haphazardly placed it on the five-foot thick trunk of the tree above him and, rolling onto his stomach, did his best to rest. As he expected, it did not come easily. Even with years of sleeping in forests, every little noise brought him to instant awareness and the night was nearly halfway over before he was able to drift off.

When his eyes opened again, the sun was up and had been for what he guessed was an hour or more. His legs and feet were still sore from his frustrating trek the previous day and he took a moment to massage them before climbing down from his tree. The nearby stream served to quench his immediate thirst but when his stomach growled loudly at him, he decided that finding some kind of food would need to be a priority today. He couldn’t begin to guess how long it would take Mera to find him so gambling on his nutritional needs in this strange place was necessary and he hoped that if he consumed something harmful, his abilities would let him either adapt or clean it from his system quickly.

He was about to choose a random direction and start walking, but an almost ephemeral sensation drew his attention upstream. Even with his quasi-limited experience with foreign worlds, any kind of impingement on his awareness instantly put his guard up. However, since he had nothing else to guide him, Ashur decided that following the water was as sensible a choice as any other.

As he slogged along the soft banks of the stream, he half-expected the feeling to grow stronger but it remained fleeting for the rest of the day. His grumbling gut forced him to stop from time to time and experiment with various berries and the occasional unearthed tuber. Thankfully, none of them were instantly poisonous although a few did cause an intestinal burble or two. To his consternation, even as a conglomeration, the small handfuls he found were not exactly filling and he settled down for the evening in another tree with his hunger only slightly assuaged.

He trekked like that for several more days without seeing any other type of animal life forms although he became more adept at spotting the plants that he had deemed to be the safest. This discrepancy started to worry him. In just about every other forest, swamp, and even desert he had been in, there were animals, even small rodents and insects and they left behind tracks of some kind or another. This world seemed to have none and it bothered him more the longer he thought about it. Was there something in the air or the water that kept them from surviving? Was it just this area or was the entire world nothing but plant life? If the phenomenon was local, then there was a good chance that either a disease or overwhelming predator had decimated the area. Worse, it was probably a recent thing since it looked as though the ecosystem hadn’t had a chance to repopulate in even the smallest way.

Squaring his shoulders, Ashur kept moving forward. If it was a disease, then he was most likely already infected and could only do his best to battle it internally. A predator that could do this kind of damage was something else entirely, especially since he hadn’t seen any evidence of it. In his days of travel, there had been no sign of tracks, droppings, or any of the other tell-tales that a top-level hunter left behind and that concerned him greatly. If there was some sort of hunter out there, it was smart enough or developed enough not to give itself away and all the human could do was stay wary and react as fast as possible. It made the going nervous and slowed him down a little, but he wasn’t in any real rush anyways.

Around the middle of his fifth day, he reached the edge of the forest and stared out at a line of foothills that reached the horizon in both directions. Beyond them was a range of mountains that had snow only on the very tips of their peaks. The air around him was warm and almost stifling. He turned to look back into the thick cool forest and checked his pockets for the foodstuffs he had stashed there. They would need to last him for a while if he was going to be climbing and he debated collecting more, but his pockets were already at capacity, so Ashur started forward once more.

The next week was spent climbing up through the valleys that fed the stream since there was little choice. From the tops of the foothills, he had confirmed that the mountains and forest bordered each other without break for what would probably be days and days of travel. He found various nuts and always had the stream, but his stash of berries and tubers was almost gone after the third day.

By the end of the week, he was starving and running low on energy, but really didn’t have much choice. The feeling that had started him in this direction was now a calling and, as his mental capacity waned from starvation, he focused on it more and more. Finally, he crossed the ridge of a low pass and stopped suddenly. Below him was a lake nestled into the hollow created by the intersection of five mountains. It was vast and clear with small waves that rolled in haphazard patterns with the wind.

The weary Librarian made his way down the slope in the hopes that there were fish in the lake. He had still seen no evidence of animals, but his aching belly overrode his brain. It wasn’t until he was almost to the lake’s edge that he became aware of the cottage.

It was a small affair. Only one level peeked out from the ground forty feet from the water’s edge with stone walls that couldn’t have been more than twenty-five feet to a side. The few windows were simple squares, yet the glass in them appeared to move in waves as though they were a part of the lake surface that had somehow become vertical. The slightly pitched roof was thatched not in wood or straw, but a metal that wavered in time with the windows. The iridescent patterns it made as the sun and clouds moved overhead were hypnotic and Ashur found himself having to repeatedly pull his gaze away from them as he approached.

“Hello, the house!” he called from a healthy distance. He didn’t want to startle any inhabitants and cause misunderstandings.

There was no response so he stepped forward a few more feet, cupped his hands around his mouth and tried again. The house remained quiet so he counted to an even two hundred and stalked carefully up next to a window. When he tried to glance in, the shimmering of the “glass” obscured any view he might have had.

Not seeing any other option, he moved around the building until he found a door on the side facing the lake. He was surprised to find it made of wood and, standing to the side, knocked. At his rap, the door swung open and he nudged it further with his knuckles. It swung easily on its hinges. Still cautious, Ashur poked his head around the jamb and looked in.

It was like looking into a palace.

From his view at the door, he could see a foyer that dwarfed the one at the house in the Library. A grand staircase rose along the left hand side and a hallway ran deeper into the structure on the left. Stunned, the Guardian took a full step into the building and didn’t notice when the door closed itself behind him. Instead, he looked around at the white walls and multitude of other entryways that surrounded him. To the right and left, large doors made of the same metal as the roof were closed, but still shimmered in wave-like patterns.

Not quite ready to start opening unknown doors, Ashur made his way down the long hallway. It was peppered by over a score of doors on either side and took him almost five minutes of careful walking to find the end of it. When he did, he entered a vast circular chamber with glorious windows that reached up and over him in a gentle curve which dwarfed the Librarian statues at home. The inside walls were decorated with hundreds of images of alien races and landscapes but no other doors presented themselves so he returned to the entrance and climbed the staircase.

At the top, he was faced with an impossible array of halls that should not be physically possible ... at least not if the rooms on the other side of the dozens and dozens of doors he saw were larger than a few square feet. Each corridor shot away from him at sharp angles from its neighbor like rays of the sun. The idea of exploring all of them made his head hurt. Apparently it was time to start opening doors.

Once more back in the entranceway, he picked one of the doors at random. The shimmering metal was cool under his touch as he gently shoved it open to find yet another hall, but this one was as devoid of openings as the massive windowed gallery and curved gently upward and to the right. He followed it for what seemed to be about two hundred feet where it terminated. The weary man heaved a large sigh at yet one more large door. How could one place have so many?

This one was actually normal-sized and opened into a bedroom suite. It was opulent and ornate, however, instead of the white, grey, or green he might have seen in a similar setting on his own world, the walls were a tasteful range of pastels.

“Hello?” Ashur called out. If anyone were going to be in this impossible place, it had to be here. He stepped slowly and carefully into the room. A circuit of the place showed two more exits and he was just about to take the handle of one of them when a booming voice reverberated in his head.

“WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?”

The impact of the telepathic shout overwhelmed his mind and he blacked out.

Ashur came slowly back to consciousness crumpled on the floor. His head was ringing slightly and there was a dull throb behind his eyes. He shoved his palms into them in a vain effort to assuage the pain with little effect. A hand started to stroke the back of his head, making him freeze in place.

“I’m so sorry. You startled me and that’s something that hasn’t happened in a very long time.”

The hand continued to caress him and, with each pass, his headache started to ease and the voice continued.

“I thought about letting you take care of it yourself, but you seem to be limited right now for some reason and it’s the least I could do for causing it in the first place.”

The unseen voice was most definitely female. It had a rich, vibrant depth that seemed to flow into his bones. It also had an undertone that made him feel as though the stranger’s vocalizations were echoing in a large assembly hall. Wondering if he had been moved during his lapse, he pulled his hands from his eyes and ventured a look around to find he was still in the bedroom and must have fallen where he was standing.

The recovering Librarian slowly stood and looked around. The room was empty and yet he still felt the cool hand on the back of his head.

“Umm ... As nice as that feels, I’d like to ask a question or two if I may,” he said to the room in general. That hand stopped abruptly and pulled away from him.

“Oh! Yes! Again, I apologize. I haven’t interacted with anyone on your level in so long, I forgot.”

Near the bed, a light began to form. It expanded and developed into a human shape before dimming. In just a few seconds, a tall, shapely woman stood in front of the astonished man. Her flawless skin was a deep maroon that contrasted her extraordinarily long verdant green hair. Her gown was a sleek and silky material that hugged her body. She smiled a little shyly at him and his breath caught as her eyes lit up with it. To say that she was stunning would have been a gross understatement. It was as though all of the perfections of the human body had been distilled into her.

“So, I guess I should apologize for intruding in your house. I tried calling out, but there was no response so I went exploring. I’m sorry for trespassing.” He took a moment to bow his head slightly before looking back up at her. He was glad not to see any signs of anger or consternation, but was slightly confused by the grin that she wore. She strode to him and, reaching up, touched his face. Her eyes were of a strange black that made him think of a starry night and, even as he looked into them, small sparks of light seemed to flicker where her irises should have been.

“Wait... , “ she murmured, “I know you.” She looked around and seemed to really take in the room for the first time. “Are we at that point already?” Ashur watched with even more confusion as she strode over to the door that he had been about to open before he fainted. She pulled it ajar and stuck her head into the next room. A moment later, without looking back at him, the unknown woman imperiously waved her hand in an obvious gesture for the baffled man to join her. When he did, she took hold of his chin and firmly pointed his face in the same direction.

His jaw dropped at the expanse of stars in front of him and he grabbed the door jamb in a frightened effort not to fall through. Beyond the threshold he saw whole galaxies swirling in a slow, measured dance. There were millions of them and he goggled at the awesome view before him.

“Oh stop that,” his hostess muttered and batted his hand away from its grip. He was slightly embarrassed to realize that, when his arm had shot out to take its hold, it had brushed across her chest. He jerked it back with a furious blush. “I need you to focus for a minute.”

“On what?” he asked. His gaze wandered aimlessly, caught by the movements of nebulas and quasars. He resisted the urge to grab hold of the door again, feeling as though if he stepped across into that space, he would be lost forever.

“Your partner,” she huffed. “What else?”

“Mera? Why? What? Madam, who are you and what is this place?” He shot the questions at her while turning his back on the universe behind him.

She studied him for several heartbeats as though trying to figure out a puzzle that he presented. Her eyebrows drew down and then shot up in excitement.

“Oh! It’s that one! Oh! I do love that one!” She took his arm and drew him back into the bedroom while closing the door behind them. He was forcibly pulled along behind her despite his best attempts to plant his feet.

Dragging him over to one of the chairs, she pushed him into it before pulling another up close and plopping herself down across from him.

“Did you know,” she bubbled,” that there are twenty-three million, seven hundred and eighty-three thousand, four hundred and nineteen versions of this and this is always one of my favorites? Ooo! Just wait until the twenty-third stroke! You’re going to love it!” She practically vibrated in her seat with excitement.

He didn’t answer her for some time. Eventually, he cleared his throat several times and said, “I have no idea what you are talking about, where I am, or what is going on? I’m going to ask again: Who are you?”

With a rather large smile, she sat back and tapped a finely tapered finger to her chin.

“In this one,” she replied speculatively, “I think you can call me Xakelle. Yes, I think that one will work. And you are Ashur of Oudromore though that’s not really true anymore if I remember correctly. Now you are tasked to that library of yours and you said your partner’s name is ... Mera? That sounds almost right. Wait ... Ah! Zomera? That’s her full name right?”

“Um ... yes,” he answered. How did she know him? How did she know Mera? He was started to get a little worried by the extent of her knowledge about them.

“I thought so! Oh good! This is the right one then!” The maroon woman clapped her hands in obvious joy. It might have been contagious if his fear hadn’t been turning into irritation.

“Alright,” she said once she had settled down. “I know you’re a bit scared right now and I promise that I will answer all of your questions, make my request, and then we’ll have some fun, but first we need your other half here. How long has it been since you left your library?” When he told her, she stood and pulled him back to the starscape room. He tried to hold back again but her strength was exponentially beyond his and he could only stumble along behind. Once they were looking back out into the infinite space, she murmured to herself for a moment, reached out a hand, and pulled it back to her as though tugging on a fishing line. She repeated the motion a few more times, then closed the door and started for the entrance where he had first come in from. When he didn’t immediately follow, she waved her hand at him urgently.

“Come along! We don’t want her to be alone when she gets here. She’ll be in a terrible state as it is!” With that, her long legs took her out of the room and he raced to catch up. He followed her back to the foyer, down the long hallway, and almost bumped into her when she stopped at the edge of the great windowed chamber.

“Now where will she ... Ah!” Ashur was once again dragged along to a spot near one of the windows. Xakelle stopped and put her hands to her hips. “Hmm ... she should be here by now. Oh!” They both stepped back as the traveling platform popped into existence before them. A very startled and scared looking Mera was clinging to the control podium for dear life. The azure woman was facing them when she appeared and it obviously was taking the normally unflappable Caretaker a few seconds to get her bearings.

“What in the ... Ashur!” She stumbled off the platform and raced into his arms. He held her tight as she took his face in her hands and kissed him. Then, she abruptly broke free, reared back her arm, and belted him with an open-handed slap.

“That’s for making me worry, you insensitive, inattentive, stupid ... barbarian!”

Ashur rubbed his jaw and smiled wryly as she jumped back into his embrace. “Don’t ever do that again,” she directed into his chest.

“I’m afraid that might not be an option,” Xakelle’s voice came from over the big man’s shoulder.

Mera leapt away from him with a yelp. “Who... ?” she asked her partner.

“I’m still waiting to find that out myself, “ he chuckled. “Mera, this is Xakelle. As far as I know, she is the owner of this place although I still don’t know where this is.” He turned back to their hostess and raised an eyebrow.

“Yes, yes. In good time.” Xakelle waggled her head with a slightly exasperated tone. “For now, however, let’s go sit down somewhere so I can explain a bit and make my request.”

The mysterious woman lead them back to the foyer but turned to the other door this time. Mera’s gaze wandered all around but her hand never left Ashur’s. Xakelle stopped and ushered them into what seemed to be a rectangular sitting room or large study. Bookshelves lined the walls but the “books” in them were not only of various sizes, some were even different shapes. Others seemed to blur in and out of sight again. A six by four foot surface hovered near one end with a green well-cushioned chair floating behind it. It reminded Ashur of some of the furniture he had seen of Mera’s culture and guessed that it was some sort of desk. The other end was taken up by a long couch and several chairs in a configuration that was obviously meant for casual discussion and, to his mild relief, were definitely grounded on the floor.

Once they had stepped far enough into the room, Xakelle closed the door and took a seat in one of the chairs that faced the couch. With a wave of her hand, she invited them to sit opposite from her. After a quick glance at each other, they complied.

“Well,” the lady of the house began, “now we can start with the explanations. Let me go through everything first. If I don’t then I’ll get sidetracked and this will not go as well as I’d like it to.”

Firstly, yes, I know about your little loose library. I’ve come across it many times on its random wanderings. I want to say that you should have fixed that by now, but, to be honest, it’s probably the only thing that’s kept you safe so far. If you actually had that thing on an actual pathway, it would have been taken over or destroyed long ago. As it stands, you’ve been moving too fast and too erratically for anyone to really pin down ... yet. You’ve been moving around long enough that certain linear beings have started to take notice in the way you might only notice a fly after it’s been buzzing around the room for a few minutes. Unfortunately for you, a few out there are starting to reach for the swatter.”

Now, to fix that, we are going to have to make some changes. Don’t worry, they’re not huge ... actually, I take that back. They are going to be enormous on your level. On my level, however ... not so much. Then we’ll have to give you a bit of a power boost, rewrite some of your linears, and then expand your sidereals. After that, we can get into the good stuff. Now, let’s go get started!”

Xakelle started to get to her feet, but Mera’s upraised hand stopped her. “I know that you asked us not to interrupt, but I really must insist on asking a few questions. Who are you? How do you know about the Library and us? Who are these other beings? And do you have some food and drink?” The Caretaker looked at her partner who was starting to droop. The excitement of finding this place and Xakelle as well as reconnecting with Mera had started to take their toll on her starving partner and he was fading fast.

“Oh! Of course! How rude ... is that the concept? ... of me. Do you have a preference?” When Mera suggested something light for Ashur’s deprived system, Xakelle pointed at the space between them. It was instantly filled with a low floating table and a small banquet of fruits, vegetables, and meats in small portion sizes along with empty dishes for serving. Glasses and goblets of various sizes held an assortment of beverages. Mera leaned forward, half-filled a plate, and placed it on her lover’s lap. After sniffing a few of the cups, she selected one that very nearly matched Xakelle’s skin.

Ashur stared dully at the plate until Mera raised a crisp slice of vegetable to his lips. Then his hind-brain took over and he started to eat on his own. The drink Mera gave him was a refreshing fruit juice that seemed to cleanse his palate between bites. He had almost finished the helping when his body decided that sleep was the next priority and his eyes started to close. Movement at his side and a tug on his arm roused him briefly. He heard Mera urging him to stand.

“Perhaps this conversation should be postponed.” Xakelle’s voice permeated his mental fog. “I had forgotten that he had been walking in this one. He was riding in so many others. Well, it won’t change anything yet, but I think it might soon if he doesn’t understand the decision he’s going to have to make. Why don’t you come with me.” He felt himself being lifted and carried, but that was the last thing he remembered.