《Cloudsea - Fool's Edge Book One》Chapter 22 - Imbroglio
Advertisement
The Librarian is among one of the oddest interdimensional rulers. Unlike the Abyss lords of Abzu, the Ruined Kings of the Scarlet realm, or simply being the largest protozoa colonies in Elysium, The listener (as it she also known as on ocasion) is not simply the ruler of her dimension. She is also the backbone of it’s organization and is directly responsible for it’s existence. Similarly, while she does have a line of succession, it is purely theoretical. In the estimated 140 million years that the legendary keeper of books, not once has she ever been in danger. The only one who has ever done something similar to that in terms of uninterrupted existence would be the Scourge known as -
Remains of a first-edition Omnic Bestiary on interdimensional beings. This is among the last of the entries, and it is unknown what the nature of this “scourge” the book references may be.
Silk almost ran into victor. For some inexplicable reason, he had stopped.
“What’s the holdup?”, wrote Silk after she had retrieved some parchment and a pen.
“Well, we can’t just run into the constantly shifting wall of bookshelves, can we? We’d get squished if we didn’t know what to do.”, replied Victor.
“There’s nothing there. Are you seeing things?”, Silk furiously scribbled.
“I am confident I am not. Besides, even if we made it through the barrier of erratically moving book containers, this would happen.”
Victor then proceeded to take out a small book from one of the bookshelves at the edge of where the maze of structures stopped, and throw it into what appeared to be a spot clear of obstructions. To her surprise, the book suddenly got slapped around furiously, before having part of it’s cover flattened by two invisible forces. The book then proceeded to yowl in the voice of a young man, and then got flipped around by something right before it hit the ground past what Silk assumed was the “moving bookshelf area”. Immediately after getting flipped over by who knows what, the book wildly mutated, it’s skinlike covering immediately spintering and stretching as tumors wildly grew random organs and appendages surrounded by muscle mass. After it imploded and collapsed in on itself with a sickening splunch, the book then proceeded rot away into a pile of brown, crumbly goo until there was nothing left but dust in the wind.
Advertisement
“see how that tentacle mutated the living book and made it die? I think that after it got hit by what i’m assuming is a sorting mechanism for this place that you can’t see for some reason, the book - which I think used to be a person, but the jury’s still out on that conjecture - then got itself sped up and injected with mutagenics.” After that block of text was scrawled out by Victor’s handwriting and read by Silk, she flipped over the piece of parchment and wrote on the other side of it.
“I can’t see the tentacle either. How are you seeing this?”
“I don’t really know. Is there any difference between you and I that could be the explanation of this?”, replied Victor.
Several thoughts flashed through Silk’s mind, most of them resurfacing insults about Victor’s dubious mental stability from the depths of her subconscious. However, she noticed the glint from Victor’s ring right before she put her thoughts to the piece of parchment and reconsidered making a quip.
“We never did figure out what that ring did aside from slowly sinking small needles into your finger and discouraging you from removing it at the cost of pain - I’m still not sure why you didn’t take off that obviously cursed artifact by the way. It’s practically part of your finger at this point. Maybe if you take it off, you’ll be just as blind as me. Human beings like you or I can’t really see past our plane of existence without aid, and we do know from the books that the Omnic Empire did expand into other reality layers. Try it out.”
Victor winced before he removed the ring from his finger forcefully and with a great deal of pain despite the lack of blood such a wound should have caused. He then waited for a moment, and frowned. “It’s not working. Either that’s not the cause of it or the effect takes a while to wear off”.
Advertisement
“Walk away and wait for a while. Maybe the effect wears off over time”, Silk signaled for him to sit down roughly three metres away from the ring.
Sure enough, after roughly an hour passed, Victor saw the images of the shelves slowly fade out as his ability to perceive the light blurred. It wasn’t completely gone, but it was definitely harder to see it out.
Victor walked back to silk and wrote down a confirmation before putting on the ring right back onto his index finger and watched it sink back into the small holes in his index finger, covering the removed skin and looking like a discolored part of his skin once more.
“Well, now we know what that does. I think we should just go through it.”
“And how are we going to do that, victor? I can’t exactly see it, and judging by how that ring works it takes at least a couple of days for the effect to start working.”
“I think i’m strong enough to carry you now. I’ve recovered a bit - you always did say I healed freakishly quickly - and I think I should be able to carry heavy objects and move quickly once more.”
Silk read through the note, then frowned and covered her hand with her sleeve before hitting Victor with a mighty yet silent slap.
“OW! What the hell was that for?”, wrote victor with enough pressure to leave a lasting indentation in the parchment.
“That’s for calling me a “heavy object”. You can’t just call a fair and refined maiden such as myself heavy.”, wrote Silk.
Victor was about to remark on how Silk was neither refined nor a maiden, but thought it best to note of her delusions after thinking of the consequences that would happen after the fact.
Victor then wrote one last thing, somewhat crossly now. “Alright, point taken. Now, how would you like me to carry you through the obstacle course sorting machine?”.
Advertisement
The Architects: The Illusion of Death
A ship goes missing. Not a strange occurrence in such a tumultuous solar system as this. Earth and Mars are at each other's throats, everyone in between just trying to survive. A ship goes missing. The Anna Karenina is dispatched to find her. Aboard the Anna, Sirius is trying to escape his past and make it to the next port but an ill-timed mutiny throws a wrench in his plans. As the situation aboard the Anna Karenina grows increasingly dire, a space station appears, as if from the void itself. And, unprompted, fires upon them! A ship goes missing...
8 211Forged in Fear and Fury - An Apocalyptic LitRPG
In an attempt to prevent Earths ensuing demise, it is ripped from the void by an entity known as The Totality. It is then fused with a Lost Dungeon World to increase its inhabitants chances of survival in a new, system-enhanced universe. Cade Vale barely avoids death in the first second. Will he be able to overcome the rigors of this new world and survive? Will he be able to carve a new life out of the aether for himself and those whom he loves most? ...Will he be able to avoid becoming everything he hates in order to do so? Artwork by Kayla Basciano - Instagram: vulpix1323 Inspired primarily by the systems in The Legend of Randidly Ghosthound, The Genesis System, and The New World as well as by Savage Divinity, Azarinth Healer, and Shovels in Spades in general. I haven't been able to get these worlds out of my head and I've been waiting for something to fill the void left by the hiatus of Genesis, but so far nothing has scratched that itch as much as ProfoundMagician was able to with the world he created. I figure if I'm going to be thinking about this stuff as much as I do I might as well get better at writing while playing with a number of those ideas that I love. I have a number of specifics and events I want to show in the story, but a lot of the fun is coming up with ways to branch those together cohesively. This is an attempt to alleviate my depression by channeling my creativity into a hobby. Hopefully it's as enjoyable to read as it is to write.
8 180Adventures in Wonderland
This is a spin off/twist to Alice and Wonderland. I like Alice in Wonderland so I decided to write a story based on it. Its tild from Sapphires point of view the whole story I think. So What happens when Sapphires and Mia's life changes when they discover a new land and that they are possibly tied to it? When they need to help save a new land and some old friends will it all fall apart or will they be able to succeed?
8 176The Titan of Valour
Drake Fyrce, a seemingly normal young man from a backwater town sets off to find himself a purpose for living. Determined to join the Battle Mage Corp of the Black Sun Empire, Drake slowly but surely discovers the dark secrets behind his lineage and the History of his home Nation.
8 109Gun To My Head, Stake To My Heart
Special Agent Amelia was the best of the best at the CIA. She got sent on the most dangerous missions and ALWAYS got the job done. She never bat an eye when having to seduce targets to acquire the necessary info.Her boss has sent her on a mission which he deems to be the most important case she will ever have. Easy right? Well, that's what Amelia thought before she got sucked into those captivating emerald eyes and a war between two species.Will Amelia be able to rise to the task? Will she be able to be with the person who claimed her heart or will she put her mission above her heart?Read to find out more
8 155Jesse Lee Soffer
Jesse Lee soffer story - when Olivia gets a job as new lead of Chicago pd as Hailey Upton. * just a fan fiction* ^ will include social media parts^
8 119