====== Bibliophagia ====== Silence. That's the first thing that Kors Shal notices. Not even the noise of breathing, or of his heart beating. Only silence. No warmth, no cold. The absence of all feeling. When he opens his eyes, he finds himself in a hall of gray stone, pillars lining the walls as the room carries on into the distance, further than he can see. With nothing else to do, he walks. ---- The Book of Untangling. The greatest relic in all of Koralia, nay all of Mydreign. Decades, Kors Shal had spent chasing it. Hunting down the key to all the knowledge he could ever want. This should have been the apex of his life, the moment he had worked so hard for. And yet, lying on the table before him, was only half a Book. Some would have been elated to witness even this. To theorise over the incomplete fragments the Book still held. To make the most of what they had and move on. Kors Shal was not one of those people. The fragments he could now decode only taunted him. To have come so far and yet still be short of the goal. Not even to speak of the person who held the other half... ---- Time seems meaningless here. Impossible to judge. Even Kors' thoughts themselves seemed jumbled, slipping. He keeps walking all the same. Eventually, he finds something. A statue, taller than any building, taller than any mountain. Six arms outstretched, clutching a scythe, a pair of scales, and a quill. Despite its gargantuan head being covered with a drooping hood, Kors can feel Its eyes watching him, staring deep into his very being. And then, It speaks. A voice of thought, not sound, of memory and forgetting. Louder than an earthquake, yet leaving the air around him still. "Kors Shal." ---- //Glimmer//. That rogue. That scoundrel. Twice now Kors has trusted another to do his work for him, and twice now they've caused nothing but trouble. His selfishness, his unwillingness to just shut up and listen. If it weren't for that, the priceless relic would still be whole. Whole, and in Kors' hands. It taunts him. Dust and debris have ravaged the bookstore. No one has been maintaining them, their sole guardian poring over the fragmented knowledge in the vain hope that he will find anything. Things cannot continue like this. Even Kors can realise that. Time for change. Time for a new life. But first... Kors must make sure that little scoundrel won't be able to get his hands on the Book of Unravelling. After all, if he can't have it, why should anyone? ---- Since before he can remember, Curious Seashell feared the sunlight. Whether it was some early knowledge of his Role, some rare condition, or just the abstract imagination of a child, he would not have been able to tell you. Regardless, unwilling to leave shelter during daytime, Kors found himself spending much of his childhood in the libraries of Koralia. He would read and read, feasting on the seemingly endless breadth of knowledge available to him at an impressive rate. And then, one day, he ran out. There were still books to read. Knowledge to obtain. But for reasons he could not fathom, he was not allowed to. Barred from obtaining what he truly craved. So he read what he could. Over and over again. Saved up and bought new books. Amassed his own collection. But those few books he could not get his hands on taunted him. Nothing else could compare to the forbidden fruit. What else could he have done? ---- Only Kors Shal would celebrate the inevitable return of the sunset, of the night in which he need not be afraid. The desert is cold at night, the wind piercing through Kors' cloak. Only the sands around to witness him. Half of the Book of Untangling lies before him. A small pit, dug out by hand. Dry twigs surround it. Kors does not hesitate as he reaches into his bag and retrieves a box of matches. He's made up his mind long ago now. It's the only way he can leave the past behind. The match lights on the first strike, the flame struggling against the cold winds, yet holding strong. With one last look at what should have been his greatest triumph, Kors drops the match. Slowly, the twigs too light, bright orange flames reaching up against the pages of the ruined book, the edges of the ancient paper turning black. Kors turns, ready to leave. But unbenknownst to him, the Book would not be so easy to destroy. Ancient magics, already destabilised by his and Glimmer's struggle, react to the flames, lifting off the pages. //"To the West of Mydreign, in between the dense forests of The Heartwood and the towering steeples of The Lizard’s Fangs is the Sunshade Desert..."// The words of the Book tear through his head, more knowledge than even he can fathom, released in an inferno of arcane energy. //"When the Hero has defeated the Villain..."// //"The brightest star in the night sky is known as..."// He screams out, not in pain, but the words trying and failing to flow from his mouth a jumbled mess. //"Kors Shal dies attempting to destroy..."// Only sand witnesses the bonfire burning brighter than the stars. ---- The figure writes on parchment larger than the fields around Myddul as Kors tells his tale. But eventually, that too ends, and the halls of the House are silent once more. Eventually, Kors breaks the silence. "What now?" he asks, unusually timid. "Your story has come to an end," Death answers. "But that doesn't mean you have to stop telling it." Kors nods. ---- Somewhere in the Sunshade Desert, a dune of sand is topped by a bowl of glass, unburied despite the passage of time. Legends say, those who stand within it at night hear a distant voice speaking to them. //"Since childhood, Kors Shal, then known as Curious Seashell, has dreamed of knowing everything..."//