Traum von Asterhive

The Archives

You knew that the books you read had to come from somewhere. You just didn't know it came from all the way down here.

The Archives was a single hallway with twenty-six doors, each one emblazoned with a letter. Most people ran past it, probably thinking it was a dead end. You ran in, and went for the door marked F because that seemed most appropriate for your situation.

It was unbelievable large inside- just a unconceivably huge square space with bookshelves lining every wall and a staircase at the center that seemed to spiral ever-downwards. You decided to read up on the French, not because you were tired of running but because you were bored of it.

"Do you mind, Knight?"

The shadow didn't, so you descended the center stairwell. You had passed thirty or so floors when you heard sobbing. You didn't like the sound. It was an ugly noise denoting ugly feelings and would most definitely distract you from reading. You decided to put an end to it.

"No, Knight," you said when he shifted into a thing of teeth and knives. "I don't mean by killing him."

The shadow seemed disappointed, but slunk back to you as a vaguely wolfish blob.

You traced the sound to a human-shaped cubby between fraucht and fraught.

You blinked when you saw the figure within. "Samuel Laurence?"

Knight bared his teeth. You know he hated thieves because you hated them too.

You pursed your lips."Why are you in the F room?"

"I'm a fraud!" he wailed.

Ah, that made sense. You looked at him a little longer.

"What is that powder all over your face?"

"Frack," he sniffed.

You had no idea what that was, but assumed that it was a drug. You frowned at him and rummaged around your bag until you found what you were looking for. You shoved it in Samuel Laurence's face and he looked up at you.

"What is it?" he asked, blinking with bleary eyes.

"Tissue," you replied. "Blow your nose. That drug smells horrible."

"But-"

"Do it!" you demanded, Knight growling beside you.

Samuel Laurence complied with a whimper.

"Now what you've done to Stephen Chapman was despicable," you said. "You should go apologize."

"But-"

"Go now!" you barked, and Knight barked with you.

Samuel shrank back for a moment, then shakily stood. "You're right," he said softly. "Thank you."

You watched him stumble out of the cubby and up the stairs. When you looked at the cubby again, it had changed. Fraucht was now friedrichsdor, frier had taken the place of fraught, and above the human-shaped cubby was the word friend.

Huh.

You climbed into the cubby, relieved that it no longer smelled of frack and surprised to find that it stretched on a very long way. You climbed through it, Knight at your heels, and popped out in the D room, right between dumbstruck and dumdum. You looked at tunnel you had just crawled out of. Dumbwaiter, it now said.

You glanced inside and it had changed into something like a tiny elevator. A true dumbwaiter.

Knight nudged you.

"You're right, might as well as try seeing where it goes, yes?"

You climbed inside the dumbwaiter and tucked your legs in. Knight slithered after you and curled around your neck once more. You pressed the up button and the metal doors slid shut.

As you rode the dumbwaiter up, you wondered if you had just sentenced Samuel Laurence to a fate of raccoon flu.