Keeper of the Lost Cities: Phoenix Rising (Book 9)

Chapter 10 - Dex

Dex yawned and rubbed his eyes. He'd been sitting at a wooden table in Eternalia's main library for the last five hours researching Taborlin and creation energy.  So far, the most he'd found was a copy of his own textbook, a book of children's tales, and a book on the entire life story of Taborlin. 

The only problem was that none of the books had any answers, which both frustrated and intrigued Dex.  

On one hand, he was annoyed because of the immense amount of time it had taken for him to gather the scarce resources. 

He had homework to do, after all.

On the other hand, he felt suspicious. Why would such an influential figure not have a shred of information on his greatest discovery? 

It just didn't make sense.

Dex sighed and ran his hands through his hair, resolving to go back to the directory to double-check his previous sites.

Turning, he powered on the curved keyboard, then activated the library's catalogue and searched up Taborlin.

Scrolling through the list, Dex saw many of the books that he'd already checked.

However, once he'd gotten to the bottom he found a new book, which was titledUnity and Divinity, a memoir by Taborlin Skysearcher.

This could be it. A memoir written by the very elven scientist that Dex strove to learn about.

Excited, Dex triple-clicked the option only to have the words RESTRICTED, ADMIN CREDENTIALS REQUIRED.

Dex frowned and tried again.

The same message flashed once more. Normally, at this point Dex would've gone for help.

But, being a Regent, he technically was an admin, so he instead inputted his code.

The page began to load again, considering his request, but the result that popped up was far from satisfying .  There was no description of the book at all.  

Instead, the page listed a single code: 00110110 00110100 00110011 00110011 00110100 00110111 00110001 00111001

I'm sorry, what? Dex thought, and refreshed the page.

Only to find the same code. Ok, now he was lost. According to the Zerudian Decimal system, (the elven version of the Dewey decimal system), memoirs were shelved in the 00300s. The 001100s were ancient human documents from around the time of the human elven alliance. Why would an elven memoir be shelved amongst human materials?  Surely the head librarian would've noticed a mistake as simple as this.

Unless....unless these numbers weren't a library code at all.  What if...what if they were binary? Intrigued, Dex pulled out a notepad and began to transcribe the digits.

Under normal circumstances, his technopath abiliities could've helped him, but human code was ancient by Elven standards. It didn't mean that he couldn't translate the numbers, only that it would give him a massive headache each time."6...4...3,3,3.....no, wait...6,4,3,3,4.....7...1...9?" Dex rechecked his work, then sighed in relief. He'd transcribed correctly.

So, 64334719. That meant 64th floor, which in turn meant he could either climb 64 floors worth of stairs, or take the private, Regent only, vortinator. Dex's eye's flicked over to one of the spiral staircases that wound up and up and up, toward the ceiling of the library. If there even was a ceiling to the libraryYeah, he'd take the Vortinator. 

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"Stupid - freaking - Vortinator." Dex swore as he staggered onto the landing. His head was spinning in circles, and he could barely think, let alone walk straight."I should've taken the stairs. " Dex grumbled, then, still slightly limping, made his way over tp the nearby shelves.