Renaissance of Chaos

III

Sunlight filtered through the silken curtains, the marble floors gleaming upon its touch. On the window sill, peonies opened their petals in welcome to the morning sun, their sweet fragrance spreading through the grand chamber where the scent of paper and dust played with one another in harmony. The air vibrated with the melody of pipes and flutes, coming from a place unseen, Placed among books of all sorts, from ancient medicine to the latest technological advances, were teddy bears, snakes of clay, died green and yellow, figurines of wood depicting knights and dragons. Painted and beady eyes stared right ahead at the hand searching for support as a tiny child, no older than 4 years old, struggled to climb the great bookshelf all the way to the top. She was all alone in the room, her supervisors having gone to answer summons in another part of the building, leaving her to her own devices.

She reached another shelf, her breathing growing heavier as fatigue was settling in. She had not noticed before how wide the space between the upper shelves were, the revelation dawning upon her only now, when her hands struggled to reach the one above her, her fingers barely scrapping the underside. Still, she did not give up on her endeavor. With great effort, she dragged her little body up on the lower platform, her eyes stolen by the view below. Perched on her seat near the top of the bookshelf, she could see the entire chamber in all its golden glory, brought upon by gracious sunlight flooding in through the open windows.

Her gaze darted to the scattered pages on the floor and lounge sofa, she had been studying not long ago, peculiar symbols engraved in blank ink were gleaming against the snow-white sheets. Her fingers still bore the dark stains left by scribbling them or better said trying to. She had yet to master that ancient language, letters curving in strange angles, either too sharp or too corrugated, the patterns making no sense at all. But it didn't matter. For all the trouble they gave her, she was happy to be able to learn it, the smile on his face whenever he looked over her notes at the end of a long day and the ruffling of her hair more than made up for it!

Her eyes shifted from the papers to the desk on the side of the room, beneath the window, on which an old camera rested, old and rusted, with its lenses broken, remains of spider webs still clinging to every knot and cranny. Her father had found it, forgotten in the corner of the house's attic, covered in dust and dirt. He wanted to throw it away, but the young one had a better idea. She took the poor object and brought it here, to him. She didn't really have a reason for it, other than the fact that she liked the camera with its folding bellows and air of antiquity, childish curiosity latching onto it with all its might. And luckily for her, he too had been taken by the object's hidden charm and set to fix it together with her.

They had been working at it for little less than an hour, with him teaching her the ins and out of the device, throwing in a short history lesson as well. She didn't mind, listening to his every word, laughing at the little jokes he made here and there. She wished they could spend the entire day like that, but alas, the cosmos had other plans.

Halfway through another of tale, she had come to inform him of a summoning in the main hall concerning both of them. He grumbled, letting out a few words the little one was not supposed to hear if the look on her face was anything to go by. Thus, they had to go and leave someone else in charge of the girl, and that someone had yet to make an appearance for some reason.

The young one tried not to mind, fiddling with whatever fell into her hands at first, from practicing that alien language to doodling, and then dancing by herself to the tunes of flutes and pipes echoing in the air. When she got bored and her charge was still nowhere to be found, she set her sights on something else. Perched on the highest shelf of a nearby bookcase, emanating a mesmerizing, darkish light, a lone box stood. As if pulled by invisible hands, the young one began her climb the bookshelves until she couldn't proceed anymore, the width between the shelves much too great for her to ascend anymore. It was surprising to say the least. She knew the library to be grand, but not to this extent.