Changed by Time ✔

eleven.

Poplin Library looked more like a church than a library. 

The second Wendy stepped into the library, she couldn't help but stare upward at the ceiling. On the ceiling were carvings of people writing in the sky, creating literature that would live on for centuries.

There were what looked to be about thirty bookshelves in front of her, housing hundreds of thousands of books. They ranged from language to language, books found to be glorious all around the world. Covers appeared as new as the morning sun or as old as time, threatening to fall apart.

In the center of the aisles were four podiums with a glass cover over them. On top of the podiums, protected by the glass, were novels that were maybe between 150 to 400 pages. They appeared just as old as the architecture in the library.

"Close your mouth," Nolan said, snapping Wendy from awing the beauty around her, "you're gonna start catching flies."

She shot him a look and stepped ahead of him. There was barely anyone else in the library, except for the occasional tourist family – the poor children looked bored out of their minds.

Nolan went over to talk to a younger man set up behind the front desk, his face buried within his laptop as the Word document reflected against his glasses. He almost looked too nerdy to be working in a library.

"Excuse me," Nolan said, gaining his attention. "How late is the library open? My friend and I are so interested in all these books, so we're going to be here for a while."

"It's open until five," he replied with a thick Irish accent. "Normally I'd let you stay a bit longer if needed, but we've recently had to implement an earlier closing time due to some... issues."

"What kind of issues?"

The librarian let out a somewhat heavy sigh as he looked around the library. He gestured for Nolan to get a bit closer.

"Long story short, more tourists have been around and have been a little too touchy with some of our more precious literature." He gestured towards the podiums, one of which was being looked at by Wendy. "More people have been asking to see the books up close, which goes against policy, and some have gotten a little... hostile."

"So your solution is closing up earlier in the day?" The librarian nodded once. "Aren't you worried they'll just come back and steal the books?"

"No, we have a pretty good security system and the glass around the books are strong." He leaned back in his seat, crossing his arms across his chest leisurely. "Even if they did steal them, there's trackers on the books themselves. This isn't the first time we've had this problem."

"What's so special about these books?"

"They're the last of the first collection held in this library. Not much is known about their origin, but they've lasted the best and the longest out of all of them. Plus, they're pretty good reads."

"What're they about?" Nolan asked, though he pretty much already knew the answer to this question.

"They all pretty much depict sorcerers, sorceresses, and just general magic throughout the land before modern technology came along," he summarized. "They're the earliest fantasy novels – true masterpieces."

--

Nolan walked back over to Wendy, who was reading the page of the first novel on display. He faced towards the front door, looking from it to her as he quietly said, "You pretty much nailed this location right on the head. These are the last of the first collection – fantasies to us but history to them."