Beyond the Rabbit Hole

Tip of the Iceberg

Ashreya knocked on their door first thing in the morning. Her annoyance was obvious when she thrust the library passes into Morgyn's hand upon opening the door. Morgyn couldn't manage to get a word out before Ash marched down the corridor. He sighed and closed the door.

"Is that them?" Alyss stood up from the bed and stretched.

Morgyn nodded.

"Then, let's go." Alyss got dressed and left the room. "We should learn all we can while we can."

There were few people in the expansive library. Most of them were young men.

Probably students at the college. Morgyn approached the front desk. He presented the passes to Dulana, the head librarian.

She was a young woman of few words who neither smiled nor frowned. Her dark skin was unblemished, and with a healthy complexion. Her movements were subtle, but conveyed a hint of elegance. Her clothes were well-kept but lacked presence, and though her words were soft-spoken, they were confident and clear. "Is there anything particular you are looking for?"

"Yes, actually." Morgyn replied. "Do you have any books on the history and geography of Kahth?"

The librarian nodded and left the desk behind.

"Alyss." Morgyn called out to his other half who was flipping through the pages of a random novel she picked up off of one of the many piles of books stacked up on the velvet-cushioned chairs that decorated the wooden floors of the library.

Alyss set the book down and joined Morgyn. They followed shortly behind Dulana toward a corner of the first floor where several bookshelves were marked by different names.

"Are these people?" Alyss asked.

"Lands." Dulana replied. "Some kingdoms, some empires. Some past, some present. Some changed. . . " She glanced at one of the names as she passed by it: Eer. ". . . some conquered."

Towards the end of the line of shelves was the section named: Kahth.

"History, geography, and other documentation will be down at the end." Dulana made a slight gesture to the books closest to her. "And here are some popular classic and contemporary tales from the region." She turned and walked past Alyss and Morgyn toward her desk. "Let me know if you need anything."

"Of course. Thank you." Morgyn called out after her.

The librarian replied back with only her finger to her lip and a furrowed brow.

"You have to be quiet in a library, Morgyn." Alyss chuckled softly. She pulled the first book off the shelf beside her and inspected the hand drawn cover. "The Witch and the Serpents?"

"Is that history?" Morgyn raised an eyebrow.

"Looks like a fairy tale of some sort." Alyss flipped through the first few pages. "Wow, is this all handwritten?"

"That's incredible." Morgyn muttered. "It must have been hand copied from the original."

Alyss nodded. "I suspect it'll be the same for most of these." As she flipped through the pages, her eyes lit up as she turned to her other half. "I can read all this!" she exclaimed.

"Yes?" Morgyn tilted his head.

"Don't you think that's weird?" Alyss lightly hit him with the book. "Why can we read all this? Come to think of it, why can we understand what any of these people are saying at all? They're definitely not speaking any of the languages from our world."