The West Throckmorton (UK) Library holds a secret - it's an Intergalactic storage facility for dangerous creatures, magically kept in its tens of thousands of books. But there are those who would release its frightful inhabitants upon Earth. Enter t...
After our 254th book, we finally came across a species that required 'special handling', and one that was just evil. The former was one the Watchers had christened "The Quarrelers" whose unique ability was altering their body chemistry to produce pheromones that pitted aggressive species against one another. The Qs were the size of chihuahuas, and large, intelligent species would make pets of them – never realizing just how much smarter their pets really were. Soon, there would be only Quarrelers left. The book that had mesmerized them was a children's book called "The Poky Little Puppy." Luckily, there were only 20 of them left, the others succumbing to old age and disease. I made the decision to send them to Betelgeuse.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
The 621st book, "A Journal of the Plague Year", was used as a home for the Grundungas, a race of half reptile, half grizzly bear-like creatures who had to consume three times their body weight every day to survive. They were the first DTs we had seen where the magical atmosphere allowed a cross-genus evolution. They became tick-sized, releasing their eggs in their saliva into unsuspecting creatures in which they would grow and ultimately consume.
I had Auggie do the statistics, and the chance that my consuming them would lead to becoming infected myself was quite high. I sent them to Betelgeuse with instructions to dispose of them near a black hole. It made me wonder what would bring them the least amount of pain – me, or the black hole?
"What was our goal in this first 2 hours?" asked Solarea.
"5,000 books." Auggie told her, "It will take way more days than this for us to tackle 500,000 species." The folded space had been nicknamed 'the waiting room.' It seemed appropriate. "Say, Fluffy, do you have a listing of the litverses you've visited over the last year? Along with data on temperament and state of mind?"
"Yes. It's accessible in the Watcher database."
"So, let's fine-tune our list of 'must-evaluate!' Check off the ones we've been to, subtract the ones Fluff says are okay in his reports; flag the ones that he reported had danger signs, and add those in. There! I'd say 231, 281 is much more workable!"
"That's genius!" cried Veradrimel.
"That's mathemagic!" Auggie laughed.
We managed to get through Lackey's Valdemar litverse, Norton's Witch World, the James Bond series, the Maximum Ride Novels, Narnia, the Douglas Adams multiverse, Sherlock Holmes' Victorian London Mysteries, The Chandler Kels quadruple octets, Jules Verne, Arundhati Roy, Vikram Seth, Doctor Seuss, Dickens, Frank Baum, Joan Didion, Shakespeare, Banana Yoshimoto, Mishima, Tsitsi Dangarembga, Toni Morrison and the 100 volume mega-Melverse series before an arcane kitten popped into the Waiting Room and announced in Holly's voice: "Everyone is to return to Throckmorton immediately, after dealing en masse with whatever is left of our DTs. That means everyone, plus your familiar candidates. Eliza has some shocking news from The Watchers Council. This is..." and the kitten gave a pitiful cry. "Just get back here ASAP. Save what you can. And eliminate the rest. Quickly. May the tripartite Goddess speed and watch over you all." The kitten popped back to the Library.
"Oh," groaned Auggie, "This sounds bad."
"Really bad," echoed Veradrimel.
Solarea, always practical, said calmly, "Auggie, Vera - you take care of resettling the not-as-dangerous. I'll arrange transport for the Betelgeuse-bound, and Fluffy will take care of the Irredeemables. Okay with you, big bro?"
I nodded. I was worried about Eliza, and the news, and the creatures whose very existence I was being charged to bring to an unpleasant end. I felt Sola's hug.
"I'm sorry. It's..." but I stopped her.
"...not theirfault, and not my fault. But the OSSS is going to pay dearly for this. By my soul, by my promise, by the Goddesses I swear they will pay!" I roared.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Lightning flashed - which was very dangerous in folded space - and the waiting room rumbled. One by one, the Maiden, the Mother and the Crone appeared – the three aspects of Hecate. Each beautiful and terrifying in their own way. The Maiden spoke first.
"Is this soul-pledged oath given freely, with the knowledge there may be a sacrifice asked?"
"It is freely given," I answered. I admit, my voice shook.
"A promise so pledged, if broken, will have dire consequences. You accept this freely?" the Mother intoned.
"The Consequences are freely accepted, should I fail."
"We freely share them, should we fail," said Solarea, before I could stop her.
"We freely share them, should we fail," added Auggie and Veradrimel.
The Crone smiled. "Our kittens will assist you, Cernunnos will protect you, and from time to time, we ourselves may aid you. Or not, as our fancy strikes us. Trust in your teammates, as the first Earth sportsmen would say, and you will win a much more important game." They vanished, leaving all of us a bit shaken.
"Did that just...?" Auggie stammered.
"Yes. Let's get going!
In the end, I couldn't eat the Irredeemables. Instead, I folded space and placed them all on Gulp. It was off-limits to space-travel, which was even better. It was, amazingly, covered in a dense green carpet of plants and trees. The old riverbeds were half full. Let them live and fight it out amongst themselves, I thought. It would at least give some of them a chance at survival. Maybe all thirty thousand of them would make it.
I hope Eliza is okay. She's going to be proud and furious that I unknowingly summoned Hecate. Oh, well. When the Powers get involved, things can get really messy. In a good way, I mean. Usually. Right?
