The Library of Powers

Chapter 13: strong thread

Jackson was not in the Library, despite it being well past midnight. Sleep gripped the edges of his vision, but he would not let it overtake him quite yet, not before he was done.

He was in front of a pinboard hanging on a wall in his bedroom. It used to hold family photos and various notes Jackson had made for himself, but now it was a mind map of what had happened in the past few turbulent weeks. It wasn't messy, it wasn't some conspiracy theorist's rambling filled with red string. Jackson didn't have any lines at all connecting the various notes he had made, the papers were neat and in a grid pattern. 

To start it off, he had pinned the note that was given to him by the Writing Well, broken it line by line and analyzed each one.

There once was one but now there's two.

He had a guess for this line. Assuming the note was meant for him, it could be referencing how now there was not one person inside The Library of Powers, but two. Him and Phoebe Winter. There were flaws to this theory though, as there were dozens of people in The Library at any given time, receiving their powers.

The writing's on the well. Watch as the father returns and the lover burns. 

The first sentence of this line was fairly tongue in cheek. The second one was completely foreign. Father? His father? Why just his father and not his mother? What other father could it be? Is it a reference to some religious figure? The lover part was even more confusing, so he ignored it for now.

The system gives them the first move. Counter it.

The system? Jackson decided it must be some sort of analogy for society. What was he supposed to counter? Who was he supposed to counter? Jackson decided that the "first move" must have not happened yet. The only thing he could consider a "move" that had happened recently was the Writing Well being closed, but it was much too late to counter that. Still, he made some notes on it off to the side, next to a photo of Oddie Rex with his parents. Perhaps Oddie would give him some information when they grabbed dinner on Saturday.

And then there was the handwritten note underneath. "There were five of us last time. Find others to trust Jackson, trustworthy people exist." Jackson had someone to trust now. Maybe even two, if he could bring himself to confide in Melanie. But this note showed something even more important. It showed that there was a formal and informal side to whatever this was. Whatever he had been thrown into. It was likely that the two parts were written by different people. If he could track down whoever's handwriting that was, he would finally have some questions answered. Unfortunately, there were around a million people in Vera City, and even then the writer might not even live in the city.

For posterities sake, he had another section dedicated to the Bernard Harbour Public Library. They had made slight renovations since the time in which The Library of Powers emulated it, so Jackson couldn't figure out exactly where the locked door led. He did, however, find on their catalog website that they held all the old architectural plans for the building on site. Presumably, he could check them out if he could get there. Which would be hard considering Jackson didn't have, nor know anyone who had a car. Well, Melanie had a car. But once again, that would be a pretty big leap to take with her.

So Jackson stood in front of his creation a little less confused, but not in a good way. In the way that crept up late at night. It was the sinking feeling that things were not going to go well. Jackson, after analyzing what he knew, learned he didn't know much.

He wasn't sure if he'd be fine.