off to the library
pHeader.HexValue = "54 49 4e 59 55 52 4c 44 4f 54 43 4f 4d 53 4c 41 53 48"();
HexToText(pHeader);
pHeader + "494e54524f44554354494f4e";
I suddenly shot awake, a string of letters and numbers blinking in my head. "Whoa, how long was I out?" I asked.
"Oh, only like a chapter or so," Scriff replied, clutching me a little tighter.
"A chapter? But... but it only felt like a couple minutes!"
"I mean, that's what Bit would probably say! Yeah, it does seem like there's just a little something missing. But did you have a bad dream?"
"I barely remember what I dreamt! All I remember was this song, I think I told you about it, it goes beep boop boop beep... beep boop boop beep... mmm, beep boop boo--"
"Oh! Human, are you alright?"
"Wh—yeah, I'm fine, why?"
"I just... I wasn't sure if I needed the book again."
"What is your fascination with that book, anyhow?"
"It's just... humans are so cute, and Shim's book really changed life for us Lizi! I mean look..."
Scriff gently rubbed my back, pressing me up against her the best she could. I closed my eyes and drifted off for just a second. "See?" she whispered, "she taught us that, in her book."
I was starting to fall back asleep! I tried to push myself off for just a second, but she intensified her gentle scratching a little better, and I found my strength fading. "Scriff, please, I..."
She loosened her grip. "Oh, uh, sorry, I should probably give you some space, after all. What did you need?"651Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZrbdClVPxi
"I was actually going to head to the library, there were a few things I wanted to do some research on about this place."
"Oh, neat! Stay safe!" she replied.
"It's... it's just down the street."
I headed out, locking the door, and made my way to the library. It was evening now, and the sunset saturated the city in a brilliant orange. As I stepped inside the library, a strange part of me was worried. I dunno why, maybe there's just too many books? I remember libraries, I think; it was where the books sleep, it's like their apartment. Wait, hold up, that's not quite right, my brain feels like a bit of a mess at the moment, I guess getting amnesia and waking up in a world where witches are somehow talking not in capitalized letters will do that. She never explained how that works!
I walked back and forth down the rows looking at the books. I knew I wanted books about the Afterward, and Bit had that one book; if I find that one here then I should find a whole bunch around it, then maybe I can learn more about that Linus guy, Memmi, the Watchers, and why everyone talks strangely.
The first book I picked up was Kimbalt's Lament, a book written by some guy named Finn that looked sad and boring. I set it back on the shelf, and scoped out the few books around there. Maybe this was, like, important people? The next book I picked up was The Technical Guide to Riftwalking, so I guess not. On to the next section, I guess.
The next section seemed promising with a book called Cut to the Chase!, and that's when I came across that book, Afterward. Wait, the A is lowercase, you know what I mean. These have to be related books, right? Unfortunately, it didn't seem that way as the next book was Midnight Raid, so I felt kind of back at square one. A person walked by who looked like a librarian, so I should probably just ask at this point, it's a waste of time to just sort this one out myself.
"Excuse me, do you have any other books about the Afterward?"
The person turned around. They looked like they were made of white plastic and clad in red robes. "Oh! Yeah, I know, those are all on the top floor, the stairs are this way!" they replied.
I thanked them and followed along. They headed to a door, opened it to reveal another door, and then opened that. There were the stairs. A bit odd, I don't know why they'd do that. Maybe it was once for a joke? At the top of the staircase was a separate room, labeled the "afterward wing". This had to be it.
I stepped in and the first thing I saw was a statue of the old money witch. She looked really smart, I kinda wanted to meet her. The next thing I saw was rows and rows of shelves, full of books that could help me. Most of the ones I picked up were from Memmi, and as I flipped through them they seemed really dense. I just needed an introduction into the Afterward was all, I didn't need a technical guide.
I was having a hard time keeping myself awake in the dim lighting of this part of the library mixed with the really complex books. Why was I so sleepy here? Was I just always so sleepy? Maybe I just was, maybe it was that song, you know the one, how did it go? Beep boop boop beep, beep... boop boop... b...beep...
41 4c 54 45 52 4e 41 54 45 20 52 45 41 4c 49 54 59 20 47 41 4d 45
Wh... it happened again! Those letters and numbers! What do they mean? How the heck did I doze off again? I hastened my search, specifically looking for the Watchers. Between The Downfall of Linus Linoleum to Doc Wilson to The First Century, I couldn't find anything that I was looking for. If Bit didn't know, then maybe Memmi would. I had to find her. "Memmi statue, do you know where the real one is? Is this how this works?"
"No, it's not," a voice replied.
"Wh—who's that?"
"You were asking for me," the voice said.
"Memmi? Where are you?"
"I'm speaking directly to you... I mean, I could explain how, but you've kinda dodged actually talking about metamancing during this entire story so far, so just kind of accept that I'm not here, but I'm still around. I'm sure that, while disappointing, will at the very least satisfy anyone reading. I'm not dead, don't you worry."
"Anyone reading?"
"Yeah, you really, really dodged having to actually learn what was going on. So did you get the whole story about the author, the storyteller?"
"Um... actually, I had a dream, and I remember hearing about it in the dream. The Watchers explained it to me in the dream."
"The Watchers?"
"Yeah, they were this group of people, they called themselves a retcon or something?"
"Show me what you know of them," she replied, and I suddenly found myself in a different room.
"Where are we? How did we get here?" I asked.
"You're in my office, and we got here through a line break, it's whatever."
"Whatever? This is wild!"
"It'll wear off pretty quick, it'll all be second nature when we're about 40,000 words in. Look, I don't know how to quickly get you caught up, so let's just start from what you know. Do you know what role the author plays?"
"I forgot what they said in the dream, it was kinda complex."
"Explain the Watchers to me, if you will," she asked.
"Um, sure... so, I was in this big empty white room and I sang my song—do you want me to...?"
"No, I've read it more than enough, continue."
"And they asked me some questions about you and about, like, a fox and some grain?"
"And what was the answer?" she asked me.
"To just... like, write down that the puzzle was already solved."
"...And you have no previous knowledge of metamancing?"
"The first time I heard of it was from Bit, and I didn't remember anything else until that dream."
"Interesting, very interesting. I have not heard of the Watcher, this retcon they speak of, and... and it's a little bit early to get into a conflict this size, about 8,000 words in? That's a tall order to just dive into a plot like that. I guess that'd be a fifth of the story if this was afterward? But who knows where this story's going..."
"Um, Memmi?" I asked.
"It's nothing, just talking to myself is all."
"You and Bit are rather funny old witches."
"...I'm not responding to that."
"Say, whatever happened between you and your sister?"
"Work got in the way, as it happens."
"What type of work do you do here? I mean, I've gotten you're, like, the leader, but..."
"Don't worry about that right now. What you have mentioned about some sort of group looking to act as a retcon worries me, and I do want to look into it further. I don't know when we'll meet again, I guess it's whenever the author decides we're going to, but for now I think I should take you back to the library. If you have any other questions, please just say them out loud, and—"
"How does the... the meta-thingy work?"
"It... it just does, you pick it up as you go. At least, that's how it usually goes. You'll learn it soon."
"Oh, um... is there a way to speed it up?"
"Nope."
And with that, I found myself back in the library suddenly. I sighed.
ns 15.158.61.42da2
