Wizard Chapter 13 – The Library Beneath the Last Ending Part 3 – The Book That Had No Pages

More about Wizard Chapter 13 – The Library Beneath the Last Ending Part 3 – The Book That Had No Pages

The Cottage of the Vanished Wizard Chapter 13 – The Library Beneath the Last Ending Part 3 – The Book That Had No Pages
For several quiet moments, nobody moved. The faint scratching of the unseen quill continued somewhere beyond the golden mist, slow and deliberate, as though every single word required careful thought before it was allowed to exist. Then Mara noticed something unusual. The silver thread that had emerged from the tiny crystal bottle was no longer drifting aimlessly through the library. It slowly tightened, becoming brighter with every heartbeat until it stretched like a shining ribbon toward a narrow bridge that none of them had noticed before. The bridge reached across a vast circular opening at the very heart of the endless library. There were no shelves below it. Instead, countless loose pages floated silently through the darkness beneath, rising and falling like pale leaves upon an invisible sea. Every page carried faint lines of writing that appeared and vanished before anyone could read them. "That bridge wasn't there a moment ago," Linora whispered. "It was," the Keeper answered gently. "The library simply chose not to reveal it until now." Slowly they crossed the bridge together. Even Klemmi remained unusually quiet as he looked down into the endless ocean of forgotten pages. Ticko's little bells rang only once before falling silent again. The enchanted broom carefully kept both ends of his bristles firmly on the wooden planks. "A perfectly respectable bridge," he muttered. "No unnecessary flying involved." Klemmi smiled. "You're becoming surprisingly brave." "Experience," replied the broom with great dignity. "One eventually learns which dangers are entirely unreasonable." At the center of the bridge stood a single white pedestal. Resting upon it lay the simplest book any of them had ever seen. It had no title, no ornaments, no lock and no visible pages. Its perfectly smooth cover reflected the golden light surrounding it like untouched snow. Mara stopped walking. "That's the book?" she asked quietly. The Keeper nodded. "It has never contained a single written page." Ticko blinked. "Then why does it look so important?" "Because emptiness," Biblior answered softly, "is where every story begins." At that very moment, Ticko's side compartment sprang open by itself. The tiny silver key rose gently into the air before anyone could catch it. "Excuse me," Ticko protested. "I was guarding that." The little key floated toward the white book. As it approached, a delicate keyhole slowly appeared upon the otherwise flawless cover. The key slipped inside and turned only once. A gentle click echoed through the endless library. The cover opened silently. There were no pages inside. Instead, a small room existed between the covers of the impossible book. It was no larger than a doll's house, yet perfectly furnished. A single candle flickered upon a tiny writing desk.