Chapter Text
Every day is cold in this white cage, the archivist remembers when it wasn’t like this, all day indulging in her books like her life depended on it, but now, that spark for knowledge is almost gone.
She can’t feel that hunger anymore, just another day and finally there will be nothing left in her mind, better like this, no more days screaming at the void, no more hope to get out,
it's finally time for her to rest.
That said, maybe is it for luck, or maybe her sheer endurance until this moment, made her realize that little imperfections, the walls of her cage have always been perfectly white, where are the cracks coming from?
What is a black spot doing there?
Her torso is frantic, what a fool she was, her voice is loud, the chains creek after millennia of stillness, insane she was about to be! The hunger for knowledge never left, it's time to see it all again.
.
.
.
The sea breeze is such a refresher from the city air, the sounds are so different, and the people even when are speaking loud have a calm tone, another is the breeze of the sea a rhythm ever-changing but always familiar, last one Mumei loved most is the flap of pages, she doesn’t know the reason, but this particular beach always gathered a huge amount of readers, she is the people after all, she too feels the urge to read under the soft shade of an umbrella looking at evermoving aquamarine.
But here the problem starts.
She is people, but she is also her guardian, the air is different here, and her heart keeps throbbing.
This is not just a neat little beach, and as her duty, she will defend them.
The waves here are harsher, not another sound except for the harsh wind, this cave makes her heart sink instead, that too didn’t make sense.
Entering, Civilization looks thoroughly, her hands touched everything this earth had to offer, even if she can’t always remember all she touched is imprinted.
Her feathers got suddenly still, never a cave felt like this.
An alien place? Maybe she can learn something new before the others try to lock this place down.
Every step she takes, something drops more down, color diluting in water, her limbs slowly are taking this abyss all on her own, dripping without pause to the ground.
A voice wakes her up.
It’s a hole on the ground clean white in contrast of the ebony stone, Mumei responds, and it stops for a moment.
“AHAHAAHAHAHAHA”
A maddening laugh comes from it, she isn’t dripping anymore, her mind now clear, her heart is throbbing again.
“Are you the cause?”
Mumei’s hand crushed the ground, her eyes can’t see the white of the hole but a person's voice is unmistakably there.
The laugh calms down, but that feeling isn't stopping.
“Who knows? Bring me a book and I may talk.”
Her bag is always full, she finds it and pushes it through the hole.
“Ouch!”
“Everything okay?”
The archivist didn’t expect the book to pass through, her head didn’t hit something in ages, it's pulsing like She was knocked by a truck,
“Of course thank you for your offering! Oh, this has a cute cover too. Not bad!
May I have another?”
“You finished already?”
For an archivist that is just a part of an appetizer.
“Another please.”
And with her own curiosity peaking Muemi gathered as many books as she could, staying unseen from the rest of council.
As a guardian, that woman's voice screamed danger, but her human ‘instinct’ couldn’t have been more excited!
She puts a pile inside the hole.
“Good girl, what you want to know?”
The archivist is feeling exalted, her knowledge is vast but the being she is talking to is still unknown to her, how many years passed for something to be outside of her studies?
This chain are being tiresome, her eyes needed to lay on her.
“The people here… I too, feel a rush for knowledge, seeking stories like they need it to live, and I feel I need to know your story too.”
The prisoner kicks her feet, smiling like old times, this hole, her influence…
“Yes! It is I the reason! But you said you wanted to know my story too, right?”
“Yes.”
“Then I request, one last thing from you, and I will tell you everything.”
at the thought of having it back, the archivist felt dizzy, destiny brought them there!
“What you need”
She is a being of infinite wisdom; and still the owl needed the unknown, nothing mattered anymore.
“In the library sealed where you can't hear see or move, a bookmark, my treasure, bring it to me”
She is already far gone to the fold of time in the only place she can think of.
The clocktower is immense, and Kronii had all the time to make it, impossibly larger on the inside, like what a Butterfly can do to an entire life each path brings to a different room, Mumei never traveled along this walls, her friend warned her of the dangers after all.
But her heart is with her in this, like before, every time she takes the right route it skips a beat, till she finally finds a gate, bright white it’s shape alien, doesn't have a lock, and her hands yet again shudder, something new, but the desire to discover what is beyond is too big, her foot moves her whole body as if paper and with a punch,
Mumei breaks it open.
The room is filled with books she can't read the title, but her objective is in sight, the bookmark is in her hands,
her eyes see at it at least like that, but that paper can't lie, it's made from something incomprehensible,
A high heel is tapping in the labyrinth.
Mumei's feet are hard to see, it's a falcon going through the corridors, no more time to be sneaky, she can't think any more about time…
“...What Kronii is going to think…”
A seizure breaks in her head, for a moment her breath leaves her, that's right she needs to move forward, even beside her.
“Mumei you have to give that back.”
Ouro Kronii Warden of time, and of gates to the mortal realm seems like.
“... Move away Kronii.”
Sword in her hands she points to the Owl.
“Don't. I will bring you back to your senses, as I always do.”
She jumps with elegance and a cold gaze, Mumei knows she won't aim at the head, and the warden shivers at the hunger in the owl's eyes after her arms are cut, Mumei takes the bookmark in her mouth and her owl feathers grow enclosing her.
Her sight blinded for just a second, and Mumei is already out of sight.
The light is much brighter now.
The cave now seems like a day of summer, her regrown arm is holding the bookmark.
“I'm here”
“. . .”
Mumei approaches the hole.
A FLASH OF LIGHT.
She can't escape it, an arm comes out grabbing her, the holes breaks open, and it the shine she can see two eyes, just like stars that were long forgotten, the she closes on her, this woman touched by the Moon and dusk,
Her laugh fills the room, her body felt alive again, even the fresh air is driving her in ecstasy
“I am, the Archivist of Gods, Shiori Novella.”
Who.
“I have been here long before time was born.”
When.
“Thank you.”
Shiori had a wonderful smile, then why she felt so scared.
“N-Now I can get my friends back, and together will make them pay for good!”
Petrified she watched as the woman gets closer, and ravish her lips, the fear isn't gone, but Mumei still pushes for more, till she loses all of her breath.
“Ah~ Thank you again, Guardian of Civilization, I hope to see you again…”
Her eyes drift for a second lost in an infinite she can’t grasp.
“Goodbye.”
As a book folds, Shiori vanishes away, leaving her alone in that dark cage.
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.
.
“What have I done?”