The Sleeping Man slowly spun in circles, simply taking in what he saw because there was nothing else he could do. This was the Compendium, the Cathedra Omniscientia. Columns marched as they had before, though his new version of the world showed many of them in ruin. The beautiful skylight he had seen was gone and only the hints of the colorful glass remained. Stone had fallen between the columns and the floor was covered with jagged, broken stones interspersed with and what seemed to be large river rocks. Smooth, ovular rocks held deep greens and reds. The reality of the Compendium would have stopped him in his tracks, but it was the fact the entire room was covered with skittering black insects. They were constantly moving, only to bump into each other, circle each other warily, and then continue on. They had long thin antennae above their head framed by two front arms. One arm seemed to be a claw while the other was long and thin with a suction cup. The rest of the legs moved oppositely and their long body ended in a paddle like tail.

If there was a number for the amount of these black insects which covered the Compendium The Sleeping Man did not know it. He looked beside him and didn’t see Conqua anywhere. After enough time, he saw between the insects the columns support lopsided shelves. Each of the columns had shelves around them. They were absolutely stuffed with books, scrolls, loose paper, and artifacts. At first glance there was really nothing that seemed to be cataloged. As The Sleeping Man began to look between the insects, he notices the items were all in perfect condition. He saw sextants, elaborate compasses, clocks, sundials, gears moving machines, bubbling beakers, and on, and on, and on. So many questions were entering his mind, the least of which was how to find what he was seeking.   

He was enraptured by the items on the shelves. Breaking the spell of stillness, he finally took a step forward. It was his first step in a way, as his decision to seek the Compendium set him on the path. This step, however, was the point of no return. It was timid and bold. He looked down at the insects on the floor and tried to step between them but as soon as his foot almost hit the floor they immediately made a circle to give his foot purchase. Several more steps went in the same manner until it seemed like the black creatures would move out of the way on when needed.

Without thinking he began to walk among the columns, and as he did he noticed the shelves sometimes connected several columns to make a square room of sorts. The shelves were irregular and connected only as far as the column was tall, which in several instances was half his height. Other examples showed shelves which circled only one column. If there was some type of cataloging system, he could not decipher it. There was no way to find anything. As he passed by one of the circle shelves, he saw an object which looked like a floating blue and green globe about the size of his head. He walked closer and saw miniature swirling clouds surrounding the orb as the whole thing slowly rotated. His gaze tried to penetrate the atmosphere as he kept noticing more and more detail. He couldn’t help but reach out his hand. As soon as his finger made contact with the surface of the little world the rotation wobbled and he heard faint cries and wails of global catastrophe. Rapidly withdrawing he noticed the tip of his finger was wet. For a brief moment he thought there must be inhabitants on the world.   

He was debating the likelihood of that fact when he noticed the floating of the orb was drifting outside the range of its base and beginning to fall. The small cries grew louder, as far as small cries go, and he saw several of the insects darting to the orb. The ones closest to the orb attached on the shelves with their legs and paddle like tail. A group of the insects reached out with their long, skinny, appendage while feathery tendrils emerged cradled the small globe with a delicate tenderness. Three of the insects coaxed the sphere back into place and clicked their claws gently. Once the globe was back into place The Sleeping Man noticed they were off and moving through the items on the shelves and with the same loving caress, made sure every item was in its place. They appeared satisfied. The last of the black insects turned its antennae towards The Sleeping Man and stopped. After a moment, the black creature abruptly held out the arm with the claw directly towards The Sleeping Man. It clicked twice in reprimand and turned and left with its proverbial nose in the air.   

The Sleeping Man knew he had to find some way to navigate the Compendium. Once he found what he needed he wondered what the reaction would be from Clickers. They did always seem to move out from under his foot though, so he was okay with letting them be. He had received a warning and did not want to test it as he was definitely outnumbered. There was no obvious way to find the subject he needed, let alone what book or object would be most effective. Now that he was here, he thought about how undefined his thinking had been. He needed to stop the Empire’s advance or the entire known world would be under their sway. The way to stop their advance was the Compendium, which he knew to be the legend which contained enough power to destroy the Empire.  

Now he was here. Surrounded by all this knowledge with no compass for him to use. It was here. It had to be. This was the difference between how to stop an Empire versus what will stop the Empire. With that frame of reference, The Sleeping Man realized he had the answer in front of him all along. If there was no way to navigate the amount of knowledge he was surrounded, he would need a Biblionaut, and if what Nib said was true, they had never left. He slowed his breathing slightly and blinked to see the colors of the Dreamscape. The world turned into a sea of shifting colors, forming a pocket of green which would make a field of spring envious only to give way to the deepest ocean blue. The insects which walked the floors and shelves of the Compendium gave off much more powerful auras than their size would suggest.

His guide appeared before him. The Sleeping Man took in the image, stopping when he got to the floor. The image of Nib seemed to be superimposed on a pulsing column of insects. 

"Nib- is that you?"

"Why, is someone else here?" The image of Nib was more transparent and The Sleeping Man could see the moving insects until him, their combined projection into the Dreamscape forming what he had called, Nib.  

“Nib. I- nevermind. I need to know what will stop The Volto Empire, not how.”  

“Indeed, Dreamweaver. How to stop them would apply to any number of Empires, and the methods to deconstruct their power base would be an exponentially higher number. All of which would be found in different sections of the Cathedra.” The guide nodded so vigorously his eyebrows seemed to cling to his forehead for life. 

“Yes, well.” The Sleeping Man tried to combat the silence, “Is there any way to find that information without simply pulling books off the shelf?” He grabbed one at random and opened to somewhere in the middle of the book. It was written in his native language but the words were strange. Through context he could gather some the meaning, but some of the words like ’planet’ and ’galaxy’ held no meaning for him. He put the book back, looking at the gold letters on the spine, The Cosmos. Nib interrupted his contemplation of how similar the Earth in the book was to the map of the Continent.  

“That tome is one of my favorites, I like to take it to the Observatory and look through the celestial heavens.” 

"But in there, it said-" The Sleeping Man felt his mind stretch under the weight of just the small part of the book he saw.

"Now, now, Dreamwalker, this was written quite a long time ago and you are here for some knowledge other than this, yes?"

The Sleeping Man had to recompose himself, "Yes. Yes, I suppose so. I was wondering if you knew of where to look?” 

“Of course! Now that you have a specific request, I can have a specific answer!” The monk seemed ecstatic to have a function once again. “To the Volto Empire! Not the place, just the section where- yes. This way.” 

His guide circled him twice and then launched himself to The Sleeping Man’s left. He hurried to keep up as the Guide took many quick turns before cutting diagonally across the columns. As The Sleeping Man reached the same pace as his guide, the latter turned over his shoulder. “Quite fascinating really, the beginnings of the Volto Empire can be traced all the way back to the Dreamwalker wars.” The Sleeping Man had to run to catch up he was so surprised. “Of course, they were not united or even calling themselves the Volto at that time. Too many people of their territory remembered the rule of Adeunt Regem.”  

They came to wall of doors. The shelves above them were laid at many different angles, there was hardly a straight line to be found, but every space was accounted for by a book, scroll, or object. After looking through the other book briefly, he wondered what sort of accounts these tomes held.  

“Let’s see, let’s see, I know it’s around here somewhere.” The guide began walking back and forth across the doors. Every now and then, he would take a book down from the column and laugh, frown, or murmur ‘that’s right, that’s right.’ There didn’t seem to be any signs of stopping so The Sleeping Man began to look around himself. He saw the doors were labelled, and he could read the signs above them, depending on the language. Directly across from him was a dark red door with banded iron above which a sign read, ‘Cataclysms.’ The middle of the door had a knocker held by an iron skull. He didn’t feel any particular need to see what was behind that door and the insects on the floor seemed to stay away from it. Next to that door was ‘Climate,’ followed by another labelled with a language he didn’t know, then ‘Economics.’  

“Down here!” The guide called. He had made his way quite a distance and The Sleeping Man hurried to him, a chill ran up his spin when he passed the red door. “Here we are!” The guide gestured with his head at one of the doors. This one was under an archway in banded wood. A shield with two swords crossed behind it was the only decoration. Above the arch in a very stylized font were the words, “Empires.”  

“Well, that’s fairly convenient.” The Sleeping Man said.  

“Perhaps, well, you know everything relates to everything in some way or another.” The guide held both of his hands out, gesturing for The Sleeping Man to open the door.  

He walked up to where the two doors met and seeing no hinges on this side of the door, he pushed assuming doors operated in a normal door-like way. The doors didn’t move, even when The Sleeping Man pressed harder against them. “Why won’t these doors open?” 

“Well, I suppose it’s to do with the lack of definition.” 

“What do you mean?” 

“Well, I don’t want to spoil anything for you, it’s no fun when people ruin the surprise and they don’t get to figure things out for themselves.” The guide’s eyebrows were at war once again, but this time they seemed to be genuinely angry. The insects which made up the guide’s feet seemed irritated.  

The Sleeping Man took a step back before he stopped himself, “You’re still testing me.” 

“Testing? No. A little, but honestly, if just anyone could find out anything anytime they wanted, they wouldn’t have a single thought in their brain. They wouldn’t need to know how to think!” 

“Yes, I suppose that’s true.” The Sleeping Man looked at the door again and the sign above it. This was the door to Empires, but it did not specify which empire or what specifically about Empires was behind the door. He needed to know about the Volto Empire. “Is this the correct door?” 

“Yes, you wanted information on how to take down the Empire.”  

“Well, that’s true. Specifically, the Volto Empire.” 

“Then you want information on how to take down the Volto Empire, not the Empire. If I just chose a random Empire, you could end up in a galaxy, far, far away. Considering this place and what you’ve seen, where should you be looking?” 

“For the Volto Empire door.” 

“Yes.” The guide drew out the word so intently it grew another syllable.  

“If it’s a list of instructions on how to, then I should look in the how to section?” The Sleeping Man asked with one of his eyebrows. 

“Ah! Splendid idea, I haven’t been to the How-To section in years!” 

Letting the joke go, The Sleeping Man sighed. He needed information on the Volto Empire, specifically how to stop their expansion. Every town or region they took over had one of the Volto’s gleaming white towers to signify they ruled. Many had tried to pull the towers down, but no amount of force would break the mysterious white stone. The idea grew in his mind until his guide broke him out of his thoughts. “You did it!” 

“Huh?” The Sleeping Man looked at the guide. He saw he was looking up at the door. He followed the gaze up to the top of the door to the sign that read, “The Volto Empire.” The shield on the door now bore the hateful black and red V of their standard set on a white tower. Although The Sleeping Man had escaped from the Volto some time ago, the symbol of hatred filled him with a clearly defined rage. This time he shoved on the door with a purposeful force, he would find the way to undo their Empire.  

The doors laughed inward effortlessly, massive wooden structures swinging in to reveal the room beyond while dumping The Sleeping Man directly into a puddle of mud. The stone floor of the previous room abruptly gave way to a dirt road leading down a hill to a grouping of thatch roofs. Grass framed either side of the road. Another dirt road terminated in the middle of the few buildings. At the crossroads, he saw a post flying the red and black V. He looked back at the way he came, the doors hung precisely on invisible hinges. Nib stood in the archway with a pensive look on his face. It was then The Sleeping Man realized the doors were starting to swing closed on their own weight.  

He got to his feet quickly and started back to the room he had come from. Nib’s eyes were wild and his eyebrows seemed to be trying to escape his face. His hand outstretched, the guide yelled, “Hurry, Night Child! The doors do not open from that side.”

He started to go back, but stopped when a thought struck him. The Compendium had answered him, and this was the answer. He didn’t understand it. The door would not even open when he had pushed, but when his mind had focused on the goal of ending the empire, the door did not just give him information, it took him directly to this place. The answer must be here. After such a long journey to reach the Compendium, shouldn’t he try to find out more?

“Where is this place?” The Sleeping Man asked.

“You must hurry, there is no time!” The guide’s hands were now pressed against an invisible wall at the edge of two worlds.

“I think this is where I’m supposed to go.” The Sleeping Man pressed against one of the doors, but the once weightless wood now would not cease its advance.

“No! Think of all the things you can learn here.  The other one wants to see the Twilight Blade, would you like to see it as well?” 

“It exists?”

“Yes, you must hurry.”

The Sleeping Man thought if he truly needed to, he could focus and open the door again. He definitely did not want the Conqua to have the Twilight Blade, there was no telling what he would do with it. 

“Alright, but you have to take me back here.”

“Yes, of course, as you say, whatever you need.” The guide relaxed.

The doors had reached the midpoint of their swing and The Sleeping Man stopped and looked at Nib. There was something about his eyes which gave The Sleeping Man pause. It was the hint of desperation at his lack of control. He would have to be cautious around him, but if he opened the doors once he could do it again. As he was about to cross the threshold, he saw an object racing toward him from behind the once benevolent guide. Nib turned at The Sleeping Man’s gaze and screamed as the blocky object dispersed the insects making up his form. Continuing through the threshold, the long boxy object struck The Sleeping Man in the chest.

The Sleeping Man watched the blue sky above him turn black.

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