It was an enormous stone hall. Columns of marble leapt to a domed ceiling which supported a massive stained-glass skylight. The pattern of the eye was repeated above them around a larger central eye set in a intricate triangle. Each of the smaller eyes wove a story which culminated in the center. It showed a war long forgotten, the images starting with The Sad King’s armies marching across the world and bathing it in fire. The images went on to show the alliance of the Dwarven Mountain Clans building massive stone defense towers, the Elves of the Evergreen with their Leshy brethren defending the Silverwood Forest, and the nomadic Dreamwalkers speaking with the elusive Abarimon. The Sleeping Man’s eyes lingered on his people, their place in the history of this old war was unclear from the images he saw. Against his wishes tears began to form at the reminder he was the last of the Dreamwalkers.

The Sleeping Man noted the end of the battle had created so much death nothing living would show on the surface of that field. In the center of the largest eye, there sat an image of the Compendium. It was an amalgam of architecture, gothic towers giving way to terra cotta villas, bridges, and wooden buildings. All the structures seemed to protect a central stone building with a giant golden dome.

After taking in the details of the stained glass, he began to look around the rest of the room. Columns silently marched into the distance past his line of sight, with each grey marble support adorned with an iron torch in the manner of a hand so elaborately carved he felt they were going to drop their torches and reach for him. There was no discernible wall in any direction. He looked at the floor and saw intricate brickwork leading in different directions. The pattern of each probably meant something of which he was unaware. Clinging to the brick as if he might fall off the ground, Conqua was clicking incessantly. The Sleeping Man knew he was trying to locate features to orient himself.

“I don’t know if that will help you, my eyes don’t reveal much either.” He looked backwards to confirm his suspicion. “Every direction is the same.”

“Do not trust to your eyes, Night Wake Man, there is too much to see.” The Cannoi circled the shadow cast by the stained glass. “This is like the Song Keep-ers sing, but is more and more big.”

The elation at finding the Compendium wained as The Sleeping Man realized he had no idea which direction to head. The exact moment this thought crossed his mind, a voice from nowhere answered, “Whenever I come here I like to pretend it’s the very first time, and then I think to myself since there’s so much to see it doesn’t matter which direction I head. After all, when they used to come here for knowledge, they always wanted something terribly specific. I can’t keep track of it all.”

There was a very long moment where neither The Sleeping Man nor Conqua moved a muscle. The voice had come from no specific direction so The Sleeping Man began to look around. His search was short lived as the moment he looked to the left he saw what appeared to be an elderly monk in brown robes. The horseshoe ring of hair around his head was grey and his face was dominated by the bulb of his nose and eyebrows which seemed like they were attacking his face. Approaching a Dreamwalker undetected was supposed to be impossible, but the proof was looking at him with a pleasant smile.

“Ah, but where are my manners?” The monk asked. There was another long silence, “Ahem, where are my manners?”

“What?”

“Have you seen my manners? I usually bring them when new visitors come but I don’t know where they are now. It has been a very long time since we’ve had anyone new. I think.”

“I do not know where your manners are.” The Sleeping Man now turned towards the newcomer. “How did you-?” The monk waited patiently for him to finish. “Come here?”

“Come here? Why I never left!” The monk rested his hands on his belly in perfect satisfaction of his explanation.

“So you’ve been standing here waiting for us?”

“No, I’ve been waiting for you. You were supposed to already be here back then up until now, which you are, in point of fact, currently are. Now, do you see?” The Sleeping Man nodded reflexively, lighting up the monk’s face with satisfaction. The Sleeping Man looked at Crow Face who was standing to the side clicking and hissing into thin air but not aggressively.

“Oh, I wouldn’t worry about him, coming to this place is for an individual’s knowledge. I’m telling him the same thing I’m telling you although he seems to understand more.”

“You are talking to him right now?”

“Yes.”

“I see.”

“You will, when you awaken.”

“So, you were saying it doesn’t matter which way I go?” The Sleeping Man looked at the first pattern of stones under his feet.

“Oh, of course it matters. Everything matters. That’s why they call matter matter, because it matters. Get it? Why, there’s so much to see you probably won’t want to leave.” The monk responded affably.

The Sleeping Man realized he couldn’t see the monk’s colors in the Dreamscape when he blinked. “Am I allowed to leave?”

“Of course you are, of course you are. I couldn’t keep you here even if I wanted to. It’s just that, well, a lot of them didn’t leave. They’re still down their reading. I try and try to talk to them but they just mutter to themselves.” The monk seemed to almost have a wistful expression. “Usually it’s the ones with the big questions, which I understand, most people want to know their place. It turns out they just don’t actually want to find out.”

The Sleeping Man didn’t quite take what the monk said as a threat, but everything about this place was an unknown. “What should I call you?”

“As you wish, as you wish.”

"Do you have a name?"

"Yes."

"What is it?"

"Nib."

“Very well.” The Sleeping Man considered his options, he could stay here and talk to the monk who seemed to be capable of only circular speech or he could search out what he had come here for. “I shall head down this path.”

“Yes! I thought you would, so that’s why we stopped here.” The monk took a couple of steps then looked back. “Well, come on. Your friend is on his own path, but both shall leave as they enter. It’s one of the sayings here, I think.”

"Conqua. Conqua? Crow Face?"

The Sleeping Man looked at his companion, who seemed to be completely involved with something he could not see. Probably better for him anyway. Conqua would have killed him whenever he was able to find the Twilight Blade. He started walking down the path slowly to see in the Cannoi crouched on the ground would notice. Eventually they were out of sight and The Sleeping Man had fallen in step with the monk. “Nib, are you to be my tour guide?”

“Guide? I like that, yes! I can be your guide in this place. Too big to take on yourself like all the other problems you try to shoulder.” The Sleeping Man looked at the monk trying to see what the underlying intention of his words was. “No matter, we shall head down this path and you will ask me the questions you want to ask. Who knows, you might even find what you seek.”

“I seek to fight the Empire. They search for power. They are even now searching for this place even though they don’t really know why they’re searching for it.” The Sleeping Man said as they both walked down the path which had begun weaving between columns.

“Yes, that is one thing you seek, surely it is not a small thing to collapse an empire. I believe there’s a section on that somewhere…”

“There’s a section on, what?” The Sleeping Man looked at the monk.

“Empires! We have every subject; History, Building an Empire, Taking Down the Empire, and So 1You’re an Emperor, Now What?-“ The monk would have continued but was cut off.

“What exactly is this place?”

The monk stopped and looked at The Sleeping Man, his tone had completely changed. “That’s right, I had forgotten. It has been so long since anyone has come here I didn’t realize you might not know. Very well, have a seat and I will explain.” The monk made a motion to sit down onto thin air, and right before The Sleeping Man could call out or catch him he was settled in a chair which had simply appeared as if it had always been there. He looked and saw a chair for him as well, in the middle of the empty path they were walking down a moment ago. He sat slowly, ready to catch his weight if the chair was not there. It was, and he paid the chair the rest of his weight in pennies. The monk was waiting patiently, the same smile firmly back on his face.

“The Compendium originally started as a library, but as more knowledge was stored there it began to take on odd qualities. Like the potential for falling remains the same no matter how far the fall will be, but the one falling will most certainly tumble if he perceives the fall is too great. It is much the same with knowledge. Magical texts, ancient histories, and forgotten languages all found their home here in the Compendium. Whenever knowledge was sought it was sought here. The more information stored here caused more to look for information to be stored here. Would you like some tea?”

The question caused The Sleeping Man’s stomach to stand up and take note of the conversation. Without being prompted, his stomach informed all in attendance it did, in point of fact, want tea. “Yes, please.” The Sleeping Man said.

“Very well, very well, where did I put that, ah, here we are.” The guide nodded to himself in satisfaction seemingly pleased. The Sleeping Man just continued to look at the man sitting across from him when the odor of sweet bread tickled his nose. When he attempted to locate the smell, he saw a table within the reach of his right hand. It was overburdened with a steaming iron pot of tea which had hints of chocolate chip, rooibos, vanilla chai, and cream. Surrounding the pot and dividing the table into four was a large sliced poundcake, tarts filled with cherry, lemon, and something green, flaky triangle dough with honey and walnuts, and conical shaped bread filled with what looked like cream. Although The Sleeping Man kept somewhat of a straight face, his stomach insisted and he grabbed slice of the pound cake. His stomach approved of the weight of it in his hand.

“Where was I? Ah, right. Well the knowledge the Compendium amassed was so great more and more shelves had to be added to accommodate. The number of librarians grew and grew, although they never had to look for more, eventually people would come to learn something specific, but find something they didn’t know and were fascinated by and many of them just stayed.”

The Sleeping Man wanted to ask how the Compendium was making such odd things happen, if they were making things appear, or simply yell at Nib to tell him what’s going on. His stomach thought it better to eat for now.

“With all the knowledge coming in there had to be some sort of system for the librarians, and they formed a committee. It was not very successful as half the committee met in one wing and the other half in another, which together didn’t account for half of the total number of librarians, because most of them weren’t on the committee, I think. Since we never counted, I don’t know if we got an accurate sample.” The monk sipped his tea, while the Sleeping Man noted he was not holding it a moment ago. “Anyway, the first chair of the first committee eventually convinced the second chair of the second committee which chair and committee were first and second, respectively but not in that order. After they had found each other in this very room, the Compendium Committees used their knowledge and several references within the library to create the Looking Glass so they could find any bit of information they didn’t currently have. Just like that, the Biblionauts were born.”

The Sleeping Man had finally shoved enough food fast enough into his stomach to momentarily quiet the pains therein. “So how did the place become hidden?”

The monk looked away as if listening to something. “What did you say?”

“How did this place come to be hidden, and are you making things appear?”

"YOU!" The monk stood, his features had morphed into a mask of hate, "You don’t remember! You left us to die with the books!"

"I did what?"

"What’s that? Well, why wouldn’t he remember? Oh, this is The Sleeping Man. He doesn’t remember." The monk was talking to his shoulder. "Yes, well that’s no excuse I say. Very well, I’ll tell him. Yes, ma’am. No ma’am. No ma’am. Of course, ma’am."

The Sleeping man stared at the monk with his hand involuntarily reaching for a sword that wasn’t there. Where had his sword gone?

“Yes. Well, let’s see. It was quite some time ago when your people fought the wars so it’s difficult to remember exactly…”

“My people?” The Sleeping Man spilled several drops of tea on the floor. The guide frowned at them for a moment, then looked up.

“Yes, your people. The Traumreise had spent many years collecting information for the Compendium and were quite valued by all the Biblionauts.”

The Sleeping Man mouthed the word ‘Traumreise’ to test how it felt. His people.

“Yes, yes, your people and this was a big war as well. The Biblionauts had ALL assembled together for the first time, well, everyone we could find because you see at this point the Compendium was already too large to keep track of. We could never let the Compendium be taken by the Sad King’s armies, there is too much knowledge. Some of the older books in the forgotten corners of the Compendium had the steps to give the structure the will to protect itself.”

Not for the first time since coming to this place, The Sleeping Man had no idea what to say. Forcing himself to speak, he only managed, “You gave the structure the will to live?”

“Yes and no, we gave the knowledge contained within the Compendium the ability to protect itself, which was a big mistake, because the instant the sum of knowledge had the sentience to defend itself from the attacking armies, it felt like the Biblionauts were indispensable and took us with it to... Well, right where you found us. Of course, it wasn’t until after the Compendium became aware that is was able to use its knowledge to procure all knowledge and truly become what is known now as the Compendium.”

"So, you’ve been here since the Dreamwalker War?"

"Yes."

"Then you must be a thousand years old!"

"Two thousand two hundred seventy-six, actually."

"That’s impossible!"

"As impossible as entering another’s dreams and changing what you see? As impossible as leaving your body behind so you can ride the currents of dreams at will?" The benevolent smile faded at the corners. "You do not get to tell me what is impossible, Sleeping Man."

"I’m sorry. But I really must hurry and find what I came for." The Sleeping Man stood.

"You came for the Twilight Blade, yes?"

"No, I came for a way to stop the Empire, it is Conqua who searches for the Twilight Blade."

"Well, that would be a trick."

"What do you mean?"

"It’s not a blade, it’s a key."

~

Entering the Compendium was not a blinding light for Conqua, in fact, it was actually familiar. All of the echoes his clicks generated brought waves of information. He still felt the Night Wake Man next to him, talking about how nothing was there. Were all of his people so blind? The voice from nowhere had startled him, especially when he heard the clicks and hisses of his people. It was a welcome respite after speaking to the Night Wake Man in his clumsy language.

“Welcome to the Cathedra, Brother Conqua. May you live in song.” The voice came from many places at once and spoke in his native tongue with such grace it was almost a song.

“We shall sing together, brother.”

“You honor me, brother. If you would permit me, close your dreamsight to only the trails of yourself and perhaps your objective.”

“Close my dreamsight? Is such a thing possible?” Conqua could not sense the speaker, but the voice was real.

“Yes, brother. You have spent too long away. The Dreamsight is not clouded there. It is as when you were given the First Songs. Here where the knowledge itself can dream there is much to see.”

Conqua breathed slowly, and felt himself start to focus the colors normally seen through the prism of the dreamscape. He saw the threads of the vibrations and could hone in on specific lines to reveal more about them. While not as powerful as a dreamwalker, the Cannoi could see the location of living creatures nearby. In the barren wasteland of the Desert, any color stood out which made the Cannoi fierce predators. He did not have the technique perfected, but his surroundings were no longer as blinding.

“Yes, that’s the way. It does take some time to grow used to it.”

“This place, what is it?”

"Do you not recognize? Do you not remember?"

"How could I remember?"

“The Cathedra or as your companion calls it The Compendium is the seat of knowledge. We house things that were and things that are.” The voice took on a sing song quality unique to the language of the Cannoi’s best speakers.

“Do you have the location of the Twilight Blade, the one from the songs?”

“Yes.”

“Where is it?”

“The blade from the song is entombed herein. I will show you the way.”

"Good, then I will take The-" Conqua realized he could no longer sense The Sleeping Man next to him. "He is gone!"

"Brother, do not concern yourself with him. I will show you the blade, then you are free to do what you will. I’m sure a skilled hunter like yourself will have no trouble catching him again?"

Conqua saw his return to the tribe, holding the Twilight Blade. They would make him Tonqua, he would be in line to mate with Mother. Then the Night Wake Man would not be able to stop him. No one would be able to stop him.

~

The Sleeping Man continued to walk with his guide, and after some time he thought it odd they had not reached any sort of door or other room. Rows and rows of regularly spaced columns went in every direction. The elaborately carved path continued on and on. They had walked in silence for some time, one content to do so and the other deconstructing what the other had said. The Sleeping Man stopped walking and spoke, “How far is it?”

“How far is what?”

“The section you talked about, the one that will help me stop the Empire?” A slight edge crept into The Sleeping Man’s voice.

“Not far, then again, nothing is really far. The entire world is small, I think.”

“We’ve been walking for I don’t know how long and we’re still haven’t reached the-“ the words were cut off at his mouth when he noticed the stained glass skylight from before. It was still directly overhead. He looked around for the Cannoi, but he was gone as well. Great, now he will have to keep one eye over his shoulder.

The position of the skylight caused a series of thoughts in The Sleeping Man’s mind. He had not known what to expect the Compendium to look like, so he was not surprised it looked as it did. The place was legendary, and the rumors of the magical means with which it was built and remained hidden gave it a mystic nature which could include impossibly high ceilings and rooms with no end. He had no reason to expect otherwise. Even if there wasn’t a tour guide being frustratingly vague, a forest of stone columns would disorient anyone. If what Nib said is true and the knowledge was sentient and able to protect itself, then the best strategy would be for the information to be stored in a way that couldn’t be removed.

The Sleeping Man finally said, “Would you mind terribly if we sat down?”

“Of course not!” The monk immediately dropped his weight onto the chair behind him. The chair was identical to the one before. The Sleeping Man sat backwards with confidence, into a matching chair.

“You said the knowledge contained within the Compendium was able to protect itself.”

“That’s right.”

“And in being able to protect itself, it didn’t let any of the Biblionauts leave.”

“You remembered!” The guide clapped his hands three times in quick succession.

“Yes, I was wondering what other measures there were or are?”

The monk’s eyebrows clashed together like two rams attracting a mate. The Sleeping Man attempted to keep his face as neutral as possible while the monk asked, “Why do you want to know about the Compendium’s security measures?”

“Well, when you mentioned how my people used to be so helpful, I thought it would be good to know how to get here more quickly in case I wanted to bring more… knowledge.”

The monk was motionless as his eyebrows battled for supremacy. After a moment, “Well, it is true your people were quite helpful, but now the Compendium can see everything. I don’t know if there’s an opening just now..."

"I could keep you company."

"Yes! I mean, yes. If you want."

“Great, so how do we get out of this room?” The Sleeping Man asked.

“Room? What room?” Now his eyebrows fought to climb into his hairline.

“This room, with all the columns. We’ve been walking here for quite some time.”

“You see a room? With columns? And you think we’ve been walking all this time and never left the room you mentioned?”

“Yes.” The Sleeping Man grew slightly wary.

“Splendid! I always like to hear how others see this place, it reminds me of the time I came here. I found the place straight off, I don’t mean to brag of course, but when tested I passed almost immediately. Not to worry I’m sure you’ll get there.”

The Sleeping Man looked intently at the monk. He was being tested. With the journey being so difficult, he had assumed once he arrived all he needed to do to find some chink in the Empire’s armor but now he was not so sure. He began to go over the details of his arrival in his mind, looking for anything to give him some idea as to what the monk was hiding. The taste of the poundcake lingered on his tongue and he ran his hand down one of the columns. It was cool and smooth in its heaviness. One of the details was not like the others and he couldn’t figure it out. The Sleeping Man concentrated on the time he spent within the Compendium to find out which part of the pattern was not like the others.

Clearing his mind, he closed his eyes and meditated in a manner akin to entering the Dreamscape, but in this case he did not push himself into his dream form. Everything about his memory was clear, there was nothing that stood out as strange, other than the strangeness of presence of the monk himself. It was that thought which made him realize the truth. He opened his eyes and looked directly at the monk who seemed to be smiling like her already knew he had figured out the secret.

“I couldn’t see the Dreamscape when I arrived because I was already in the Dreamscape. We’re in it right now.”

“Just so, Dreamwalker, just so.”

"There was no flash of light, I got pulled into the Dreamscape. I am the dreamer and this is the dream. Now must I awake." All at once his spiritual form was yanked into his body and he awoke in a huge gasp of air. Looking around brought a laugh to his lips. It was even more amazing than he had dreamed.

~

Conqua was growing more and more angry. The voice was leading him to something, but he was no longer sure it was the Twilight Blade. Whenever he had clicked, the return that came to him only seemed to be a point in space and based on where the point was he got a sense of where it was heading and followed it. They had been making many turns, but he had a sense they were not taking the most direct path. There was nothing in his environment which suggested they had to wind back and forth but they were. Then they had begun to head back in the direction they had come and with no change in elevation or the room they were in meant they were heading back the way they came.

What legends there were of the Cannoi, none lauded the creature’s ability for patience and with a very good reason. Finally Conqua stopped moving, “You are to show me to the Twilight Blade now!”

The point of space the voice occupied spoke, “Brother Conqua, I am showing you to the Twilight Blade at this time, if you would come with me-“

“No. You are a lying false brother and no one will sing for you.”

“Why, brother, what do you mean?”

“We are not going anywhere but in large circles.” He was ready for a fight but there was no one physically there to fight.

“Perhaps we are meant to go in circles.” The voice took a mocking tone.

Conqua did not know what to say, mental games and verbal battles were not subjects that he excelled in. “How much longer until I get the Twilight Blade?”

“It won’t be long, but that depends on what long is to you. There are many ways to define what is long and what is not.” The voice intoned.

“It is not enough!” Conqua darted forward and clawed the space where the voice had come from.

“It is not enough to seek the Twilight Blade? Not enough to know you will soon hold it? Not enough to know with it you could destroy empires?” The voice came from in front of him, it’s effortless dodge an affront to the Cannoi’s attack.

“Yes, yes, and slay the Night Wake Man! Give it to me!” Conqua saw armies marching at his command, and he would be alpha. He would mate first with Mother. His line would stretch into the far reaches of time like the Desert itself.

“I cannot give it to you, I can merely show you where it is.”

“We walk in circles!”

“That is only because you do not see, you are feeling that we are walking in circles, when in reality we have walked nowhere.” The voice chided.

“No, I have felt it.” Conqua let a series of echo location clicks sound from his throat and resulting echoes came back. It was true everything looked the same, but then again, everything was identical, the columns, the ground. He had had a sense of movement, but there was no evidence he had actually moved.

“Have you, brother?”

Doubt began to form in the desert hunter’s mind. He wondered if he could be imagining the whole thing. The overwhelming sight of the Cathedra had blinded him, but now he was getting more accustomed to it. The only reason he was getting more accustomed to it was based on what the voice had told him. To filter out the thing which he didn’t want to see so he could focus on what mattered. There was no way to guarantee the things he filtered out did not hold information he needed. He smiled, knowing though the voice lacked form, but could see his smile.

He began series of rapid clicks, a continuous wave of repetition which brought back the flood of information, it was blinding. Within that bombardment was the information he sought, and so he kept clicking and letting the information wash over him. In the same way a person can let their vision go into a soft focus, he let the knowledge wash over him. It was like trying to decipher the meaning of a book if every page of it was superimposed on the others. All he had to do was find the start of the information he was looking for, then he could follow its line. He would catch hold of certain bits of information, knowing if he tuned to that frequency he would learn everything there was to know about that subject. One of the first words that popped out at him was, ‘Traumreise.’ It was not the word he desired. He searched for many fervent minutes until at last he found a thread he could pull.

“I see this place, now.”

“Is that so? What do you see?”

“Everything.”

Next Chapter: The Compendium