That’s a lot of books. Too many books? Looking for ‘Intro to Lithography’? If I was you, I’d just read it online. No wonder physical media is dying. ...Is it?

  “One of the bad ones?” Xyll asks.

  “Hmm? All alerts are bad,” Lucius replies.

  “Don’t keep me in suspense, guys. What’s it say?”

  “Time stuff,” Xyll says.

  “Yay, time stuff!” Both turn to me. “Got a problem with my preferences?”

  “Archmage Elisa going to crash the party?” Xyll asks, ignoring me.

  “No loss of communication just yet,” Lucius says, ignoring me too. “So, no. We are in the clear for now.”

  “Is physical media dying?”

  Both can’t ignore me now. Xyll is temporarily befuddled, taking a second to trace my thoughts.

  Lucius is, as always, quick on the uptake. “Not really.”

  Xyll takes in a deep breath and exhales, trying to act like Fal. “You’re part of the problem.”

  “He said no, though.”

  “The origin of the problem, then.”

  “But it’s so convenient.”

  Lucius interjects, “Dungeon.” He motions all around. “In.”

  “Yeah, yeah.” “Yeah, yeah.”

  “Anyway,” Xyll says. “Looks like we’ll be here awhile. Hope you brought... a book!”

  Lucius, somehow keeping a straight face, tilts his head at one of the surrounding passages. “Over there.”

  “You walked into that one, huh?”

  “Shut it.”

  A warp places us in front of a bookshelf, identical to all the rest, filled with identical books.

  Lucius points at one, not even close to touching it. “Writing. No other—in my range—has any.”

  “And how big is that?” Lucius opens his mouth to answer, but I just now realize we might really be here a while if I let him. “Never mind. What’s it say?”

  “It contains detailed accounts of the Scionic Order’s Third Civil War.”

  “By?” Xyll asks.

  “Unnamed author. Writing style and information given do not match any existing texts.”

  “We all know where this is going, right?” Both do. “In that case, who’s ready to live history?” Both are. “Should we touch it together.”

  “While a good idea,” Lucius says, “‘touching it together’ is not as clearly defined as you think it is. Thus, it probably doesn’t matter for the Rules.” He definitely capitalized ‘rules’ there. “But we should still try.”

  “And we should hold onto each other, too. Better safe than sorry.”

  I sink into our shadow as Xyll places a hand on Lucius’ shoulder. The two touch the spine of the book.

  We appear in the middle of an active battlefield. Ruined city, fires burning... corpses. All the unpleasant stuff. It’s not real. Don’t look at the... Just don’t look at anything but our enemies.

  “Shadow Theatre: Tragedy in Fours.”

  My cast stops us from getting drenched by multiple spells. A blue... Aquamarine? An aquamarine light show follows quickly after.

  Monsters long dead, now monsters again, are forced to wait for their cue. More than enough time in their just-birthed minds to see the hate burning in my dark eyes.

  Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

  A cheery voice wipes away the feeling. “The story can’t start before the setup.” Tiny droplets fall from a clear sky, fake drizzle deepening the shadows. “Omen.”

  Lucius inflicts several individuals wounds incompatible with life.

  “Dread,” Xyll’s voice echoes out of our domain, barely discerned from the chaos, but still heard.

  One of the more capable mages finds out a little too late why I called it ‘our’ domain. The remaining hundreds of fighters find resisting Lucius’ massacre harder than before. Spells resolving not when they expected, hardly noticeable. Attacks dispersing faster than they should, only a touch. Minds consumed by unexplainable dread, ever looming.

  Fallen twitch and jerk. Xyll and I sink deeper. Lucius locks eyes with the reason.

  “Catastrophe.” “Catastrophe.”

  An image of Elisa replaces Lucius.

  I grab Xyll and pull him as deep as I can, wrapping myself around him.

  We emerge to a frozen world.

  Do we need to use ‘Resignation’? Everyone seems pretty dead. My question is answered when we are again in front of the same book we entered.

  “That felt great!”

  Lucius is uncharacteristically still, even for him. Xyll gently places a hand on his shoulder. The all-perceptive AI reacts like a startled cat.

  “Sorry,” Lucius mumbles out. “I’m fine.”

  “That was one of the worst things I have ever experienced!”

  Xyll gives me the look.

  “Mmm. I’ll be fine after a short break,” Lucius says, amending his reported state.

  I give Xyll the look back. He begrudgingly recognizes my victory.

  A moment later, instead of going back to the start of the dungeon or having a rest, Lucius is no longer in need of a break. Not good. Shadows take a breath, growing darker.

  “The space is less infinite than before,” he says.

  Xyll’s eyes move to study something I can’t see. Lucius helpfully fixes that. A non-magical projection appears between us, like someone has taken a slice out of a pizza. Eyeballing it, we have six more tries remaining.

  “Did we make a mistake?” Xyll asks.

  “Unknown,” Lucius replies. “The next book showed up at the same time. A ledger containing encrypted entries.” He shakes his head. “Data is missing. Possibly, an enchanted component was not reproduced.” A warp places us in front of the offender. “Examine it, please.”

  “Nothing.” “Nothing.”

  “We’ll know more when we enter,” Lucius says. “If we come under assault again, we should retreat and regroup.”

  “Agreed,” Xyll says. “But... we could...”

  Lucius appears to want to object the unsaid suggestion, but he stops himself. “Yes. A more detailed strategy discussion is in order.” Three sofa chairs plonk to the weird floor of the dungeon. “Ideas?” Lucius asks as he sits.

  We take a seat too. Why do I feel like having one of those cigars and a whisky? Never mind. “I propose we change history. As a test.”

  “Alright,” Xyll says. “But first, we need to know what history it is we are changing.”

  “When did you get so cautious? Trying to flaunt your delving chops?”

  “I’m always cautious,” he says. I lean in, as if waiting for a punchline to come. “...Shut up.”

  “You already have projections ready for possible events?”

  “Records of which have persisted, but yes,” Lucius says.

  “Then, strategy is done. Now, more importantly, Lucius, would you like to talk about what just happened?”

  Xyll is burning holes through my head with his glare.

  “Discomfiting,” Lucius says after a while. “Rationally, I am aware none of the people were real. But even my mind isn’t fully rational.” He lets out a frustrated sound. “S-grades are a treat, aren’t they?”

  We both nod in bitterly-earned agreement.

  Xyll then says, “How can one infinity be less than another?” Ooh, nice. Distract him. Should have thought of that myself.

  Lucius smiles happily, launching into an explanation.

  ***

  Book number two. Touch.

  No burning city. So far so good. But...

  “What do we do with that guy?”

  The beastfolk in question, sitting on a throne in an empty room, growls a sequence of distinct sounds.

  Lucius answers in a similar fashion.

  The beastfolk perks up at whatever was said, receptive to a dialogue.

  “Who is he?”

  “Uuvi’Na.”

  At hearing his name spoken in a foreign tongue, Uuvi’Na briefly glances to Xyll, returning to his talk with Lucius right after.

  Conversation soon stops, beastfolk rising and Lucius approaching. Xyll doesn’t react, everything still seemingly going to plan.

  Uuvi’Na bends down to look at Lucius. They clasp at the wrist, or it would be more correct to say that Lucius does. The beastfolk’s hand is covering a good portion of his forearm. Power crackles around the two, turning into tiny pops of lightning.

  “We’re joining the revolt,” Xyll answers my question before I need to say it.

  “Is he aware?”

  “No,” Xyll says. “Follows a tight script. Presumably.”

  “Why do I get the feeling there will be exceptions...”

  “Because we are frequently correct.”

  “Not always?”

  “Statistical errors have been accounted for in the fine print.”

  “Smart. What are they talking about now?”

  “Mainly who to assassinate before the main offensive.”

  “We’ll handle it,” I say both to Xyll and Lucius, knowing he’ll hear me. “But from what I remember of our history lessons, we might be here awhile.”

  Xyll grins at me. “Now, why does that sound so familiar?”

  “Shut it...”

  ***

  Two weeks, and a lot more bodies later, Uuvi’Na’s Revolt concludes, the titular figure surviving. To what results? The dungeon does not have an answer for us. I do, though. We’re all going to need a break when we’re finally done. A long one. On the brighter side, the librarian is not peckish this time around. Hmm?

  “‘Librarian’?”

  “No,” Xyll immediately opposes. “‘Historian’. Sounds better. More weight to it.”

  Lucius interrupts our debate before we get started in truth, “I can’t read it.”

  “A lost language?” Xyll asks.

  “One option. Or...” Lucius trails off.

  “Yay!” Both emulate one of Fal’s signature sighs, trying their darndest to seem all serious, but I can see smiles forming on two giddy faces. “This is going to make for a great story.”