I finished my interview with Radix; successfully cultivating the image I wanted to. After being brought back to my own desolate room I acted like I was tired and went to lie down on the bed, settling down and getting comfortable. I closed my eyes and pondered on what I should do next. I had finished all of the immediate fires that needed to be dealt with and had some free time to do whatever I wanted.

  Unfortunately I couldn’t really do much of anything in my room because I was being monitored and recorded at all times, which really limited my range of activities. However the biggest restriction was my age, a five year old can’t do magic. At least, they wouldn’t be taught how to do so. So I only really had one option, and that was The Ever Present Archives.

  The Ever Present Archives, or just The Archives for short, was a place that had vast amounts of knowledge stored within its walls and could be accessed even here in my room. However, in order to get into The Archives, one first had to have a pass that would transport the user into The Archives.

  I didn’t have one of these physical passes that were as rare as Dragons, but I did have a blessing;

  (Blessing; The Ever Present Archives Level 1 Infinite Pass): Accessible through mana meditation, with the Level 1 Infinite Pass everything at or below Level 1 in The Ever Present Archives is free. Cost/restriction: NULL

  This blessing was the key to everything that I had accomplished in my life. If I didn’t have this pass I would never have been able to escape from my captors, and I most definitely wouldn’t have been able to travel back in time either. Usually such a blessing would come with some sort of cost, but I kind of cheated in how I obtained this blessing. But that’s a story for another time.

  Thankfully I am able to enter The Archives without being detected, so I’ll spend my time trying to do something productive there. Focusing on my mana core, I entered mana meditation and I sensed a deep lack of most of what I used to have, spells and constructs, multicolored mana and vibrant nebulas were no longer present. I felt a slight pain in my heart for all the things I had given up to come back in time, but it soon passed and I focused on the red gem-like pass floating in my mana core. I mentally grabbed it and willed myself to use the pass.

  I felt the familiar sensation of being swept away and arriving inside of my personal room in The Archives.

  The room was nothing special, just a place where I could change what my avatar was wearing, and a few other minor functions like a place to think without other people. This was where I had entered right after I had traveled back in time, but my purpose of entering was different from before.

  I changed into some comfortable robes and put on a ruby red mask that covered my eyes and kind of made me look like a blind person. The mask ran like a bandana across my eyes, hiding them but still showing my Human face, and the most important thing was that they magically obscured my identity. Plus they didn’t obstruct my vision, allowing me to see right through them, it was kind of essential when most of the things I would be doing here required sight.

  After changing my getup I stepped through the doors of my room and into the grand hall of The Archives. Most of the flooring was made up of large stone tiles with different lounging areas scattered throughout the grand hall, some with carpet and furniture, and even a few oasis-like areas filled with plants and vegetation. Surrounding the grand hall were shelves filled with books, stone tablets, scrolls, and many different types of information repositories as well as obelisks and other monuments filled with knowledge. The shelved areas went on seemingly forever and functioned like a shifting labyrinth which slowly led those walking within to whatever they were searching for.

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

  There were many different floors in the shelved areas leading all the way up to the top, but the grand hall was completely open up to the clear crystal glass ceiling, showing an amazing view of a black night sky filled with stars, celestial objects, galaxies, and other celestial phenomena.

  After taking a few seconds to take in the beautiful view, just like I always did, I walked over to a carpeted lounging area and grabbed a rectangular device similar to a computer tablet from Earth. I grabbed it from the holding center in the middle of the carpeted area and then sat down on one of the comfortable seats before familiarly navigating my way through the world of the tablet.

  I spent my time looking at the recent news in Tallen, the country I was in, and some of the surrounding countries to try and get a grasp on where I should focus my attention and future plans.

  After browsing through the news for a few hours I sensed someone sitting on a nearby chair and I looked up to see who it was. To my surprise it was a little girl not much older than me. She had blond hair with some very light blue streaks that almost blended in, and her eyes had a deep amethyst color. She looked extremely familiar to me, but I had never seen her in The Archives in the future so I didn’t know where the familiarity came from. I decided to strike up a conversation to ease my curiosity and hopefully find the answer.

  “Hello there. It’s rare for young people to get the opportunity to come to The Archives, so I’m surprised to see you here.”

  While holding her own tablet she looked at me in the ‘eyes’ and said, “That’s right I’ve never seen someone my age in The Archives either. Are you just visiting temporarily?”

  “No actually. I have permanent access to The Archives but this is the first day I’m coming here. What about you, are you a temporary visitor?”

  Her face showed some poorly concealed pride as she said, “Nope, I have a permanent access card and I’ve been coming here for a few months already.”

  Permanent access? Then why haven’t I seen her here in the future? Probing further I said, “Wow you must be important if you have permanent access. You do seem a bit familiar but I can’t quite remember from where. Are you a famous noble by any chance?”

  She made a hesitant face while saying, “I don’t know, my parents said that I shouldn’t tell anyone who I am in The Archives because I’m not an adult yet.”

  Seeing that she was reluctant I said, “If you feel that it’s too much to say you don’t have to, I just thought it might be nice to have a friend in The Archives that’s around my same age.”

  She seemed to be reasoning with herself as she said, “Well we are both kids… and it would be nice to have a friend…” She seemed to be struggling internally, “You know what, how about this? I’ll tell you my fake name, and you can tell me yours. That way we can have names to remember each other by.”

  I smiled at her naivety and innocence and said, “Alright, but you have to swear that you won’t tell anyone my fake name.”

  She nodded her head and said, “Ok, the same goes for you, you can’t tell anyone my fake name either.” I nodded and she continued, “Then you can call me Beginning of Creation.”

  “Alright, and you can call me Hiding Light.”

  Hearing her fake name seemed to tickle something in my mind, but I couldn’t quite grasp it. It was like I had a word right on the tip of my tongue but just couldn’t say it. I was frustrated at the feeling, and I would have to spend some time thinking about it.

  But that could come later, for now I decided to spend some more time talking to this young girl. My social skills were severely rusty, and I figured this was a great opportunity to polish up my awkwardness.