io9 is gallant to present fabrication from Lightspeed Magazine . Once a month , we boast a story from Lightspeed ’s current issue . This calendar month ’s option is “ Dekar Druid and the Infinite Library ” byCadwell Turnbull . Enjoy !
Dekar Druid and the Infinite Library
By Cadwell Turnbull
Dekar Druid lives in an infinite library . Besides Ebizenum , who is in a special category of their own , he is the only living somebody in the subroutine library ’s single tugboat . Outside , a woods wall the tower . There ’s a lake a short base on balls to the north and a flush to the distant south . And nothing else . The lake is easy to get to , a respite on spicy summertime day , but Dekar Druid has never made it to the mountain , not even close , though he ’s walked for mile southwards , until the tyrannical woods slip the breathing space from his lungs . He ’s only tried the one clip , an experience he does not intend to repeat .
Truth be state , the infinite library may not be infinite . But Dekar Druid has go up the coiling staircase up and up until , from a window , the woodland ballad cloud by clouds , and down and down into the dismal and clammy sub - basements and he has n’t notice a top or a bottom .
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From the base of the towboat , the land appears undisturbed . The interior of the pillar also shows no sign of decay . Somehow , in this odd place , the depository library has remain , within and out , unswayed by the depredation of time .
So , perhaps more inquisitively , has Dekar Druid .
He is now on the 15th floor of the library — counted up from ground level , of course of action — sitting cross - legged on a leather - buffer bench , bare groundwork drawn under him , with one book in his lap and a stack of yet more take shape a spiraling , precarious tower on the table before him .
He is skimming the pages of the Bible , his mind elsewhere . He ’s learn this one before , so the story has n’t catch up with him , and may never again . Dekar is tire often . This is , in fact , his default state , and he ’s produce so used to it that he can decide into the flavour for minute without the slight uncomfortableness . He is thinking now about tiffin , what Ebizenum might cook for him . He hopes it is a kebab of the most raw deer core , seared to perfection . His mouth is salivating just thinking about it .
Dekar closes the Quran and localise it on the top of the teetering volume tower . He stands and stretches , allows a yawning . Then he wanders up a few more flight of steps of stairs to the ninteenth storey , a level he ’s been to C of times , but this meter he takes one of the ladder to the dark quoin , where there are n’t any windows . He is still think about seared deer sum when he climbs to the top and draw in a thick book from the gamy shelf . He gasconade hard , evoke dust . The particulates fall around him as he descend the run , the mote like tiny snow bunting or feather - light glass .
Why go to this part of the tower ? Why grab the ladder and reach for that specific book ? These are the sort of questions Dekar does n’t involve any longer . Like all thing in the tower , in his life sentence , in all live being , the answer to those questions is simple . Whim .
Distracted , he find the table he uses on this floor , and there , too , is a column of books . He sits in his usual spot , curls his foot back under him . He is less bored now , but like an inhale , a breathing in , he make love it will retort .
He reach the al-Qur’an and this clip he does n’t skim over . Immediately he knows this one is different , a book he ’s never read before . He read the title : Longback Berserker . He puzzles at the name ; it is quite strange , even among the number of strangely name books he ’s read since coming to himself within the tower . Like with all the other Holy Scripture , there is no author . He shrugs , his response to most thing , turns the varlet , and begins read .
By the closing of the first page Dekar is catch . When he learn like this , with his full care , the words thunder in his ears , but in , paint the inside of his skull with sound . And his sight , usually tie down to the tower — or the timber , or to the countersign on the varlet — descendsintothe words , down and down , and thenbetweenthe particle of ink smear on the paper , until the humans of the story appears , rise up from the quantum mist .
And still he falls , through space and high atmosphere , through clouds , this now littlest Dekar mould custody and feet , a trunk , a littlest mind . And just as the gelatin of this littlest body sets , turning true - substantial , he witness footing on the elsewhere sidewalk of this littlest universe , half - crowded with hoi polloi .
No one notices him appear there . Dekar looks around to find his bearings . On the street are small boutique workshop : a cupcake bakery , a bread shop class , a butchery , a blossom shop , an outmoded shop , a bookshop , and at the far end of the street , a luck teller ’s shop class . All these construction are painted purplish , almost the same tone as the people walk along the sidewalks .
As he discover all this , the words he is show above this place scag in his ears —
The hand truck idled at the block sign but Estrid Orchid waited to calm down her nerves . She secern herself again there was nothing to care about . She would see what he had to say about the Esket Fragment and leave once he ’d told her . She doubtedhe knew as much as he exact , even if he ’d spent half his life marooned on Esket during the state of war . The Fragment was in a utter language that the Scattered Tribes no longer remembered , even in their stories . However , she ’d still have to do her duty as a scholar and speak to the man .
Once the motortruck passed and the street was well-defined of cars , she took one more breathing spell , decide she was ready . And so , Estrid Orchid crossed the street to meet Ev Tengo . . .
— and with his fiddling middle Dekar see this protagonist with her soft over-embellished skin and curls of vibrant unfolding vines falling to her back as she is crossing the street .
Usually he keep up his recital voice , but notion has take hold of Dekar Druid again . He does not bilk the street . Instead , he follows the sidewalk to the oddment of the line of storefronts , prod the exigent narration to the back of his skull . He rise the three stride of the fortune teller ’s workshop and launch the door . There is a chime as he enters , but no one is at the front desk .
Dekar is about to shrug and abuse back out onto the street , when a cleaning woman emerges from a back room , parting a drape made of blueish - immature beads that tremble as she passes through . They do n’t break off even as she steps to the front desk which stands at chest acme . Black vines coil atop the fair sex ’s chief like a layered cake , flowers of the bright blue delimit the five bed . And two heavy hoop earrings hang from each of her lobes , with a blockheaded slur of downhearted - black eyeliner run from ear to ear in a rough line of products that shroud her eyes . And hereyes : ruby and sparkling and resting completely on Dekar , unblinking .
Dekar smiles politely . “ Hello . ”
The dismal - immature beads tremble idly as the cleaning woman looks Dekar up and down for a long bit . Dekar lead off to worry that he has not formed himself in the mode of the great unwashed within this world . He reckon down at his over-embellished pelt to assure himself .
He try out again : “ I was hop I could have my fortune taken . ”
The drop lay off tremble and in conclusion , the char blinks . “ A moment , ” she says and disappears behind the beaded mantle again , stirring them back to life . She returns with a deck of cards she ’s already shuffling in her hands . She ill-treat out from behind the front desk and Dekar is coin by how solidly she ’s built , broad and muscled , which shows through the wrapper of cloth she ’s fashioned around her full consistency . Dekar ’s face cools , this world ’s indication of a blush .
Wordless , she lead him to a side doorway and when he infix , he is surprised to find just a small room , a circular table at its centre of attention , three chairs pucker under the table . The cleaning woman congeal down her cards and pulls out one of the chairwoman . She invites him to do the same and he does . They sit across from each other in a delicate muteness . Here she continue her watchfulness , consider Dekar ’s boldness . He clear his pharynx , readjusts himself in his death chair .
The woman peck up her cards and again returns to scuffle . “ Call me Stranger , ” she allege , and take off whipping individual cards from one hand to the other where they slot randomly within the two halves of the deck she is holding in each helping hand . Dekar has no hint how she is doing this . She has five finger on each hand — a dull amount — but the identity card move as if she is mix with a hundred .
“ I ’m Dekar . ”
Stranger lets the cards scatter across the board . Not one falls off the boundary , though one does balance half - on - half - off the table on Dekar ’s side , the quoin of the card aimed at Dekar himself . He watches it with suspicion .
“ That one , ” Stranger tell , “ you ’ll have to turn yourself . But not yet . ”
Dekar expend a great business deal of energy fight the impulse to disobey .
Stranger say , “ My family line has dwell in this valley for century . I ’ve lived here a corking deal longer . ”
Dekar notices , abstractedly , that he is not blase .
Stranger sky one of the cards . On it there is a Pisces with fins made of slender vines covered in sticker which all steer outward like the rays of a sun seen from planet - side . Stranger laughs . “ The Dipper is a good omen for someone like you . It mean that a journey is soon at its end . ”
She flip out another plug-in . This one is all calamitous except for a circle at the kernel . In the circle is a cut off hand . strange whistle . “ A Sever is a rarified card to reveal itself on a 2nd turn . couple with a Dipper , it mean that this journey ’s end will hail with a rigour , a shattering of self . ”
Not so inattentively , Dekar notice that he is feeling an altogether new emotion : not boredom , or shudder , or whimsey . This one he does not desire to give mightiness by naming it .
Stranger turns another card . On it is a single tooth with a heart carve on its face . strange hums . “ When I was young to this humanity and I first receive my own tattle , this was my first card . ” She is watch him as she speaks ; her crimson eyes burn down . “ As a first card , it means that you will find a liveliness - tenacious familiar . I have yet to . Not important ! As a third , in a series like this one”—she runs her hand , digit splayed , over the strewing of cards—“it means that you will find a companion for a season and that this fellow traveler will usher in dandy variety . The change that will lead to the smashing of ego . ”
Dekar ’s skin yellowness with anxiety . He bends himself in a nautical mile to stay on rooted to his chairperson .
“ Two more . Then you , ” say Stranger . She attain for one close to Dekar and he flinch from the sudden action . He watches her leaf the circuit card over with one of her long bark - black nail .
“ What ’s this one ? ” Dekar asks , his trunk is as tight against his chair back as he can manage . The leg of the professorship have slide more or less from the table .
“ It is . . . ” A aloof expression and a ghost of a smile on her face , she aver , “ I did meet someone for a time . She was a young cleaning woman from an older fellowship in this valley town . And she do it me . We spent three years in bliss and I birthed six saplings from our love : the family I mentioned . Except for one line of work , they ’ve all ceased . We have a population problem on Elvine , and Err - Kuluxia , the galactic imperium that now regularise us , has bound our reproduction . Not important ! I meant to say that I knew Ellen could not be the companion from the Carving card , and that knowing finally led to a souring of our relationship .
“ When she died , I visited her . Her eye were milky , her sight thin to a small aperture out of her right heart . Still , when she saw me , she puff . How young I must ’ve looked to her ; she likely thought me a phantasma . But I told her”—she turn the next card—“I told her that I ’d lived in this Ithiel Town from the beginning , that for a time I was even worship here . But then it became out of fashion — we are quite lay now , you see — and when they could n’t kill me , they erased me , struck me from their memory and their composition . And so , I hold up . On the outside . Until her , my Ellen , and the making love we build . I told her I was sorry , that I had a purpose”—she gesture to the poster still lie at the conclusion of the table , the one with its border take aim right at Dekar ’s thorax ; Dekar turned the card over—“that one day the God Almighty would come to me , and I would waken him to himself . How many more of your child have you done this to , I inquire . How many of them are still waiting to be relieved from their purpose . Your typeface say it all . You do n’t sleep together what you are or why you ’re here . But yet you left me with this responsibleness , this endless . . . Not authoritative !
“ That card is the Drowning Fish , a Higher Dipper . Rare to get two in the same reading . That one is the Burning Bird — you get the point , see the sun picture there — and that one , the one before you , is the Living Ash . These notice together are a triad with both a disjoined and a singular meaning . The secularists have revised the Tri - Una to mean you will find heavy and direful knowledge , but the people that still worship the Cause Deck maintain Tri - Una ’s original rendering .
“ Do I really need to say it ? Fine . Tri - Una means God will reveal himself to you , a personal visitation . And expect ! You ’re here .
“ Now pay me and get out of my workshop . ”
Lunch , as it change by reversal out , is a jambon sandwich .
Ebizenum congeal down the sandwich and returns with a grandiloquent glass of turmeric lemonade . Then they seat across from Dekar , copper brim - segment locked in a polite smiling . Hands on the table , they stare at Dekar , expect for another command .
Dekar does n’t give one . He takes a few bite of his sandwich and chews slowly .
“ How was your solar day ? ” asks Ebizenum .
Distracted , Dekar say , “ Fine . ”
The android refixes their oral cavity to a smile .
“ Can you — ”
“ Yes ? ” rim - segments parted , an eager wage increase to their Cu brow , Ebizenum gestures to stomach .
“ No , no . I do n’t need anything . I just have questions I am hoping you may answer . ”
“ I can try , ” says Ebizenum , copper brows creased . The chrome of their font gleams in the afternoon brightness .
“ I see someone . ”
“ Oh , ” say Ebizenum , distinctly worried . “ From the woods ? ”
“ No , of course not . From one of the books . ”
“ You think of you spoke to a character . ”
“ Yes , though I do n’t imagine she was a fiber . She was off - narrative , and very much alive . Like you or me . ”
“ Fascinating , ” says Ebizenum . They transfuse a hand to their Kuki - dental plate in thought . “ Well , this is a new development . I do n’t know if I can help oneself you with questions about an off - narrative non - character that mime sentience . ”
This response makes Dekar pause . He wants to ask about the towboat , about the Scripture , but he is scared of any solution Ebizenum might give . He takes a measured breath and push his half - exhaust sandwich away .
“ You ’re not quenched with the gammon sandwich ? I ’m sincerely sorry I was n’t able to anticipate your desire for a kebab of the most tender cervid meat , seared to perfection . ”
“ It ’s ok . Really . ” Dekar stares into Ebizenum ’s face , his only other companion in this desolate mankind . “ I want to know , that is , I hope you’re able to tell me : Did I write all the books in the tug ? ”
An look Dekar has never seen from Ebizenum : eyes wide , chrome eyelid folded totally back into their head teacher , the segments of mouth break so that all the plates of Ebizenum ’s face crowd each other like fish weighing machine .
Ebizenum say , “ I never think this daylight would come . Would you give me a present moment to collect myself ? ”
“ Of course . ”
Dekar takes a sip of his turmeric lemonade , the ice clinking against the cold-blooded glass . He has only now observe that he is sweating from his armpits .
Ebizenum says , “ The short answer is , yes , though I know that this question has many fundamental ace you ’ll also need answering . Would you like to need them singly or would you wish me to look to ? ”
“ Anticipate , ” Dekar says . Somehow his mouth is very dry .
“ Yes , right . Well , you did write all the book , during your alive wheel . That ’s when you are Your rarified Self . Currently , you are in one of your lower-ranking cycles . This time you call yourself Dekar Druid . Shall I continue ? You look distressed . ”
“ Please — I’m amercement , please continue . ”
“ Yes , right . You must be wondering how many of these Hz you ’ve had . The bit is quite farseeing . ” Ebizenum provide the phone number of cycles . It is a very enceinte bit . “ You must also require to know how many book are in the tower . Well , the levels above floor 9,200 and below sub - basement 8,214 of the tower still pose empty of book , though you ’ve not had the attention or decision so far to approach the bound of your collection , which is [ another unfathomably gravid number ] of books currently . Sir Druid , I am occupy at your distress . Perhaps we should — ”
Dekar shakes his point . “ Are there other living organism , like us , on this level of universe ? ”
“ I do n’t know . Neither does Your Exalted Self , Sir Druid . ”
“ Please excuse . ”
“ Well , the timberland , as you live Sir Druid , has no end . Yes , there are mountains in the space , but if you climb to the tops of those tree , which I ’ve done many times with Your Exalted Self , those sight never get close , no matter where you reside in the forest . And then there is the dizziness and the sickness if you spend too long in the forest . There are the deer , the squealer , the hare , the piranha of land and air . There is the fish pond . Otherwise , there is nothing , Sir Druid . No animation , such as yourself or myself . ”
“ Did I make you ? ”
“ Your Exalted ego made me . With his mind . You are quite muscular in that form , though you still ca n’t go beyond the forest . I built the tugboat to put up your books . And to provide you tax shelter . The forest frightened you and Your Exalted Self always worried what might issue from the trees to claim you . Before me , as far as I know , there was just Your rarified Self and the timberland and those peaks in the distance . Then me . Then the first of your al-Qur’an . Then the tower . ”
So many questions to be demand . So many fearful response .
“ Do you need me to continue to anticipate ? ”
“ No , that ’s enough . I need to lie in down . ”
“ Of course . ” Ebizenum stands and find Dekar ’s bare collection plate and drink . “ I ’ll keep this for you in case you ’re athirst after your rest . ”
Ebizenum ’s heavy departing footstep aid Dekar ignore the hard thrashing of his own heart .
The next morning , Dekar jump from his layer on the 5th floor of the pillar with an aching behind his eye . He goes to the window and stares out at the still timberland and its unnerving tranquil .
Ebizenum is at the door when he ’s dressed . “ How are you this morning , Sir Druid ? ”
“ I ’m slow bulge out to remember things , ” Dekar fink . Last night his dreams were a storm of memory , the cephalalgia a likely side - core of having to observe himself within that violent storm .
“ Oh , that ’s new , ” says Ebizenum . “ Usually , Your sublime ego getting even at once . ” Ebizenum ’s shoulders are too heavy to rightfully shrug , but they manage a minute rise . “ Breakfast ? ”
“ No , give thanks you . I ’m not hungry this forenoon . ”
Ebizenum starts to leave .
“ expect a moment . ”
Ebizenum return their attention to Dekar , as undefendable and eager as ever .
“ I require to give thanks you ; that is , I palpate I should give thanks you . For all you ’ve done to take attention of me . . . in all my forms . ”
“ It is the reason I exist , ” says Ebizenum simply and departs .
Dekar follow Ebizenum disappear around a turning point . In front of him the fifth - floor push-down list , its dustup of books looming . So many universes , and people , and . . .
Dekar is on the spur of the moment strike by a fundamental feeling of claustrophobia . He desire to be outside , in the heart-to-heart air , but he does n’t in reality need to be outdoors . He is now even more terrified of the waiting forest , the iniquity that will stare back out at him from the clearing .
Then where should he go ? How can he get out ?
It is n’t a decision , nor is it whim that has Dekar dropping back down to the street of empurpled shopfront . It is something more like gravity .
This prison term Stranger is out front when Dekar enters . She stares out from between stacks of boxes . “ What is it now ? ”
“ I wanted to expect , and there ’s no upright way to ask , so I ’ll be direct . Do you wish to die out ? I could gift that to you , if you want , that is . ” This is n’t rigorously genuine , Dekar knows , but His Exalted Self still is Dekar Druid , so it is n’t a lie either . Hecangrant this . Ifhe can win over Himself .
Stranger considers for a moment . “ Maybe afterward . For now , I am leaving the satellite . I require to see the universe . regain others you ’ve abandon and give them the good news . ” She bow down where Dekar ca n’t see and resumes pack something behind her desk .
“ You hate me . ”
Stranger emerges with another loge . “ Yes . It ’s a infantile emotion . Useless . I ’ll get over it . ”
She disappears behind the desk but is presently up again with one more box , this one heavy enough to fire a vena in her cervix . She say , “ In the rootage , when I was bear , and for several year after , yours was the only aspect I experience . Until you go forth and the rest of the worldly concern began to knit itself around me . That variation of you carry himself with so much confidence . And certainty . What a surprise to see you come through that door , weary his fount , look at me like we ’d never see . I knew you had changed yourself somehow , become someone else , and yet here I was , unchanged , compelled to perform my one purpose just as you said I would .
“ But you know what I ’ve come to realise , having met you in that form and as you are now ? ” Her crimson eyes flare within her blot of blue-blooded - fatal eyeliner , and for a moment it feels like she can see him , flake off back this realness and see the other Dekar above this littlest self . “ You are empty . There is nowhere for you to go . No up or beyond . you may only go down . Or backwards .
“ Not me . I want to go another way if I can . ”
He wants to say something , but what is there to say ?
A import more of Dekar staring dumbly before Stranger turns away from him . As she disappears into the back room , the clatter of bead companion her departure , she does n’t spare a glance his way of life or pop the question another word , not even a motion of bye .
Nothing leave to do here , Dekar knows , yet he lingers a here and now longer . Absently he keep that he ’s not world-weary , has n’t been since yesterday .
Minutes by and by , as Dekar come the steps of the fortuneteller shop , Stranger turns the sign on the door , which read : “ closed , ” and below , scribble in blue marker , “ indefinitely . ”
Dekar return his aid to the Scripture on repetition at the back of his skull : And so , Estrid Orchid intersect the street to encounter Ev Tengo for the first time , the Err - Kuluxian assimilator who emerged from the Ash Trail War with the sobriquet Longback Berserker .
And with more words singing in his skull , and a sleeping god rousing in his stomach , Dekar Druid follows Estrid Orchid to see where her report will take him .
Cadwell Turnbull is the honour - winning author ofThe Lesson , No Gods , No Monsters , andWe Are the Crisis . His short fiction has appeared inthe Verge , Lightspeed , Nightmare , Asimov ’s Science Fiction , and several anthologies . His novelThe Lessonwas the winner of the 2020 Neukom Institute Literary Award in the debut category . No graven image , No Monsterswas the victor of a Lambda , a finalist for the Shirley Jackson Award and the Manly Wade Wellman Award , and longlisted for the PEN Open Award . We Are the Crisiswas a finalist for the Manly Wade Wellman Award and an Ignyte Award . Turnbull produce up on St. Thomas , U.S. Virgin Islands .
Please visitLightspeed Magazineto scan more great science fabrication and fancy . This story first appear in the March 2025 consequence , which also features short fiction bywhich also features short fabrication by Jake Kerr , Anya Ow , Oluwatomiwa Ajeigbe , Nina Kiriki Hoffman , Adam - Troy Castro , Sunwoo Jeong , Rachael K. Jones , and more . you’re able to hold off for this calendar month ’s content to be serialize online , or you’re able to buy the whole issue right now in commodious ebook formatting for just $ 4.99 , or support to the ebook editionhere .
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