Aster

  At this point I was just trying to figure out what was going on I was just voted to be worthy to join some secret society of a, thought to be, extinct existence. No one had heard from the keepers in years, now all of a sudden I was being recruited to them. I would have thought this some kind of joke or some rich person thing if not for the screen messages. It was those messages that had me thinking that this was real.

  Don't dwell, accept it happened, and move on. Whats next?

  Find them?

  OK...Now how do I find an ancient order of...Gardeners?

  ...

  I had no information. Other then they are gardeners. You know what fuck it. I need more information. I was tired of being led around by the hand like a child, and not knowing what the blight was going on. I thought of the best place to find it. The Library.

  I had been standing in the middle of the square for far to long. I was starting to gather pitting looks. At first I was confused until I realized where I was when I looked up at the red crystal in the center of the square. "Oh." The crystal one is re-birthed at after death. No wonder I'm getting those looks. My mind wander back to that day in the square waking up, with burning...everything. I shook myself before my mind wandered to far, and started walking to the nearest library. "They better let me in this time."

  After a short walk I found myself at the front desk of the library... again. The same man as before stood behind the big oak desk. The man was an odd juxtaposition, as he was wearing a tweed suit, glasses, and wore a shield half his size across his back. His hair was a dark brown mess and when he looked at me I could only see curiosity, and a sense of strength. How is this a librarian.

  Are you gonna stop me again.

  Who are you?

  You stopped me from going in a year ago.

  Years a long time kid, and your not the only one I stopped from going in.

  Others tried.

  Of course. Trainees try every year.

  How can you even tell trainees apart from others?

  Nonchalantly he answered. Clothes, body language, and most importantly the door behind me didn't open.

  ??? I looked behind the man to the door which was now open. I could just barley see in but what I saw was rows upon rows of books.So I can go in?

  Not yet. Since this is your first time, basic rules of the library. 5 coppers to enter the library.

  Thats not to bad.

  Hold on. Since it's your first time it will be 20 coppers for the card and tablet?

  And those are?

  The card will register you to use our library, give you access to the books, also store the books for you to read.

  Ook? And the book?

  Thats how you read.

  Not following.

  The books can't be removed due to...circumstances so you place the card on the title to store it. Then place the card on this tablet to load the book. The man pulled out a small crystal screen, the size of a normal sheet of paper, and a quarter inch thick.

  So then this will be mine?

  Yes. But they only work inside the library.

  Why?

  Can't have people who are not ready receiving information. Could damage there future.

  ... I didn't even know what to say. I was still raw from my own lack of information on everything that this was starting to piss me off. "Why does no one tell us anything? To keep us from damaging our future? We should be able to make our own future on our own! The good and the bad! Why is everyone making this as hard as possible? Why won't they just let us live. What if I just wanted to read a fucking book before bed? Why are we all being forced through all these hoops just to learn the most basic rules of this new world we've been thrown in? Why am I forced to face everything alone?" By the end of my shouting rant tears had begun to fall. I knew I wasn't angry at the librarian, but I was just so angry, I didn't care. I just wanted to cry and go back home. I wanted to yell at my parents but I couldn't. My second year wasn't up yet, I wouldn't even be able to see them till then. I was lost. So very lost.

  I felt a hand on my shoulder, yanking me out of my own mind, reminding me where I was. Once my mind was my own again, I looked up feeling the wetness drip down my face. I looked up to the big man looking uncomfortable as he attempted to console me patting my shoulder.

  Its ok kid. I know everything is confusing, but things will get better. Things will also become more confusing but still better, besides the only works in the library applies only to the non-fiction. So you can still rent a book, if you do its, 5 coppers per book you borrow. The big man took his hand off my should and took out a small Crystal card and tablet from his desk. "Do you still want to come in?"

  ...I was feeling whiplash from my own sudden turn in emotions to the way the librarian moved from his awkward consoling to buisness. Slowly, my head began to nod.

  "Great! 20 coppers."

  Silently, I pulled out the money passing it over to the man. As I did I noticed the name tag on the desk Sage Goldenrod. Surprised he's not a mage.

  "Now I just need a drop of blood for the card, the tablet is already paired to the card." I went to hold up my hand for the blood only to find I was already bleeding. The small wound quickly closed leaving only a few small drops. I didn't even see him move. I stared slack jawed at the man typing away on his crystal.

  "And there." Sage handed me my new card and tablet. "Lastly, some books are level restricted, and can only be accessed at certain levels. Others can only be accessed by certain classes, or for other affiliations."

  "Why?"

  "So our long lives can be as interesting as possible for as long as possible?"

  "What?"

  "To prevent rot"

  "Not following."

  Sage was now physically pushing me toward the door into the library. I guess my little outburst wasn;t something he wanted to deal with. "Look...Just go over there, there is a litteral section set aside for new people who need answers." We entered the library and I was stunned. The building must have had some kind of spacial magic as there were multiple stories and I couldn't see the end of the shelves. Everything was lit well and felt...cozy. While I couldn't see the end of the books I could see many people of all classes walking around the library or sitting at one of the many tables. Most of them were deep in the aisles doing some kind of research. They looked so small. After gawking at the enormity of the library I looked the the section the librarian was pointing to. It was a small little nook in the corner of the room with only a few books but with a sign above it that said "Welcome to the World." So it really is a section tailored for us new people.

  "Are they restricted?"

  "Not this section." The librarian pushed me toward the books, as I stumbled forward I could see the man make a hasty retreat back to his desk as the entrance closed.

  My mind was a turmoil of emotions, I felt so much anger right now for everything, I just wanted to sit down and cry. Instead of doing that I listlessly meandered over to the books to learn about the world.

  Reaching the reading nook I found a suggested reading order printed onto the table itself.

  Without any better way to start I imprinted Your World and What Happened and began my research. The book was rather short taking not much time to finish. Most of the book expounded about the importance of not letting yourself get to complacent, ethics of doing thing because you are bored, and the generally not letting your morals rot and decay. There where a couple chapters on how to maintain interest, ranging from travel, to inventing, to hobbies and various other things to keep a person active. But I was more interested in a few key points that filled in some blanks about my current circumstances.

  Right now I was really feeling that last point. I would really like to talk to my parents and sort my own feelings out.

  I shook myself attempting to dispel my own gloom grabbing the next book. Classes, Classes, Classes. My hand was shaking slightly grabbing the book. Ignoring my own feelings I pushed them down and started. Now let's see how the other classes work.

  This book was very technical expounding virtues of each class explaining in technical terms how each of them worked, but only went into detail as an overview for the basic energy types for the classes themselves. I was unable to understand barely any of the information in the book, except the high level overview that summed it up in the first chapter.

  This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.

  After reading that description I felt I had gotten the better end of the deal. And Oddly reaffirmed my choice in classes. I tried to at least understand the Rogue section, but while it did make more sense...I could not follow the technical jargon. Closing the book,learning very little, I rubbed my eyes, and looked over to the next one. What is Leveling?

  Again this was a highly technical book, instead of banging my head against a wall trying to understand I only read the first chapter, which was nice enough to give basic info.

  So we are broken down and rebuilt every time we level? Am I even me anymore? You know what at this point I'm not surprised. I felt a little giggle pop out of me at the thought. "... that's probably not a good sign." I grabbed the final book, curious on how would people even be punished when time means nothing? This is going to be a technical book isn't it? Fuck it! What does the first chapter say? That seems to be the place with the relevant info. And after reading the first sentence I was right.

  Crime - an action or omission that constitutes an offense that may be prosecuted by the state and is punishable by law.

  I'm not here to be a lawyer. I decided to skip to the end to see if there was anything I could understand. I found it in a nicely wrapped up section near the beginning.

  I don't think that last point really works in any way. People have long memories, and they are not the nicest. Unless, How long can the slavery sentences be? I took a little time to skim through the book, while not mention exact times I did find a few ranges. From 5 years all they way to 100 years, and they could compound on each other. That's a long time.

  I had finally gotten some basic information of the world but I had many more questions that these books didn't really answer...or maybe they did and I just didn't understand it. That doesn't matter let's see if this Quest we've been put on is anything.

  I grabbed my tablet I had been reading from and stood to face the library once more. Just looking at the massive size of the library I felt I was going to get very few questions answered. "How am I going to find anything?" I started to walk to the nearest aisle when I noticed a small bright crystal screen with a plaque right above with 2 numbers on it 1 - 003. I bet that means something. I look at the crystal display and saw something that would make this easier. A search bar.

  I walked up to the display clicking the bar with my finger a little keyboard appeared. I typed in the word Quest hitting enter. A list of 350,000 books all with the terms quest in it's title appeared. That's a lot of books.

  I looked over the list and found it did give me the books title, the author, the floor it was on, the Aisle number, and it's restriction. Just in the first couple pages I found a lot of these restricted to at least 25. I perused the giant list for a while before I found a little filter icon and started to refine my search. Ok let's rule out Fiction.

  The list dropped down to 50,000 books, but would include titles such as Quest for the Perfect Pot, Food for questing, or A Quest to find Oneself. Filtering out the cookbooks, and self-help book, surprising dropped the number down to 10,000. "How are there even that many recipes?" I asked myself.

  Slowly, I whittled down the number to a thousand by slowly removing genres, until only what was relevant remained. While the list still had about a 1000 books a quick scan showed me that they were all restricted. Finally, I filtered out those restricted up to my level of 12. 3 appeared on the list. Out of a thousand only 3 weren't level restricted, and they had odd titles: So You've Met A Quester, Quests, Questers, Questees, and Quest for Answers. What is the Truth.

  Now more then ever I felt I couldn't trust...whatever this quest me and my team where on. Without being max level it looks like you can barely get info on this. Let's see what these even say. Using my phone I took a picture of the list and made my way to the books. Just reaching the first one, Quest for Answers. What is the Truth., took 30 minutes it was on the 5th floor on aisle 123. The shear size of the place was mind boggling. Somehow this place was squished into that tiny building. When I reached the book I saw its title but found it to be greyed out. When I held my card to it a red screen appeared.

  "Oh Come ON!" I kept pressing my card against the book practically slamming my fists into it find the same message kept appearing. I gave the book one last glare before moving on to the next book, Quests, Questers, Questees. This one still took a long time to reach, when I eventually found it I reached out my card. The expected happened, another red screen appeared.

  The last one is going to be the same isn't it. I made my way to the final book, So You've Met A Quester. I found it relatively quickly as it was only a few aisles down from the last book. This time was slightly different when I placed my card on the book, a yellow screen appeared.

  At least it's something. The library had plenty of tables scattered all around the library. I sat down and pulled out the only unrestricted information I found. It was a single short page.

  That's it? That's all there is? A single page?! Not even a full page! A sudden rage filled me, and before I could think I found myself slamming the tablet repeatedly against the table screaming "WHY! WHY! WHY!!!!!!" Until my arms where tired and I collapsed forward Crying.

  "Why?" Ever since graduation, it's been on thing after another. I thought I was keeping it together, but... I took a moment to look over at the table and tablet. They where both in perfect condition. My breakdown being to weak to actually cause any damage. *Slam* I slammed my head onto the table in frustration. "DOES ANYTHING I FUCKING DO EVEN MATER!" I shouted into the seemingly endless library.

  I glared into the silence feeling the pain pulsating in my forehead. Then I heard someone yell back at me. "No."

  I lost it. I fully lost it and started to laugh uncontrollably, to the point it hurt. If the library wasn't so large I would have been thrown out, but with it's size I only heard the occasional "Shut Up!" and other curses thrown in from a distance. Alternating between laughing and crying I hugged myself until darkness took me.

  I laid there dreaming dreams of what could have been. Graduating, except no death. Going to a academy to learn to create my own pathways. Finally going on a true adventure with all my friends. Then, like always I woke up, on a hard carpeted floor groggily remembering where I was, and why. It was when I remembered the why that I just made me wonder if I should really do this. Should I try to hunt down the Keepers? Is there really a point to this all? Probably not, but... I need to know. I stood and made my way to the nearest screen typing in Keepers.

  There where even more titles with Keepers with a majority of them being restricted. I took my time to find some that looked promising and began researching them for the next day or so. I quickly found that many of these accounts would contradict themselves, saying they did one thing, then immediately saying the opposite. Why would they both be responsible for saving humanity and also dooming it. There where many examples of this. The only thing that everything appeared to agree on where a few points.

  So there is about a chance that they are even real keepers. A chance that this is all just some game. A chance even if they are real that they might not even be the same people. It's all up to chance. I mused over what my finding was telling me when it dawned on me. None of the books even hinted at how to find them. In none of the books was it even mentioned. It only said they would find you and if you are to join them you would need to be tested. Finding them was never mentioned. I had already spent the better part of 2 days on this, just running around the library finding unrestricted books. Maybe I've been searching the wrong things. What was it that Zin said...They are also called the gardeners.

  I made my way to the closet terminals and typed in Where to find the Gardener's. Not expecting anything, and thinking it would be funny.

  "No." Right there at the top of the screen, there was a single title. Where to find the Gardener's by K.P.S. I stared at the screen thinking I was seeing things or mistaken. I redid the search 10 times before I finally excepted that it was real.

  There is no way it is that easy. Still in disbelief I took a photo of the information and made my way over to the shelf.

  To say I was surprised would greatly undermine the sheer disbelief of what I was seeing. In the middle of the aisle was a brightly glowing gold book. I stared down the aisle wondering if this was normal. There is no way that is the book I'm looking for. Sure enough though when I approached the spine said Where to find the Gardener's by K.P.S. Did they just give up on recruiting new people or, where there other tests to hard. This just feels to... easy.

  Hmm...No not easy just...fortuitous. If I had never come to the library I never would have found the book especially not in 3 days. Although the only real place to gather info is hear and I mean I just happen to search for the right thing. If I didn't search for the gardeners at all I probably wouldn't have found it. I guess I could have just run up and down the aisles looking for it. That would probably take a few days. It was just odd.

  I knew everything that involved these guys was not what I would have expected. Everything was elaborately set up but then done in a half assed way. They abducted me by knocking me out, but then half heartedly told me what was going on. They had me go through trial, which apparently I've been being set up for since before graduation, and easily passed it. They didn't even bother to tell me my task they left it to Zin.

  The more I thought on all of this the less it all made sense. I stared up at the golden book. With how everything else has gone this is definitely the right book.

  I lifted my card up to the book, expecting it to give me detailed instructions on how to find them. But when I lifted my card up to the book nothing happened. No new title appeared on the card. No warning message. Nothing. Maybe I didn't do it right. I lifted my card back up trying again. Nothing. I started to rapidly slam my hand against the book trying to get the info. "Come ON! WHY AT THIS Point!" Thats when something different happened. The book physically moved after my last hit.

  I stared at the golden book that was no longer flush with the rest of books slightly jutting out of the shelf. I looked down at my card when it finally occurred to me. This is a real book isn't it?

  With that realization I reached out and pulled the book off the shelf. The light from the book faded, showing just a simple gold book. I opened it wondering if this was going to tell me what I needed to know or if it will have some weird roundabout riddle. Opening the book golden light shot out blinding me. I heard a familiar voice from behind me.

  "Wow, less then a day. I thought I had more time."

  My vision slowly came back, I was rubbing my eyes trying to take in my surrounding. I was back in the trial room and sitting in the middle of the room, on a small couch, watching a crystal screen was Zin. The whole setup looked like Zin brought everything from home. It was a little funny and confusing.

  I held in a laugh at the scene, but was able to ask. "Now what?"