Chapter 492: Before The Three

"Yes. Also, give me records of soul conversations with the Codex, if any exist."

The soul was very quiet for a moment.

"You have been prepared for this visit by someone who knows this Library well."

"I have."

"Vessa?"

"Yes."

The soul nodded. They did not press further.

"Then let me direct you. The Ascendant records are in the eastern section, aisle twelve. There are perhaps forty texts across the past three centuries. Not all Ascendants leave records — those who died in the realm typically did not have time to write, and those who returned to their bodies often preferred not to leave any records at all. But some did leave accounts, either as public records or as sealed personal papers held here for future readers. About twenty of the forty texts are accessible to sponsored parties. The other twenty are restricted to specific parties by the will of the writers."

"Which twenty are accessible?"

"The public ones. They are shelved together at the front of aisle twelve. The sealed ones are further back, and each has a small marker indicating whether your seal permits access."

"Understood. And the Codex conversation records?"

"Those are more scattered. Codex conversations are typically included within a soul’s broader personal papers, not filed as a separate category. If you find a soul whose papers you want to read, and they had a Codex conversation, it will be within their papers. There is no separate Codex conversations aisle."

The soul paused.

"The most complete Codex conversation records are in the papers of Vessa Elenora — your sponsor — and in the papers of Grave Ondar, and in the papers of the previous Nonagon member Halon Rys, who died forty years ago. All three of them wrote extensively about their advancement conversations. Vessa’s are the most recent and most detailed. Grave’s are the strangest. Halon’s are the most historical."

Bruce filed all three names.

"Are Vessa’s papers accessible to me?"

The soul smiled — a small dry expression.

"You are under her sponsorship. She wrote her papers openly and made them accessible to any sponsored party who reads them. She wanted them read."

"Then I will start there."

"They are in aisle twelve as well. The Nonagon members’ personal papers are shelved together with the Ascendant records because both categories are frequently requested by souls interested in the fabric of the realm. Vessa’s papers are three volumes. They are together at the front of the aisle."

"Thank you."

"The third category — orb-overload cases — is in aisle sixteen. Six records, all public. Each is a short summary of the soul, their talent, and what became of them. They are not detailed personal papers, but they are all cross-referenced to the personal papers of the souls involved if you want to read further."

"Thank you."

"Take your time. The Library has no closing hour. You may stay as long as you wish. If you wish to purchase copies of any texts to take with you, come to me and I will price them. Copies are made by scribes on request and typically take one to two days to prepare. Prices vary by length and rarity."

"Understood."

The soul nodded once and returned to their book.

They walked toward the eastern section.

The Library’s aisles were marked, as the soul had said, with small soul-script characters at the end of each row. Bruce could read some of them from his soul-script manual — the character for history, the character for technique, the character for cosmology. Others he did not yet know. The categorization system was more complex than a physical-realm library, drawing on soul-script concepts that had no direct English equivalents.

They passed a soul reading at a small table in the middle of one aisle — an older soul, deeply focused, not looking up as they went past. They passed another soul walking slowly along a row, running their fingers along the spines of the books, pausing occasionally. The Library was not crowded, but it was not empty either. Several dozen souls were probably somewhere in its aisles at any given moment.

Aisle twelve was clearly marked. The character at the entrance was one Bruce did not recognize on sight but that he suspected corresponded to rare souls or exceptional lives — some category that grouped Ascendants and Nonagon members together as souls whose experiences were outside the ordinary path.

They walked into the aisle.

At the front of the aisle, on the left-hand side, was a section of shelving that clearly held the three volumes of Vessa Elenora’s papers. The volumes were bound identically, in a dark green cured hide, with silver-lettered titles on the spines. Bruce read them.

Volume One: Awakening and Early Rank Advancement.

Volume Two: Middle Rank Conversations with the Codex.

Volume Three: The Council and the Choices.

He pulled Volume Two from the shelf.

The volume was heavier than he had expected. He carried it to a small reading table at the near end of the aisle, sat down, and opened it. Kael and Theron sat with him. Bruce did not object. He wanted them to see what he was reading. He wanted their thoughts as he read.

The volume opened to a table of contents. The Chapter titles read:

The First Conversation — S-rank Advancement.

What the Codex Told Me About the Cycle.

What the Codex Did Not Tell Me.

The Second Conversation — SS-rank Advancement.

What the Codex Told Me About the Realms.

What the Codex Did Not Tell Me About the Other Codices.

Bruce paused at the last Chapter title.

He read it again.

He turned to the Chapter.

The Chapter began plainly.

[ I asked the Codex, at my SS-rank advancement, about the other Codices. I asked whether the Codex of the Physical Realm and the Codex of the Mind Realm existed. I asked whether they were connected in some way to this Codex.

The Codex did not answer the question directly. It said only this:

[There are other realms. The souls that pass through them and eventually come here understand this. The mechanisms of the other realms are not mine to describe. Ask the Codices of those realms, if you can find a way to speak with them."

I asked whether the Codices were related — whether they were, perhaps, alter egos or aspects of a single being.]

The Codex was quiet for a long time.

Then it said:

[There was, once, a single ordering principle for all of what is. There is no longer. The three of us are what remains. Each of us tends our own realm. We do not speak with each other. We do not remember what we were before we became three.]

I asked whether we — souls — might restore the connection.

The Codex was quiet longer this time.

Finally it said:

[That is not a question I have been asked in a long time. I do not know the answer. If you find one, tell me.]

[I have thought about that conversation for sixty years. ]

Bruce set the book down for a moment.

He looked up. Kael and Theron were both reading over his shoulder. Both were very still.

"The Codex asked her to tell it," Bruce said quietly.

"Yes," Kael said.

"That is exactly what the Physical Realm’s Codex told me. That the three of them used to be one, and that they no longer remember what they were before. And that I should find them and try to help them remember."

"The two Codex conversations line up."

Theron, quietly: "What do you think..."

Bruce considered.

"I think they actually want to be reconnected. Or — I think the Codex I spoke with, in the physical realm, actually wants it. And this record suggests the Soul Realm’s Codex also wants it, or is at least open to it. Two separate entities telling two separate souls the same thing, without either of them knowing what the other said. That is meaningful evidence of a shared underlying desire."

"Then someone has to be the soul who reconnects them."

"Yes."

"You are trying to be that soul."

"I am trying to reach SSS. Whether the reconnection follows from SSS or requires something beyond it, I do not yet know. But reaching SSS is my next step."

Theron nodded slowly.

Kael, quieter: "This is the thing you promised the Physical Realm’s Codex you would try to do."

"Yes."

"Then Elenora — since her papers say this — knows what you are trying to do. She has known since she read her own transcripts of her Codex conversations and thought about what you might be here for."

Bruce paused.

"Yes. She would have. If she read her own papers with any care over the last sixty years, and she knows I am an Ascendant, she would have made the connection."

"So her sponsorship of you is not just about protecting a promising newcomer."

"It is not just about protecting a promising newcomer."

"It is about" — Kael searched for the word — "positioning you. She wants you to reach SSS. She wants you to speak with the Codex. She wants to know what you learn."

Bruce sat with this.

"That is likely."

"Are you all right with that?"

Bruce considered.

"I am — cautious about it. If her interest in me is aligned with what I am here for anyway, then her sponsorship is genuinely helpful and I lose nothing by accepting it. If her interest in me is aligned with what I am here for but she wants to use what I learn for her own political ends, then I need to be careful about what I share with her once I have it. Both possibilities are consistent with what she has done so far. Both possibilities require me to keep climbing while being watchful of what she does next."

"That is a hard needle to thread."

"That is a hard needle to thread. But it is the same kind of thread I have been threading since I got here. There is no version of this climb where I do not have to hold multiple readings of every person I interact with. Elenora is not different in kind from the harvesters, or the guards, or the old soul. Everyone here has their own interests. I engage with them anyway, because engagement is the only path forward."

Theron nodded slowly.

Bruce turned the page in the book.