The Second Coming of Babel

Long after the First Great Flood had ravaged the ancient Accadians just north of the Arybian Peninsula, there was one grand nation that stood above its neighbours. With a single language and vision, they sought to build a great tower – one that might reach the heavens – in Babel, their capital city. Seeing their success, the Lord struck down the tower and cursed their land and everything around with instability. In his eyes, even this small portion of a united mankind’s strength threatened the domain of the divine.

Thousands of years after the fall of Babel, located in the territory of the former nation state of Makedon, there was a great empire. Led by perhaps the greatest military commander in human history, ancient Makedon conquered millions of square kilometres in only the span of little more than a decade. That great king soon abruptly passed on, leaving his empire to crumble. Later, the great library built in a city named in his honour was burned to the ground by one of that king’s greatest admirers. Further forward, the Reman Empire founded by that admirer eventually declined and was divided under pressure from external barbarians. It is said that an eclipse covered the sun on the week that the final relevant remnants of that empire fell.

Of course, much of this was under the intervention of the Lord. From his divine eyes, mankind’s great empires were imitations of the heresy of Babel.

But mankind persevered.

Whether it be tragedy and defeat or oppression and tyranny, humans suffered through it all. But still, it survived. By the dawn of the 22nd century, the united man that the Lord had feared in Babel had come to true fruition. Most of all, beyond the power of any ancient library, the sum of the entire knowledge of mankind was available with ease. Truly, humans were imitating the divine once more. Mocking him further, the modern library was a ubiquitous shrine to this blasphemy.

===

I walked into the park and approached the shivering man on a bench. His shoulders were hunched over and long strands of wet blonde hair were obscuring his face. Considering his pallid skin, it seemed probable that he was unwell. Finally reaching him, I removed my raincoat, activated an air umbrella, and then offered him the coat.

“Are you aware that there is another bench over there undercover?”

The man sluggishly raised his head and stared at me. Examining my face, his own expression slightly contorted, before rapidly returning to a blank state. I was surprised to note that he was far younger than I had initially suspected, likely around 20 years old. Despite his currently dishevelled appearance, he could still be described as a fairly good-looking man. Revising my previous estimate of the pallidness of his skin, up-close his pale skin rather seemed the result of simply not experiencing much sunlight; reinforcing that thought was his somewhat thin figure. In addition, through the threads of hair covering them, I could see sharp amber eyes giving me a penetrating look. In them I got a certain sense of searching – as if he was looking for something from me. Abruptly, however, that sharpness disappeared as he accepted my coat.

“Thank you.”

Apparently deciding that responding to my question was unimportant, he simply expressed gratitude and stood up to put on the coat, before returning to his initial state of brooding. Does he think that raincoats grow on trees? I had to buy that…. Unimpressed with his ungrateful attitude, I scratched my chin and finally prompted him once more.

“Why were you out here without any coat or umbrella if you weren’t planning on staying undercover?”

Before responding, he raised an eyebrow as if his interest had been piqued.

“Why do you scratch your chin as if you have a beard?”

This guy-

“Are you so rude as to respond to a question from a benefactor with another question?”

Sighing, the blonde man brushed his hair out of his face and stared me dead in the eyes.

“I’m running away from home.”

That was indeed interesting information, but it still didn’t answer my original question.

“But why does that mean you have to sit in the rain?”

He gave a slightly bitter grin at that.

“Well, because it seemed like it would be something someone running away from home would do. It seemed fun.”

Got it, he’s just melodramatic. Considering my options, I decided upon a path.

“I was just heading to the Strait Fourth Library. If you’re running away from home, would you like to join me?”

“Is that a pickup line?”

I stared blankly at him, disappointed that I couldn’t give that comment the full look of disgust that it deserved. He gave a nervous chuckle.

“Okay, okay - chill. I have nothing better to do, so I appreciate the offer.”

He stood and offered me his hand for a handshake. Wait, that worked? I didn’t think he would be so easily willing to go off on a long walk with a stranger. Hm…. Now that he was standing upright, I noted that he was only marginally taller than me.

“My name is Mark.”

I placed my hand in his, giving a solid squeeze.

“Elysia.”

He flinched and let go, and that suspicious look briefly flashed once more across his face. I realised that I had put too much strength into my hand due to inexperience shaking hands with humans. I felt a pang of guilt at that, but Mark’s look returned to normal, and he laughed it off.

“You sure have one hell of a grip….”

“Watch your language.”

I wasn’t particularly in the mood to put up with more blasphemous language after being forced to listen to Sarah and Connor’s prattle for so long yesterday. Nonetheless, he responded with a soft chuckle.

We both head off to the library while engaging in some more small talk. I needed to gather more information on him to determine a route for conversion, but his irreverent attitude annoying me out of fully rational action combined with the lack of clean opportunity to inquire more on the issue of him running away led to me not having sufficient initiative in the conversation.

===

“You know, I have always thought that Strait looks best in the rain.”

“I haven’t been here for long enough to say.”

Though, honestly, I do agree with him.

…

“We must look like a pair of actors going incognito – handsome young lad and pretty lady walking along the street and all.”

“…”

“I was just joking….”

…

“You mentioned earlier that you haven’t been in Strait long. Where did you move here from?”

“I… lived with my father upstate.”

“Ah, does your father still live upstate?”

“He passed on.”

“Oh… my condolences.”

…

“Why didn’t you catch the train if the walk was this long?”

“This year I decided that I want to experience the outdoors more.”

“Does a large city really count as outdoors?”

“…”

…

“Do you play any VR games?”

“… No.”
“Ah, never mind then.”

…

“…”

“What do you think of the coastal city elections?”

“Oh, you’re asking a question this time? Do you mean how they elected those loonies?”

“Yes.”

“Well… I think that it’ll be bad for business. They’re locking down tourism in those cities, which is quite a shame.”

“Have you visited them?”

“A few times.”

“Hm….”

===

At last, after a forty-five-minute walk, we at last arrived at the library. The exterior wasn’t all that impressive, simply being another cut out building in the wall of high-rises. However, notably, the library did take up the entire building, rather than simply a floor or two like most stores.

“Are we going to go in?”

Mark glanced at me queryingly as I had spent a while admiring the building.

“Apologies, I haven’t been to one of these before.”

That brought a condescendingly raised eyebrow and grin out of Mark.

“Then allow me to show you around, my lady.”

In a butchered imitation of some kind of historical drama, he offered his hand out and bowed in an unmistakably mocking manner. I ignored him and headed towards the doors. Running, he caught up to me as I reached the door.

As a government building, the door had an ID scanner, but, fortunately, remembering the bar incident, I had brought a physical ID card with me this time. Mark simply tapped the thin watch on his wrist to the scanner and passed with me into the elevator room.

“A card is a bit old fashioned. Why didn’t you use an E-watch?”

“I don’t have one.”

“You don’t have an E-watch?!”

“It costs too much.”

That obviously wasn’t the entire truth of the matter, but it was certainly a large consideration for me. Mark frowned a little, but dropped the issue at that after noticing an old man dressed in smart clothing behind a desk near the entrance glaring at him due to his loudness. Of course, that didn’t stop him from grumbling about “geezers getting too snooty after they pass 120 years old”.

I may have brought a very annoying partner into this library….

Ignoring my irritation, Mark turned to me.

“So, what did you want to do here? As a runaway, I have a certain fun quota to hit, y’know?”

I paused for a moment to consider, before ultimately deciding…

“Would you take the honour to show this sheltered maiden around this big city library?”

… to push off the work of deciding what to do onto him. Admittedly, I might’ve delivered that a little too dryly to be able to be considered a true actor. Even so, he seems pleased that I’m playing along with his jokes. Indeed, Mark was beaming bemusedly.

“Well, first, how about we check out the board game room?”