Fragment 0 • The Archive 

Location: The Archive Beyond the Stars
Time: ∞
Status: ¿‽ Anomaly Detected

[??? — contemplative, calm]
Darkness first. It always starts with darkness... doesn't it?
A familiar irony — for where darkness stirs, light is never far behind.

Not silence. Not emptiness.
Only the sense that something vast waits beyond your vision.

Shelves unfolded from the void itself—endless, spiraling through a space with neither ceiling nor floor.
Constellations drifted above and mirrored below, reflecting on every spine.

Every shelf breathes—books, tomes, grimoires, some bound in leather, others in iron, some alive, others dead.
One volume shudders faintly as though dreaming. Another watches with a lidless eye set into its spine.
Vials of alchemic glass hum, strange sigils crawl across parchments that write themselves.

You move without footsteps. Or perhaps you only think you do.

At the far table sits a hooded figure, a tome open before him. Golden eyes glow faintly under the cowl.
Instinct grips you — you slip behind a shelf.

[Seeker — tense, holding breath]

The grimoire closes with a hush like thunder.

[??? — intrigued, gentle amusement]
"Ah... a wanderer. Within my library, at last."

You hold your breath, unmoving.
But the voice slides across the shelves, finding you anyway.

[??? — knowing, patient]
"Do not bother hiding. The Archive itself tells me where you stand."

Your legs move before your will does.
Slowly, you step from the shadows.

[Seeker — hesitant, emerging]

The hooded figure regards you in silence. His presence is steady, like weather arriving.
Then:

[??? — curious, inviting]
"Why are you here, young seeker? What is it you search for on your journey?"

[Seeker — silent, uncertain]

You try to answer. No words come.
Your throat is empty air.

The figure tilts his head, unsurprised.

[??? — understanding, soft]
"Your voice is bound. I see.
But your gaze betrays you."

And he is right—your eyes are fixed on the tome still resting on the table.
Its cover sears with a single word: Oblivion.

[Seeker — entranced, drawn closer]

The Wanderer’s gaze flicks between you and the tome, as though following an invisible line.

[??? — intrigued, analytical]
"So. That is what you want. Not the Codex of Dawn. Not the Chains of Aeternum.
Not Pandora’s sealed vessel.
Only this one… the forbidden grimoire. Intriguing."

A pause. His voice lowers.

[??? — grave, warning]
"Are you certain? Once opened, this record cannot be left unfinished. It is brutal. Dangerous.
Even I have not unraveled it fully.
And yet… your eyes will not look away."

[Seeker — silent, nodding once]

Silence stretches.
You step closer without realizing it.

The hood dips.

[??? — accepting, calm authority]
"So be it.
Curiosity outweighs fear. You bear no ill intent.
You are a seeker, and seekers are welcome here."

He turns and ascends into a throne wrought of living wood, its surface carved with glyphs that glowed faintly in the starlight.
The structure seems grown rather than built, pulsing like the slow breath of a tree that remembers the cosmos.

From the shadows beside the throne, something vast stirs.
Antlers of constellations scrape the void; a nebular tail uncoils.
Eyes like swallowed suns meet yours, and the air itself bends beneath the weight of its breath.
The Wanderer’s hand brushes its mane—calm, familiar.
Then the beast exhales and fades back into the dark.

At last, the hood lifts.
Golden eyes burn into yours.

[??? — reflective, distant]
"You want to know who I am. Once, I too was a fool at the edge of a path, stepping where he did not yet belong. But every path bends. Mine ended where the world itself opened.
After that… they called me something else."

He lays his palm upon the tome.
The runes flare, vibrating through the shelves, the stars, the entire Archive.

[Starlight Wanderer — solemn, introducing]
"You may call me the Starlight Wanderer. And if you truly wish this tale to unravel… then let us open it together."

A beat. The grimoire thrums, pages trembling as light leaks from its edges.

[Starlight Wanderer — final, ceremonial]
"And so it begins—
as all stories worth remembering do...
with an Awakening."

[Seeker — overwhelmed, dissolving into light]

✶ ✶ ✶