> "What is known cannot be unmade. What is forgotten, waits to be found. But some truths are better left undisturbed, for their light can blind."
> — The Library Without Walls, Self-Proclaimed Motto
>
The immense, impossible structure of the Library Without Walls pulsed with a faint, ethereal glow in the deep, dark waters of the Drowned East. Thousands upon thousands of shimmering tablets, scrolls, and crystals drifted in the silent depths, a vast, three-dimensional labyrinth of pure, luminous knowledge. As Ash and his companions floated within Selene's protective bubble, a commanding voice, echoing from every glowing tablet, resonated directly into Ash's mind: "Welcome, seekers. You trespass upon the truth. What is remembered... cannot be forgotten. And what is known... cannot be unmade. Submit your minds to the boundless archive, or be lost in its eternal light." Ash's Shard of Harmony and Chaos pulsed with alarm. This Library was not just a place of knowledge; it was a living, sentient entity, a guardian of profound Truth, and it was demanding their submission.
"It demands submission of mind!" Master Elara shrieked, his voice muffled in Selene's bubble, yet laced with terror and fervent excitement. "The Library Without Walls! It is said to record all truths, all memories, but it seeks to absorb the minds of those who cannot bear the weight of its boundless knowledge! It is a living, spiritual prison!"
"It's not just a library, it's a giant brain trying to eat us!" Lyra cried, clutching her head as the pervasive mental hum intensified.
Kael, his face grim, his Path of Frost holding him in a detached calm, sensed the mental pressure. "Its strength is in overwhelming clarity. It will try to make us see every truth, every memory, until our own minds shatter."
"It tests your Will, Ash," Selene said, her Path of the Hollow flaring, strengthening the bubble around them. She channeled a focused negation, creating a small pocket of clarity in the overwhelming mental noise. "It seeks to absorb your unique connection to the Crown's truth. Deny it. Seek what you need, but do not let it claim your mind."
Ash felt the Library's immense power, a torrent of raw, unfiltered knowledge trying to force its way into his thoughts. He saw flashes of distant civilizations, of ancient battles fought in the name of forgotten gods, of countless lives lived and lost. The sheer volume was dizzying, trying to make him a mere vessel for its memories, to lose his identity in its boundless archives.
He closed his eyes, clutching the Core of Binding. This wasn't about fighting with power. It was about defining his own Will against the Library's demand for submission. He centered on the core of his Shard of Harmony and Chaos, on his persistent amnesia. He had no past to protect from the Library; he only had the desperate need to find his past. He would embrace the truth, but he would not surrender his individual self to its boundless light. He pushed out a wave of Harmony from his shard, not to soothe, but to create a bridge of balanced understanding between his seeking mind and the Library's overwhelming knowledge. He then used the Core of Binding's essence of Will to define his purpose: he was here to learn, not to be absorbed.
The Library's overwhelming mental hum faltered. The torrent of raw memories pressing into Ash's mind lessened, becoming a clear, directed stream. The commanding voice softened, turning into a chorus of individual whispers, as if the Library understood his intent.
"You seek... not to be lost... but to understand... A rare truth... in a realm of many deceptions..." the voices resonated. "Very well. The archive opens to those who seek true knowledge, not mastery. What truth do you desire, seeker?"
Ash, exhausted but resolute, opened his eyes. He looked at Elara's Chronicles of Dispersion map, which still contained the knowledge of the primary shards. "The Queen of Sorrow," he stated, his voice echoing in the silent depths. "Her true purpose. Her immediate plans. And the location of the Shard of Will she has claimed. And where she might seek the remaining fragments."
The Library's glowing tablets shimmered, and the vast expanse of floating knowledge seemed to shift, re-arranging itself. A single, large, ancient tablet, glowing with an intense, emerald light, drifted forward, stopping directly before Ash. It was covered in intricate script and a series of complex diagrams. Ash's Shard of Harmony and Chaos pulsed with profound recognition: this was a direct truth from the Crown's history.
"She seeks... the Crown Incarnate," the Library's collective voice resonated, clear and chilling. "Her sorrow-bound will desires not just the Shard of Will, but the Shard of Death and Void, and the Shard of Dream. To bind all suffering... into an ultimate stillness... a death of joy and despair alike. She plans to perform the Ritual of Binding Souls at the Throne Below again, to fully merge the Shard of Death and Void with her own Shard of Will, creating an unholy union of pure command and ultimate negation. She seeks to complete the process Lord Valerius began, but with a different purpose: to impose perfect apathy upon all life in Aerthos, an eternal, silent peace. The ritual begins soon. At the heart of the Throne Below, where its master, the Soul Weaver, dwells."
The revelation was horrifying. The Queen of Sorrow was not just collecting shards; she planned to merge powerful fragments, not into the Crown, but into a twisted force of ultimate apathy. And she planned to do it at the Throne Below, the very place they had just escaped. The Library then showed them an image on the tablet: a glowing, precise map of the Drowned East, highlighting the Throne Below as the immediate epicenter of this terrifying ritual, with clear signs of the Ashen Choir already converging there in force. Time was running out.