The Library of Destiny did not have a roof. Instead, the endless rows of towering shelves rose upward into a ceiling of swirling nebulas and silent, burning stars. The air here was thin and cold, smelling of ancient paper and stardust.
This was the repository of all destinies. Every book was a universe, every page a day in a life.
The Librarian walked through the void. They were a being of striking, androgynous beauty—tall, with skin the color of old parchment and eyes that held the depth of the galaxy above. They wore robes that seemed to be woven from the twilight itself, shifting seamlessly between grey and deep blue.
They stopped at Row 402, Section: Kingdoms of the Lowlands.
A sense of malevolence pulsed from the shelf. It was a low, sickening thrum, like a heartbeat out of rhythm. The Librarian reached out a slender hand.
A thick, leather-bound book was vibrating. Black ichor—The Rot—was oozing from its spine, dripping onto the floor of the cosmos. This was the physical manifestation of a destiny gone wrong, a tragedy so profound it was corrupting the narrative stability of the world around it.
The Librarian pulled the book free. The title was embossed in fading gold: The Ink-Stained Coin.
They opened the cover. The summary of the timeline shimmered into the air, written in light:
● Subject: Elias Thorne. Former Royal Scribe. Current Addict.
● The Pivot Point: Today. Noon.
● Original Trajectory: Elias sells his son, Leo (Age 6), to the Black Iron Gang to settle a gambling debt.
● The Tragic Cascade:
○ Leo is sold to the Slave Markets of the South.
○ Purchased by Count Varic, a nobleman known for his cruelty to servants.
○ Leo suffers three years of severe abuse. He dies at age nine from an infection caused by a whipping, alone in a cold cellar.
○ Elias, having cleared his debt, returns to the gambling den. He incurs a new debt within a week and is beaten to death in an alleyway by the same gang.
○ Result: Total Soul Collapse. Rot spreading to adjacent fates.
The Librarian's expression remained calm, but their eyes hardened. The suffering of the child was the source of the Rot. To fix the library, the child's fate had to be rewritten.
"Accepting intervention," The Librarian's voice echoed like a bell in the vast silence.
They placed a hand on the page. The cosmic starlight of the Library began to fade, replaced
by the crushing weight of gravity, the smell of cheap wine, and the biting cold of a winter
wind.