The atrium of the Library was bustling with excitement as several Librarians and their assistants moved around to the different doors, leading to various branches within the Library. All of them were carrying a clipboard or notebook, and flipping through pages rapidly as they called out to one another. Occasionally, one would start walking one way, flip a page, and turn around to walk back in the exact opposite direction. From the outside it looked like a type of choreographed chaos, but none of the Librarians seemed particularly concerned. Some of the assistants looked frazzled, of course, but that's because assistants usually have to figure out how to carry out the directives their Librarians give them - a question few Librarians need concern themselves with once they have assistants.
Brenda, one of the Prime-side employees who had just returned from a trip to the grocery store and was cutting through the atrium to get to her apartment before her shift at the cafe, watched all the hustle and bustle with a bemused frown. She'd been working in the Library for a little over six months, which made her feel as though she were more of an established member of the Library's inner circle than she actually was. Still, she was certain that this behavior was out of the ordinary, and she wouldn't be able to rest easy until she knew what was going on.
"Excuse me?" she called out, trying to get the attention of one of the assistants. (She assumed it was an assistant, at any rate - the creature had four arms, all of which were occupied with either scribbling notes on one clipboard or rapidly flipping through a notebook and scanning the pages.) "What's going on?"
The four-armed assistant didn't even look up as it went by. "A Creator's made his way to the Library," it said as it continued on its way. "We're very busy." Before Brenda could ask any follow-up questions, it had already moved through a door on the other side of the atrium.
"This must be your first time, huh?" Brenda jumped in shock as she heard Daniel's voice far too close to her ear. He was a co-worker in the cafe, and had been working in the Library for several years. He'd made it a point to take all of the new Prime-side employees under his wing, particularly those employees who were both young and attractive. Brenda tried to hide her shudder of revulsion, but she didn't try that hard. She just shook her head no and waited for Daniel to start explaining. It wouldn't take long.
"You see," he began, his voice taking the tone of a professor starting to lecture his class (Brenda suppressed a roll of her eyes), "Creators are the people in Prime who, well, create the universes found in books. They're the authors, the storytellers, the people who come up with the characters and worlds and put it all together to develop a new universe. Each universe eventually finds its way into the Library, on the branch where it fits, depending on the type of content and the sorts of elements it has in common with the other universes. That's where the doors lead to."
Looking around the atrium, Brenda saw that several of the doors that were getting the most attention were labeled such things as as "YA - Science Fiction" and "Fantasy - Modern." A few others were getting less attention, but there were some Librarians and assistants moving purposefully toward "Punk - Classic Literature" and "YA - Punk - Science." The doors for those branches were much smaller, but they still led to areas that had more books than Brenda had imagined possible.
"When a Creator makes his or her way into the Library, the Librarians and their staff make sure that the branches that house that Creator's universes are set to receive them - that's what they're doing now. They're cleaning up before the Creator comes to see where their universes live." Daniel grinned at Brenda, gesturing toward the chaos in front of them. "Nice, isn't it?"
"Out of the way!" bellowed a centaur as she began moving through the crowd. There were a few gasps from the Librarians and assistants, and Brenda saw one or two of them give very brief bows in the centaur's direction. That was not something Brenda had expected, though it wasn't entirely unheard of. She elbowed Daniel in the side to get his attention and whispered, "Do we bow? Who is that?" Daniel responded with a shrug, but nodded his head in something resembling a bow when the centaur looked in their direction. Brenda quickly followed suit, just to be on the safe side.
The room had fallen silent, with everyone who wasn't in one of the branches now standing along the curved wall of the atrium. The open part of the room, leading from the transit tunnels that opened to Prime and other non-fictional universes, was clear, and everyone was facing the entrance and holding their breath. Brenda found herself waiting with a pounding heart, even though she didn't know what she was waiting for.
After no more than a minute, a figure entered the atrium from the Prime-side transit tunnels. It was a man, towering in height but not using his advantage to be intimidating. His long, dark hair hung straight down his back, under a top hat decorated with gears and goggles. His eyes shone in wonder as he took in the atrium, seeing the Librarians and their assistants, recognizing them as being creations he wouldn't have seen in the flesh in Prime. He stopped when he got close to the centaur, who bowed her head in greeting.
"We welcome you, as a Creator, to the Infinite Library," she intoned, and Brenda shivered as the words resonated. They had the tones of an incantation, and everyone in the atrium stood a little straighter after they had been said.
The man's smile could have lit up the night sky, and Brenda knew that he had come home.
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