The Grand Archive of Valencryx lay beneath the city.
Most people walked above it every day without knowing it was there. But Elias Veyr knew. He worked inside it, surrounded by shelves of books and records that held the world together.
Elias was an archivist for The Written Order.
Their job was simple in theory: keep every important word, name, and record in the correct form. In this world, what was written mattered more than what was remembered.
If your name existed in the Archive, you existed.
If it did not, you might not.
Elias descended the stone stairs into the depths of the Archive. The air grew colder and smelled of old paper and ink. Crystal lamps lit the long halls, revealing endless shelves filled with books, scrolls, and tablets.
Everything felt safe down here.
That was the problem.
His work that day was routine—checking records, correcting small errors, making sure nothing had changed when it was not supposed to.
Then he saw the last item on his task list.
Obsolete Stacks — Sublevel Three.
Those shelves held old languages and writings no one used anymore. They were not allowed to be destroyed. Removing too many words at once could cause… strange effects.
Elias took a key and went down.
Sublevel Three was darker and quieter than the rest of the Archive. The shelves were older. Some books felt warm when he touched them, as if they still held something inside.
One shelf looked slightly out of place.
When Elias pushed it, it moved.
Behind it was a small hidden room.
And inside that room stood a single book.
It had no title.
No number.
No record.
That should not have been possible.
Elias hesitated, then picked it up. The book felt warm in his hands.
He opened it.
The pages were filled with strange symbols. Not letters—something older. One symbol in particular seemed to pull at his eyes.
Somehow, he understood it.
Without realizing what he was doing, he let its meaning sink in.
Nothing exploded.
Nothing moved.
But for a brief moment, Elias felt as if the world had stopped.
Then it continued.
He closed the book quickly.
"It's nothing," he whispered.
Deep inside the Archive, a book slipped from a shelf.
And somewhere in the city, someone forgot something important.