Page 96 of Requiem of Silence

Finally, a cold air blew around her, making the torches on the wall flicker.

“You may pass.” This time, the sensation was just an echo, fading away inside her head. Under her palm, the knob turned and the gate swung open on silent hinges.

She stepped through, and into a room of blinding white. After the tunnel, her eyes took a moment to adjust. There was light everywhere, but no lanterns in view—the walls just glowed. She couldn’t even identify the material they were made from, something smooth and featureless so that she couldn’t determine where the floor ended and the walls began. A raised platform of the same material in the center of the room was barely visible. The space might be rectangular, or possibly oval-shaped. She’d never seen anything like it.

One moment, she was looking around, contemplating what to do now, and in the next she spotted a staircase that she could swear hadn’t been there seconds earlier. It was directly across from her and painfully obvious. She shook herself. “Focus, Zeli,” she whispered.

The stairwell was a good deal darker than the strange, white room, and made of marble. She went up several flights with no outlet until it finally ended and she emerged in an enormously wide room.

She turned around in a circle, her jaw falling open. This was the inside of the pyramid. Sloping walls went up and up, the glass layers letting in the only light. The battering ram thumped away on the other side of the metal doors, but in here the sound was muffled, just a dull thud. Those wielding it were gaining no headway, but Zeli was actuallyinside.

Then her surroundings really hit her. She stood at the edge of avery large, very empty room. There were no books, no shelves, no other floors, no furniture, not even so much as a chair. The only thing breaking up the space was the rectangular, ruby-colored column in the very center. The red pinnacle visible at the top from outside was really the tip of an obelisk, like a tent pole holding up the building. Aside from that, this was just a giant, bare pyramid that was supposed to hold the archive of the knowledge of a god.

She grabbed her stomach as it hollowed out. Was this all a trick?

“Not what you expected?” a voice said from behind her.

She spun around to find Remi leaning against the wall, arms crossed, sadness weighing down his gaze.

“How did you get here so quickly?” She was certain he hadn’t followed her, she would have heard his footsteps echoing on the stone.

He pushed off the wall and stepped toward her. “You are the only one to make it inside this year. Sometimes there are two or three. Sometimes no one does.”

“But the last time the Archives was open was before you were born. Is it common knowledge how many people get in?” Her confusion mingled with her disappointment and the vacuum inside her belly grew.

The boy just stared at her, assessing, until she began to feel uncomfortable.

“Remi?” Her voice broke on his name.

“Actually, my name isn’t Remi.” His eyes, too old for such a young face, sharpened and a glow rose from his dark skin. Light in a blend of colors, like a liquid rainbow, swirled around him, obscuring the child from view. When it faded, the child was no more. In his place stood an adult—what the boy may have looked like in twenty years. Instead of the ill-fitting trousers and shirt, henow wore a long white caftan with blue embroidery. It grazed his ankles, ending just above his bare feet.

“My name is Gilmer. Welcome to my Archives.”

Zeli stumbled back several steps, shaking her head and trying to make sense of what she’d just seen. “Y-You’re Gilmer?TheGilmer? T-This is your Archives?”

He nodded sadly. “Yes, I’mtheGilmer andthisisn’t my Archives.” He spread his arms open. “The Archives is me.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

No matter how far the path

or how long you trod

there is rest at the end

and along the way

if you are vigilant.

—THE HARMONY OF BEING

Zeli sat before the god known as Gilmer on cushions that he had spirited into existence. He looked like a normal man, then again, at a glance, the Goddess Awoken looked like a normal woman. Only being around Her for any length of time had corrected that misapprehension.

“You have questions, I’m sure,” he said, his voice a sonorous tenor.

Zeli swallowed, her mouth having gone dry. “I don’t even know where to begin. What-What should I address you as?”

“Gilmer is fine,” he said with a chuckle. “No honorifics are necessary.” He took a deep breath. “Would you like some tea? You must be famished.”

---