[Nexus] A Most Unusual Library (Open)

Elaine shook her head, evidently bewildered.
"But...this library has always been there for years and years...does the Terran portal to it remain here? If I left, could I return? How does it work? Could there be a way to enter another world?" Question after question began pouring out of her mouth, like water from a pitcher.
She barely heard Keeper's last comment, but then nearly added,
"Then why don't you return through your portal?", but thought better of it.
She hoped he wouldn't be annoyed by her asking so many questions.

[Drakkim]

"Yes, yes... This portals remain. The building remains. It is... different depending on where you are from... To one, it might be brick and wood, plain and non-descript. To another, lavish marble etched with detail to rival the ancient Greeks and Romans of Earth. And it is real, no matter how you see it. It's.. very difficult to actually explain."

He looked at her a moment before speaking again, as if answerign her thoughts aloud, "Questions are the lifeblood of knowledge. without the Question, we would not find the Answer. Without the Answer, there is no growth, no knowledge. Without knowledge... Ingorance and death."

Lexium's ears perked up at the Librarian's last words. "Speak not of death! Bringers misfortune it does to speak of such things. Questions? Answers? All of these leaders to death and despair... all of them omens be, and all~" His words were cut short as a large book on a shelf he had bumped into was knocked free of the shelf and fell heavily on his head with a loud thud. His eyes crossed and he wobbled slightly before crashing facefirst on the ground muttering something about yet another "bad omen."

Elaine picked up the book that had struck the doomsayer, and read the title aloud. "Hmmm...1000 Signs That the End is Near...sounds rather paranoia inducing." She attempted to help Lex up off of the ground, only to collapse on the floor from exhaustion, greatly surprised.
'Woah, he's heavy....'
She handed the book to him, trying to hide her amusement.
"I don't think you need this, but the irony here is amusing..."

[Drakkim]

Keeper seemed lost in his own thoughts for quite some time. So quiet was he that the others had forgotten him when he spoke to himself, so softly that it shouldn't be heard. Such is the nature of a whisper though, that it carried louder than the ranting of the doomsayer.

"They say that these books hold the keys to enter the many worlds. That knowing how to use the knowledge within them reveals the portals to the wielder of that knowledge."

"Pish posh," came a deep resonating but toneless voice from another table. "If such were true, you'd have left this place decades ago. You are after all the Nexus' eldest Keeper of Knowledge." The ribbing came from a figure so heavily shrouded in black funeral robes that only his beak-like nose was visible.

"They say even the next eldest remembers you unchanged when she arrived as an apprentice."

"That's enough, Dark One. You would do well to remember that I keep knowledge of you as well."

"Posh. What harm could you possibly do me? Darken my reputation? It already lay dark as the robes I wrap around me." This was delivered in the same toneless resonance, but those nearby could feel the anger radiating from the robed figure.

"Mrr?"

A pair of golden eyes looked around the room curiously. Last she recalled, she had been pawing at a strangle blue marble "borrowed" from a rather wealthy lady. The marble had rolled under the old bookcase of the abandoned house she currently resided in. While trying to retrieve it, the shelves had broken, sending a shower of books and dust on top of her.

Now she had awoken in this strange looking library. Recalling that pets were often frowned upon in such places, Raylani changed, taking her humanoid form. She still bore the marks and eyes of an oscelot but hid her slender tail under her ivory skirt, wrapping it around her leg.

"I wonderrr how I ended up herre." She asked herself. Looking at the seemingly random titles, she pulled out a thick brown book. "Trrrue Cuisine of the Orrrient? Hmm..."

Raylani began to thumb through the pages and soon a shriek could be heard echoing in the large building, "Monsterrrs! Terrriaki Tabby? Szechuan Siamese? Cerrrtainly these must be a sick joke!"

Elaine looked up and nearly dropped the book onto the doomsayer, as Keeper began whispering to himself. She caught little of what he muttered, but the reply from the dark robed figure made her feel slightly afraid.
The anger emanating from that seemingly sinister figure made the hair on the back of her neck rise.

The piercing screech that followed a minute or two later did nothing to quell her fear. This time, Elaine did drop the book onto the unfortunate doomsayer.

Eyes wide, she glanced over at the Keeper anxiously. There wasn't anything.... dangerous in here, was there...? She certainly hoped there wasn't, and was afraid of the answer she would receive if she asked this question aloud. Knowledge was supposedly power, and perhaps that power wasn't as positive as most people made it out to be.

"What was that?!"

If there had been a stuffed animal or something cute and cuddly to cling onto, she probably would've by now, however childish it may have seemed.

[Drakkim]

The Keeper turned his head at the sudden noise, using the sound to pinpoint the location. Having that information, he walked (rather calmly, one onlooker noted) in the direction of the bookslide. When he arrived at the scene, several of the younger keepers were already restoring order to the shelf, while carefully avoiding the person who caused of the fall.

Keeper's eyes caught the lady and widened slightly. He paused and whispered a few words of a spell that confirmed his suspicion before blinking away his surprise and taking up the book she was still glaring at. "True Cuisine of the Orient," he read. "Truly, this is more irony and sick jokes than fact. Most people from the writer's home kept cats and such as pets. A few kept them as snacks, but they didn't often write down recipes."