*Wow,* Garath replied in shock. *That’s never stopped you from sharing before. Just tell me.*
*The only thing that came to mind was something he said about the house my dad bought in L.A. after he left my mom.* Garath could almost hear the smile in the Chimerist’s words. *A big house is like a large woman. Hard to get around.*
*You’re right,* Garath laughed. He was glad that Auto decided to continue with the strange proverbs, even though everyone knew he didn’t have an uncle now. *That’s even less relevant than usual.*
*Don’t blame me, man. You asked.*
They were now in the high-level ‘unsafe’ zone, represented by a red overlay on the World Map. They soared beneath the massive canopy of The Tower of Vy’thishrak, but flew well above the lower canopy to avoid surprise attacks from any hungry creatures living in the unearthly forest below. Alice had told Garath to head to the base of the Tower itself, but she did mention to avoid the slowly patrolling Treant Guardians.
Once near the half-mile-thick trunk, Garath noticed it wasn’t exactly a tree’s trunk in the way he’d come to know one, though it did seem to serve the same purpose. Countless cylindrical strands, each bigger around than a water tower, wove together without harmony, like a bag full of writhing snakes, to make up the vertical structure. A handful of terrace-like openings here and there lead inside the living structure, and he hoped Alice would know which one they had to go through to start their assault on the Dungeon.
Together, Auto and Garath dove at a nearly ninety-degree angle to reach the base of The Tower - also making their way south around the trunk toward the library Alice had been living in. His current form’s improved vision allowed Garath to easily spot the Treant Guardians the mysterious Lore Keeper had mentioned. As they neared the ground on the southeast side of the Dungeon, Garath saw a wide opening in the trunk where the weaving mass of interconnected branches was pulled back like the curtains at a theatre. The opening looked deliberate, and Garath figured that was their destination. There weren’t any Treant Guardians near the opening, so they landed, shifting into their natural forms.
If Garath were asked to describe the cavern, he would say it looked like thousands of dryads had built a shopping mall inside of the Great Deku Tree. The inside of the massive structure was hollow, illuminated by thousands of baseball-sized floating orbs meandering in seemingly random patterns, their phosphorescent light a soft green.
The sheer size of the cavern was unbelievable, and a few unmolested buildings still stood in various places inside the massive tree. The ceiling of the entrance chamber must have been three-hundred feet high, though ceiling was hardly the right word for the tangled mess of thick trunks, branches, and vines. Garath had to assume this was likely just the first floor, one of many. In the center of the circular cavern there was a large, dome-like structure made up of the same twisting limbs. A simple wooden door stood directly ahead of them. Similar, albeit much smaller ‘buildings’ were lined up along the perimeter of the cavern, each with a similar, simple wooden door in the front.
The handful of remaining buildings stood in drastic contrast to the beautiful dark wood of the structures, making it easy to identify the library in which they were supposed to meet Alice. Conveniently enough, a particularly thick root sprawling across the ground acted as a path from the entrance and connected to the large central structure, where smaller roots formed similar pathways to the other buildings.
Garath was amazed to see several recognizable buildings within the cavern that he was certain had been farther away from the Space Needle. Among them, the Museum of Pop Culture, known to the locals as ‘MoPOP’, and their destination, the Seattle Central Library. As they passed a still-working fountain labeled ‘Fountain of Wisdom’ and made it to the doors of the strangely proportioned library that was constructed almost entirely of glass, Garath noticed a note taped near the handles and promptly pulled it off to inspect.
Garath, the doors are not locked. Locate the book spiral. You will find me at the top.
-Alice
“Hey,” Auto said, leaning over Garath’s shoulder to get a look at the note. “What’s it say?”
Garath handed him the note and pulled on the door’s handle. Just like the cavern, the inside of the library was dimly illuminated by the glowing green orbs floating aimlessly. Having never been inside this particular library, Garath was surprised at the beauty of the learning center. The open floorplan of the first floor was more like the lobby of a swanky hotel than any library he’d ever seen. The most surprising thing though, was a working escalator leading down into the parking garage.
“Would you look at that?” Garath marveled.
“Good library,” Auto agreed.
“I mean that.” Garath pointed at the escalator. It was the only functional remnant of human technology that he’d witnessed since the apocalypse. Auto followed Garath’s gaze and raised his eyebrows in shock. “Right?” Garath asked.
The two of them continued past the escalator and through the first floor between book-covered tables until they found a second functioning escalator leading up. With a tentative expression, Garath stepped onto it and smiled. Auto followed behind and they let the modern miracle take them up to the fifth floor. It had been a computer area, from the looks of it, but the monitors were all black. Garath excitedly tried to turn on the closest computer to the escalator, and then tried another when the first didn’t work. He took a second to make sure the computers in question were plugged in before giving up on the idea.
They approached another escalator on the other side of the computer area, this one labeled ‘Book Spiral - floors 6-9’.
When they stepped off the escalator, Auto and Garath were greeted by a thin, waist-high pole holding up a sign with a
