Chapter 7: The Cost of knowledge.

The great Library of Pathandaway stood before the three Nerimans, dwarfing them in its immensity. A flight of white marble steps rose up to a colonnaded walkway topped by a great triangular frieze. All the way up the steps and around the plaza below stood small groups of students, robed youngsters discussing, debating or just plain disagreeing about pieces of knowledge they had found within the grand edifice.

“Knowledge is Power,” Gos breathed.

“huh?” asked Ryoga.

“The motto above the door” Gos explained, “it reads ‘Knowledge is Power’ and I guess it has never been truer than it is here.”

“How do you figure?” Akane asked.

“Magic isn’t exclusive, with enough training, with the right mindset anyone can do it. And through magic man can defy every law of existence. Forget the Garden of Eden’s tree of knowledge, forget greek apples, forget books of divinity; here and now a man with the drive can become a god!”

“Whoa” Akane muttered more than a little unnerved by the light shining from Gos’s face, “Don’t get carried away.”

“You don’t understand!” Gos said, only narrowly not shouting. “You couldn’t understand,” he added much more quietly, “all my life I have been small, ignored, the last to be picked, the one everybody forgets. Even before the accident that was so and now all anyone remembers is my scars and my chair. Well not here! Here I have the power. Here I am the one everyone needs. You’ll see! This time oit won’t be Ranma it’ll be me!”

“Gos” Akane interrupted. “people are looking!”

“Exactly!” he shouted, “and as the saying goes, ‘you ain’t seen nothing yet’! Lead on Ryoga, my destiny calls!”

But it seemed destiny had other plans. No soonber had the trio entered than they were headed off by a librarian. The man was thin to the point of emaciation, his only outstanding feature being a thin wispy beard that gave his angular face a more weasly aspect.

“May I help you?” he asked pointedly.

“We are here to use the library!” Gos pronounced.

“I am glad to hear it Sir. My name is Camulus and I am pleased to make your aquaintance.” the librarian replied, “Your kind are always welcome here.”

“Thank you, I am Master Gosunkugi ” Gos said with a trace of pomposity, and was about to get Ryoga to continue when he was interrupted.

“However these ‘people’ are another issue” he said, looking at the other tow like they were an unfortunate canine by-product. “We don’t get many of their type in here,” he explained, leaving out the part about not wanting ‘their type’ in there.

“This one is my bearer, and the other my bodyguard,” Gos lied, and Akane bristled in the background.

“Nevertheless Magister” the librarian argued, “should they attempt to enter the mages’ rooms they will surely die.”

“Ah” said Gos.

“Are you saying that we’re not as smart as your mages!” demanded Akane.

“Frankly yes” the man replied, “I am saying exactly that sellsword!” Akane bristled, hand reaching for the Katana at her side. The librarian, rather than being scared, merely whistled and suddenly on the balcony above them a dozen crossbowmen appeared, each one with their weapons levelled at her and her friends.

“That will be two lions” the man stated, “but please argue some more…” Akane grumbled and looked like she was considering the odds so Gos prodded Ryoga forward and he paid. “Thank you magister,” the man offered, refusing to acknowledge the lost boy. “Now if you care to I shall summon one of the library slaves and they may carry you though the enlightened door.”

“Hey! How come they can go through the door and-“ Akane demanded.

“Because, sellsword” he spoke the word as a curse, “they used to be mages before they made their transgression and were…fixed.” A little shudder ran down Akane’s back at the relish the man put into the final word, and she was immediately sure she didn’t care to know the details.

“That will do nicely” Gos replied, “but nevertheless my servants will require access to the mundane library. They have research I require them to do.”

“Hey less with the servant stuff!” Akane objected, causing the Librarian to raise an eyebrow.

“Of course magister” he replied, “the fee will be two lions apiece for starters.”

“For starters?” Gos asked.

“That gets them into the library, they will undoubtedly need assistance within…”

“Ah” Gos replied catching onto the drift. “Very well, Ryoga you had better pay him.”

“Fine” groused the lost boy, reaching once more for his pouch.

After Gos had left the librarian kept the two of them waiting for what seemed like an hour before returning. “Now what can I do for you?” he asked, the glint of money sharp in his eyes.

“We need a map” Ryoga replied, “to the Gate between Worlds.”

“Do you even read?” the man sneered.

“Of course we do!” Akane insisted.

“Fine” the man replied, not disguising his disbelief. “In that case it will be merely ten lions for a guide.”

“Ten!” Ryoga exclaimed, “you’ve already got four!”

“And it costs ten to hire a guide,” the man replied, “unless you would rather wander aimlessly around the library until you are thrown out each night?”

“Fine!” Ryoga groused, handing over more of his diminishing coinage.

“And an extra two for the information” the man added.

“What information!” Akane demanded. In response the man looked at Ryoga, as if to check to see he wanted the information.

“Fine,” Ryoga said through gritted teeth, “here!” he said, slapping the coins into the man’s hand.

“Will that be all?” the man asked, and Ryoga had to step in and silence Akane before she made another scene. “In that case I wish you an enjoyable stay in the great library.” The man finished with only a hint of irony.

A little while later a man came over and introduced himself as their guide. He was slightly smaller and a touch more weasly than the previous man but otherwise bore a striking resemblance.

“If you will come with me” the man lisped, “perhapsth we can find what it isth you are looking for.” The man motioned and soon they were being led deeper into the maze of rooms that was the great library.

After a little over an hour of fruitless searching both the Nerimans’ tempers were starting to fray. “So the maps are scattered through the whole building!” Akane asked, the man smiled and held out a hand.

“Damn you!” she whispered withdrawing the question. It was only then that she noticed that Ryoga hadn’t stopped at the same time as them and was no completely gone. “Oh crap!” she whispered, “Ryoga!”

“Where the hell am I now?” Ryoga shouted. He had of course rapidly realised that he had lost his guide and the woman he….’cared’ for and had turned around to try and find them. However even after taking that shortcut he had missed them and they had obviously moved on. Nevertheless he could guess what direction they had gone in so he had followed their probable path. The result, rather predictably for anyone who knew him, was that he was thoroughly lost, hence his current predicament. He smiled and, just for old times sake, shouted “Ranma this is all your fault!”

“Sir, please keep the noise down,” a portly man in librarian’s robes requested, “and, if I may ask, who is this Ranma?”

“Depends how much its going to cost me,” Ryoga replied, none too friendlily. The man looked genuinely puzzled for a moment.

“Oh of course,” he replied, “it is cumulus on welcome today.” Ryoga nodded. “He is a ‘special’ case, never specialised you see, tried to go for indexing, a way to the top job. Now me I chose a room, and I learnt it. Here” he said with an expansive wave, “is truly my room. I know each and every book and scroll. I have read them all from cover to cover. And in that knowledge I have found fulfilment.” He added with passion in his voice. “ Which makes him cold and miserable and me the master of all I survey.” He finished with a smile, “Now what is it exactly you are looking for?”

“A map” Ryoga replied, “To the World Gate.”

“Ahh” he replied “A brave ambition, but I am afraid that I cannot help you.”

“Oh” said Ryoga deflating.

“I can however show you a map of the Great Waste, and indeed the environs and town of Bremmon, where the last man we know of gave up his search.” Ryoga’s eyes lit up and he nodded enthusiastically. The man led him over to a particular part of a particular shelf. He then almost lovingly removed a leather bound roll from the shelf and carried it over to a reading stand. Clipping it gently into place he unrolled a hand drawn map and then turned to Ryoga.

“Now this here is the Waste,” he said, “I take it you have heard of it?”

“Er no?” Ryoga hazarded. The man seemed genuinely intrigued.

“Where exactly is it that you come from that you haven’t heard of the Great Battle that destroyed the land?”

“Great battle?” Ryoga queried.

“Interesting” the librarian replied, blatantly curious, “two great sorcerers fought a battle for our world, and the battle shattered the land whence they stood, creating the shattered isles and the Great waste. The tremors have been reported to have been felt on the farthest side of the world.”

“Ah” Ryoga replied intelligently.

“Anyway” the man continued when it became obvious that his guest wasn’t about to elaborate, “on the edge of the Waste is the ruins of the town of Bremmon, and here by is the mountain upon which the last explorer, a man by the name of Bastinatus gave up.” Ryoga nodded along.

“Now we are here in Pathandaway” he explained, “and I could show you the floorplans of most of the significant buildings in the area. If we move out here,” he said tracing his hand across the map, “into the waste. Well I can show you plans of the largest settlements that exist there-“

“What’s this” Ryoga asked pointing at a demarked patch in the waste, “doesn’t that mena trees?” he asked.

“Yes, very good!” the Librarian enthused, “That is the Home of the Tabernacle of the healing hand. When the great Battle created the waste of Elrond, as it is correctly known, the Matriarch of the order held back the magic forces unleashed and protected her lands and her peole. And it has remained thus until this day.”

“But I thought that this battle happened hundreds of years ago?” Ryoga asked.

“It did,” the portly librarian answered.

“Then how is she…”

“What sort of place is it you come from where the gods do not look after their children so.” The librarian queried, “it is truly an odd place where a servant of the gods need fear the onset of time.” For a moment Ryoga remembered the chaplain at his elementary school, an aging man who had died in mid-sermon, and he did wonder how it was exactly that father Tiso’s God could not protect him from so trivial a thing.

“Er” Ryoga began, looking for something to change the subject, “and you say this is Bremmon?” he said pointing at far off Metryll.

“No my friend” the librarian corrected, but only after a long pause taken to consider his strange guest, “that is Metryll, it was built to serve the less ‘aesthetic’ needs of the sisters of the healing hand.”

“Oh” Ryoga replied.

“This shape here is the mountain,” the librarian continued, “and here I can show you no maps at all.” The librarian finished with an ominous tone.

“Because nobody who has gone onto the mountain has returned?” Ryoga guessed.

“What do you think I have been getting at?” the librarian replied.

o

o

o

The portly librarian, Oreen, had an apprentice show Ryoga to the door and he emerged into the sunlight, clutching in his hand a copy of the map as drawn by Oreen himself.

“Ryoga!” Akane shouted, throwing herself into his arms. “I was so worried. I searched and searched and then he wanted more money and I got into an argument and they threw me out and I was going to fight them all but they said that would cost a lot more money and I thought that Nabiki would be angry so I”

“Whoa” Ryoga wheezed, causing Akane to loosen her grip a little. “Any sign of Gos?” he asked, anything to take his mind off just how good her body had felt pressed up against him.
”Not Yet” Akane said, a little confused by Ryoga’s coldness.

“I guess we could wait” Ryoga said. Akane smiled happily and the two of them sat down on the steps, soon losing the world in each other’s nearness.