Post by Callimpsest on Dec 26, 2015 16:48:49 GMT -5
[OOC: Continued from Any chance of some Dinner?]
*Callimpsest had hoped to have everything ready much sooner. But here he is, making final preparations with the explosion moments away.
The primary plan was for Theodora to stop the explosion. By warning the right people, by neutralising Scareye's package before it exploded, by doing whatever Time would permit her to do. She could but try, but Callimpsest suspected that Time would not permit anyone to so drastically alter history.
That was where the secondary plan came in. Callimpsest had brewed a batch of what, if he'd got the proportions right, was Fast Backwards potion. Without Theodora, her legerdemain and gift of the gab, he would never have been able to procure the ingredients. Some of them had to be liberated from the personal collection of the potions teacher herself, the formidable Morgaine, who could put even Theodora Snitch off her stride.
There was only one documented use of Fast Backwards. Despite the burning of copious amounts of midnight oil, Callimpsest had never quite been able to work out how Fast Backwards did what it did to The One They Call Barry, three Dungeon levels and all its incumbents, but he was about to put it to the test again. Several vials of Fast Backwards were to be placed in all corners of the library. The force of the explosion would shatter the glass, dousing the room with the potion. This, Callimpsest hoped, would revert the library to its pre-explosion state, thereby saving it without undoing the explosion itself. It would have taken an immense volume of the potion to do the same for the entire school, and Callimpsest regretted that this could not be done.
As it was, he was fretting about how to distribute the vials. They had to be in places where the library's few visitors would not spot them; yet if any part of the library was neglected by the potion, it would stand even less chance of being properly restored. Most of the vials had been placed by Theodora (after waiting until the weekly dusting had been completed), but Callimpsest had given in to neurosis and insisted on checking her work and placing the final set himself. Still in his cook's guise, he slipped into the library. Had anyone seen him, this might have raised eyebrows - he'd rarely been seen outside the kitchen and cafeteria - but cooks need books too. Callimpsest's past self was there alone, at his desk, too engrossed in his reading to notice. What a cruel series of shocks awaited him.
Callimpsest cast his eyes around the library, observing the vials Theodora had placed and working out where to place more. His time was running out.*
Philosophy needs more than that.
*As he rushed towards the bookshelf, the vials clinked in his pocket. He stopped. Who's to say that history couldn't change even now and his past self hear him? He could not risk that. He transferred the vials to his hands (as many as he could comfortably hold), and a couple to his mouth, as he clambered around the bookcases. Mercifully, they were strong enough to take his weight and well maintained enough not to creak.
His thoughts turned to escape. The cook was never seen again after the explosion; Theodora was not supposed to be there at all, and anyone who thought to look for her afterwards would surmise that, like many pupils, she had simply fled home. But he had faith, and Theodora did too, that the Tower of Time would pull them back to the present just in the nick of time. For if he did not survive to see his library resurrected then what was it all for?
With two vials left to deposit, Callimpsest looked to the rafters. He had longer arms than Theodora and there was a corner he could reach that she could not. It was not within sight of his desk. Slowly, carefully, he moved the ladder over and crept up it, pleased at his catlike agility. Reaching his arm across the collar tie, he rested a vial against the purlin. In the past, he'd been too afraid of falling to venture this high and see the rafters at close quarters. He was getting to know his library better even now.
It was then that something caught Callimpsest's eye. In the shadows above his head, emerging from one of the wooden beams, was a shelf-like outcropping. Maybe it was put there by the library architect as a place to keep the most precious, most elevated texts. On it were shapes resembling small books: books that Callimpsest did not know the library had. But not only books.
A moment ago, Callimpsest had congratulated himself on his display of feline qualities. Now he was at the mercy of the feline's proverbial enemy, curiosity. Unable to see the other item on the shelf, unable to leave without ever knowing, he stretched up. He felt a tingle, saw a blue haze forming along his arm and knew that the Tower of Time was calling him, calling him back, but he couldn't let it. His hand closed around something cold, round, palpitating. Keeping his balance, he brought it into the light. It looked like a blue egg with an icicle protruding from it. It sparkled. He blinked.
They vanished.*
*Callimpsest had hoped to have everything ready much sooner. But here he is, making final preparations with the explosion moments away.
The primary plan was for Theodora to stop the explosion. By warning the right people, by neutralising Scareye's package before it exploded, by doing whatever Time would permit her to do. She could but try, but Callimpsest suspected that Time would not permit anyone to so drastically alter history.
That was where the secondary plan came in. Callimpsest had brewed a batch of what, if he'd got the proportions right, was Fast Backwards potion. Without Theodora, her legerdemain and gift of the gab, he would never have been able to procure the ingredients. Some of them had to be liberated from the personal collection of the potions teacher herself, the formidable Morgaine, who could put even Theodora Snitch off her stride.
There was only one documented use of Fast Backwards. Despite the burning of copious amounts of midnight oil, Callimpsest had never quite been able to work out how Fast Backwards did what it did to The One They Call Barry, three Dungeon levels and all its incumbents, but he was about to put it to the test again. Several vials of Fast Backwards were to be placed in all corners of the library. The force of the explosion would shatter the glass, dousing the room with the potion. This, Callimpsest hoped, would revert the library to its pre-explosion state, thereby saving it without undoing the explosion itself. It would have taken an immense volume of the potion to do the same for the entire school, and Callimpsest regretted that this could not be done.
As it was, he was fretting about how to distribute the vials. They had to be in places where the library's few visitors would not spot them; yet if any part of the library was neglected by the potion, it would stand even less chance of being properly restored. Most of the vials had been placed by Theodora (after waiting until the weekly dusting had been completed), but Callimpsest had given in to neurosis and insisted on checking her work and placing the final set himself. Still in his cook's guise, he slipped into the library. Had anyone seen him, this might have raised eyebrows - he'd rarely been seen outside the kitchen and cafeteria - but cooks need books too. Callimpsest's past self was there alone, at his desk, too engrossed in his reading to notice. What a cruel series of shocks awaited him.
Callimpsest cast his eyes around the library, observing the vials Theodora had placed and working out where to place more. His time was running out.*
Philosophy needs more than that.
*As he rushed towards the bookshelf, the vials clinked in his pocket. He stopped. Who's to say that history couldn't change even now and his past self hear him? He could not risk that. He transferred the vials to his hands (as many as he could comfortably hold), and a couple to his mouth, as he clambered around the bookcases. Mercifully, they were strong enough to take his weight and well maintained enough not to creak.
His thoughts turned to escape. The cook was never seen again after the explosion; Theodora was not supposed to be there at all, and anyone who thought to look for her afterwards would surmise that, like many pupils, she had simply fled home. But he had faith, and Theodora did too, that the Tower of Time would pull them back to the present just in the nick of time. For if he did not survive to see his library resurrected then what was it all for?
With two vials left to deposit, Callimpsest looked to the rafters. He had longer arms than Theodora and there was a corner he could reach that she could not. It was not within sight of his desk. Slowly, carefully, he moved the ladder over and crept up it, pleased at his catlike agility. Reaching his arm across the collar tie, he rested a vial against the purlin. In the past, he'd been too afraid of falling to venture this high and see the rafters at close quarters. He was getting to know his library better even now.
It was then that something caught Callimpsest's eye. In the shadows above his head, emerging from one of the wooden beams, was a shelf-like outcropping. Maybe it was put there by the library architect as a place to keep the most precious, most elevated texts. On it were shapes resembling small books: books that Callimpsest did not know the library had. But not only books.
A moment ago, Callimpsest had congratulated himself on his display of feline qualities. Now he was at the mercy of the feline's proverbial enemy, curiosity. Unable to see the other item on the shelf, unable to leave without ever knowing, he stretched up. He felt a tingle, saw a blue haze forming along his arm and knew that the Tower of Time was calling him, calling him back, but he couldn't let it. His hand closed around something cold, round, palpitating. Keeping his balance, he brought it into the light. It looked like a blue egg with an icicle protruding from it. It sparkled. He blinked.
They vanished.*