THE REALITY BOOK
THE ORIGINAL HAS NEVER BEEN FOUND
A book rested between them.
Nothing unusual about it.
At least...
not from the outside.
A cover.
Pages.
Words.
GAAFATAA stared at it.
SEENEE stared at GAAFATAA.
...
GAAFATAA:
"Reality Book?"
SEENEE:
"Yes."
GAAFATAA:
"The Reality Book?"
SEENEE paused.
...
"What exactly are you asking?"
GAAFATAA looked down at the book.
"How many are there?"
...
SEENEE smiled.
"That depends on what you mean."
"Books capable of showing history?"
"Thousands."
GAAFATAA:
"Thousands?"
SEENEE:
"More."
...
Pages began turning.
No hand touched them.
A city appeared.
Not as an image.
Not as words.
A history.
People walking streets
that no longer existed.
Children growing old.
Buildings rising.
Kingdoms changing.
People being born.
People dying.
Entire generations passing
between pages.
...
GAAFATAA watched.
"Any history?"
SEENEE:
"Almost any history
the book can reach."
...
GAAFATAA:
"Then show me
the beginning of this universe."
The pages moved.
...
A history appeared.
GAAFATAA watched silently.
Then asked:
"Another universe."
The pages moved again.
Another history.
Another world.
Another beginning.
...
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GAAFATAA:
"Another."
Pages.
"Another."
Pages.
"Another."
Pages.
...
Eventually,
SEENEE stopped him.
"You could continue
for longer than either of us
would enjoy."
GAAFATAA looked at him.
"How many universes are there?"
SEENEE:
"You know that question
doesn't have a useful number."
GAAFATAA:
"And how many Reality Books?"
...
SEENEE's smile disappeared.
"Now you're asking
the better question."
...
He touched the cover.
"There are Reality Books
throughout existence."
"Thousands that I know of."
"Perhaps numbers beyond
what 'thousands'
can meaningfully describe."
...
GAAFATAA:
"One for every universe?"
SEENEE:
"No."
"Not that simple."
...
GAAFATAA waited.
SEENEE said nothing more.
So GAAFATAA asked:
"Are they all the same?"
...
SEENEE looked at the book.
"Almost."
...
GAAFATAA:
"Almost?"
...
SEENEE:
"They can show history."
"They can follow events."
"They can reveal things
that happened long before
the person reading them
was born."
"And when the past changes..."
...
GAAFATAA interrupted.
"The past can change?"
SEENEE looked at him.
"You already know
people who can move through time."
...
Silence.
GAAFATAA looked back
at the open pages.
SEENEE continued.
"If something reaches the past..."
"...and actually changes it..."
"...the book does not wait
for someone to notice."
...
The words moved.
GAAFATAA froze.
A sentence disappeared.
Another appeared
in its place.
Then a name changed.
A death vanished.
A different death appeared.
A city that had fallen...
had never fallen.
...
GAAFATAA stared.
"What just happened?"
SEENEE:
"History changed."
GAAFATAA:
"When?"
SEENEE:
"Now."
GAAFATAA:
"But the event was
hundreds of years ago."
SEENEE:
"Yes."
...
GAAFATAA looked back
at the page.
"Then the book shows
changes to the past..."
"...in real time?"
SEENEE:
"From the reader's perspective..."
"Yes."
...
SCRATCH.
GAAFATAA wrote something.
Then stopped.
...
"If there are so many..."
"...why call any of them
Reality Book?"
SEENEE did not answer.
...
GAAFATAA looked at him.
"SEENEE."
"What?"
"You avoided the question."
"I noticed."
...
GAAFATAA closed the book.
THUMP.
...
"Are these actually
Reality Books?"
...
For the first time,
SEENEE looked uncomfortable.
"They are."
GAAFATAA:
"That wasn't my question."
...
Silence.
...
GAAFATAA:
"Are they
THE Reality Book?"
...
Nothing.
...
Then SEENEE answered.
"No."
...
GAAFATAA's fingers
stopped moving.
...
"No?"
SEENEE looked toward
the closed book.
"They are copies."
...
Silence.
...
GAAFATAA:
"Copies of what?"
SEENEE:
"You know the answer."
GAAFATAA:
"I ask questions."
SEENEE:
"And sometimes
your questions are annoying."
GAAFATAA:
"Copies of what?"
...
SEENEE finally answered.
"The original."
...
The room suddenly felt
much quieter.
...
THE REALITY BOOK.
Not a Reality Book.
Not Sirna's Reality Book.
Not one of the countless books
scattered across histories,
worlds
and universes.
THE REALITY BOOK.
...
GAAFATAA:
"Where is it?"
SEENEE:
"I don't know."
...
GAAFATAA looked at him.
Not surprised.
Interested.
Because there were few answers
more useful to THE QUESTIONER
than hearing SEENEE say:
I don't know.
...
"Has anyone found it?"
SEENEE:
"Yes."
...
GAAFATAA immediately raised
his pen.
"Who?"
SEENEE:
"No."
GAAFATAA:
"That wasn't a question."
SEENEE:
"I know."
...
GAAFATAA stared at him.
SEENEE stared back.
...
Then GAAFATAA changed
the question.
"How many people
have had access to it?"
...
SEENEE did not answer immediately.
One second.
Two.
Three.
...
"One."
...
The pen stopped.
...
GAAFATAA:
"One person?"
SEENEE:
"One."
...
"Across all the copies?"
"Copies don't matter."
"Across the universes?"
"No."
"Across Sirna?"
...
SEENEE looked at him.
"I said one."
...
SCRATCH.
GAAFATAA wrote:
ONE PERSON.
Then beneath it:
THE ORIGINAL REALITY BOOK.
Then:
LOCATION — UNKNOWN.
...
He stared at the three lines.
Something bothered him.
...
"Why that person?"
SEENEE:
"I don't know."
...
"Did they find the book?"
...
Silence.
"Did the book find them?"
...
Silence.
"Were they given access?"
...
Silence.
"Did they steal access?"
...
Still nothing.
...
GAAFATAA smiled slightly.
"So you really don't know."
SEENEE:
"I know enough
to know where my knowledge ends."
...
GAAFATAA:
"Then tell me
what you do know."
...
SEENEE looked away.
Far beyond the room.
Beyond the book
sitting between them.
Beyond the histories
it could display.
...
"There was someone."
...
GAAFATAA waited.
...
"Someone whose story
was supposed to become
something much larger."
...
The pen hovered
above the page.
...
SEENEE continued.
"Someone who was destined
to become..."
...
Silence.
...
"THE SIRNA ANCHOR."
...
GAAFATAA did not write.
For once...
he simply listened.
...
SEENEE:
"He is the only person
known to have had access
to the original Reality Book."
...
GAAFATAA:
"Had?"
...
SEENEE slowly turned
toward him.
GAAFATAA's eyes narrowed.
"You said had."
...
SEENEE:
"Yes."
...
"Does he still have access?"
...
No answer.
...
"Is he alive?"
...
No answer.
...
"Did becoming connected
to the Reality Book
have something to do
with becoming the Sirna Anchor?"
...
No answer.
...
"Was the book
the reason he was chosen?"
...
No answer.
...
"Did he read his own history?"
...
No answer.
...
"Did he read ours?"
...
SEENEE's expression changed.
Barely.
But GAAFATAA noticed.
...
SCRATCH.
...
GAAFATAA:
"Interesting."
SEENEE:
"Don't."
GAAFATAA:
"I haven't said anything."
SEENEE:
"That's usually when
you're most dangerous."
...
GAAFATAA looked toward
the ordinary-looking copy
on the table.
...
Thousands of books.
Perhaps more.
Copies scattered
as widely as stories themselves.
Books capable of opening histories
that no living person remembered.
Books capable of changing
before your eyes
when someone reached backward
and disturbed what had already happened.
And somewhere...
in a location
SEENEE could not name...
was the book
they were copied from.
THE REALITY BOOK.
...
GAAFATAA:
"One final question."
SEENEE sighed.
"Of course."
...
"If every Reality Book
is only a copy..."
"...what can the original show
that the copies cannot?"
...
SEENEE became completely still.
...
The pages
of the copy between them
began turning.
Faster.
Faster.
FASTER.
Past.
History.
Worlds.
People.
Deaths.
Births.
Wars.
Choices.
Until—
SLAM.
The book closed itself.
...
Neither of them touched it.
...
GAAFATAA stared.
Then slowly...
he smiled.
SEENEE did not.
...
GAAFATAA raised his pen.
SCRATCH.
He wrote one final line.
WHAT CAN THE ORIGINAL REALITY BOOK SEE?
...
Below it...
nothing.
No answer.
Only empty paper.
...
SEENEE looked toward him.
"Leave that question alone."
GAAFATAA:
"You know who you're talking to."
...
SEENEE sighed.
"I was afraid you'd say that."
...
Somewhere...
in a place
neither of them could see...
a book remained closed.
Not a copy.
Not an echo.
Not one of thousands.
The first.
The original.
THE REALITY BOOK.
And once...
only once...
someone had been allowed
to open it.
The one who was destined
to become...
THE SIRNA ANCHOR.
...
But there was another question.
One SEENEE did not ask.
One GAAFATAA
had not written yet.
If that person
was destined
to become THE SIRNA ANCHOR...
...
why did someone else
take his place?
...
SCRATCH.