Chapter 33: Books
"It's clear," Irwin whispered as he looked into the room. He summoned his flame so Daubutim could follow him up as he stepped inside.
His eyes widened. Undamaged tables and chairs stood arranged neatly to the side while a massive bookcase covered the left wall.
So many books, he thought.
Taking another quick look around, he saw a narrow ladder pressed against the wall opposite the bookcase. Above it was a rectangular hole covered by a rotting wooden cover.
"Book!"
Irwin turned to see Daubutim, eyes wide and glittering, practically running towards the bookcase.
"Books?"
A muffled call came from his pocket as Ambraz wiggled out and flew up. "Well, look at that," the Anvil said as he flitted after Daubutim, hovering behind the boy who had taken one of the books from the shelf.
Irwin joined them, noting the annoyed frown on Daubutim's face as he flipped through the pages of the hand-sized, leatherbound book. One look showed him the reason for Daubutim's annoyance. The pages were filled with more of the angular, odd glyphs and letters that he had seen before.
"I can't read these letters," Daubutim muttered as he gently closed the book and returned it.
"That's not surprising, and neither can I," Ambraz said. "Although theoretically there should be dozens if not more shards leftover from when a world shatters, portals to them are hardly ever found. I've only heard of a few known instances of portals leading to shards of the same world."
Daubutim snorted and turned away while Irwin took a sad look at the tomes.