Prophecy of the Nexus

Chapter 11

Over the next two weeks, my training intensified. Not only was I doing a lot more studying, but even the little exercise I was forced to do was getting more difficult. Sir Atticus was making me not just run around fields but had got me onto climbing walls, tires, and scrambling under nets. This would have been horrific for me if Marcus wasn't doing it beside me. He never left me behind and shouted encouragement along the way. Even if I got stuck or couldn't complete an exercise, I had felt I had achieved something.

It also didn't help that my weapons training wasn't getting any better. I could at least hold a rifle and point it at a target. But, the recoil would always skew my already poor aim. Sir Atticus asked me a couple of times how it felt with a gun in my hand and had this knowing look every time I told him it didn't feel right.

Added to all this was my disastrous sleeping pattern. If I was lucky the day would have worn me out that dreamless sleep came easy and I could rest. But when I did dream it seemed to feature a mad Alice who refused to talk to me or a portal with calloused claws reaching out for me and a cruel voice muttering "It is your destiny. It is your destiny." I often woke up from those dream with a yelp when the morning bell sounded.

I never looked forward to my Mondays as they involved weapons training. Marcus and I headed towards the firing range to find Sir Atticus waiting for us at the path. He was beaming at us and seemed to have a bounce in his step. How someone was so alive in the mornings was beyond me. We approached and saluted him. "Morning," he said, saluting back. "Bit of a change of plan. Marcus you'll be carrying on as normal," he said, nodding at Marcus. Then he turned to me. "I might have found a solution to your weapons problem." My heart leapt. If that solution was to never hold a weapon again then I was all for it. But seeing as we were Arknights I doubted this was the case. We said farewell to Marcus and headed back into the complex.

"Where are we going, sir?" I asked as we entered a district of the complex I had never been to before. This had nicer buildings with larger rooms and bigger windows. The amount of guards also seemed to decrease and I noticed a lot more Masters walking around.

"You'll see," he said, a mischievous grin on his face. I didn't like this. I wasn't the best at surprises and not knowing where we were going was unnerving. However, I knew Sir Atticus wouldn't put me in danger and anything was better the weapons practice.

We turned a corner to see a building that stood out among the standardised concrete blocks. Sir Atticus had lead me to a fancy-looking building made of glass and brown wood. The wood's warm feel didn't seem to fit the sleek appearance of the glass, but they appeared inviting to me. It was the size of two fields and was four levels high. Ornate towers stood at the top at each corner that overlooked a grand doorway. "Welcome, Sara, to the Matrix."

I gasped as we entered the Matrix, taken in by the sight of a thousand books. They were everywhere. Shelves stored them in places that made them look out of place. Each door was slightly blocked from the encroaching shelving, which were heaving underneath lines books. Every book looked different: tomes as big as your head, parchment that must have been written on a hundred years ago, and there were even torn books that hung from their covers limply. I took a deep breath in and the warm smell of paper was intoxicating. Everything I had learnt up to this point was insignificant to this wealth of knowledge. That spark of wonder I got when I got in a library took hold. I could get lost here for the rest of my life, and I wouldn't care about it. Sir Atticus was watching my stunned expression with a smile. "Thought you might like it," he said.

We passed a service desk with a librarian focused on keeping a stack of books from falling over. Sir Atticus led me through door after door. They dedicated each section to a different aspect of the Arknight life, and each one was bigger than the Archive I had been to. It was an odd mixture of cramp but spacious. Books surrounded me, but there weren't many people here. I had only spotted one or two Arknights and Master searching the shelves for a book. This allowed space for people and also artefacts. A glass case flanked each doorway with something new and exciting inside. Most of them contained busts of pasted Masters and Arknights of note. I wanted to read what they had done, but Sir Atticus dragged me deeper into the Matrix.