The Last Spark

Hours had already passed as we walked aimlessly. I felt the wind beginning to whistle, bringing with it the deadly cold of the desert night. We set up our tent and lit our campfire.

"Honestly, Tom. You know this is a fairy tale. Sure, we have some evidence, but that´s nothing like the Indiana Jones movies you loved so much when we were teenagers."

Leo's pessimism had become routine over the past month. After being fired from his job as a chemistry teacher, it seemed another person had taken over his body.

"Man, I get it. But we agreed to do this together and we’ve chased every possible and impossible clue around the globe. We know enough. The Great Library of Alexandria was never burned, it was hidden!"

"Only you believe that, Tom... I don’t know what made me agree to this. Tomorrow is our final deadline. According to the map, it should be here, and we found nothing today."

"Leo, you and I are teachers. It´s true I'm a history teacher, which would be much cooler for me to see what´s inside the library, but imagine how many other things we may find. We always dreamed of this."

I had little bargaining power left. In fact, we had been here for nine days and hadn’t found a single old scroll.

"Tomorrow, the last day."

"Okay. Let’s search behind that dune at sunrise and then near that yellow rock we haven’t checked yet," I said, pointing to the locations.

We got up early. We quickly packed our backpacks and left our tent there to save time; we could collect everything on our way back. We had little time before the sun became scorching.

"Yes, as we imagined... Nothing behind this stupid pile of sand."

"Yeah, let’s head to the rock."

By the time we arrived, it was almost 11 AM, and we managed to shelter from the sun behind the shadow cast by the rock.

"Look at this, Leo! It looks like a crank!"

"Hm... That’s not a crank." Moving closer to examine it, he continued:

"It’s a miniature sundial. Notice the markings around it, they’re symmetrical..."

"Wow, what are the chances this is related to the Library?"

"There are lots of these sundials out there, stop trying to find connections in everything. And please don’t touch it. You could break it. Later, the local authorities will see and say you vandalized some random historical site. I don’t want trouble, Tom, let’s just go home."

"Okay. Let’s wait for the sun to go down a bit, and we’ll head back to the tent. I can’t believe we found nothing."

As soon as I said that, I felt a sudden tremor. The ground beneath the rock began to open, revealing the entrance to a monumental staircase. I couldn’t believe my eyes. Everything seemed meticulously well-preserved, almost as if a supernatural force was keeping everything in perfect condition.

"I can’t believe it." Leo said.

"Neither can I, but look at the sundial! It’s noon now, maybe this door only opens when the sun is directly above us! Let’s go, quickly!"

We rushed in, and I hadn’t seen a trace of a smile on his face in a long time. It seemed a spark had ignited. For a brief moment, he looked like my childhood brother.

The passage led us to an underground chamber of unimaginable proportions. I could hear echoes of sounds I couldn’t even understand where they were coming from. Illuminated by the same magical glow as the stairs, I slipped on one of the stone pieces forming the floor, so polished and well-maintained they were. Shelves upon shelves of ancient scrolls, books, and artifacts filled the space, relics from another time.

In the center of the chamber stood a solitary figure, a man with flowing hair and a robe that didn’t seem from such a distant era.

"Welcome, travelers," said the man, his voice echoing through the chamber. "I am Klygor, the Guardian of the Library."

I stepped closer, Leo behind me. "Is this truly the lost Library of Alexandria?"

Klygor nodded. "Indeed, it is. Preserved in secrecy for centuries, hidden from the ravages of time and man. Only those worthy of gathering all the clues and enduring ten days in the desert sun can enter, and once inside, they may stay for only a month, learning all the library has to offer. But beware, you can take nothing with you except what you carry in your minds."

We couldn’t waste any time.

"Leo! I found out that Socrates never actually existed. Plato invented this character, but the ideas were almost all his!"

"Interesting. I’m discovering many things too..."

Each day that passed, I got fewer answers from him

"Let’s sleep, man. We’ll continue studying more tomorrow."

"Feel free... I’ll sleep later."

Everyday, I slept and woke up with him already reading and searching for new things. But it seemed the more he read, the more his soul faded. Like a drug addict, the more you use or smoke something, the greater the amount needed for the same effect.

He was searching for something that wasn’t there.

"Leo, what are you looking for? Talk to me."

"I... I want to learn more. The only thing I know how to do is learn."

"What do you mean?"

"Everyone tells me I don´t know how to be a good teacher. Maybe they are right."

" Yes, you do like learning new things, but you always loved teaching!"

"No, Tom. I don’t know how to teach and never did. I was just very good at grasping things at first glance."

We had reached our last day.

"Hey, Klygor. Where are you!?" I shouted.

"I am here, traveler Tom. At the foot of the Staircase, awaiting your departure... Time is running out."

"Leo, it’s time. Let’s go, we’ve seen everything we needed, we have material to tell people for ages!"

"Wait, Tom. I’m just finishing this piece of parchment. It seems interesting..."

"No, man!! We don’t have any more time, let’s go!"

"I have nothing to do out there, Tom. It’s the second time I’ve been fired, schools always say I lack the necessary teaching skills."

"What are you talking about? Every week while we still lived with our mother, we received letters from students thanking you, saying you changed their lives. I never received anything like that!"

"You were never fired."

Silence. I had no response to that.

"You taught me everything I know about the art of teaching. If you don’t know, I don’t know either."

"None of that matters... That’s not how the world works, and you know it. Sometimes, I feel I should have just kept quiet and accepted teaching the way the principals wanted."

"Leo... what’s worth more, a student transformed for life or a happy principal?"

"Huh? tell me, now. You always - "

"Gentlemen, I must interrupt. If you don’t leave within moments, one will have to stay and become the new guardian of the Library. That’s what happened to me almost 90 years ago. I was so focused on some revelations completely different from our History, that I didn’t notice the suns rising and setting. When I realized it, the former librarian had already left, sealing here forever. You’re the first I’ve seen in all this time. I’m doing you the favor of letting you decide; I don’t want to leave here with negative energies from having tricked someone."

"Give us five minutes!"

"I’m not the one controlling the magic of this place. I’m waiting at the top of the stairs until the final moment."

"Leo, it’s now, let’s go!"

"I’m not going, and you know it..."

"Please, I don’t know how to teach without your advices!"

"Tom, I found a spark of happiness here. Knowing that at least learning is something I’ve always been able to do and no one could take that away from me... "

I heard the sands starting to assemble. I ran up as fast as I could, and at the last moment, I turned to see him one last time.

In the distance, I could see, with the same sad face, he opened another book.