Halls of the Forgotten

“First day, huh?”

“How do you know?”

“You are about to enter the Halls of the Forgotten instead of the Forgotten Halls. Common mistake. Fatal, too.”

“Haha, okay, okay I see it. You’re just fucking with the new guy.”

“Do I look like I want to have intercourse with you?”

“That’s not… what I meant.”

“I know. Now I was fucking with you. But seriously, don’t go through that door.”

“Why? What’s there?”

“I've no idea.”

“And don’t you feel curious? I thought knowledge was our muse and mistress around here. It is a fucking library after all, what could be so dangerous? The books in there are so bad they’ll bore me to death or something? Voln’s grace!”

“Knowledge is our treasure, our reward, let’s put it that way. But our mistress is wisdom. And nothing is wiser than to know what we can and what we cannot do, or where we can go and where we can’t.”

“Are you serious? There’s an entire wing of the Great Library you never went into? How long have you been here?”

“Longer than you. And I lasted more than anyone who came through here with the same kind of stupidity you are showing.”

“So, it’s a restricted area? Locked, surely?”

“Oh, no. It’s open. Test the door knob if you will.”

“It works… But, then, why?”

“Listen, New Guy, I’ve seen a dozen or so pass through that door. Not one returned. As soon as they step in and walk two or three paces, puff, gone. As if they walked directly inside a heavy fog. But without the actual fog, of course. They are never seen or heard again. Every time the masters tried to lock this shit up, it just reopened on its own. Now, I have places to be and things to do, I was just giving friendly advice, but if you insist on dooming yourself, go ahead, I don’t really care.”

“And why no one told me this before?! And the families of those people, they can’t just accept it. What the fuck.”

“What the fuck indeed. You didn’t read the New Student Guide, did you? It’s all there. Read it. And hey, I don’t make the rules. Not even the Grand Mistress and the Council do”

“They… don’t?”

“I meant the door, the Halls of the Forgotten, they didn’t make those rules. And about the families, that’s not an issue.”

“What?! How?!”

“Well, it’s in the name: ‘Halls of the Forgotten’. No one can remember those people. Names, faces, past experiences, everything. Some of them might have been my friends, maybe a lover? Who knows? I don’t!”

“That’s insane.”

“Yes. But still, a small price to pay for all the great gifts the Library offers us.”

“And what about belongings left behind? Letters, diaries?”

“Hm. If there ever were any, they disappeared from existence along with the memories of their owners.”

“Shit.”

“Yeah.”

“That is the most elaborate prank I have ever heard.”

“It’s real, New Guy. Tell you what, open the door just slightly, don’t even look inside. Toss something in there. Something you won’t need nor miss, of course. Then close the door and tell me what it was.”

“Okay, just give me a minute… Yeah, it’s done. And it was just my… Oh. Shit.”

“Shit indeed. Anyway, I’m monstrously late for my class, but if you are going to the Forgotten Halls, come with me, it’s the same way.”

“Yeah, thanks. For everything.”

“You own me one, New Guy.”

“So, they never tried to learn how that door works? To shut it down, I mean.”

“Well, it’s obiviously magical in nature. But of a kind of magic no one has deciphered. Well, maybe someone did, but didn’t persist to relay that information. Not yet at least. Some believe many powerful mages tried but failed.”

“Believe?”

“It is theorized that the more one studies the door, the more he or she is attracted to it and to the ‘HoF’. Let’s call it ‘HoF’ for short, from now on. For time and safety’s sake, since even thinking about it too much can be dangerous.”

“I get it, those mages probably didn’t resist their thirst for knowledge and went in. And if they entered… No one would remember them.”

“Exactly.”

“Wha- What is that over there?”

“Oh, yeah. No, don’t worry, we didn’t get lost or returned to the same place. Our destination is not far now.

“That’s not why I’m fucking worried!”

“Calm down, Voln's patience! I was about to say, that damned door is not exactly consistent. Its position inside the Great Library changes frequently. For some people it is always nearby. That’s why it’s useless trying to lock it up, or barricade it.”

“Oh my Gods. How can you be so calm about it? Fuck.”

“Fucking helps a bit, yes. But seriously, you’ll get used to it. In just a few weeks it won’t be a big deal anymore, trust me.”

“I was thinking, you said you saw a dozen or so people going through it. So you remember them?”

“Hm. Not exactly. I remember vague shadows, and only those last moments of them walking, facing away from me, until they disappeared.”

“That’s sad.”

“That would be sad if I retained memories about them. Or maybe happy, if they were my enemies, who knows? Besides, I feel they just transited to… Well, somewhere. They ceased to exist here so they can exist on the other side. And maybe things are better there, you know? We can’t know for sure.”

“To me that sounds like a fate worse than death.”

“We should organize a debate about it between you and someone on death’s door.”

“I would kill it.”

“New Guy! And I was beginning to think you had no sense of humor.”

“What’s your name?”

“Irannas.”

“Pretty.”

“Like me. And yours, New Guy?”

“Kel.”

“Simple. Easy to remember. I like it.”

“So you are pretty and I am ‘simple’, wow.”

“Your words, not mine.”

Kel stopped for a moment at the balcony and pointed to a Halls of the Forgotten door on the floor below them “That one is wide open. Is it normal?”

“Oh, yes. One thing I forgot to mention about them: it doesn’t work for cats. I mean, they can go through, of course. But they don’t disappear, nor are forgotten, and they certainly always come back. When you see one open wide like that, chances are a cat just traveled through.”

“You’re shitting me.”

“That’s disgusting, no, thanks.”

“Fuck, why all this literality?”

“Because it makes people uncomfortable, I can’t resist it. And it reminds me of my native language. But about the cats: all true. Professor’s word.”

“Wa-What? You are not older than me-”

Irannas stopped and opened the door in front of them, revealing an auditorium with dozens of newly arrived students of the Library, the first batch of the year. “Go ahead, New Guy, pick a seat, class is about to begin.” Then she turned to the rest of the room and said “Welcome to the Forgotten Halls, I'm Professor Irannas and in this subject we will study the history of knowledges lost through time. Like the Professor before me used to say: ‘we know they existed, we just don’t know how.’”

Kel, still blushing, took the path closest to the wall and sat on the last row, as far away as possible from Irannas’s gaze.