Contents
Chapter 31
Overview
Livira refuses Hellet’s demand to surrender and destroy her loop-book, despite its danger. Hellet allows her and Malar to depart the Exchange, aiming for the library. A chance grab at Yute’s portal yanks Livira off-course, separating her from both Malar and Yute. She arrives alone in a foul aisle and identifies a disheveled old man as the king.
Summary
Hellet demands Livira hand over her looped book so he can destroy it, warning it breaks time and lets wrong things through. Livira refuses, seeing the book as part of herself. Malar backs her defiance, and Hellet surprisingly relents, insisting only that they leave the Exchange.
Hellet calls them time-echoes and opens a way “to the library.” Livira focuses on reaching Evar and lost friends, asking Malar to hold her arm in case of danger. They step through, briefly emerging in a warm kitchen that Livira thinks might be Salamonda’s.
A smaller portal opens there; a white hand in a grey sleeve—Yute’s—reaches for bread. Livira grabs Yute’s wrist and calls to Malar, catching his hand too, but the stronger pull rips all grips apart. She tumbles through void, battered by disorienting impacts, and is expelled into a reeking, book-strewn aisle.
Alone now, Livira takes in torn shelves and a half-naked old man sprawled on books. He scrambles into a stained purple robe, calls for absent guards, and glares with hard black eyes. Piecing clues together, Livira deduces he is the king and says so.
Who Appears
- LiviraRefuses to surrender her loop-book to Hellet; leaves the Exchange; is separated mid-portal; arrives alone before an old king.
- HelletAssistant who deems the loop-book dangerous and seeks to destroy it; permits Livira and Malar to depart the Exchange.
- MalarSupports Livira keeping the book; enters the portal with her; loses contact during Yute’s sudden pull.
- YuteSeen only as an arm from a small portal grabbing bread; briefly pulls Livira off-course before contact breaks.
- The KingDisheveled, suspicious old man in a stained purple robe; found amid torn books; Livira identifies him as the king.