Chương 43: The Very Busy Scholar

Bart led them deeper into the Joint Deposit Archive. The archive lay beneath Ravespire, the ancient academic quarter at the heart of Greenhollow City. The building was vastly larger on the inside than its basalt exterior suggested. The ceiling vanished into heavy, shadowed arches, and the narrow aisles stretched out for what looked like miles. The air grew noticeably colder with every step, carrying the distinct scent of dry papers and old ink. The aisles were choked with dust, but the vault was not entirely dead.

Pale, thick vines wrapped around, creeping silently over the sealed wooden deposit boxes. The colorless vegetation pulsed with a slow rhythm that felt entirely too much like breathing. Bart glanced at the faded directory beside the indexing desk.

"When was this archive last opened?" Maud hesitated.

"Jointly? 283 years ago." Gregor looked at the three department heads.

"So then none of you have actually been in here?"

"We have departmental catalogues for reference," Hester said stiffly.

"The earliest records," Hester continued, her broad shoulders brushing against the foliage.

"Those will be in the Pomological section. Aisles four through nine."

"Nonsense," Conrad rumbled, gesturing toward the back of the massive vault.

"The foundational work is Soil Alchemy. It predates your fruit obsession by at least a decade."

"His early breakthroughs depended on moss bed symbiosis," Maud noted coldly.

"Without the bryophytic cultures, there would have been no viable substrate at all." Gregor ignored them all. He had found a massive, iron wheeled archive ladder on a brass track that ran the length of the central corridor. He gave it a shove. The wheels let out a piercing, metallic screech that echoed painfully through the cavernous vault.

"I'll check out the top shelves, Boss," Gregor called out, already climbing.

"Careful with any classification tags," Bart said, stepping up to the central indexing desk. Conrad crossed his massive arms, glaring at Hester.

"Veridian's first recorded alchemical grant was for experimental substrates. Soil Alchemy owns the root of the research."

"A grant he applied for only after perfecting the orchard yield!" Hester shot back, her voice rising to a booming, competitive shout. Maud's expression changed.

"Lower your voices." Hester barely glanced at her.

"I know the old Rooted Quill preservation rules—""Then perhaps follow them," Maud hissed. Hester turned back toward Conrad.

"Pomology funded the…" The pale vines suddenly whipped off the shelves. Thick, fibrous tendrils snapped around Conrad's massive biceps, pinning his arms to his sides with terrifying speed. Another cluster shot downward from the ceiling, wrapping tightly around Hester's ankles and yanking her flush against a stone pillar. Conrad stared at the tendrils around his arms.

"They're still active?" Maud took a careful step backward.

"Looks like it." Conrad strained against the vines. The thick leather of his apron creaked under the immense pressure, but the plants only tightened, their pale leaves turning bruised purple.

"What is this?" Hester demanded, struggling violently against the pillar. Bart adjusted his glasses. He looked at the vines, then at the stone pillar Hester was pinned against. He reached out and wiped a thick layer of dust off a tarnished brass plaque bolted at eye level. ORDER OF THE ROOTED QUILL VOICE LEVEL: LOW ARCHIVAL FLORA RESPONDS TO RAISED VOICES Bart tapped the plaque and raised a finger to his lips. Hester, following his gaze to the brass plate, finally stopped struggling and fell utterly silent.

Conrad, seeing the warning, clamped his jaw shut and ceased pulling against the tendrils. The vault plunged into absolute quiet. The aggressive purple hue faded back to a pale white. Slowly, deliberately, they uncoiled from Conrad's arms and retreated from Hester's boots, sliding smoothly back onto the dusty shelves. Gregor peered down from the top of the rolling ladder, 20 ft in the air.

"Boss, I think you just shushed a jungle."

"It was clearly mentioned as a rule," Bart said. If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. He turned away from the deeply shaken profs and focused on the central indexing desk. He opened his briefcase, retrieved a fresh page in his notepad, and pulled the master registration ledger toward him.

"Where are the earliest drafts?" Conrad asked, rubbing his arms and keeping his voice to a harsh, careful whisper.

"We are not looking for drafts yet," Bart said.

"If we're going to trace his citations, we first need to establish who 'Aldous Veridian' actually refers to. The authority record." Hester frowned.

"The what?"

"The catalogue record that identifies the person behind the name," Bart explained, wiping a layer of grime from the desk's surface.

"Without it, any name is just an string of text." He placed his hand flat on the ledger's green glass indexing plate.

"Aldous Veridian," Bart said quietly.

"Authority Record." The glass flickered. AUTHORITY RECORD: VERIDIAN, ALDOUS Faculty appointment: NOT FOUND Birth registration: NOT FOUND Academic matriculation: NOT FOUND Correspondence archive: NOT FOUND Death record: NOT FOUND Burial record: NOT FOUND Elian leaned over Bart's shoulder.

"Maybe he didn't like paperwork."

"He apparently published several thousand pages of it," Bart said.

"Perhaps the Rooted Quill filed the biographical data under the individual departments," Maud suggested defensively.

"Let us cross reference the early citations," Bart said. He pulled a stack of faded, secondary tracking logs from a drawer in the desk and began charting the dates against the seven historical fields they had discovered on the first page. He ran his pen down a column.

"Year 412, Spring of Hesenter, Week Twelve," Bart read.

"An orchard-yield study completed here in Ravespire was submitted under the name Aldous Veridian." Hester looked triumphant.

"Exactly." Bart turned the page.

"During that same week, a fermentation study from the western province was registered under the same name." Hester's smile faltered. Bart pulled another log.

"Two days later, a fungal survey from the Rimewater Marshes was deposited under Veridian. According to the travel register, that is three weeks overland from Ravespire." Gregor scratched his chin.

"Fast horse?" Bart turned another page.

"On that exact same day, lecture notes on medicinal cultivation were filed here in Ravespire under the name Aldous Veridian."

"Very fast horse," Gregor said. Bart pulled one final record.

"Three days later, a Soil Alchemy experimental report arrived from the southern conservatories." Gregor considered this.

"Two horses?"

"Gregor!" Bart said, chiding him. Elian stared at the overlapping dates.

"He couldn't have been in three places at once. Even with portal transit, the academic timeline is physically impossible."

"Then the records are fraudulent!" Conrad hissed.

"The other departments falsified their timelines to steal his legacy!" Bart shook his head." Not necessarily. We're assuming they describe a scholar at all." Conrad frowned, his thick brows knitting together.

"What does that mean?" Bart tapped the green glass plate, engaging the archive's internal integrity check for the name Veridian.

ATTRIBUTION INTEGRITY WARNING Referenced scholarly identity: ALDOUS VERIDIAN Dependent citations: 38, 421 Primary contributor record: UNRESOLVED Provenance status: INCOMPLETE Dependent certified protocols: 6, 214 Existing installations: LEGACY OPERATION PERMITTED New certification / renewal: SUSPENDED PENDING REVIEW Recommended action: RECONSTRUCT ATTRIBUTION CHAIN"What exactly is being suspended?" Maud asked quietly.

"Not the knowledge. Its certification," Bart explained. Conrad frowned. He pointed at the display.

"Existing systems can continue operating under legacy authorization. But anything requiring renewal, modification, replication, or new institutional approval can be suspended until the attribution chain is repaired." Hester realized the implication immediately.

"The conservatory wards are renewed every twelve years."

"How long until renewal?" Bart asked. Conrad went quiet.

"Seven months." Hester looked mildly horrified.

"The southern orchards are due for grafting certification next season." Gregor looked at Bart.

"So he's holding up half the university?" Bart considered the screen.

"Administratively yes" He turned back to the massive master ledger, flipping past the missing biographical data, searching for the earliest entry at the bottom of the foundational record and stopped, Gregor saw him freeze.

"What's wrong?" Bart tapped the ledger.

"Veridian isn't listed as the author." Hester stepped forward.

"Of course he is. His name is on the book." Bart didn't look up.

"His name is on the publication." Hester frowned. Gregor leaned closer to the heavy parchment. PUBLICATION IDENTITY: ALDOUS VERIDIAN AUTHOR IDENTITY: —----------- CONTRIBUTOR RECORD: HELD SEPARATELY ATTRIBUTION OFFICE: ORDER OF THE ROOTED QUILL Bart adjusted his glasses.

"Then Aldous Veridian is just a publication identity." Nobody spoke but just looked at each other.