Chương 65: Normal Operating Hours

VOLUME TWO A few days had passed since Bart got promoted from Provisional Keeper and became the established successor. On one of the mornings, the new Keeper stood behind his desk with the BPL mug filled with coffee. He had made a decision today. It was going to be a completely ordinary day. There would be no ancient Keepers cosmic entities, authorities and no reality-shattering revelations about the apocalypse.

He suddenly had a look around and saw that there was a queue if you can call it that, It was a line of twenty or thirty people waiting for library services. It started at the newly repaired Patron Services desk, snaked around Mabel's massive resting form, and ended beside the Staff Restroom door, where another bewildered patron appeared every few minutes. According to a small, pulsing blue System notification hovering near the ceiling, the physical line was only part of the problem.

PATRONS WAITING ON-SITE: 27 REMOTE ACCESS REQUESTS: 314 ACTIVE ORIGIN REALITIES: 3 Bart just stood there, holding his coffee blinking and taking it all in. Albert glided past him, pushing his cleaning cart. The undead custodian's immaculate black uniform was perfectly pressed.

"Good morning, Keeper," Albert said politely. At the Patron Services desk, Gregor was currently arguing with a six armed scholar in yellow robes. Gregor jabbed a finger at the registration form.

"One person. One card." The scholar spread all six hands in exasperation.

"I possess six legally distinct casting licenses."

"Congratulations."

"Three academic appointments."

"Very impressive."

"And two hereditary names." Gregor narrowed his eyes.

"How many of you are standing in front of me?" The scholar hesitated.

"One." Gregor stamped the form.

"One card then eh!" The scholar stared at him for several seconds, gathered the card with considerable dignity, and moved aside.

"Next!" A small woman whose hair appeared to be made entirely of smoke stepped forward clutching three books against her chest. Before Bart could move, Mabel raised one enormous paw.

"Returns to the left. Registration remains here. The woman immediately changed direction. At the far end of the desk, Albert caught a leaning stack of returned books before it toppled, straightened them by height, and continued pushing his cleaning cart without breaking stride. Bart stood there with his coffee. Nobody had asked him anything.

For most of his time in the Archive, every malfunction, patron, escaped book, broken ward and administrative catastrophe had eventually arrived at his desk because there had been nowhere else for it to go. Now Gregor was issuing cards, Mabel was directing patrons and Albert was keeping the entire operation from physically collapsing. It should have been reassuring.

Instead, Bart found himself staring at the queue with the uneasy realization that he might finally have succeeded in creating something capable of generating problems faster than he could personally solve them.

"Albert," Bart said quietly.

"Sir?"

"Why are there people?" Albert tilted his skull, his blue eye lights evaluating the line.

"You reopened the archive, sir." Bart took a long drink of his coffee.

"Right. But how do they know?"

"The multiversal institutional directory must have updated our status to OPERATIONAL in the last few days," Albert noted mildly. Bart stared at him.

"We were in an institutional directory?"

"We did, sir."

"Did?"

"It appears to have resumed normal service." Bart settled into his chair behind his main desk. The small, polished wooden plaque reading BARTHOLOMEW SANDERS – KEEPER caught the light from the reading lamps. The plaque was real, so was the queue. 27 people were currently waiting for library services, which Bart knew from experience was how generally complaints began. The Archive seemed alive again. A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

This also meant Bart had inherited an institution infinitely larger than his current understanding of it. He pulled out a blank sheet of parchment and was determined to maintain control of the situation. He wrote out his schedule for the day. INFINITE ARCHIVE - TODAY'S PRIORITIES Process returns. Resolve catalogue backlog. Train junior staff. Coffee. Absolutely no existential catastrophes before lunch. Before Bart could amend the list further, the massive System interface above his desk chimed.

Over the previous days, Bart's recognition had been propagating through administrative infrastructure that had spent six centuries asleep. PENDING INTERLIBRARY REQUESTS: 18, 441 Bart stared at the number. He slowly put his quill down.

"System," Bart said.

"How long have these been waiting?" OLDEST REQUEST: 616 YEARS, 2 MONTHS, 11 DAYS"Let's just look at the top of the pile," Bart sighed, tapping the interface. The requests cascaded down the screen. They weren't all world ending disaster related. They were mundane problems, submitted by various people. The first request came from an aquatic university requesting Fire Safety for Beginners in a waterproof edition. The second bore the familiar seal of the Monastery of the Seven Ovens.

THE MASTER'S GUIDE TO ADVANCED PASTRY BAKING - RICKARD ASTEL Purpose: SCHOLARLY REVIEW OF HISTORICAL HERESY ONLY. Beneath it, someone had handwritten: THE ABBOT DOES NOT INTEND TO BAKE FROM IT. A third note followed: BROTHER ODO REQUESTS A COPY FOR INDEPENDENT SCHOLARLY VERIFICATION. Bart smiled. Apparently, institutional reform came in very small steps. He scrolled to the next request. It contained only four words. DRAGON. LARGE PRINT EDITION. Bart decided to come back to that one.

He opened the incident reports from the newly restored Liaison Network. PROPERTY CONDITION DISPUTE Issue: Circular brown stain on returned volume. Provisional classification: Unauthorized organic liquid contamination. Filed by: Custodian Mera Pell, Veyric Kiln. Bart quietly moved his coffee mug farther from the paperwork. The next alert flashed from Tremendia. Bart discovered it wasn't a message from Aurelius, but a bureaucratic update regarding partner jurisdictions.

TREMENDIA - PARTNER SERVICE HOLIDAYS: 117 Bart frowned. He checked the sub-file. Holidays commemorating the reign of Aurelius IV: 93 Bart stared at it. Somewhere in Tremendia, a king was presumably very pleased with himself. He leaned back in his chair and rubbed his temples. This was exactly what he had wanted. This was the functioning institution he had fought for.

"Keeper." Bart opened his eyes. Mabel had turned her massive, lion-like body toward him from the entrance.

"Yes, Mabel?"

"At what hour do we cease admitting patrons?" the Sphinx asked, her voice vibrating through the floorboards. Bart paused. He looked at the queue terminating near the Staff Restroom.

"We close?" Bart asked. Albert stopped sweeping. Gregor looked highly concerned.

"Boss," Gregor said slowly.

"Please tell me we close." Bart checked the interface. OPERATING HOURS: NOT DEFINED Bart stared at the screen. The Archive hadn't been properly open in over six centuries.

"We do have an after hours policy but the time is not defined. We do need business hours especially as we can see we are growing," Bart announced to the room.

"Nine to five. Or maybe eight to six. Something standard." Elian looked up from his usual reading table near Cross-Reference.

"The Silver Spire operates on a 31 hour day, Keeper," Elian pointed out. Bart frowned.

"Of course it does." Elian hesitated.

"Also... I may have mentioned to my supervisor that the Archive is operational again." Bart slowly looked at him.

"Mentioned. Well how much did you say?" Elian became suddenly fascinated by the spine of his book.

"There may be a formal inquiry coming." Bart sighed. He let his head fall forward against the desk. It was a bureaucratic nightmare.

"We will establish a standardized multiversal timekeeping conversion system," Bart muttered to himself, pulling a fresh sheet of parchment forward.

"System, open a draft for Policy..." He didn't even finish the sentence. The System gave a distinct, deep CHIME. It was a heavy, resonant sound that shook the archive. The blue interface expanded abruptly, replacing the draft policy with a network diagnostic Bart had never seen before. NETWORK STATUS UPDATE DORMANT CONNECTION DETECTED Origin: UNKNOWN Last successful connection: 616 YEARS AGO For a moment, the whole archive seemed to go quiet around him. Bart stared at the screen. 616 years ago. The Ruin?.

Bart slowly set down his quill, so much for his hope of a normal morning. INCOMING REQUEST Bart adjusted his glasses, preparing for whatever problem had just found its way back onto his desk.

"Fine," Bart said.

"What is it?" The blue text resolved into a standard administrative form. NEW PATRON REGISTRATION REQUEST Name: Bernard Species: Dragon Occupation: Retired Requested accommodation: Reading room must support approximately nine tonnes. Bart read the text again and again to make sure. Slowly, Bart looked up. He looked out over the beautifully restored oak reading chairs, the lamps, and the polished floorboards of the main hall. Then he looked at the skeletal custodian standing quietly near the desk.

"Albert."

"Yes, Keeper?" Bart tapped the screen.

"We're going to need better furniture."