The Library And The Book

As panic set into James' face, the black rabbit took a quick look at the back of the strange boy's neck - noticing his black heptagonal crest undulating a seemingly impossible black light. The rabbit spat his cigar into the pond, and instead of embers, pieces of granite and other rocks flew out of the end and dissolved into the pond along with the cigar, a slight sizzle emitting a muffled hiss as the cigar and its "embers" nearly instantaneously disappeared.

James' confusion at this could only last a moment however, as the next minute a gust of wind blew him off his feet and right over the middle of the silver pond. As adrenaline pumped through his body, time seemed to slow as his vision turned monochromatic and endless amounts of information flooded his mind.

Unexpectedly, as James tried to comprehend this incoming information, instead of finding it difficult to understand in his current mental state, his mind seemed to calm; it calmed down almost completely as the pace of his understanding quickened as he comprehended more, and even a hint of joy flashed across his face just as his neck submerged into the depths of the strange pond.

What was the information? It consisted of 4 main parts: a manual describing how to construct "arrays" that could do a litany of different things automatically; and a "language" consisting of runes, allowing him to build these automata out of energy by arranging patterns of these runes into an array, which James understood to just be a method of listing them.

The third part was what made James grin - his mind, and accordingly his senses, had detached from his body, and was now inside of his soul. As he looked around in his ethereal form, he saw what was dictated in the third, final, and smallest piece of information: The Library.

This ancient-looking library contained, well, books - all sorts of books - on every topic imaginable. Literally, every topic imaginable to James, but that didn't mean they were all filled. The books contained the sum of James' knowledge and experiences, all perfectly preserved and ordered.

The final part was actually a book, a simple leather bound book with tattered edges called "Runic Assembly". Looking at the book with curiosity, James' mind wandered to an interesting question: "Should I read this, or place it on a shelf?". Before this question could be answered, the book seemingly made a decision.

The book flew in front of James and opened; there was no dazzling light, not even many words - just 9 sets of 9 runes, written in normal ink superimposed on an image of a human body, and a single paragraph detailing the meaning of the runes and what they do.

James was shocked, surprised, and more than anything: excited. This book laid out what was practically a visual programming language; finally, something familiar to him in this strange world.

The set of runes formed an array: the Heptagonal Gathering Array