Pages & Co.: The Map of Stories by Anna James

Author:Anna James
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group
Published: 2020-09-22T00:00:00+00:00

28

Made of Imagination

Tilly and Oskar stood up and walked through the door after Artemis. She took them down a long corridor to a large set of wooden double doors painted white. Artemis pushed them open, and in front of them was just bright whiteness, so dazzling that they were forced to squint until their eyes could get used to the glare. As their eyesight adjusted, they could see a room come into focus in front of them. A room with no windows and high ceilings—and rows and rows of shelves full of large books bound in white. The floor was whitewashed wood and there was no other decoration or furniture apart from the shelves. Despite the lack of color, the room still somehow had a sense of warmth and friendliness, as though it was inviting you in.

“Welcome to the Archive.” Artemis smiled.

“So, what exactly is archived here?” Tilly asked.

“In this hall are the histories of every bookwanderer since this Archive began,” Artemis explained.

“What do you mean histories?” Oskar asked.

“Records of every time a bookwanderer travels inside a book,” Artemis said, as if that made it any easier to understand. “That’s how I knew you two weren’t bookwandering anymore.”

“But how?” Tilly asked. “How do you know?”

“I don’t,” Artemis said. “But the Archive does. This place is built out of story magic, the same magic you use every time you bookwander. It’s all pulling from the same magic source, and so the Archive can see how you are using that magic, and records it here.”

“So, there’s one of these books for me and Tilly?” Oskar asked, unnerved. “Can we see them?”

“I am not technically permitted to show any bookwanderer their Record,” Artemis said. “But considering the circumstances, perhaps I can make an exception, so you can understand what I know. And I can tell you a bit more about how the Archive came to be as we walk.”

She led the way down the long row of shelves.

“Legend says that the original Archivist was a bookwanderer who was trying to escape death,” Artemis explained as she went, in her low, soothing voice. “Not because of any of what one might call the usual reasons, but because he was haunted by all the books he would never have time to read. And so he burrowed his way down into layer upon layers of stories, as far as he could reach—stories inside stories, and books within books. He didn’t care if it proved impossible to find his way back—he never wanted to leave. He carved out a space inside Story, and sent messages back to his trusted friends so that they could find their way if they wished, and for a while it was a place to write and read and talk and share ideas and it became suffused with the magic of books and stories and imagination.”

“Suffused?” Tilly asked, not quite understanding the word.

“I mean that magic attracts magic, and it gradually spread through this whole place until it was part of its very foundations.

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