The library of Babel. The eternal and infinite library, where every book written and that will be written can be found.
Shiori pushed the big heavy doors open. Alone with the sound of her boots hitting the stone floor, she approached the empty reception pod humming "papapapapa PA!" to herself. A dry cough behind her surprised her, making her turn. A shriveled up being with a brown hoodie, focused on writing a perfect copy of a greek comedy. A perfect copy, albeit with some minor spelling mistakes that were going to be the cause of heated academic debates, when this copy will be recovered a couple of centuries ago. Before she could reach the scribe, a bony arm rose from the baggy clothes, and pointed towards the stairs in the middle of room behind the reception.
The staircase coiled around a single pillar covered in rosewood bookshelves. Shiori walked down the spiral, her nail scratching the books on the bookshelves that acted as outer wall of the well. In a repeating pattern, the bookshelves were replaced by doors, like leaves on a branch. Heavy metal gates, small glass doors, all opening to identical smaller libraries with their own staircases.
As Shiori reached the lowest floor, she looked up. The stairs seems very short for the time it took me and the numbers of doors I saw, she though. How long did it take she couldn't tell, but it felt too long. Before her was a simple white wood door with a glass panel on it. Slowly opening the door, she peered inside. This floor didn't seem too different from the rest of the libraries, but there were no staircase. Once inside, Shiori started to judge the books by their cover.
Finally, she found what she was looking for. She opened the book, the letters marched like ants. They ordered themselves to form words in the tongue of beings with no tongue. Photophages, substance with no form, squirming into the shape of thoughts by pens, furiously scratching the outer walls of the universe from the inside of our mind, trying to enter and leave at the same time.
"Uhm, I'll call you Yorick", she said as she picked the words soup up.
