The Book of Sages
The Antique shop in your town has always been a place of interest, filled with curious trinkets and odd machines you can't find anywhere else in the world today. You drift through the aisles, admiring the displays and avoiding the shop keeper, who is known for guilt-tripping unsuspecting people into buying more junk for their house. You already feel guilty for coming by just to look, so you stop by the book stand to see if they have anything good today.
Among old frayed copies of The Man and the Sea and Charles Dickens, you come across an old leather book you've never seen before. You pick it up to read the title but find there's no title to read. All there is on the front cover is a bronze emblem in a strange shape.
"Ah, caught your eye, has it?" the shop keeper asks, appearing behind you and causing you to jump. The wrinkled woman is almost as old as the rest of the stuff here, and she dresses like it, too. "The Book of Sages has a mind of its own, you know. It doesn't just let anyone pick it up. Are you interested in buying it?"
"Um, let me just take a look at it a little more," you tell her. She nods, disappointed, and walks away.
Once she's gone, you shake your head to clear it of her strange words and open the book. The yellowed pages inside host a swirling handwritten text. Some of the pages have pencil illustrations drawn on them: dragons, eyes, angels, and sorcerers are all common themes. Just by glancing at the story through the pictures, you consider bringing it home with you after all, but then the writing stops about halfway through. The rest of the pages are blank. You flip through to the end but find nothing except a poem on the last page.
After you read the poem, wind begins to swirl around you. As it gains speed, it whips the pages of the book around, eventually tearing them out and swirling them around you. You try to bat them away but eventually find it better to shield your face with your hands. Soon, you can't see anything, completely surrounded by the pages. In a moment, the wind stops, the pages fall down, and you find yourself on a white plane. There is nothing around as far as you can see. The sky is like a blank page above, which not even a sun in it.
Among old frayed copies of The Man and the Sea and Charles Dickens, you come across an old leather book you've never seen before. You pick it up to read the title but find there's no title to read. All there is on the front cover is a bronze emblem in a strange shape.
"Ah, caught your eye, has it?" the shop keeper asks, appearing behind you and causing you to jump. The wrinkled woman is almost as old as the rest of the stuff here, and she dresses like it, too. "The Book of Sages has a mind of its own, you know. It doesn't just let anyone pick it up. Are you interested in buying it?"
"Um, let me just take a look at it a little more," you tell her. She nods, disappointed, and walks away.
Once she's gone, you shake your head to clear it of her strange words and open the book. The yellowed pages inside host a swirling handwritten text. Some of the pages have pencil illustrations drawn on them: dragons, eyes, angels, and sorcerers are all common themes. Just by glancing at the story through the pictures, you consider bringing it home with you after all, but then the writing stops about halfway through. The rest of the pages are blank. You flip through to the end but find nothing except a poem on the last page.
After you read the poem, wind begins to swirl around you. As it gains speed, it whips the pages of the book around, eventually tearing them out and swirling them around you. You try to bat them away but eventually find it better to shield your face with your hands. Soon, you can't see anything, completely surrounded by the pages. In a moment, the wind stops, the pages fall down, and you find yourself on a white plane. There is nothing around as far as you can see. The sky is like a blank page above, which not even a sun in it.