Apostles of Doom

Whatever the case, though, he needed to chill, and since Doom had some sort of library, that seemed like a good place to go for some calm rational thought. He was not really sure what he would find there. He knew it was a very large room and sealed from the outside by numerous runes and spells. Of course, the DoomNet covered it, but there were also thousands of other runes that were lower-powered that held spells that were independent of Doom’s mana generators.

Tom knew very little about wizardry, but he could tell that there was a vast number of low-level spells in place within the library. Presumably, from what people had said, they were preservation spells. The Abyss was not particularly friendly to organic matter; nor was time.

Tom reached the main entrance to the Library of Doom and twisted the handle of the large wooden double doors. He had to trigger a rune that was locking the door, but that was no problem. A small blast of much cooler air puffed through the doorway as Tom stepped into the large room. Entering the room, magical glass lanterns turned on to light the large chamber. Actually, make that a vast chamber, Tom thought as he took in the sight. He could sense that the lighting was powered by Doom, and preservation spells were on the shelves and even the books and scrolls themselves, of which there were enough to take his breath away.

This was a library of yore, Tom thought to himself, gazing in awe at the large four-story room with ornately carved wooden walkways and shelves. Each floor was probably fifteen feet tall, comfortable for someone of his own height. The closest thing to it that Tom could remember ever seeing was the Council of Wizardry’s library in Freehold. However, this was even more impressive than that; certainly larger.

He was at the base of a giant study room, with what appeared to be a large mapping table near the front, similar to the 3D map table in the DCC. The sides of the main room were the end points of long aisles stretching off for who knew how far. Looking down the closest one, it seemed to go a long distance before opening into another large chamber.

There had to be at least thirty aisles along each of the three walls to his right, left and ahead. The wall behind him was solid, with bookshelves lining the first story. On each of the three additional stories, a walkway circled the main room, and thirty aisles led off from each of the four walls.

Tom looked up at the large domed ceiling, ornately decorated with relief sculptures of angels, demons, and all manner of odd creatures. Talk about intimidating. He shook his head in wonder. He needed to check his mental map, but this place really did not seem dimensionally consistent with the rest of Doom’s layout.

“By the beard of the First Grand Calyphos!” Tom heard Tamarin exclaim in shock and wonder behind him. He twisted to see the djinni transfixed in the doorway behind him. He had not realized she had followed him.

Tamarin’s eyes roved the walls and aisles with an expression of — something — awe, reverence, lust? Tom was not quite sure. After a few moments she continued into the library, her head shaking in disbelief and awe. “I have, of course, heard of the Library of Doom, and I knew it to be magnificent, but this transcends anything I had envisioned,” she whispered, clearly daunted by the library's grandeur. “It is one of the ten greatest libraries in the multiverse. It is only fifty thousand years old, but has treasures spanning nearly a million years of written knowledge.” She laughed ruefully. “While, in theory, the Library of Djinnistan is larger, being amorphous, it is not nearly as intimidating nor as glorious as a physical library of this size.”

“Not exactly what one expects to find in the Abyss, I suppose.” Tom grinned at her.

Tamarin smiled at him. “Demons as a rule are not known for their scholarship, and orcs have a bad habit of burning books, but the demon princes and archdemons are different. They understand that knowledge is power. As do the gods. Orcus’s library has been closed to the multiverse since his death; however, during the height of the Doompire, scholars from all over the multiverse, those who knew of it, sought answers here. It was no small part of Orcus’s power structure. Access to this library was extremely valuable.”

Tom shook his head. “Orcus was obviously far more complex than most give him credit for.”

“He certainly was. He had to be in order to take on both heaven and hell and survive,” Tamarin said. “Or so I have learned from my studies. He is far before my time, or that of any living djinni.”

“Are djinn not immortal?” Tom asked, surprised.

Tamarin grinned at him. “Not at all. We are mortal; we just live for a long period of time. Longer than humans, orcs and dwarves, but less than the Rios Alfar and their close kin.”

Tom nodded with a wistful expression.