"I could spend an eternity in here…"
He didn't understand the true weight of those words until it was too late.
An eternity buried deep within the sand. He was now alone with all the knowledge in existence, but at what cost?
Zei had never claimed to be a social man. Indeed he had always been more of a traveling type; wondering from city to city. He was always friendly, yes; but science, history, art-those where his true friends. This was supposed to be a dream come true.
But dreams turn into nightmares faster than you'd imagine.
After the first week he was still in his dream-land. The knowledge seekers supplied him with plenty of food and drink, and life was peaceful. When he grew tired he would sleep in the calendar room, under the stars. He could ignore the hard, uncovered floor if it meant vast intelligence within his grasp.
Even the lack of restrooms could be forgiven if that was the cost for such a beautiful dream-land. Every book was a portal. Every page was an adventure. The inconveniences could always be shrugged off, adapted to, forgotten.
At first Wan Shi Tong was reluctant in allowing him to stay. Even buried deep within the sands of the desert, he was human. And humans in the past had brought him nothing but trouble.
But over time he relented. Wan Shi Tong knew there was no escape for him to spread what he had learned over time. There was no possible way for the human to twist such gifts of intellect into weapons of hate, as so many others had done.
All the man had was himself now. If he tried fighting anyone he would only harm himself. If he hated anybody, all he could do was abuse his own body. His own mind.
"Patience," the spirit whispered to himself. "The creature will dispose of itself in due time. Humans are social things. Alone he will suffer more than anything I could possibly inflict upon him. He will learn his mistake soon enough."
Zei never once saw the spirit. Not once the entire time he lived in that library. He was all alone. Even the knowledge seekers would appear only for a spilt second, under the command of Wan Shi Tong. Maybe that was why he began creating his own company.
"Oh Lee! Would you look at this illustration! Such beauty!" he exclaimed, only answered by his own exited echo. Zei held out the scroll for all to see, imagining the small gathering of fellow intellectuals he had left home in Ba Sing Se, oohing and ahhing at his discovery.
"Oh yes Chen, I would have to agree, this is defiantly of water tribe origin. And the betrothal necklace would suggest northern water tribe, indefinitely."
After one month Lee and Chen weren't so friendly.
"What do you mean I'm wrong?" he asked bitterly to an open hallway.
A voice becoming less and less of his imagination answered back in a mocking tone, "oh I forgot, the mighty Professor Zei with all his fathomless knowledge always knows best. Maybe we should just skip this whole section, seeing as how you already know everything."
"I never claimed to be smarter than you Lee. I just clearly remember that fifth floor, row sixteen, third self from the top, in scroll six hundred and eighty three, that there was an illustration of the Western air temple. I have yet to find any information on the Eastern air temple on this floor. That means that the Western air temple was built long before the Eastern. I'm sorry but this is proof that all four temples were not erected at the same time as previously believed."
Zei heard the man scoff before suddenly realizing his absence. A chill crept up his spine upon understanding what this meant. He had been talking to himself. No, worse, he had been arguing with himself.
Shaking his head, he simply had to shrug it off and read on.
But the words on the page in front of him refused to focus. Looking up, the world around him seemed quiet, unreal. The green lanterns burned his eyes and blurred his vision. The silence hung thick like wet wool. Even the impressive mosaics he had once gushed over, now seemed sloppy and unremarkable.
It was as if Zei was looking upon the library with new eyes. The once-beautiful dream world had suddenly become plain. Everything was expected. Nothing was remarkable anymore. He saw beauty every day; therefore it was no longer special to him. The magic was gone.
Zei sighed.
"Come on. I think you could use some sleep," Sela's voice offered. He nodded, and without answering, rose from the floor and descended the stairway towards the calendar room.
Watching quietly nearby, Wan Shi Tong smiles. "Humans. They're so predictable."
After the first year Zei no longer remembered his name. As far as he knew, he didn't need one. The only names he remembered were Lee, Chen, and Sela. His dearest friends.
Especially Sela. Sweet, sweet Sela. If only she was really here instead of in Ba Sing Se. She was so kind to him here. Not like back at the university. Back there she barely knew his name, but in the library she was his greatest friend of all.
"Sela. Where are Lee and Chen?" Zei asked, holding hands with the most beautiful woman he's ever known.
She smiled and pushed the brown hair out of her eyes before answering cheerfully, "I sent them away. I think Lee's been a bit too pushy lately." The younger woman leaned in close, her fingers still laced with his. "We don't need them. It's not like they're real."
Suddenly all of the joy left Zei's face. With an expression of pure terror, he closed his eyes tight, his mind slowly snapping back into normalcy. But of course, it only snaps half-way. The library will never be as beautiful as it once was.
Zei staggered back, rubbing his eyes with his, now free, hand. Opening them, he sighs when he sees that nothing is there.
But then, hands grip him firmly from behind and spin him around to face two glaring green eyes. Sela's perfect face, now twisted with rage. She grits her teeth and snarls at him, digging her nails deeper into the flesh of his arm.
He closes his eyes and whimpers, but as soon as she appeared, she was gone. Vanished into nothingness.
All he hears is her voice now, cooing softly in his ears. "I'm here to save you. Why rot in this prison when you can live with me? Lee and Chen are already waiting for you. Together we can all start over. Build a new world after this one. With your knowledge, how could we fail?"
He can feel her breath on his neck as she leans into his ear from behind and whispers, "Only when we destroy this world will the spirits give us another. Imagine a world as beautiful as the sweetest fictional tale. Where knowledge is not used for war and destruction, but for peace and creation."
Those last words he hears are his own, he understands that. But they sound so sweet in Sela's voice.
That's when it happened. The moment Wan Shi Tong knew would happen. When Zei's body plummeted from the balcony of the highest floor, and into the darkness below.
"Into the future," Sela cooed in his ears.
And sailing down, down, down past the books he had studied time and time again, he nodded. "Into the future," he said, more hopeful than confident.