Mikkel Birkegaard - The Library of Shadows

There was no cutlery, so Jon used his hands as he started to eat. He began cautiously, aware of every mouthful, but the spicy lamb and rice tasted so unexpectedly good that before long he was shovelling the food into his mouth as fast as he could.

'The powers you possess know no national boundaries,' Remer began, nodding at the woman, who immediately left the room. 'That's something you may have surmised. Of course there are others besides you and me in the world, but a text still has a certain limitation because of language. There's no doubt that you could do quite a good job with a text in English, and maybe even Italian, but the effect will always be stronger in your native tongue. In order to charge the text, we need to know the language, and the better we know it, the better the instrument to achieve our goal.'

The woman came back with a tall stool that she placed behind Remer before leaving again. Remer sat down and straightened his jacket before he went on. 'It's a bit different for receivers. They're more able to use their abilities even if they don't understand the text being read. The emotions and images the text evokes are universal, independent of language, but the finer details of influencing still demands knowledge of the language.'

'So you've brought me here to Egypt to neutralize me?' asked Jon between mouthfuls of food.

Remer laughed. 'Certainly not,' he replied. 'First of all, those physical energy discharges of yours are not restricted by whether the listener understands the text or not.' He paused. 'Which is very interesting and without precedent. In fact, we think the phenomenon is simply connected to the reading because it provides a necessary catalyst.' He shook his head. 'But that's something we're going to find out over the course of the next few days.'

Jon snorted.

'Secondly,' Remer went on, ignoring Jon's reaction. 'Alexandria has always been a central location for our organization.'

'Alexandria?' Jon interjected. He tried to associate the name with something familiar, but the only thing he recalled was that it was a city on the north coast of Africa.

Remer nodded. 'It was here in Alexandria that our organization originated,' he explained. 'According to tradition, it was here that the powers that you and I possess were discovered for the very first time.'

Jon finished eating and pushed his plate aside. It was immediately removed by one of the guards, who then offered him a glass of water. Jon took it and drank.

Remer waited patiently for him to finish and then nodded to the guards. They fastened Jon's arms to the bed frame again and left the room without saying a word. When they were gone, Remer clapped his hands and rubbed them together with a look of anticipation on his face.

'Well, Campelli,' he said. 'Are you ready for your history lesson?'

Jon didn't feel the need to answer. He had no choice, after all.

'Alexandria was founded by Alexander the Great around 330 BC,' Remer began. 'The city was intended to be no less than the world centre of learning and scholarship. For that reason, the world's most famous library was built here – Bibliotheca Alexandrina. In addition to being a library, it was a mecca for scholarly studies and intellectual endeavours. Many of the individuals whom we today credit with founding various fields of study worked there, including Euclid, Heron and Archimedes.' Remer cleared his throat. 'The collection of parchments and codices grew, since arriving ships were required by law to leave behind a copy of all the written materials they had on board, as a sort of toll payment. It's thought that there were as many as 750,000 volumes, until a series of wars, plundering raids and fires destroyed this great treasure trove of books. But for more than seven hundred years Bibliotheca Alexandrina was the centre of the world for literature and learning.'

'But it burned down?' said Jon.

'Yes, several times,' replied Remer, lowering his eyes. 'The demise of the library extended over several hundred years, starting with the Battle of Alexandria in the year 48 BC, in which Caesar himself was involved. It had something to do with Cleopatra. The fire ravaged large sections of the library, and countless codices and scrolls were lost. Later the Roman Empire fell, and during the following centuries plundering raids completely emptied the library.'

'And it was in the library that the powers originated?'

Remer raised his index finger. 'Were discovered, not originated. The powers have most likely always existed, but it was only with Demetrius that they were investigated.'

Jon frowned. He'd heard that name recently.

'The school you broke into was named after him,' said Remer, as if he'd noticed Jon's puzzled look. 'He was also the idea man behind the original Bibliotheca Alexandrina, and in addition to being a philosopher, statesman and advisor, he was probably the first head librarian.'

Jon thought back to the meeting with the transmitters at Шsterbro Library when the librarian, with a certain amount of envy, had described the influence that librarians once had enjoyed during antiquity.

'Fortunately Demetrius was also a cautious man,' Remer continued. 'He quickly realized what he was on to, and he kept his knowledge of the powers a deep secret. That was how he founded our organization. Back then it was a secret society for those who had been specially initiated, which meant those who possessed the powers and held influential positions. At that time, and for centuries afterwards, there was a virtual thicket of religious and philosophical sects in Alexandria that were more or less secret. Most learned men were members of one or more societies – it must have been the fashionable thing to do back then – and it was probably easy for Demetrius to recruit the right people.'

'Is this what you call recruiting?' asked Jon, tugging at the straps that held him captive.

'It was necessary in order to get your undivided attention,' he said. 'Most likely Demetrius didn't have to resort to such drastic measures. He was a respected man, and I'm sure that everyone he invited to join would have felt honoured, and above all loyal.' Remer's face took on a disappointed expression. 'You should feel that way too, Campelli. Not many are found worthy to join our organization.'

Jon was about to protest when Remer raised his voice to cut him off.

'But I'm convinced you'll come to see things our way. Just wait.'

There was no doubt in Jon's mind that this was meant to be a threat, not a promise, and his thoughts turned again to Katherina. Was she too in Alexandria? Why was Remer so confident of Jon's cooperation?

'With the final destruction of the library, Alexandria also lost its status as a centre of scholarship, and since it was necessary for the organization to be in the place where advances were being made, the group was split up. The members went out into the world to start up local chapters.' Remer raised one eyebrow and gave Jon a curt nod. 'Some of them went to Italy.'

Jon had been counting on hearing at some point what the connection was with himself. There was something that Remer was planning to use to win Jon over to his side.

'Are you saying that my ancestors belonged to Demetrius's sect?'

'There's a good chance they did,' Remer confirmed. 'There are no complete family trees or any surviving lists of members, but all indications are that the pockets of organized Lectors that are found around the world all stem from the original order, established here in Alexandria almost two thousand four hundred years ago.'

'What went wrong?' asked Jon. 'Why haven't you conquered the world?'

Remer grimaced. 'There are lots of reasons,' he replied. 'The decentralization that occurred weakened the organization. Factions arose that had a different agenda, and the various splinter groups wasted a lot of energy waging war on each other. There was also a long period when it was downright dangerous to be a learned person. Scholars were summarily denounced as witches or sorcerers and burned at the stake. That's why it was important to keep a low profile, which didn't make it any easier to find or recruit new members.' He got up to stretch his legs. 'It wasn't until the Renaissance that the organization began gaining ground once again, but it took years before the lost knowledge was reclaimed.'