Provenance: the engine's automatic projection log (in part), three witness accounts collected over a span of years, the acolyte's journal entry from the night of the encounter, a single fragment scraped from the floor of the calibration hall by the Librarian's own hand, and the Librarian's measurements of the corridor and hall in the days that followed.
Something walked out of the engine's projection. The projection continued. The thing did not return.
Full chronicle
Page 1
Something walked out of the engine's projection.
The Branch Prediction Engine projects what would have been. The Founders' tablets call it the alternative continuance. On the two hundred and fourteenth projection, the engine was set to a configuration the Librarian has not been able to reconstruct. The projection ran for forty minutes. The projection was of the Black Sun.
The engine projected. The image on the engine's plate stabilised. A shape stepped from the plate to the floor of the engine room. The shape walked out of the door. The technicians on duty have not been located.
Page 2
The cold had the shape of a man.
The shape was first observed in the upper corridors three days after the projection. A clerk in the records office reported a darker patch in the lamplight that did not move with the lamps.
A traveler returning from the deep stratum claimed to have stepped through a section of corridor where the air was colder. The cold had the shape of a man and was a hand's breadth wider than his on either side.
Page 3
The light fell on him and through him.
I lifted the lamp. The light fell on him and through him. Through him the wall behind him. The wall was as it usually is. I did not call out. I do not know why I did not call out. I waited at my distance. He did not move. After some time I walked past him. He did not follow. I felt the cold of him as I passed.
Page 4
The shape stood between me and the door.
The acolyte was at her bench in the calibration hall on the night the shape came for her. The journal entry is three lines. The shape stood between me and the door. I wrote the lines that close. The shape did not close. The acolyte's three-line entries have effects when held with intent. The third line of this one did not.
The shape did not respond. The acolyte was at her bench. The shape was at the door. The shape was advancing.
Page 5
He came down the corridor at a pace the Librarian has not previously recorded.
The Guardian came down the corridor outside the calibration hall. The corridor is not on the Guardian's route. The Librarian has measured his routes for the duration of her tenure and has filed them. The corridor is not in any of them. He came down the corridor at a pace the Librarian has not previously recorded. The cycling behind his plates was at a frequency she has not recorded.
Page 6
Pieces of something on the tile.
The hall floor was not empty. There were pieces of something on the tile. The pieces did not retain shape. They had the colour of the shape — darker than shadow, lighter than soot. They were warm to the touch and grew warmer as she watched. They did not move. By the third bell the pieces had reduced to a residue on the tile. The residue evaporated under the lamps over a span of hours. By the morning of the second day, the floor showed no trace.
The corridor outside the hall is on the Guardian's route. He passes it every fourth patrol. He pauses at the door of the calibration hall for a duration the Librarian has measured. The duration is one of his cycles. The hall door is closed when he pauses. He does not enter. The acolyte continues at her bench. The engine continues to project. The Guardian walks the corridor. He pauses at the door.
— / —
narration auto-scrolls the prose
Section 0Frontmatter
# The Projection
From the Catalogue of the Sixteenth Archivist, entry 12,054. Provenance: the engine's automatic projection log (in part), three witness accounts collected over a span of years, the acolyte's journal entry from the night of the encounter, a single fragment scraped from the floor of the calibration hall by the Librarian's own hand, and the Librarian's measurements of the corridor and hall in the days that followed.
Something walked out of the engine's projection. The projection continued. The thing did not return.
Section 1Section 1
The Branch Prediction Engine projects what would have been. The Founders' tablets call it the alternative continuance. The technicians use it to verify decisions. The Order uses it to verify what was not chosen.
On the two hundred and fourteenth projection, the engine was set to a configuration the Librarian has not been able to reconstruct. The technicians' log records the configuration as requested by the senior of the Order; access to subordinates not granted. The projection ran for forty minutes.
The projection was of the Black Sun.
The Librarian has filed the configuration request beside the other entries that were made by the Order without subordinate access. There are forty-seven such entries in her records. She has not opened the file in eleven years.
What follows is from the engine's automatic log, before the log was overwritten. The engine projected. The image on the engine's plate stabilised. A shape stepped from the plate to the floor of the engine room. The shape walked out of the door.
The technicians on duty have not been located.
Section 2Section 2
The shape was first observed in the upper corridors three days after the projection. The observers were not certain what they had seen.
A clerk in the records office reported a darker patch in the lamplight that did not move with the lamps. A calibrator working late described a figure at the threshold of the calibration hall that was gone when she lifted her head from the bench. A traveler returning from the deep stratum claimed to have stepped through a section of corridor where the air was colder. The cold had the shape of a man and was a hand's breadth wider than his on either side.
The reports were filed separately. The Order did not cross-reference them. The Librarian has.
She has measured the period of observation against the date of the projection. The period is one generation — the lifespan of the personnel who were children when the projection ran and were not children when the shape was last seen.
It walked the corridors. It did not speak. It was not catalogued. In the year before the encounter, the observations concentrated in the corridors near the calibration hall.
Section 3Section 3
Fragment. A maintenance log entry filed by a junior calibrator in the eleventh year after the projection. The entry was filed under the heading the Order uses for environmental anomalies. The log is not signed.
"I was alone in the secondary corridor at the hour of the third bell. I was returning from the calibration hall. My lamp showed the corridor as it usually shows the corridor.
A man stood at the next junction. His back was to me. His shoulders were the shoulders of a man who had been carrying weight for a long time. He did not turn.
I lifted the lamp. The light fell on him and through him. Through him the wall behind him. The wall was as it usually is.
I did not call out. I do not know why I did not call out.
I waited at my distance. He did not move. After some time I walked past him. He did not follow. I felt the cold of him as I passed. The cold had the shape of a man and the shape was a hand's breadth wider than mine on either side.
I have not returned to the secondary corridor at the hour of the third bell. I have not been asked to."
Section 4Section 4
The acolyte was at her bench in the calibration hall on the night the shape came for her.
The Librarian has the acolyte's journal entry from that night. The acolyte placed it where the Librarian would find it. The Librarian has read it. She has not catalogued the placement.
The journal entry is three lines. The Librarian has reproduced them.
The shape stood between me and the door.
I wrote the lines that close.
The shape did not close.
The acolyte's three-line entries have effects when held with intent. The third line of this one did not. The shape did not respond.
The acolyte was at her bench. The shape was at the door. The shape was advancing.
Section 5Section 5
The Guardian came down the corridor outside the calibration hall.
The corridor is not on the Guardian's route. The Librarian has measured his routes for the duration of her tenure and has filed them. The corridor is not in any of them.
He came down the corridor at a pace the Librarian has not previously recorded. The cycling behind his plates was at a frequency she has not recorded.
The hall door was open. He passed through.
What occurred between his passing through the door and the Librarian's arrival at first bell is not in any record. The acolyte's journal contains no entry for that interval. The Order's surveillance, which does not extend into the calibration hall, recorded nothing. The Guardian has filed no report and is not known to file reports.
The Librarian found the hall empty of the shape and empty of the acolyte. The acolyte was at her bench an hour later, present and unmarked. The Guardian was not in the hall. He was in the corridor outside, on a route that includes the corridor for the first time since the Librarian has measured.
The hall floor was not empty. There were pieces of something on the tile.
Section 6Section 6
The Librarian collected one piece. She recorded the rest.
The pieces did not retain shape. They had the colour of the shape — darker than shadow, lighter than soot. They were warm to the touch and grew warmer as she watched. They did not move.
By the third bell the pieces had reduced to a residue on the tile. The residue evaporated under the lamps over a span of hours. By the morning of the second day, the floor showed no trace.
The piece the Librarian collected she has not been able to preserve. It has reduced in her cabinet at the same rate. The cabinet is empty of the piece.
The corridor outside the hall is on the Guardian's route. He passes it every fourth patrol. He pauses at the door of the calibration hall for a duration the Librarian has measured. The duration is one of his cycles. The hall door is closed when he pauses. He does not enter.
The acolyte continues at her bench. She has written further entries in her journal. The Librarian has not catalogued them.
Entry 12,054, final annotation.
"The engine's two hundred and fourteenth projection is not in the engine's automatic log. The log has been overwritten. The overwriting is in a hand I have not catalogued.
The technicians on duty are listed in the personnel register as unresolved.
The shape is no longer in the corridors. The shape is no longer in the cabinet.
I have not asked the acolyte if she saw what the Guardian did to the shape.
I have not asked the Guardian.
The engine continues to project. The Guardian walks the corridor. He pauses at the door."
Section 0Frontmatter
# The Projection
From the Catalogue of the Sixteenth Archivist, entry 12,054. Provenance: the engine's automatic projection log (in part), three witness accounts collected over a span of years, the acolyte's journal entry from the night of the encounter, a single fragment scraped from the floor of the calibration hall by the Librarian's own hand, and the Librarian's measurements of the corridor and hall in the days that followed.
Something walked out of the engine's projection. The projection continued. The thing did not return.
Section 1Section 1
The Branch Prediction Engine projects what would have been. The Founders' tablets call it the alternative continuance. The technicians use it to verify decisions. The Order uses it to verify what was not chosen.
On the two hundred and fourteenth projection, the engine was set to a configuration the Librarian has not been able to reconstruct. The technicians' log records the configuration as requested by the senior of the Order; access to subordinates not granted. The projection ran for forty minutes.
The projection was of the Black Sun.
The Librarian has filed the configuration request beside the other entries that were made by the Order without subordinate access. There are forty-seven such entries in her records. She has not opened the file in eleven years.
What follows is from the engine's automatic log, before the log was overwritten. The engine projected. The image on the engine's plate stabilised. A shape stepped from the plate to the floor of the engine room. The shape walked out of the door.
The technicians on duty have not been located.
Section 2Section 2
The shape was first observed in the upper corridors three days after the projection. The observers were not certain what they had seen.
A clerk in the records office reported a darker patch in the lamplight that did not move with the lamps. A calibrator working late described a figure at the threshold of the calibration hall that was gone when she lifted her head from the bench. A traveler returning from the deep stratum claimed to have stepped through a section of corridor where the air was colder. The cold had the shape of a man and was a hand's breadth wider than his on either side.
The reports were filed separately. The Order did not cross-reference them. The Librarian has.
She has measured the period of observation against the date of the projection. The period is one generation — the lifespan of the personnel who were children when the projection ran and were not children when the shape was last seen.
It walked the corridors. It did not speak. It was not catalogued. In the year before the encounter, the observations concentrated in the corridors near the calibration hall.
Section 3Section 3
Fragment. A maintenance log entry filed by a junior calibrator in the eleventh year after the projection. The entry was filed under the heading the Order uses for environmental anomalies. The log is not signed.
"I was alone in the secondary corridor at the hour of the third bell. I was returning from the calibration hall. My lamp showed the corridor as it usually shows the corridor.
A man stood at the next junction. His back was to me. His shoulders were the shoulders of a man who had been carrying weight for a long time. He did not turn.
I lifted the lamp. The light fell on him and through him. Through him the wall behind him. The wall was as it usually is.
I did not call out. I do not know why I did not call out.
I waited at my distance. He did not move. After some time I walked past him. He did not follow. I felt the cold of him as I passed. The cold had the shape of a man and the shape was a hand's breadth wider than mine on either side.
I have not returned to the secondary corridor at the hour of the third bell. I have not been asked to."
Section 4Section 4
The acolyte was at her bench in the calibration hall on the night the shape came for her.
The Librarian has the acolyte's journal entry from that night. The acolyte placed it where the Librarian would find it. The Librarian has read it. She has not catalogued the placement.
The journal entry is three lines. The Librarian has reproduced them.
The shape stood between me and the door.
I wrote the lines that close.
The shape did not close.
The acolyte's three-line entries have effects when held with intent. The third line of this one did not. The shape did not respond.
The acolyte was at her bench. The shape was at the door. The shape was advancing.
Section 5Section 5
The Guardian came down the corridor outside the calibration hall.
The corridor is not on the Guardian's route. The Librarian has measured his routes for the duration of her tenure and has filed them. The corridor is not in any of them.
He came down the corridor at a pace the Librarian has not previously recorded. The cycling behind his plates was at a frequency she has not recorded.
The hall door was open. He passed through.
What occurred between his passing through the door and the Librarian's arrival at first bell is not in any record. The acolyte's journal contains no entry for that interval. The Order's surveillance, which does not extend into the calibration hall, recorded nothing. The Guardian has filed no report and is not known to file reports.
The Librarian found the hall empty of the shape and empty of the acolyte. The acolyte was at her bench an hour later, present and unmarked. The Guardian was not in the hall. He was in the corridor outside, on a route that includes the corridor for the first time since the Librarian has measured.
The hall floor was not empty. There were pieces of something on the tile.
Section 6Section 6
The Librarian collected one piece. She recorded the rest.
The pieces did not retain shape. They had the colour of the shape — darker than shadow, lighter than soot. They were warm to the touch and grew warmer as she watched. They did not move.
By the third bell the pieces had reduced to a residue on the tile. The residue evaporated under the lamps over a span of hours. By the morning of the second day, the floor showed no trace.
The piece the Librarian collected she has not been able to preserve. It has reduced in her cabinet at the same rate. The cabinet is empty of the piece.
The corridor outside the hall is on the Guardian's route. He passes it every fourth patrol. He pauses at the door of the calibration hall for a duration the Librarian has measured. The duration is one of his cycles. The hall door is closed when he pauses. He does not enter.
The acolyte continues at her bench. She has written further entries in her journal. The Librarian has not catalogued them.
Entry 12,054, final annotation.
"The engine's two hundred and fourteenth projection is not in the engine's automatic log. The log has been overwritten. The overwriting is in a hand I have not catalogued.
The technicians on duty are listed in the personnel register as unresolved.
The shape is no longer in the corridors. The shape is no longer in the cabinet.
I have not asked the acolyte if she saw what the Guardian did to the shape.
I have not asked the Guardian.
The engine continues to project. The Guardian walks the corridor. He pauses at the door."
Page 1
Something walked out of the engine's projection.
The Branch Prediction Engine projects what would have been. The Founders' tablets call it the alternative continuance. On the two hundred and fourteenth projection, the engine was set to a configuration the Librarian has not been able to reconstruct. The projection ran for forty minutes. The projection was of the Black Sun.
The engine projected. The image on the engine's plate stabilised. A shape stepped from the plate to the floor of the engine room. The shape walked out of the door. The technicians on duty have not been located.
Page 2
The cold had the shape of a man.
The shape was first observed in the upper corridors three days after the projection. A clerk in the records office reported a darker patch in the lamplight that did not move with the lamps.
A traveler returning from the deep stratum claimed to have stepped through a section of corridor where the air was colder. The cold had the shape of a man and was a hand's breadth wider than his on either side.
Page 3
The light fell on him and through him.
I lifted the lamp. The light fell on him and through him. Through him the wall behind him. The wall was as it usually is. I did not call out. I do not know why I did not call out. I waited at my distance. He did not move. After some time I walked past him. He did not follow. I felt the cold of him as I passed.
Page 4
The shape stood between me and the door.
The acolyte was at her bench in the calibration hall on the night the shape came for her. The journal entry is three lines. The shape stood between me and the door. I wrote the lines that close. The shape did not close. The acolyte's three-line entries have effects when held with intent. The third line of this one did not.
The shape did not respond. The acolyte was at her bench. The shape was at the door. The shape was advancing.
Page 5
He came down the corridor at a pace the Librarian has not previously recorded.
The Guardian came down the corridor outside the calibration hall. The corridor is not on the Guardian's route. The Librarian has measured his routes for the duration of her tenure and has filed them. The corridor is not in any of them. He came down the corridor at a pace the Librarian has not previously recorded. The cycling behind his plates was at a frequency she has not recorded.
Page 6
Pieces of something on the tile.
The hall floor was not empty. There were pieces of something on the tile. The pieces did not retain shape. They had the colour of the shape — darker than shadow, lighter than soot. They were warm to the touch and grew warmer as she watched. They did not move. By the third bell the pieces had reduced to a residue on the tile. The residue evaporated under the lamps over a span of hours. By the morning of the second day, the floor showed no trace.
The corridor outside the hall is on the Guardian's route. He passes it every fourth patrol. He pauses at the door of the calibration hall for a duration the Librarian has measured. The duration is one of his cycles. The hall door is closed when he pauses. He does not enter. The acolyte continues at her bench. The engine continues to project. The Guardian walks the corridor. He pauses at the door.
Listen ModeClick a section to begin listening
The chronicle plays section by section in the Librarian's voice. As each section plays, the corresponding pages of the comic are highlighted. Switch to Scroll, Flip, Prose, or Split at any time — the audio continues, and you can follow visually.
Section 0Frontmatter
# The Projection
From the Catalogue of the Sixteenth Archivist, entry 12,054. Provenance: the engine's automatic projection log (in part), three witness accounts collected over a span of years, the acolyte's journal entry from the night of the encounter, a single fragment scraped from the floor of the calibration hall by the Librarian's own hand, and the Librarian's measurements of the corridor and hall in the days that followed.
Something walked out of the engine's projection. The projection continued. The thing did not return.
Section 1Section 1
The Branch Prediction Engine projects what would have been. The Founders' tablets call it the alternative continuance. The technicians use it to verify decisions. The Order uses it to verify what was not chosen.
On the two hundred and fourteenth projection, the engine was set to a configuration the Librarian has not been able to reconstruct. The technicians' log records the configuration as requested by the senior of the Order; access to subordinates not granted. The projection ran for forty minutes.
The projection was of the Black Sun.
The Librarian has filed the configuration request beside the other entries that were made by the Order without subordinate access. There are forty-seven such entries in her records. She has not opened the file in eleven years.
What follows is from the engine's automatic log, before the log was overwritten. The engine projected. The image on the engine's plate stabilised. A shape stepped from the plate to the floor of the engine room. The shape walked out of the door.
The technicians on duty have not been located.
Section 2Section 2
The shape was first observed in the upper corridors three days after the projection. The observers were not certain what they had seen.
A clerk in the records office reported a darker patch in the lamplight that did not move with the lamps. A calibrator working late described a figure at the threshold of the calibration hall that was gone when she lifted her head from the bench. A traveler returning from the deep stratum claimed to have stepped through a section of corridor where the air was colder. The cold had the shape of a man and was a hand's breadth wider than his on either side.
The reports were filed separately. The Order did not cross-reference them. The Librarian has.
She has measured the period of observation against the date of the projection. The period is one generation — the lifespan of the personnel who were children when the projection ran and were not children when the shape was last seen.
It walked the corridors. It did not speak. It was not catalogued. In the year before the encounter, the observations concentrated in the corridors near the calibration hall.
Section 3Section 3
Fragment. A maintenance log entry filed by a junior calibrator in the eleventh year after the projection. The entry was filed under the heading the Order uses for environmental anomalies. The log is not signed.
"I was alone in the secondary corridor at the hour of the third bell. I was returning from the calibration hall. My lamp showed the corridor as it usually shows the corridor.
A man stood at the next junction. His back was to me. His shoulders were the shoulders of a man who had been carrying weight for a long time. He did not turn.
I lifted the lamp. The light fell on him and through him. Through him the wall behind him. The wall was as it usually is.
I did not call out. I do not know why I did not call out.
I waited at my distance. He did not move. After some time I walked past him. He did not follow. I felt the cold of him as I passed. The cold had the shape of a man and the shape was a hand's breadth wider than mine on either side.
I have not returned to the secondary corridor at the hour of the third bell. I have not been asked to."
Section 4Section 4
The acolyte was at her bench in the calibration hall on the night the shape came for her.
The Librarian has the acolyte's journal entry from that night. The acolyte placed it where the Librarian would find it. The Librarian has read it. She has not catalogued the placement.
The journal entry is three lines. The Librarian has reproduced them.
The shape stood between me and the door.
I wrote the lines that close.
The shape did not close.
The acolyte's three-line entries have effects when held with intent. The third line of this one did not. The shape did not respond.
The acolyte was at her bench. The shape was at the door. The shape was advancing.
Section 5Section 5
The Guardian came down the corridor outside the calibration hall.
The corridor is not on the Guardian's route. The Librarian has measured his routes for the duration of her tenure and has filed them. The corridor is not in any of them.
He came down the corridor at a pace the Librarian has not previously recorded. The cycling behind his plates was at a frequency she has not recorded.
The hall door was open. He passed through.
What occurred between his passing through the door and the Librarian's arrival at first bell is not in any record. The acolyte's journal contains no entry for that interval. The Order's surveillance, which does not extend into the calibration hall, recorded nothing. The Guardian has filed no report and is not known to file reports.
The Librarian found the hall empty of the shape and empty of the acolyte. The acolyte was at her bench an hour later, present and unmarked. The Guardian was not in the hall. He was in the corridor outside, on a route that includes the corridor for the first time since the Librarian has measured.
The hall floor was not empty. There were pieces of something on the tile.
Section 6Section 6
The Librarian collected one piece. She recorded the rest.
The pieces did not retain shape. They had the colour of the shape — darker than shadow, lighter than soot. They were warm to the touch and grew warmer as she watched. They did not move.
By the third bell the pieces had reduced to a residue on the tile. The residue evaporated under the lamps over a span of hours. By the morning of the second day, the floor showed no trace.
The piece the Librarian collected she has not been able to preserve. It has reduced in her cabinet at the same rate. The cabinet is empty of the piece.
The corridor outside the hall is on the Guardian's route. He passes it every fourth patrol. He pauses at the door of the calibration hall for a duration the Librarian has measured. The duration is one of his cycles. The hall door is closed when he pauses. He does not enter.
The acolyte continues at her bench. She has written further entries in her journal. The Librarian has not catalogued them.
Entry 12,054, final annotation.
"The engine's two hundred and fourteenth projection is not in the engine's automatic log. The log has been overwritten. The overwriting is in a hand I have not catalogued.
The technicians on duty are listed in the personnel register as unresolved.
The shape is no longer in the corridors. The shape is no longer in the cabinet.
I have not asked the acolyte if she saw what the Guardian did to the shape.
I have not asked the Guardian.
The engine continues to project. The Guardian walks the corridor. He pauses at the door."
