The Book That Broke the World

Yute explains that the black mist is the library’s blood, and it takes form from the strong emotions of those around it. Arpix describes the automaton they found, and Yute tells them that he believes the automata are hunting someone. When Evar is puzzled, Yute reminds him that a people often “will divide into nations, religions, races. And if there’s nothing else to fight, and sometimes even if there is, they will fight each other” (289). Evar acknowledges that the canith have also done this.

Yute explains that the king smuggled himself out of the city in disguise, and Yute brought his group to the library. He tried to explain the way the library functioned, including the center circle, but the king refused to believe him. 

Evar wants to find Livira, and after some discussion, the group agrees to set out in search of her. Wentworth leads them deeper into the room.

Arpix reflects on how a common threat has made the humans from the Dust ally themselves with canith. Arpix has always found the library a place of peace and imagines they could negotiate with Oanold. Kerrol reminds Arpix of the difficulties he may encounter if he wants a romantic relationship with Clovis, a canith.

Evar calls out Livira’s name.

Livira runs from the king’s men again and is caught. She fights until she realizes that Evar is holding her. She embraces the group, and when she recognizes the canith, “she saw the children who had grown in her care and felt an echo of the love for them that had taken root even past the impervious skin of an assistant” (302). The canith howl for Malar’s death. Clovis wants to fight, but Livira explains the arrow-stick weaponry. 

Yolanda confronts her father, Yute, who has not seen her in years. She says the library is breaking, and they need to go.

Evar is overcome to be reunited with Livira but fears she may not feel the same love for him. He hopes the humans won’t see him fight and think him an animal. Yolanda leads them through a room where the books are stacked on circular poles, and he realizes this is a room for a species that can fly. When Evar describes the automaton, Yolanda explains that they were all made in the likeness of Celcha, a ganar who built the automata to kill Evar and Livira many years ago.

They reach a reading room with a Mechanism. An assistant stands beside it, and Yolanda identifies him as Hellet. Yolanda says the library’s founder waits inside the Mechanism, and it is time to choose sides. Livira says they have to go back for the other humans, claiming, “The library’s not the problem. It’s us. We’re the evil, humans, it’s us” (314). Yolanda says Livira’s book is a flame that will consume the library itself.

Arpix sees two enormous men sitting on thrones. One wears a librarian’s robes and holds a book. The other is dressed like a traveler. Arpix finds it hard to believe the fate of a library that spans worlds and time could depend on him and his friends.

Irad, in the robes, describes his vision of a library that would transform its users with knowledge. His brother Jaspeth, the traveler, argues, “The wisdom to use knowledge must be earned rather than given […] Knowledge without wisdom is fire in the hands of children” (319). He says that real freedom comes from a clean slate. Yute speaks in favor of compromise. He warns that with the book Livira and Evar created, King Oanold is capable of the complete destruction of the library.

Jaspeth shows them a vision of Yute entering a room full of the bodies of slain canith. The king’s soldiers, fleeing their city, came through the portal to a library room where canith lived and slaughtered them. Arpix has a feeling this is Evar and Clovis’s family.

Livira reflects that she had never meant to do harm with her book. She realizes the scene they are being shown is the raid that killed Evar’s clan so many years ago. In trying to help, Yute allowed this tragedy to happen. Livira creates a space where she can speak privately to Evar. She doesn’t know who to blame for what happened to his family; no group seems to be innocent. Evar promises they will be together, and they kiss.

Evar exits the Mechanism to find that the king’s soldiers are capturing people as they emerge. He attacks, and the soldiers throw grenades to cover their exit. Evar realizes Arpix and the other humans were taken. Clovis is determined to attack, and Evar goes with her. 

As they fight the soldiers, Evar is shot and captured. Clovis comes to his rescue. She takes him back to the Mechanism, where they see that the others have emerged. Their siblings, Mayland and Starval, are also there.

Starval explains why he thinks the library should be destroyed, comparing it to an anchor of memory around their necks. The automaton approaches, but Mayland uses the Mechanism to summon the assistant Hellet, who holds the automaton back. It points its finger at Evar.

Celcha, now a ghost, reflects on the time that has passed since she poisoned the city. She traveled across time, using the library, gathering knowledge and materials. Celcha wants to find Maybe and Starve, the two ghosts responsible for the atrocity, who she believes are actually Livira and Evar. She created the automata in her own image to hunt and kill them. 

Now, she receives a message from her automata that the two have been found and goes to the chamber where a large group is gathered. She sees Hellet holding back the automata and wonders why he is trying to stop her revenge.

Livira protests her innocence, but Hellet explains that Celcha saw Livira and Evar in ghost form dancing above the destroyed city. Now, he admits that they were not the ghosts who advised him—Maybe and Starve were Mayland and Starval. He describes himself as the intended seed of Mayland’s manipulation, but Celcha was an unintended victim. Celcha is horrified to recognize Mayland and Starval as the ghosts who advised Hellet. Hellet says, “The library places the power to commit vast crimes into the hands of those wholly unready for such responsibility” (350). 

Livira argues that the library is not at fault; if any of them had known more than they did, none of this would have happened. The automaton seizes Hellet and bashes him against the floor. Livira steps forward to try to stop the attack. Another human pushes her out of the way and is flattened by the mechanical fist. Celcha is overcome by guilt as she watches the destruction.

Starval takes the orb and throws it into the automaton’s mouth. The construct staggers and falls. Yute says the automaton will explode, and they need to leave the room. Hellet has died and his blood opens three portals in the floor. Yute identifies them as leading to three quests.

Mayland says he represents Jaspeth and chooses one portal. Yolanda, representing Irad, chooses another. Yute stands by the third portal, and Kerrol joins him. Mayland takes Clovis and Evar into his portal, but he pushes Livira aside. She enters Yolanda’s portal with several others. Meanwhile, Hellet and Celcha are reunited as ghosts.

Livira and Evar are in Livira’s book, in a rain that fills the sea and causes grass to grow in the Dust. They are happy together, but the sky darkens. Livira is upset because this isn’t supposed to happen in her book.

Lord Algar, one of the remaining members of the king’s party studies Livira’s book and realizes it is causing the cracks to form in the library floor. He has never seen anything scratch the library, “[y]et here in his hand, a simply, crudely put together book of aimless love stories was carving through it before his eyes” (363). He asks Arpix about the book.