The Obsidian Archive (and What Tamzen Found There)

## Content Information

Outside of her studio, the Old Stacks at the campus library were one of Tamzen’s favorite places to escape to whenever she needed a little time alone. Unlike the New Stacks, with their brightly lit rooms and mechanical shelving that allowed for extra space for compressing all the shelves not currently in use against each other, the Old Stacks were dark and immobile - ancient metal shelves painted dark green stretching back into a dimly lit space, the majority of the lighting provided by motion sensitive lighting that clicked on and off as patrons wandered through. The New Stacks required you to know what you were looking for - the Old Stacks rewarded meandering contemplation of their contents. And for those who needed a place to study, the caged carrels tucked amongst the shelves lining the walls made for exquisite privacy.

Tamzen wandered, still off kilter from her earlier encounter with Didi back at her rooms. Despite her stated intent to do some research, she had found herself drawn not to the New Stacks, where the vast majority of the technical disciplines were shelved, but to the uncanny peace of the Old Stacks. In truth, she wasn’t even sure what subjects the books that surrounded her covered - a glance down revealed a mixture of paperbacks in a bewildering array of Asian languages - Chinese and Korean being the most recognizable, but with a smattering of Sanskrit and Hindi and dozens of other, less easily recognizable scripts. In the end, the content of the books was not nearly as important as the privacy they offered, and of the vanishingly small number of people making use of the library on the first Sunday of Spring Break, none of them had ventured into this floor of the Old Stacks.

In her distracted state of mind, Tamzen failed to notice when the shelves and contents took on a sheen of obsidian and smoky quartz, faintly at first, but then more and more concretely as she wandered, her feet taking her far further than the physical building should have allowed. The scent of old books faded away, replaced by a bouquet of scents that human language lacked the words to describe. Still lost in her thoughts regarding Didi, she ran her fingertips along the spines of what had been books, until the razor sharp edge of an obsidian blade opened her skin as easily as a papercut. Tamzen gasped and withdrew her hand, and finally noticed… wherever she was, she wasn’t on campus anymore.

She glanced around, finding herself on a rusting plain under ochre-colored skies, surrounded by the labyrinthine streets of the city she had begun to recognize from her visions. Behind her, a trail of footprints in the regolith, leading back into the city, but slowly melting away as a faint breeze stirred the dust. In front of her… massive basalt columns stretching up into the sky, embedded with razor sharp shards of obsidian looking nothing so much as rows of strange books spiraling up the columns for as far as she could see. Sucking on her injured fingertip, she leans forward to inspect the nearest row, spotting where a patch of drying blood marred the glassy surface of the “book”. Carefully, she reached forward and grasped the shard in her hand, attempting to remove it from the pillar. A hollow click, and with the sound of stone on glass, it started to slide free…

*She is nervous in this skin, not yet comfortable in her newly developing body, and not even makeup and a fancy teal dress, or that blend of excitement and nerves, can completely cover that discomfort. She tucks a shawl around her and backs her vehicle out of the garage into the snowy evening…*
*...now the car is filled with chattering girls, as she pulls up to the last stop, a covered drive in front of an expensive house. A regal-looking girl waits, dressed in midnight blue and looking like everything the girl is not. The girl goes to open the passenger door, and freezes as the midnight blue gives her a cutting look.*

*“What the fuck is this, Dany?” midnight blue asks, before proceeding to chew her out.*

*The girl remembers - blue was the other girl’s color. “It’s more green than blue-” she says, hurrying to explain, only to stop as the girl pushes past her to slip into the car.*

*“Drop us off...then go home and change. You are not going to ruin my evening.”*

*...on her way home, the girl cries.*
Tamzen backed away, nearly dropping the shard in the process. She *knew* that voice; had heard that voice earlier that day. It was Didi’s. A memory, just like the ones she had started to experience in her visions - but somehow Tamzen had been inside it, living it. She slid the shard back into place and looked around...was every shard here a memory? A lifetime of experiences? She wanted to get back to campus, but something about these towers drew her.

She began walking up the narrow path that spiraled its way around the outside of the tower, her hand hovering just above the shards, feeling the ebb and flow of energy guiding her. Her hand stopped over another shard, humming with energy, and after a moment’s hesitation, she removed it.

*Two women, preternaturally attractive* (Tamzen’s mind suggested the word ‘succubi’) *stood in front of the girl.*
*“Yes,” the one with striking white hair and an undercut said. “We’re your real parents. We’ve been wondering when you would awaken your abilities - perhaps you’ll lead us to a new understanding. For now, you’ll study in our realm.”*

*“But, my friends…” the girl protested. The blue haired woman laughed.*

*“Oh, sweetie...what friends?” she asked with syrupy sweetness. “We’ve been watching you - you have maybe two friends, and how long will that last with all the rumors about you.” The woman stretched out a hand and rested in on the girl’s shoulder. “You are a princess - it’s time to make your real family proud.”*

*The girl clenched her fist at her side. “Of course, mothers. I’ll show you what I can do, and convince you to let me return.”*
Tamzen returned the shard, unable to shake off the feeling that she knew this girl as well. She continued to climb until another shard called to her.

*...the young girl grasps her mother’s hands as the two of them twirl and spin in a field of purple heather and white clover. Laughing, they fall to the ground, gazing up at clouds heavy with rain…*
Tamzen gasped, and slid the shard back in place. That woman was achingly familiar to her - Arsling’s mother, from near the time of the vision she had shared with her roommate the night before. It felt almost...*obscene* somehow, like she was intruding on a private moment.

She hesitated for a moment, unsure if she wanted to see anymore, but something drew her onward and upward.

*This is the last one…* she promised herself. *Then you’ll figure out how to get out of here…* She freed another shard.

*The funeral parlor was nearly empty - most of the mourners had come to pay their respects and left, and it was not yet time for the coffin… to be taken to the cemetery for burial. The girl...no, the boy...no...the girl? The vision wavered, as if torn between two memories too similar to distinguish…*
Caught in the memory, Tamzen stood frozen, her breath shallow as she gripped the shard tight enough to cut flesh. Blood trickled down her palm to drip on the walkway beneath her feet, but she didn’t notice.

*A warm comforting presence behind her as the young girl took in her mother’s face for the last time, her father’s callused hands resting on her shoulders… cold detachment, despite being surrounded by the rest of his siblings, his grandmother’s hand gripping him, her nails digging into his shoulders when he started to show ‘excessive’ emotion…*
The shard slipped out of her hand and shattered at her feet, pulling her out of the memory. She cried out as the pain from her hand finally registered.

Far above her, she could hear the sound of footsteps hurrying down the pathway towards her. The cadence was wrong, even for a group of people. Almost *alien…* Tamzen turned and ran back the way she came, torn between wanting to avoid falling off the edge of the path and wanting to avoid being cut to ribbons by the shards of memory. As the path gave way to the ground, Tamzen tripped, sprawling forward into the regolith. She moaned in pain.

***CHILD…*** an unearthly, resonating voice said from behind her. Around her? Inside her? She couldn’t place the source. She scrambled to her feet and took off, following the ghost of the remains of her tracks back towards the city.

Regolith gave way to cobblestone, and Tamzen stumbled into the City. She looked around, looking for any hint of which way she had initially come. She turned away from an alley leading deeper into the city, only to find it transformed into a dead end when she looked back in that direction.

Tamzen took a deep breath, picked a direction, and began to move with purpose in the desolate city. She walked for what seemed like hours...but every time she stopped to catch her breath, she heard the voice from the pillars. She pressed on, not even sure what she was looking for, but too afraid to stop and gather her bearings (if such a thing was even possible).

Finally, she collapsed - whether from blood loss or sheer exhaustion, she did not know. She propped herself up against the wall in the dead end she had found herself in, and forced herself to watch the entrance.

***CHILD…*** the very buildings seemed to rattle from the force of that voice, even though its volume had not changed.

Tamzen wanted to cry out of pain and exhaustion. She wanted to go *home*. And most importantly, she did not want to meet the owner of that voice. She felt the wall behind her shift again, felt the frame of a door pressing against her spine. She blindly reached up until her hand made contact with the handle, and she yanked on it. The door opened, and she tumbled backwards into the dark…

Fresh from a shower sweatpants on and shirtless, his hair still wet, Xander sat at his desk furiously typing away.  To his left a desk mounted speaker was on, and it was quietly playing the latest Queen Selene solo; her music was normally his go to for doing reports, and gave him the energy to get through the slog.  ‘Reports, reports, reports,’ he thought to himself ‘so many dang reports.  A report on how many students are using our products, how many are using the competitors, how many are vaping, how many folks are chewing, just so many different topics she wants.’  Finally he finished them up and sent them off, a sigh of relief escaping his lips.

As he closed his laptop, and started reaching for the towel to dry his hair, he heard an ominous noise seeping out of his closet.  Xander immediately became on edge, his body stiffening and eyes narrowing.  He raised the volume on his music a bit, and as quietly as possible slipped his switchblade into his pocket.  As the noises became louder Xander’s body began to shake, he took a deep breath trying to steady himself, and stepped towards the door.  He inched closer and closer, the noises continuously growing louder and louder, he couldn’t make out what they could be, but they were not good.  He reached his hand to the door knob, took one final breath as the noise howled in his mind, and flung the closet door open.

The noise abruptly stopped as he opened the closet, and the contents of said closet were much the way he had left them… aside from the dusty and exhausted-looking red-head that fell backwards through the door, eyes tightly shut, right hand clutched to her chest.

Tamzen felt the change in texture below her back, and opened her eyes. Squinting against the brighter light, she could not make out where she had ended up, only that it was *definitely* not in that strange city. She scrambled away from the closet and gasped: “Shut the door!”

“What the fuck?!”  Xander did as he was instructed and slammed the door shut, breathing heavily he turned to confront whatever or whoever had just popped out of his damn closet… and there was Tamzen, back against his desk chair looking dreadful.  His disposition softened at the sight of her, she was dirty, sweaty, and bleeding… wait she was bleeding!?!  Just like that Xander sprang into action, grabbed his first aid kit from a desk drawer, and went to work on her hand.  He quickly applied a disinfectant over the wound, bandaged it, and wrapped it for safe measure.

Once he was done, hair still dripping and body relaxing, Xander met her eyes with worry written all over his face, his voice dropping to a soft tone nearly drowned out by the music still playing above them,  “Oh my god Tamzen what happened to you?  Are you alright?”

Tamzen groaned and blinked up in confusion, her eyes finally starting to readjust to normal lighting. “Xa...Xander?” she asked hesitantly, looking around and trying to orient herself.  “Where...am I?”

“Yeah, it’s me, and uh… you’re in my room.  You uh… just came flying out of my closet.”  Xander heaved a sigh, “you look terrible, like something attacked you.”

She shook her head. “No… there *was* something, but...I never saw it. I...I cut my hand on a book… or, no… a memory? I don’t...” She looked down at her hands, seeming to notice for the first time that Xander had bandaged it up. She looked up at him. “Thank y… *oh*...” her voice trailed off as she finally realized that her rescuer was only half dressed. She quickly looked back down again, her face and ears burning hot in embarrassment.

Xander looked down to his abdomen remembering, ‘oh yes… I’m shirtless,’ and sprang up to his feet,  face very flushed.  “Oh gosh I’m so sorry, if I’d known I was going to have company I would’ve thrown something on.”  He quickly threw open his wardrobe and pulled out the first thing he could find, a loose fitting tank top, and quickly yanked it over his torso.  Face still red he turned back to Tamzen, and began laughing trying to lighten the mood, “I am now fully clothed, you no longer have to fear getting blinded by the light radiating off my pale ass skin!”

She looked up at him tentatively, then also broke out laughing. “To be fair, I wasn’t exactly expecting to end up in your closet either. Actually… I wasn’t expecting to end up anywhere but the library today.” She looked down at herself. “Gods, I look a mess, don’t I? What a pair - you half dressed, me looking as if I was dragged through a hedge backwards, and neither of us fit for company...”

“True enough, though at least I’m semi presentable now.”  He snickers then starts rifling through his drawers.  “So you were at the library huh?  Must’ve been some magical mumbo jumbo that brought you from there to my closet.”  He takes a bottle of water and pours part of it onto a washcloth he produced from the dresser.  “Oh and don’t worry, I’m not gonna burn you at the stake or anything for being a witch, I’m just as weird.”  He turns offering the damp washcloth, and a thick fleece blanket for Tamzen to wrap herself in.  “So, how bout you fill me in on this evening's events, huh?”

Tamzen gratefully took the proffered washcloth and took a minute to rub the dust and sweat off of her face and neck, before carefully wiping her hands clean. She hesitated a moment longer about accepting the blanket, not wanting to get it dirty, but in the end the need to warm up won out, and she wrapped it around her shoulders before leaning back against the side of Xander’s bed.. “I…” her voice cracked, and she coughed, trying to clear her throat. She glanced up at Xander, one eyebrow raised in an unspoken request for permission before she claimed the remainder of the bottle of water, and gulped its contents down.

“I…” she tried again, her voice already improving. “Oh… that’s better. Sorry.” She replaced the cap on the now-empty bottle, and handed it back to Xander, flushing slightly in embarrassment once again.. “Umm… I was about to say that I’m not even sure if it was anything *I* did. I’ve never done anything… um… *weird* before.” She leaned back, looking over Xander’s shoulder to a spot above his desk as she tried to gather her thoughts.

“So, I’ve been taking care of my roommate, you remember - she’s the one who went to the hospital on Thursday night. You gave me a ride back to campus…” she paused, and grinned at him. “Do you always make a habit of riding to the rescue, or just with me?” There was a teasing tone in her voice, one that said that maybe she didn’t mind that all too much, if it *was* just her.

Xander grabbed another bottle of water, and a small pudding cup with a plastic spoon, from his mini fridge.  “Well I make it a habit to try and help those in need.”  He took a seat next to her, and offered both.  “But it’s mostly so my Grandmother can boast about it to her friends, say how good of a young man I am.  I think you’re the only person I’ve ever not made a show out of helping honestly.”  He gives a small smile, “Here though, have these, I’m not the one who’s just had an eventful afternoon.”

She smiled at him, gratefully, and accepted the water and pudding cup. “Well, then, consider me honored,” she said with a smile, raising the pudding cup in a mock salute. With him sitting next to her, it was hard to look directly at him. Honestly, given just how weird the whole afternoon had been, maybe it would be easier to try to explain what happened if she didn’t have to see his reaction to the story. And with him sitting next to her, she could almost bring herself to believe that she was safe again.

“So, anyways… I’d spent most of the weekend keeping Linny from bouncing off the walls, and I hadn’t really gotten anything done that I’d hoped to. And then Didi showed up…” Tamzen blushed slightly again, before continuing. “Didi showed up to visit Linny, and I thought it would be good to get out of our room for the afternoon.” She was fidgeting with the washcloth in her hands, the water and pudding momentarily forgotten in her lap. “So I went down to the library, and ended up wandering through the Old Stacks - I’m sure you’ve been in them before, they’ve got a sorta spooky vibe even on the best of days…”

Xander gave a small pat to Tamzen’s shoulder, “Sorry about that whole situation by the way.”  Xander rubs the back of his neck a bit,  “But yeah I’ve been down there with the cobwebs on the shelves, and the witches in the study nooks.  Before you laugh, I actually do know witches and yes they do go into that section to study… Anyways, yes, point is I know of it, and how much of a strange aura it has, even compared to the rest of Night Falls.”

She smiles, then glances away. “I don’t really remember what happened next… I guess I had just been lost in thought, and had been wandering through… and the next thing I know, something sliced into my fingertip…” she holds up the finger in question, the cut having healed itself enough that Xander hadn’t needed to treat it when he wrapped the rest of her hand. “And I looked up, and well…” she laughed again, with only the *slightest* edge of hysteria. “Let’s just say that I *really* wasn’t in Kansas anymore.”

“Well now,” Xander chuckles a bit, “I suppose you weren’t.”  He ponders a moment and then shakes his head.  “Well Tamzen if you weren’t, well I’ll say ‘special’ before, I certainly think you are now.  It sounds to me like you accessed some other plane, how you got there well…”. He points down to her finger, “You probably accidentally broke in by cutting yourself, blood is a common sacrifice needed to access other planes, or travel ‘quickly’ from place to place.  My Grandmother knows all about that kinda stuff, and it’s not too terribly uncommon…”  He trails off before catching himself, “Anyways, sorry for the rambling, go on.”

“Mmm…” she replied, noncommittally. “The thing is… I know what I cut myself on, and I was already there when it happened. So, I don’t think the blood is what did it.” She shook her head. “It’s not really important to the story, I guess. For all I know, the Old Stacks could have done it.”

She chewed thoughtfully on her lower lip. “Recently, I’ve been seeing visions of this City, built of obsidian and smoked quartz, and empty of life. And I would be wandering around, and sometimes I could see things… learn things about other people? Never the future, only the past...sometimes the present, maybe? It’s hard to tell.” She sighed. “And this time...I was actually in the City.” She hesitated, thought about it, then shook her head. “Well, not really. I could see the City at the edges of my vision, but I was standing in this vast dusty plain, and there were these massive pillars...so tall I couldn’t see the top of them from where I stood. And there were these...I dunno...pieces of obsidian embedded in the stone.” She gestured with her hands, sketching out a shape like the blade of a butcher’s cleaver. “Some were bigger than that, some smaller. But that’s what I cut my finger on.”

Xander let what she’d said sink in a little.  “Wow, so through this... this place, you’re able to look into the past and see the memories of other people?  That’s honestly pretty amazing…”  He looked dead ahead and his voice trailed off yet again.  “But also pretty damn scary for a mortal to have to suddenly awaken to,” he looked at her with concern.  “So while you were there, did you see the same types of things this time, or were the visions different because you were actually physically there?”

A strange look passed over Tamzen’s face at Xander’s reference to “a mortal,” but she filed away that thought for later consideration. “That’s just it - every time I touched...tried to remove one of those shards of obsidian, I would get a flash of memory...but it was like I was reliving it *personally*.” She opened the water, and took another long sip as she gathered her thoughts.”

“I’m not sure how, but some of those shards just seemed to resonate for me. I think, if I was there and trying to ask to see something specific… maybe that’s how I’d find the right ones? I don’t know if each shard is a memory, or if it is the entire existence of a person, or what…”

She stretched out her bandaged hand, the red of fresh blood already starting to soak through the wrappings. “The last one… I must have held it too hard while I was in the memory, and it cut my hand. Maybe that’s why it seemed like it couldn’t decide whether to show me my memory, or the one in the shard. Then I dropped it, and I think it broke? I heard something coming towards me, and I ran and ran until I got back to the City, but the streets kept shifting, and I was trapped in a dead end… then a door appeared behind me, and I opened it and…” she shrugged, and gave Xander a somewhat flustered smile as she gestured around his room.  “Well… here I am.”

“So you wound up in my closet, dumped out from that world in a completely different location… I guess it’d make sense, since you didn’t come out through the original door you went in through.”  Xander sat there, puzzling things out for a moment.  “But why would you come out through my closet of all places?  It has no aura of the supernatural, nothing terribly special about it…” He looked hard at the closet, then around his room, and his eyes settled on a particular spot just above his wardrobe.  His face grimaced a bit, “The last memory you looked at, the one that you couldn’t focus on, the one that made you drop its shard… what was it?”

Tamzen’s eyes clouded over, and she took several deep breaths, trying to keep herself from crying. “I...I was at a funeral. My mom’s… she died when I was little…” She glanced around the room, not really seeing it, until her gaze fell on a framed portrait. “But, at the same time, I was at another funeral, and…” She blinked once, twice. Then it seemed as if she finally was able to focus on what she was looking at, because her eyes widened, and her mouth dropped into a soft O. “Oh...*Xander…*” she sighed, and tears started to well up at the corners of her eyes. She pointed at the portrait. “I was at *her* funeral. I think…” she shifted until she could meet his gaze. “I think it was *your* memory.” She looked suddenly distraught, her left hand drifting upwards to cover her mouth. “Xander...I’m so sorry… I didn’t mean to… if I… I would *never* have…” She was starting to babble, just a little bit.

At that moment Xander pulled her into a tight hug, and the tears started falling from his eyes.  “Hey,” he began quietly, “hey, hey, hey, it’s alright.  You didn’t know, you didn’t do anything wrong Tamzen.”  He squeezed her tight to his chest as they both cried together.  He stroked her hair, trying to calm her down while falling apart himself.  “It-it-it’s…” he tried to choke something out, words of encouragement, consolation, understanding, but nothing else could make it past his lips.  Just tears streaming down his face as he held Tamzen as tightly as he could.

Tamzen stiffened in surprise as Xander pulled her into an embrace, only to relax against him as his touch and his voice soothed her. She rested her head on his chest, and hesitantly reached up to wrap one arm around him, keeping him close, fingers brushing lightly against his back as she tried to return some of the comfort he had given her. She knew what he must have been feeling - she had been just as much of a wreck a few months back, on the anniversary of her mom’s passing - at least her father had been there to help her through the day.

She sniffed loudly, and tightened her embrace. “It sucks, doesn’t it… being alone with your memories on a day like this...” she murmurs.

Xander, through his sobs, choked out, “Y-yeah, it d-d-does.  But I… I can’t… I can’t let anyone see m-me like… like… like.”  He began to compose himself a bit, nuzzling his cheek against the side of her head.  He hasn’t noticed it at any point before, but her hair was very soft.  “I can’t let people see me like this,” his voice was clearer, his tears stopping.  “I’m a Crossman, and Crossmans don’t have time for emotions like this.”  Xander looked back up towards his laptop, and then back to the picture of his mom.  “That’s why I hide away every year, wherever I can.  Because if anyone were to see me like this, it’d bring shame to…” Whatever he had been about to say was cut short as Tamzen shifted in his arms and gently pressed her index finger to his lips.

“Shhh…” she murmured, smiling wryly as the trail left by her tears dried, leaving dusty tracks down her cheeks. “It’s too late, I’ve already seen you ‘like this’… shame unto the seventh generation of Crossmans, woe and ruin, etcetera…” She leaned up until her lips brushed his ears, her breath warm against his skin. “Since the harm’s already done, you might as well go ahead and feel all those emotions you aren’t supposed to have.” She sighed, and rested her head against his shoulder again, relaxing into his embrace, and the next time she spoke, she sounded more serious. “We can sit here and be miserable about our moms together...it can be our little secret.”

Xander relaxed again, holding her tight, but his voice was still wavering.  “Tamzen, I… I just don’t know… even being here with you, hundreds of miles away… I still feel her reach.  You don’t know the sort of icy bitch my grandmother is, or what she’s capable o-” Soft lips pressed against his, a strange mix of inexperience and determination, as Tamzen pulled him close. A moment later, she pulls away, just a hair’s-breadth, her lips hovering just above his.

“Ask me to stay…” she murmured, her gaze meeting his. “And forget about her for a little while…”

Xander’s eyes stared deeply into hers, his piercing blue matching her moss green.  “Tamzen, stay with me tonight.  Please stay with me tonight, I don’t want to be alone.  I don’t want to keep feeling this horrible isolation, I don’t want to keep having to carry this alone.  So please, please, please, just stay.”  With that final plea Xander leaned in to kiss her once more… and there were no more words to be said.