Title: (en)coded
Fandom: Magic Knight Rayearth
Rating: G
Length: 1000 words
Content notes: None
Author notes: Clef POV, post-canon. (This will go in my 'weight of water' universe but it's a stand-alone world-building snippet.)
Summary:As he tried to walk through the door, the book stopped, sticking mid-air and refusing to cross the threshold.

oOo

Clef spent a large amount of his time in the library, and had for the majority of his life. More than seven centuries of using the book-filled stacks as a calm hiding place when he needed a moment made it a hard habit to break, even when the newly-rebuilt rooms had held as many empty shelves as there were books. He didn't even want to change the habit; a place that could anchor him just by existing was to be treasured.

Sadly, as the shelves filled, other people started to use the place - a lot of them. Cephiro had been full of libraries, before; in every town and village and hamlet. Every house had had a shelf of books. But now there was one library, and any books which had been saved were being brought in, copied, donated. While you could still borrow a book, instead of reading and returning them, people were borrowing them to pay a Clerk to reproduce it. Which was fine; the more copies there were, the more likely it was that someone knocking their tea over onto the open pages wouldn't be an absolute disaster.

No, people using the library was fine. It was just… there were so many of them, and they all saw him lurking in the shelves, and soon it became widely known that if the Guru wasn't in his office or a meeting, you would probably find him in the library.

It was hard to have a moment to gather yourself when there was a small queue of people waiting to talk to you.

So Clef had taken to wandering in later at night, or in the early mornings, having a poke through the newly-arrived books, and wandering out again before he could be caught. The Clerks had finally appointed a head librarian and they had given Clef a key to the ledger, so he could take books out without a Clerk to do the recording for him. Anything he carried out the room would be listed against his name, without his having to detour to the ledger itself, and he could get in or out of the room without the library being technically 'open'. In return, before returning any book, he made a copy of it.

It had worked brilliantly for three months; Clef got the peace of the library back without disturbing its operations, and people who wanted to borrow books were able to do so without him lurking in corners glaring at them. On this evening, he'd been too wound up to think about going to bed, and decided instead to start some reading about Cephiro's laws. Looking at the whole legal system was the next big project on the agenda (after 'stop Cephiro falling to pieces', which had been pretty important, then 'make Cephiro big enough for everyone again' and 'work out how food grows without a Pillar to fiddle with the seasons', both also very important). 'Work out how to have an economy?' was also on there, but fixing the laws about money (and everything else) to make sure they worked without reference to the Pillar had seemed more important.

Clef didn't really know much about how the legal system actually worked, embarrassingly enough. He knew a lot of specific laws, particularly those which had governed the Pillar's role and those around her, but more generally… he wasn't sure he would have anything useful to say. And given the haunted look the Head Judge had been wearing since this was first proposed - it looked like there was going to be a lot of work. He would rather be able to follow along.

So he let himself into the library after hours, and headed for the legal section, and looked through the various reference texts that were aimed at apprentice Judges until he found one which looked slightly less dense and less terrifyingly large, and turned to head back to his rooms. Only as he tried to walk through the door, the book stopped, sticking mid-air and refusing to cross the threshold.

Not expecting any resistance, Clef himself kept moving forwards, with the result that he winded himself painfully on the book in his own hands and staggered backwards.

"What on-" he stared at the book, then back at the door, which looked perfectly ordinary. He was wearing the library pass - he'd had Presea put it on a ring so he could carry it about more easily. And nothing physically stopped a book being carried out the library- there was no shielding. There had been some talk about it, but the new Librarian had put their foot firmly down, declaring that if someone wanted a book badly enough to steal it away, they probably had their reasons. The titles were listed in the ledger as they left the room, so they knew if anything had left, and by now they had at least one back-up of everything on the shelves.

More slowly, he tried again to leave the room - and again the book refused to pass the doorway. His had would, if it were empty. But the book stuck like it was pressed to solid metal, and would go no further.

"Why?" he muttered, stepping back into the room, and examining the book. There was nothing on the cover to indicate it was different to any of the donated books.

But on the frontispiece, when he opened it, a careful hand had written 'This book is property of the Mazda Library. Reference Only, not for borrowing. Please do not remove from the library."

Mazda didn't exist anymore, let alone its library. But he turned to look at the library code, where it was written above the door, and the third ordinance - 'Reference books are to remain in the Library', was actually glowing.

"…It's not designated a reference book in this library?" Clef told the air, which took no notice of him.

Well. He would have to check with the Clerks, but 'the library code has apparently started to enforce itself' was probably something they needed to look into.

Not least because if the library code was doing it, what else might start to do the same?

In the meantime, he turned and went in search of a more movable book.