Society of Reticence

Hidden between the lines on maps and secured between the dimensions of our known worlds, knowledge is protected by those who conserve information’s inherent neutrality. Adhering to the code that information itself does not force sway but how it is used tips the balance of good and evil. The Society of Reticence is the omniscient power tasked with remembering the story from all sides and to preserve the detailed accounts of daily events throughout the universe. They are the sole voice for the silenced and the forgotten throughout the days of the past. Though history books tell one story, it is clear those recounts are written by the victors and the stories that are told embellish the reality to propagate the gain of the powerful. So what of the stories that are lost on the sands of time? What of the stories that were unable to be spoken or are yet to be discovered by man? What of the true stories that cannot be changed by time and the real accounts of each day and each event? Those which are lost and found in the known world are cataloged forever amongst the endless stacks in the Society of Reticence.

The library’s high stone rib vaults race across the ceiling, crisscrossing back and forth, elongating the entrance, and drawing the eye down the long corridor towards its core. This is the home of all knowledge and information. The dwelling of all fact, myth, legend, and truth. Seas of information can be found within these walls that only the chosen librarians of the society are permitted to enter, never to be found or seen by the living. Throughout the long corridor leading to the center, soaring stone archways line the sides with crawling green ivory and ancient relics of writing, announcing gateways into rooms dedicated to subjects of literature, math, science, stories, and events of history. Each room holds the very fabric of truth in all existence and cradles the soul of every thought, creation, and experience.

At the end of the long hallway stands a tall tree whose thick trunk twists upward, towering above the many archways. Its branches reach to the corners of the room and its delicate leaves constantly move on an invisible breeze throughout the room. The orange, red, yellow, and green leaves float through the air as if dancing along their descent to music of which only they know the tune, and land in the basin of the bubbling fountain below. Each leaf tells a story as it floats across the surface of the water. They tell the secrets of the universe and the truths of mankind as they dissolve into the water to be sorted and cataloged into their resting place within the rows of the library. Its new home where it will be remembered and cherished. The leaves tell stories of soldiers fighting on the battlefield, of the women who have been silenced through their duty and fear, of the individual who sits in the comfort of their own home and is content with the solitude and peace they have surrounded themselves with. Even the story of the field mouse - who goes about their life gathering and scurrying - is a story recorded and remembered within the halls of the society. The librarians know that each story matters, and every story deserves the right to be told and remembered with equal weight of importance.

The goal of the Society of Reticence is not to set the record straight for anyone, but only to collect. To give solace in the vast space of the universe and give meaning to the smallest movements that fold into the biggest adventure. There is no inherent good and no inherent bad within the libraries’ stacks of information, but instead there is comfort in the neutrality of knowledge and the duty of each librarian as they adhere to uphold the preservation of wisdom and not the leverage of its use. They are meant to watch, observe, and comfort those that pass through the society seeking answers and guide them to their final destinations. They are tasked with ensuring each piece of information finds its rightful home and giving equal acknowledgements to all walks of creation recorded in the master card catalog. Spanning the expansive wall behind the twisting roots of the tree is row after row of drawers, each with detailed record cards outlining meticulous metadata points from each entry that waltz down to the crystal waters. To satiate curiosities, one only needs to think of a topic and the library will pull every drawer containing a card that could help and the floating ladders will guide you left and right, up and down, until all sides of the topic can be found.

There are no windows within the walls of the society to preserve the papers and scripts dating back thousands of years, but the librarians only have to look up to see the stars and planets of the universe reflected down at them. The ceiling swirls and dances with the trails of shooting stars and decorations of asteroid belts. Here houses the collection of every star, every planet, every sun, and every detail of the universe's expansive reach. One only has to reach out their hand to bring the sky to their fingertips and browse the greatest mystery known to man; space. For the library has all information, even that which has yet to be discovered by reality, so it stays true to its charge and protects the knowledge within,never to sway in the battle of good and evil.

Though the librarians are the only corporeal inhabitants of the library, there are still many that roam the halls and periodicals. Constantly on the hunt for knowledge or working to gather key pieces of information for the work they have yet to complete. The Society of Reticence is also home to the spirits of those in the pursuit of knowledge and a final resting place for the hearts of those who filled their mortal lives with the purpose of research and creation. Scientists, writers, artists, musicians, explorers, the curious minds of amateurs and experts alike, drift through the stacks reciting findings of their work and wandering for information on their unfinished works. The intellectual and creative’s work is held captive within the soul and so their souls follow their hearts to the center of all knowledge and fill their eternity with personal discovery. The universe’s wealth of knowledge will be at their fingertips for as much time as they deem necessary to feel complete in their pursuit of answers.

The Society of Reticence guards the knowledge of the universe and protects it from the users who wish to use it as a weapon in the battle between right and wrong. It safeguards those that pursue the gift of knowledge to find growth in themselves and the peace that they find in knowing the answers. Good cannot exist without evil and evil cannot exist without good, but information is not the source of that fragile balance. It is how we use information and the way in which we tell a story that ultimately tips the scale. There will always be good and there will always be evil, because without one the other cannot exist. Just as there will always be one side of the story to tell and that story will always leave out pieces of information to meet a goal and a narrative. But what about the story that died on the lips of the lonely or that were forced into silence because they believed no one cared. The Society of the Reticence is their home. It is the place where the silenced, the forgotten, and the truth reside next to one another, inhabiting a hidden space where all information is important and holds equal power. Time remembers all of its inhabitants and so too does the Society of Reticence.