3 Days before the 'Calamity'
It has been another day for the Gold Creek since the prince made his name. The clouds are brownier than a cookie in a jar, and everyone is showered in its crumble. Just as the librarian sees it, everything is set as part of the crowned one's warning for the town. Water seems to be scarce with the coming sand.
The library is even more sullen than ever, with nobody for the librarian to look behind the window glass while she was keeping her place up. Her fingers were rubbing with sand while she was trying to organize a set of books on the shelf. Perhaps walking all the way straight to another district was a mistake.
"Well, well, well..." Eve muttered with arms crossed.
"If it isn't the days of reckoning for Gold Creek."
The world is shifting as it should. The truth opens for the world, and there's no escape from the inevitable dust of dismay. The Tin Man and the librarian were to be in luck as the witness to the revelation. Gold Creek is facing its judgement for a long history of filth.
The Duke's statue is littered in sand, just as his name was about to be wept by history. The people yearn at the sky and see they are merely a facade of their own pride. Their sad, weeping eyes try to strive against the sand on their face. But they could not hide from the truth anymore. The librarian's long dream for the town is fulfilled.
"It is time. Gold Creek and all its people have been shrouded with false sense of hope while the Duke gets his way for glory with a clean hand."
"The Great Stone had seen not one, but three events to keep their eyes open. The truth is here...they are not worthy of standing any longer!" She yelled in excitement.
"Isn't that right, Charger? Have the wicked finally been punished?"
But the Tin Man cares only to indulge himself for a little of the metals he has. Scrapping has never felt so much easier without witnesses on the street, and he was covered in all sand from head to toe in his glorious pursuit. Not everyone is as aware as the librarian, but the Tin Man still makes his difference.
"One, two, three...huh? Oh, right! Yeah!" He pauses those cogs for her.
"I would say they were more likely to face a change. But you do you, friend."
"I can see that. But the world didn't need a change when they have only a realization." Eve mumbled.
Through the desert of pain, sight has lost its purpose. Senses are numb, and a foggy mirror is clearer than what Great Stone has become. But one man still objects to the sight of the librarian, with its silhouette approaching through the fog unwavering.
"What the..."
She thought with a doubt. For a moment, it seemed she was looking at an inhuman figure. Its hands were weak between its hips, but its robe and shadow stood out while vapours exuded from its skin. Her eyes couldn't stop looking for that view as it grew closer to her position.
Its hand reaches out to the door's knob, pushing the librarian away with horror as it makes itself in by force. Yet through the shining light, the librarian's eyes were immediately dulled when what was revealed to her was someone familiar in a pinkish-brown robe.
"Hey..." Cyrus muttered with an unhappy wave.
The cleric is left on his trail with no friends and sand brushing his skin. As lost as he was in doubt, the light of his faith dims as he witnesses the sandstorm. Perhaps he was bored, or that he was ready to accept what he had seen from the outside.
"Cyrus, a pleasure to meet you here. But what wind brings you out of the sandy street here?" She teases.
"Doesn't seem that your class is in a rush here."
"You know the deal. I had to rest my foot somewhere with the girl I know...!"
"My mother is going off broad in another land and I'm not here to find out what is she doing." Cyrus closes the door.
"And I see you still bring that creature in."
"Hi!" Charger waves.
Now that was more than one visitor in the librarian's presence. The library fills many minds, but each conflicts with the other. There's the wanderer with his lights blinding, the thinker with her void still untouched, and the indifferent sitting at the same table while sand covers their views.
The cleric stares from the window, filled with reason and faith, adding himself to the existence of innocence. The outside is a perfect time for self-betterment. Everyone is comfortable in their shelter, people are relieved from the overgrowing duty, and a higher power is answering their endeavours against insignificance.
"Oh, this is terrible. So many innocents are on strike." Cyrus stands uneasy on the library's front doors, holding his amulet tight.
"Will it end? I know it would, but..."
"How can we do this world any better now? It seems innocents are in danger..."
"Can there's truly a reason to this end?"
The librarian glances through the window, thoughts filled with question and doubt, a mindfully aware. The outside is clearly a tide of inevitable. The sand squall is born to tear impropriety from the ground so the world can learn from the unbearing truth. As soon as it swept through the South, nothing shall last to those who have abused their pride.
"Oh, it will end. End when everyone had no more to start..." Eve passes through with a cup of tea for everyone.
"I have no words but a thought for what each district has for the calamity. What horror they will face each for their cruelty."
"If it was destined to ruin as he prophesized, then who we are to deny it?"
"Does licking a prophet's boot truly change a thing? I believe not."
The Tin Man remains on his commitment, listening only to the wisp. Yet he joins the conversation only by murmuring his thoughts while he crafts wonder undisturbed. The sand is nothing but a gust of temporary shift within the world. Soon, it will end just as yesterday did.
"Meh, I believe those changes are simple, friend." Charger refines himself.
"Where it comes, it sweeps, and where it leaves, it cleans. People are feeling out of the ordinary..."
"Once you outlive it, it means nothing more but a reminder of the past. Better not let that be if I were you..."
With each spreading their words, tension rose among them as they found resolution difficult. The librarian, the cleric, and the Tin Man sat with eyes sharpening on one another. Each of them wondered about another's judgement of the world. And each has their words unlikable.
"What do you mean by that? Isn't it obvious how the two of you deny the inevitable? Quit it!" Eve raises her fist.
"Denying? You and the creature could care less about the people while I'm here helping them out!" Cyrus slams the table.
"*Sigh* Does the two of you care about a sandy window so much? Surely you could've just let it pass and do your life a better if you looked the other way around..." Charger crosses his pebble-like arms.
"Charger's right. You're making it too simple for people to ignore the cause, Cyrus!"
"That's now what I meant!" Charger replies with a saddened tone.
They fought off their minds with a word, raising each other's tone to compete with another's doubt. But all they have is a stalemate in an argument. After all, no one can clearly see what happens behind the dusty window.
"Eve, what are you saying? Are you not aware of how a city like this had strived since centuries through numerous disasters? No one's gonna die tonight because we're all equally struck." Cyrus smirks with angered eyebrows at Eve.
"How prideful, Cyrus. But it's obvious you have never been hit on a head with a book before. So let me tell you this..." Eve taunts. Both their eyes stared at each other.
"Oh, yeah? Then maybe you never got hit with an amulet in your—wait, what am I saying?"
"Hey! I can also hear you, you know? Besides, the sand didn't even sound bad in your skin! Why are you making a big thing out of nothing?" The Tin Man intervenes.
"Big thing out of nothing? Says the guy who clearly made nothing on my table."
"*Gasp* Eve! How could you!" Charger drops his cogs.
So, the librarian had an idea. One day, in a sandy place like this, a journey would be a great idea to see the world together and make their own judgement—see which one is closer to rightful. After all, what else to do in the old library without a reader but her?
"Alright, alright..." Eve pauses, wiping off the oil stench on the table.
"Sorry!" Charger snatched the cogs to the floor.
"How about this? We go outside and set some scores for which of us are right here..."
"See if the town deserves, not deserves it—or neither."
"How's that for a game? You wouldn't want to live up in your shell of ignorance, right?"
"I don't know. I only want to adore me treasures." Charger wields his scrap necklace.
It was no doubt the fastest thing the three would agree upon. Hope, truth, and ambition are in the air as much as the sand is. Each was drawn in a competitive intellect, while they wondered what the winner's trophy would be. Fortunately, the winner can find out themselves.
"So, the nature of our judgement—if it's truly what you wanted." Cyrus scratches his chin.
"Fine, then. Who's to say I can't win that? I've been on the side of this town way better..."
"I mean, it ain't get worse down there, right?"
"Go ahead, Eve. I'll go get my paper and mask ready. Can't wait to see that loser's face when I got a perfect ten."
"Hey! No one said loser on my friend!" Charger jumps out.
"You'll get smacked with a cog for that, Cyrus!"
"That's the spirit. Now let me put on my thicker coat and a mask for this..."
Eve head towards the backroom of the library.
"How did you even walked out without a cover?"
"My robe...is sand-proof..." He waves it at her face. Sands are stickless to it.
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The dare was on. The librarian, the cleric, and the Tin Man join together in the stormy Great Stone to watch the world erode to the ground. No fire, no ice, just the touch of pebbles receding through their skin. Even a man wouldn't dare to walk out like they do.
Everyone is in their houses, while only the three wanderers get to freely roam the city. Machines aren't working properly, and electricity fails to move with the current flow and its debris. So leaving the library requires a strong suit.
"My, my, my...in a world like this, I doubt we could've survived on our own. But guess what? We did!" Cyrus taunts Eve. Fingers poking her head.
"What? The game hasn't started yet! Be patient, or you'll be eliminated." Eve knotted her scarf around her neck along with a hat.
"Don't cheat, Cyrus. We should all play fairly like a player," Charger wears a long coat with a tattered bowler hat.
"I'm not cheating. I wasn't aware the game was started..."
The Great Stone is just another desert for the wanderers. Travelling through the slope feels more like an adventure's travel, with the librarian stepping on the front as the wielder of a wandering cane. The gust blows fiercer from the south, and they surely won't return home until night.
"Come, we are getting way closer than you think!" Eve persists against the storm.
"Where are we going anyway? It's all sand here!" Cyrus covers himself with cloth all over his face.
"We're going down, Cyrus. I'll show you what happens to this town that it deserves punishment."
"Woah! Charger can't see anything! Charger needs...a spark!" He wields a torch.
"You mean sight?" Cyrus pokes his head.
"Nah, that makes me lose a point on you! Try again, Cyrus!"
The three arrived in the first act in a small housing of Great Stone with one mansion standing at the centre. There's a river running under, but it was dried out with sand. Without it, anyone would know what happened next.
"Woah, what happened here?" Charger perched down.
"I guess the storm really is that strong." Cyrus commented.
"Meh, it'll probably flows away into the ocean sooner."
"I hope so." Cyrus replies.
Drought was the first thing to come within the district, where people gathered for one well for a sprinkle of water. But sands find its way into it, leaving the pipes dry. People carried empty buckets, pumping the pump, but nothing else came out. Those who were higher in privilege also failed to earn one.
"Ugh, this is ridiculous! There's someone here who needs a ter!" The man with fine garments walks in with a wooden bucket.
"There's no water here, sir! The water is gone! The sand seeps it all!" The poor woman said.
"Enough with the theatrics, do you think I have time for this?"
It was the perfect moment for the librarian to seize the words, taking the wisdom of drought. From here, people are desperate and hopeless as the same. Not even the mansion owner could afford his own well, and he had only a wooden bucket to hunch water.
"So, Cyrus. Do you see what I see?" Eve smirks.
"A few people suffering from drought and infrastructure failure due to lack of water pump?" Cyrus walks in with a bucket.
"Kind of. But you know how you always said we are all equally in this together? I guess you're right. We are..."
"And what are you trying to say, Eve?"
It was the perfect moment for the librarian to seize the words, taking the wisdom of drought. From here, people are desperate and hopeless as the same. Not even the mansion owner could afford his own well, and he had only a wooden bucket to hunch water.
"So, Cyrus. Do you see what I see?" Eve smirks.
"A few people suffering from drought and infrastructure failure due to lack of water pump?" Cyrus walks in with a bucket.
"Kind of. But you know how you always said we are all equally in this together? I guess you're right. We are..."
"And what are you trying to say, Eve?"
The man in the center—the owner of this river. He had a history of seizing the housing's precious resources until the sand got him snagged on scarcity. Now, the man stands helpless, trying to start his work without a machine in the well of the citizens he robbed. The librarian finds this discovery worth telling.
"See what happens to the people here? They are all as desperate as one. No one gets away from the drought...and now the owner of the waters here couldn't work out because he had to get it from fresh water."
"And how's that good for the town?"
"He had to work it out now. None of his henchmen and workers could do anything anymore. The town deserves to be sanded for the sake of those who were misfortune..."
"So you're saying that it's fine to demolish a society for the sake of equality? What if those who had already been in misfortune got double the worse instead of equality? Because it's sure that those lower than him don't feel deserved, right?" Cyrus stares in a disappointed stare.
But she forgot how little the suffering and karma go. The cleric cleverly seizes the already seized opportunity for himself. For the librarian to aim only at the man, she failed to realize the innocents before her. Thus, she stands defeated by the sightful cleric and his knowing.
"W-well, I..." Eve stutters.
"You didn't think this through, Eve. These people deserve mercy and no one is equal until both earn what they need the most."
"Which is...?" Eve scowl.
"Water," Cyrus walks off.
Nevertheless, the librarian still has more to catch. Just as the cleric said, the mansion owner lend kindness to the citizens. People were as helpless as him, yet he was there standing, hurting his own pride for the sake of humility.