Chapter — The Apocryphon
The Shadow Syndicate's first problem was embarrassingly simple.
They knew almost nothing.
Veydras had a list of beings he believed should not exist.
Noctis had spent the better part of an hour pointing out that knowing someone's name was generally insufficient preparation for killing them.
Eventually Veydras became annoyed.
"Do you have a better idea?"
Noctis looked at the stolen map covering their table.
"Several."
"Name one."
"Information."
Veydras stared at him.
Noctis gestured toward the list. "Where do these people live?"
"Somewhere."
"Their abilities?"
"Some of them."
"Organizations?"
"Probably."
"Defenses?"
Veydras remained silent.
Noctis smiled.
"Excellent intelligence operation."
Veydras took the list away from him.
They spent years fixing that problem.
They stole records.
Bought others.
Interrogated people who possessed information they shouldn't have possessed.
Noctis became remarkably good at discovering what people considered valuable.
Veydras became remarkably good at convincing them that continued ownership was unnecessary.
Their map grew.
Universe became universes.
Universes became structures.
Then someone mentioned something called a multiverse.
That discovery cost them seventeen years, three dead informants, and one building Veydras insisted had already been structurally unsound.
Eventually they confirmed it.
Their map expanded again.
Noctis stared at it one evening.
"How much do you think we're missing?"
Veydras answered, "Most of it."
Noctis nodded.
"Wonderful."
Then they heard about the book.
It wasn't actually a book.
That disappointed Noctis considerably.
They found it inside a classified archive belonging to a civilization that had spent several million years collecting information it considered too dangerous to distribute.
The object sat alone in a sealed chamber.
Black slabs floated above a pedestal without touching one another.
No pages.
No binding.
No visible writing.
Noctis stared through the observation window.
"That's a book?"
Veydras replied, "Apparently."
"It's terrible at it."
Veydras opened the chamber.
Every alarm in the facility activated.
Noctis looked toward him.
"You could have disabled those."
"I could have."
"Why didn't you?"
Veydras picked up the object.
Behind them, armed personnel flooded the corridor.
Veydras glanced toward Noctis.
Noctis sighed.
"I hate working with you."
"You keep coming."
"Poor judgment."
They left with the object.
The civilization spent the next several centuries asking for it back.
Eventually it stopped asking.
Noctis placed the object on their table.
Nothing happened.
He touched it.
Nothing.
Veydras touched it.
The nearest slab destabilized.
He immediately removed his hand.
Noctis stared at him.
"Excellent."
Veydras glared.
"We've stolen a remarkably expensive paperweight."
"It isn't a paperweight."
"Currently its strongest demonstrated ability is sitting."
They experimented.
Questions produced nothing.
Names produced nothing.
Coordinates produced nothing.
Noctis eventually leaned back in his chair.
"Perhaps it doesn't contain information."
Veydras looked at it.
"Then why hide it?"
That changed the question.
Veydras asked, "Why was this object classified?"
A symbol appeared.
Both men froze.
More symbols followed.
They rearranged themselves into language.
CLASSIFICATION RECORD: REMOVED
Noctis slowly stood.
"Ask it who removed it."
Veydras did.
Nothing.
"Why was the record removed?"
Nothing.
Noctis walked around the table.
"What information existed before the record was removed?"
The slabs separated.
Hundreds of symbols appeared.
Noctis stopped.
Veydras smiled.
There it was.
The object did not necessarily know what was true.
It knew when information was missing.
Records deleted.
Histories altered.
Names suppressed.
Events whose consequences remained despite their causes disappearing from documentation.
Noctis stared at the symbols.
"Negative information."
Veydras looked toward him.
Noctis pointed at the object.
"Don't ask it what exists."
He leaned closer.
"Ask it what should."
They named it the Apocryphon.
Noctis chose the name.
Veydras claimed not to care.
He then rejected four alternatives.
The Apocryphon transformed the Shadow Syndicate.
Their stolen map became obsolete almost immediately.
They asked about unexplained gravitational structures.
Missing histories.
Divine appearances with no documented points of origin.
Civilizations whose oldest records referenced places absent from every known chart.
Eventually Noctis found a discrepancy.
Their calculations predicted more matter, energy and causal interaction than their cosmological model could contain.
He spent several days checking it.
Then checked again.
Veydras found him staring at the same calculation.
"Problem?"
Noctis replied, "Either mathematics has become unreliable, or our map is wrong."
Veydras looked at the map.
"Ask."
Noctis approached the Apocryphon.
"What structure should exist to account for interactions observed beyond known multiversal boundaries?"
Nothing happened.
Noctis frowned.
Veydras tried another approach.
"What information is absent from our cosmological model?"
The slabs moved.
LOCAL COSMOLOGICAL MODEL: INCOMPLETE
Neither spoke.
Another line appeared.
MULTIVERSE: NON-TERMINAL STRUCTURE
Noctis's expression changed.
"Non-terminal?"
The Apocryphon continued.
SUPERORDINATE CONTAINER DETECTED
A final word appeared.
ARCHAVERSE
Silence.
Veydras stared at it.
Noctis slowly looked toward the map that had taken them centuries to construct.
Then back at the word.
"Everything on that map..."
Veydras finished for him.
"Is inside something else."
Neither man spoke for a while.
Not because they couldn't understand it.
Because they could.
Their known cosmology had just become local geography.
Noctis eventually sat down.
"How many Archaverses?"
INFORMATION INSUFFICIENT
"How large is one?"
METRIC DEPENDENT
Noctis frowned.
"Can Archaverses contain multiple multiverses?"
AFFIRMATIVE
"How many?"
The Apocryphon paused.
VARIABLE
Veydras asked, "Who knows they exist?"
The slabs shifted.
QUESTION CANNOT BE RESOLVED
Noctis looked at him.
"Better question."
Veydras thought.
Then:
"Which organizations possess records requiring knowledge of Archaverse-scale structure?"
The Apocryphon answered.
Several names appeared.
Most meant nothing to them.
One did.
CONTINUUM CONCORD
Noctis's expression hardened.
"Of course."
They thought that was the revelation.
It wasn't.
Years later, the Apocryphon activated by itself.
That had never happened before.
Veydras was elsewhere in the Archive.
Noctis was alone.
The slabs separated.
One line appeared.
ARCHAVERSE: LOCALIZED SUBSTRUCTURE
Noctis stared at it.
He called Veydras immediately.
Veydras arrived to find him standing perfectly still.
"What happened?"
Noctis pointed.
Veydras read the sentence.
Then read it again.
Noctis asked quietly, "If an Archaverse is a substructure..."
He didn't finish.
He didn't need to.
Veydras approached the Apocryphon.
"Superordinate structure."
The slabs moved.
SUPERORDINATE FIELD: AETHERIAL INTERSTICE
Neither recognized the term.
Noctis asked, "Define Aetherial Interstice."
INFORMATION NOT PRESENT
"Scale?"
INFORMATION NOT PRESENT
"Boundaries?"
INFORMATION NOT PRESENT
"Contents?"
INFORMATION NOT PRESENT
Noctis's irritation grew with every answer.
"Then how do you know it exists?"
For several seconds, nothing happened.
Then:
ARCHAVERSE RECORDS CONTAIN EXTERNAL REFERENCES
Noctis stopped.
Veydras understood first.
The Apocryphon didn't possess information about the Aetherial Interstice.
It possessed information proving that something outside Archaverses had been referenced.
A shadow cast by something the book itself couldn't see.
Veydras smiled.
Noctis noticed.
"Why are you smiling?"
"Because someone removed it."
"We don't know that."
"No."
Veydras looked at the words.
"But someone knows more than we do."
Noctis sighed.
"I preferred you when our enemies lived on the map."
They searched the Apocryphon for references connected to the Aetherial Interstice.
Most produced nothing.
One produced a single word.
OBSERVER
Veydras stared.
"Person?"
UNRESOLVED
"Organization?"
UNRESOLVED
"Title?"
The Apocryphon hesitated.
PROBABLE
Noctis stepped closer.
"Affiliation?"
CONTINUUM CONCORD
Noctis gave Veydras a tired look.
"Again."
Veydras ignored him.
"What does the Observer do?"
INFORMATION NOT PRESENT
"Where are they?"
INFORMATION NOT PRESENT
"How powerful are they?"
INFORMATION NOT PRESENT
Noctis folded his arms.
"We have discovered someone about whom we know absolutely nothing."
Veydras corrected him.
"We know the Concord doesn't want us knowing."
Noctis looked at the single word.
That was worse.
They added it to the list.
Not the list of beings that should not exist.
A new one.
Things they didn't understand.
The second list eventually became considerably longer.
The Apocryphon continued teaching them how ignorant they were.
That became its most reliable function.
Every answer created three questions.
Every structure revealed another shadow above it.
Every classified record suggested somebody with the authority to classify it.
Veydras had once believed existence itself was the enemy.
Now he was beginning to understand just how much administration existence apparently required.
He wasn't sure whether that made things better or considerably worse.
One day, Noctis stood beside the growing cosmological map.
Universes.
Multiverses.
Archaverses.
And above them, written without explanation:
AETHERIAL INTERSTICE
Noctis looked at Veydras.
"We started because you wanted to destroy the system."
Veydras nodded.
Noctis pointed upward.
"We didn't know what the system was."
Veydras stared at the map.
"No."
Noctis waited.
Veydras looked toward the Apocryphon.
"Now we know what to look for."
Behind them, the black slabs moved.
Neither man had asked a question.
A new record appeared.
DIVINE AUTHORITY: CHAOS
Then a name.
DISCORDIA
Veydras turned.
Neither of them knew it yet.
But for the first time since Mira died, the next thing Veydras discovered would give him a reason to believe he might have been wrong.