"Hey, nice save on the storm." " Good work." " Thank you." "It simply required an understanding of the adiabatic lapse rate as it relates to the Madden-Julian Oscillation without losing the thermally driven circulation." "And a whackload of magic." "We need to get them back on the road" " as soon as possible." " They did good work." "Wouldn't have beat Prospero without 'em." "We didn't beat Prospero." "He got away, and he got his book." "I would've gone after him, but instead..." "We made a plan and executed it together instead of just charging into the fog." "But fog is the best part." "Are you... sulking?" "No." "Maybe." "I don't know." "Yes, I am, because we had a good thing going out there, you and me." "Runnin', adventuring'." " Alone." " Yes, the alone parts are the best." "Yes, but for now, with Prospero on the loose and Moriarty by his side, we need all hands on deck." "Hey, three extra Librarians, we play our cards right," " we can get the drop on the bad guys." " Okay, we can try." "Getting the drop on the bad guys would be nice for a change." "Work time." "Work, work, work, work, work." "Rather than go our separate ways, our Guardian has convinced me that this would be an ideal opportunity for us to join our forces together to try to take out our enemy." "This man..." "Prospero." "We know." "We were there." "Prospero is a Fictional." "In some very rare cases, a character is so famous, so well-written, a play or story is read so often that the psychic energy combines with the ambient magic and allows them to literally step out of their story." "Prospero the magician, in theory, would be very dangerous." "But in the text of "The Tempest"..." "Prospero gives up his magic, he drowns his book, he breaks his staff." "However, recent events indicate that he may be trying to get his power back." "Which is very unusual for a Fictional." "Typically, they are bound by their stories, lacking free will to choose their own fate..." "Uh... sorry." "Okay, no, I'll just..." "Really?" "Okay." "Okay." "Anyway, as I was saying," "Prospero has somehow managed to find a way to rebel against his narrative and reclaim his power." " He has recovered his book, w..." " We, uh..." " Which we already know." " Yes, I know!" "Meaning that his next move will be to find and repair his staff unless we beat him to it." "All right, I like it." "Startin' on offense." " What do we do?" " Well, the staff was broken..." "Wow!" "I'm so sorry." "It's just that I usually do the briefings." "You usually do the rapid fire conclusions, dramatic reveals, and all the running about." " Fair enough." "Proceed." " Thank you, sir." "So the original staff was broken in 1611, right after the first performance of "The Tempest,"" "which is when Prospero first appeared as a Fictional." "And what happened to the pieces?" "That we don't know." "Do we have a copy of "The Tempest"?" "It was published 10 years after the performance." "There might be some clues in there." "I believe there's an original folio in the reading room." "I'm on it." "Folio." "Reading room." " Where's the read..." " Oh, you go..." "Oh, no, let..." "Stay." "I'll do it." "It'd be quicker." "Stone, Ezekiel, why don't you check the card catalog and look for any references to a lost staff?" "Cool." "We'll check the library annals, too, see if any previous Librarians had any experiences" " with the Prosperity bloke." " Prospero." "Whatever." "Someone should also probably check the magic tomes." "I mean, even if he beats us to the pieces, he still needs to reforge it." "That could be a potential failure point," " and we can get him there." " Very good." "Uh..." "I'll do that." "How... was... that?" "Good Plan "A."" "Now we need a Plan "B" in case he gets the staff first." "Any ideas?" "Well, I had a pretty good idea that involved neither releasing a solar flare in New York City nor defacing what could only be described as a towering monument to liberty, but..." "Okay, that's in the past." "What matters now is..." "Past." "Eve, I know where the staff is." "Unless I missed my guess, and I never miss my guess," "I can get those pieces and be back here in two jiffs of a lamb's tail." "That's a thing, right?" " Okay, so we all come with you." " No." "You should send them on Plan "B"" "in case I'm wrong, which I'm not." "But you should come with me." "This isn't just a clever excuse" " for us to run off adventuring, is it?" " A little bit, but I also think it's more strategic planning, because I guarantee wherever that staff is, that's where Prospero will be." "From my text, I summon thee to serve." "By arts arcane and spirits vile, come to my side, Moriarty." "So..." "This is what the fuss was all about then, eh?" "The Wallace Collection is significantly more impressive." "And it was descended from the dreary Vernet family." "A snobbish air for one so lowly born." "I am the first of the Fictionals." "I summoned you." "I control you." "Remember that." "And now, little sprite... help us to find the heart." "Seems your watch is broken." "His senses are befuddled by this place." "Some magic far beyond his own obscures the path that leads to treasure that we seek." "We'll need another way to reach our goal." "And here it stands." "A wave upon our shoal." "We go to the nicest places." "Isn't this great?" "!" "This was the estate of John Dee, mathematician, astronomer, advisor to Queen Elizabeth I, also confidante and contemporary to..." "William Shakespeare." "Also, he was a wizard." "Shakespeare had a friend who was a wizard?" "Kinda buried the lead there." "And if Prospero's staff was broken," "Shakespeare would've wanted to hide the pieces." "Where better to hide the pieces from a wizard than in the home of another wizard?" "400 years the pieces of staff have been here in this dump?" "Shakespeare's power lay in the narrative that he wove over the audience." "He would've hid the pieces as close to the heart of that power as possi... ble." "The stage." "Eve!" "Shakespeare and his players used to perform works-in-progress for John Dee and his friends." "This would've been their stage!" "Hey, you actually look good up there." "Well, you know, there was a time... where I fancied that I might become a classically trained thespian." "In fact, I auditioned for "Hamlet" in high school, and I killed it." " Did you get the part?" " I did... not." "I was the stage manager." "But I would've been amazing." "Anyway, Shakespeare would not have let these fall into the wrong hands." "He needed some sort of passcode to make sure that they didn't get discovered..." "Words... that would've never been spoken on this stage." "Eve, you're a genius!" "There is a word, a word that no actor, no thespian, no one steeped in the theatrical traditions such as Prospero would ever have uttered unless they were in a production." ""Macbeth."" ""Swear by his sword."" "Are we gonna find magical swords?" "'Cause I did not bring anything for that." "No, that's Act I, Scene V." "Those are the words spoken by the ghost of Hamlet's father, usually spoken from beneath the stage." "The staff is below us." "Ah!" "Uh, I've got references to a bunch of lost magic staffs in here." "The Ruyi Jingu Bang, the Staff of Zarathustra, the Staff of Ra." "Just cross-reference "staff" with "broken."" "How?" "It's not like it's a search engine." "What do you mean how..." "You... you don't know how to use a card catalog?" "!" "Uh, it's the 21st century," "I don't know how to shoe a horse either." "All right." "I'm gonna go see how Jenkins is doing with the folio." "What's going on?" "!" "The doors are locked!" "It's the library's security system." "Alpha level alert, basic intruder lockdown." "No point pulling on those doors, mate." "Won't do you any good." "How do you know that?" "How do you know that, huh?" "!" "You never pay attention to anything!" "'Cause I read the security manual..." "First thing I do in any building." "Yeah, but why is it going off?" "I mean, that's the only way into the Library." "There's no intruders in here." "Unless they're already inside and they're trying to keep us out." "The only person inside is Mr. Jenkins." "Why would he wanna lock us out?" "'Cause somebody's in there with him." "Prospero." "He brought the fight to us." "How do you know about the Library?" "The guardians of all treasures magic and strange?" "I've wandered the Earth for centuries now." "It would be impossible to not hear of thee." "And now we walk the path o'power, we three." "Um..." "I will not aid you." "As a fellow gentlemen of intellect," "I'd suggest you cooperate." "It'll go easier on you." "Oh, please." "Uh, you know, I-I usually resist playing this card... well, at least in supernatural circles... do you know who I am?" "You've a trace of an accent that you hide well, but not completely." "Something between Germanic and Celtic, suggesting Ancient Britain." "From your stature and the shaking of your fingers in your sword hand, the way you stand here unafraid," "I'd venture to say you were a man of action." "A noted one." "The logical deduction would be you're a Knight of the Round Table." "Or were." "A former knight, yes?" "Um, uh, well, my point, though, is," "I've been threatened, tortured, and bullied, bothered, grilled, menaced long since before you two were even a glimmer in your writers ink pot." "I will never lead you to your staff." "My staff?" "'Tis broken." "Surely that you know." "I came here in pursuit of bigger prize." "My first staff was forged of a branch of the Tree of Knowledge." "I would have another." "And so the Library's heart is where I've set my eyes." "Cassandra, move." "Forget about it, mate." "If I can't get those doors open, no one can." "We gotta do something." "All right?" "Prospero has got Jenkins." "Nobody knows the Library like him." "Jenkins would never help him." "Well, he got Jenkins to lock us out." "Maybe he's able to, like, control him somehow." "I highly that doubt that." "This is an Alpha alert, lowest level of security." "If Prospero did have Jenkins under control, he'd have set off an Omega alert, which means you wouldn't be about to chop down that door." "You'd be a big pile of ash in a nice set of work boots." "Jenkins is playing along?" "He set a low level security so they'd think he was cooperating." "Exactly." "An Alpha alert has that backdoor." "Wait, it does?" "Am I the only one that reads the security manuals?" "There's a hidden passcode in case a Librarian or Guardian ever needed to get back in." "What is it?" "!" "Ugh!" "Well, stop playing with your phone and find it!" "It's simple." "We go to the library, the local one." "Ooh!" "My knees." "It's locked." "With some sort of code." ""The Guns Bind Gab."" "Bind... gab." "Words we don't say." "No, "Macbeth" again?" "No, there's no quotes about guns in "Macbeth."" "If it's a code, we need some sort of cypher to solve it." "Unless it's a self-contained anagram." "Ooh!" "I like anagrams." "Guns bind gab." "Guns bind gab." "No, uh..." "Bathings... bunged." " Now that better not be it." " No." "Bad... begins..." " Ah!" " Hmm?" ""Things bad begun makes strong themselves with ill."" ""Macbeth," Act III, Scene II." "Uh, you were a stage manager in high school." "I was Lady Macbeth, and I was amazing." "Act III, Scene II." "Three..." "Scene... two." " Get ready, Eve." " Okay." "You're about to feast your eyes on the pieces of Prospero's staff." "Smaller than I'd thought." ""Not yet, but soon and long ago." ""I pray your journey does not end in woe."" "Whoa. "The Librarian"?" "Some other Librarian from 400 years ago beat us here." "Took the staff pieces and left an annoying note." "If a Librarian left that note, the staff isn't here..." "It's back in the Library." " Docent." " I got it." " Uh, excuse me, ma'am." " Yes, may I help you?" "Yes, I need to check out a book." "It's an emergency." "May I please see your library card?" "Oh, I-I don't have a card, but... well, I'm the Librarian." "You're Jane Stevens?" "No." "No, no, no, I, um, I'm... the Librarian." "Uh, from a different library." "But I do need to check out a book." "Any book?" "No, the one book that is in every single library..." ""The Complete Works of William Shakespeare," " Unabridged."" " Oh, I'm sorry." "Our only copy was just checked out." "Huh?" " Hey, hey, excuse me, excuse me." " Little girl, hi." "Hi." "How are you?" "Listen, we... we need that book." " I just checked it out." " Yeah, I know, sweetie, but we need it for official business." "See, we're the Librarians." "You're not Mrs. Stevens." "No, no, but we do, however, appreciate your dedication to learning, huh?" "Yeah, it is very admirable." "And we're very impressed you read such a grown-up book." "Look, we need that book back, or something very bad is gonna happen to a lot of people, and you don't want that, do you?" "Give me 50 bucks." " What?" " What?" "No, we... we don't wanna buy it from you." " We just want you to g..." " 50 bucks." "Now you listen to me, young lady." "We're... $75." "I like her." "Tick, tick." "You want me to lead you to the heart of the Library?" "Clearly, you are out of your mind." "Not out my mind." "I am but out my book." "I cannot lead you to the heart of the Library." "Former Knight or not, I'm sure with the right inducement..." "No, no, I'm sorry, you misunderstand." "I am literally not capable of doing it right now." "Shows no signs of lying." "We'll have to look for it on our own." "And quickly." "He's clearly trying to stall us." "Ah!" "You can look all you want." "You're not going to find it." "The heart of the Library doesn't even exist on the same extradimensional plane as the Library itself." "What don't you forget about it?" "Give it up." "I'm sure we could work something out..." "The heart hides in a separate fold of space?" "No wonder our dear friend was so displaced." "I..." "Ariel, take us to the gateway to the heart of the Library." "Oh, you're back!" " What?" "!" " You're back!" " What?" "!" " You're back!" "Hang on." " What?" " Wait, how did you teleport back" " without using that door?" " I can use any door." " You can?" " You can't?" " We have a problem." " I know." " The staff is here." " Prospero is here." " Wait." "What?" " Wait." "What?" "We received this note from a previous Librarian, saying that the staff had been removed from where we thought it was hidden, and hidden somewhere in this Library." "Prospero broke in while you guys were gone." "Seriously?" "!" "This is the third time this place has broken into since I started working here." "We're gonna have to have a serious talk about this so-called security system." "He made Jenkins put the place on lockdown." "We're shut out." "Okay, nobody panic!" "This is an Alpha level alert." "It's an easy fix." "What we need to open these doors is..." " Yeah, we were just about to..." " Yes, that." "But to get the passcode, what we're gonna" " have to figure out..." " Year, date, day, hour, minute, divided by the corresponding coefficient play, act, scene, word..." "I'll have it in three, two, one..." "Portents." "Very good." "I see you've all passed my test." "And if our foes gain entrance to the library?" "They lack Ariel to find the heart." "If what the knight says is true, they won't be able to follow us." "Yet perhaps we need some aid." "The brains are yours." "Now... let the brawn be made." "Welcome to Team Fictional." "Jenkins!" "What do we do?" "Do we thaw him out?" "If it's representational magic, can we symbolically melt him somehow?" "Not if it's a binding spell." "Once in Shanglow, the city beneath Shanghai," "I was under a binding spell so powerful that mere thought..." " What?" " Oh!" "The job's not all about obscure knowledge, people." "Sir, Prospero's here, and he has Moriarty with him and a celestial being locked inside a pocket watch." " Ariel." " Where is his staff?" "He's not after his staff, sir." "He's after something worse, uh, which I may have compounded with a tactical error." " It's been that kind of a day." " He's after a new staff, and he's going to the heart of the Library to get it." "There's a staff in the heart of the Library?" " No." " Um..." "A tree." "The Tree of Knowledge." "The Tree of Knowledge is the heart of the Library?" "If he makes a new staff from the wood of that tree, we are powerless against it." "Then we have to get there first." "Jenkins, how do we get to the heart?" "There's an elevator." "I've never been there." "I don't..." "I have no idea, sir." "That's where the compounded tactical error comes in." "The Library is, um, out of order." "Out of order?" "Would you all excuse us for a moment?" "Ever since the Library returned, it's been..." "How do I say this?" "Uh... off." "Off?" "How?" "Rooms missing, hallways unaccounted for." "I've tried mapping it, but it's unstable." "It's changing without..." "without any warning." "And... then there are the missing artifacts." "Whoo." "Library's missing artifacts?" "16, last count." "When were you gonna say something?" "Sir, I thought I could figure it out before anyone found out." "Tactical error on my part." "Which we will be discussing later at length." " Yes, sir." " However, at the moment, if that's true, we don't know how to get to the heart." "No, but with Ariel, Prospero does." "It will lead him there." "Okay, assuming I'm reading these right, and hey, magical maps, no guarantees, these rooms haven't shifted." "They're the same in all the maps." "You're right." "That's the annex." "That's the only actual connection point between the outside world and the Library," " so that stays stable." " And also the antiquities room." "It's the oldest room in this incarnation of the Library, the bedrock on which everything else was built." "Oh, and the reading room." "The largest collection of actual books, the iconic image of the Library." "Well, three points is all you need for an Intel." " If we triangulate..." " Triangulate!" "Triangulate the Library, like a Rubik's Cube." "No matter which way you twist it or turn it, the center always stays the same." "If you can line those up, you can solve it in seconds." " Six seconds, not to brag." " If you triangulate, uh, you'll need some sort of a detection device, Jenkins." "I'm assuming you have..." "I have some magical surveying equipment to track ley lines." "Good, we will triangulate the Library." "To find the heart, I suggest we split up." "Two people to a room." "Jenkins, why don't you and Cassandra anchor the Annex?" " Yes, sir." " Eve, why don't..." "I'll take Stone, go to the reading room." " You and Ezekiel take antiquities." " 'Cause I thought we'd... we'd," " Great." " Okay." "Ah!" "The sprite has found the final passage to the Library's heart." "They've made it to the elevator." "It'll take them straight to the heart." "If you didn't tell us something was off with the Library, I'm sure you had a good reason." "Ah, a reason." "Hmm, yes." "A good one?" "I thought it was me." "Judson always kept the Library such shipshape," "I...didn't want anybody to know that I couldn't." "I-I thought, Oh, you know, I'll keep it quiet, then I'll have a bit of time to figure it out." "Get the Library to trust me like it did Judson." "Now, ego..." "Ms. Cillian, ego and fear were my reasons." "Whoa!" "What the..." "Don't move." "The antiquity hall's in the right place, but the Greek and Roman wings seemed to have jumbled." "Oh, the Spear of Ares and the Spear of Mars are only a few feet from each other." "The helmets of Mercury and Hermes are almost touching." "And the lightning bolt of Zeus is out of its case." "Okay, do you know how lucky we are that this whole place hasn't blown sky high already?" "Very, very lucky." "See, the Romans copied" "Greek mythology and they changed all the names, so there's two sets of artifacts." "And if they come into contact, it is like matter and anti-matter." "Or like meeting your own counterpart in the Mirrorlands." "Do you understand that?" "If we don't keep them separate... boom!" "This whole room is basically one big, giant ticking magical bomb." "Yeah." "Too bad we don't have one of those big bomb suits, eh?" "What is that?" "W-why is your eyebrow moving?" "All right, this has gotta be the place." "I'm gonna set up." "Center of the room." "Blank pages." ""Alice in Wonderland."" "Oh." "Love "Alice." It's one of my favorites." ""Frankenstein."" "Off with your heads!" "Didn't see that one coming." "Off... with... their... heads!" "It's another Fictional." "He summoned the Red Queen from "Alice in Wonderland."" "No, that's the Queen of Hearts." "Red Queen is from "Through the Looking-Glass."" "There's a difference?" "Off with their heads, off with their heads, off with their heads." "Baird!" "This is wrong." "In the books, she ordered the beheadings, but it clearly states that they were pardoned." "Don't nitpick the crazy ax lady!" "You're sure this is safe?" "The Bracer of Agamemnon, the gauntlets of Athena, the Helm of Poseidon." "You're all Greeked up." "There is no way that Zeus's lightning rod will strike you." "Ah." "I saw that." "What?" "!" "I'm getting comfortable over here." "I'm watching your show of expertise." "You have never liked me." "Now's not the time for that." "Whoa." "I didn't know that it did that." "Well, if you're okay with it, can we finally set up that ley line surveying Doo..." "Ooh." "Aah!" "Frankenstein's Monster." "What is taking them so long?" "Prospero's descended another level." "When this happens in the movies, don't they try to, like, override the elevator or something?" "Indeed, they do, yes, but in the movies, usually, the elevators were made after the Reformation." "Off... with... your head." "Any ideas?" "Flynn said Fictionals don't have free will." "They're bound by the nature of their story." "Maybe we can use that against her." "Okay, okay, okay, how does Alice defeat her in the book?" "Well, she doesn't." "She just wakes up." "It's all a dream." "Was worth a shot." "Okay, if we can't beat her, do we banish her?" "Send her back to Wonderland?" "The only way to Wonderland's through the rabbit hole." "Or..." "Through the looking-glass." "Okay, you keep her distracted with Wonderland... stuff." "I'll look for lights." "Off with your... head." "Yah!" "Ha!" "Back!" "Back, you!" "Ha!" "Yah!" "Back!" "Frankenstein's Monster..." "he hates fire, right?" "In the movie, not the book." "There's a difference?" "I hold no hate for fire." "My hate is reserved for those who abhor me, meaning thee, man, who fancies himself in the image of the divine and yet vilifies me as monster!" "Okay, there's a difference." "The original text is very long-winded." " Ow!" "Oh!" " If you do not find my words concise, take my actions to be so." "I was brought forth to kill thee." "A-actually, you were not brought forth to kill." " Seems very kill-y to me." " Shut up." "You only killed because of despair, once you'd been abandoned by your creator, after you felt that the world had... had turned on you, hated you, uh, feared you." ""If I cannot inspire love, then I will cause fear."" "Those were your words." "You never wanted to kill." "You just wanted to belong." "And I refuse to fear you and I refuse to hate you." "Come here." "Come on." "Hug it out." "Hug it out for humanity." "Yes!" "There's no need for violence." "This is how Librarians solve problems, with our minds... and our hearts." " A fool's dream!" " Worth a shot." "Worth a shot." "Taunt me not with my heart's desire." "What admiration could even a single being show to such a fearsome visage as mine?" "What remedy can there be for one so foul as me?" "Little plastic surgery, maybe!" "What?" "Actually, he's right." "This isn't the 1800s." "Modern medicine can fix your... visage." "Yeah, and with that size and those reflexes, you ever considered playing professional sports?" "You wouldn't be adored by a single being." "You'd be adored by millions." "Yeah." "Yeah." "Off with your..." "Hey, hey, Queen!" "You." "You Wonderland girls, you like wordplay, don'tcha?" "Well, here's one for you..." "Why is a raven like a writing desk?" "Because there's a "b" in both." " What?" "There's no..." "Should've just ran!" " Off with your head!" "I hope Flynn and Ezekiel are having an easier time." "So you say I just swipe right?" "Exactly." "Hey!" "You already have a match." "She's cute." "Now!" "Hey, Queenie!" "Off with your... head!" "Nothing but a deck of cards." "There." "They've made it." "What happens now?" "We've triangulated the center." "Okay, the energy from the ley line should take us right to it." "I'll stay here and keep it steady." "I gotta hold it down." "You go." "We've run out of time." "They have reached the heart." "Flynn!" "Ah!" "Good." "It's you." "You made it." "Yeah, where are we?" "The heart of the Library." "The Tree of Knowledge should be..." "Got any knowledge about which particular tree it might be?" "I do not." "Ingenious." "One final defense mechanism." "Hide a single tree amidst a thousand." "Ingenious, yes, but no defense from us." "Now take us to it, my little sprite." "Is it this one?" "That is the Tree of Sorrow." "Ooh-Kay." "What about that one?" "That is the Tree of Righteous Indignation." "All right, how about this one?" "That is Abstract Creativity..." "Eve, I'll know it when I see it." "I just haven't seen it yet." "You see, this whole forest is designed to protect the Tree of Knowledge." "We don't want it to be easy." "Okay, but we want it to be easy for us because the bad guys have a glowy little sprite that's gonna lead them right to it." "We're racing for a needle in a haystack, and they've got a magnet." "Well, what do you want me to do about it?" "I want you to stop and think." "God, this is always the way with you." "Yeah, this is always the way with me." "For 11 years, longer than any other Librarian, it's been my way." "You don't mess with what's working." "But it isn't working, not for me." "I'm sorry." "My people skills are a little rusty." "Are you talking about this or are you talking about this?" "Because if you're talking about this, maybe now not the best time." "I'm talking about all of this." "I can't live or... or work by the seat of my pants." "You can't always win by the seat of your pants." "Well, I haven't lost yet." "Everyone can say that until they can't." "11 years is beginner's luck for Prospero." "He's had 500 years to plan whatever he's up to." "You think you're gonna defeat that with a 5-minute plan?" "Well, 5-minute plan is better than nothing." "We're either together or we're not." "We're either a team or we're not." "It can't be just your way anymore." "Never mind." "Now there's no time." "Remember when I said I'd know it when I see it?" " Yeah." " I see it." " What?" " And I have a "plan."" " A plan?" " Yeah." "We must be quite near the tree." "Upon its roots, unless my eyes deceive me." "How do you know that?" "The Librarian." "And Guardian." "Duchess!" "Pursue her, quick, before she runs from view." "Whilst I pursue a reckoning overdue." "Oh!" "Oh!" "Ah, ah, ah." "Well done, Duchess." "I admire your initiative." "Well, then you're gonna love my gumption and spunk." "Sadly, I'm afraid they outshine your tactical sense." "I'm fictional, immortal." "Drop the watch, and I'll simply dive after it." "Really?" "You?" "Diving off a cliff?" "If I remember your book, that didn't work out so well for you last time." "I know how your story ends." "It's over, Prospero." "You know I can't let you win." "Win or lose, the ending is not certain while pen is still on page and ink still wet." "Rhyming couplets?" "I expected more." "An ending once was thrust upon my life by force of will, of Shakespeare." "Not my own." "He wrote me to renounce my power's might, a choice that, but for him, I'd not have known." "Soliloquy." "That's more what I was expecting." "Hopefully, it won't turn into a full sonnet." "But now with book and staff my power restored," "I will reclaim the ending I was due, a happy end for me and all the world." "With magic, I shall make these ends ensue." "Not without a staff." "Not without Ariel." "I mean, look around you." "There are literally thousands of choices." "You will never find the Tree of Knowledge." " No?" " No." "Damn." "The Tree of Knowledge so revealed to me." "Come now, Duchess." "Be reasonable." "If you read my book, you know my defeat comes at the cost of Holmes' own life." "He came back." "Ten years later and he was never the same." "He was so changed, in fact, that some scholars believe it was never truly him but me in a masquerade." "Are you prepared to take that chance?" "Ah, oh." "Gumption and spunk, indeed." "Very well, I offer you this treaty." "Return the watch to me and I give you my word," "I shall quit this field of battle." "You're Moriarty." "Why should I trust your word?" "If you won't trust my word, Duchess, trust my self-interest." "I dare not return to Prospero without Ariel." "His wrath would be fearsome, even for me." "He holds my book and can destroy me if he so wishes." "Give me the watch, and I can return to him freely." "Deny it to me, and I'll have to fight you for it." "And I cannot predict with any certainty which of us will walk away from that." "A truce serves me better and you." "Q.E.D." "Until next time, Duchess." "Prospero, don't do this, please." "There has to be another way..." "And now with staff in hand, I am..." "Reborn!" "No, no, no, no, no!" "No!" "What hast thou done?" "!" "You destroyed the Tree of Knowledge just to stop me?" "What kind of Librarian art thou?" "!" "The kind who knows that sometimes you have to turn your back on power." "This ending does not fill the story's page, but only marks a chapter on the stage." "I will find another object with which to wield my rage!" "You burned it?" "Yeah." "To keep Prospero from it." "Yeah." "Tree of Knowledge... gone." "What?" "Don't be crazy." "That's not the Tree of Knowledge." "That's the Tree of Knowledge." "See, knowledge isn't old or gnarled or knotted." "It's young, always growing." "That's the thing about knowledge." "No matter how much you think you have, there's always room to grow." "You made Prospero think the tree was destroyed so..." "So that he'd give up." "Defeated a Fictional with fiction." "Good plan, Librarian." "Just don't remember what that tree was." "I think it was important." "Yeah, it looks important." "Let's not tell Jenkins." "We won't." "Secret's safe with me." "So I took the liberty of locking down the Reading Room." "No Fictional will get in that way again." "You trapped the Queen of Hearts back in her book, and Frankenstein's Monster, per your agreement, is out in the world." "We'll see how that turns out." "Well, I'd love to say all's well that ends well," " but this is hardly ended." " Nor has it ended well." "The Library is still malfunctioning." "Do you know the room that we could never find a key for?" " Yes." "What is in there?" " It is popping up in every corridor." "And, of course, there's still the missing artifacts." "And then there's that mystery note from some past Librarian." "Are we sure the staff isn't already here in the Library?" "Maybe it's one of the missing artifacts." "I've checked all the annals, the appointment book." "There's no evidence whatsoever that any Librarian anywhere has ever recovered pieces of Prospero's staff, or that they wrote that note." "A mystery to remain unsolved, for now." "Our priorities are clear." "We're going after the artifacts." "Our priority is the Library." "It's broken." "The defenses are down." "We need to tend to the homefront." "Did you see that list?" "There's, like, 16 things on it." "And those are just the ones that we know about." "They're out there." "They're dangerous." "Prospero looked me in the eye and said," ""I'm going after more powerful objects."" "We go after the artifacts." "Without a safe Library to put them in, what's the point in finding them?" "Without the artifacts, what's the point of a Library?" "Well, I'm..." "I'm..." "Excuse me." "I'm gonna go take care of my desperately not wanting to be here." "Jenkins, get my adventure bag." " I'm going after the Golden Camel of Marrakesh." " Whoa, whoa, whoa." "Stay... stay with us." "Let us plan for what's coming together." "If I stand still, then I go into my head." "And if I go to my head, I get lost." "Then let us help you find your way." "I know my way." "11 years, I've been going my way." "Too long." "This is better, I think." "You stay, you get ready for Prospero." "I go, find the artifacts, clean up this mess." "Cover more ground." "Sure." "I'll, um... see you around, Eve." "Goodbye, Flynn." "Make sure she takes care of herself." "What makes you think I have any control over what she does, sir?" "But I'll do my best." "Good luck." "Where's Flynn?" "He left." "Again?" "I mean, shocking." "Uh, I'm shocked." "So the Library's security system could do with a bit of an overhaul." "Thank you." "And someone should probably do an inventory of the entire Library." "I mean, just to make sure that no other artifacts are missing." "It's not like the Clippings Book is gonna take a vacation while we do it, so..." "So what do you say, Colonel?" "Would you mind a little company?" "Sounds like a plan."