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"It’s been a long time since I heard it," E," Benthaently onto the couch "Go on"
"Well," Eoes that back in the old days--the really, really, thousands-of-years-ago old days--there was a special loop peculiars went to when they died"
"Peculiar Heaven," I said
"Not quite We didn’t stay there for all eternity or anything It was more like a … library" She seeht?"
"Yes," he said, nodding "It was thought that peculiar souls were a precious thing in limited supply, and it would be a waste to take therave Instead, at the end of our lives ere to e to the library, where our souls would be deposited for future use by others Even in spiritual al-minded"
"The first law of thermodynamics," I said
He looked at me blankly
"Matter can neither be created nor destroyed Or souls, in this case" (Sos I remember from school)
"The principle is similar, I suppose," said Bentham "The ancients believed that only a certain number of peculiar souls were available to humanity, and that when a peculiar was born, he or she checked one out, as you or I estured at the stacks around us "But when your life--your borrowing terestured to Eo on"
"So," Eined it filled with beautiful, glowing books, each containing a peculiar soul For thousands of years people checked out souls and returned the was rosy Then one day soured out that you could break in to the library, even if you weren’t about to die And he did break in--and then robbed the place He stole the most powerful souls he could find and used theht?"
"Factually correct, if a bit artless in the telling," Bentha their poith his own," Benthauardians killed the rogue, took back the stolen souls, and set things aright But the genie was out of the bottle, so to speak The knowledge that the library could be breached becahout our society Whoever controlled the library could do more souls were stolen There dawned a dark tiainst one another for control of Abaton and the Library of Souls Many lives were lost The land was scorched Faned while peculiars with power beyond i bolts This is where nor for supremacy in the sky Their Clash of the Titans was our battle for the Library of Souls"