Sherlock Holmes: The Gate of Oblivion. Volume 1

It was the same note they had seen at the entrance, but with an addition on the back.This time there was a flawless geometric diagram drawn there – a cross – section of the Royal Library of Aetor. One of the sectors was circled in red.

«He gives me the route,» Holmes tapped his finger on the diagram.«Moriarty wants me to enter through the south wing.«This is either a trap or a test of his new security system.

– We can’t go there! – Elian turned even paler. – The southern wing is the Forbidden Knowledge Sector.There are not just guards on duty there, but Automatons – mechanisms powered by the blood of the ancient gods.They have no intelligence and cannot be deceived or bribed.

«Every mechanism has a wear point, Elian.«Moriarty loves order, but order is always predictable. If Automaton acts according to a program, then this program has a logical cycle.

Holmes turned the paper over.Below, under the diagram, there was a note in small print: «Tea will be served at seven.Don’t be late, Sherlock. You know how much I don’t like cold drinks.»

«Seven o’clock,» Holmes looked at his empty wrists, where his watch once was. – Local time, this is the moment when the Silver Moon disappears behind the spire of the Temple of Light. We have less than five hours left to prepare. Holmes motioned to the innkeeper, a one – eyed creature with skin as gray as parchment.

«We need two cloaks of shadow thread,» said Holmes, laying on the table a gold coin that he had quietly taken from Gurd’s wallet in the salt caves. – And a couple of bottles with pollen from the sleeping fern.

The innkeeper greedily grabbed the gold, testing it on his teeth.

«The shadow thread is precious these days, sir…» he creaked. – The Inquisition is clearing out all the supplies.They say the Spider pays twice as much.

«I’m crying now,» Holmes snapped.«And I don’t ask questions about where you got these cloaks from.»

Ten minutes later, in a package under the table, Holmes was already checking the quality of the goods.The shadow thread was a unique material – it absorbed light, making the owner almost invisible in the twilight.For Holmes, this was not magic, but advanced camouflage, working on the principle of photon refraction.

– Why do we need pollen? – Elyan asked, hiding his bottle in the folds of his robe.

«Moriarty’s automatons appear to use optical and thermal sensors,» Holmes explained, standing up. – When heated, pollen creates a cloud that blocks thermal vision. We will not fight them, Elyan. We will be a system error for them.

They left the Blind Sphinx as the evening twilight of Aetor turned crimson tones of the Blood Moon.The city began to transform: the towers of the highest tier lit up with bright neon light, and the lower levels were plunged into a thick, ozone – smelling fog.It was a time of thieves, renegade magicians and one London detective who felt more alive than ever in this atmosphere. The path to the southern wing of the Library led through the Bridge of Sighs, a colossal structure of transparent quartz that vibrated with the flow of mana flowing into the government quarters. Holmes walked ahead, his cloak of shadow thread making him a barely visible blur in the gloom.

«Stop,» Holmes pressed Elyan against the wall behind the ledge of a bas – relief depicting some forgotten god with four arms. – Inquisitor Patrol.Five people. One is a senior master, judging by the gold piping on the mask.

Elyan held his breath. A detachment in white robes walked past them with a measured step.They emanated such cold that frost appeared on the stones of the bridge.The inquisitors did not look around – their masks scanned the energy fields.

«The ring,» Holmes whispered. – It’s starting to overheat.Moriarty strengthened the background of the city to burn out any other people’s mana. We need to act faster.

They slid to the base of the Library’s south wall.There were no windows here – only monolithic black obsidian, dotted with runes of protection. Ten feet above the ground, a small technical protrusion could be seen – a ventilation hatch for removing heat from magical scrolls.

«Lift me up,» Holmes commanded.«When I gain a foothold, I’ll throw you a shadow rope.»

Using mountaineering techniques he had once honed in the Swiss Alps, Holmes latched onto a narrow ledge. His fingers ached from the cold of the stone, but the Sphere in his chest suddenly responded with a wave of heat.She seemed to feel the proximity of the Library – a colossal repository of knowledge that could explain its nature.

A minute later they were both crawling through a narrow, stuffy tunnel filled with humming wires and copper pipes. Holmes felt the vibration of the building resonate through his bones.This was Aetor’s heart, and it beat in a rhythm that was deeply disgusting to him – the rhythm of an artificial, imposed order. *** CIPHER LETTER «O» ***

The countdown has begun.Seven o’clock in the evening is the moment when the Silver Moon disappears behind the spire of the Temple of Light. Holmes and Elian lay in wait in the Blind Sphinx Tavern, a squat building of porous dark stone.There was twilight inside, diluted only by the dim glow of magical lichens.The air here was thick with the smoke of the «ethereal root.«Holmes’s attention was suddenly drawn to a piece of paper, secured not with a nail, but with a thin steel needle. Holmes stood up and tore off the piece of paper. A small, barely noticeable spider was drawn on the piece of paper.And under it is a solid phrase in English: «Mathematics is the music of reason.»

«Moriarty…» Holmes whispered.«This spider has woven its web even here.«And he knows that I will come. CHAPTER 6. ANATOMY OF THE FORBIDDEN

Holmes stood in front of the central pedestal, where the Guardian Crystal rotated in a cocoon of golden sparks.The sphere in his chest was now pulsating not just with cold, but with a measured, viscous rhythm that seemed to be trying to synchronize with the vibration of the building.The detective understood: the Library is not just a warehouse of information, it is a living computer network built on ethereal connections.

«Identification,» repeated the dispassionate voice in his mind. – The magic key was not found.An unauthorized access attempt has been detected.

– Sherlock, we need to run! – Elyan whispered, looking back at the entrance, where the white masks of the Inquisitors were already flashing between the floating bookshelves. – They will block the exits!

«Escape is just a delay,» Holmes did not move. His gaze was drawn to the edges of the crystal. – This system works on the principle of absorbing and processing magical intentions.She’s waiting for me to cast a spell to classify it and suppress it. But I won’t give her magic. I will give her a pure, unsolvable problem.

Holmes slowly reached out and touched the surface of the crystal. He wasn’t trying to do any magic. He closed his eyes, recalling the Halls of the Mind – endless rows of shelves with numbers and formulas.

«Accept the calculation request,» he said out loud, and his voice echoed under the dome of the Library. – Axiom: The ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter in space without curvature.Protocol: Decimal expansion of the number "Pi".Follow until the last sign. The Guardian Crystal froze for a moment.The golden sparks around him were replaced by an alarming crimson glow.Aetor’s system, accustomed to finite magical formulas and elegant runes, was faced with an infinity that had no magical nature.

«The request has been accepted…» the voice in Holmes’s head trembled, and for the first time a semblance of static noise appeared in it. – Start of calculations… Three… dot… one… four… one… five… nine… two…

At that very moment, chaos began throughout the Library.The floating book cubes began to twitch, losing altitude.The magicians, immersed in a trance, sharply opened their eyes, clutching their heads – an endless stream of numbers broadcast by the Crystal burst into their minds, displacing their usual spells.

– What did you do? – Elyan watched in horror as the golden rings under the dome began to rotate at wild speed, striking out sheaves of sparks.

«I infected their ideal system with a virus of absolute precision,» Holmes grabbed Elyan by the shoulder. – The number «Pi» has no end, Elian.For the machine that has to give the answer, it’s an endless loop. While the Library tries to calculate the incomputable, its sensors will go blind.

The inquisitors at the entrance fell to their knees.Their detector masks burned out, unable to withstand the information overload.The air in the hall was filled with the smell of ozone and burnt paper.

– Now follow me! – Holmes commanded. – To the Forbidden Geometry sector.Moriarty left his mark there. They ran through a fog of disintegrating data.The sphere in Holmes’ chest now shone with an even blue light, showing the way among the dying magical lamps.The library died and was reborn every second, trying to digest the mathematical paradox of the Earth.

The Forbidden Geometry Sector was located in the deepest part of the southern wing.There were no floating books here.The walls were lined with heavy obsidian, and the shelves were lined with real, physical volumes, chained in cold iron.

Holmes stopped in front of a small pedestal.There, under a layer of many years of dust, lay an object completely out of place in this world of magical excesses.It was a book bound in simple leather.

The detective took it carefully.There were no runes on the cover. Only embossed letters in Latin: «Elementa».

«Euclid’s Principia,» Holmes whispered, and there was something akin to awe in his voice. – In a world where towers are built with the power of thought, someone brought here the laws of a straight line and a compass.

He opened the book.Between the pages lay a dried flower – a rose, which retained the subtle aroma of an English garden.In the margin of the first chapter, next to the definition of the point, there was a note made in familiar calligraphic handwriting:

«Dear Sherlock, magic is just physics poorly written down. I found a way to fix composer errors. I’m waiting for you in the Third Tower.Sugar is in the cupboard on the left.»«He’s mocking us,» Elian hissed, looking into the book. – Who is this «James»? And why does he write in your language at the very heart of our story?

«He doesn’t just write, Elian. He will colonize this world,» Holmes slammed the book shut and hid it under his cloak. – Moriarty doesn’t want to be a magician. He wants to be an Architect. He translates magic into the language of mathematics to make it predictable and… subject only to him.

At that moment, the floor beneath their feet shook.The Guardian Crystal in the main hall made a final, plaintive sound and burst, scattering into thousands of fragments.The entire Library was plunged into darkness.The logic virus has completed its work, bringing down the security system.

«We need to leave,» Holmes confidently walked towards the wall, which seemed monolithic. – If I remember correctly the architectural plan of the Library, behind this shelving there should be a discharge channel for waste ether.

He pressed on a barely noticeable protrusion in the obsidian. With a dry click, part of the wall moved to the side, revealing the mouth of a narrow shaft leading down into the technical tiers of the city.

– Jump, Elian.The Lower Ring awaits us below.There we are just shadows among shadows.And the Inquisitors will be looking for a long time for the «great magician» who brought down their archive without a single spell. The descent down the mine was long and painful.They slid through the slimy pipes through which liquid mana once flowed, until they fell into a pile of garbage at the very bottom of Aetor.

Holmes was the first to rise, dusting off his badly damaged linen frock coat.Down here the city looked different.The floating towers were hidden behind a thick layer of smog, and instead of graceful bridges, rusty magical cables hung overhead.

«We are in the slums of the Outcasts,» Elian looked around cautiously. – The law of magicians does not apply here. Only the law of force applies here.

«An ideal place for a detective,» Holmes straightened up, feeling the Book of Euclid in his inner pocket. – Moriarty in the Third Tower.This is the eastern sector, the most prestigious area of the city.To get there «Empty», we’ll need a plan.

He looked at the two moons.The Silver Moon began to set, and the Blood Moon bathed the slums in its unhealthy, red light.

«Elian, we have an ally that Moriarty forgot about,» Holmes pointed to the Sphere in his chest, which was now pulsating in time with the Blood Moon. – He thinks that I will come to him as a guest. But I will come as an investigator.And the first thing I investigate is the origin of his «new order.»

They moved deeper into the slums. Ahead, in the crimson fog, could be seen the outline of the Third Tower – an immaculate black obelisk that rose above the chaos of Eldria as a monument to cold reason. The slums of the Lower Rim reminded Holmes of the East End, but afflicted with the leprosy of magical progress. Here the air was so thick with the fumes of spent mana that it seemed tangible – sticky and smelling of rancid fat.The outcasts, wrapped in rags that were once expensive fabrics, watched the travelers with dull glances.

«Look at their faces, Elian,» Holmes walked quickly, his cane rhythmically tapping on the iron slabs of the pavement.«They’re not just poor.They’re drunk.Moriarty uses them as filters. He passes raw ether through living people to obtain a pure concentrate for his towers.

– This is prohibited by the laws of the Council! – Elian screamed, covering his mouth with the edge of his robe.

«The Council is just a group of old men, mesmerized by their own greatness,» Holmes stopped at a gutter where a poisonous green liquid was flowing. – Moriarty is a practitioner. He realized that in this world magic is oil.And he builds his drilling rigs right on the bones of this people.

The detective picked up a piece of perforated metal tape from the ground.Small symbols were stamped on it – binary code woven into runic script.

– Punch cards. He doesn’t just rule them, he programs reality.It seems the Professor has found a way to turn Eldria into one giant Babbage Analytical Engine. They took refuge in the shadows of an abandoned foundry where mana crystals had once been smelted. Holmes laid out the Book of Euclid on the rusty surface of the workbench.The sphere in his chest responded to the proximity of the book, and the pages began to glow faintly, revealing hidden layers of text.

– Do you see these marks, Elian? – Holmes pointed to a diagram of a triangle inscribed in a circle. – This is not just geometry.This is a scheme for suppressing the will.Moriarty has calculated the resonant frequency of your magic. If he tunes his towers to this rhythm, any spell in Eldria will become impossible without his personal permission.

«He wants to steal our freedom?» – Elian’s voice trembled.

«He wants to eliminate human error,» Holmes slammed the book shut.«For him, the world is an equation.«If the result does not suit him, he changes the conditions of the problem.

Holmes took a bottle of salt dust from his pocket and mixed it with the sticky ethereal slag found on the floor.The mixture sizzled, turning into a thick black ointment.

– Apply this to your runes on your clothes.This will create a «negative stain".To its sensors we will become invisible – just pieces of empty space.It’s time for us.The Third Tower doesn’t like latecomers. The path to the Third Tower ran through the border between the chaos of the slums and the surgical order of the Inquisition area. Here the streets were swept to a shine, and patrol automatons moved with the precision of clock pendulums.The air here did not smell of ozone – it smelled of death and sterility.

– Do you hear? – Holmes froze in the shadow of the arch.

Elyan listened. A dry, rhythmic knock made its way through the steady hum of the city."Teak.So.Teak.So.«The sound came from the very depths of the black obelisk of the Third Tower.It was not the sound of the heart, it was the sound of the Metronome – a colossal device that set the pace for all of Aetor.

«He synchronized the city with his pocket watch,» Holmes straightened his cloak. – This is the highest degree of arrogance – to force an entire civilization to breathe in time with your pulse.

They slipped past the last patrol using Holmes’ ointment.The automatons turned their pyramidal heads in their direction, but the red rays passed through them, not finding a target.To the machines they were just shadows, errors in the code that they had not yet learned to recognize.

In front of them was a heavy door made of black obsidian.There was no lock on it. Only a smooth surface and a small hole in the center – perfectly round. «Magic won’t help here, Elian,» Holmes went to the door. – Mechanics are needed here.

He took out the Book of Euclid and placed its spine against the hole.There was a quiet click, and then the hum of hundreds of gears hidden inside the rock.The obsidian parted to the sides, opening the way inside.

The interior of the Third Tower was frighteningly familiar to Holmes.There were no magical lamps here.Copper gas pipes ran along the walls, and real horns burned in the niches, filling the room with the yellowish, cozy light of London. On the shelves were flasks, chemistry reference books, and even – Holmes shuddered involuntarily – a porcelain figurine of a dog, an exact copy of the one that stood on Baker Street.

«He recreated our past,» Elian whispered, looking around.«But it seems… dead.»

«It’s static,» Holmes walked slowly along the carpet, which muffled the sounds of footsteps. – Moriarty loves collections.And now he collects worlds.

They climbed the spiral staircase to the top tier.The sound of the metronome grew louder, turning into hammer blows in my head.In the center of the room, at a massive mahogany table, sat a man. His back was perfectly straight, and his pale fingers were fingering some papers. *** CARD LETTER «T» ***

The tyranny of your «ideal society» is only a natural consequence of boredom, Professor,» said Holmes, entering the office. James Moriarty slowly turned around. He looked impeccable – a black frock coat, not a single wrinkle.

«Emptiness is just a matter of perception, Sherlock.«I just added structure to this world.Now Aetor works like my watch.And soon I will launch this mechanism at full capacity.

– At the cost of destroying all living things? – Holmes pointed with his cane at the window, beyond which the Lower Ring flickered with poisonous lights below.

– Progress always requires sacrifices. You know that yourself.Give me the Orb, Sherlock.She is the heart of this world.The ancients created it as a stabilizer.She is the only thing that can resist my logic.

Holmes straightened up.The sphere in his chest responded with a powerful shock.

«I’m afraid, Professor, I have other plans for this evening.»Moriarty froze for a moment, and a shadow flashed across his pale face – either annoyance or sincere admiration. He slowly approached the huge window, behind which the Silver Moon floated majestically in the inky sky of Eldria.Its cold, deathly pale light fell on his thin fingers, making them look like the phalanges of a skeleton.

– Cemetery, Sherlock? – Moriarty turned around, and his eyes in the light of the moon seemed like two empty mirrors.«You have always been too attached to biological sentimentality.«What you call a cemetery, I call ideal order.Silence is the absence of error.

Holmes didn’t answer. He slowly took out the Book of Euclid from under his cloak.The heavy binding made of dark wood gleamed mattely in the glow of the Silver Moon.The detective placed the book on the table between himself and the Professor, covering it with his palm.

«You left this for me in the Library, James.«Geometry as a framework for your new world. But you made the classic mistake of a dictator: you forgot that axioms do not need protection, and your laws need violence against the very nature of this world.

«The axioms are undeniable,» Moriarty retorted softly, nodding at the book.«I just cleared this world of magical garbage using your favorite tools.«Look at Elian. He is scared because his world is quicksand. I offer him a granite rock.

Elian, standing behind Holmes, involuntarily clenched his fists.The light of the Silver Moon highlighted the pallor of his face, but his eyes no longer held that paralyzing fear. «Your rock is a tombstone,» Elian’s voice sounded unexpectedly firm.«Eldria’s magic may be chaotic, but it is alive.It flows like blood. What you are doing is turning blood into ice.

Moriarty looked at the young man for the first time with the interest that a scientist shows in an unusual type of mold.

«Living blood tends to be shed, young man.«Ice is stable.

He turned his gaze back to Holmes.

– The sphere is in your chest, Sherlock.It vibrates. I can hear its roar even from here.It resonates with the Silver Moon, doesn’t it? The ancients knew that magic needed a stabilizer.Silver extinguishes, Blood excites. Your Sphere is the perfect balancer. With its help, I can close the chain of Aetor Reactors and eliminate the «chaos» variable forever.

Holmes felt the Sphere in his chest actually become heavier, responding to the cold light pouring from the window.

«You want to turn this world into a giant clockwork, Professor.«But watches tend to break if even one grain of sand gets into it and refuses to be part of the gear.

«And you hope to become this grain of sand?» – Moriarty chuckled. – In a world where I control the very geometry of space? Sherlock, you’ve always been a master of detail, but now you’re missing the big picture. I have already begun the process of Transmutation.The Silver Moon will reach its apogee in three hours, and then the Sphere itself will leave your body, obeying the laws of gravity, which I… corrected. Holmes slowly opened the Book of Euclid to a page with a drawing of a perfect circle. His fingers touched the Latin marks made by Moriarty’s hand.

«You always loved perfection, James.«But you forgot a simple thing that Reichenbach taught us.Gravity doesn’t choose between a genius and a villain.She’s just pulling down.

Holmes looked up. His gray eyes were colder than the Silver Moon.

«Your Transmutation is based on the assumption that the Sphere obeys your calculations. But you studied it as a magical object. I studied it as a logical paradox.

– Paradox? – Moriarty narrowed his eyes. – This is just a highly organized structure of the ether.

«No,» Holmes shook his head. – This is the «Ship of Theseus» in miniature.It changes its essence depending on who carries it.In your hands she will become death.In my… she became a memory. A memory of a world where people died of pneumonia, not magical exhaustion.And this memory does not obey your Reactors.

Moriarty lost his cool for a moment. His face distorted.

– Memory is noise! Useless, irrational noise! You brought with you the smell of London gateways into my pure temple!

He waved his hand, and black geometric lines suddenly wove into the air of the tower.They tightened around Holmes, turning into a cage of pure, structured darkness.

«If you don’t give it up voluntarily, I will cut it out along with your stubborn heart.»The cage of black lines began to shrink.The air inside became dry and lifeless, like in a tomb. Elyan screamed, trying to hit the lines with a magical discharge, but his energy only absorbed into the black edges, making them even stronger.

Holmes remained motionless. He didn’t look at the cage. He looked at the Book of Euclid.

– Elian, remember the Salt Fiddler? – he asked calmly, although his voice began to hoarse from lack of oxygen. – Magic is a system.And the system breaks down where the symmetry is broken.

Holmes sharply pressed the binding of the book at a certain point, which he had calculated back in the Library.There was a dry click. A small crystal fell out of a secret compartment in the spine – not a magical one, but a simple piece of faceted quartz that he had picked up in the technical tier.