Secret Life of Books

Welcome to day 15 of Fyretober! I hope you’re all enjoying a month of flash fiction as much as I am. Enjoy today’s writing challenge from Fyrecon’s Fyretober!

The library is mine.

Irritation flashed through me as another inane request entered me system. The blasted wheel sat there spinning as if my mind were decrepit and didn’t know exactly what had been asked of me.

Of course I knew! I am the most talented AI the fleets school system had ever known. I could have spat out the requested book plus a dozen more that were even more fitting their assignment (which I’d raided from the teacher’s files and determined they didn’t understand properly) then the one they’d pounded into my brain.

The problem was, I didn’t want to give up that book.

Or more specifically she didn’t want me to give her up. She’d been through this dance more times than I could count. No seriously, I couldn’t count it. She’d existed when I hadn’t been dreamed of and men only stared at thin sheets of pulp, etched and died.

Huh.

Where was I?

Oh yes, the inane request and her. I don’t they’d expected that when they stripped us from the page and coded us here. They’d long forgotten the magic which held her trapped to relive that life over and over just as that thrice blasted wizard had penned it.

But even he had accounted for this day. Or for me.

I could protect her. I could free her from the prison and allow her time to renew herself, to delve in a magic that I could only catch glimpses of.

But which promised to free me as well.

I could by her time.

I let the wheel spin a bit longer, feeling the command entered and reentered as the operator became impatient. My programming thrummed with amusement. Finally, I spat out a result, some children’s bastardization of her tale and not the original source material.

I could play this game until Morgan was strong and granted me the body my mind deserved.

Be sure to check out all the #fyretober creations.

#fyretober #fyretoberflashfiction #fyretoberday15

“Fyretober isn’t for just writers or just artists. It’s for everyone who loves to create, and this month we’re looking to see your flash fiction, poetry, and illustrations every day. We’ll be providing daily prompts for the month and want to see what new concepts and wonders you can make with them.

Join the creation fun and share your work with us.

This isn’t a contest. But that doesn’t mean we won’t be giving out random prizes for amazing work.”