interesting setting. a hive of secrets, a bank, a vault. now, do they belong to all or one person? hmm

I like your last line, this is good, going to be thinking about this one for a while….

A great read! Fabulous job.

I saw this as one of those “little people living in your brain” scenarios. This might be creepy if it wasn’t something I had believed to be true a few times in my early childhood. I can thank the Saturday Morning Cartoons of the mid 80s for that I suppose.

Regardless, the premise of this story is great and I really enjoyed the picture you painted of the structure. Also, the references to the cataloging numbers added a sense that this was just some routine job and I liked that.

Very nice, sir! I don’t see you write a lot of fantasy, but this was as good as your other work.

Thanks guys!

Very interesting! I feel like this is the premise of a giant sci-fi story. Nice work— I especially like the last sentence. Thanks for entering!

Lavish in presentation. Slam dunk on the ending. I can see this being much longer, even more detailed and with a full-length payoff.

This idea has potential.

I wasn’t planning of making a sequel, but from the great response, it’s evidently a concept worth revisiting.

Brilliant job on the setting! Intriguing; definitely going to stick in the mind for a while…

First of all, I think you’ve inspired me to sequel after having not written for weeks. So thanks.

Second (a nitpick), if you need to be at least a tenth-degree keeper to get to the most highly-secured level, why would there be keepers above the tenth-degree?

Anyway, these are my favorite types of ficlets—ones that place you directly into a story and hint at a much broader world behind it (without being all exposition-y, of course).

I also got the memories sort of metaphor/analogy vibe. Great job on a really fantastical setting.

@Stovohobo: There are secrets even among the keepers of secrets.