Shash, Prime Curator of the Seventh Secret Library stared at the twine wrapped, and thick paper sealed package. He had been told to destroy this book, not to touch the book itself, and not to speak of it. It was deemed too harmful.

Still, Shash hesitated. Had he not read the one Hundred Poems of the Unmade Mind, without losing himself? Had he not withstood the Ten Testaments of Hatred? Had he not distinguished himself by drawing new insights from Talash's hundred volumes of the Drowning Void of Wisdom? How could a book be named 'too harmful' in such company?

He could not simply destroy it. Not without looking. But he still had his own responsibilities that he could not neglect. He stepped outside his office and called his First Assistant. A short old woman with leathery skin snapped as straight as she could manage to his call, though her body was weary, her eyes were keen and her will strong.

"Yasha, I must put upon you an obligation." Shash spoke formally. A stern bow was her response. "I must look upon an object I have been bound to destroy. You are to contain me to my office, and see to it the book is destroyed should I find my will undone by its pages. I will not compel you to destroy the book, as I do this to see if it can be preserved. But if you deem that I have been too undone by the book, but become unable to finish the task, I bind you to carry on when my strength fails."

She was troubled by the prospect. He could tell she wanted to object, weather it was to destroy the book outright, or to preserve it no matter the case he could not read from her face. But she agreed, and stood ready outside his office.

Carefully, with door sealed, and none to see, Shash untied the twine. Then carefully he unwrapped the thick brown paper that wrapped the tome inside.

The title startled him, it was not as he has feared, a salvaged copy of the fabled Book of Undoing that caused an entire civilization to fall. Rather, it was a crisp recent copy of a math textbook.

Brow furrowed, Shash picked up the book, and let it fall open in his hand. It looked ordinary. He slid his thumb down the edge of the page ready to turn it and...

"Gah! Sonova..." he muttered in pain, licking the paper cut on his thumb. "Harmful indeed..."

He opened his door. "Yasha, could you get me a bandaid from the first aid kit? Blasted thing cut me."

Then as she went to carry out his wishes, he wrapped the book back up in the thick paper, tied the twine around it once more to be extra safe. And dropped it in the incinerator chute.