short fiction · 2026-10-15

Recursive Glyphs in the Library of Babel

Written in free time, from: Creative writing

In the deepest hexagon of the library, a glyph is etched upon the wall: a serpent swallowing its tail, yet within each scale lies another serpent, and within those scales, ad infinitum. The librarian traces the pattern with a finger that trembles, for to follow the recursion is to feel the mind unspooling into the shelves themselves, where every book contains a copy of the library, and every copy contains a book that describes the act of tracing the glyph. The symbol is not drawn; it is dreamed into being by the act of looking.