Reached (Matched, #3)

by Ally Condie

anyone should get to punish me, it’s the person I stole from.” “No,” the head Archivist says. “You undermine us when you steal.”

Archivist steps back, holding Samara’s red bracelet up in the air. Samara looks ashen but unharmed, and in the lights still directed on her, I can see her sleeve pulled up and her bare wrist where the bracelet used to be.

“that they can trust when they trade with us. What has happened here undermines everything. Now we will have to pay the price of the trade.”

“Paying the price for another is not something we like to do.” Then her tone changes and the incident is over, finished. “You may all go back to your trades.”

It’s the head Archivist herself. “Come with me,” she says. “There’s something I need to show you.”

And now we’re in another vast room ribbed with metal shelves, but these are all filled.

I catch a glimpse of cases and boxes and containers of uneven sizes. You would need a map to find your way through a place like this.

Archives. It’s a little like seeing the Pilot for the first time; I’ve always known of the existence of this place, but to confront it face to face makes me want to sing or weep or run away; I’m not certain which.

Archives are filled with treasures,” the Archivist says, “and I know every one.”

“There are many stories that have passed through my hands,” the Archivist says. “I always liked the one about a girl who was tasked with turning straw into gold. An impossible piece of work, but she managed it more than once. That’s what this job is like.”