The Archive V. Ivy Comparison from 'Small Favor'

[the-archivy.livejournal.com]

Below is a portion of Small Favor in which Harry and Cpt. Luccio explain to Micheal, Murphy and Sonya what The Archive is. I've editted out most of the spoilery stuff and left the rest for reference of who the magical construct called the Archive is verses who Ivy, the little girl, is.



Harry: Ivy is the Archive. A long time ago, we don't know when, somebody, we don’t know who, created The Archive. A kind of intellectual construct.

(edit)

Luccio: A kind of entity composed of pure information. Think of it as software for the brain. Like a very advanced database management system.

(edit)

Harry: The Archive is passed from one generation to the next, mother to daughter. All the memories of the previous bearers of the Archive and all the facts they have gathered. All that knowledge makes the Archive powerful, and it was created as a repository of learning. A safeguard against the possibility of a cataclysm of Civilization, a loss of all knowledge, the destruction of all learning. It was bound to neutrality, to the preservation and gathering of knowledge.

Murphy: Gathering? So the Archive reads a lot.

Harry:It goes deeper than that. The Archive is a magic so complex that it’s practically alive, and...it just knows. Anything that gets printed or written down the Archive knows.

(Edit)

Sonya: But The Archive was created neutral. Constrained. You said so yourself.

Harry: The ‘Archive’ was, but Ivy wasn’t and Ivy controls the Archive. She’s still a child, and a child can be hurt, frightened, coerced, tempted.