Mogtober 2022

Day 11: Nevermoorian Architecture

The Gobleian Library was just about the strangest place in all of the Free States, which was quite the achievement.

Created back in the Thirteenth Age, it was an exact reproduction of Nevermoor, with a single entrance- a pair of double doors on Mayhew Street. Marina Cheery, a twenty-four year old student of Nevermoorian Architecture, gazed up at the massive sandstone building. 

Didn't need to make it quite so imposing, She thought, when really the only part that's really necessary is the doors. 

She pushed open the doors, and found herself on back on Mayhew Street, the doors of the Gob behind her. This was the inside of the library, where there were no people on the streets of Nevermoor except the Librarians and Bookfighters, and the occasional story character that popped out of their book and needed to be put back. She walked up to the loans desk, which sat in the middle of Mayhew Street, and flashed her most winning smile at the fourty-something woman behind it. 

"Miss Cheery." She said, with a somewhat displeased expression. 

"Hello, Carmella! How have you been?"

"I told you not to call me that. I am Mrs. Hewett to you, Marina Cheery. I suppose you're here to see Miss Singh. Well, I can't let you in without a library card." Mrs. Carmella Hewett was well aware that Marina had a talent for convincing her friend Roshni Singh to let her go where she wasn't supposed to be. Like inside the Library at all, and the children's section, which was the most dangerous part of the library, what with all the witches and wizards and giant talking carnivores. Well, not today, Marina Cheery! Not on my watch! 

Marina's smile turned slightly smug, and Mrs. Hewett had a horrifying thought. "Oh, no. They didn't."

"Yes, Carmella, they did." Marina pulled a thin chain with a steel card on it from her pocket.

Dear Lord, they did. The Elder Council had given Marina Cheery, of all people, a card for the Gobleian Library.

"What-? How-? WHY?? "

Marina's smile was definitely smug now. Take that, you old biddy. Marina thought. That woman had never liked her, and the sentiment was returned wholeheartedly.

"All I had to do was tell my professor that I needed access to the library to write my thesis, and a few weeks later...." She held the card out for Carmella to admire. "Now, will you let me in?"

As much as she wanted to, Mrs. Hewett could not argue with the slip of metal. She glared at the young woman as she got up from the desk and grabbed her cane with the hidden sword. "I suppose you want to see Miss Singh." Marina nodded, beaming. "Well, she's in the poetry section on Harper Avenue. Apparently, the White Rabbit wandered there from the children's section, and is making trouble with Edgar Allen Poe's Raven." 

Marina looked around at the bookfighters, trying to find her best friend. Oh! "Roshni!" She called, waving to the dark-haired woman chasing the raven through the shelves. 

Roshni Singh smiled and waved at her friend. "Hi, Maz! Hey, give me a hand with this bird, will you?" Together, the two women managed to get the raven back into its book, and started making their way back to the other bookfighters. "So Maz, how did you get in? Especially with Carmella manning the desk?" Marina showed her library card. Roshni gasped. "Oh, Marina! Is it really?" 

"Yep. They gave it to me so I could write my thesis."

"Oh? What's it on?"

Marina glanced around, checking to make sure that they were alone. "I'm writing it on Wundersmith-made buildings in Nevermoor." She said quietly.

Roshni gasped again, in shock this time. "Marina, they'll never let you do that! You'll be tossed out of the Society if you did!" Marina sighed. 

"I know. That's why I'll never actually say that they were built by Wundersmiths, just that no one knows who made it."

Roshni relaxed a bit. "So why did you come to see me? Did they make you the conductor of a hometrain, too?" 

Marina laughed. "No, they're not crazy! I would be too fun. No, I came to see if you'll take me to the plaque." 

"You realise that only librarians and bookfighters are supposed to know that this place was Wundersmith work?"

"Yep!"

"And that technically that plaque isn't supposed to still be here?"

"Yep!"

Roshni sighed. "You're going to find it yourself even if I refuse, aren't you?"

"Yep!" Marina gave her a thousand-watt smile. 

"Very well. Come on." 

The two women disappeared into the winding streets of the library.

"You know, the Gobblefaces are very pretentious people."

"Marina, their name is Gob-le-Fasse and you know it."

"I mean, the outside of this library matches the Gobblefaces personality very well."

"Marina."

"Run into any rabbits wearing waistcoats lately?"

"MARINA!"