Put back together

13. Slyn and Trouq

"What the hell is going on?!", Roman blurted trying to regain his balance.

"Oh, I'm sorry! I forgot that other places don't have these!" Valerie exclaimed. "This is a lift. Like they are used for heavy things like rocks when building things but for people."

Roman starred at her in disbelief. He knew the kind of lifts she was describing but it had never occurred to him that someone might be crazy enough to build one for actual living people.

"Don't those crash often?", Patton voiced his doubts and Roman noticed a slightly shaky hand grab his sleeve.

"Well, yes, but don't worry. Even if the ropes snap we won't fall. There are a few security measures to make them safe," Valerie hurried to explain.

"Where are we going anyway? I thought the library had only one story?", Roman noticed.

Patton snickered next to him: "I thought a library was supposed to have tons of stories!"

Roman couldn't suppress a smile at that. He raised an eyebrow at the other in an attempt to keep at least some of his dignity.

"Actually there are over a hundred stories - in both meanings of the word," Valerie said smiling again. "The library fills out the entire mountain!"

Roman starred at her in suprise.

The entire mountain. The entire damn giant mountain.

"How many books are in here?", he blurted out trying to somehow process the information.
Oh gods, and he had thought that the books in the floor he had already seen were too many to ever possibly count, let alone read.
No wonder that the old woman didn't know much about prophecies.
Reading only one section of this library would surely take a lifetime.

"I have no idea, honestly", Valerie said. "I think there is a big one somewhere with every book and scroll you can find in here, but I have never seen it. I think it should be somewhere on the 13th floor."

Patton made an impressed and maybe a bit shocked noise.

Roman found himself agreeing in silence.
He was pretty sure that even if someone where to tell him the actual number he wouldn't be able to count high enough to truly understand how much it was.
Patton probably wouldn't be much better off.

Part of Roman thought that it was crazy, to have so many books stored in one place but to keep their knowledge secret.
Most people couldn't even read.
He had met knights and royals who could barely spell their own name.
For a moment he wondered whether or not Patton could.

The 'lift' came to a halt and Valerie pulled open the gitter once more, letting in another person, but made no move to get out.

The stranger pressed on the button with the number 200 and the lift started moving again.

"Good morning, Valerie," the stranger greeted.

"Good morning,"

The two began to chat and Roman quickly suspected that they were friends.

He noticed Patton shift awkwardly.

The lift stopped again.

"This is our stop," Valerie announced pulling open the gitter. "See you later, Terrence!"

Roman and Patton followed her. The books down here are old and worn, wrapped in old leather.
Some shelfs are filled to the brim with scrolls others even with stone panels.

There are only few people shuffling by or sitting on deskts crammed into the spaces in between and writing or reading.
It was mostly dark, only lit by candles and a few torches.
The floor was worn flat by hundreds of years of people walking over it and only close to the book cases you could still see the original dark colour and roughness of the stones.

Valerie was walking slower now, paying close attention to the books, looking for the right section.

"Around here should be something," she said vaguely gesturing towards two thick shelfs. "There are a few people working on getting everything better organized and stuff but... they weren't here yet."

She turned to Roman: "Can you read Slyn? Or Trouq?"

"I only know a bit Slyn but Trouq - no problem."

"You?", she turned to Patton.

"I barely know Trouq. And uhm... what was Slyn, again?", Patton smiled sheepishly.

"It's an old form of writing. Most of the books here are in Slyn. I don't really know where exactly we can find what you need. We'll have to look for the right book," Valerie explained and bit her lip. "Roman can help look but I'm not sure if you can."

Patton made a guilty sounding noise.

Valerie's gaze fell onto a man sitting by a table nearby.

"Hey, Logan! Are you busy?"

The man looked up, glanced back at the notebook and scroll infront of him and sighed: "I don't seem to get anywhere with this currently so I might as well help you with... whatever you need me to do."

Logan stood up and pushed his glasses up a bit. He was dressed formally with a dark coat and and well fitted pants and shirt.

"Do you happen to know something about a shattered relict of the gods?", Valerie asked hopefully.

"No, not spontaneously", Logan said raising an eyebrow. "Why?"

Valerie filled him in on Roman's and Patton's situation. He nodded seemingly deep in thought and looked the two of them once over.

"Interesting", he muttered when Valerie finished. "I suppose I can help you."

The four of them got to work scanning books for the right information.
Patton quickly realised that his reading skills weren't good enough to understand anything relevant so Valerie gave him a few darts and showed him a small target on a wall before getting back to work.

Roman found that his Slyn was even worse than he had thought and had to stick to the few Trouq books and scrolls he could find.

He also realized that Valerie and Logan were ridiculously quick at reading. By the time he had managed to scan through one book the two of them had gone through about twenty.
He tried to push away the feelings of not-good-enough blossoming in his stomach away.

They were librarians. They read and wrote every day.
Of course they were good at it.

For some reason that didn't really help.
It never did.

He wondered if Patton felt like this as well. Perhaps even worse.

He didn't check up on the baker though. Valerie did ever so often but he stayed in his spot and tried to figure out what that damn word meant.

Hello, guys!

LOGAN IS FINALLY HERE!!!! MA BOY!!!!

And yes, neither Roman nor Patton can read very well.

Also, both Slyn and Trouq have been fully designed as well as an additional one, which is mostly used in Terona, called Falé.

As always feel free to comment, ask questions or roast me for spelling mistakes!

Have a nice (gay) day!