A Valeween Night To Remember

Because

Somehow, Luz found it weird that the Bonesborough Library was already open again this soon after Valeween.

Keeping it open until the last minute before Valeween Night - That she could understand. There would be no shortage of people who were curious about the Cherubim, what to expect on the night itself, and knowing everything that there was to know about the invaders would be beneficial, both for veterans of the event, and those who were about to experience their first. Understanding the history of the event, how previous efforts had succeeded and failed, and learning new methods and tricks of how to handle the invasion would be vital too. The defences were only as strong as their defenders, after all. Indeed, the building had seen a surge of activity in the days leading up the Valeween Night, as people looked for any advantage the records might be able to give them. There was always the possibility of learning something new.

It being open so soon after the event had passed though, for some reason, that just seemed odd to Luz. With so much reconstruction, renovation, and labour work to be done to get Bonesborough back to the way it was before the invasion... She just sort of assumed that a place of leisure or academia like a library would be closed for longer, as people would be prioritising getting the city back in proper working order first. That was how things would usually work back on Earth.

But not only was she wrong in that assumption, it seemed like the exact opposite had happened - It looked more busy than ever before.

Fond as she was of books, Luz had spent a fair bit of time in the library since arriving on the Isles, reading up on the history, seeing if she could learn anything about Glyphs, or just seeing what the literature was like here. She was here often enough that she could recognize the groups of people that were there regularly, buried in books the same way that she often was. And many of them were there today too, but there were lots of people who she had never seen there before as well. Groups of people who never professed an interest in books, and even some people she recognised from Hexside, who outright despised them, were all here. Some were reading, as was intended in a library, and some were using it more as a general hang out area, taking up the Crystal Balls section, or just wandering around in small groups, with no real destination in mind.

Louder too - Normally the librarians were a bit more active when it came to making sure that people followed the rule of being quiet, but they were being a lot more permissive of sound today. They only really seemed to be getting involved whenever someone broke a major rule, like climbing on the tables like some of the younger visitors were doing, being too rowdy, or getting to uncontrollable levels of noise, but they were being far more forgiving and lenient than they normally were.

Really though, as Luz made her way through the building, past the bookshelves, and up the stairs to her destination, it didn't take all that long to figure out why the building was so packed, and why the librarians were being so much more lenient with the rules today.

A variety of people were there today - Workers, who needed a break. Students, who needed to feel like students again. People who had been victimised by the Cherubim, and needed to be around other people who understood. Kids, who needed to be looked after while their parents helped with the reconstruction efforts. And even just people who wanted to be somewhere that felt... At least slightly normal. While the city outside was still returning to normalcy, the library served an important function - It kept people grounded in a feeling of regularity. Of normal life.

Something that people evidentially needed.

The degree to which Valeween affected people's lives was... Incalculable. It affected people in so many different ways. So many different relationships were fundamentally changed, and it was impossible to put a number on just how many ways those changed relationships could affect a person. Some people would have had an even worse series of events happen to them than Luz had had. And that was a scary thought.