Where both the Topaz Slumber and the Ruby Observatory were impressive in their own rights, each of them prioritized function over form to an extent. The same couldn’t be said for the Sapphire Respite, whose designer had strayed away from the tediousness of function and opted to instead turn the hall into a spectacular sight. The library’s focus on arts, fiction and music was obvious from the moment that they stepped through the beautifully carved ebony doors and onto the checkered marble flooring. Covering a large part of the hallway floor were two long rugs that were made of beautiful reds and purples. Standing on top of these rugs were easels with paintings, statues and other artworks, all spread out for people to look at as they made their way into the building and towards the staircase. Set up in the back of the main hall, a little ways off to the side, was a gorgeous piano on a wooden podium. Someone was playing a simple tune on it, really making the whole place come together. Several people were chatting near the different artworks with a handful of them showing off what they’ve made to visitors. As Cobal and Mana looked around for a place to start, one of the scribes walked over to them. “Good morning, may I be of assistance?” The man looked to be a little older than Cobal and Mana, probably in his early or mid thirties. His clean shaven face wore a polite smile.
“We’ve been studying at the other libraries for a couple of days now,” Cobal showed off the pin that Lysa gave them that allowed them more access to the three libraries than the average guest, “and we were interested in seeing what this building has to offer.” He looked at Mana who added, “I’m also quite curious what sort of fiction you have on the shelves.”
The man smiled and nodded along. “Well, allow me to give you a quick rundown of what we have to offer then. As you can see, this is the entrance to the building, and we have some of our more esteemed artists on display here. Once you head up to the first floor you will find more artworks on display. Those are generally older works, whereas the ones on display here are newer. Then the second floor is where you can find our collection of books. If you’re looking for works of fiction then I would suggest you start there. Our rare collections are on the third floor and up, which I believe you could get permission for with those pins, but I’m unsure if that is something you require?” He phrased the last part of that as a question.
Mana shook her head. “We’re just here to browse, and not for any particular research, so the second floor sounds good.”
“Very well, if you’d please follow me. My name is Matteas by the way, what may I call you?”
“I’m Mana, and this is my friend Cobal.”
“Mana and Cobal,” he repeated as he started ascending the stairs. Cobal’s eyes lingered on the pianist that was currently concentrating on his performance, eyes closed and head swaying along with the music. There was something enchanting about the performance, despite how muted it was. The first floor was indeed packed with paintings and statues, hanging on and around thin walls that seemed to be temporary. They reminded Cobal of the walls that their house in Ravadier was made of, although the material was clearly different. These looked much thinner. “What are those walls made out of?” Cobal asked.
Matteas smiled. “Those are made of paper. To be specific, there’s a method used that creates extra thick and strong paper. When held in place by a wooden frame it’s strong enough to hang several paintings from. It is of the utmost importance that none of the paintings are touched as the walls aren’t impervious to being damaged by any means, but for the purpose of having easily movable walls they’re perfect. The paper is produced in Jasodar but we get a steady supply to replace the walls regularly.”
“I see, that’s quite interesting.” They continued up another set of stairs where they arrived in the actual library part of the building. Matteas motioned over another scribe, a young girl who couldn’t be more than fourteen or fifteen. “This is Desia, if there’s any questions you have about this floor, you can ask her.”
The young girl gave a polite nod. Matteas turned to her. “Remember Des, if you’re unsure about something you can ask Reda, he’s working upstairs.” The young girl nodded.
Matteas turned his attention back to Mana and Cobal. “Well then, I hope you enjoy your stay here at the Sapphire Respite and do not hesitate to ask any of our scribes for assistance.”
“Thank you Matteas,” Mana said.
“Desia, was it?” Mana asked.
The young girl nodded. “Yes, how may I help you?”
“I’m not very familiar with works of fiction from this region, do you have any recommendations for me to start off with?”
The girl’s eyes seemed to brighten up at the question. “Well, you could start with Mareth Daver’s The fox of good fortune. That’s a famous one specifically around these parts. It’s also one of my favorites. You could also have a look at Sven Ator’s City of critters. It’s a strange tale of wise talking animals that live together deep in the forest. They’re said to be sent by the gods to change the fate of the world, but the story is unfortunately unfinished. There’s also a very touching romantic story about two soldiers fighting in the great Serkhan war many decades ago. They get caught behind enemy lines and end up starting a whirlwind romance while living in enemy lands. It’s very touching and I won’t spoil the ending.”
Cobal could see Mana smiling at the girl’s enthusiasm and he couldn’t help but be a bit jealous of her at this moment. She’d clearly found the perfect job.
“If you could show me a copy of The fox of good fortune please and then after that I’ll browse a bit, if that’s alright.”
“Certainly, follow me.” Cobal assumed that Matteas told her to ask for help because she might be fairly new, but if that were the case none of it showed right now, as she walked with purpose and brought them to the books they were looking for without issue. “If you have any other requests for me, I’ll be at the center table transcribing some works, feel free to ask me.”
“Thank you for your help,” Cobal said.
The two of them were left in one of the paths between bookshelves. “This place feels more chaotic than the other two libraries,” Cobal commented.
Mana nodded. “You’re right, but I don’t mind it one bit. It feels more cozy this way. The way a library in a story should be.” She looked up at the presumably magic lanterns hanging from the ceiling. They were all designed in different ways and there was no uniformity among them at all. The one hanging above the path they were standing on was one made of green vines that were interwoven in a pattern that felt almost impossible to be real. The longer Cobal stared at it, the more confused he got. There was an iron lantern hanging a little ways away and there was one that looked like it was partially floating in mid-air, but upon closer inspection it seemed like the chain connecting it to the ceiling was made from a strange sort of glass that was really hard to see. “Do you reckon these are also art pieces?” Cobal asked.
“Most certainly,” Mana replied. She took a copy of The fox of good fortune from the shelf. The book itself looked almost like an artwork. A lot of the more historical works had been very practical in their design, but the books here were more ornate. The book Mana was holding had a beautiful red thread that kept it bound together which complemented the dark black fabric that it was bound in. On the spine was a golden fox which seemed to be embroidered onto the actual fabric. Mana moved her hand over it, carefully feeling the texture. “This is a beautiful work,” she said. “We rarely see those in our world.”
“What are books like in your world, I don’t think I’ve asked before.”
Mana thought for a moment. “Well, there are many different sorts of books. The ones I most often bought were what we called paperbacks. They were not bound in leather or any hard cover,” she chuckled, “but instead the covers were made out of slightly thicker paper. The ones that had a harder cover were aptly called hardcover books.” The paperbacks were cheaper but as you can imagine, they didn’t look particularly incredible like this book. They were also much easier to store, since they were smaller. But if you wanted to have a really nice edition you could get the hardcover version. These often had sleeves which were lovely but ultimately made it harder to dust them off. I remember watching a video online about a woman who took boring hardcover books and made her own covers for them, with beautiful and intricate designs. They were more artwork than books by the time she was done with them and I must admit I could watch those videos for hours.” Mana must have realized that she was rambling on as she suddenly stopped and regained her composure. “But yes, to answer your question, a lot of our books are more practical, although the beautiful designs also exist. We also have a lot of information on the internet, but explaining that might take a little while, so let’s leave that for another day.”
Cobal shook his head and sighed. “Sometimes I think we know each other pretty well and then you talk about your life for more than two minutes and I remember how woefully different we really are from each other.” They locked eyes and both laughed.
“You grew up as a royal and I grew up in a different world. Both of our lives are very different from those of the average person you’ll find on the street here,” Mana argued.
“That’s fair.” Cobal looked around. It wasn’t particularly busy here, and he spotted a nice round table at the end of this path. “Should we sit down there and do some reading?” He asked.
Mana nodded.
Before following her, he picked out another copy of the fox of good fortune. It wasn’t a story he was particularly familiar with although he had heard of Mareth Daver before. Mareth was a traveling bard that came through the Blueyerd Kingdom as well. This was long before Cobal was born, but he did read some of the man’s books when he was still a child. He remembered fondly of how his mother would read him the story of the magic prince, who wasn’t very good at sword fighting or etiquette, but was such a kind and charismatic soul that he never needed to pick up a weapon or act politely in front of other nobles. He could charm wild animals into sleeping soundly at his feet and the men and women all stood in line to gain his favor. His older brother was a bitter and cold man who wasn’t very liked by anyone. Secretly, his older brother just seemed mean, and was really a nice guy. When the older brother wanted to forgo his bid for the throne in favor of his younger brother the prince had rejected the offer and told his older brother that there was no man in the world he would rather serve than his older brother. When the older brother finally did ascend to the throne he appointed the kind prince to be his right hand man and the two ruled over the prosperous kingdom for many years. As a boy, Cobal would often imagine that he was sort of like the kind prince and that he would help his stern brother rule the kingdom one day. He smiled thinking back on it. He wondered if the storybook about the fox was just as good. “I’m getting excited to read this,” he said out loud. Mana looked up and smiled at him, before returning to the book. While he was caught up in memories, she had already thumbed through the first few pages.
Opal Kaharis 