Stare narrowed her eyes in distaste, “Vitruvion would never allow them to be here. He is one of four - now three, sorry, important and powerful men here. The other two are brothers in the Hollow, and we brought about the destruction of the one who was not a few months back. There are the other officials, but if he wanted to he could take over this city,” she breathed in and rolled her shoulders back, thinking about Thesus Heysan and what he had done. She clacked her tongue against the side of her beak for a moment, before she shook herself and forgot about the noble who had taken Vitruvion’s mill in the city hostage, inclusive of nearly a hundred workers, raped them before setting the place alight.
“House is fine, we can hole up in the library with food. You’ll like all the books, and can find what we have on the Red Forest,” she rubbed Sen’s shoulder before nodding.
“Let’s go,” she said, and kicked the chocobo’s side. Throwing up his beak Sen cawk’ed to the sky, and then started racing.
Soon the two birds and their riders were running back through the streets, heading to the mansion of Sir Elssmith and the comfort of the library. On they went, past empty street and filled marketplace. Past shop and garden and house and crossroad. Round to the estates they travelled, coming to the grand gate that was still open, and chasing each other back into the stables.
Ten minutes later they were entering a huge room. Long and wide it was rectangular, ending in a huge bay window, and with deep, dark wooden shelves down both sides of the room. Top to floor they were filled with books, with no space for anything else, and every bit of it was crammed. Only a small pair of double doors that lay opposite the bay window, the bay window itself (which was more of a cushioned bench) and the door they came in through was not covered in books. The rest of the space was cast in shades of red-brown from carpet to painted ceiling, including the chairs and tables. A comfy set of armchairs were waiting for them, and over to them Stare carried a plate of steaming pastries, fresh from the oven.
“Welcome to the library,” she said with a gleam in her eye. “One of the good things about my life.”
Nevin’s eyes were tracking back and forth, taking in everything around them. This place was quite grand, and if he hadn't known what she had gone through he might have been envious of her solely for this library. The works that must be contained in here, covering a span of subjects and eras! For a moment he was tempted to ask of they had any books on Alchemy here, but he held his tongue, instead taking one of the pastries with a smile to his friend.
