When my chair gets too uncomfortable to sit in any longer, I start to pace behind the table, and when my feet get too restless from all the walking, I lay down on the plush rugs with a book cracked in front of my face. It’s a fun position, but my body is already starting to protest, so I find a seat on the settee and then another on top of a random staircase. I read and read and read, keeping a crystal lantern with me wherever I go, and at some point on those lighted steps I recall hearing Morose tell Golem that she’s going to bring up a late lunch. When I come back to the table for another set of books, there’s a cold and forgotten plate of turkey with cranberry jam waiting for me.
I make it through about twenty more books before needing a solid break. My eyes are tired from all the squinting, so I walk down the five heights to the ground floor and move in front of the large roaring fire as words flit through my mind.
Some Ancients of the Old World were known to be very mercurial…a history book described.
Discard.
But the bird had long since been extinct, another animal lost to the greater years of the Old World…a book on taxonomy noted.
Discard.
Medicinal Reborn: An Old World Summoning
That book provided step by step instructions on how to use earth summoning and plants to revive a sleeping person. Someone in acoma, the author explained. I found the knowledge fascinating but knew it belonged in the discard pile.
Without debate, the strongest of all the Ancients’ abilities was that of Hirovale, the Ancient of Death and Exploration, who could turn anything to ash at his touch.
That book was the first of a small few that I decided to save, the last
phrase too coincidental to not look into further. In fact, many texts on the Ancient Hirovale seemed to be at the forefront of my searches in the past two years, so I made sure to dive into that one later.
I clear the words from my mind and let the raging fire warm me up until I’m ready to begin again. I quickly make my way up to the fifth height and grab a new stack of books, settling in as I nibble on a few cranberries from lunch. Once the table becomes too uncomfortable to sit in any longer, I move along my previous dance and find new places and areas to read.
“Dinner,” Morose holds a plate out with narrowed eyes.
She’s standing above me, both her and Golem watching as I lay stretched out on my back with a book.
“Thank you,” I nod, unmoving from my comfortable position on the rug, “if you can just leave it on the table I’ll eat it later.”
I watch as Golem turns to Morose and then Morose looks at me. “You barely touched your lunch.”
“No?” I could have sworn the turkey was delicious.
Golem shakes his head as I push myself up from the ground. The plate is still waiting on the corner of the table, sans all the cranberries.
I grab the book I was reading and bring it with me to the table and sit down, pulling the lunch plate towards me to finish off the food. I lose myself in the next book, barely noticing Morose’s wrinkled fingers dropping the second plate next to the first as a new canteen lands at its side as well.
It’s well after dinner when I wake up slumped in my chair, my body putting itself to sleep all on its own. I startle, not even remembering when I started to doze off, and peer across the table.
Fuck me, there’s still so many books.
I drop my head on my arm with a loud groan.
“Golem?” I mumble, “Morose?”
I hear my magical friend at my back. He’s standing against the catalogue in the wall and sifting through the cards, his clay fingers surprisingly not damaging the paper.
“Did Morose take off for the night?” I ask, rubbing my eyes.
He turns with a nod and continues his search in the drawers. I reach for the canteen Morose left and take a hefty gulp, smiling at the coffee that’s waiting inside. It only takes my body one full book of reading before it’s buzzing with determination, the rest of the books on the table not looking so daunting after all.
My heart is pounding when I make haste through the stacks and add one more to the keep pile. I lose track of how long I sit at the table and sift through the texts, or how many times I move from chair to rug to staircase to fire, roaming the heights with a book in hand. But what I do know is that the coffee keeps me awake and spirited throughout the whole night, and that the stacks on the table keeps getting smaller and smaller.
I wake again, this time curled up next to the large fire on the ground floor. I reach for the book near my head and begin climbing up, the table on the fifth height now neatly organized. All of my discarded books lay on the floor next to the table, while the four books I want to keep are stacked in the corner. There’s still another small stack left to read, so I set to the task and move through them as quickly as possible before we start the new morning.
“Have you slept, girl?” Morose walks up to the table with Golem standing beside her.
“Yes, of course. I took two naps.”
