Solo [The Library] Words Worth Reading...

[Daedalus Dagwood]

2rd Day of Fall, 513 AV
Mid-day/12th Bell)

Daedalus was born with the songs of the great craftsmen and artisans whispered into his ears. They sang of the creation of great buildings, or people of masterful skill that could work metal or mere pieces of lumber into amazing designs. They were the first stories that he had ever heard from his parents that caused him to smile and stop his cries even before he knew how to speak as a baby. As he grew older the stories that he listened to were no longer about craftsmen or artisans, but tales of the world beyond Sunberth. It formed a life lime spark for his love of storytellers and listening to others within taverns over a mug of ale. However, sometimes the best place to find a story was the most obvious place to visit. The library.

His finger softly grazed along the spines of several leather bound tomes, hard covered books, and ragged journals filled with the personal thoughts of skilled people who wished to simply be remembered by putting their knowledge onto paper. There was a long moment of silence throughout the building as Daedalus stood still in front of a large book shelf. He kept his face calm, but his mind fluttered with emotion as his eyes searched for a book, any book, that looked interesting.

The silence within the Library of Sunberth was a deathly sound as if a funeral were taking place. He turned to look over his shoulder to find Remmy, the only librarian, placing books onto several shelves as if she were taking inventory just like he would do to metal back at the foundry. Daedalus found the goggles that the woman had resting along her forehead were reminiscent of the type that his Gadgeteering father wore during his childhood. It caused him to quick a brow before glancing to three people sitting far apart from each other at separate tables where they each quietly read to themselves.

There were no talking, or faint whispers. Only the elegantly soft sounds of pages of a book turning. Daedalus turned back around to slide his right index finger along the spine of a book that had a blank black leather bound exterior. Using a finger to tilt it from its snug position between other large books, he pulled it from the shelf to flip through a few of its pages to find out what it was about. "I need a lock and key. I must protect the only things I own. My words." He muttered the words as he read through what sounded like a journal of some type. "Cryptography. Gift of Akajia the goddess of secrets to the world will lock my words."

The book had caught his attention, however he knew nothing about Akajia which caused him to close the book to carry it with him as he searched for any books about the gods. As he searched for religious tomes, he eventually found a bookshelf filled with information written about the gods.

While he wasn't a worshiper, and in truth only believed the gods to be powerful Djed users. He still believed in their power as he started to pull several books from the shelf. Stacking one after another atop of the Cryptography book he held until he needed to lean the stack against his chest to keep them stable.

As he waddled over to an empty table while making sure not to drop one of the ten books he now carried. He past one of the few readers in the library. They each shared a brief moment of direct eye contact before Daedalus had to brake the gaze as he continued onward towards an empty seat.

He placed the stacks off books down onto a table top then started to get ready to take notes. The backpack he wore slid from his shoulders with ease before opening it up to pull out his own journal, quill, and vial of ink to place them all down. When Daedalus glanced up he saw the Librarian Remmy simply looking at him before returning to whatever business she had to do.

It wasn't the only stare he found locked on him as he glanced to his side to look at the reader he had previously past. A female Akvatari who's red wings flapped absently every so often. The creature sat atop of a long bench that was meant for two people, however its lower body that appeared like the tail of a seal took over most of the length. It was an odd creature to Daedalus as he turned back to his books to take his own seat at his table.

[Daedalus Dagwood]

Daedalus knew that one day he would need to take notes on many things that the people of Sunberth Called taboos that could stir a lynch mob into a frenzy. He reached forward to grab the journal he was previously reading to stare at its leather bound cover. It dawned on him that the crazed author of the journal was correct about needing to lock his words. And so the Metallurgist found himself shifting forward in his seat to slouch in the chair as he slumped over to get comfortable. There were numerous pages filled with minuscule ravings followed by waves of ranting that, while hilariously enjoyable to read, had nothing to do in relation to do with the subject of Cryptography. Everything the author of the book had written made him believe the person to be a madman man paranoid by some tragic event.

“No way?”

He said aloud to himself causing the few people in the library to all glance at him for braking the silence so abruptly. Daedalus raised a hand to wave as a sign of an unspoken apology. He just never expected what he had just read to himself which caused his eyes to double back to double check what it had said. Daedalus's golden brown hazel eyes followed along one specific exscription on the page:

I will never allow him to know of our love, never allow him to ruin us. I am hers like the way she is mine. However, my husband must never know. I need a lock, but with a lock I must first have a key.

Apparently the madman was a madwoman, love stuck with another woman as she was cheating on her husband. In some strange way, the Cryptography book had suddenly turned into a romantic drama before his eyes. "Interesting." He thought to himself as he continued to read silently to himself as several chimes passed with a casual turn of a page every so often. He had come to learn the cryptographer's name to be one 'Atlati re Ahnatep' or simply referred to a Atlati the Cryptography. She was an Eypharian who had found love with a lower class kelvic, a mouse kelvic no less, and didn't want this affair to come to light and tarnish her reputation.

Daedalus realized only after a few chimes that somethings he had read were important in the process of crafting ciphering and deciphering codes. He set the book down atop of the table as he sat up straight in his chair. He pulled his own personal journal closer to open up his own journal to a blank page. After taking a hold of his quill in his right hand Daedalus set the nib into the vial of ink. Tapping the nib to the vial to remove a tiny amount of excess black ink from the tip to avoid ink splatter while writing. He set the quill to the blank page then began to slowly write what he found to be useful information though all of the woman's gossip an rantings.

~A Key refers to an Item or concept that allows someone to understand what is needed to decipher a code. Anything can be a key, like simply saying that the all 'R' letters of a code will really mean that they are the letter 'E'. A code with a physical key is a 'keyed' code while others may have a purely conceptual key making them 'keyless' codes.

[Daedalus Dagwood]

Daedalus's free left hand slowly began to flip through the pages of Atlati the Cryptographers journal until a series of long strings of numbers and letters caught his attention. He set the quill aside to focus on what the words said on the pages of the book. As Daedalus was trying to read, he could suddenly hear the sound of a body dragging along the floor. It caused his eyes to glances to his side to see what on earth it could be. The female Akvatari that he had previously walked past had begun a lengthy process of sliding its furry seal like body across the floor towards a book shelf.

Even though the Akvatari had no limbs to walk, it still managed the complex concept of movement which caused the Animator to watch the female for an extended amount of time. Watching how her body arched then cascaded into forward moment. Her seal like lower body arched then was thrown to one side by pushing off the ground. It caused her body weight to transfer to her pelvis area, and then her chest was moved forward. It was like a hitching slither that was slow but sufficient for movement.

He started to believe that animating a golem with Akvatari anatomy would serve better during situations when he would be incapable of creating advanced Joints for leg movement. "Maybe a thick bag filled with sand or some other martial could compensate for a Akvatari like lower body on a golem?" As Daedalus watched her, he looked back to his journal. Even though he was currently taking notes on Cryptography, he made a small note to himself relating to Animation.

Note to self on Animation: Akvatari anatomy, although inefficient appears to be a suitable secondary option for movement to replace ball jointed legs.

The Akvatari female seemed a bit bashful once she noticed how focused Daedalus was observing her body. It wasn't until his eyes locked with hers that he simple smiled at her, lifted a hand in polite greeting, then returned to his studying his notes. "How do they fly?" It was a sudden nagging question that distracted him from the rest of his studies as he glanced back over his shoulder at the female. She was attractive despite the whole animal like lower body thing. He felt a random need to touch the texture of her wings which cause a smile to form on his lips as he shook his head then turned back around in his seat. "Great." He thought to himself as he set his quill down. "This will bother me all day unless I do it."

He adjusted the long black wool coat that he wore to tidy up his appearance as he stood up from his chair. The slow pace at which he walked was deliberate as he wished to remain as quite as possible to not break the silence within the library any more than he had already done. He eventually found himself standing behind the Akvatari woman then moved to stand to her left side as he pretended to look for another book.

However, he quickly stopped pretending once his eyes made contact with the spine of a book. It was entitle 'Taming wilderness in a forest of Survival' and as his hand moved to grab it he paused. Turning his head to glance at the Akvatari woman as she tried to grab a book off of a high shelf without wanting to fly to get it. Being a kind person, he shifted his hand away from the book he was curious about to take ahold of the book she wanted. After glancing at its title, 'Carving truth into wood', he handed the wood carving book to her.

[Daedalus Dagwood]

The Akvatari woman stared at Daedalus for what must have been thirty full seconds before reaching to grab the book from him. There was a forlorn look of lingering sadness within her eyes which only caused Daedalus's smile to grow softer in attempt to overshadow her dispirited expression in attempt to make her smile through the infectious nature of causing another person to smile after being smiled at. "Thank you." She responded in a low voice that was carefully chosen to fit her surroundings. "My pleasure." His voice was typical of a normal person while inside of a building. While not raised, the silence within the Library itself made it seem as if his voice was nearly yelling.

"Why were you looking at me before?" She asked as she opened up her book to flip through each of its pages. He quirked a brow then opened his mouth as if he were about to speak then paused for a moment. He began to edit his thoughts in order for it to not sound blatantly rude. He wounded if she would be offended by the words creature, animal, or bird. So he modified his previous line of thought into something more suitable. Ignoring the while seal body thing, he treated her like any other lovely woman.

"I couldn't help myself. When I see someone so beautiful my eyes tend to betray me and linger for far too long." It was slightly true, even though he was mainly trying to guess how her race came to be. What divine being or act could make a race with the body of a seal. It was completely illogical. The woman shifted a long lock of her brunette hair behind one of her ears at the complement. "While I am not that good of an artisan, I am a craftsman. Would you be against me drawing you to one day cast your beauty into a sculpture of glistening silver?" He remembered that they held the reputation of being creative artists so used art to try and get on her good side. After all, she was holding a book about wood carving.

There was a sudden shock value his words carried that caused the downhearted expression in her eyes to widen in awe inspired disbelief as she stared down at the book in her hands. Daedalus smirked at her then turned around. "I'll leave you be if I am disturbing you. I would just like to say, to never accepts compliments is to lie to yourself by hiding behind veils of sadness. Beauty like yours should be shared with the world. Feel free to join me at my table if you wish." As he started to walk away the Akvatari spoke up. "Could you move the bench for me?" Daedalus smirked as he looked towards where she was sitting. Then went to put the bench on the opposite side of the table covered in his books.

Akvatari woman rose into the air as her wings appeared to flap like a humming birds as she glided through the air to land onto the bench. Daedalus had to set his hands down on top of his open books to keep the pages from turning due to the shallow gusts of air her wings made with each flap.