Solo Body Talk

[Baiya]

61st of Winter, 520 AV

"Can I help you?"

The woman behind the desk was not exactly what Baiya had thought a librarian would look like. Then again, the entire library did not look how Baiya thought it would. She had been picturing a dark, damp space with mysterious keepers, but this was an elegant building, immaculately kept.

"I'm looking for a book." She began. She drifted off, distracted by a passing white-robed figure disappearing into the shelves. Okay, so maybe the mysterious keepers are real, she amended. The woman behind the counter waited for Baiya to continue, her face blank and unblinking.

"A book on bones?" Baiya asked. It was a question because she had no idea what she was really seeking. Ever since she had met Madeira at the Starglow Spa, she had been thinking about how her spine had curved and how much more Baiya would have been able to help if she had known anything about Human bone structure. But she wasn't sure exactly where her knowledge gap lay. More than that, she wasn't sure what kind of information the library would hold.

Baiya had never been too fascinated by reading, only learning it at the behest of her mother, and her writing was absolutely atrocious. However, she had made a resolution to learn today and had committed herself to it, even going so far as to purchase a blank book and a writing utensil at the market. She waved these at the librarian, as if in explanation.

"I can help you." The librarian reassured her. "Do you have a pass?"

"No." Baiya furrowed her brow. "I didn't know I needed one."

The librarian nodded and waved over one of the other white-robed figures. "Not a problem," She explained, "We'll get you one. All you need to do is share some information with us."

Baiya visibly relaxed. "Oh, sure. Like, my name and workplace, or what?"

The new robed figure shook his head with a soft smile. His voice had a humming quality that told of his age even though his body was largely hidden. "Tell us something we don't know. Anything we can add to our collection."

Baiya sputtered. "I don't know anything!"

LedgerBook, blank - 3 Ki
Ink, vial (1 0z.) - 1 Ki
Quill - 5 jk
Total: - 4 Ki, 5 jk

[Baiya]

The man shook his head. "That's not true. Everyone has unique knowledge they bring to us."

"If I had any knowledge you didn't, then I wouldn't be here!"

"It does not have to be purely factual." He pressed gently. "You have experiences. You have talents. Tell us about yourself."

Baiya wracked her brain, frustrated that she might be stopped by something so simple. They were right. She wasn't a child. She had unique experiences. But at the moment, every last one of them escaped her. Was she really just an illiterate rodent? Her parents would go wild to know she thought of herself as such. And just like that, it hit her.

"Do you know anything about sugar gliders?"

The man nodded encouragingly, producing a piece of parchment from his robe.

"I'm a Kelvic. My other form is a sugar glider. We have small flaps of skin we can use to glide from surface to surface, but not quite fly because I can't gain height. I grew up very fast- I'm three now- but I don't know exactly how many years I'll live. I suppose no one does." Baiya shrugged, uncomfortable reporting on herself in such a clinical manner. She went on for another chime with as many facts as she could think of about herself before asking for release. "Is that...enough?"

The librarians nodded at each other, and the man rolled up his parchment and tucked it away in a scroll case. The woman behind the counter reached over and handed Baiya a white pebble. On it was a book stamped in silver. Baiya closed the pebble tightly in her fist.

"If you ever lose that, don't worry. We'll just take another transcription from you. And if you ever need anything else, my name is Silvya. We are all here to help you. I'll have someone lead you to the medical books." She glanced up from her paperwork for confirmation. Baiya nodded readily, excited to get away from the others and get to her work.

---

Eventually, Baiya found herself exactly where she wanted to be. She was seated at a table in the library, a pile of books in front of her that she was ready to tackle. Her clean book lay open beside it, and the wax seal on her inkwell had been broken. With a shaky hand, Baiya picked up the quill and dipped the tip into her ink. On the first page of her book, she carefully drew the only word that she could write from memory.

B-A-I-Y-A

She drew a line underneath her name swiftly, her heart swelling with pride. She blew on the ink gently, hoping to dry it before she turned the page. It may have been overly cautious, but she was intimately aware of the way her heavy hand had pooled ink in the crosses between the lines, and she wanted the first page- just this one- to be beautiful. When she moved to taking notes, that's when she gave herself permission to really mess the book up.

[Baiya]

The first book she had chosen was exactly what she was thinking of when she had dreamt of coming to the library. The cover designated it as a medical journal of a local healer. Inside, it described ailments of the bones, the treatments, and even some educated guesses at causation. It was beautifully laid out and Baiya was fascinated by the contents.

It was also useless to her.

Even though she knew it was mostly Common, she felt as if she were reading in another language. While she understood bits and pieces of the treatments- especially those that related to massage or muscles- without knowing the language to describe the problem, she couldn't put them into use.

Splints, atrophy and dystrophy, herniated disks... She shut the book abruptly. It was only making her frustrated to stumble every ten words.

The other book she had picked was slightly more promising. Although it was not medical per say, when she was flipping through options the drawings had caught her eye. Impulsively, she had added it to her table and now she was happy she did.

Upon further inspection, the book was written by an embalmer. The inside contained very little written language beyond labels of parts. Instead, each page featured a sketch of a body. The black and white diagrams were almost eerie to look at, considering that the bodies they represented were, well, dead. Some of them were perfectly preserved, with only a few holes or incisions marked for the embalmers to work from. Others (the most important to Baiya), had the bodies splayed out and the skin pulled away, revealing their inner anatomy. This was what she needed! Once she was able to familiarize herself with the layout of the body and the names of the parts, then she could understand what in the world the healers were talking about.

She flipped to a page that displayed a body with the majority of its back revealed. It appeared to have been mauled to death, judging by the opposite page's sketch of the back skin layer with claw marks through it. Although unfortunate for the person, this gave her a wonderful view of the exposed bones.

Baiya dipped her quill into her ink once more and, propping the book up against the stack so that she could see clearly, began to copy the bones from the drawing. It was more difficult than she had anticipated. She had thought copying would be the easy part, with note-taking and deducing vocabulary more difficult. However she found that the drawing was incredibly detailed, and she was unable to make fine enough strokes to replicate it properly. Ink ran together and made "bones" where there were none, creating a very unhelpful diagram. This was especially problematic when she tried to create arrows pointing to parts to be labeled, as it ended up becoming one large, formless blob.

Okay, so I'm not the artist this guy is. Could've guessed that before we started. She chastised herself. She decided to cut her losses. She folded the page in on itself so it wouldn't sully the next one and started again.

[Baiya]

Deciding to move more carefully this time, Baiya slowly examined the tip of her quill. It was very standard, with a point cut into the tip at a gentle angle. It didn't appear to be capable of holding too much ink at a time, but considering her last blots, Baiya made an effort to dip only the tip this time, wiping off any excess on the edge of the well.

This helped to the extent that she was capable of drawing a line instead of an abstract blob shape. However, it also made it clear that the quill was not the only problem with her drawings. Her upper forearms were well-muscled from her work, and her hands were strong, but they lacked the refined movements necessary to control the quill. The strength may even have been a problem, considering the way she tore through the parchment with the tip on every other stroke. Delicate work was just not her traditional method. Frustrated with taking the notes, Baiya set down her quill in a huff. She needed a break.

She briefly considered standing up to walk around, but the library had an intimidating air to it. She didn't want to get lost or, worse, wander into the wrong section without permission. Instead of risking the embarrassment, Baiya simply scooted her chair out to stretch from her seat. She reached her hands high over her head and wove her fingers together, using the leverage to pull her own arms away from her shoulders. She massaged her own writing hand and flexed her fingers one at a time. Once she felt limber again, she delved back in.

This time when she grabbed her quill, she felt slightly more confident. She started by drawing the outline of the body and though it was far from perfect, it was recognizable as a human shape. Knowing she wouldn't have space to fill in all that she wanted with her thick lines, she focused on just the spine.

It was disproportional to the body, but the layout was what was important to her. From her notes she could tell how many bumps the spine had (24, called "vertebrae" according to the book's label) and where they curved. She could also see the order they fell in. Apparently there were a few special bones at the bottom of the spine called the "sacrum" (a big lumpy bone inside the hips) and the "coccyx" (a tiny stump at the very end of the spine). Although she couldn't accurately replicate the shape of the bones without smearing the ink, she made broad, simplified bean shapes for the vertebrae as well as a tube for the sacrum and a tiny triangle piece for the coccyx.

When she was done with the diagram of the spine, she gently wiped off her quill and placed it back next to the well. Although there was mountains of information left that she wanted to absorb, her hand was simply too tired to keep taking notes. There was plenty of daylight left, though. She could still read, and read she would. Flexing her fingers gingerly, she picked up the book to flip through once more.

[Baiya]

Baiya was surprised to find that her ability to focus on the book increased exponentially when she didn't need to worry about taking notes or retaining any special information. When she was free to learn, she absorbed the information readily. Her eyes ran along the pages hungrily. She traced her fingers along the pages as if she could feel the inscriptions written and the intent or history behind them. She found herself thinking more deeply about the book's contents.

She wondered about something else she had learned that day about Madeira; she had said she was marked by Dira and that their interests aligned. But looking at even the drawings of these dead bodies had Baiya's guts aching with sympathy. She could not imagine seeing a dead body in person, much less on purpose. Despite this, she knew that she would. Even Lhavit was not entirely safe, and that thought chilled her to the bone.

With this idea though, came the comfort that Lhavit was safer than most. Most of these bodies had no visible wounds or tragic injuries. As opposed to how her father had spoken of other cities, there were comparatively few that had died of bear mauling or strangling or other violence. A few had swollen insides (from the notes it seemed they suspected accidental poisoning) and a few had bloated looks from drowning or starving, but so many were simply...quiet. People passed away at the hospital, with fever or sickness, overgiving, bad lungs or broken hearts, or plain old age that left no mark. Baiya could not imagine the kind of death that came when you couldn't see it. And yet, her parents had told her she aged quickly. She had just finished telling the librarian as much.

Am I going to die?

She slammed the book shut and banished the thought from her mind. She set the book back on the counter and tidied her things, scooping them haphazardly into her bag. She tried her best to ignore the answer, the resounding 'yes' that echoed in her head, but no amount of busy work could keep it away. A passing librarian gave her a sideways glance, but Baiya was too wrapped up in her own mind to be embarrassed.

No, no. As long as she stayed in Lhavit the Shinya would protect her. She wouldn't die here where it was safe. She couldn't.