[Library] The old man and the librarian (Open)

[Vhast]

57th of summer 512 av ”Excuse me young man, do you work here?” Peering over the aged leather binding of a book that was failing to absorb his interests, Vhast’s tired gaze was met with a politely smiling face of sagging flesh. The hour had grown well into the afternoon, the light of the sun beginning to encroach upon the west windows, bathing the floor in polished gold. Taking a moment to consider the bell, Vhast crudely rubbed the sleep from his eyes before shooting up from the desk he’d taken as his station. Walking from behind it with the sort of refined dignity only a background in wealth seemed to provide, he greeted the other with all the pleasantry one could muster, the tips of his fingers barely brushing the corner of his desk. “Yes, sir. Is there something I can help you find today?” The venerable codger whose apparel was a brilliant shade of yellow and red was someone Vhast had dealt with before; each day in fact since he‘d begun working here, at this precise hour if memory served him well. But nothing about the old man seemed to suggest that he recognized who his young counterpart was, their conversations afflicted with the same doleful speech day by day. “I’m looking for a book.” “Oh?” “Yes. A book on the Valterrian.” “We have an entire section devoted to the Valterrian, sir. Can you be more specific?” “Yes. I was hoping to find something on the death of Queen Kova. I’m related to her, you know! On my mother‘s side.” “You don’t say? That’s fascinating.” When this conversation had been repeated for the first time weeks ago, Vhast had considered whether or not his leg was being pulled in some elaborate joke. He’d even thought to question the other, but that ill advised strategy had proven fruitless. All he received had been a baffled look filled with the mild contempt only age could hope to perfect. Even changing the subject had proven somewhat disastrous, the old man becoming aggravated and causing a ruckus in a place that was meant to be kept quiet. Putting the volume on hold would have been simple enough, but Lisaelis was adamant about letting others find it if they so wished. So, Vhast had resigned himself to repeating the same task day after day, wondering if the curse upon the man’s mind would lift. They moved at snail’s pace through the stacks, Vhast with hands in pocket as the other grasped his sleeve for balance. Carrying no crutch to speak of, all the old man kept on him was a simple journal and the clothes he wore, neatly pressed and barring any smudge of dirt. Only a few times had the librarian witnessed the older man writing in the journal, those words greatly obscured by the distance he kept after giving the man his book and seeing him safely to a table. Given enough time, Vhast felt the pair could whittle a small divot in the library’s floor if this affair continued, treading the same path each day. Quietly he hoped that this was not what his life would amount to. Knowing precisely where the book was shelved, Vhast stepped to it lazily and pulled it down into the warmth of his fair palm. “I believe this should suit you just fine, sir.” “Is it a book on Queen Kova?” “But of course, sir. it’s a retelling of the moments that led up to her death, with some speculation from a few well known historians.” “Excellent my boy! Thank you! Now, if you’ll kindly direct me to an open table where I might sit.” “Right this way, sir.” The slothful trek began again, taking several minutes to reach the nearest empty table where Vhast saw the older man seated. Pulling the chair out for him, the librarian patiently waited for the older man’s girth to fall right in before pushing him close to the table where he might conduct his writing in peace. “Will that be all, sir?” “Yes lad, thank you.” Sighing cumbrously, Vhast patted the older man’s shoulder before making his way back to his station, flopping unceremoniously down into his chair. Just another days work for the tired soul of a young man. Nothing exciting ever happened in The Wright Memorial Library…

[Leigo]

“You’re the librarian” Leigo would let out a soft, whispery tone. It wasn’t a question, but a statement. Still, if the man denied it, blond would pull away and try his luck elsewhere – Anaya likely. Why was he here? It was simple really. Everything he did and didn’t know about Fiera seemed to get him even more confused than before. But if there was one thing you don’t do when you doubt something, you don’t tell the involved female. She’d either skitter off in doom and gloom or leave the boy feeling bad or she’d explode and try to hurt him. Neither of those seemed good, so here he was looking his answers up in the library. Hey, not the bravest thing to do – but he didn’t want to be alone again! “I need some writing on Kelvics… and I need to read it somewhere where people won’t see me!” it might’ve sounded like a paranoid man’s dying wish or something equally dramatic, but Leigo really was scared of Fiera – who he knew also worked here – getting offended.

[Vhast]

Not moments after he’d fallen back into the stiff and creaking discomfort of white oak furnishing did another soul saunter by. However this one’s tone ambushed the librarian’s ears in feathery soft affliction, startling the young one into a partly open-mouthed gasp that seized the back of his throat. Adrenaline washed through his veins like a deluge of hot water before departing, leaving Vhast’s impenetrably dark eyes brimming with attentiveness. There was a certain sense of desperation in the man’s request, something Vhast was not all foreign to, but admittedly was still a first under this station. Finding a book was so rarely ever an emergency, but Vhast allowed the sense of urgency to compel him to stand up from his desk again. With diminutive frown pulling at the edges of his thin white lips, he looked to Leigo and spoke in composed whisper. “Follow me please.” It wasn’t until they reached the stacks of shelves, where their privacy was more a guarantee though no less a risk, that Vhast’s head swiveled to the side slightly and gauged the other’s character. “You wouldn’t happen to be more concerned with finding a place to hide, would you?” The thought had occurred to Vhast that perhaps his new charge was more interested in escaping from authority than finding a book. While the librarian did not yet make his intentions known, he was still dutifully leading the other towards a section devoted to the races of their world.