Date: Spring, Day 74, 510 AV Location: Riverfall Library Time: Noon Tag: Emma Upon entering the Valkalah Academy, a round reception desk confronts each visitor as it is the central fixture of the large cavernous foyer. An Akalak mans the desk at all times the academy is open which is most all day and has full schedules of planned courses and contact information for professors teaching smaller, on-demand courses. Many torches line the walls at various heights and seem to burn bright eternally as one follows another around the entire circumference of the reception area. The academy’s general structure is one which follows any natural cave design by having larger rooms toward the front and slowly tapering as the main hall extends further into the cliffs. Down this main corridor several rooms on each side can be found and serve as classrooms. There are no more offices or other faculty rooms as most of the staff are either temporary volunteers or do other work in their homes or some other location. To the left of the front foyer are several more doors, most standing open, where the staff offices and desks reside. Opposite the room is a single heavy door much the same as the main entrance to the school only having no reason to be treated to withstand salty water is several shades lighter. Above this lighter door is the one word, “Library,” indicating what lies beyond it. The Riverfall Library, as most know it as, seems to occupy an even larger area than the front main hall. A desk sits immediately next to the entrance where a young Akalak is always watching those who enter and, more closely, those who exit. The library is separated into two parts: the large, primary room containing row after row of tall shelves full of different books and a smaller, secondary and separate room which does not have a door and can be found just down the corridor from the front desk. The attendant can see who enters and exits the room which holds important volumes that are not for sale or even to be taken from library at all. Visitors are free to browse, but these books are either very rare or the only of their type. Though vast in size, the Riverfall Library is not the largest in Mizahar and not nearly the most complete, but the needs of the Akalak are filled with its existence and special requests are typically pursued by speaking with the attendant in the front. He usually knows of some men willing to search for new books and if visitors want to secure them for the library themselves, a small payment from the city usually follows. All the books within the main portion of the library are for borrowing or buying if multiple copies exist but the attendant at the desk always takes careful note of which books leave and with whom they are carried out by before anybody may remove a book from the library. |
It was behind one of the aforementioned desks where Griffith found himself that morning. He wore the bleached white tunic and turban of his own people, something he rarely did outside of when he came to work here. If any Benshira did come through the door, they needed to recognize one of their own as someone they could approach and talk to, and so it was something he had agreed to when he started working under Shandre. For some reason, the library landlord was very kind to him. The Benshira had a suspicion, based on the 'sh' that began his name, that the man's mother might well have been a Benshira. It didn't help that he sometimes thought he saw flashes of understanding in the Akalak's eyes whenever he heard two people conversing in Shiber. He'd never asked, though. There was no need to, and his employer had never volunteered such information, if it was even a reality.
It had been a slow day so far. Benshira were a rarity outside of Eyktol, so of course, so it was doubtful that his services as a verbal translator would be put into use on a good day, and the chances of that were looking even bleaker today.
So he contented himself to the job he had signed on for on the site: translating texts from one language into another. Most often his task would be to translate things into or from Shiber. Sometimes a different language came up, usually due to a clerical error in which scribe received which text. Unfamiliar languages never discouraged the young man, of course. They simply meant he had to go dig up a Whatever-to-Common dictionary and figure out the language's grammatical structure. In some instances, it proved too much for him, and he was forced to turn the text in to whoever could actually handle it.
But the reason Griffith took this job was the opportunity to learn about the world without having to take the time to experience it first hand or interact with people who were more likely to stab you in the back than actually help you. Translating Shiber or copying Common was a slow process for the Benshira, though this was mostly his own fault. He liked to read and absorb whatever he was working on while he earned money for it as a fringe benefit.
Right now he was working on making a copy of a piece which was already in Common. Apparently the library needed two more copies, however, and so the Benshira was pouring over the written guides on how and what to pack for surviving in the wilderness. This piece especially interested him, as it pertained to the Benshira people's survivalist tendency. Some of it sounded like ludicrous to the one-time desert-dweller, whereas some of it was perfectly sensible. He set about copying yet another paragraph...
