Looking Up, Looking In (Solo)

[Vala]

5th of Spring, 511 AV One last stack. One last petching stack of books to repair. Not that Vala ever cursed. There Vala was, all alone at the reception desk with the graveyard crew. Even Kirna had gone home to spend the evening with her husband in their aerie. All in all Vala had no right to complain. She did ask for it. Actually the enterprising chiet would have preferred working on her official day off on the tenth day, but due to scheduling issues Vala had only been allowed to replace her work day for tomorrow, tonight, but it was all going to be worth it when she learned how to make beads with Feyra, she hoped. It actually wasn't that bad at night. The lack of snarky patrons actually had her reevaluating her shift schedule. Without anyone to clean up after Kirna had ordered Vala to finish up at the repair station, before she went home. Vala had been working steadily all night but there was something about the last stretch that just made everything seem to take longer and more effort. The senior librarians had been kind enough to fix the worst of the damaged books, stuff that had to do with the binding or water damage, leaving Vala to deal with mostly simple edge tears. With the repair kit basket before her Vala began pulling out the tools she needed for edge tears: Repair paper, Glue, Tweezers, Blot Board, Waxy Paper, Small brush, Press board, Weights, and determination. Vala pulled out the blot board first. On top of that she put the book, opening to the bookmarked page with a rip. Vala frowned; it was a glassblowing book. Vala remembered reading it when she was a Yasi. It was simple and very straightforward; she had reread it many times. The rip was on a page about basic mineral compounds and the colors they made. Vala remembered taking notes on that herself as an eager yasi, trying to memorize them for her bendis. It was no surprise to her that, that page had been a little too eagerly flipped. Vala slipped in a sheet of wax paper behind the page, to prevent from the next page to sticking to the ripped one. Then she pulled out the stack of repair papers. This was the most difficult step – trying to find a match. Vala’s inexperienced fingertips fumbled around the multitude of textures and weights of the papers. “Too thick… too yellow… too white… too rough… almost, but not quite… just right!” Vala whispered in delight as she picked one out. When she had first started repairing books, Vala preferred using scissors or knives to cut out the exact shape, so she would mess up less, but she found out through observation that cutting out the papers actually prevented the fibers from binding together well enough. Using her fingers, with a little help from the tweezers, Vala tried to keep her hands steady as she ripped off a long piece. It took her three tries to finally get one of an adequate length. Unfortunately for the book, and for Vala, the rip was not a simple straight one; it was an evil jaggety one that would need several strips to be properly glued. Vala ripped up another, shorter one to be put at the next angle. Her little pink tongue poked out as she tried to concentrate hard while keeping her hands steady. Then she pulled out the petite glue brush, running her soft fingers against the stiff bristles. As a natural cheapskate, Vala made sure to pour out the absolute minimum needed of glue onto the little stone bowl. The rest was easy and took the agile fingered girl about five chimes to finish up, putting the pressboard on top of the glued rip and then weighing it down with some stone bricks. She pushed the finished book to the side, realizing it was stupid to go cheap on the glue since she would need more for the next one, and the ones after that. Vala sighed; wishing people would take care of the precious tomes better. The next book was about Wind Reach culture; Vala sighed again. It was midnight by the time Vala finished the stack of books. There had been about fifteen of them, ranging from simple rips like the one in the glassblowing book, to one where the page was basically flapping about in the wind, held only by a courageous thread. Vala did all of them, making sure to give them her all, probably taking a bell more than what others would have taken – she hated doing anything half-assed, a full blooded perfectionist. Vala walked across the empty Courtyard of the Sky, stars shining above. She stopped mid step, looking up into the heavens, not quite sure why. The echoing silence, more oppressive than the thin air of the mountain, bade Vala to pause a while.

[Vala]

The silence was brutally cut short by the flapping of wings, as the sky was suddenly filled with the shadowed shape of two descending Wind Eagles. They gracefully landed at the far end of the courtyard, right where Vala had intended to go, blocking her the warren she needed to get back to her room. Sure there were other warrens she could walk through to get to the same place, but those took longer, and she was tired... Vala sat down on a nearby platform, not so reluctantly deciding to wait them out instead of trying to go another route. It was already late, sleep deprivation, was sleep deprivation no matter how much she tried - might as well enjoy the beautiful night while she could. The stone beneath her bum was cold, and quite hard with just her thin byrda between them. Vala sighed. The inky blackness above, spotted with sparkling night diamonds were just so breathtaking. Vala wondered why she didn’t go stargazing more often. And even with the Endal’s conversing at the far end, her reverie was still quite undisturbed, their voices barely a dull murmur in the open space. Her bloodshot eyes scanned the open expanse, trying to spot familiar constellations. It had been so long ago, near two seasons now since she had left the Yasiry, and the chiet, whose name she has absentmindedly forgotten, that had tried to teach the surly child the story of the stars. There! Vala pointed at one figure. The Archer constellation - one of the more famous ones in Wind Reach. Using her finger she traced his bow, made of four curved stars. And then his arrow, with its three, perfectly aligned stars all in a row. Other than the bow and arrow, Vala always had trouble figuring out how his body was exactly formatted. She quickly lost interest and tried to find others. It took her another couple of chimes to accidentally land upon the Sanikas Constellation, almost exclusively known in Wind Reach. Vala didn’t have to trace that particular figure, as the shape was so perfectly bright and defined. Vala smiled at her own luck. She continued to look across the galaxy’s field, not particularly looking for anything, content at what she found. That and she knew she would only get frustrated if she tried harder, when she obviously had no idea what any others were. For a culture so dependent on the skies, Vala wondered why Wind Reach didn’t emphasize the study of Astrology. They were at a perfect location; almost close enough to touch the heavens - the Wind Eagles and their lucky riders doing so daily. Even at the Yasiry, Astrology was only a side hobby by some of the more dedicated scholars. As a physically meek being, she wondered if she really belonged in a physically demanding place such as Wind Reach. Such thoughts made the girl sad, so she quickly squashed such confidence crippling thoughts, and tried to lose herself to the stars instead. Though she appreciated the belittling beauty above her, Vala still found it a little hard to believe that her future could be plotted in such arbitrary things as shiny lights. Sure, Gods were real, they could touch, move, and command the real world. Even magiks like Reimancy and Magecrafting were real - even a nobody like her could do stuff like that if she had the training, but Astrology? Vala found stars so arbitrary. Anyone could connect the dots and name it a constellation. Using her finger she traced out a shape of a feather with random stars. “There, I’ve made a feather constellation. Does that make me an astrologer?” Vala pondered sarcastically, outloud. Vala frowned. She was getting riled up. She was too tired to start getting all emotional about such a silly thing as the validity of astrology. To calm herself down, Vala began counting the stars one by one. It was hard to keep track of which she had already counted, but in the long run did it really matter? Once she reached one hundred, Vala’s eyelids were really starting to droop, heavy as anvils. And the Endals had shifted, looking like they were about to leave. Once the girl reached two hundred, the Endals had remounted their larger than life Wind Eagles. By two hundred and fifty, they were off, probably back to their own aeries. With her original path now clear, Vala finished off at an even three hundred stars and lifted herself up off the stone platform. Her legs were a little numb and cold from the chilly night air. Vala tramped back to her room, weaving about, drunk of tiredness.

[Flicker]

Vala XP: Book Repair 2, Astronomy 2, Observation 1, Philosophy 1 Use of repair paper, glue, tweezers, blot board, waxy paper, brushes, press board and weights for simple book repair Archer Constellation Sanikas Constellation At least 300 stars fill the night sky on the fifth of spring Comments: Easy little read. I like the feather constellation. Oh, and I gave you astronomy instead of astrology.