It's a nice library, especially for such a small town, with plenty of everything, but a focus on science and poetry, a well-appointed children's' section, a nice selection of music and holovids, and comfy chairs offering varying amounts of privacy.
Right now, though, it's closing time; the announcements have been made, the final checkout rush handled, and now the librarian is making one last check before she locks up for the night.
He nods, with all the same hesitance he's been displaying with everything else. He's quiet as they walk.
That's okay.
It doesn't take too long for them to make their way home; Pradnakt detours to drop the cot off in Nova's soon-to-be house, and then heads into her own as Daisy and Nova catch up.
Nova looks between that and Daisy not entirely sure if he's supposed to take that detour as an instruction on where to go or as something else.
He shrugs and then shakes his head. "Just. I- wasn't sure it wasn't..." (some sort of obscure order he couldn't quite follow).
"Oh." She moves in for a hug. "She's not going to give you any orders, Nova."
Yeah, hug. "She really doesn't like people being slaves; it's important to her that it isn't like that for you here, so she's really just not going to do that, if she can help it. She's the same way with me; she only lets me do things for her because she knows I won't do them if I don't want to."
"I know. It's complicated, but she won't stop you, mostly. But she won't let you know when there's something you could do until she knows that you'll say no if you don't want to do it. That's really important to her."
"...oh." It's not quite understanding because it still doesn't make sense. But he can see (he thinks) how it might make sense, from what Pradnakt and Daisy keep saying.
"Yeah."
"It's hard to say that she'll always or never do something; she doesn't follow rules like that, she just does what makes sense to get what she wants. Like when she tells you to drink - it's more important to her that you're safe than that she never does anything that looks like an order. But people not being slaves is one of the most important things, to her, and it's important that you understand that you aren't, too. Does that make sense?"
He nods slowly. "I...Yes?" He might not understand why that's important to Pradnakt, but he thinks he can follow the logic.
"All right." One more squeeze, and she lets him go and leads the way inside, where Pradnakt is just starting to make pancakes.
He follows, but seems at a loss for what to do. And not entirely sure how to handle Pradnakt doing the cooking - he doesn't know enough to offer help.
"You can sit and relax," Daisy supplies, and then puts the cookies on the counter and signs to Pradnakt: Do you want me to stay, or should I go take care of the animals?
Pradnakt's reply is hidden, with her back to Nova; Daisy nods, though. He'll want to come with me, she signs, and then all right, and then she comes back to sit at the table next to him. "I'm going to wait until after breakfast to do my morning chores, so you can come with me if you want to. It won't be too long."
"If you really want to, we can. But Pradnakt thinks it'd be better for you to rest first."
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