"I apologize."

"It's fine, you're entirely allowed to, I just wasn't expecting it."

"Would you prefer that I tell you next time?"

"There might be a consideration like that that you'd want to know about - the guards aren't bad in this part of the city but it's still better not to get them involved if you can help it - but Greens isn't especially dangerous and you're not a child, I expect you'll be fine. If you mean to ask strictly whether I'd prefer it, though, yes, I'll worry less that way."

Nod.

"Anyway. We're here to rent some books." He checks his notes. "Gods, geopolitics or at least a description of some kingdom works, and chess, anything else?"

"Possibly some sort of introductory magic or spellcraft overview so I can notice any more discrepancies."

He nods. "Do you want general spellcraft, or just an overview of divine magic?"

"I'm not good at Prestidigitation but I do have it - but that's the only arcane spell I could shed any light on, so probably just divine magic."

"We can get both, I'd just rather not get everything at once if it's more than a few, there's no point in paying the rental fee while you're not reading them and they might get damaged on the road if we're not careful."

"Understood."

Raafi nods acknowledgement and approaches the desk, warning the librarian first that he might want to get a couple of extra runners, since they want things on diverse topics. "So we're looking for an interested layman's overview of the major gods, how they work, what their domains are, that kind of thing. If you have something similar on major foreign gods I'd like to know about it but we won't be renting it today."

"Then next we want a book on - correct me if I'm getting this wrong - the political situation between the countries and cities in this region, or failing that the same thing for a different region, written as recently as you have, or if you don't have something like that from within the last thirty years, we want a book describing how one country is run, what the nobilities' responsibilities are and how the taxes are collected and that sort of thing - that one doesn't have to be recent, though we do prefer it, and it's fine if it's about a non-human civilization as long as it's a specific one and not just an overview of the species. And no gnomes," he adds as an afterthought, and pauses to give Blai a chance to object to his description.

"- if your gnomes are like ours I agree."

"No idea, but ours govern themselves at the town level, they rarely have cities at all, it's interesting but not what you're looking for. Anyway. Next we want a couple of books about chess - I want a pamphlet or something with the rules of cloud chess, and then something covering how to play all the different types, and I'm hoping you'll have something interesting in that section, ideally about actually playing. And, last, we want a detailed guide to divine spells, something that covers casting times and exact effects and things."

    "Yes sir, give us ten or fifteen minutes." And he sends the runners off, in some cases to get specific books and in others to ask the librarian heading the relevant section for a recommendation.

"- one of the spells I can catch is Scrivener's Chant, if that matters."

"I've never heard of that one."

"Copies text, about a minute a page."

"That does sound handy. I'll have to get you some paper before we go."

"Is everything just hand-copied here?"

"Mmhmm. You'll be able to make good money that way if it's how you want to spend your time."

"Money isn't my main object but it's good to know."

"Mmhmm. So what's the thing with your gnomes, I'm curious."

"- being bored kills them, is the short version."

"Well, I'm not surprised the word translates that way. Ours are mortal in the same way as everyone else, but they have no taboo at all about asking questions and consider it rude not to answer."

oh no he's not allowed to lie "That sounds like it'd produce similar behavior."