Blai does NOT have a picture of the resource availability and the next-best applications of those resources to give Raafi an answer to the question he asked so he gave some information that seemed relevant and might inform the decision, and if it wasn't even relevant, Raafi should have asked a better question! "Thank you."

There's a shop with spellbook supplies and lower-quality blank books just a block from the library, and then the tailor's is off at an angle from the temple of Pelor; they can see the spire as they walk.

When they get to the temple and Raafi asks about getting Blai a private quiet place to do some scribing for an hour or so, they suggest he take a corner of the staff dining hall, it should be quiet enough this time of day.

That suits him fine. He sets up there, makes sure nobody's about to come in with a last-minute addendum, and starts scribing.

The dining hall isn't full by any means, but it's not empty, either, and he's the talk of the temple today. They're polite enough not to bother him directly even when they figure out who he is, but he might still notice that he's getting a lot of curious looks, or that his name is being mentioned.

yeah it would be impossible not to notice that but he can chant and turn pages anyway

Eventually someone more paladin-looking comes in, and points out when she realizes what's going on that they're probably distracting him from whatever it is he's casting. Which mostly prompts a round of speculation, but it's a quieter one.

That doesn't actually help at all because the less detail he hears the more he can make up six explanations for but he can still scriven so it's fine!

The paladin doesn't stay for long. On her way out she walks behind him, just briefly, and, wow, that must be the aura of courage he's presumably heard about.

That loses him the spell. He catches it and recasts it without comment.

She doesn't seem to notice.

The conversation gradually returns to its original volume, but now they're talking about all the people he healed and what they think they should do with the free time they now have; the faction that wants to take the opportunity to reorganize the hospital wing and tackle all the 'someday' tasks they've been putting off for it is the strongest, but doing more work in the community is popular too, and some of them have other ideas (reorganizing the bread cart routes, writing more lessons for public classes, checking what the orphanages and homeless shelters need to have done) and some think they should do more than one thing.

That sort of chatter is much more comforting background, to the point where he can skim the chess books as the pages go by one a minute.

Chess among the Common Species started with a general overview of what the game is, the rules common to all varieties and the pieces the reader will see used in the rest of the book. It's now explaining quartz chess, the simplest of the three forms that elves generally play, which in addition to nearly familiar chess moves has a magic system where each player gets three tokens they can use in parallel with moving a particular piece to generate a particular effect.

There's a similar kind on Golarion but instead of tokens it's markers you attach to a piece itself so it can cast cantrips whenever it moves! The tokens are an interesting limiting factor; it might be strategic to never spend your last one until forced, but then if you have two your opponent can surmise that you "really" only have one, and -

There's definitely a strategic element to it; the book discusses that, but only relatively shallowly, referring the reader to a different book if they want to know more.

Raafi comes back when he's midway through transcribing the rules to vine chess (bringing two of the same non-royal non-pawn piece next to each other lets the player retrieve a third from off the board, including captured pieces; the effect is supposed to be like an entangling vine) and sits across from him, making no move to interrupt.

Blai glances at him, lets the current Scriven run out, catches it, and turns.

"I'm not in a rush if you wanted to keep going."

"...all right." He starts up another.

Raafi takes out a little metal puzzle to play with; the objective seems to be to take it apart.

A couple minutes later another paladin walks past on his way to the snack buffet.

Why don't they turn it OFF! He grabs the orison again, catching his breath.

Raafi looks up from his puzzle at the near-gasp. "Are you all right?"

"The - I'm guessing paladin - startled me. Is it customary to just have their auras out at all times?"

"Ah. It's involuntary, yeah. Most people don't find it especially noticeable, it's a little odd that you do."

"Ours can suppress it and normally do unless they have an invitation to do otherwise, so I hadn't experienced it before today."

"Well, we can clear out if you'd like, I don't think we'll get far trying to ask them not to use the room." He stands. "Did it feel bad, or just startling? I'm trying to figure out if there's a bigger problem we should look into."

"It - didn't last long enough for me to form an opinion..."