There's a rustle of wings and an owl twice the height of a man swoops in to land on the floor before the group.

"How rude," it says clearly, though the beak doesn't seem to move. "My classification system is beyond reproach, perfected over millennia."

She clasps her hands. "Wonderful! Every library needs a good classification system. I heard you have all the knowledge of this world?"

"Yes. Wan Shi Tong I am, He Who Knows Ten Thousand Things. This library holds all the knowledge I possess. The price of entry is that you add to it. Tell me something I do not know."

She pulls out her chosen books. "Three books, each from a different world other than this own. One is of the magic unique to its world; one is of the history of its own; and one is of the fears of its world."

Wan Shi Tong grabs the books out of her hand with a taloned foot and bends its head to peer at them, then tucks them underneath a folded wing. "Three books. Three persons. Acceptable. No food. No drink. No fire. No running. Nothing leaves the building." It spreads its wings and flaps off into the stacks.

"Hopefully that doesn't include knowledge," says Hisame, then makes as many clones as she can to start reading as many books as she can - faster than she can actually comprehend, since she can always review the sharingan memories later.

Can she figure out the organization scheme?

It's rather opaque. There's a bit of a subtle elemental theme in each of the four wings, and she's never really surprised to find a given book wherever it is, even if she couldn't have predicted where it would be a priori.

Well, she can easily assign one body per wing - her original body and three clones.

(How are her companions doing?)

The Keres is wandering through each wing with a ring of six open books floating around her, their pages flipping on their own. When one is finished, it zooms back to its spot and another comes out to take its place.

Eliko has taken several scrolls down from the Earth wing shelves and spread them out on the floor, and is studying them intently.

Then Hisame can keep track of the time while memorizing any interesting looking books, until it's close to time to head back.

Which it is, perhaps sooner than could be wished. Eliko rolls up her scrolls and puts them back. (She had moved on to studying similar ones from the other wings.)

And everyone can meet back up in the atrium.

Hisame is bouncing very delightedly! She also dismisses all three clones - no point keeping them out longer than she needs to.

"We definitely need to come back again sometime!"

"Yes. I like this place."

"So! Many! Books!"

Fortunately this civilization has few enough that Hisame can even start on reading a big chunk.

...Maybe they're not all bad.

"Let's go."

"As you wish."

Scoop and zoom back?

Yes. The sun is setting when they get back.

"Dinner and breakfast are included with your rooms."

"Thank you. Do you want to talk with us more tonight? We can tell something of ourselves, since you've been so helpful."

"...All right."

Sounds like story time over dinner, then!

Hisame is as vibrant and engaging a story-teller as ever.

She will perhaps coax a small smile from Eliko with some of her stories.

She's willing to count that as a success!

The Keres shares a trimmed version of her tale.