The next play follows the same sort of plot, as promised; in this one the scout mistakes a gnome for a human child and is very concerned about him wandering around unsupervised, cooking his own food, feeding his neighbor's 'vicious' dog, and playing with fire and noxious chemicals that turn out to be a specialized poison to kill a giant scorpion the catfolk were worried about the 'child' meeting in the desert.

"I'm not sure I could tell a gnome from a hummun child every time myself," Zoi admits.

"I think once you're a little more used to what clothes look like you'll be able to tell that way. Even we don't get it right every time if a small person is trying to look like a child."

"Children wear different clothes? Why?"

"Childrens' clothes aren't always very different, but they're usually plainer, because children are more likely to damage them and grow out of them quickly. And there are styles that only children wear - all of our clothes tell people what our role in society is, and there are some roles only children have, like being novice students - even if an adult didn't go to school as a child and gets the opportunity to start when they're older it's not their role, it's just something they're doing, so they wouldn't dress as a student. And usually someone's job is their role, so if you see a small person dressed for a job that children can't do you know they aren't a child."

"What if somebody doesn't like the clothes that are right for their role?" Zoi says, contemplating non-catfolk plays.

"I think most people don't really care about clothes that much, unless they're uncomfortable or something. For most jobs there's not an exact uniform, we can usually find something we like in the right style."

"Huh." Next play, an intrahummun drama.

Intrahuman romantic drama, even*. Two towns on either side of a stretch of fertile land are rivals; a young man named Raamiz from one town is upset to have been rejected by a woman he wanted to date. His boyfriend Mashal ("that word means they were platonic boyfriends, it isn't a serious relationship," explains the prince) talks him into sneaking into a dance in the other town to take his mind off of her, and at the dance he's smitten by one of the girls he sees; they dance, she likes him, they kiss. Someone calls to her from across the dance, and he recognizes the name, Jaleela - she's not just a resident of the town that rivals his, but the daughter of the town leader. Raamiz panics and tries to leave, but Jaleela's brother Tabaas recognizes him on his way out and tells her who he is.

Raamiz sneaks into the garden behind Jaleela's house later that evening, and overhears her talking to herself, trying to decide what to do about how much she likes him; he shows himself, and they talk, and agree to date. ("That's the word for serious dating, not that there's any other kind between a boy and a girl, really.") They sneak off into the night, and visit a priest of Shonles for advice; he's surprised, and tells them that the only way to stop their villages from keeping them apart is to get married, which they do right then.

Jaleela goes home, to keep her parents from realizing what's happened while Raamiz prepares things for her to move to his village with him. Raamiz and Mashal go back to her town that evening, with the intention of sneaking Raamiz into her room for the night; they encounter Tabbaas, who is still angry about Raamiz sneaking into the party and wants to fight him. Mashal tries to take his place; Raamiz tries to stop Mashal by getting between him and Tabaas; Tabaas stabs Mashal through Raamiz's interference, killing him; Raamiz, enraged, attacks and kills Tabaas in return, then flees. Jaleela is told about her brother's death, and recognizes Raamiz's description by someone who saw the altercation; she's upset to be married to the man who killed her brother, but decides to stay loyal to him. Raamiz returns to Jaleela's house later that night, and sneaks in to spend the night with her, leaving without being spotted before dawn the following morning.

Tabaas' funeral is later that day, and Jaleela goes with her family to bury his body. On the way back, her parents are discussing hiring someone to kill Raamiz; Jaleela, uncomfortable, wanders off from the group slightly and is bitten and badly poisoned by a snake. Her parents bring her to a healer, who says that she will recover after a day of paralysis; they lay her out on Tabaas' viewing table to keep watch over her while she's incapacitated. Raamiz sneaks into the house in the middle of the night and, finding her apparently dead, gives a short speech and stabs himself. Jaleela, making a herculean effort, rises and cradles Raamiz's body, crying over it before taking his knife and stabbing herself.

In the morning, Jaleela's parents find both of them, and the town is abuzz with rumors; the priest hears them, and goes with priests of Adnauk and Chahu to explain to the family what happened. The priest of Adnauk points out that it was all caused by the feud between the villages, and the priests and the family go to Raamiz' village to explain the situation to his family, at which point the villages agree that they are joined by marriage and will stop their feud.

*tl;dr it's Romeo and Juliet

Zoi needs marriage explained to him and hasn't heard of all those gods and wants to know why the villages were feuding in the first place but likes this one enough to read it over again.

They can rent it, if Zoi wants to take it back to the palace to look at later - that does cost money but not so much that it matters, really, unless he's going to want to bring a whole lot of things back.

He'll borrow this one to re-read and discuss with the others, then. Is there time to look at one more?

Maybe not if there was anything else he wanted to do before dinner, but otherwise there's time for one more if it's a short one - does he have any requests?

"Do you have a favorite?"

He considers. "Not really, in fiction. One of my ex-boyfriends had a favorite you might like, though."

The book he brings out is a compilation of stories told to the author by quese'en, a local species of monstrous humanoid, about their adventures traveling through the desert and exploring old, often trapped or monster-infested, ruins they find. It's not considered reliable, and some of the stories are obviously false, though there may be some truth to some of them; in any case the tales are well-told and gripping, whether they're running from gnolls, punning their way past a sphinx, puzzling out the equipment in an abandoned laboratory, or using scavenged magic items in unexpected ways to defeat mundane - or less mundane - obstacles.

There's a drawing of a quese'en in the front of the book; they look much more like Zoi's species than humanoids do.

Zoi lingers over the picture a bit, and likes the stories all right but not as much as the romance play.

"Quese'en come pretty close to the city sometimes, we could put word out that we want to be told if anyone sees them if you'd like to meet some."

"I'm not sure I have anything to say to one besides 'hello, you have six limbs, so do I'," says Zoi.

"That's fair, I don't think you have very much in common besides that. Do you want to bring this one back too?"

"Nah."

He sets the book and other scrolls in a tray to be put away by library staff, then, and brings the one Zoi wants up to the front desk to put down a deposit on it, and they can head back to the palace.

Diviner Aatika has come by while they were gone to work with the others on magic again, but they're wrapping up for dinner themselves by the time Zoi gets to the ballroom.

Uamok tucks the book into their nest while they go to the dining room.

The royal family is all there, and Raafi, and ambassador Ambata, and this time in addition to Reedbearer Amaani and Sandkite Fahami there's a third priest in a brown robe who introduces herself as Serir Farhat, priestess of Chahu the goddess of the desert sands. The dishes on the table are less heavily spren-themed, today, though there's of course still plenty for them, even with how the ambassador is contemplating the dish of raw cuts.

They pile their plates with reasonable amounts of spren for the boys and ten times that much for Uamok and tuck in and listen to surrounding conversations.

Most of the others at the table glance over to see if they want to talk, but start their own conversations when they don't seem immediately interested - the king begins talking to his elder children about the upcoming ball and what to expect of the various nobles during it; their discussion is full of names and light on context, and almost entirely impenetrable. Raafi and Prince Maziar tell Serir Farhat about the races, while ambassador Ambata gently teases Princess Sahar about her flute-playing and diviner Aatika tells Reedbearer Amaani about some concerning tracks she saw on her scries. Sandkite Fahami seems more interested in the food than the conversation, at the moment. Druid Suhail, though, asks whether they're looking forward to the ball.