"Sounds good, then."

Bella packs up her bag, checks it for opportunist hangers-on, heads libraryward. "What works best for you when you're picking up a language?" she asks Annisa.

....Julian's gonna dive in here. 

"We were going to try syntax, actually. Since it's more math-y." 

"Cool, I think French is relatively friendly to that."

"Well, that's good. Honestly, I hate languages. The Scholomance has apparently decided it'll be character building. Or mana building. Or both. Julian has a theory I'll do better if I start with syntax cause it's practically math. - do you suppose it assigns horrible classes for the same reason we assign ourselves horrible exercises -"

"I guess that's possible but I think it's mostly for the spell catalogue. You need incantations even if you're doing alchemy or artifice, maybe you're going to need some in French."

"I wish it'd tell you how it did assignments, I feel like it'd be really motivating. 'There's a cool French spell you're going to want, get started', rather than -" Handwave.

"Yeah. It gave me the language I wanted, so I have no idea if it's actually going to be handy or if it was just like "fine, Old French, whatever".

"Well, divination hardly ever gives you the logic. And it's pretty interesting that it can do it at all, divinatory artifice is really rare." 

"They honestly did a very good job with this place. It's horrible but when I compare it to every other large magical working I've heard of - most of which are just mals, or way farther off target than this ..."

"Yeah, it's very impressive that the school is not a mal."

"So far!" 

"Well, two hundred years is a pretty good track record."

"When you think about it, it does consume our mana. Just – stably. And with fewer teeth." 

"If we stopped feeding it maybe it would go rogue."

"So, what are we looking for? Is there a language reference section, or do we just want French, or – ? 

"My father had a friend with a books affinity and all he ever did was sit around while the friend found things, don't look at me."

"I met a books affinity guy, I could look for him, but I have no idea how I'd find him any more than how I'd find French syntax books."

"Well, we can wander the aisles until we see one or the other?"

"Sounds like a plan as long as we double back often enough not to get eaten by the library."

They are not ultimately eaten by the library. Bella finds several French and Old French dictionaries and a lovely book on the evolution of French over time, and makes a terrific show of taking notes about where they live when they're at home and favorably comparing the dictionaries to all the other dictionaries that she isn't taking with her out of the stacks, and puts them carefully in the book pockets of her backpack so they won't be bent. (The textbooks share the main compartment; they will just disappear back to their classrooms if they get mad at her and that's a homework setback but not a permanent one.) She finds a Spanish dictionary too, in the next aisle, one from 1904 that is a little closer to what she needs for the Spanish Inquisition, and tells it that she appreciates its age and wisdom. She doesn't find a keeper Mandarin dictionary yet; she'll circle back for that another day.

There's space in the Atlanta/New Orleans reading room; at this time of year the seniors and their add-ons have cleared out and new add-ons are still being auditioned. (Bella doesn't say this; she doesn't want to be one of those enclavers who is clearly constantly conducting a series of job interviews, those guys are assholes. She just wants a place to study with these people she has a class with who seem all right and if things change later then she'll deal with that then.)

They agree to meet at six thirty the next morning at the stairs, to go down to the gym for some running.