He grins.

Library! Language-learning!

It is such a good library and such a good language!

It is such a good language! Siva studies it, and reads a novel so she doesn't burn out on it, and keeps an eye on clocks, and at a reasonable hour (calculated from previous mealtimes, not from conventional definitions of reasonableness) goes to dinner.

The table hasn't had time to figure out her food preferences yet, but it still provides more delicious things than otherwise!

What a good table. She will help it with its learning curve and then go back to the library and read some more and go to bed and get up and have breakfast and go back to the library and so on. Schedules: useful.

The library continues to be full of books. The castle continues to be enormous and very pretty. She has only seen a fraction of it so far.

Hmm. True. And there's a question she's been vaguely wondering about for a while, and it's been a few days...

"Tanaikon."

It takes him a minute, but he shows up. "Yes?"

"Question about the library: is it okay to remove books?"

"Yes. If you leave one out for a year, it'll go back to its shelf."

"That's convenient! I've been thinking about exploring, but any given place has less value if I can't read there."

He laughs.

"Is there anywhere in particular I ought to see, other than the library?"

"Depends what you like. The place is big enough and I've been working on it for long enough that if I tried to list its most attractive features I'd probably miss a few. The ballroom is particularly lovely," he suggests.

"Ballroom?"

"It's never been useful in its life, of course, but I try not to hold that against it."

"Poor thing. Want to go put it out of its misery?"

He laughs. "Why not. Shall I fly you there?"

"Yes!"

He grins.

He takes her hand and they're in the wind. A dizzying trip through the castle later, they're standing in an absolutely enormous ballroom, looking up at a crystal chandelier the size of a woodshed. It sparkles with magelights.

!!!!!

"Beautiful."

"I'm glad you like it!"

"I do!"

She holds out her hands. "I believe we came here for a reason."

He laughs and takes her hands, bowing over them like - well, like someone whose courtly manners are centuries out of date - and then sourceless music fills the air, and they dance.