"I'll see you, ah... maybe tomorrow? Don't know how long I'll take there," Zei tells Edmund.

"...yeah, of course."

Quick hug?

Quick hug, with a small kiss behind his ear.

Yay.

Farewell Zei and company. Edmund... will go to the library?

Father Pell is here to show him to his room and then yes to the local library!

"You must not let that get to you," he says on the way, without looking at Edmund. "Summoners... have many responsibilities. Some of them like to be a bit of a spectacle, too. Give the people hope; give the people safety; give the people joy. I'm sure Lady Dona meant nothing by it."

"- that makes a kind of sense. I hope I wasn't - escalating."

"You are not a guardian, yes? But you are following a summoner. So you should know these things. But it is fine, no summoner will blame you for acting as you would."

"Good to know. ...should I be looking into becoming a guardian, at some point?"

"That is a question only you and your summoner can answer." He does look at Edmund, then, with some knowing in his eyes. "I do not presume to know your relationship, or how you came to Yevon from... wherever you're from. To be a guardian is a great honour, but also a great duty and responsibility. A summoner is to be the people's strength and support; a guardian is to be their summoner's strength and support. A summoner lays down their life for the people; a guardian lays down their life for their summoner. It is not a decision to be made lightly, and it carries many risks. If you would become his guardian, you will only exist in his shadow, and your name will only be said if his name is said first. And whatever you choose must be what you believe in, in your heart of hearts."

"Hmm. You're right, that's quite a commitment."

"It is," the priest agrees, looking up at the door they just got to. He opens it to show a small room with a low bed, a basin with a drain connected to the floor next to three water spheres, and a desk. Some fire-themed decoration compounds the fire-themed architecture, but it is clear this is a guest room to be used only sporadically and for not very long. "You may leave your belongings here, and I shall key the door to your soul. I can show you our humble library next."

"I... don't really have belongings, I came in rather a hurry and not entirely of my own volition. Feel free to key the door, though."

Edmund tries to remember if he has a soul. He's sure this must have been established at some point, right?

"Place your hand onto it, then, please."

Hand on door.

The priest touches the door, too, closer to the handle, and it glows warmly for a second. "It should be done." He hesitates, unsure whether ?⁠Al Bhed? have enchanted doors like that or only lock doors with their heretic machina, and decides to demonstrate it anyway by pulling the door shut and showing that he cannot then actually push it back open.

"Very good, thank you."

And the library is very close—the temple is not particularly large. It's not huge, but the walls are covered with bookshelves and there is another bookshelf splitting the main area in two, with one long table and many chairs to either side of it. There doesn't seem to be any explicit policing for book thieves or organisation, though. There is a desk at which a priest is seated, and that is probably the local librarian.

Books! Edmund thanks Father Pell and goes to investigate.

Books! The majority are indeed religious in one way or another, but many just in a background way rather than actual doctrine. There are a few books on magic, a few books on science, a few books on doing science to magic, a few books that intersect all three and talk about the afterlife, and then a bunch of fiction.

"- some of those look very interesting," Oni-Goroshi murmurs about the magic and science books.

"Do you want me to take some of them and put you on top of them."

"Yes." She points out a few particularly interesting ones.

And Edmund takes them, along with an interesting-looking novel, and lays her atop the stack while he reads.

A couple of people find the sword placement kind of odd but no one comments on it or bothers him at all. For several hours.

He gets through about a book and a half, in that time, then gets up to stretch. He hasn't just... sat down and read... in a long time. It's still pretty absorbing, as it turns out.