"You know lots more about this stuff than me. I'm a pretty direct blasty sort of person. Don't like overthinking. Probably I can keep myself maid handing for people, or doing deliveries or something."

"Oh no! You've found my secret! When I'm not being bouncy and cheerful at people, I'm a nerd! I get obsessed with things and get lost down a wikihole with ease!"

"Direct blastiness is fun though! I'm a little envious. And I'm probably going to be doing the same sorts of jobs at least to start out, 'cause there probably are a lot of people who can enchant with rank one Runes."

"Someone's gotta keep the drinks full and the breadsticks coming, and someone has to make, uh, rank one Runes. We're someones."

"Yay, we're someones!"

"Seriously though, even witchy scut-work is gonna be more interesting than putting my English major to use writing nearly the same marketing copy for five different companies and editing poorly-written technical documentation."

"I never really thought much about office work but it's probably just as awful in its own colorful way.

Delivery driver? Lame. Being the girl from that old anime movie, delivery flyer? Game."

"Yeah! And maybe a luck enchantment on your broom would help with safety? I just need to figure out what the trick is for enchanting mothergifts."

"I hear colleges tend to have libraries. And textbooks."

"Yo, your turn's here, Lenora. Lemme go introduce you, and then I'll be right back, Archive's up ahead."

"Libraries! Also known as one of the things I'm most looking forward to about Arcadia!"

She waves at Lenora, then bounces on her heels while she waits for Ms. Only Nice Cop Ever to return.

She takes Sable to the archive and laughs off the archivist/receptionist's annoyed-but-not-hostile remark that it's a valuable O-R-C resource and eventually allows for a 'Level 1' lookup.

"You probably want me to build the search query," the librarian says. "What are you looking for?"

"Let's start with what the hell am I and how do I work?"

The librarian has a modern computer, but she doesn't use it for this. Instead, there's a big wall-sized tape deck sort of machine with thick bundles of copper wire trailing around and through in neat rows, cables trailing off it to more machinery in the aisles behind and to a softly glowing arrangement of crystals. She sets three dials - "SPECIES (WITCH)" "GENERAL INFO" and "LEVEL 1". Then types at an old box of a monitor for a good ten seconds. The tape reels spin and something chunk-chunk-chunks in the background and the crystals light up with a subtle flair of mana.

"The system's pretty old. It has, you know, quirks, like big old stuff tends to get. But it's magic all the way through, has lots of features we can't give up. Especially secure storage and security compartmentalization. Keeps the infohazards nice and need-to-know, and hardly anybody really needs to know."

She nods. "That makes sense. Modern upgrades are nice, but not at the cost of important features. Sounds like it'd be a bitch to replace."

Momentarily, the chunk-chunk-chunk stops and a concise printout emerges from a slot in the machine.

Sable reads through it quickly once the librarian passes it to her. "Huh. Y'all sure do take your containment seriously. I definitely learned a bit from this, though."

She pauses to think about her next question.

"That's just how this place is, ya know. Gotta have an answer ready even if it never gets used. They have an answer to me goin' off the deep end somewhere."

"Makes sense." Her right ear twitches to the side a bit. "Got any further details about how that resurrection works, or contact with other Inkborn who could tell me more?"

J makes encouraging motions at the librarian. 

Who rolls her eyes and starts working.

After a short time, a second printout noisily emerges.

Sable reads the abstract, carefully, taking it in with interest.

And then the knowledge suddenly slots into place, feeling viscerally right in a way she hadn't expected, like the fulfillment of three Chekov's Guns she hadn't previously noticed.

"Wow, that makes so much sense. I can kinda feel how it might work, now that I'm looking for it."

"Kinda weird that there are only two Inkborn y'all have contact with, though."