"I've studied this a lot on my own, too - I'm hoping to work on ley-theory once I finish my apprenticeship, probably at the Elgadhzi university. There's some books in the library that go into it more than just the equations."

"Ooh I'm gonna look at those."

He can recommend books! He doesn't remember every title he's ever read, but a few stand out, and he knows the more advanced ones he's read more recently. "And of course most recently published books have lists of references in the back - that's the universities' influence - so you can look through those. Unfortunately the library here isn't really complete..."

"Where can I find a more complete one?"

"One of the universities. The Elgadhzi university in Bajilda's famous for just about everything, or Khamar has a more engineering and math-focused course, and the Huicoa university in Madeza is known for magic. There's also a university in Frisland, in Holmsford I think."

"—I should make a list."

"There's a place that sells scrap paper, journals, and writing supplies in town, and the library has atlases, if you want to take notes on geography and stuff. I admit it's probably easier growing up here - I can't imagine keeping track of where everything is if I was new."

"It's—a bit strange to be somewhere that's not entirely made of geography."

"It's kinda technically bits of geography connected to each other? There's actually a pattern to it, I think - though I don't know, I'm not a cartographer or a navigator. Though I'll agree that the space warping is weird. The castle always gives me the creeps, and I've heard there's some fox-lands that're worse."

"I didn't see anything properly creepy—I guess some of it can be unsettling but it's mostly pretty cool."

He shrugs. "To each their own. I don't like the distortions, at all."

"Why not?"

"They're just disturbing, is all. Make me a bit dizzy, and I don't like looking at a place and realizing that the inside doesn't match the dimensions of the walls."

"Huh. Okay."

"So, anyways, is there anything else you're curious about in the castle? I think we've explored everywhere public... I can show you a few of the shortcuts, maybe."

"Ooh, shortcuts!"

There are shortcuts! It's mostly stuff like 'turn here to get to the kitchens/ gardens/ exit faster than the main path, especially when the main path's full of people,' though there's also a lot of servant's entrances and back passages (which you're really supposed to avoid using if you're not in a horrible rush, so you don't clog them up). Most of the shortcuts he knows trace from either the side entrance or their work space.

This is cool anyway.

"Do you know what's in the other parts of the castle? The ones we're not supposed to go to?"

"The outer walls are mostly offices, so for there it's pretty much mostly the higher ups who don't want to be bothered by noise. For the keep, I'm not sure. Not a lot of the servants have clearance. Though I'd guess a lot of it's defensive, and the lord probably has his own study and library and such. The keep does have a great hall we're allowed into on feast days, which is enormous."

"Bigger-on-the-inside enormous?"

"I think regular enormous, too - it looks like it fits in the space it's in, it's just improbably big."

"I want to see it someday."

"I think the next feast day is sometime in the next few weeks, though I don't really keep track of that kind of thing as much."

She grins.

"Anything else? Or it's getting kinda late, we can keep talking tomorrow or something."