"Sounds good, thanks." And he'll head that way; from the sound of things Kiraavi's 'this evening' may well mean midnight or later, and if he's going to be up half the night he wants a nap first.

The Cat and Bird is an inn; it has outdoor and indoor seating for the people who are there to eat, and a big shade tree out front, and a very busy waitress.

He heads inside to see if there's other, less busy staff to speak to.

The cooks are also busy. There's a dishwasher in there who is humming a song!

What a strange setup. He'll wait for the waitress to have time for him.

She swings by him when she comes back inside from handing out dishes to the outdoor patrons. "Hello there welcome to the Cat and Bird how can I help you!"

"I'm looking to rent a room for a few days, am I in the right place?"

"Sure are, stairs are in the back!"

"Ah-ha. Thanks!" And what's around back aside from the stairs?

The stairs sport a sign: "Rooms upstairs - Innkeepers' Office First Left".

First left at the top of the stairs it is, then.

The door is propped open. "Hello! You need a room?"

"Yes please. I'm not sure yet how long I'll be staying, but most likely a day or two."

"Would you like to pay for one day or two at this time?"

"Is there a reason not to go day by day?"

"If you pay in advance we can be slightly more flexible about things like checkout times."

"That's fair enough." And he does have a long night ahead of him, doesn't he. "I'll take two days."

The price is reasonable and the room is small but clean. They seem to have a local industry of cunningly space-efficient furniture; he could fit a lot of stuff into this room if he wanted to, but not a lot of people.

What a clever setup. He writes up some notes on the day so far, including a sketch of the table's workings, and then copies out another set of notes to match the first; it's not traditional, but he suspects that Iabeltha is the type to appreciate the feedback.

That done, he takes his nap, and heads downstairs for dinner when he wakes.

The Cat and Bird is serving stew - beans, vegetables, and some little bits of egg - and bread and goat cheese. There are figs and dates with honey available too. Meals are charged separately from the rooms.

Stew and dates and honey sounds great, he's in.

It's pretty good, too! They don't pay a ton of attention to presentation but everything tastes great.

There's no complaints here.

After dinner, he heads off to have a look around town, particularly keeping an eye out for 1) anyone who seems discontent with their situation, 2) more examples of things being arranged unexpectedly, and 3) notebooks for sale. He doesn't personally need a new notebook just yet, but he bets they do nice ones here, and if so Kiraavi will want a stack to pass out to his priests and acolytes.

Notebooks for sale are the first thing he finds; the inn is just around the corner from a stationery store which also has signmaking boards and various paints and inks. There are cheap bulk notebooks and nicer individual ones.

And what makes the nice ones nice, are they just better constructed?