"It's surprising how they manage to do anything at all! Like keep this place secret, or steal all those books. They have these odd flashes of competence sometimes. Maybe they're demonically inspired."

"...Do you know where they were stolen from?" Because Lucette might be obligated to give them back. 

"Not for most of them. A few have the Blackwing Librarium's stamp on the flyleaf. Some have dedications, I didn't bother memorizing those. Or scribe's names, the owner's heraldry, all kinds of - peripheral parts." He waves his hand dismissively. "The almanac by pseudo-Zacharius claims to be from his personal collection, because of course it does, and that's in Estrod..."

"So this is a magic sword? And it has a name? Why'd the cultists lock it away and not use it?" At first Lann thought it was another sword that burned the unworthy, but the librarian picked it up without any trouble.

"It's not just a magic sword, it's the sword of the famous paladin Yaniel! It was lost when she fell defending Drezen, decades ago, but there are legends of it, in her hands it would light up the battlefield and smite demons and inspire her allies. There's a replica in the museum in the Tower of Estrod, and in all the statues of her, it's really distinctive."

"It looks like a regular sword to me. Did you spend your time memorizing a replica of a Second Crusade sword like it's your family heirloom?"

Seelah flushes. "It's - she's worth it. Yaniel is a hero, and I - really admire her for what she did. Even details like the engraving on her swordhilt are worth committing to memory if it helps me keep her example in mind!"

"But why's it here?"

"That's a good question. It was lost along with Yaniel, of course, when Drezen fell..."

"It could be another replica, a magic one. But making a magic sword as powerful as Radiance is very expensive, and a lesser copy wouldn't be a good replica... I wonder what they planned for it. Mister Librarian, do you know?"

"It was here before my time, and I never heard them talk about it except in the context of hiding it away." He is peering at it with his own detect magic. "The aura is complex, and strong..."

"I got Abjuration and Evocation off of it, and not Illusion, which means that at the very least it isn't an ordinary sword disguised as a magic one." 

"If we could be sure it's not cursed or otherwise a trap, Seelah could use it. If it looks magically normal, and was 'only hidden away'... to be honest, that just makes me more suspicious. It's probably best not to try to use it until we can have it looked at by an expert wizard - no offence intended, Miss Wex! Or until it's a life or death fight, anyway. It might even be a trap triggered by a paladin touching it." 

"It doesn't detect as evil..."

"Neither does a fireball."

"Or a giant centipede. Anevia has more experience than the rest of us put together." 

Seelah really just wants to hold it before it's handed to someone responsible and competent like Irabeth that's very uncharitable of her, and is not the way to follow Yaniel's example at all.

"You're right, of course."

Then Anevia will carefully wrap it in a cloth, scabbard and all, before putting it away in her bag.

"There's one more door we haven't opened, besides the one leading upstairs. In the room with the earth elemental."

"Do you know what's in there, Mr. Librarian?"

"Another room... nothing of interest," he says dismissively.

"What kind of nothing of interest?" Because, like, she doesn't actually trust this guy not to define "nothing of interest" as "not books."

He has to think about this for a few seconds. "Some kind of storage? Spare glaives, stuff like that... Oh, and caged lizards, I think someone was raising them for the meat."

"Spare glaives might be useful later but yeah, not a priority right now." 

 "We're leaving it alone then? If there's even a small chance the children are in there..."