The library of Cytherea was nothing like the hallowed stacks of Helio. It had books, just as well as Helio did, and perhaps even as many, but where Helio's were lined on shelves that covered almost every inch of available space as far as the eye could see, with the exception of aisles, Cytherea's books lined the walls on shelves that seemed to disappear into the sky. This left the floor space free. Various tables and chairs had been set up in that space, clustered in pods that seemed geared more for socializing than diligent study.
"It's so loud," Takayoshi complained as his eyes swept the room. He had never seen so many people in a library before. He supposed he should be excited about that prospect, all these minds sitting together, learning, but it made something anxious stir in his chest.
"What?" Claudia looked around, frowning, and then she laughed lightly. "Yeah, I guess it is compared to what you're used to. They like to discuss what they read here."
"Why?"
"I suppose it makes for better understanding of the text? Or maybe it's less about reading and more about being seen with a book." Claudia shrugged. "I don't really know, Cytherea is just kind of like that. You've never been to Venus' kingdom before?"
"I have. When we visited we were here on court business."
"Well, that's a shame." Claudia left his side to head toward a long cabinet of drawers tucked into an alcove. "Archive. Archive. Archive," she muttered softly, her fingers flipping through the little cards in the drawer.
Takayoshi followed behind, his eyes still drifting occasionally to the people in the center of the room. When Claudia seemed as if she were not going to explain herself further, he asked, "A shame?"
"Huh?" She looked up from where she had begun a small stack of cards. Her dark eyes followed his gaze to where a group of teenagers was giggling over some text, each leaning heavily on the table so they could get closer to whisper to each other. "Oh. I just think the best way to learn about another culture is to see how they interact with books. It tells you something about them to see how they treat knowledge."
"Explain." Takayoshi let out a soft breath, ignoring the way his brow creased in the center. "Please, explain."
Claudia's mouth twisted into a smile, her hands falling limp on the drawer she had been digging through. "Well, in Helio they treat all the books with kid gloves. Not actual kid gloves, but you get the idea. Books are a solemn, sacred thing, and in the library there, people are the afterthought. The library is for the books, the people are just visiting."
"That is how libraries are supposed to work."
"According to the people of Helio, yes. But in Hermes we don't even have places for people to sit amongst the books. You go in, borrow what you need, and leave. Books are a tool, nothing more."
"What if they are damaged?" Horror clawed at Takayoshi's throat. "Or never returned?"
Claudia shrugged. "Then we have to make another copy from the vault. We keep an original there that only the librarians are allowed to handle."
Takayoshi nodded, letting out an easier breath. "I see. And here, they discuss?"
Claudia looked back out to the crowd of people huddled around books in the main room. "Yeah, in Cytherea, they discuss. They sit around and theorize about what they've read, or gush over the characters in the stories. It's actually kind of nice. It makes reading less solitary."
"Hmm." Takayoshi hummed. He scanned the group closest to them, a handful of older women who all seemed to be reading a copy of the same book while drinking from goblets of wine. Every once in a while, one of them would say something and the others would laugh and discuss whatever it was. Claudia was right, it was nice. Companionable in a way he had never thought of reading before. He supposed this might have been what it would be like to study alongside Cricket and Ignacia. Forever sharing ideas as they made their way through their research.
"All right, let's go grab these and get started. There are probably more, but I think this is a good start. Let's see if we can find a table, and then I'll start gathering these. Their filing system... leaves much to be desired. I think it'd just give you a headache, so let me handle it."
Takayoshi followed behind her and they made their way through the room of softly chattering people. The only available table was in the back corner of the room, tucked behind a large palm, which suited him fine. It provided some measure of privacy, at the very least, and muffled the din of the rest of the room.
Claudia dropped her satchel into a chair, and then flitted off with her little stack of papers to find the books.
They had arrived in Cytherea early enough that they had a full day of research ahead of them. So, Takayoshi unclasped his cloak to hang it on the back of one of the wingback chairs around the small table, and made himself comfortable. He pulled a leather-bound journal from his traveling pouch and opened it to the blank page marked with a pencil.
Claudia returned a few minutes later with a stack of books tucked under her chin. She slid them onto the table and then dropped down into the other chair.
Without a word, the pair got to work.
It was well past supper time, and the library had grown quiet. In the weeks that Takayoshi had been in Cytherea, he had learned that he preferred the late evenings when the only ones left in the library were himself, Claudia, and a smattering of other scholars.
It would never be as quiet as the library of Helio, but the soft buzz of conversation was far less distracting when there were not as many people adding to it. He had learned as they researched that while complete silence like in Helio's library was distracting, the constant buzz of chatter of Cytherea was also distracting. He had begun to wonder if it was less about the noise level and more about the person making the noise, but he supposed he would never know. As once he had severed his ties to Cricket, they would likely never see one another again.
"What are you thinking about?" Claudia asked, pulling Takayoshi from that morbidly sad train of thought.
Takayoshi looked up at her, brows raised slightly in question.
"Your face was doing a thing. A sad, longing thing." She gestured vaguely to his face. "So what was it?"
Takayoshi shook his head, and turned his attention back to the page in front of him. The words were all starting to blur together from hours upon hours of reading, but so far, they had found little more than legends and lore about the archive. Plenty about what sort of information might be housed there, and the dangers of the protections put in place to keep just anyone from stumbling upon it, but nothing to indicate where they might find it.
"Is it the prince again? I told you we should have just stopped in to say hello. Honestly, if I'd known it would make you less sulky, I'd have dragged you there myself."
Takayoshi did not answer, because he did not lie, and telling Claudia that it was not the prince, would be a lie. A bald-faced lie, not even a little white one.
"Maybe you should try writing to him. I'm sure he misses you too."
"If Cricket wished to speak to me, he would be in contact." And that was all Takayoshi would say on the matter, for that was all there needed to be said. It was true, if Cricket truly missed him, truly cared for him, he would write. There would be nothing in the world that could keep him from writing. Thus, he must not want to be in contact.
"I'm sure he's busy, Yoshi."
"Who's busy?" A voice asked from behind the large fern that separated them from the rest of the library. The leaves rustled and then a head popped through them. The person had wavy hair, cropped just above their shoulders in a light grey shade that may have been light brown, or blue, or even green for all Takayoshi knew. "Ah, so the rumors are true then."
"What rumors?" Takayoshi frowned, watching the head disappear as the person moved to come around the plant and into his and Claudia's little sanctuary.
"Why, that the prince of Helio was here, rooting around in my library, reading..." They leaned over the table, flipping the pages of the book in front of Claudia. This close, Takayoshi could make out familiar features, and his memory supplied a name, Prin Estia. One of the children of the Cytherea royal family. "Fairy tales? Why is the prince of Helio here reading fairy tales? Don't you have those back home?"
"It is for research purposes." Takayoshi shifted his arm so that it was covering his notes. He was not sure why, but he did not trust Estia, never particularly had. The second child of the royal family of Cytherea had always seemed flighty, and flippant to him, and too prone to gossip. Not the kind of person he wanted to find out that he was searching for an ancient archive that may not actually exist.
"What kind of research?" Estia leaned against the table, lazy and relaxed like a cat stretching in the sun. "Are you writing a treatise on kingdom mythology?"
"We're looking for the archive," Claudia blurted. Her hands flew to her lips a moment later, covering them as if the words had left her of their own accord. Takayoshi narrowed his eyes on her, and she shot him an apologetic look.
"The archive?" Estia tilted zir head, wavy hair falling into zir eyes. "The one in the myths?"
Claudia nodded, her hands still over her mouth as she looked guiltily at Takayoshi.
"Now why would you be looking for that?" Estia's eyes narrowed as ze looked at Takayoshi, calculating, assessing. Takayoshi did not like that expression one bit, especially when it was leveled at him.
"It is..." Takayoshi felt the truth press against his teeth. He swallowed it down, on a loud gulp.
"We just find it interesting," Claudia finished for him. Her hands had fallen away from her mouth to rest on the table in front of her. The only sign that she was lying was a slight twitch of her thumbs against the wood, as if she were stroking it to soothe it.
"So you aren't trying to find it then?" Estia's brows rose, zir head tilting to one side in interest. "Because if you are, you're looking in the wrong place."
"How so?" Takayoshi's fingers twitched where he had tucked them into his lap so Estia could not see him clenching his fists.
"My darling brother—" an expression passed over Estia's face at the words, but it was gone too quickly for Takayoshi to discern what it meant. "—had all mentions of anything truly powerful removed from the main library, and put into our private library."
"Why?"
Estia shrugged. "Who can say why Crevan does the things he does. I just know that shortly after my parents died all mentions of the powerful old magics were pulled from here and given a home amongst the dark magic books in our private library."
"How do we get access to them?" Claudia had leaned back in her chair so she could look at Estia better. She seemed to be assessing the young prin just as much as Estia was inspecting them.
Estia's smile was all teeth, more a cunning, twisted thing than a grin. "Oh, I suppose, if you ask the right people, that is. They may be able to give you permission to enter, for a price of course."
"And who would these right people be?"
Estia laughed, the sound high and sharp, cutting through the quiet that had surrounded them as the room around them darkened. "That's not the right question to ask."
"What is the price?" Takayoshi let the words out on a breath, his eyes not moving once from the lines of Estia's face.
"Ah, so clever, Prince Takayoshi. That is the right question." Estia leaned forward, bracing zir hands on the table so that ze could press zir face in closer to Takayoshi's. "I want to go with you, while you search for it."
Takayoshi watched Estia's face for a moment, wanting to see what emotions flitted through zir eyes, but there was nothing. As if Estia had buried everything that ze could possibly be feeling under layers upon layers of whatever cool, calm, indifference simmered on the surface. If Takayoshi was impassive, then Estia was reticent.
"You may come with us. But it will not be a short journey."
Estia pushed zirself back up to standing, clapping zir hands excitedly. "I wouldn't have it any other way, Your Highness." Ze winked.
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