✅ The blacksmith and the artist reflect it in their art

[Sliucha Sindosa]

Moonstone had printing presses.

And that was something pretty much nowhere else in the Empire could currently claim to be true. Once upon a time, there had been an institution known as the Herald, a news organization that had been available through the Empire, that had been able to produce the quantity they needed through the large number of printing presses at their disposal. But when the city of Medonia that they had been based in was destroyed by the Xet, so too had been destroyed almost the entirety of the existing printing presses on the continent.

Were there others out there? It was entirely possible. But they remained incredibly rare, and certainly nobody had managed to scale anything up to the levels of production that the Herald had once been capable of. It hadn't taken much for Sliucha to realize the value of what she had been handed, when one of her subordinates had delivered to her the design schematics for one...

...to her credit, the first thing she'd done with it had been to use it to further invest in Moonstone's educational programs, a printing press helping churn out the school books and other educational material for the newly-minted Schola program. Okay? That was what Moonstone's first printing press had been put to use for! It was a very prestigious and good thing! (Now let's ignore that the next two were currently pumping out raunchy smut booklets, which, to be fair, were raking in some good revenue.)

But that was essentially three state-owned and operated printing presses. And while Sliucha was sure that there was plenty of good that could still be found going down that particular approach, part of her wondered whether there was something beneficial to be found in offering those services to the public - at the very least, the service of "bulk production" that an individual might not otherwise have access to. Because without a printing press, that was an awful lot of scribing to be done! That was time and effort and people to be (presumably) paid!

Of course, things would need to be simplified quite a bit. Streamlined. Rules would need to be figured out. But ultimately it didn't seem like a terrible idea. Because even if things were organized and it turned out that there wasn't all that much demand, all that it meant was that Sliucha had... a fourth printing press around with capacity. And she always had plenty of ideas of her own. So in other words, it was a matter of making something for herself, and oh, if other people were willing to pay to use it, that'd be nice too!

In any case, it was best to start simple for now. Get some of the concepts down before committing to anything concrete. To that end, Sliucha would see if she couldn't send some missives out to staff and see if there weren't old copies of the Herald scattered about that could be collected, one way or another. Surely they existed, even if the newspaper had been out of print for a while? It felt like, given the relative success of the Herald, it'd be good to get a good look at one of the editions and try to get a good idea of what their printing process had been, as an example of something that had been done "right." After all, if somebody had already figured it out... why ruin a good thing? The way that the existing presses did it was pretty customized, after all - whereas the Herald had been more about the "churn" of content, which was likely what they were after.

 

[Lei'gen Zylralei]

Stop the presses! Modplan's been approved, let's get this show on the road!

Simplicity is, of course, the foundation on which all great endeavors come to fruition. Even the most complex of mathematical equations that tick-tick-tick away in the brains of scholars ultimately, when the layers are peeled back, come down to the simplicity that if you have 3 beans in one hand and 2 beans in another, then you have 5 beans total. This endeavour, of course was no different.

Certainly, figuring out what The Herald looked like, would be the first tentative steps to figuring out how The Herald had been printed. Unfortunately, time and war, which cruelly brings rock to ruin, was crueller still upon paper (and also gave scissors a thorough beating). The replies from staff turned up rather empty, no-one appeared to know the locations of any old copies of The Herald, excepting one unhelpful suggestion that perhaps if they searched the outhouses in the lower parts of the city thoroughly enough there might be some scraps still hanging from a bit of string somewhere...

However, near the bottom of the stack of replies, Sliucha would find one which read:

Governor Sindosa

* Please forgive if this is the incorrect title, Sliucha's CIR has many so I picked the first one with Moonstone in it

We regret to inform you that despite conducting a thorough search of our offices, we were unable to find any copies of The Herald. However, my late uncle was something of an amateur historian and he would often spend long days looking through the archives at the library in Ziel Aerca. Perhaps there might be some squirreled away there?

...

 

[Sliucha Sindosa]

Sliucha supposed she shouldn't have been too surprised. It had been several years since the Herald had been out of print, and one imagined that it wasn't as if every particular issue of the Herald was necessarily deemed worth saving. So, given the very nature of the newspaper itself, plus the fact that much of Moonstone was 'newly' established in the aftermath of the war anyway? It didn't feel like too much of a surprise they were having some difficulty tracking down any remnants.

Ultimately, it wasn't as if it were really a necessary thing. They had the experience from constructing the previous presses that were already in use, and it probably wouldn't have been too difficult to tweak them in such a way to get around some of the issues that Sliucha might foresee cropping up with a more 'public' offering. Namely, that the current designs used metal plates for content that ultimately didn't 'change' too much.

If you were printing school material, it wasn't as if math 'changed', you know? Each student, in each successive year, could be given the same numbers. As for the smut booklets, well, it certainly helped when you had an artist dedicated solely to the pictures that were printed there. And there were definitely plenty of re-prints based on the popularity of certain booklets. But that wasn't something that you would expect a random person on the street with a need for a poster to be made to have access to, and chances were reasonable that once that poster was printed that it'd never be printed again.

Sliucha did have some ideas on how the issue could be solved, but if they didn't have to put in that mental effort because somebody else had solved the issue - which, the Herald seemingly had because of how newspaper articles worked - then it'd save a lot of time and effort, right? And so ultimately, it'd be nice to receive

a response Fun fact, the correct title would still be "governor." A governess is somebody employed to teach children in a private household.

from a local who had a lead on the matter. In an era where the printing press was a rarity among rarities and most books had to be scribed by hand, Sliucha didn't have much personal experience with libraries. Were they the sort of institutions to hold onto this sort of material?

Well, time to find out! She'd see about making an official inquiry to the library in question to see if they might be able to help, and had any old copies or editions of the Herald available!

 

[Lei'gen Zylralei]

Generally speaking, a printing press was a printing press, whether it was producing sensational news, schoolbooks or smut, the operation more-or-less boiled down to some sort of die being coated in ink and pressed against the paper. The knack here, as Sliucha rightly guessed, would be figuring out a way to be able to produce such dies without wasting time and resources having to cast and carve a new one for every request from missing cat posters to adverts for "cart, lightly used, comes with covering tarp, rear left wheel needs a new spoke, 5 crowns OBO".

The inquiry took a little while to reach the library, but the reply came nonetheless:

Governor Sindosa

In response to your enquiry, Lamentably our collection is a mere ghost of what it once was, so much was lost to the ravages of war that it makes some of our staff weep to think of the wealth of knowledge that will be lost forever. However, we are diligent in our procurement of knowledge and our archives contain a number of copies of past editions of The Herald that we have managed to obtain over the eras.

While I by no means insinuate that one such as yourself would treat such treasures of knowledge with anything but the utmost care, I must inform you that due to the fragile nature of these items, we simply cannot allow them to be removed from the archives. If, of course, you were to honour us with your presence, I would be more than happy to show you what issues of The Herald we have available.

Kind regards

Elias Parchment
Asst. chief librarian

 

[Sliucha Sindosa]

Oh, neat, so Sliucha just had to visit this 'library' place, sure!

There'd just be some... discreet questions asked what was appropriate attire for a library, with Sliucha having never actually been in one. (Formal? No? Casual was fine? But she was there on formal provincial business, so... okay, maybe like semi-casual then?) The concept remained rather novel for Sliucha, whose upbringing hadn't been conducive to learning how to read. It was only relatively recently that she had learned to read and write, mostly for purposes of business and politics, and so the idea of going somewhere specifically to read something that you didn't have to?

Fascinating.

In any case, Sliucha would make sure to send her reply that yes, she was more than happy to come visit the library, and scheduled an appointment with them as to when. Once the date and time came? Off the governor went, with her entourage of dorin bodyguards, to pay an official visit.

Let's library it up!

 

[Lei'gen Zylralei]

The Ziel Aerca public library: a squat edifice of red-brown stonework and tall panelled windows that sits unassumingly in a somewhat upmarket area on the fringes of the Central district. The outside of the building bore little in the way of ornamentation, aside for some scrollwork and fluting that adorned the pilasters that dotted the facade at regular intervals. Between two of these, in the center of the building's frontage stood a wide recess containing the main entrance, and a brass plaque on which was engraved the name of the establishment and the opening times. According to the charter, all were welcome through the large, weather-stained oak doors that stand sentinel at the entrance, however, in practical terms the library depended heavily on the charity of its wealthier patrons, and they had had a lot of input regarding it's location.

Sliucha's dorin would push open the heavy doors to reveal the main chamber of the library: a neatly organised maze of shelves that filled a space that seemed larger than the outside of the building should permit, each shelf filled with an assortment of books and scrolls of a seemingly infinite array of size, age and decoration, as though the sum knowledge of the entire continent could somehow be found within. Where space between the shelves allowed, tables and lecterns were placed beneath windows to make the most of the natural light that shone in from outside, catching sparkling upon motes that hung in the air that smelled of dust, paper, old leather and varnish. Sliucha and her bodyguards would not be alone in the library - a few people sat at desks, their heads deep in a book, or silently meandered between the shelves. A thick, yet comfortable silence hung over the library, pressing down upon the space like an invisible woollen blanket. If silence was indeed golden, then this silence had weight to rival the hoards of dragons.

In the center of the labyrinth of shelves stood a large, well-worn oak counter, every inch of it surface covered with piles of books and parchments. What was not covered with reading materials was populated with paraphenalia tied to its creation - inkwells, stamps, quills, and various other stationary. Encircled by this papery castle stood a human, perhaps fifty years of age. Salt-and-pepper hair crowned a wrinkled face. From a bone pipe clamped between his mouth trailed wisps of blue-grey smoke that twisted and rose to mingle with the hanging silence.

He noticed Sliucha's arrival, quickly removed the pipe from this mouth, put on his warmest smile and bowed deeply to the governer, beckoning her welcome.


OOC: Sorry about the delay in posting.

 

[Sliucha Sindosa]

ooc No worries! Don't forget to get your own thread up when you've got the time!

In summary:

Ooooooh.

Aaaaaaah.

For all that Sliucha generally wasn't the sort of person to be interested in reading in her spare time - because she had so little of it, and part of the reason she had so little spare time was because she was often busy reading paperwork, ugh - she could at least feel like she had a reasonable understanding of the grandeur and prestige of a well-stocked library. In a time and a place where you could count the number of existing printing presses on a single hand, you could feel the painstaking amount of effort that had gone into this particular collection. Plus, it probably wasn't outlandish to say that Ziel Aerca's library likely paled in comparison to that of the more major cities of the Empire.

Blessed be the humble scribes who plied themselves to this work, and recorded such matters for antiquity. Sliucha should consider making a donation sometime!

In any case, she'd bow her head in kind towards the man who noticed her, figuring that he was likely a staff member of the institution, although wouldn't presume exactly who he was just yet. Instead, she'd simply approach and introduce herself. "I am Governor Sliucha Sindosa," she noted with a light smile. "I had an appointment today to look over some articles kept here."

 

[Lei'gen Zylralei]

"Ah, Governor Sindosa, welcome to the library", the man put the hand holding his pipe to his chest and bowed again, forgetting for a moment the prescence of the pipe and spilling a few ashes onto the counter "Elias Parchment..." his eyes shot down to the smouldering ashes and he awkwardly swatted at them, trying to maintain composure, "at...", he paused to brush some more ashes from the counter,"...your service".

"I recall from our correspondense that Your Excellency wished to take a look at the copies of The Herald we hold in the archives?", it was as much a question as a statement of fact. Elias snuffed out his pipe and put it in the overflowing ashtray sitting on the counter - an ash-filled terracotta keep encircled by a polished oak moat before the land gave way to rolling hills of paper, "Is there any particular event Your Excellency is interested in? Our collection is a little sparse, I'm afraid, but I'm sure we can dig something up, we might even have a book or two on the subject somewhere".

Thanks, I won't

 

[Sliucha Sindosa]

"A pleasure to meet you," Sliucha noted with a smile as introductions were made. On to business!

"I'm not interested in the content of the articles so much as the layout," she explained her particular mission to the librarian. "I'd like to see if I could glean a bit about how they actually put together the articles - I know that the Herald was famous for utilizing printing presses, but I'm curious about how exactly they went about designing their prints, get some insights for the techniques they used."

Basically? Didn't need to look or search for anything, just give her the collection and she'd stare at them a bunch!

 

[Lei'gen Zylralei]

"Ah, yes", Elias tilted his head wistfully, "The Herald was a wonder of its day, fascinating, really", his mind wandered for a while, as though lost in memory. He shook his head, remembering where he was.

"Well, I must admit that many of our examples aren't in the best condition, but I'm certain we'll be able to find a selection that will reveal some of their secrets. Excuse me, one moment, and we shall head down to the archives".

Elias began to root about amongst the mess of the counter, disturbing piles of paper and sending them sliding to crash against other piles and setting precarious stacks of books wobbling as he searched. He flung open drawers with abandon and rummaged within, and at one point disappeared below the counter accompanied by the sound of opening doors. At last the frenzy slowed and he thrust his hands into his pockets and withdrew a set of keys upon a brass keychain in the shape of an open book, "Ah, here they are, in my pocket all along", he jingled the keys, from somewhere deep in the labyrinth of bookshelves came a frustrated "sssssshhhhhhhhh!". He shrugged mischeviously and opened the hatch that granted access to the interior of the counter and stepped out, closing it carefully behind him.

"Perhaps I can give Your Excellency a very quick tour of the library as we make our way down to the archives?" Elias walked between two rows of shelves that led to a doorway, opened it, and gestured politely to Sliucha to follow, "If Your Excellency would like to come this way..."

 

[Sliucha Sindosa]

And to think, Sliucha had never gotten the opportunity to properly read an article back when the Herald had been in circulation. Through no fault of her own, of course - at the time, Sliucha hadn't known how to read. Funny how much things could change over the span of a few years!

In any case, she'd just nod politely as Elias began to go about the process of figuring out how exactly to get the governor to where she needed to go. Over here, over there... mmhmm? Found the keys? Smile and nod! Very patient! Everybody had their process, after all, and it wasn't as if Sliucha were in a particular rush here. Presumably, anyway, it wasn't as if those articles were going anywhere!

"Certainly, if you'd be so kind." A tour? Why not! Now that Sliucha knew a bit more about the library, perhaps it'd be the case that she'd stop by more often. (Now that, you know, she did know how to read.) So, getting a bit of a better idea of the state of the facility couldn't hurt.

Following Elias, then. Onward! (Come along, bodyguards!)

 

[Lei'gen Zylralei]

"Wonderful!", Elias practically vibrated with excitement. The library was not the kind of establishment people took much notice of, unless they were a patron or had an academic interest, of course. Elias loved the library, though, he was proud of what they had built here and he loved to show it to the world. The chance to give a tour to the Governer of Moonstone? wonderful!

Before they stepped through door into the rest of the library, Elias paused and swept his hand in a wide, slow arc around the room, "Well, this is the main area of the library, where most of our collection is kept for access by the public, and there's plenty of space for reading. In fact, over in that corner", he gestured to his left, "Your Excellency's sunshine books take up no small amout of shelf space, although at the request of some of our more pious benefactors we did have to put the bookshelf behind a curtain. But here anyone can usually find something they are looking for".

Elias ushered Sliucha and her bodyguards through the doorway and led them down a corridor. At one time it had been a wider space, but now was narrowed by shelves, stacks of books, carts and boxes that formed a line along each wall, broken only to provide access to doors, "These are the reading rooms, which are available to hire for a small fee if one wishes more privacy or solitude while reading". They walked down the corridor for some time until they reached a stairwell. Ascending the stairwell he paused at the first floor and pointed to the doors that dotted the landing.

"This floor isn't usually accessible to the public", he opened a door and gestured to Sliucha to look inside, a functional-looking room filled with a mess of book-binding equipment and an assortment of other tools and ephemera, "this is our workshop, where we get our procurements ready for public display and do our maintenance and restoration work. You would be suprised how quickly a spine can wear out, especially if the book is in high demand". He pointed across the landing to another door, "that's the staff room, where our staff can take a break. Cornelius is probably taking his nap right now so we won't disturb him"

"And upstairs", he led the governor up the final flight of stairs and opened the door at the top, "Is the archives...".

The archives occupied the attic space of the library. The air here was stuffy, and almost felt like it took more effort to breathe. Sunlight streamed in from the regularly spaced skylights. "This way, please, oh and watch out for the dreaded cliche, they should be avoided", Elias chuckled to himself, "Sorry, old librarian joke". Elias led the way through rows and rows of shelves until they reached the part of the archive where they kept the copies of The Herald: a set of shelves separated into sections, each marked with a small paper label of the era. The shelves ended with a small table that sat beneath a skylight.

"Here is our collection of copies of The Herald", he sighed deeply, "It's such a shame that so much of it has been lost to time, it really was such wonderful work". He took a pair of thin cotton gloves from a box on top of the shelves and handed them with both hands to Sliucha, "Please feel free to take a look at what we have available, I must ask that the gloves are used to handle them, the paper is rather old and even after all this time, the ink does tend to come off on one's fingers". He smiled warmly, "If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask".

 

[Sliucha Sindosa]

Onward! Ooooooh. Aaaaaah.

An appropriate amount of effort was put into "looking engaged", a skill that Sliucha had built up over time through the innumerable number of meetings that she'd been in as a result of her position as governor. Not to say the tour wasn't interesting in its own way, of course - this was more or less Sliucha's first time in an actual library, and she was curious how it all worked, exactly. But it was also important to be able to channel that feeling into her actual facial expression and body language, and convey to Elias that specific point.

It was one thing to just passively follow somebody around, another to actually seem properly immersed in the experience. "Mhmm. Ahh! I see!" And so on, nodding, taking the time to look things over, and making sure that Elias knew that Sliucha wasn't just humoring him.

(One imagined, for instance, that the Sunshine Books and the reading rooms went together rather well.)

For instance, being shown the workshop when it wasn't usually accessible to the public? Make sure to look very honored about it! Sliucha'd even throw in a little bit of tails-wagging as she had a peek. "How much of a backlog is there, generally, for this sort of work?" Look, asking questions and everything! Giving Elias an opportunity and everything to be like, yes, there's a lot of work we have to do! We'd appreciate donations!

And finally, the archives! The Herald! The handling gloves! Sliucha'd make sure to get those. Questions?

"What hours does the library operate on? How long am I allowed to stay here?" Sliucha asked, as the first thing that came to mind. "Am I allowed to go over them here in the archives, or should I bring them to a reading room?"

 

[Lei'gen Zylralei]

"Well, we typically close some time around dusk, depending on staff availability, of course. But for an esteemed visitor such as yourself I'm sure we can stay open a little later". Elias thought of the rather splendid pie that awaited him in the larder at home, it will keep, he thought, it was rather exciting to have someone this interested in his work, or, at least, someone who wasn't also a librarian.

"Your Excellency is welcome to look over them here, or if Your Excellency wishes then there is a reading room free if one desires peace and quiet"

 

[Sliucha Sindosa]

"There's no need for that," Sliucha insisted, not wanting to keep the library staff later than usual, "I can always arrange another visit if necessary."

They were already doing her quite the kindness in making the content available to her. Imposing further upon the library just felt a little uncouth at this point. As for where exactly she should do this? That one felt just a little trickier. On the one hand, using the reading rooms felt like appropriate use of the facilities, and they'd be out of the way in case anybody else needed to use the archives. On the other hand? It didn't look like it'd be particularly convenient to move the copies of the Herald.

"If it's all right, then, I'd like to look over them here," Sliucha noted, slipping on the pair of gloves. If the articles were delicate enough that gloves were even needed, then it definitely felt like it'd be quite the trouble to move them over to a reading room. "If possible, could you send somebody to inform us when it's starting to get towards closing time, just in case time slips away from us?"

 

[Lei'gen Zylralei]

"Yes, of course, Cornelius is probably awake by now, I'll let him know", Elias chuckled, "You can set a watch by his afternoon naps, I don't know how he does it! please, excuse me a moment".

Elias turned, clasping his hands behind his back and made for the exit. As he walked away he seemed to fall into a world of his own, his pace slowed as he became lost in his thoughts. He mumbled to himself as he walked, even in the quiet of the archive his voice barely audible, accompanied by the occasional stifled bark of laughter. "still smell it, even now"... ... ..."good 'graver, he was"... ... ..., "wonder if the old boy made it". He reached the door to the archives and stepped through. He contemplated shutting it for a moment before deciding to leave it ajar.

Elias descended the stairs, the creak of each step loud in the silence of the library and faintly, almost out of earshot as he reached the first floor, a wistful sigh floated in the dusty air, "Ah, those were the days"

 

[Sliucha Sindosa]

Sliucha politely bowed her head at Elias' response, and as the librarian went off to inform Cornelius of the situation?

Well! Her people could situate themselves comfortably, as in the meantime, Sliucha would be going over the articles of the Herald before her. She'd carefully use the gloves and treat the material nice and gently, looking over the way that the Herald had formatted itself. Ultimately, what was it that made the Herald capable of mass production on the scale that it had done?

Even if you had many printing presses, the chokepoint remained the 'mold' that you printed. Theoretically, this was something that you could have a person scribe or draw, and in the cases of the printing presses that Sliucha was already using, time wasn't much of an issue. You rarely needed a textbook immediately, for instance, so it wasn't an issue for the educational materials that had a printing press dedicated to them. And in terms of art, it wasn't good to rush the artist, nor was there a need to regularly release new editions.

But if Sliucha wanted a public printing company, what they likely needed was a faster turnaround time, because now you were dealing with customers. People who might be working with a strict deadline, in which case, you needed to be a bit more efficient about things. Given the nature of a business, it would be good to be able to meet those sorts of requests. That sort of situation seemed to be a little more in line with the Herald's use case, where they were regularly publishing their articles.

What, then, was the secret to the Herald? Looking at this one, looking at that one, it felt like there was a uniformity to the letters that belied that it wasn't a scribe who was responsible... if something was just text, then... and if there were only so many letters in the common alphabet... hm...

...perhaps there was something to be said about the ink and the paper used as well? Hm.

There were definitely some good ideas to be had from looking at somebody else's work. But they were definitely only going to get so far like this. Obviously, they'd need to put matters into practice!

"Excuse me, would one of you be so kind as to fetch the librarian and let him know that we're done here?" Let's put these articles back carefully! It'd been good to look them over, and perhaps the Herald of old would be able to help with matters in the present day!

 

[Lei'gen Zylralei]

Sliucha was certainly on to something - When it came to printing large quantities in a short space of time, speed was of the essence, things had to be rushed out, there was no time to wait for scribes to carefully etch each page of The Herald and cast a mold, that could take all day and by the time it made it to print? it would be, well, yesterday's news.

There was a definite uniformity to the letters, even in the spaces between the words there was a distinct regularity. It was almost as if the pages had been assembled, rather than scribed on a single mold, perhaps there was a way that the molds used to print The Herald were pieced together?

And, of course, there was something about the paper and ink? Elias had handed Sliucha a pair of gloves for a reason. The examples in the archive were fragile, after all they were printed on pretty thin paper, and what had he said? "the ink does tend to come off on one's fingers". A book needed to last a long time, a book was an investment - the pages of a book needed to withstand the thumbing of an untold number of eager students.

Or an untold number of thirsty persons in need of titillation...

A newspaper? well that didn't need to last as long, news was out of date by the setting of the suns so did it matter if the pages ripped easily? or if the ink rubbed off?

Sliucha's dorin bodyguard returned with Elias in tow.

"Your Excellency's companion has informed me that one has finished? I'm glad to see the dreaded cliche didn't get you in my absence", Elias chuckled to himself and waved a hand, "sorry, old librarian joke."

He moved to the shelves where the copies of The Herald were stored, and a smile crept into his face as he noticed they had been put back correct and proper. Out of habit he fussed with them a little, adjusting the corner of a stack here, smoothing out a page there, not that the Governor of Moonstone had put anything back incorrectly - but he wouldn't have felt right unless he had done something.

"The Herald was such a fine example of if its kind, don't you agree?" his voice was wistful, a hand rested gently atop of one the stacks of papers, and his mind seemed to wander, his voice barely above a mumble, "Feels like it was just yesterday..."

Elias snapped back to reality with a cough "l do hope Your Excellency found what you were looking for amongst our little collection", then he politely gestured to the exit of the archives.

 

[Sliucha Sindosa]

It was, if nothing else, an interesting thought exercise. A potential method for Sliucha to use elsewhere, but also a means by which they could provide a service to the public. A bit more limited than what Sliucha's other printing presses were capable of, but hey! That was just because Sindosa Enterprises provided quality products.

Still, there were tradeoffs to be found. The simplicity of arranging together the letters... there was something there. But if they were going to give something to a customer, then it was still something that needed to hold onto that quality. One shouldn't peddle cheap rags to a customer, right? So, there were things that the Herald had done that could potentially be carried over, and elements that were irrelevant to Sliucha's use case. But were still good to know!

And knowing was half the battle!

"That is correct. Thank you once again for your assistance on this matter," she noted with a polite bow of the head, as Elias took some time to make sure that everything was put back to his liking. There would simply be more polite nods at the sentiment that the librarian provided, for all that Sliucha had never read a copy of the Herald in her life until just this moment, not really having been in a position to enjoy the newspaper back when it had still been in print. But... sure! Elias was probably right!

"I think I've gained some wonderful insights as a result of being able to go through these articles, yes," Sliucha smiled. "And through it, learned a little more about the merits of this institution. My time here has been delightful."

Right then, time to exit! Unless, while they were here, any of her packmate bodyguards wanted to check a book out of the library? (Sliucha wouldn't go quite so far herself, of course. With all the paperwork in her life, she was the sort to hiss at the idea of reading in her spare time. Books with pictures, now those were great!)

(...she was pretty sure at least some of the dorin knew how to read, anyway.)

 

[Lei'gen Zylralei]

"You are more than welcome, Your Excellency", Elias practically radiated pride, "we are but a humble institution, but very much pleased we could be of assistance". He dutifully followed Sliucha and her bodyguards to the main entrance and with practised movements opened the door for them.

Suddenly he snapped his fingers and shook his hand in the air, like he had just accidentally gripped the edge of a red-hot frying pan, then laced his fingers in front of his chest and bowed slightly, "How silly of me! almost forgot!"

Elias gestured to a now puzzled dorin bodyguard to hold the door before returning to the desk in the center of the main room. He quickly flung open the entrance hatch and began to rummage through the drawers. He retrieved something from one, grabbed a quill and dipped it into an inkwell, and scribbled on it. Flinging the quill down he hurried back to the entrance and, holding it with a thumb and forefinger of each hand at two of the corners, bowed his head and presented it to Sliucha:

ZIEL AERCA PUBLIC LIBRARY MEMBERSHIP CARD​ MEMBER NAME: Governer Sliucha Sindosa Approved: Elias Parchment

"Your library card, ma'am, plus two with the names left blank for your escorts", he raised his head and put on his warmest smile, "and if there is any way we can assist you in the future, please, don't hestitate to drop by".

With the Governer of Moonstone's visit over, Elias closed the door and returned to his post, lit up his pipe, and returned to his duties.