The library was unlike any Felit?a had ever seen.


    What was surprising about the Nabrinja, however, was how little the interior looked like the exterior. The outside was ancient stone; even though it was in good shape, it looked old. Inside were gleaming and pristine white walls made of a material Felit?a didn’t recognise, but Meleng said might be some sort of plaster. Light emanated from the ceilings by a method that nobody seemed to understand, apart from it definitely being magical. In fact, Meleng’s suggestion that magic might have been used to keep the meeting place on Scovese from falling into ruin had turned out to be true, but the magic performed other tasks as well, from keeping it lit to keeping the interior much cooler than outside. Some of the magic had failed over the years. There were lifts that, in the past, would have magically moved people between floors. Now, it was necessary to use the stairs. However, most of the Nabrinja still worked as intended.


    Meleng had been asking a lot of questions about the Nabrinja and Scovese as a whole to anyone who could understand him but had not gotten many definitive answers. However, Adranaska suggested to Felit?a that they try the library.


    It had been two days since they’d arrived. She had not gotten to see Kindanog. Her mother had forbidden her from being present when he came. She wouldn’t even let Cerus be there, saying it was a meeting for her and the King only, though Felit?a suspected it was more out of spiteful anger that they hadn’t waited for the other ships to arrive before heading to the village. Felit?a had heard the Queen screaming at Cerus about the risk he had put himself, Annai, and Sinit?a in by not having an armed escort. Felit?a didn’t fail to notice that she was not included in that list.


    After Kindanog left the King and Queen’s apartment, Ardon came out as well. So he had managed to get in there. When she talked to Ardon later, however, there wasn’t much he would tell her, other than it was a fairly dry discussion about how the security and safety of everyone on Scovese was being maintained. The King and Queen didn’t get any say in it. Kindanog was just there to inform them of what was already the case. He did confirm, though, that the Volgs had agreed to stay inside the Nabrinja in their apartments on the top floor, except for limited excursions into the wilderness to exercise their wings. The Isyar’s apartments were also inside the Nabrinja, since the heat outside was potentially deadly to Isyar. However, the Isyar had not yet arrived.


    So now she and Meleng stood in the large foyer at the library’s entrance. It was in the first basement level of the Nabrinja, and was as brightly lit as the rest of the building. Half a dozen long white tables with benches on either side were spaced evenly across the room. At the far side, steps led up to a round dais flanked by a pair of marble statues, one of a man, the other a woman, each holding a book pressed to their chest. At the back of the dais, doors on either side led to other areas of the library.


    The woman held out a hand to Felit?a. “My name is Maneshka. The library can be confusing to new users, but I am happy to help in any way I can.”


    Maneshka’s mouth was not moving in time with her words. She was not speaking Arnogue at all, yet Felit?a could feel something actively trying to keep her from noticing that.


    “That’s amazing,” Meleng said, peering closely at Maneshka’s mouth. “I think I’m starting to notice what you’re talking about.”


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    “That has to be one of the most useful things ever,” Meleng said. “I mean, apart from those things that don’t quite work. Still amazing.”


    She led them over to one of the window-like panels and held out a hand towards it. When she touched the glass, it lit up, displaying words in large letters. It was difficult to read them, though. For a moment, Felit?a was certain they said Welcome to the Library of...something, but then the script was one she didn’t recognise, and then it was blurry. It continued to shift for a few moments before settling on the script she couldn’t read.


    “You can see now the difficulty of using the catalogue,” Maneshka said. “We cannot rely on the translation spell and have had to decipher the symbols ourselves. We have deciphered an extensive vocabulary, but it still takes time to find things.”


    Maneshka smirked. “We have been coming to Scovese intermittently for a few centuries. However, we started a permanent presence here a little over fifty years ago. The main purpose was to study the meeting place, but in order to have people here for long periods, it was necessary to establish a fully functional community, one that could be as close to self-sustaining as possible, so that the people here would not be reliant on shipments of supplies. The Great Ocean is treacherous and travel times are unreliable. I first came to Scovese five years ago as an apprentice, and I became a librarian three years ago. I spend six months of every year here, and the other six months at my home in Jugenja. Minus travel time, that is.”


    “I am not embarrassed,” Maneshka said. “A couple of months ago, a visiting mentalist had me saying things that would wither your ears away if you could hear and understand them. You ask nothing that I have not done before.”


    Felit?a took a deep breath and entered the Room again, but kept her eyes focused and locked on Maneshka. She identified both the Sanalog woman’s and the spell’s presences and, as she did so, Maneshka’s emotions began to flood into her more strongly—a mixture of amusement and intrigue, but also tired resignation.


    she was. There had to be a reason her enemies were calling her Will-Breaker, and a reason why mention of the name made Volgs like Agranim afraid of her.


    This time, when Maneshka opened her mouth to speak, Felit?a didn’t bring the walls straight in. Instead, she bent them, twisted them around the spell’s presence, gave it nowhere to move to avoid them. This time, Maneshka’s mouth moved and she heard the word.


    Felit?a grinned some more. She was starting to feel a little giddy, whether from the stress of her actions or from excitement, she wasn’t sure. She was definitely receiving a lot of excitement and wonder from Maneshka. Nothing from Meleng though. Was he even paying attention? No, he was still moving words about on the glass. The man Maneshka had been talking to when they had arrived had joined him and was demonstrating things for him.


    Felit?a nodded. “I’ll be fine. It just took a lot out of me. That’s all. At least, I think that’s all.” She laid her head down on the table and shifted positions so that she could still look at Maneshka. “How about the first word? How did I do with that?”


    Felit?a tried to shrug again. “I sort of know. See, there’s this room I form in my head and I move the walls of the room around. But that doesn’t really explain what I do. I don’t really understand my abilities at the best of times. All I can really say is, it wasn’t actually my skills at mentalism that let me do that, although I’m sure they’re probably related. Am I making sense?”


    Maneshka stood up. “I should let you rest. I will see how your friend and Nebrovich are doing.”