They stood in front of colossal blue doors so dark they looked black. Few strips of light filtered through the columns to illuminate the deepest of blues of the paint. Behind them Gren followed and offered an efficient tour of the city on the way to the Kliae–or religious square. Not being able to settle on a temple between the seven colossal buildings that lined the square and the many others that made up the surrounding roads, they arrived at the library. From the massive doors and many spires it was easy to mistake for a temple of its own.

The left door swung open to reveal a compact room inhabited by one desk, one lamp, and one person. Hardly the bibliophile’s erotic dream that she had expected.

“Welcome. Do you need something?” The woman behind the desk removed her glasses at their arrival and put away the book she had been reading. With each word she made a sign in the Deaf Language. Each swoop was graceful and deliberate.

Gren spoke up, signing along. “Thank you. We can hear.”

“Is this… is this the library?” Timbrelle asked.

“This is the reception. Patrons are no longer allowed into the stacks. If you would like to access the books I’ll need to know which books or you can tell me the research topic and I will prepare what I know to be related along with study guides. Either way, I will bring the materials to your study area. We have everything from Komomom’s Seventh Thesis to the recent travel logs on Isle Dimetrium.” It seemed that signing along with her words was a habit hard to break. She spoke with her hands, miming a stack of books and stacking more on top. If she could not say it with her hands she would illustrate it instead.

They bid goodbye to Gren, he was off to meet Trestovan with a promise to see them the next morning when they planned to go to the city guard. The librarian, Shorna, led them to an empty table in a room of mostly empty tables. A few people dotted the room at intervals that kept a comfortable amount of privacy.

“Now. How can I assist you?” Shorna asked, ever pleasant, ever swooping her hands.

“We’re looking for a god.” Timbrelle began.

Shorna’s face fell. “Oh. We don’t really do that here. If you’re interested in ‘finding God’ you’ll need to head across the Kliae to one of the temples.”

“No, not like that. We’re trying to identify a god based off a description. We hoped you’d know about theology in a way that’s a bit more… secular.” Timbrelle explained.

The woman’s face lit back up in an instant. “I wrote my thesis on tertiary gods which resulted in better-than-average knowledge of the whole Miasma. I should know it or be able to find it. Describe them.” She pulled a pen from her waistcoat and snatched a paper from the table. Once ready, she looked up at Timbrelle with a surprising ferocity.

“He was tall with no eyes, long black hair, and jewels poking out of his skin. Any ideas who that might be?” Timbrelle asked, hopeful.

“Yeah. I have a pretty good idea who that is.” She laughed to herself.

True to her word, Shorna wheeled a cart back within minutes.

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“This is only a small portion of an extensive collection on ‘Nerrus, The God of—‘ well, that part is hard to explain. This book,” she handed a leather-bound book embossed with gold to Timbrelle, “explains it pretty well. I brought nine books that will expound on different aspects of the topic if you care to learn more. I would suggest this one.”

Timbrelle accepted the book, trying to decipher the cover. “The God of the Jewel?” She read.

“That’s the tricky part! There’s already a secondary god that is well established as the jewel/gem/crystal god.” Shorna exclaimed with the feral excitement of a scholar in her element. She scoffed at their blank expressions. “This is very interesting, I’ll have you know.”

“This is a very large book, is what it is.” Adna observed. “We aren’t trying to date the guy. Do we have to read the whole thing?”

“Where do you think you are, ma’am? It’s a library.” A look of disgust crossed Shorna’s face.

Incredulity colored Adna’s face at being called ma’am. It made Timbrelle reach for her phone to take a picture. Predictably, her hands found only layer upon layer of skirt. Of course.

“You should get started. It is a very large book, after all..” With that, Shorna spun on her heel to return to her station at the front desk. They could hear her mumbling to herself down the hallway even after losing sight of her.

“I’m starting to think that you may have been a loner in your past life.” Timbrelle noted, flipping through The God of the Jewel.

“Damn… me too. Maybe it’s a good thing I don’t remember it.”

The afternoon sun cast long shadows into the library. Stained glass turned the library a vibrant blue that only intensified as they neared sunset. Adna had taken to her customary role of ‘tired dad’ by sitting, arms folded, eyes closed, emitting a reserved “hrrrr- tooo” with each breath.

Timbrelle looked over her notes, heaving a sigh.

“Any progress?” Shorna took a seat beside the sleeping woman across from Timbrelle. She spared only the slightest glance for Adna, scrunching her nose in distaste.

“Can I read you what I have? It doesn’t make a lot of sense.” Apology clear in her tone.

“Why do you think I’m here? This is my favorite part.” She planted her elbows on the table and set her chin in her palms. “I’m all ears.”

Nerrus was not, in fact, the God of jewels or precious stones. A prestigious member of the First with a more ephemeral jurisdiction: the aura of the stone. After getting to this point, she’d altered her course to a book called ‘Crystalurgy’ that detailed the technique of consuming gems and fusing them with your body. Repeatedly referred to as “the wealthy man’s god”, Nerrus required his followers to collect precious minerals, often tithing them to the temple. Worship was prohibitively expensive. Aurora gems were difficult to find and frequently eaten by the devout, meaning they were increasingly hard to come by. The book cited a sapphire aurora gem that had been gifted to the emperor by Nerrus in the tenth century. Even attributing the endless blue of Yost Proper to it and the kingdom’s untested ‘allegiance’ to Nerrus.

By the time Timbrelle finished reading her notes to Shorna the yellow evening light had dyed the library green.

“Very well done! A respectable study session. Did you reach the part where it details his fall from glory? Nerrus is the villain in nearly every other religion. There are a lot of reasons for why he’s been vilified but each sect teaches something different. So scholars can only hypothesize.” It was becoming clear that Shorna could have given them a class on Nerrus. Timbrelle suspected that she would not have been so forthcoming with information had they merely asked.

“I think that was the next section of The God of the Gem. I got distracted by Crystalurgy and followed it down a rabbit hole.”

“Crystalurgy is a famous and crucial aspect of his domain but definitely not the only part. It is more vague and there is little to be found about his other realms of power in this library, but it may be worth visiting his temple. I could give you directions, but you shouldn’t need them. You’ll know it when you see it. Just head south.” Shorna proceeded to give her the directions complete with a scribbled map and instructions to stop by a bookstore named ‘The Green Apple’ if they got lost.

As the last people in the library, Shorna’s words and movements were much louder than before. It wasn’t until she slammed her chair back into place below the table that Timbrelle realized the testy librarian was trying to wake their slumbering colleague.

Adna shot up at a kick to the shin from Timbrelle.

“Time to go, sleeping beauty. We’re going to church.”