It was an exciting day for Booker. He woke up in his attic space bedroom like any other day, however when he went down to the library proper and started looking around, he discovered a large crate sitting in the side loading area. Mid yawn, he was briefly confused as he usually signed for the rare shipment addressed to him, then his excitement for new books overtook him and he rushed over to it. It wasn’t addressed to him so much as “Ritten Library: URGENT” so he immediately popped it open and started going through the contents.
It was a strange shipment, consisting entirely of primers to various subjects from sewing to butchery to magic even. He scanned each cover as he loaded them up onto a cart, thinking of where each should go in his little domain. Whoever this guy Dev was, he’d have to write him a letter to thank him for such a massive addition to his collection. Cart loaded with the first round of books, Booker pushed it out into the library and began his work categorizing everything.
A few hours flew by as he worked from front to back, ever conscientious of the people who visited his fine establishment. His work fugue was broken at this point by a shout of “Where can I find some magic?!” from somewhere up front. After a brief moment to collect himself, he started making his way up front muttering “magic, magic, magic” to himself. He poked his head out to see who his guest was, immediately deciding he was no threat to his beloved books in those basic work clothes he was wearing.
"uuuh… check row seventeen. There are a couple of introductory guides there.” Booker said to the man before heading back to his task. He was on the last couple of rows and wanted to finish up so he could relax with a book at his desk. He snorted at someone dressed like a common worker trying to learn magic and didn’t really hear the man speak again.
His task completed about twenty minutes later, Booker went to see if his guest was still around. Sure enough he found the man in row seventeen, however it was most certainly not one of the new primers in his hands. He noted the faded gold filigree on the cover and decided to speak up.
“Sir, that’s not the introductory guide. I believe that to be an advanced tome on the intricacies of summoning magic.” he politely explained.
“Is that what this is supposed to be talking about? Yeah, I saw your magic-for-dummies book down there. I’m just getting a feel for how [experienced casters operate]. Maybe it’ll fill in some blanks I’m drawing here when I get to it later.” the man replied.
“With all due respect, sir, I don’t believe that’s typically how learning works.”
“Well how do you know I’m not atypical?” the man asked with a smirk.
“I suppose I don’t, sir. Well, if you aren’t going to be using the primer, I’ll be with it up front. It just came in today and I haven’t had the basics available to make sense of that one either. I’m quite excited to learn magic for myself.” Booker said, voice growing progressively more excited as he kept talking. He made his way past the man, who simply chuckled and said “What a coincidence, I just came in today as well. Guess I’ll see you up front later, Mr Librarian.”
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“Booker.” he said. “And you are?”
“No shit?” the man said with a laugh while Booker’s smile began to strain. Seeing this, the man moved on by saying “Would you believe me if I said Archmage Sullivan?”
“The look of swallowing something bitter on your face while reading that book tells me no.” Booker said, pointing at the book in the man’s hand.
“Well, you can call me Jackson. Common enough name I won’t be tracked in here, I figure.” the man said.
“In the library? Well, I’d say you’re the only Jackson in here at the moment.”
“No, in the [...]” Jackson said. “Nevermind,” he said after seeing the blank expression on Booker’s face. “Good to meet you Booker, I’ll be coming for that book in a bit. Keep the pages warm for me.”
With the man named Jackson turning back to book four in the advanced guide to summoning and trying to make any sense of it, Booker did exactly as he said and returned to the front desk to start pouring over the magic primer.
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After finally giving up on making heads or tails of that stupid summoning book, Jackson made his way to the front to get that basic book from Booker. Heh. Once he rounded the last bookshelf, or first really, he spotted the young librarian poring over the tome with rapt focus and a look of dumbfounded awe on his face. He walked up to the desk, but the man didn’t seem to notice. With a knock on the desk, Booker's head shot up with a fright.
“How long have you been there?!” he asked, almost accusatory.
“Oh, just staring at that lovely face of yours for awhile now.” Jackson said with a grin and a flutter of the eyelashes.
“Not long then?” asked the librarian in a flat tone.
Jackson sighed. “No, just coming to see about borrowing that there magic book.”
Booker's face lit back up. “Oh! This thing is fascinating! I can’t believe it was that simple. Once you find the spark, you can do anything! Why according to this, I could just snap my fingers and-” SnapThud.
Jackson blinked a couple times in disbelief. The librarian, who had seemed so polite and in control before, just passed out at his desk in front of him. What’s more, his reading candle, which was previously out as it was still plenty light outside, was now lit.
“Uhm.” he said as he looked around for anyone to help him. With no one else around, he checked the man’s pulse and breathing, confirming that he wasn’t dead, at least. This got him his second new skill to start messing with, but he wasn’t concerned about that at the moment. Seeing as he was curious what the librarian had done or was so excited about, and having nowhere else to be since he was here to learn some magic, damnit, Jackson pulled a chair over to the front of the desk, turned the book around and began studying it himself.
Almost as an afterthought he turned his head and blew out the candle without taking his eyes off the page.