Passersby crisscrossed around Iris where she stood on the sidewalk and gazed up at the slender, three story library sandwiched between two other buildings across the street. Unlike its neighbors, the library wasn't constructed of the typical raw redwood planks, instead its walls were stained a dark brown and framed with the trunks of smaller pines that grew in the forest's understory. Where most buildings in the city had open air windows, or simply no windows at all, the library had tall glass windows that spanned all three stories, revealing the open atrium and spiraling staircases inside. The next instant Iris had appeared across the street and was strolling through the doors. She took in a deep breath of the calm, cool air to savor the scent of aging books. She closed the door gently behind her, then stood for a moment to marvel.

There was an open area in front with chairs, cushions and tables, with tall shelves covering the walls that were interrupted only by matching spiral staircases on either side. Beyond the sitting area, to the left just past the staircase, was a counter where a middle-aged woman sat and sorted through a stack of books. Beyond the counter were rows of shelves perpendicular to the back wall. The second and third floors repeated the pattern of wall shelves at the front, accessible by thin catwalks, and rows of shelves at the back. A large chandelier hung down in the center of the atrium, holding warm-hued crystals that emitted a magical light.

Iris approached the counter and waited quietly for the woman to finish her task. She was a middle-aged human with gracefully greying blonde hair and gentle laugh-lines that wrinkled her face. After a moment, the woman looked up and jumped slightly in surprise.

"I didn't see you, dear! Why didn't you say anything?"

Iris laughed awkwardly, "I didn't want to interrupt."

"The work of a good librarian never stops," she said with a gentle smile, setting a final book aside and turning her attention towards Iris, "you'd have been waiting forever, and we can't have that. How can I help you?"

"I have this list," Iris said, unsure if she was about to ask for too much as she hesitantly handed over the slip of paper, "I was hoping you could point me towards some of it? It's okay if you don't have time--"

"Not to worry," the librarian said, grabbing a quill and dipping it in ink, "alright if I write on this?"

Iris nodded.

The librarian scribbled beside the entries on the list, noting the floor and shelf where each topic could be found. She paused only once to let out a quiet "hmm" and wiggle the quill between her fingers before continuing.

"Here you go, dear," she said, handing back the paper, "we may not have material on the specific people you're looking for, but I've marked the sections where you might look. We do keep an archive of the Badger, but we don't have every issue."

"The Badger?" Iris asked.

"The Giantrock City Badger," the librarian replied. Seeing the confusion on Iris's face, she clarified with a faint smile, "that's the newspaper, dear."

"Oooh," Iris said, "I didn't think about checking the newspaper. My village is pretty small, no one really reads our paper."

"Well there's always something to read about happening in Giantrock, especially during the Hunt."

"I can imagine," Iris replied, "um, one more thing. Where did you get all these books? Isn't Giantrock City kind of really far from... basically everything?"

The librarian laughed, "yes, we are. It's taken a certain tenacity to acquire this collection, but it helps that most people leave the city with fewer books than they arrive with. It's a long walk back to the rest of the world, and everyone's looking to lighten their packs. We have quite a few local writers, too, by the way. There are books in this library you won't find anywhere else."

"Really?" Iris asked with wide eyes.

"Yes, best go see if you can find them, eh?" the librarian smiled.

Iris nodded eagerly, then blipped away towards the depths of the library.

"Oh, no powers in the library, dear!" the librarian called after her.

"Sorry!" she called back.

Sometime later, when the shadows had shifted from the sun moving in the sky, Iris was seated at a small table on the third floor with three stacks of books, a few newspapers, and two scrolls. In front of her was her adventurer's journal opened to blank pages near the back, where she had been taking notes on each of the topics Eli requested, and more than a few that he hadn't.

She had learned a few details about the Shark Titan and the Dreamweaver, as while as compiled a short list of who the unnamed third Titan might be. She had been quite interested to find references to the Titans going back decades that implied they were quite old, and that this was far from their first Grand Hunt. She even found one mention of the Shark Titan, or rather J. Clement as he was named in the old Badger article, as a promising up-and-coming Champion in one of the earliest Grand Hunts.

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She had also skimmed several books about the Giantrock Region and the subregions surrounding the city. The areas were given practical designations, such as the swamp, the redwood forest, the mountains, and a place where the mountains met the desert called the crags. She mostly noted potential hazards, common beasts and their traits, and preparation advice for adventurers venturing into those areas.

During one of her outings from the table she had made basecamp, Iris was hunting down a book she had glanced at earlier but had returned to the shelf. Having changed her mind, she was now frustrated that she couldn't find it again. A conspicuous peek down a few of the rows revealed no other patrons, and a peek over the railing showed the librarian shelving books down below in the atrium. With a few more guilty glances, she began blipping up and down the rows and quickly scanning the shelves.

In the fourth row, someone bumped into her as she appeared. Books clattered to the floor as he bounced off her and fell back backwards. Iris stumbled back but stayed on her feet. The man had short and curly dirty-blonde hair, circular glasses and rounded features.

"Sorry!" she said immediately.

"I'm so sorry," he said hurriedly in a soft voice, "I didn't see you. I-I should have been looking where I walked--"

"No no, trust me," Iris interrupted, "that was definitely not your fault."

"But I wasn't--"

Iris blipped to a crouch beside him, "I was breaking the rules," she said in a hushed tone, "it was my fault."

She picked up the dropped books, tucked them under her arm, then stood and held out a hand to help him up. He pushed up his glasses with a knuckle, then took her hand and climbed to his feet.

"I'm Iris," she said, handing him the books, "sorry again. Please don't tell the librarian."

"I'm Milo," he said, "was that a teleport power?"

Iris shrugged, "I usually call it blipping."

"That's awesome!" Milo said, then looked embarrassed, "sorry, you probably hear that a lot."

"Actually, not as much as I thought I would," Iris said, "hey, have you seen a book about regional weather patterns? I swear it was on this floor."

Milo thought for a moment, "probably in the natural phenomena section, that way, second row from the end."

"Thanks," Iris said, "see you around, Milo." She blipped away through the shelves.

After eventually finding her target, she returned to her desk and took general notes about the seasons and more detailed notes about the upcoming weather they could expect for this time of year in each of the subregions. With that, she marked off the last of her to-do list. After moving on to personal interests she spent the largest amount of time reading thirty pages of a large book titled "The Intricate Mechanisms of Magic and Reality, Volume 1." It was clearly not meant to be an introductory work, and Iris couldn't understand many of the concepts casually referenced throughout it, but she was fascinated by every page nonetheless.

Another, more accessible book that she had been delighted to find was titled "A Layman's Introduction to Wizards, Witches and Threadbearers." She was surprised to learn that threadbearers -- the term the book used for those like herself who gained their powers from Threads of Power -- were far from the only kind of magic users in the world. After a moment of panic, she was relieved to learn that threadbearers could still be classified as wizards, so long as they met the prerequisites of having an "endless thirst for discovery and furtherance of magical knowledge, with adherence to the general scholarly rules of experimentation and documentation," as the book put it.

A while later, as the sunlight through the windows dimmed, she separated the books she wanted to check out from the rest. Each floor had a small rolling cart with a sign that read "please return books here" and she did her best to return each book to the cart on the same floor from where she'd found it. Finally, she made her way down the spiral stairs to the librarian's counter, where Milo was checking out books. She waited patiently in line behind him. After the librarian took note of his books on a long card, stamped it and set it aside, Iris stepped up and placed her stack of books on the counter.

"I'd like to check these out, please."

The librarian looked at her apologetically, "oh, I'm sorry dear. Only city residents can check out books. They go missing if we let adventurers run off with them. So many of you leave the city and don't come back, is all."

Iris slumped her shoulders, trying not to look too disappointed.

"Uh, what if I checked them out?" Milo asked, still lingering in the atrium, "I mean, not for her, that would defeat the purpose of the rule I guess. I meant," he took a breath, "if she can't check them out, then I want to."

The librarian gave Milo a skeptical look, who responded with pleading eyes.

"These books don't leave the city, understand?" the librarian said sternly, shifting her eyes between the two of them.

"Yes ma'am," Milo said, while Iris nodded nervously.

Slowly, as if she might change her mind, the librarian slid the stack of books closer and starting noting them down on Milo's card, which she then stamped again and slipped into a filing box full of identical cards.

"Milo," the librarian said, "you're responsible for the safe return of these books, understand? Two weeks."

"Yes ma'am," he repeated.

After an awkward silent moment, Iris stirred, "I'll, uh, just help him carry these out," she said, sliding the stack of books off the counter and into her arms. As the two hurried out of the library, Iris called back to the librarian, "thank you!"

The sidewalk outside had darkened in the oncoming dusk. The crowds had thinned, though many people still moved in all directions. The two of them stood close to the door to avoid obstructing the sidewalk.

"There's a drop box in the library," Milo said, "you can just drop them off there when you're done, they don't check your name or anything when you return them. You probably know how libraries work, never mind."

"It's good to know," Iris laughed, "thank you."

"If you want to, I mean if you can't make it back to the library, you can come find me at the Badger and I'll return them for you."

"You work at the newspaper?" Iris asked.

"Yeah, mostly I just keep the machines running but every now and then I get to write something. If you catch me on the right day I could even show you how the machines work, they're fascinating."

"You know what Milo," she smiled, "I think I might."