Jiehong woke up later than Zan but not as early as Whiskey.
He rolled out of his room, paid the fee, and was on his way. Zan had briefly spoken to them earlier. He gave everyone another free day. A younger, more immature Jiehong might have used this day to hit the taverns and get wasted. Being older and wiser (or at least wiser, he reckoned), Jiehong instead went out in search of information about eldritch beings.
The day after the festival was calm. The city had a noise, but it was noise which made the city run: foremen shouting commands to laborers, chickens and livestock cawing and mooing, the rumble of well-made wagons rumbling in the streets. Guards demanding proof of theft.
What changed was the party-hardy atmosphere. Where had all the merry makers gone? To work, Jiehong guessed. Or perhaps they were still in bed nursing the aftermath?
'Where would I find information on eldritch beings?' Jiehong asked himself. 'A library? Maybe. Worth a shot, I guess.'
Off in search of a library, Jiehong hoped he wasn't wasting his time. He hoped whatever he found would be useful to him. 'Of course,' he reminded himself. 'What is useful? You're only doing this because you're intrigued by the notion. By them as beings.' Despite his chance encounter with the supposed eldritch being he passed through on the way to town, Jiehong's curiosity concerning it was happenstance. He did not think himself connected or even 'in support of' eldritch beings.
Yet he had to know and understand them. He felt it as an urge inside of him. The being he encountered had been so mysterious. So, unusual. Jiehong knew he had to learn more about them.
Jiehong found his way to a library with ease. Without the partygoers in-town for the harvest festival, Jiehong could move around quickly. He asked a guard, the guard told him, and then he was off. Twenty-minutes later he stepped inside a humble building whose every nook filled with books and scrolls. Jiehong called out for the caretakers.
To the front came a gangly pair of elderly folks. Each bore white hair befitting for their age. "How can we help you, young man?" They asked.
"I'm looking for a book on eldritch beings," Jiehong said.
"Book or scroll?" they replied.
"Sorry. Either-or. I care not. I only want something informational. Academic language is fine. I have an education."
The librarians bumbled about the cluttered spaces and moved shelving's and heaps of scrolls like people a quarter their age. Several minutes later they handed Jiehong a heavy scroll with intricate filigree throughout its casing. Jiehong carefully unfolded part of it to take a sneak peek at its contents. The words were difficult. Exactly what he was looking for!
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
"Thank you very much. Do I owe you anything for using the scroll?" Jiehong asked.
"Worry not. We don't charge for readings. You can go over and sit there and read it for free. We only ask you return it to us in one piece. If you love the content and wish to buy the scroll, we have a policy to sell every piece we have for twice what we paid for it," one of the caretakers said. Jiehong thought it was the lady, but they had a hefty beard, so maybe it was the man? But the other had facial hair as well. One was feminine... were they even human? Jiehong did not know and, honestly, he did not care. He gave a smile and found the seat.
Sitting at a table, Jiehong's seat was behind a pile of books. 'Don't fall over, now,' Jiehong muttered to the books under his breath.
Placing the scroll on the part of his desk not taken up by literary hills, Jiehong carefully unfurled the scroll and started to read:
"Amongst all extant Mighty Beings, Eldritch Beings possess unique ontology unparalleled in Creation. Their bodies do not correspond to anything in nature of the heavens. Leading scientific authorities -- Ginin, Freth, Phil, and Gregg, Et All -- conclude their essence are a mixture of sources. Part Holy, part Primal, Eldritch entities move through the world unseen, rarely able to be seen by onlookers who are too dazed or ignorant to understand an Eldritch Being's complex morphology. The purpose of my research is to provide the reader with an awareness of how these beings work and why they are important to living holistically..."
Jiehong had to look away from the scroll. His head hurt. And the word in it were bigger and harder to understand than what he expected. The quick survey he had done prior to taking it to a table must've been an easy section, since he had to return to the caretakers and ask for a dictionary in order to read the scroll's beginning. They gave Jiehong the dictionary with a chuckle.
Done with only the first paragraph, and knowing there had to be dozens, if not hundreds more, Jiehong already felt out of it.
He sighed. For a moment, Jiehong wanted to give up. 'I've bite off more than I can chew,' he told himself. He knew he was only telling himself lies.
"I can do this," he affirmed. He looked down at the scroll and continued reading:
"THE FIRST ASPECT of an eldritch being one must learn, or perhaps, unlearn, rather, is 'non-linearity.' Eldritch entities do not exist in the same temporal frame as the rest of us. They exist, rather, before our moment as well as after, always living in three-temporal frames at once. Of all their temporal frames, the Present Frame is likely of top importance. Entities with eldritch nature forge their present frame from the past and future. An eldritch being, then, lacks a naturally occurring 'present.' Non-linearity within the temporal universe thus will play an important role to anyone who wishes to understand the nature of these misunderstood beings."
Jiehong finished the second paragraph with much less strain than he had with the first. Already knowing a few words helped. Thus, Jiehong made himself a mental note to always look up a new word when he encountered one. He figured there was no sense in trying to suss out meaning when meaning couldn't be implied by another part of speech. Especially when Jiehong was lucky enough to have a dictionary by his side.
Nearby a window opened. "Let's get some fresh air in this muddy old place," one of the librarians said. Jiehong sniffed some freshly cut flowers from an herbalist with a shop close by. Letting the wind wash over him as he took several voluminous gulps, Jiehong released the air slowly to calm his mental sputtering. Cloud by cloud, Jiehong cleansed. His head cleared. He was ready to get back at it.