As the land levelled out the next day, there was still some groaning from the merchantgon caravanners, for a day of holding their wagons back while descending had left them sore even as they returned to their normal pulling. Yet they resumed their usual pace, somewhat ambitious in their confidence of good health of body and wagon, and soon they had a morning meal at a trade outpost on the southern edge of Sybanisk.
"There are five towns in Sybanisk," Choave said to a table over a breakfast of meaty onion soup that had been ladled out by a bored blue vohntrai who was ever so slightly transparent. The soup meat was chewy and somehow bland; Denziu thought it an unpleasant early encounter with the fatty meats of northern Kelkaith. "Five towns," Choave said, mopping soup from his snout. "One at each 'side' of Sybanisk. This is the southernmost of them, so welcome to South Sybanisk. The others are northeast, north, northwest, and central. We'll be stopping over at Central Sybanisk and North Sybanisk."
Half of the caravan was seated at the same table to hear this, but as usual the real recipient was Denziu. "Pretty straightforward town names!" said Denziu.
"They're descriptive," said Choave.
"The Snowmelt Museum is in Central Sybanisk, by the way," said Mosdrao of Jiasote. "We aren't spending a market day here, but if you're ever here under your own power, look there and you should be able to see the Museum from afar in the air."
"Do we have anything on the itinerary besides passing through at a good clip?" asked Denziu, thinking of zir plan to buy clothing at the trade posts in Sybanisk.
Choave shook his head. "No, we do not. Although the pace shouldn't be too brutal today and tomorrow. We'll walk a good two hours less than we usually do, reaching our next lodgings at Central Sybanisk today and then North Sybanisk tomorrow. If you've enough energy, you'll have a bit of the afternoon left when we get to Central."
Chatulerin the Calculator spoke up then, saying, "I plan to spend some time in the library." She looked towards Denziu and added, "There's a small library outpost at every town in Sybanisk."
"I think Chotain favours them," said Choave, and Denziu perked. Chotain! Denziu instantly inferred that Chotain must be the name of the local land god.
"I favour this soup," said Omrezen the Hunter, licking her lips. "I'll be right back." And she went off to get the bowl filled again, walking three-legged to clutch the bowl to herself, as vrash must do when carrying an object.
"Well. I'm glad she does, but I don't," said Orachu the Unambitious in a mournful voice, looking down at a partial bowl as Omrezen walked up. He looked up across the table. "Lorma, do you have any of those green onion rolls left?"
"Only a few," said Lorma cheerfully. "I'll be right back, but if there's any demand you may have to dice for them." She stepped away from the table to fetch the green onion rolls.
Dicing! Petty geomancy, Denziu thought with a smile. Asking Fate who should have the last few rolls by rolling dice for them. "I wonder if the land gods ever get annoyed at dragons breaking out dice to ask them minor questions," said Denziu.
Laughing, Choave said, "P-pious of you, Denziu!"
"I don't think they notice," said Orachu.
"Dice work in missing theomes too," said Chatulerin. "However they work in missing theomes, that’s probably how they work in theomes with a land god."
It turned out that most of the table would have liked a green onion roll, with only Omrezen abstaining, but there were only three rolls left to six dragons at the table. It was generally agreed that one should be reserved to Orachu, as it would be rude and sad to deny a roll to the one who had asked for the rolls to be brought out. As he bit into the roll gratefully, Lorma stepped out of the running voluntarily, saying it was a pleasure just to see the rolls appreciated. That left Denziu, Chatulerin, and Choave throwing dice for the remaining two rolls.
The three contestants pushed their soup bowls aside. Choave drew out of a pouch a trio of clear crystals cut into regular shapes and with little divots carved into them. Dice, of course, with six sides and each opposing side adding up to 7. They were the same all the world over. And they were beautiful, Denziu thought. These were cut out of clear quartz.
Chatulerin threw a die, and got a four.
Choave threw a die, and got a four.
Denziu threw last, having hesitated to admire the beautiful clear quartz cube of the die itself. When zie threw the die, it came up on five.
The three dragons leaned in over the table to look at the dice they'd tossed towards each other. Choave swept up two of the dice (Denziu's included), and there was a general rumble of cheer as Lorma handed out one of the last two rolls to Denziu.
Then Chatulerin and Choave threw dice again. Chatulerin's die came up on one. Choave's came up with three pips upwards.
Lorma gave the last of the green onion rolls to Choave, saying happily as she did, "I knew these would be appreciated."
When they had finished eating, there was nothing left to do in South Sybanisk other than harness themselves and get moving again. The caravan moved on, 2 by 6, Sharisen pulling Oghai’s carriage behind the rest.
Sybanisk was a tundra with a lot of life in it, sweet-scented with all the heather that butted up against the road. There were other flowers as well, a riotous natural garden with clusters of little yellow flowers here, bushes covered in bright purple flowers there, and occasionally a few beautiful green plants hoisting up globular white flower clusters into the air as if begging for pollinators to notice them. Pale purple bottlebrushes grew in stands as well, choking out other plantlife for several metres at a stretch with crowds of fuzzy sticks of floral life.
"Chotain must love flowers," Denziu commented to Ekis.
Ekis said, "This place is famed for floral culture. Do you know much about Sybanisk?"
"Almost nothing," Denziu admitted.
"This is 'the Snowmelt theome', caught in a loop of perpetual springtimes. So there are always spring flowers growing, and dying in the cold, and then growing again. They grow fast, so they're harvested often. But the constantly cycling season means it is NEVER summer here. That's why we're cold here right now," said Ekis, and she was right. It was cold.
Denziu knew that a lot of dragons lived in the far north, but zie was increasingly confused by that, as zie badly wanted to not be nearly-naked in this territory. The vendorgon vest that zie'd bought was wholly inadequate. The next thing Ekis said only made Denziu's shivers worse: "We're lucky to not get snowed on, and we still might be as it looks like the latest 'spring' is near its end with how overgrown it’s getting."
"I'm going to rush to the market and buy something warm to wear when we get to Central Sybanisk," said Denziu bitterly.
"You know, if you're being overwhelmed by cold... These wagons are very light," said Ekis. "If we stop for a moment and tie your wagon in train to someone else's burden, you can fly ahead to get proper dress."
"Should we do that?" asked Denziu.
Ekis nodded and said, "Yes, it would be safest to do that. It isn't healthy to be shivering constantly, and you might get sick if the weather turns much worse."
"I'll wait until the next time the caravan stops for a bite to eat," said Denziu, thinking of the various breads, pasties, and dried meats that the caravanners had carried for lunchtimes on the road. (They were far from exhausting the honey bought in Rhianasril, too.) They didn't break this way for some time, but well before they reached Central Sybanisk there was a moment when they stopped.
When that happened, Denziu went to the head of the caravan and pled the cold to Choave, who laughed and told Denziu to claim one of zir warming amulets and wear it. "I know you've been selling warming spells, Denziu!" said Choave, still greatly amused.
"Won't it disenchant with all the theome crossings that we're doing?" said Denziu.
"I don't think those amulets offend any land god in the north," said Choave. "They give a warm aura to countless vashael! You know, your wind aura can chill bystanders if you're not wearing one of those."
"Would you buy one off of me, then? You’d be a warm presence in the cold north," said Denziu, struck by the hope to make a sale.
"Hah! I suppose I could," said Choave. "Although it will disenchant eventually, despite what I said. It’s an annual good to someone like me. Here, we should both be wearing one."
One warming amulet sold, and another became Denziu’s own. In this way Denziu remained almost a nudist in Kelkaith, but became a presence that warmed everyone in reach of zir amicus breeze.
At Central Sybanisk, Denziu eschewed the clothing market and joined Mosdrao for an evening service at the temple to Gruent instead. It was a humble structure with red-painted exterior walls and a hall in its white-painted interior with seating marked by little boxy stands that held up two sheets of paper each. The hall and its stands led up to a pulpit on a small platform. Dragons sat before the little stands in orderly rows, many of them wearing fate-charms on their necks (vrash and a veserus), wrists (vashael), or both (three izerah and a kalla). Denziu saw and felt a goodly number of warming amulets.
The veserus in the crowd was an aquatic dragon and quite an unusual sight, but this was no moment to stare. Besides, a third of the room were wearing blindfolds. That was far more bizarre.
Shortly after Mosdrao and Denziu arrived, a green-feathered kalla walked up the central aisle dressed in a white robe, her hooves clattering with every step upon the wooden floor. She climbed to the pulpit, faced the crowd, and raised her arms to them. "We gather in gratitude!" she said. "Praise to the healer and the bringer of peace!"
"Praise to the healer and the bringer of peace," said the crowd, including Mosdrao. Denziu stayed silent, observing without the familiarity of the proceedings.
"Let us open today in song!" said the kalla priestess. "Grasp your songsheets, and let us sing together!"
This Denziu went along with, for this was the clear purpose of the two sheets of paper. It would not tell zir every detail of the service, but it told zir the songs they were to sing. And so zie sang with the others, lifting zir voice in praise to 'the warming hand of Fate', and after the song the kalla priestess gave a short sermon about the great virtue with which the land gods instilled regularity on so many urban theomes, such virtue that the public should trust in them and not seek to break their ties with Fate. This church praised the good order created by the land gods.
After that there were three names called from a prepared list that the priestess had brought in with herself, and three dragons stood at the front of the room before the pulpit, but facing the crowd. One by one each spoke a tale of woe that ended in Jiasote, turning to a story of recovery and restabilisation. Each of the three had badly messed up their lives before going to Jiasote, and under Gruent's control - for that seemed to be what they were praising - they put decent lives together that they could continue living even after they left Jiasote.
After each story the crowd said, "Praise be to the healer and the bringer of peace," so that in all the phrase was said four times. Each time Denziu missed the cue, for zie was not of the church, but zie understood it as part of their ritual.
When the three had told their stories, they returned to where they had sat in the crowd, and the kalla priestess raised her arms again and said, "If there is anyone in the congregation today who has not yet been to Jiasote, know that it is a place of great purity among the lands of our world! Bring your troubles there without fear, even should you go owning nothing, and reside there for a few years. Many of us have done this, and we raise our voices in gratitude to the result! Please lift your songsheets again, and let us sing the second of today's songs."
Again the congregation sang. This song sang of 'holy Jiasote', and it was a song of praise to openness and trust in 'the land that accepts all'.
When the song faded away, there was a brief span of silence in which one of the izerah got up uncalled, and went to the front of the church, then accepted a bin from the priestess, who took up a second one. This event was unmarked by speech and ceremony, yet it was swiftly obvious that they were performing some kind of collection. The two dragons went down the rows together, and Denziu saw gifts of coinage, even a few spelltiles, so that the collection bin was warm and radiant with magic when it got to zir. Zie offered two silver coins to be polite, and in respect for the likely charity of a church that so praised 'the healer and the bringer of peace'. In that moment, the kalla priestess’ head swiveled to track Denziu for a moment in curious scrutiny, but she did not pause in moving down the row.
Still, the mental image of the kalla with the fierce beak and the green feathers stuck with zir. The kalla had a strange look among dragons, such a sharp guise, yet here that was the look of one who spoke of compassion and led songs about trust.
When the collection had completed and the bins were stowed once more in the pulpit, there was a moment where the kalla priestess crouched in the pulpit, and then when she stood again smoothly with a circling arm gesture of both hands that led to her bowing her head to the congregation. "I am grateful for your generosity," she said. "With this we shall see to those who have need of Gruent's grace."
She stood again and said, in the same great strength of voice that she had initially led the congregation to speak of praise to the healer, "May all who heal the broken live forever!"
Having caught the tone, this time Denziu joined in with the crowd as they all chanted, "May all who heal the broken live forever!"
And this turned out to be the dismissal of the service, after which dragons started to turn aside and file out the door in a murmuring crowd.
Denziu noticed no impairment among those with the blindfolds on, but watched as they manoeuvred through the crowd with all the grace of the sighted. Zie spoke to Mosdrao then and said in zir own low murmur, "How is it that they can move around wearing those?"
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"Ah, those," whispered Mosdrao with a joyous smile. "Those are blindfolds of true faith. Each of them has a geomantic enchantment that Fates dragons to move as though they could see, though they cannot."
Denziu was stunned. "They give up vision as a gesture of faith?"
"They're very interesting blindfolds. I wore one for a time myself. They restrict all manner of temptation, you know. You don't feel the privations you don't see, so they're very good for merchantgons," murmured Mosdrao.
Denziu cringed breathlessly at the thought of giving up vision to be a better merchantgon… but then a different thought set in, lingering over Denziu as the two passed the door. “Maybe…” zie said softly, “Maybe you should gift one to Lorvaza. She might quite like it.”
For Lorvaza was 'the Predictable', a surname she had earned from her great faith in Fate's guidance for her.
By this point they were outside of the church, but Mosdrao led the two aside so that they loitered near its entrance without blocking the flow of traffic. Here just outside of the church they could speak in more normal tones. "Buy one for her yourself," he said, still smiling. "You're the one who has been working with her on this trip."
"Are they expensive?" asked Denziu.
"Quite!" said Mosdrao, "Because they're magic items. Artefacts, even. Potent geomancy. But the purchase of them funds the good work that Gruent's worshippers do in helping the suffering."
Gruent was an unusual land god, to have worshippers far from home here in Sybanisk, where the caravan would be 8 days on the road getting between Sybanisk and Jiasote. Not counting market days, of course. There would be four days from Sybanisk to Hydalath, then four days from Hydalath to Jiasote.
Denziu momentarily balked at the prospect of buying Lorvaza a gift. It was so tempting, because the gift would be so perfect. Zie did not particularly want a closer relationship with Lorvaza, but... in a world sense... zie wanted to live in a world where dragons who noticed the most perfect gifts for each other would go out and give them.
Such a windfall was the kind of luck that dragons weren't really to have in a Tekagoli caravan, but Denziu felt lucky for the opportunity. That was the big driver. That was why zie wanted to do it so badly. Because even though it would cost Denziu a great deal, just to give the gift felt like a windfall.
"I'll do it!" zie said. "Although I may have to go back to the caravan, to have the funds for a magic item." Zie would have to talk to Chatulerin and withdraw part of zir caravan share.
"Don't tell me.” Mosdrao tossed his head. "Go inside and tell the priestess that. She’ll have the blindfold ready when you return."
So Denziu went inside again and asked the priestess about the blindfolds, and heard much the same from her, and was still convinced that Lorvaza would love the blindfold and wear it for centuries. The reveal of the blindfold's price was a grimacing moment, but Denziu had braced for that.
One short flight later, the conversation with Chatulerin was a more difficult one. The hefty share that Denziu had loaned to the caravan had indeed grown in its estimated value, but the caravan did not want to yield even part of its caravan shares midway through. The calculated value of the share already included the delivery of the current wagonloads of lumber to Wraquo. What Chatulerin could offer in lieu of the gold value of the caravan share was a promissory note to be paid with funds released when current outstanding trades completed.
The promissory note was against Choave the Caravan Leader, on behalf of Denziu the Clayseller. That was how Chatulerin had written it. Surprised, Denziu asked, “Why like this?”
Chatulerin smiled and said, "He is much more known than you are. This will ensure that whoever you are buying an artefact from - I can tell from the sum you are asking that you are buying an artefact - will know who to bring their claim to."
In hopes of making the promissory note more successful, Denziu spoke a prayer to Chotain over zir box of warming tiles, and extracted one of the last three warming tiles. This zie brought to the church of Gruent, and zie offered it as a donation to the church alongside the promissory note for the blindfold to be paid on Denziu's return. The priestess said she was satisfied with that, and let Denziu take the blindfold.
Zie tried it on. It went on easily and fit perfectly, as artefact attire very nearly always does. The blindness that the blindfold created was without flaw. There was no peeking of light in through the cloth or from its edges, but rather it was like having no eyes at all beneath the cloth.
There was an innate hesitation to being blind. "How can I find the door, if I cannot see it?" asked Denziu.
"Trust in the land gods to guide your every step," said the priestess. "And simply... turn. Turn with the intention of turning towards the door, and step with the intention of stepping through the door. If you could do something with your sight, this blindfold will let you do it without your sight, and your intentions will guide you to anything that your eyes could have guided you to."
"What have I gained?" asked Denziu. "If the blindfold can guide me only to what my eyes could guide me to, how am I better off wearing it?"
"You will gain the awareness of how Fate guides you to what you need. Go! You may even try flying. You will fly just as well with the blindfold on as without, for it is a very powerful magic."
Denziu was not quite brave enough to go for a flight with the blindfold on, but zie stepped to the door and found reaching out that zie had stepped exactly to where zie intended. Zie stepped through the door, and walked along the sidewalk, stopping every so often with the intention of touching the corners of buildings and the edges of doorways, and finding that zie stopped every time just where zie intended, and touched the corners of buildings and the edges of doorways without the slightest hesitation, as though zie were reaching for something readily in sight. These simple landmarks that zie could not see, but could only define by intention and expectation, were there every time.
Every so often zie stepped as well in a direction zie had not intended, and after this had happened three times zie took the blindfold off immediately after one of them, spinning to look at what had been in zir path... and zie saw the winged back and tail of another dragon walking away down the street. Zie had stepped out of someone's way! Lightly, comfortably, as easily as if zie hadn't been blinded, but wholly without awareness of doing so.
"I can feel every step, and choose where I am going," Denziu said aloud in sheer shock, "But it's no longer I who chooses where I put my feet. What have I just bought?"
So saying, zie folded up the blindfold delicately and held it in a hand the rest of the way back to the merchantgon's camp where the rest of the caravanners were waiting. Zie found them gathering for the evening meal, and there were two abominable great bowls of plantstuff next to an enthused Lorma brandishing serving utensils. Apparently the dinner that night was to be a salad that looked to be made of radishes and the edible parts of various flowers. The crew looked dreary at the sight of all those plants for dinner, but Denziu was intrigued to see a return of those fuzzy pale purple bottlebrush plants. What did they taste like?
That thought was put away when zie saw Lorvaza join the line. Denziu stepped to Lorvaza and said, "Hello, Lorvaza! Can we step out of line a moment? I've brought you a gift!"
"A gift? I didn't know we were on such terms," Lorvaza said, but zie humoured Denziu by stepping out of the line.
"Neither did I," said Denziu, "But I didn't expect to find something so perfect for you!"
They stepped away from the line. Denziu offered the blindfold to Lorvaza. "This is a blindfold of true faith," zie said. "Anything you can do with your eyes open, you can do with this blindfold on. It's a geomantic artefact!"
Lorvaza took the blindfold curiously, and turned it over in her hands. "What is truly faithful about giving up vision?" she asked.
"I think you will understand if you try it. Fate guides you a little more directly when you have it on."
"More directly, me?" Lorvaza scoffed, but she grinned. She put the blindfold on, and as with Denziu it was done with a simple gesture, for the blindfold fit instantly as though it had been made for no head but Lorvaza's. "I don't feel anything but blind," she said.
Denziu grinned, remembering the admonition of the priestess to find the door. "Now, try to walk back to take a place in Lorma's salad line," said Denziu.
"But how can I even try? I can't see it."
"Form the intention," Denziu said. "Be very clear to yourself that you're about to do it, and start turning about in that direction."
Lorvaza turned and walked back to the salad line. Denziu walked with her. Then Lorvaza stopped in place, right in front of Lorma, for the short line had already cleared, and Lorma was watching them curiously. Lorvaza lifted up the blindfold to peek past it, meeting Lorma's gaze immediately. "Oh my Fate," swore Lorvaza, "This makes standing in line a miracle." She dropped the blindfold again and grinned as Lorma handed her a platter full of flower salad.
Denziu took a platter of salad from Lorma next, and Lorma said, "So what miracle have I just witnessed?"
"Blindfold of true faith," Denziu said. "From Gruent's church in Sybanisk."
Lorma leaned in and whispered in a gossipy tone, "You two aren't courting now, are you?"
"No, no. Certainly not," said Denziu. "I just couldn't ignore such a perfect gift opportunity."
"You know, Lorvaza was our newcomer before you," said Lorma. There was nobody else in line, so Lorma filled up another platter for herself, and Denziu held out a hand, taking the plate politely so that Lorma wouldn't have to walk tripodal to sit down with the platter.
The two of them walked to a table. "She's still selling such an odd thing," Lorma said, "working from a chest of enchantments every time, but it leaves most of her wagon free for contract hauling, so she hauls like most of us at Choave's direction."
"I'll probably do likewise if I join again next year," said Denziu. "It's just this year that I came into the route with my wagon full of pottery."
"Years of collection," Lorma said. "That's what Lorvaza said you called it."
Denziu shied, dipping zir head. "Oh! Well, I was picking the unusual ones, you know, from wares priced as though they were only to store grain."
"Cheap bulk pottery. So you'd make a profit if you moved them even as high-grade pottery," said Lorma.
Denziu hesitated to answer, wanting to actually eat rather than talk. Zie speared one of those bottlebrush plants with a fork, and was surprised at a sweet, fruity flavour. When zie'd chewed and swallowed it - the texture was most peculiar - zie said to Lorma, "I suppose I would, but I want to do even better than that, and sell the pots as individual display pieces. The artists who made them need to know, I mean they need some proof, that they're producing better work than a grain-keeper's spare time."
"Going to share your profits?"
Denziu cringed at that, feeling abruptly caught out in deep selfishness, for indeed zie had no such intention. After a moment zie shook zir head. "No. Just my records."
A moment of quiet. Denziu sat up straighter and said, "The pottergons of Denxalue are old friends of mine. I've been bringing them perfect clays for decades, too. They'll not begrudge me what I get for proving their artistry."
The two of them ate then in silence. Denziu marvelled at the strangeness of eating what were clearly flowers and flower greens. Some of the other ingredients stood out for their strangeness as well, for there were among the salad a mixture of white and purple petals that were bitter at first taste, yet which turned sweet when chewed upon. There were touches of bitterness such as that in the salad, but it was overall a sweet salad, at least as salads go. There was clearly no touch of honey upon it. The radishes, of course, contributed a substantial spice and zest to it.
"You know," said Denziu, holding up a fork with another of the bottlebrushes speared on it, "You've really been impressing me with the vegetable foods."
Lorma smiled at that. "You'd be amazed how many think dragons should live on meat alone."
There was an amazed gasp from a nearby table, and Denziu swivelled at once to look again at Lorvaza, for zie knew who was likely to emit amazed gasps that evening. Just as Denziu's eyes settled on Lorvaza's green-scaled form she emitted a cry of, "I knew it!" For she was staring at an empty platter, with a hand on her blindfold, hoisting it up.
She caught Denziu's gaze and said, "I knew I'd finished it! Just as I would if I could see!"
"I would be surprised if it failed in any detail," said Denziu.
Lorvaza dropped the blindfold back into place. "This gift is amazing, Denziu. Thank you so much."
"It's a pleasure to give an amazing gift!"
There was a cold snap that night. The weather turned at once from late spring to early spring, bringing with it a snowstorm. Confident in their path and his magic, Choave was unmoved by the weather, but hurried them out of North Sybanisk with his spell and a cry of, “We’ve a shorter distance to go today! Come along!”
The blowing snow found the edge of Denziu’s amicus breeze. The warm shield of wind and magic about Denziu was blown ragged by the weather, so that zie felt every gust.
Ekis seemed even colder, and though she was talkative to fend off the misery of the chill, Denziu could hear the cold in her voice so much that when the caravan stopped for a midday meal of honeyed bread, zie spoke a brief prayer to Chotain over zir box of warming tiles, and then extracted the third of the warming amulets. This zie handed to Ekis, who took it gratefully. "I'll have you pay if you keep it," Denziu said gravely, "But you can have it today for free."
They walked on through the falling snow for hours. Blessedly, the distance between Central Sybanisk and North Sybanisk was not a full day's walk. The caravan pulled into another merchantgon camp not long after noon.
They crowded to a food seller set up near the campground on the outskirts of North Sybanisk. There was no line in that bad weather, but a bubbling pot of cheese greeted them, and a vrash merchantgon who breathed fire on his pot as they approached. “You have cheese this far north?” asked Denziu. “I’ve seen no cattle.”
“Cheese keeps for years and travels everywhere!” proclaimed the merchantgon, brandishing a ladle.
So the caravanners dined on meat cooked in a sticky cheese sauce, which was horribly palatable enough that several of them bought a second round. Denziu wanted to do so as well, but restrained zirself when zie noticed that blindfolded Lorvaza was disinterested. Mosdrao had mentioned that effect of the blindfold. Did that mean meat with cheese sauce was a temptation best skipped?
Shaking off hunger, zie went to the fireside to see if zie could leave zir wagon in the care of whoever was staying at camp. Choave, as usual, was unshiftable. "If you want to go out in this snow," he said, "Go ahead!"
Zie was curious about the library outpost in North Sybanisk. The library turned out to be a tiny building by the standards of libraries, with two wings of two aisles each past a central area where a librarian stood behind a counter. A painted map of the region from Tirrtian Pass to Wraquo was pinned to the wall behind the librarian. The few shelves were also half-barren, so that the library gave an impression of poverty.
"Why are there empty shelves here?" zie asked the librarian.
"Chotain requires us to maintain this building," said the librarian, "But does not work her miracles for any of library post save the one in Central, which is near to her museum and quite good."
There was a distinct bias among the books on offer to the northern theomes. Denziu found books of praise to various northern land gods. Gruent of Jiasote had several authors contributing, but so did Cortacaffakalyenay of Nyberinz, which was the jewel theome near Wraquo, though its Blizzard Museum was scarcely of interest to any save a particularly hyperborean kind of geomancer. Toleva of Wraquo seemed a fixation of the library. Denziu suspected Chotain's requirement was to scour for books related to the northern extreme of the specific trade route on which North Sybanisk was built.
Denziu wondered if zie could even read while walking. The caravan required only an even pace for so many hours per day, and there was even Ekis at zir shoulder to help with keeping pace. If zie could read all day, zie might even want more than one book...
Zie found one book titled "The Mysterious Cities of Axorus". Axorus was one of the highlights of the Tachanigh-Kelkaith, mentioned in the Libraries of Querent-Querent as a slightly-dangerous but definitely fascinating place to visit. Denziu picked it up in hope of an entertaining read. Zie found another, rather fatter book titled, "Evermines of the Arrakra Vicinity," which seemed like something to show to Choave and a grim thing to choke down intently in the name of future profits. Zie picked that one up in business sense.
These two books Denziu took to the librarian, who flipped through a very large, broken-spined tome on the counter in which a great deal of tiny writing lived, and Denziu wasn't quite adroit enough at reading an upside down text to catch any of the tiny writing on the book as the librarian searched it. At length the librarian surprised Denziu by quoting prices for each of the two texts, and not small ones. When Denziu gaped at this, the librarian said, "In the hopes of someday having full shelves, we ask a deposit for each book, and the deposit is large enough that we're content you might walk off with the book. You'll have the same sum returned to you when we have the same book returned to us, you see, and the book will then still have been free."
"I understand," said Denziu. "What if I like the book enough to depart with it and call it a sale?"
"Then you shall have almost certainly gotten a bad price, and should have been better off visiting a bookseller, but if that’s the only way you find one of our texts you’re welcome to take it."
So it was that Denziu left the library with a light book, a heavy book, a thin coinpurse, and an occupation for traversing grassy tundras where a distraction was more welcome than the countryside.