Into the Depths

by **Malefic** on August 3rd, 2013, 11:08 pm

Summer 85, 457 AV

How did these books manage to collect all this dust in such a short time? Malefic regarded the several volumes of improvised history and articles that lie on the table in front of him. The library wasn't very busy, as usual, but it wasn't quite as inactive as usual either. There were a few people browsing the shelves, plucking tomes from the shelves, and even some that wrote in the pages of aforementioned volumes. Currently the nuit was simply deciding where to start in his greatly awaited research. The librarian had held a series of writings for him from when he had first arrived in Kalinor. There were thousands of questions waiting to be answered. These first few books would sate his initial questions, then he would work his way up the chain to more complex inquiries.

Now the simple yet crucial decision awaited him: which of these questions do I begin with? Should I begin with the subject of the gods? Perhaps I could take on the topic of magic! Or...or I should probably familiarize myself with Symenestra culture and language. Yes, I will begin with that.

And thus the decision had been made. First Vidar would familiarize himself with his current surroundings and then expand from there. His eyes probed the sizable volumes laid out in front of him for the label that related to Kalinor. Upon finding it Mal sighed heavily. Why must it be so far from where I sit? This body isn't known for it's strength. He begrudgingly stood from his chair and reached over the table to reach his study material, hefting it to right in front of his seat, at which point he sat down onto the old wooden chair once more. With this great athletic feat done Mal was happy to finally actually begin reading. A dead finger delicately flipped open the cover of the book in front of him, and then continued until he reached the table of contents.

It seems as though the method used to label this is by using these numbers to identify each page. He tested his theory by sighting the "page number" of the subject Nassea Peony- The Harvest. The nuit flipped through a flurry of pages which bore several different color ink for each individual section of writing. Some of them, he noticed, had a signature written at the end of them to acknowledge their authors. While Mal was busy taking in observations about the text itself, he missed his page number and went on. At the later sections the pages held nothing in them. How intriguing. How does this library work? It was then when he raised his head that Vidar realized it -- people were writing in their books as well as reading their books. Each person wrote into the pages the information he or she knew, and read the previously written text. A very interesting method to collect information indeed...How many other libraries are set up like this? Mal tapped his finger against the blank page as he thought. While they will certainly receive a wide variety of research material about the surface, anyone can write in it. That means that those of lesser experience or those who think they know what they are talking about can give information... Much of the information contained within this library is likely to be invalid... Perhaps they have a system of some sort to filter this kind of information...

Blank expression on his face, he closed the volume and restarted from the beginning. Malefic knew he had to take things one at a time or else he would get ahead of himself and have a weak foundation. What he wanted to learn he wanted to learn well. Memorization would have to be a skill to work on. Once again he flipped through the pages searching for the article he chose at random, just to ensure that his guess of how the tome was organized was indeed correct. At last he arrived at the page titled The Harvest by Nassea Peony. Aha! So I was correct! While there, he read up on the first few pages of the article, diving deep into the text and letting it engulf his entire world, absorbing all of it into his mind and engraving the knowledge deep into his memory.

The "Harvest", as the Symenestra people called it, turned out to be a sort of gathering of women. Or rather, a massive kidnap fest of women. The goal of this was to make it possible to reproduce without going to extinction.

Mal browsed quickly through the subject of reproduction in Kalinor and understood why they needed other races' women. He noted the few races that they would not take for mates.

Next he sifted through other articles on the Kalinor culture, researching their habits, basic language format, how to be polite, insults, and a few other miscellaneous articles. Malefic smiled, and closed the tome.

He moved the book to the side, and sought information about the creatures of the land. He was already somewhat familiar with a few of them, having dwelt in the wilderness, but was interested in knowing all he could. He wasn't going to remain here forever, so may as well prepare.

He studied all night long, reading the article on wildlife over and over and over again until it was engraved into his mind. A sigh escaped his lips, followed by a grin.

This was enough for now. There were other tasks he needed to tend to. But this definitely would not be the last time.

He intended to return several times.

by **Catastrophe** on June 17th, 2014, 1:03 am

Malefic :

Notes :

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Solo Into the Depths

Into the Depths

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