sunnydalealum | (no subject)

The thin slanting light of a winter midafternoon is sifting in through the high windows as two figures step into the main room of the Library of the New Watchers' Council: a vast round vaulted space lined with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves.

Andrew's seen it before; he's looking at Nita, grinning in anticipation of her reaction.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

stilljustandrew

"A pocket tesseract," Andrew explains. "Invisible Bag of Holding?"

From:

sunnydalealum

"Oh," she says in evident relief -- but then shakes her head. "But no, that's the kind of thing that could affect some of the books here. I can tell you now Ms St. John's not likely to allow it. Sorry."

A pause. "I'll tell you what, though -- if you just step out of the library, you could access your pocket from there, and then just carry the book in by hand."

From:

nita_callahan

Nita perks up. "That'd work. Thank you."

From:

stilljustandrew

"Thanks, Rachel," Andrew adds, taking the syllabary. "We'll find a table?"

As they put down the books, he says to Nita in an undertone: "We can leave them here while we go retrieve your manual."

From:

nita_callahan

"They'll be okay unsupervised?" she murmurs back, only half-joking.

From:

stilljustandrew

"These? Oh, sure. We didn't take out anything dangerous. I mean, nothing actively dangerous. Rachel knows better than that."

...Yeah, the half-joke's gone right over his head.

From:

nita_callahan

. . . She shakes her head a little, grinning.

"Okay. Awesome."

From:

stilljustandrew

As the double doors of the library proper close behind them, Andrew glances quickly around the vestibule (empty) before nodding to Nita.

"Okay, we're good. Go ahead."

From:

nita_callahan

"Great."

She murmurs a few quick words, makes an unzipping motion, and reaches into thin air to rummage. A moment later, she pulls out her manual, then reaches back in; a moment after that, she retrieves a spiral-bound notebook and a battered silver pen, and closes the claudication.

"All set!"

From:

stilljustandrew

Andrew glances at the pen -- silver barrel, grooved around the lower half to keep the user's fingers from slipping -- and grins, for no immediately apparent reason.

"After you," he says, opening one of the double doors and gesturing with absurd formality.

From:

nita_callahan

She grins, tucking her books under her arm, and leads the way.

From:

sunnydalealum

As far as the threshold, anyway. Because that's where the wards kick in, and for a split second --

alien magic intruder PROTECT

-- for a split second, the air in the doorway solidifies around Nita.

From:

nita_callahan

"--Oh crap."

From:

stilljustandrew

Overlapping: "-- Oh frell. Nita, don't move, I'll get Ms St. John --"

From:

nita_callahan

"Easy for you to say!"

Meanwhile, as the humans have their discussion . . .

. . . the books are having their own.

The way books communicate uses words, but mostly in ways that the human mind is too slow to follow.

What Nita's manual says to the library boils down to: It's cool, she's with me.

And, after some hemming and hawing (that boils down to Kids, I don't know, in my day we'd have asked permission first) and additional arguments (that have the words CATNYP and Book in them) . . .

Nita suddenly stumbles as the air goes back to being air, allowing her to complete her interrupted step.

From:

stilljustandrew

"Uh --"

Andrew pauses in midstep, not because he's been interrupted but because ...

"-- what just happened?"

From:

nita_callahan

Blinking, she waves a hand experimentally -- takes a step backward, takes a step forward.

"I have no idea."

(If it's possibly for a book to look smug? Her manual looks smug. Discreetly.)

From:

stilljustandrew

"Okay, well."

Cautiously he touches the open door, as if half-expecting the gesture to set off an alarm.

"If we don't get anyone coming to demand what we just did to the wards, it's probably okay."

From:

nita_callahan

"Here's hoping."

She continues to eye the door warily, but nothing further seems to be forthcoming.

"You want to lead the way back? I'd hate to get lost in these stacks."

From:

stilljustandrew

The table where they left the books isn't all that far, but Andrew's happy to lead the way.

Within a few minutes they're seated, with three books lying open on the table in front of them.

From:

nita_callahan

Nita rolls her shoulders and pulls the first volume closer, handling it with care.

Within a few minutes, a frown of concentration is creasing her forehead. A few minutes after that, she flips open her notebook and starts copying down symbols, with notes in the Speech underneath.