[Featured characters: Alanis, Sasarai] Budehuc Castle: Library The library is so packed with shelves that there is barely room to walk around it. Somehow, even with this abundance of shelves, they still managed to cram in four small tables and Eike's desk, along with a full set of chairs. If there are too many shelves, however, there are certainly too many books--They line the shelves, packed side to side, and sit stacked in the dozens on top of the shelves, tables and desk and, when all else fails, in small piles on the floor. Still, the room is well lighted with a full set of windows and a simple, hanging set of candles. ===== Well, the last few days have certainly been packed with excitement! One can't say Budehuc is ever boring, that's for certain. It's every adventurer's dream! At least... every adventurer lucky enough not to take a bath with Viki. That folly is something Alanis will be positive to /never/ do again, even if it means taking a bath in a remote part of the lake, or lugging buckets of hot water up to her room by herself. Work is no deterrant, if it keeps her away from the horror of the teleporter girl! And that incident is what brings her to the library today, in part. She would rather avoid the sublevel for a little while, and going downstairs means she might encounter Viki, so what does that leave, exactly? Reading, of course! The girl enters the library quietly, slipping inside like a red shadow. Magic or adventure novels - whatever manages to catch her fancy first! Budehuc is never boring. How.. unfortunately true. At all hours and at all places, it seemed as if the bustle was outright -unavoidable-. It really didn't seem to matter -where- one was in the entirety of this castle. For the attempt to find reasonable quiet--Or, perhaps, merely sanity--Seemed nearly futile. Amazing how such a small castle could feel so -crowded-, merely because the population was so intent on causing as much trouble as humanly possible. But there is no reason to dwell upon such unnecessary things, is there. Even if Sasarai had seen rudeness, teleporting mishaps, fits of delusion in the castle master and the castle nearly burning to the ground in his short stay here, such momentary inconsiderations were really ultimately quite minor. There was something to be -done- here, a greater -reason- to remain. The.. interesting company could be forgiven in the light of much more pressing concerns. All the same, a moment of quiet was nothing to spit at. For that reason, Sasarai has taken to the library today, having taken a seat neatly at the back before one of the small tables, crammed in a space too small to comfortably hold it. But he seems content enough, with a huge, thick-bound book at his hands. Some historical text, it seems, though the title is well worn off. Budehuc didn't have a selection befitting his general interests but.. Well. One did well to pass the time as best they could. It was certainly preferrable to idleness. The library seems relatively empty. Alanis breathes a faint sigh, quite relieved. Even the creepy librarian isn't around today. He's actually quite nice when it comes to looking for books, but at the moment, she would rather avoid /all/ company, if possible. There's no guarantee anyone will remember her face from the town square, but understandably, she'd rather not find out! Besides, it seems that anyone who catches sight of her peeking at magic books things she's up to no good. And what, exactly, did she do to deserve that reputation? She's only come close to singing two people, and that wasn't /her/ fault. That brings another sigh, and she starts weaving her way toward the back of the library, where Eike had set aside a selection of books for her studies. That really /was/ nice of him. But before she can reach her little corner, she stops, rigidly still, biting her lip. It's occupied. That wouldn't be terrible normally, but this person... oh dear. The bishop. Strange, isn't it. How, even when one is absorbed into a sea of text, completely distracted in a book, that you can -still- feel the force of someone staring at you. It's fairly easy to ignore at first--The quiet sound of a door pushed open and slid shut, the sound of soft footfalls across a library. The mind barely recognizes that someone is there, despite how obvious it is. Well. The Bishop does not even respond for the longest moments. He turns a page. And then he carefully closes the book on the table before him, keeping a finger between the pages to mark his spot. Only then does he finally look up. Simply a young girl? Strange. With the way that things were want to go these days, he had half expected some sarcastic strategist or vapid sorceress to have snuck up on him. This girl was not only unfamiliar, but looked rather disconcerted. "Excuse me, but is there something you need?" Calm words, an even tone. Sasarai was never one to talk down to children. Alanis bites down on her lip hard enough that it goes white, almost hard enough to draw blood. Is he annoyed? Has she offended him already? No! She really didn't mean to interrupt him. Stupid, stupid to just stand there staring at him. What was she /thinking/? "I-I'm sorry!" Her voice seems terribly loud in the silence, and maybe just a little panicked. He won't /really/ be cruel, will he? She claps her hands together and bows the way she remembers from Harmonia, keeping her head down. Maybe proper manners will keep him from being terribly angry. "I didn't mean to interrupt you, Bishop! I'm sorry!" Maybe she should have just stayed in her room and idled her time away staring out the window. How terribly boring. But at least it wouldn't get her killed! Ah... That was.. Unexpected. That was the sort of jerky panic that one would expect from a Harmonian, perhaps, one of the particularly paranoid servants. But a young girl at Budehuc Castle? That is truly unexpected. And, considering the circumstances, rather unnecessary. Sasarai blinks, just a little, before he responds, "There is no reason to apologise. You didn't interrupt anything of importance." What? He was simply reading. It wasn't as if she did anything distracting. She had every right to be in this library, did she not? But, er, none of this is particularly -comforting-, is it? Er. At the moment, perhaps, it is better to -explain-. Calm and reasonable and clear. "Honestly, there is no reason to be distraught." So he /says/. Alanis straightens slowly and wrings her hands together, unable to actually look /up/ at the bishop, but she makes an attempt - her gaze lands somewhere on the book he's holding. That's... technically looking at him, isn't it? His hand is there. "Of... of course, I'm sorry." She tries to moderate her tone. After all, it wouldn't do to offend him while trying not to offend, right? Oh, how is she supposed to /do/ this? She never got the chance to talk to anyone this important in Harmonia, she doesn't know the proper etiquette... Just /look/ at her now - she has wanted to ask him questions for /days/, and when she finally gets the chance... This is something she should have thought through before looking for him. But then, she hadn't planned on running into him in the library. At least he hasn't said anything ominous... yet. "You... you're not offended, then...?" Please no, please no... "Of course not." Really. Sasarai was not a -petty- man. There certainly were people in this world who would concieveably fuss over something so stupid as a child bothering to address them.. But goodness knew that Sasarai fell nowhere in their ranks. On the contrary, really. Sad as it was, this was quite easily the most polite and formal addressing he had been given so far. ...There is something highly disappointing about that. An entire castle of people, and every one of them feels that they can mock, prod, harrass, humiliate or, at the very least, address the Bishop by first name right off the bat, and only a little girl thinks to show some sort of proper deferrance. Disconcerting, that. "You're more than welcome to stand. I hadn't meant to startle you, if that's the case." Relief! It's a sweet medicine, and Alanis relaxes visibly, and stops trying to contort her hands into inhuman shapes. They fall to her sides, and start to toy with the hem of her coat nervously, almost as if they have minds of their own. "I didn't know you were here, Bishop. I... well, I..." Here's her chance - he's sitting in front of her, he looks calm, and he even said he wasn't offended to have her there. These are good signs! But it would be bad to just blurt out her questions without a care for courtesy - her parents taught her better manners than that. It's just a shame they didn't teach her how to talk to someone like this. Maybe honesty is the best policy, since... he /seems/ okay... please, don't let this offend him! "I just... don't know how to address you properly... and..." It sounds ridiculous when it comes out of her mouth and she sighs, frustrated with herself. She didn't have this problem with Lady Chris, or Master Thomas. Well, not before the bath incident... Why can't she do things right with the bishop? Manners? What? Someone at Budehuc has manners? The very notion! Ahem. No, no. But there is a fine line between being polite and being -petrified-, and this girls seems to have crossed it long ago. And that is a little unnecessary, isn't it? So Sasarai can simply continue on with the best kindness he can offer to this strange and terrified young woman--He is simply persistantly, reasonably calm. "And that is no reason to worry. This library is open to all, after all." There is no set rule, that is, that all must flee when the Bishop is having his reading time. Tempting as it is, in one's darkest moments. And to that last bit? Ah. A simple, slight shake of his head, "You have done fine so far. Honestly, though I should not be so blunt, I doubt that you need to concern yourself so much. There are those in this castle who have been far more blunt than you have been and have not offered as much as an apology." Actually, she hasn't been blunt at all. But that isn't the point. He smiles then, a small gesture, but present nonetheless, and adds, "It is fully possible to remember one's manners and still be able to speak." Alanis nods silently, staring from the book, to her hands, and back to the book again. She is relaxing, little by little, her voice becoming just a bit calmer, steadier. She isn't /shaking/ anymore, but hopefully he didn't notice that in the first place. She has always been very good at hiding things like that, and usually, she's better at containing her emotions, too. Let's just blame this all on surprise, and be done with it. "May I sit down with you?" Finally, she manages to look up at his face. That should make it easier to gauge what he's feeling, yes? She gestures meekly to a stack of books at the corner of his table, and bites her lip. Magic tomes, all of them, and fairly dry-looking, if you're familiar with the study. "I usually... sit there..." Excellent. There's no reason for some little girl to be absolutely wetting her pants simply because she ran into the Bishop, after all. It is an unfamiliar situation, certainly enough, but.. Is not everything in Budehuc? Really, at this rate Sasarai is going to be completely desensitized to the notion of completely strange people coming up out of the blue to talk to him. Hm. Well. This certainly isn't Harmonia. What can be? "If you would like. I hadn't meant to take your spot." Not that that was really anything he was concerned about. Could she not sit at another table, in that case? But.. Well. She did ask. And as long as he can see no harm, and she isn't intent on making a nuiscance of herself, then there is absolutely no problem at all. He said yes? That's another spot of relief for her. Alanis still hesitates, but that could be offensive to, so she quells her nervousness and pads over to the table. "Thank you, Bishop..." There, she can't start being rude /now/, just because he's being so nice. She pulls out the chair across from him and sits with a tug of skirt, and her pigtails swinging. The table is small, but there seems to be enough room for both of them, so she takes a moment to examine the books. It's a long moment, because far from thinking of the titles and what they might mean for the contents of the books, she's trying to scrape up the nerve to talk to him again. He's obviously not in here to strike up random conversations. He was, in fact, in the middle of reading something... but this is her chance, maybe her /only/ chance. She bites her lip again, and pulls a book on Gate magic out of the stack. It looks like some kind of essay on the Million worlds, actually, but it must be important, if it was referenced so much elsewhere. It also looks... boring. Extremely, boring. She opens it, and turns to the first page, and then straightens again. Now or never, and hopefully he won't be terribly annoyed. "May I... ask you something, Bishop? If it's not too much trouble," she says in a rush, looking up through her bangs. "I don't want to disturb you..." What, you -dare- ask the Bishop a -question-!? Twenty lashes with a spike-covered poke! Cough. No, no, no. None of that. It seems, for quite a long moment, that this odd conversation is over. The girl takes a seat with a polite little 'Thank you'--Sasarai gives but a polite nod in response--And falls completely quiet. The Bishop does not even give much consideration to whatever book she tugs out of the stack and lays before her. He simply returns to his own, opening it right to where it was before in one smooth gesture. Now, where was he.... Hm? A moment, a pause, and he looks up once more with a slightly curious blink. Though this was quite predictable. "A question?" Certainly, it couldn't be anything too strange. What sort of things would pique the curiosity of a child, after all? "Well, I cannot see why not, though I may not have the answer you're looking for." And she wasn't.. Well, okay, she -was- disturbing his reading time. But the world wouldn't shake to its foundations and implode because of it. He can certainly spare a moment. "Well..." And now that she's wasting his time, she had better not waste very much of it! Alanis tries to pull herself together and show a little bravery, or at least keep herself from stumbling over her words. She wants to look respectable, not idiotic. Deep breath. And don't talk to fast, or it might sound like gibberish. "I want to learn magic, and... my father had me tested in Harmonia, and I want to go to school there, but..." No, no, this is coming out all wrong. That just sounds pathetic! But she already said it. "But, someone here told me that... maybe you would know something about that... about going to school, and learning magic..." Oh, she must sound... and this is terribly awkward, now that she's saying it... if only she had someone here with her, like Mamie. /She/ knows how to just spit something out, and not worry about how it sounds. "They said... that I should ask /you/ to teach me. No one else can..." Alanis's grip on her book shakes, and she looks down. That just... wasn't the way she had imagined saying this. /What/ must he think... -- Unfinished --