Chapter 8

Danel was stifling a yawn as the luncheon wound down and the last speech concluded. They had one more gauntlet to run, a brief reception with fourteen Orders who would introduce their leading priests and priestesses. Danel wanted to pull aside his classmates and compare notes, yet the choreography of the day foiled any attempt at even the briefest of conversations.

He went to the front of the small dining room when his name was called. He handed off his yellow cord to Second and accepted his green cord from the Head Librarian. He bowed and returned to his seat. Back at his seat at the table, he was given a sheet with all the details of his elevation to green cord. The details were a long list. He folded the sheet and tucked it into the inside pocket of his robe.

His definition of brief and the Orders’ definition of brief were far apart. Each priest and priestess tried their best to outdo the other with graciousness and decrees of cooperation. Danel smiled politely, saying little. Frage on the other hand, had a feral smile and returned their offers with pointed questions that saw more than one face quiver. He speculated what her new assignment was.

When they were finally released from the official obligations of the afternoon, he rushed to his classmate colleagues. They had obviously already spoken because they had had time to exchange notes while he waited alone for his interview with Head. They lingered in a sloppy circle in the first hallway down the corridor.

“Well?” Bello asked. “What is your assignment?”

“Explorers’ Cadre,” Danel spit out. His five friends looked confused. “I am remapping parts of the Library of Ibados and seeking out lost catalogs.”

Yoodma visibly shuddered at his description. “You can have it. I’ve been assigned to event planning. I’m to oversee our visiting dignitaries and delegations. Most importantly, I am to keep them out of Head’s and Second’s hair. I must coordinate with the staff, the guilds, and whatever else they require.”

Bello smiled, “Head gave me a choice between master catalog revisions or junior liaison to the Orders. I chose the Orders after last night’s incident with the historian, and he gave me both. I’m not sure I received a promotion.”

“Sure you did,” Danel said, “you have been nominated the perpetual motion workhorse.”

They all chuckled.

Nugerbrad shook his head. “At first, I wanted to bash in your head, Danel. He called me ‘Gerber.’ Then he told me he shortened my name because I was stepping into administration in Second’s offices and two syllables was all I would get for a name. ‘Nuger’ has connotations that no one wants to hear. My name is Gerber; here me roar.”

“Head accused me of having the patience of a saint,” Edel said. “Thus, I am assigned to oversee the wizards and their program. He told me it was a dirty, nasty job that was absolutely necessary. The Librarians have had no one in the position for twenty years and neither of our fearless leaders had the capacity to deal with their nonsense on a daily basis. He suggested weekly visits for deep muscle massage therapy from the Neftali Order. He also told me to sharpen my tongue and research jungle-specific leadership models. I guess I will be learning how to rip out the throats of wizards with my bare teeth.”

“And we all have sorting duty,” Frage added. “Assignments are handed out at breakfast every morning.” Danel looked at her expectantly. “I have been assigned to the three-person team who is responsible for the negotiation of fees for using the Library of Ibados and its Librarians. These are complex procedures that involve large sums of money and goods in trade. None of you qualified because you apparently spend too much of your time thinking with your small head.”

“Guilty as charged, “Danel said. “We are all going in different directions. Deliberate?”

Gerber bounced his head in a “so-so” motion. “I believe there is capacity for one hundred Librarians in the apartment areas. Our numbers bring the complement to barely over half-staff, but still significantly below what I would have expected. I think Head is plugging us in the largest of the gaping holes, the most time-consuming ones at the minimum, but that there are plenty of other voids he is forced to ignore.”

Yoodma pointed out they had been a class unto themselves, keeping company with only the six most of the time. Perhaps they were now forcing the new green cords to mix with the rest of the Librarians, she suggested. Frage countered that they already mingled at the daily breakfast. Edel had no opinion to offer except to say the personalities attracted to the Librarianship tended not to be extroverted. “We are still six against the world,” Edel exclaimed, holding up his fist.

Danel hesitated but decided to ask anyway, “Do any of you have assignments that bring you into contact with the gods?”

Frage snorted. “I was specifically warned that if a priest or a prince makes such a suggestion, I was to beat them senseless.”

Yoodma chimed in, “I, too, was warned that if a guest asks to meet with a god, the proper response was ‘Oh Hell, no.’”

Danel nodded, determining to cover his slip, “I was told to run the other way, and never, never look back.” He shook himself as if he was letting his imagination take too much leash. “I still have more obligations this afternoon.”

One after another, the rest said they were done for the day. The next order of the day was packing up their belongings and moving immediately to their new rooms with real beds and private indoor plumbing. They also admitted they had each received a reading list and the promise of a new textbook for their assignments. Bidding each other well, Danel went in one direction and the rest took off towards the apartments.

As he approached the stairwell to which he was directed, he was greeted by the Head Librarian. “You didn’t think I was going to abandon you in your time of need, did you?” he said to Danel. Danel bowed in response. “This is one of those stairways, the ones you like that everyone should avoid. When summoned, you only use this one. The summons will come through the Orders if it’s one of their gods, probably some checks and balances system. In any case, you cannot go up the staircase without an invitation. No Librarians have broken the rule to the best of our recorded knowledge, but more than a handful of ‘the chosen’ among the Orders have gone without a summons and none have returned. The summons is rare and, in your case, pulled out of the thin air. None knew what your assignment would be before I told you. This summons is most troublesome, but everything involving a god begins as troublesome and escalates from there. Danel, this time I expect you to return. Someone will be waiting.”

Danel bowed again and stepped through the unremarkable doorway. He ascended the stairs, quite conscious that he was not going up to the Fourth Floor, as if there was one. He saw a door on the top landing and the door had a knob.

He reached up to grasp the knob and dropped his hand again. Rotating his jaw a few times did little to lessen the tension in his body. He dropped his head, letting his head roll side to side a few times before deciding his indecision was making his anxiety worse, not better. Grabbing the knob, he blew out one last blast of air from his lungs and pushed the door open.

At first, he was shocked, and he had to chuckle. He was standing in a Mayar tearoom straight out of a picture book, similar if not the same as the royal receiving room of the first great emperor of the Mayar kingdom, Elistoyatoi, the Master of the Holy Weapon, Yatoi. Danel did not know which patron god Elistoyatoi worshiped, but he was willing to make an educated guess.