Chapter 9: A New Book and a New Dream

Standing in front of the small doorway, my daughter tugged at my hair. "come on papa! I want to go inside!", setting her down on the floor, Olive ran through the doorway disappearing from view.

My wife and I exchanged glances as we entered the dim corridor that stretched into the building.

'I hope she doesn't want anything expensive."

We had saved for the last six months in order to buy Olive a present. Hoping she would want something like a doll or maybe jewellery, even a new quill paper and ink would have been okay. Books on the other hand, tend to be quite pricy, especially at high-end establishments like this. Julia dropped Olive off here once a week, to read and let her genius mind feel a little strain in what must have been a dull day to day life. Normally she spent the days in the house while we were both out working. Pacing down the entranceway, we could apriciate the, now visible, intricate carvings that were etched into the walls. They cast distorted shadows that danced around int the cangle light. Aproaching the end of the walkway, a stream of white blocked our view of the room head of us.

-

Stepping into the light, we were greeted by a view that stunned me just as much as the first time I saw it. An oval room stood before us, highlighting the duct, golden beams of light shone down from above; where a round domed skylight was placed some forty feet upwards on the ceiling. Encompassing the walls of this magnificent room, stood oak wood bookshelves; the musty smell of the books that filled them saturated the air with heaviness.

-

It almost smelt like knowledge.

-

Across the white marbled floor, sat my daughter resting upon a pile of cushions. Settled down opposite her, the librarian, Mr. Sandon was chatting with her. Turning his head, a pair of light red eyes met my gaze. Smiling kindly, he beckoned us over to them. He looked like a perfectly sculpted statue, the way he turned back to intently listen to what Olive was talking to him about, his skin appearing umber in the golden light that radiated around the room.

"Five days." demanded Olive

"Four days, and two books a week" replied a deep strong voice

" How about four days, three books every ten days and a meal included for each shift."

"Deal."

It seemed we had interrupted a negotiation.

After a handshake, "Ah, Mr. and Mrs. Blackheart, lovely to see you again" Sandons voice, now directed at us, said. facing the two of us, Sandon went on to say "I have offered your daughter a job."

"A job!? Exclaimed Julia from next to me. "She's far too young to have a job!"

"This is a job for when she is old enough. Whenever you see fit.", taking a breath Sandon further explained, "We just negotiated the terms of the deal, It will be four days a week, Thursday through Sunday, she will get a meal for each shift, and, be able to take three books home with her every ten days. Base pay will be one Silver a shift. That sounds fair to me."

"...One silver a shift?" I asked hesitantly. This was a brilliant wage! I was lucky if I made even one a week at the mines. "Yes, If you feel it's appropriate."

Had I been drinking a glass of water, I may have choked. "That sounds perfect" I somehow managed to answer. "So Olive" I then said. "When would you like to start working?"

"I think Mama is right papa. I'm not bwig enough to work just yet. Maybe when I'm old enough I don't need naptime in the afternoon anymore?"

I think we were all a little taken aback at the maturity our daughter had in her words, normally she would be ecstatic at an opportunity like this, I mean, even I wanted her to start working as of tomorrow if possible. However, my wife was right. Little Olive is far too young to hold a regular working position, despite her intelligence.

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"Did you decide on a book you wanted to buy Olive?" asked Julia.

"Yeah! It's This one!"

Olive hauled a book about the size of her head across her lap. It had a black cover with golden writing scrawled across the front of It. I gulped, It looked pricey.

"What does it say?" I asked, unable to read the title. "It's about ancient and modern languages." The reply came from Sandon, "Half of the book is written in a code not even I have been able to decipher. It's just been gathering dust. With your staff..-- 'Wink'– discount, It'll be fifteen silvers"

That's a good price! I thought to myself, we had a budget of twenty five silvers at the most, so this is perfect. Reaching into my pocket, I began to draw out my money pouch. I heard the sound of coins jingling. For some reason however, the noise was resounding from my daughter. Stunned, my wife and I watched my daughter pull out the fifteen silver coins from her very own pouch and hand them one by one to the librarian.

"Where on the gods' green disc did you get tha—"

"Olive earned it herself, Hwmphh" Came a prideful reply from our daughter, "I've been saving up fwor a book fwor ages, so mama and papa didn't have to spend their money on me. You work very hard papa," she said looking at me. "And mama you do too".

Emotions welled up inside of me. The combination of pressure from working so hard for my family, mixed with the guilt of lying and pretending work was easy in front of Olive cumulated into tears as my eyes welled up with the salty discharge.

She had known our struggle all along.

'Mama' was also weeping, her stifled sobs echoing around the library. "Thank you Olive— 'Sob' —We love you so much, you didnt have to", with that said, we dragged her into a tight family hug. "Where on earth did you get that money?" I asked through the tears. "I've been dowing shopkeepers paperwork becasue they cant read." replied my daughter, "When mama goes out shopping and leaves me at home, They come and leave the papers under the door and I give them back when I finnish It in exchange for money"

I had no idea how Olive had even begun the process of doing this, not that it mattered.

A sharp cough broke us from the warm embrace we were sharing. "This is a library, regardless as to whether or not anyone else is inside it. You'll upset the books if you're too loud." came a serious voice, "Upset the books? Oh yes, I Apologise Sir" I replied hesitantly. I had heard some enchanted books had wills of their own, but never that they had feelings themselves. The tone of which Sandon had used, indicated that he wasn't fibbing.

Feeling we had overstayed our welcome, I grabbed Olive and her book whilst getting to my feet. "Thank you for your hospitality", I bowed shallowly. Sandon smiled in return

Drifting my attention to my family, I said "lets head home, We still have to bake our bread, and maybe we can get som food at the market afterall!" I winked at my wife. With that, we walked with high hopes back out the way we came, Olive waving goodbye to her new boss, as we entered the corridor that lead back out to the highstreet.

Olives Book

Chapters 1 - 6 The Four Modern Languages of the Central continent and How to learn them

Chapters 7 - 10 Lesser Languages and dialects

Chapters 11 - 16 - The Four Ancient languages

Chapters 17 - 21 - Writing and reading ancient symbols

Chapters 22 - 40 - Ancient Mana Ruins (this is all written in code)

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