Chapter 36: Day 35

Day 35,

Huh, this’ll be the first market day since I arrived that I started already in the Village instead of the outskirts.  I hope Cass and family don’t wait around too long wondering where I am.

 

I’d hoped to see the market square as it was being set up for the day but, alas, as I’ve said before it’s far too easy to sleep in when your bedroom has no windows.  By the time I got there most people had already set up shop for the day and were already engaged in trade.  Fortunately for me, Kala the seamstress was among them.  We’d arranged that when she finished the alterations she’d take the clothes with her to market and could pick them up there and then, and so I did so.  I haven’t tried them on yet, but I’m thinking I might save them for when I’m doing more public archivist duty like the upcoming race.

Cass’s family arrived not too long after I’d picked up my refitted clothes and I went over to greet them and help unload as had become my habit.  I apologized to James for the change in routine and told him I hoped I didn’t keep them waiting around for me to show up, but he said that Cass was pretty certain I was already in town so it wasn’t that much of a delay.  It was at this point I reflexively glanced at my bronze bracelet and realized I’d forgotten to take it off to sleep last night.  A useful, if limited, substitute for this world not having phones I suppose.

From there, Cass and I returned to the library where we continued my logic-defying language lessons.  I’d been taking some time on my own since last week, so we made what I felt to be good progress.  We’re considering trying the copying of one of the more worn books I’d found as practice tomorrow.

There was also some discussion of where to go for our next “expedition.”  The old castle was brought up, but we’d need to find a boat for that and according to Pat the place could take days or even weeks to explore thoroughly and I wanted to keep to smaller outings for now so as to not keep her parents from worrying overmuch.  That ruled out most of the other nearby islands or trying to catch a ride on one of the floating ones as well.  I was both surprised and somewhat relieved Cass didn’t propose a trip to Cloud Tower.  A return trip to the cathedral ruins was sounding like our best bet for now.  Being the dry season however, we were unlikely to get another chance to hear the chanting voices, but maybe that’s a positive.

Our final decision actually came from one of the library visitors that came in today.  She made a comment about it being dark in here, and while it seemed fine to me, Cass confirmed that it was definitely dimmer in the archive than when I was here last week.  Most likely I just hadn’t noticed the gradual change since I was in here every day.  This did however get us on the topic of changing out the archives crystals and how accompanying whoever it is that takes the old one to the crystal cavern to recharge could be an… elucidating experience.  I’ll need either to track down Pat tomorrow or ask him during the race the day after to inquire how to go about making that request for replacements.

Back to the present, once I finish up writing here I’ll be joining at Marva and Norman’s for dinner again.  I think I’ll ask them about using their bathroom to wash before the race.  While the archive does have a hidden alcove bedroom, there’s no place to bathe or shower, and if I won’t be going back to the house tonight or tomorrow, things could get a bit… ripe.  At least the archive tends to be several degrees cooler than the outside so I’m not sweating too much spending my days in here.  It does make me wonder about the old archivist’s hygiene though if he was spending most of his days in here towards the end.  Suddenly using his old bed got a little less appealing.  At least both the one here and the one at the house seem to have been cleaned at some point after his death.

 

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