Hefting yet another box of books outside and leaning against a sore back.
"This would be so much easier with magic"
[Wraithvine shows up] "Someone say magic?"
"You don't mind helping clean a library?"
[Wraithvine with a grin] "Libraries are my favorite places to relax."
"Great, grab a box" -- Anon Guest
[AN: Wraithvine's a lot more subtle than that, lol]
Moving a library is difficult business. It has to be done when the old library runs out of room or falls victim to building decay... or when the visitors dry up and they need to be closer to people who want to read.
Libraries are temples to the goddess of wisdom and knowledge, and temples need worshippers.
This one had slowly fallen from grace. So slowly and so far that there was just one priestess left to load the wagons and move the tomes from one archive to another. The wagons were large, but the draughtbeasts were phlegmatic and very tame. The library, too, was large. Priestess Laurin moved things carefully of course. Packing scrolls, tablets, and tomes with care and caution. Stacking them just so in each cart. And when she got there, she would have to revise, review, refile, and reference all of them.
At least she'd have help for that.
As it was, she was alone with a lot of work in a temple that was soon to become another thrilling Adventurer destination. After the ghouls, monsters, and abominations moved in. Such was the cycle of places, much like the cycles of life.
Two days of loading the carts while the draughtbeasts grazed, and she'd only just cleared out the archive stacks. There were still rooms upon rooms of books in the more public shelves to pack, move, and pack onto the wagons.
Her back hurt.
A second set of footsteps in the emptying halls startled her. She had a hefty box in her hands when she found an Elven Wizard looking about the vacant rooms. "Sorry, we're closing down."
"It's just you here?" said the Elf. "I'd thought that libraries moved when there were more to do so. This place is abandoned."
"It gradually got so," Laurin sighed. "I guess I was hoping it would come good again, but... There's no hope for this old place."
"May I help?"
"Please!"
Ze bade her stick to loading the wagons, since she knew best how to pack which box where. In a moment, boxes floated to her as of borne by invisible servants. When she took each one, it was lighter than a feather. She checked. They were full of heavy reading. All neatly packed. All easy to sort once they reached their destination.
The carts were filled in less than two days. Laurin offered the Elf a ride to her destination.
She was halfway there when she learned her Wizard helper was Wraithvine hirself.
[Photo by Prateek Katyal on Unsplash]
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