FreeHolds Adventure, Cycle 2 Part 2c
Tipper liked the Library of GreensBridge. One of the largest collections of books, scrolls and tablets in the world. The library was the largest building on the campus. Originally of Eldra design, the main entry was on the south facing, while its three wings; north, west and east, were three stories above ground and two below. Each had a large round tower, at the outer end of each wing. The towers were of five stories above and three below ground. It was commonly said that this structure was the main inspiration of Elquin architecture during the Second Kingdom period.
The library’s next closest rival for sheer volume of the written word was actually the university’s administration building. Otherwise, across the known world, only the Library of Holdendon in Maldorn and the Sanctum of Archives in the Tannican Holy City could compare. According to local lore neither institute of the capital city of Tannica nor Maldorn could compare to the Library of GreensBridge.
Tipper entered the library through the main doors. Well lit by natural light from twelve south facing windows, six to either side of the doors, the foyer featured displays of historic artifacts from around the freeholds. Much of it was from collections of ancient artifacts and art from the first humans, the ellodran and the elves. Some of the artifacts were said to be over ten thousand years old, about half of it came from GreensBridge or the surrounding regions. The other half of the artifacts came from more distant regions; Swampdon and the Loopee hills from the north. Els’Vain Hoff and the Children of the Sun from the east. Rohg Mokh Talh and the now extinct western Pwhanna tribes. West Port and the River Folk from the south. Frescoes lined the upper two thirds of the walls and the famous tile mosaic called Arrival of the Ancients was in the dome above.
Many people travelled from around the world just to see the library’s foyer and while Tipper was interested in such things, she had seen much of it before during her first visit to the city nearly thirty years ago. Her interest today lead her to the second floor of the north wing where all the materials on Maldorn could be found, but first she wanted to check the city’s laws on being of mixed blood.
The level above the foyer was dedicated to historic and living laws of GreensBridge, the most recent charters were framed and mounted along the wall. She skimmed through the laws on magic and magical beings and found nothing that made being of elvin or ellodran blood illegal. Though interestingly enough it was illegal to be a drake within the city. She wondered about that, how would you know? It was also illegal to support or shelter a drake for any purpose as they were considered the enemies of all free beings. Part of her wanted to delve further into that subject, but there were more pressing issues. Maybe she could have a conversation regarding drakes the next time Argis Greenman and she crossed paths.
The second floor of the north wing had fewer artifact and art and considerably fewer scrolls and older books, though it claimed the largest collection of machine printed books outside of Maldorn. With the help of a grey haired, matronly looking librarian she located the materials on Maldorn’s first ruling queen. After a couple of hours of skimming through various books she found three that covered the Bane. It took several hours to read through the material and to take notes, she was not overly familiar with the language. By noon she had what she needed, specifically the date the Bane was unleashed, as well, an accounting of the myriad unintended consequences from a number of sources.
Tipper had also found a reference to a book called Hunting Dragons by Dray Bergundy, and then found a hand printed, leather bound copy in the library. Apparently Dray had been the brother of Ajax Bergundy, a famous Maldorn bard who travelled the freeholds extensively. Dray was less broadly travelled than his brother but had spent much of his life hunting and killing drakes and wyrms along the Great Barrier Mountains to the north. At first glance the book seemed very informative with plenty of information about dragons and how best to kill them. She inquired with one of the librarians about an Andalee translation but apparently copies of the book in the freehold’s language often went missing. The matronly librarian suggested a couple of book sellers who might have a copy for sale.
After taking note of the book sellers’ names and location Tipper returned her attention to her present research project;
Queen Maritha Thayla Paciel had intended to strike a lethal blow against the drakes of the world. This had come about after it was revealed that many of the dragons had infiltrated human society and were engaged in some sort of contest amongst themselves, now referred to as the Game of Drakes. The queen and a circle of Maldorn’s most powerful mages had acquired the Book of Hod and used one of the great spells within the tome to strike what they thought would be a decisive blow against the dragons.
It had almost worked, though it not only attacked the drake, but all magical creatures and items across the known world, and likely beyond. Many of the mages who were involved in the casting of the spell were killed. Magic items were destroyed as well as other folk from all the races who had a gift for magic. One of the authors speculated that for each drake that succumbed to the spell a dozen other people died and a hundred magical items were rendered mundane or destroyed outright. Not all the drakes had died either, at the time the book was published the author claimed that from all known sources of information they could account for only thirty dragon deaths.
Queen Maritha had been Maldorn’s fifth monarch, the Bane was unleashed in the third year of her reign, or 124 New Kingdom (NK), two hundred and fifty six years ago.
Tipper recalled that her own grandmother had spoken of her mother’s time and the Hard Years and the collapse of the Darner Hall. That had been approximately two hundred and fifty years ago, a little over four generations for her people.
Now that she had verified the date of the Queen’s Bane and its effect on mages and enchanted items, Tipped would need to find other sources describing the consequences for other peoples and places from the same period. Ideally something relating to the Eldra would be best, though unlikely, but reports from multiple other sources should verify her theory. The first thing she needed to do was take a break and eat some food, it was nearly mid-afternoon.
There were three main dining halls on the campus, Long Hall was the largest and was situated central to the academic halls. Long Hall was one of the original Eldra buildings and could seat nearly a thousand people for special events but was typically set up to seat about four hundred people at a time. There were four modest amphitheatres at the cardinal points around the outside, each with a garden to either side. There were four large entry ways into the hall between the theatres, giving the building an oblong, octagonal shape. Probancruq Hall was the newest structure on the campus and was situated at the north end, it contained an impressive kitchen and served the academic staff and senior students and was near the on-campus residences. It has been built with funding from Parli’s grandfather. The third dining hall, simply called The Tavern, was at the south end of the campus and was primarily for support staff, located near the Arcanium and library. Originally a large tavern, build by dwarves, it had later been acquired by the university and converted into a dining hall, though the common room still served as a tavern. Given its nearby location Tipper decided to go eat there.
The dining halls each offered three main meals throughout the day, the hours for the main meals were staggered between the different halls allowing most people to get a good meal throughout the day. Even during non-standard meal times all three halls offered food to the students and staff, though it was typically leftovers from earlier meals. Tipper went to the kitchen entrance and found one of the staff that was not overly busy and asked for some food. In moments she was presented with a bowl of soup and a chunk of dry bread. Given that the kitchen side table was full of red robed Arcanium students she opted to eat at one of the outside tables. The cool temperature of the day kept other diners inside, she was happy to eat alone.
She sat facing the campus grounds with her back to The Tavern, the trees stood naked. Only the evergreen hedge rows and a few oaks were the exception and in the case of the oaks their leaves had tuned brown with only a bit of colour remaining on the most sheltered trees. The slush from earlier was mostly gone and no snow had accumulated previously. Other than one early, heavy snowfall there had been no serious weather yet. Still the yuletide was approaching and she suspected there would be a couple of storms before the end of the year.
After eating she returned her bowl and spoon to the kitchen, then took some time to stretch and, after gathering her satchel of books, she walked the long way around to the east wing of the library then entered through the tower’s door. The ground floor of the tower contained a similar display as the main entrance, though this one dealt mainly with artifacts from Elquin and the collection was less than half the size. She asked one of the librarians where she would be able to find records from Elquin dating back between two hundred and three hundred years ago. After she was shown where to look she spent some time hunting through the volumes, then, after pulling a half dozen likely books from the shelves she found an unoccupied table in a windowed alcove and started skimming the material. It was a time consuming endeavour as she was not familiar with the older versions of the Elquin language and there was different variations, depending on the region the books came from.
Tipper read well into the night, had not even paused when the sun set and was eventually asked to leave by one of the librarians. She was glad she had started working on this topic early.
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