The machine was annoying to use. There wasn't much else she could say about it. Llewellyn did appreciate that she had a rack of spare mana foci for it. She was struggling to copy books because she'd come upon an idea that Travis had greatly approved of. "I need more language books. It's almost like people don't want to write them."

"I told you to just buy some, right? Doesn't anyone in Home or Polfay have them?" Travis asked the librarian.

It was hard to not agree with him, but Llewellyn had never been one to enjoy travel. The only reason she'd signed on to Northridge in the first place was it worked out better than becoming some book-maker's apprentice—after she'd already completed an apprenticeship. She finally decided to simply come out and say it. "I know I might be a little strange, but I don't like cities and people." The words and tone seemed a bit blunter than she'd hoped. "Wait, I mean I don't like lots of people at once. It's so—"

"Draining. You can handle a few at a time, and even then you like to recharge afterward with some quality alone time?"

Frozen, barely able to do anything but nod, Llewellyn tried to think how Travis had known. In the end she asked him.

"Uh, it's sort of a well-known thing where—" He stalled out before spilling the beans that only his closest friends knew. "You're what is known as an introvert. You expend energy for social interactions and recover it with close personal ones, or simple alone time. It's pretty normal."

"What do you mean, 'normal'? I—I've never told anyone else this. How would you know what's normal and what isn't?" In her panic, Llewellyn had grabbed up the ever-present lizard that hung around on her desk and pulled it into a hug.

"Because—" The restriction was annoying Travis too much now. "Because I wasn't always a dungeon. Something made me into a dungeon here, and before that, I knew a lot more about this stuff because I was human. This is normal. Not everyone is the same."

The lizard in her arms flicked its tongue out to lash at Llewellyn's chin. She had a seemingly unlimited budget, access to whatever book she could want to buy, and a city that seemed intent on investing her with powers she neither needed nor particularly wanted—and yet she was arguing with one of her patrons who was being nice to her.

She closed her eyes and warded away her doubts and annoyances—at least the ones pertaining to Travis. "Very well. But, I'm taking Sir Sunbathe."

"The noble knight will surely protect you, but will you require someone to carry things and talk to loud people?" Travis asked. Realizing she was introverted made it easier for him to understand why she'd been standoffish on some topics.

It had been easy to accept that Travis now linked to two major cities, but something else for Llewellyn to step out of his entrance in the capital and actually be there. There was a feeling of being hemmed-in. Of the city itself crowding her. Closing her eyes, she prepared to step backward into the dungeon once more when a shadow loomed up before her. The figure was huge. No longer a kobold, Fife was a juggernaut that could cast any fighter in shadow.

Robert saw the way the human woman seemed to calm. "Are you feeling okay?"

"Y-Yeah. Is she always like that?"

"Tall and willing to put herself between people and danger? Yeah, that's Fife's thing." Gesturing forward, Robert added, "Where's the nearest bookshop? Fife, can you make a path for us? Let's get to the end of this street."

Fife had taken the odd request from Travis in stride. "Be her wall and be more interesting than her." She held her twelve-foot polearm upright, content that she was the most visible thing in the street, and began marching past all the wagons headed to and from Travis. Louder, she told Robert, "Tell me when to stop." Being a nine-foot tall dragon warrior, even without any weapons drawn, led to people moving to the side and parting before her like the ocean around a dreadnought under speed.

Looking around, Llewellyn could see the keep wall beside them, but that was as much location she knew. "Oh, uh, my old bookshop was near the keep—which we are—but I think it's on the other side of the entrance. I guess I need some maps too." As they walked along, though, and she saw the big gate of the keep, she figured out where they were. "Umm, onto the road here for three buildings, then the shop is the next on the left."

"Wait for Robert to say it," Travis told Fife. "Thanks for this, Fife."

Delaying as requested, Fife shrugged her big shoulders. "You know I'm happy to put myself in the way of trouble. It doesn't always have to carry a weapon."

Travis was stunned at the reply. He had no way of knowing if Llewellyn was following the conversation, particularly since she was missing half of it, but he was reminded how lucky he'd gotten.

The group made their way to the shop that Llewellyn had described, and while Fife waited outside, she and Robert headed in. The smell of books and the familiarity of the layout helped Llewellyn relax. The assistants might be unfamiliar to her, but they were using Saxys' sorting system, which while inferior to the one Travis had explained, was at least one she knew well. Before one of the assistants could engage with them, the old lizard himself approached. "Master Saxys," Llewellyn dipped her head, "it's a—"

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"Don't give me none of that master business, Mistress Llewellyn of Northridge. And no bowing either. Rumors abound of my apprentice who took a chance and became a Keeper of Knowledge for a new city." Saxys gestured to the back room of the store where he saw to his more elite guests and friends. "Come, if I deserve anything from you, it's your story—so I might brag to my peers."

Travis, watching through Robert, kept quiet and simply observed. The cues Llewellyn's old master gave implied he knew of her preference: he'd smiled and beckoned to her, but had not once attempted to make physical contact. It certainly explained how she'd managed to survive in a city despite her introverted tendencies.

A little dazed by her former mentor's warm demeanor, Llewellyn followed him into the back room. She'd been here before, of course. Senior apprentices would clean and serve refreshments there. A little worry began to worm into her, of being alone with him, but then she heard claws clacking on the hardwood floor at her side.

Robert noticed the merchant raise an eye ridge in his direction as he followed along. "You'll forgive me intruding," he said, following the little script he and Travis had made up, "but I am here entirely to serve Mistress Llewellyn as her assistant. I am sworn to her service for the duration of our time here."

Waving it off, Saxys gestured to the seats at the table. "Please, then, have a seat. Rumors abound of a northern city book merchant buying not only one of every book they can, but also ordering a small fortune in book duplication equipment."

Llewellyn started at the beginning. She imagined her life after leaving the capital as a book, and read it aloud for him. She didn't think it was very interesting until the siege of Northridge and Travis. Well, the latter was, she mused, why the city had survived the siege. "He's why I'm here today."

"This is your patron, a Sir Travis?" Saxys had taken plenty of notes, given the time of turmoil they were in. He'd heard a lot of this Travis, but hadn't managed to find what noble house he was part of.

Seeing Llewellyn looking a little unsure on this point, Robert cut in to explain. "Travis is a dungeon in Northridge. He's here in Home, too. I'm here as a representative and to assist the Keeper of Knowledge."

Reaching to his top pocket and lifting out a pair of glasses, Saxys clipped them to the top of his snout and looked at his second guest. "You're not a lizard-kin."

"Robert Arskith, guild-certified alchemist and kobold, at your service."

Having a kobold speak so clearly and claim to be a certified member of a guild was, to Saxys, something rather new. "And you say Sir Travis is your dungeon?"

"It's hard to believe, I know. I thought I was losing myself when he started talking to me. He likes books and wants people to be able to read them, but there's one project he asked me to prioritize." Taking out a notepad, Llewellyn flicked through to the right page and slid it across the table to Saxys. "I need language primers for each of these."

"You want language primers for…" Taking off his distance glasses and reading the notes, Saxys snorted in amusement. "Every language spoken in the kingdom, two different Northern languages, and the ancient languages of our ancestors?"

With the way he'd asked, Llewellyn felt a little worried. She knew several of those books would be rare. When she looked at Robert, though, his smile reminded her that she still hadn't found an end to Travis' "unlimited budget." She nodded. "That's all of them. If you have any other languages, I would like to negotiate prices for those too."

"And you intend to copy them? Will you distribute them throughout the kingdom, or retain them in Northridge?" No matter which path would be taken, Saxys intended to make a tidy profit on the books. "If the latter, I don't need to fear competition."

Taking a slow breath, Llewellyn began to explain, "I intend to teach any who wants to learn, and will provide copies of the books to assist my students. Language, I believe, is the most important first step in understanding. From there I also want to teach mathematics, mechanics, basic alchemy, and spellcraft." As she finished her list, Llewellyn felt foolish. It was an insane idea. People learned what they needed for their craft and no more. Why would a soldier need to know alchemy? A merchant magic?

"And you believe this Travis can afford all this?" Saxys asked.

"Write a price you think the first set of books would cost," Robert said.

"At their most expensive, if you intend to distribute these to anyone…" Saxys took the offered pencil and went down the list of books. He wrote gold values beside each. There were two that were astronomical, completely lacking sense or reason, but he knew every price instinctively. "You would be making every other copy of these books practically worthless, you understand. So this is my price."

"That's a lot for a pile of books," Travis said into Robert and Llewellyn's heads, "but if it makes them free from now on, I'm happy to make him rich enough to buy a title. It's only gold. Llewellyn, you can tell him that I'll pay that."

Looking at the page again, Llewellyn's mouth went dry. There were a lot of numbers there, and in her head she summed them up afresh and got the same number that Saxys had put at the bottom of the column. "That would be within budget."

The ancient language book, of the lot, accounted for fifty percent of the price. Saxys had kept it more for nostalgia and his hoarding instinct than for any eventual buyer. He could retire with the gold from this sale. "I'll have the paperwork drawn up and the books wrapped appropriately. How will you be paying?"

Robert took that as his cue. "Would a promissory note from the Sellswell merchant's bank suffice?" he asked, taking a blank one from a pocket and setting it on the table before him. "This is all the books you want, ma'am, or were there others?"

Llewellyn stared at Robert for a few seconds, sure that someone would tell her this was a big joke and the fortune worth of books was either far cheaper or she couldn't have them, but she finally had to agree that this was the reality her life had become. "Perhaps I should take a look around in case there's something else?"

Standing up, Saxys gestured to the door back out into the shop. "I'll prepare your special order while you browse." He was somehow unsurprised that the kobold sitting at his table began setting up tools to ink the final value of the note.

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