Jien walked the shelves, aware that Julie was following him several steps behind. He was not bothered by this in the least, in fact he had thought the others would do the same as they usually would when they traveled together. Yet the majority had walked to the desk with the hooded attendants for guidance on resources.
As he passed along the towering shelves packed with colorful bindings he enjoyed the profound silence of the space, even though it was almost deafening in nature. After the first visit to this place he had grown more accustomed to the intensity of the lack of sound. The fact that even the sound of his beating heart and the blood flowing through his veins seemed as if muffled by a heavy snowfall.
It took several minutes of walking through the maze like aisles, seemingly endless in nature and pattern, before he stopped before a section of shelves. The section itself was shaped in the form of a narrow U with the center only being wide enough for two regularly proportioned teenagers to stand side by side. The shape was formed by three long shelves on either side and a single narrow but towering shelf in the center with the others being only twice as tall as Jien himself.
The center shelf had a single ladder that spanned the full height of the shelf, thin enough that one would barely have more room than to plant both their feet on a single wrung. Jien looked at the configuration of shelves thoughtfully for a moment, not quite sure how to tackle his search. This section was what was available for first year students regarding the other races but he was unsure how it was categorized, let alone whether what he wanted was even available among the books here.
For a moment he second guessed his decision to come here without asking the attendants downstairs for their advice on the matter. This feeling however did not last long, a light of determination and curiosity subtly glowing in his eyes. Half the enjoyment of learning was figuring it out on his own and he was confident that soon enough the others would be making their way here with whatever advice they had been given regarding their own reading resources.
Jien took a confident step forward and as he did Julie, who had been waiting silently behind him, also stepped forward. The library was very strict on the concept of silence. Talking to each other would have caused them both troubles so she was forced to keep her thoughts to herself until they were free of this suffocating prison. She continued to follow behind him as he looked over each of the shelves calmly, almost able to see his thoughts churning in his green eyes.
At times Jien would stop, pass his hand over the spine of a book and look at the inscribed title and author. For the time being his goal was simply to get his bearings among these books, ensuring that once he started his research he could be more efficient about it. As much as he enjoyed reading for pleasure and learning more, he took his studies here seriously. After all this was where he would build his path forward in the world. Only those who strove for it would be able to climb high in the Empire, whether socially, politically or in a trade.
After about twenty minutes of walking the shelves he had mapped out the placement of the books in this particular section. Though it was to be expected the resources regarding each race were grouped together. Within those groups different subjects would then be found in alphabetical order, followed by a different system that he couldn't quite understand that ordered the individual books.
Every book had a single metal plate of what looked like brass attached to the spine of the book with a singular complex rune stamped on it. The runes were nonsensical from everything that Jien had studied on the subject but he knew they had a purpose in how the books themselves were grouped and ordered. In the end, following these groupings he found that the sections regarding the Elves were actually on the slim but tall shelf.
Jien started his search on the lower shelves, knowing that even if he found what he needed there he had no intention of stopping his browsing until he had looked over the entirety of the shelf on both sides. As he skimmed the titles and authors on the various colorful spines he made sure to memorize the placement and titles of any that caught his eye. He had only made it halfway up the outside section of the shelf when others started to file in. It appeared that the others had finally finished receiving the guidance they needed.
The first was Rosalind who had decided to look into the dwarves smithing methods, or at least what could be extrapolated by looking at what the military could get their hands on. She was quick to browse the different sections until she found the one she needed. She pulled out a simple sheet of parchment and then quickly browsed the section, pulling out a pile of five different colored tomes of varying thickness. She then swiftly made to leave, smiling and waving to Jien when she noticed he was looking, earning her a wave in return.
As Rosalind raced off, likely to leave the eerie environment of the library so she could focus the others started to file in, following the same pattern. The only exceptions were Andrew and Barret who calmly browsed more than just the books that had been suggested, hoping to stumble upon something to inspire their work in one way or another.
After the bustle of his teammates coming and going had calmed down to just a few members he turned his eyes back to the section he had been perusing. It was then that he noticed an oddity. At the end of the shelf in front of him was a thin, green, fabric bound book with eloquent golden text spelling out simply 'Elves' in down the spine. The oddity was that the book lacked a brass plate with a rune. It was tightly packed along the edge of the shelf by several much larger tomes.