Search for traps and treasure

[aestrix]

There is a library.

It is actually an excellent example of one: it has books on history and philosophy and astronomy and science and languages and even a little modest section for storybooks, tucked in a corner against the wall. These books are all easy to pick up off the shelves and read, like ordinary libraries.

The books on magic, on the other hand, are behind locked and spelled glass, with their position signatures scrambled and constantly shifting so they can't be teleported away, each one built to set off a silent alarm that'll alert the owner if touched, and to turn completely blank if opened without permission. And then burst into flames if someone tries to force it to show what it's hiding or tampered with in the wrong sort of way.

Just another day in Kystle. Stealing peeks from books in a mage's library is not recommended for the casual reader.

Comments

[all_too_familiar]

"I'm done eating cookies," says the person who hasn't had a one, "so why don't we go find out?"

[pythbox]

Tierval giggles.

To the library they go!

[aestrix]

The books have been rearranged!

"You can open that one now and read what's inside," she says, pointing. She grins at Tierval, looking impatient. "What are you planning, exactly...?"

[pythbox]

Tierval looks smug.

He pulls a blank sheet of paper out of his pocket, unfolds it flat on a table, and - casts a spell.

Now the formerly blank paper shows an accurate copy of the cover of the book.

[aestrix]

She raises an eyebrow, then scries it.

"... Wait, what?" she wonders after a pause. "Did you cram the entire book onto a page?"

[pythbox]

"Yep!" says Tierval. "And I bet I can do it faster with less mana, but that wasn't bad for a first try. If I wanted to steal a whole library this would be a lot more convenient than hauling in that many blank books, don't you think? It'll be kind of a pain to read, you can't flip through it, have to just keep 'turning the page' until you get where you want to be, and if there were any two-page illustrations it'll only show half at a time, but it's essentially a whole book on a single page."

[aestrix]

"Wow," breathes Kavet. "Yeah, that would be good at stealing an entire library. Would you put every book onto one page or a book on each page, you could fit them all into one book that way..."

[all_too_familiar]

Savril seems pretty content to just listen to this conversation. His expression's unreadable.

[pythbox]

"More than one to a page sounds complicated, it's probably easier to screw up that way," says Tierval. "One book per page and yeah, you could make a book of books out of 'em. And once you were safe at home with your bookbook you could maybe cast a few more spells to make the pagebooks easier to get around in."

Orion is listening to Tierval. Serin is looking at Savril, also unreadably.

[aestrix]

"Bookbook," she giggles. "Yeah, that sounds funny. It would be the saddest library, though - just one book."

[all_too_familiar]

Savril notices being watched. He smiles and waves.

[pythbox]

"Well, that's why you go out and steal a ton of libraries, obviously," says Tierval. "Have yourself a little library of bookbooks."

Serin smiles faintly at Savril. The precise timing of this smile with Tierval's words may or may not be a coincidence.

[aestrix]

Snort.

"That might get confusing, though! And if you had a ton of bookbooks, each for a specific library you copied, someone might notice and be upset."

[pythbox]

"Seems like I could solve both those problems at once by organizing the whole library into bookbooks on different subjects," Tierval suggests. "Well, and maybe hiding the really distinctive ones somewhere other than the main library."

[aestrix]

"I think that it's just a good idea in general to keep the really important stuff somewhere other than the main library," says Kavet earnestly. "Not just with distinct books, either, but the stuff that's dangerous and not helpful like shield surgery."

[pythbox]

"Evidently," says Serin.

"Yeah, that's a good idea too, obviously," says Tierval.

[aestrix]

Kavet gives Serin a confused and alarmed look.

She's briefly at a loss for words, before getting a hold of herself and continuing, "The shield surgery books are on the shelf you can grab, by the way."

[all_too_familiar]

Savril doesn't look surprised, but he does look vaguely sympathetic towards his sister. Poor dear. Someone needs to tell her what the term 'casing' is.

He wonders if the ten year old brigade knows where the secret library is, or just about its existence. Knowing where it is would be alarming, but - he's getting the feeling that it might just be completely impossible to keep these triplets out of things. Not that he won't try, but he has a hunch.

[pythbox]

"I noticed," says Serin.

"Serin," sighs Tierval.

"What?"

The two of them exchange a look. Serin blinks. "Oh. Sorry, then."

Orion looks curious and kind of amused; Tierval catches his expression and half-shrugs at him.

For the benefit of the non-triplets in the room, Tierval explains, "If one of us did something like being surprised Serin noticed something or telling him where something is, we'd be making fun of him in kind of a mean way, so I had to remind him that you don't know him as well and aren't doing that. Can I copy the shield surgery books to take home?"

[aestrix]

"Oh. Um, yeah, sure." She pauses. "I'm sorry too?" she attempts.

[pythbox]

"It's fine," says Serin.

"Thanks!" says Tierval, and he gets out more paper.

[aestrix]

Kavet nods very solemnly to Serin, a little concerned about someone thinking she was making fun of them in a mean way. Because she was not, and obviously there is some sort of error in communication if he thinks so. Obviously she must figure something out to communicate better.

"I don't really make fun of people in a mean way, I think, let me know if it seems like I am again? I will stop."

[pythbox]

"Mm," says Serin. Tierval is not available to translate this time, because he's busy working on his book-copying speed. (He has found another corner to cut. It's not really necessary to line up the image of every page exactly perfectly on the paper, as long as they're all still readable, and switching to a copying method that's a little messier on that front saves both time and mana.)

[aestrix]

This answer seems to satisfy Kavet, as monosyllabic as it is. She nods again.

And then: ooo, magical geekery! She loves doing stuff with magic. She watches what Tierval's doing with interest, and then:

"I think it might help to add a constraint to the book copy so it only copies the things that reach a certain level of contrast of value - like, only the stuff that is dark grey to black." Because of course full color copying has been long cut, why would they even have that when most books don't use color at all? "It's more expensive up front but it might save in the long run because you're not copying everything, just the things you want."

[pythbox]

"Maybe..." he says doubtfully. "We could try it and see. I'm not sure how much it would save, and anytime you're using this spell for real you probably wouldn't be able to open up the book and see how dark the ink is so you know where to set your copy constraint."