Livi's Favourite Place to Be

"Don't worry about it, everyone's really friendly here and totally willing to kick Valkyri a**." I said affably, checking the war maps.

"Um, good to know," Olivia said, glancing at the maps, but not really being able to tell what they were for, she looked down again.

"And we are winning, yes!" I grinned and clapped.

"Um... Yay...." Olivia replied, trying her best to be equally as enthusiastic but failing miserably. She didn't know what they were talking about anyway.

"Yeah, anyway, wanna see something cool?" I asked. She liked books.

Olivia looked up and shrugged, not sure what to expect. "Um, sure, I guess."

"Come on." I waved her over to where I was, at a spiral walking case thing that went up quite a ways, pretty plants and stuff and little glowing pools of moon essence decorating the sides.

Olivia studied the staircase. She studied the staircase for a second--it was really pretty--before following it upwards with her eyes. "Where does it lead?" she asked, hesitantly stepping onto the first step.

"Up to the balcony and library." I pointed quite a ways up, walking up.

"Library?" That had obviously caught Olivia's attention and she followed Azure up the stairs.

"I call it the book room that never ends, but others call it the Through the Ages library. It has EVERYTHING." I emphasized, not joking.

"Wow, sounds amazing," Olivia said, already fascinated even though she had yet to even see it.

"Yeah, if you like books." I nodded. We were halfway up the staircase.

"Which I do," Olivia said, a hint of a smile on her face.

"Yup. Almost there!" I said cheerfully.

Olivia smiled genuinely. "Yay," she said, with real enthusiasm this time.

We arrived at a landing, with massive intricate oak doors and an archway leading to a balcony. I opened the oak doors, revealing an enormous library that truly did go back through the ages, as it was really a massive hallway going on and on. People could get lost in here.

"Whoa," was all Olivia could manage to say when she saw it. She walked up to a nearby bookshelf and ran her hands along the spines of the books. "This is beautiful," she said, looking around at everything--the doors, the books, the balcony.

"Yup, got every book on every subject." I nodded. There were gorgeous drawings of animals and naturey stuff all over, and the floors were gorgeous wood, as was everything in this inn. There were plants everywhere of all different kinds and columns with symbols all over as well.

"Wow," Olivia said again. She could happily spend hours, even days, in a room like this. "There's fiction books too?" she asked hopefully.

"Oh yeah, lots." I nodded and went over to sit in a plushy armchair by a huge roaring fireplace, reading the new war reports.

"Yay," Olivia grinned again and began to read the spines of the books until she found something interesting. Then she plopped right down on the ground and began to read.

I hummed, writing various things down and reviewing stuff.

Olivia sat on the floor, perfectly content, and kept reading, forgetting where she was for a while.

I continued, more and more reports magically appearing. I wondered where my kids were for a moment, frowning.