Chapter 129 – Offer
The moment the contract was sealed, and Siu had decided to come with him, the old servant turned around as his cane struck the floor, beginning to walk away.
“Come,” he said over his shoulder. “It's already late, and soon, I'll have to go to work.”
The old man had not slowed down when they got out of the building; he even quickened his pace. For someone who looked as if he might fall over if a strong breeze hit him, Siu could tell he was... deceptively nimble. The way his cane tapped the ground had to have a purpose as his eyes kept gazing at it, realizing that Quillian barely leaned on it. The effect it had was simply that people moved out of the way when they heard it.
“Master Quillian,” Siu called, catching up, “is the shop far?”
“No.”
That was all he got in answer, and even if he waited for more, none came.
"Maybe he is out of breath?" Arya’s ears twitched, trying to listen, “No... He isn't.”
“I wonder how strong he is now,” Siu muttered back through their link.
Thinking about it, he had to be still powerful; he was so close to becoming an Elder after all. While he was lost in his examination of Quillian's steps, the Hall of Infinite Echoes soon came into view in the distance. Before they could reach it, though, they turned left, heading off the public road, following a narrower street that branched off between two rows of shops. The shop they were heading towards was obvious, thanks to its sign, which could still be seen from the public road, and Siu had spotted it at once. It was a carved, red wooden leaf hanging from a short iron arm, swaying above the entrance, and beneath it, immaculate handwriting pronounced the name: Red Leaf.
Looking back and forth, Siu noted that the road leading here itself was more subdued than the main one, though not entirely abandoned. People were still coming and going, mostly because of the multiple shops around them. On the left side of Red Leaf alone stood an alchemical shop with blue-green glass jars in the window, each filled with herbs, packed petals, pre-grounded powders, and small roots hanging from a rack. Its sign showed a mortar and pestle wrapped in flowering vines, and a sweet, sharp medicinal scent wafted out when someone opened the door and stepped out.
"Damn smelly bastards, already at it..." Quillian muttered under his breath, making Siu smile as they passed in front of the shop.
Moving his eyes, he surveyed the one on the Red Leaf's right side. Just by the complex runes visible on the items hanging in the windows, it had to be a formation shop. Its front was adorned with hanging tablets made of various materials. Behind the windows, there were different bottles of ink on display, with prices that made Siu take a double-take... Who would buy a tiny bottle for 3 Sun Crystals?! Sighing to himself, he had to also acknowledge that between those two, the Red Leaf looked almost modest. The front itself was narrow, built of dark wood, with windows of colored glass and a door that had already faded, turning its red to deep crimson.
"This is it," Quillian stopped in front of the door and turned around, looking first at Siu, then at Arya and Marly. “And before entering,” he declared, lifting his cane, “rules.”
"Didn't we already agree to them?" Arya immediately sat straighter on Siu’s head, looking suspicious.
“I thought of a few new ones." He said as if reading into their link, "No climbing shelves, no nesting in scroll baskets, no hiding food inside books.”
"Why is he always looking at me when he is saying these rules?!" Marly opened her mouth to complain, finally pouting, looking away from Quillian, ignoring Arya's loud cackle.
"We went through this, Senior Quillian. Can you start trusting me already?" Siu asked with a shrug.
"After the trial is over, I may." He nodded, "I have been alive for long enough to not trust anyone so easily." Then he waved a hand and stepped towards the formation shop, and Siu could see a narrow, darkened alleyway with a stairway at the end of it. "That leads to your room directly. Your sash will let you in by now, so you can use it. But, for the first time, we will go in through the shop."
With that, he had stood back before the front, tapped the end of his cane at the door, and Siu heard a click, and it swung open without creaking. What hit Siu first was the heavy smell of old paper, dry leather, and wood. But... There was no smell of dust or decay at all. That was what surprised him, because he expected some of it, even if Quillian clearly cared about books. An old bookshop should have had at least a little smell to it, dust or something, a faint, dry layer on those tomes nobody bothered to open for years. But... There was none. The air inside Red Leaf was clean, dry, and carefully controlled; that much he could tell.
Walking in, the ground floor was larger than its front suggested, not because of spatial shenanigans, but because of clever design choices during construction. Wherever he looked, he saw shelves that filled the space from floor to ceiling, arranged in tight but navigable rows, with a rolling ladder attached to their ends, so one could reach the highest part that went to the ceiling, more than three meters away from them.
"There have to be thousands of them..." Siu muttered, looking around with awe.
"Thousands?" Quillian chuckled, and although he snorted, he didn't sound offended. More than that, he sounded proud, his green eyes twinkling, "53,812 at the moment. This includes books, scrolls, tablets, and unique containers that are no longer in use today."
"Damn... That's a... collection."
"Isn't it?" He smiled, looking so happy, like a kid, showing his exhibition to someone who could finally appreciate it.
Walking around a little, the place was packed with tomes of every size. Some were thin and neatly tied with a cord, while others were thick enough to break the wood flooring when dropped. There were leather- and cloth-bound volumes, bamboo-backed books, parchment rolls in protective sleeves, hand-stitched manuals, and a few sealed cases containing books so old that they looked as if they might fall apart if freed. Every shelf had a hanging scroll on its side, and when Siu read it, it was simply a list of titles, telling him which row he would find it in.
He was sure there were more books here than at the outers' library. He had already spotted cultivation commentaries, beast records, and travel journals as he scanned the hanging list. There were even notes preserved from centuries back, detailing failed techniques disciples or future elders had experimented with, formation basics, or herb indexes, to name a few.
"Why keep failed techniques?" He asked, curious.
"To learn from them," Quillian answered without getting angry, sensing that his question was genuine and not mocking. "Failing is the natural state for disciples and mortals alike. I don't know anybody who managed to get everything right on the first try. That would be a true miracle! So, recording failures is a way to show the way for those who come after."
"Mhm..." Siu muttered, nodding, returning to reading the index while Quillian waited patiently, letting him do so.
There were more, of course. Sect histories, weapon manuals, even actual poetry and music sheets. What surprised him more was that he found mortals’ tales, children’s lullabies, old maps, and private memoirs with the owners' names scratched out.
“The front section is for sale,” Quillian said when Siu let go of the hanging index. He stepped past him and began gesturing with his cane. “These are common books, my copies of the originals that I'm keeping, beginner commentaries from disciples, their travel writings, beast notes, harmless histories, you saw it. Anyway, the prices are all listed in each book if you find something you like. Now, the middle shelves," he said as he led him on, "Are for registered browsing. You can read them here; there are seats at the back. You have to pay a small fee, but you will have unlimited time to browse afterward. As for the back shelves," He pointed behind the counter, "Those are request only. I have their indexed list at the counter, but I need a proper reason to let you or anyone browse it. As for getting a copied version, because I'm not selling the originals, that... well, depends. On a case-by-case basis!” He added, seeing Siu opening his mouth to ask something.
"Understood," Siu nodded, taking it all in. “Do many disciples come here?”
“Fewer than should.” He shook his head, but he didn't sound disappointed. "They don't see much of the value, with the library being open, but, then again, that's because of their inexperience. Or lack of talent, sometimes both. Disciples want power. I was like that too at your age! Usually, when they come in, it's for rare manuals, secret methods, strange arts, and forbidden tomes. Or so they think it's forbidden, anyway.”
“If any of the tomes were actually forbidden, the Elders would have already taken them away.”
"Yes," Quillian stopped and looked at him with a smile, “At least you can use your head on your shoulders.”
After that, Quillian continued deeper into the shop, passing a narrow counter half-buried beneath neat stacks of books. Behind and under the counter, there were hundreds of drawers, each labeled with characters too small for Siu to read from where he stood, and he didn't want to get glasses just yet by straining his eyes. Past the counter, Quillian led them through a side door into a narrow hallway with a staircase. The temperature dropped slightly, becoming just cool enough to be refreshing, and Quillian led him up to a shared living space.
“You can lounge here if you are doing nothing,” he said, pointing at a door on the left side of the room. “My rooms are beyond that door; you do not enter. Not that you can, so don't even try. Your door is on the right.”
The common room itself was comfortably sized. It had two low tables, several cushions, a window looking out onto a tiny, enclosed garden behind the shop, and shelves holding common reference texts. The garden outside was no larger than a storage room, but it had a single dwarf tree with red leaves, with a swinging bench beneath it. And a stone basin. Quillian didn't wait for Siu; he simply went ahead, opening the door on the right, which led to a narrow hallway with a door at the opposite end and one on its right.
“That is the alley entrance,” Quillian explained, pointing his cane at the opposite door. “The other is yours. Go, take a look."
Siu walked ahead of him now and opened the door without hesitation. As described, the room was simple yet still better than Siu expected. It was smaller than his cave, but it did not feel cramped. A single bed stood against the far wall, under the window. Next to it was a desk, wide enough for writing or reading, with a comfortable, puffy-looking chair. Two shelves had been built into the wall above it, currently empty, while a washing basin stood in the corner, behind a folding privacy screen. Near the door was a low cabinet for clothes or supplies, and on the wall itself was a simple formation plate, with a turnable dial.
“Temperature and damp control,” Quillian said, nodding towards it. “You can tamper with it, but if you mess it up, you fix it.”
"Naturally." He smiled, glancing around one more time, then looked at Quillian, “Thank you,” he said properly, cupping his hands.
"You paid for it!" Quillian waved a hand at him, “Just pay rent on time! Now,” he said, changing topics, “about the foolish question you asked before Ruben interrupted us.”
“Work in the library?”
“Uhm.” Quillian nodded, “You asked about it in the wrong place. Asking such things openly in the Disciple Hall makes people think you are looking for backdoor accesses... They don't take kindly to that, although each and every one of them is looking for one anyway. You never give away where you got your job from, especially if someone helped you get one.”
“I didn’t think of it that way,” Siu muttered, finding it very much logical, shaking his head for getting too swept up in everything.
"Not a big deal because only we heard it," Quillian continued, “But... The Hall of Infinite Echoes does not hire hands because someone likes books, kid. Too many disciples want a library work because they think it means being close to massive secrets or something nonsensical. It is a different kind of work, and if you think you will get to haul sealed tomes around for Elders, you would be sorely disappointed.”
"My goal is more than that," Siu said with a shrug, "I need to earn money, Senior Quillian. That's all."
"Then, I have a suggestion, if you really need to earn money."
"I'm all ears." He nodded, waiting, but not expecting what Quillian was saying next.
"You can work in my shop."