Tales of the Jewel

"I think there must be some order to this madness, even if it's not obvious at the moment. But I have no doubt we'll discover it." He chuckled. "You really thought about climbing them without a ladder? Unless you're a great climber, I'd have to be on the lookout to catch you." He liked the idea for some reason.

"I am very good at climbing! At least, I think so. I love climbing trees in the yard, not to mention finding little high up places to hide and read by myself. I also... well, make it a habit of climbing down from the balcony off my room, every one in a while. It's usually not watched like the door, by the servants. Not like I couldn't go out that way, but sometimes I don't want anyone to know where I'm going."

"Looks like the need for privacy is a great teacher." Aydi smirked, then dusted off one book on the nearby shelf. "Looks like we're among atlases and travellers' accounts. I wonder if exotic stories progress from here."

"Hmmm..."

She picked up on of the books and looked at it, "Well, books with maps can certainly be interesting, even if I've been told to take them with a grain of salt. Something about the desert and the surrounding lands resists being mapped, not to mention the dangers and lack of landmarks sometimes in doing so."

Sora looked amongst the book titles.

"As much of a grain of salt as traveler accounts too. Not that I mind a bit of fabrication myself."

"Imagination usually makes up for lapses in scholarly abilities among people such as travellers. Besides, the more fabled and outlandish the account, the better." Aydi chuckled. "But they can make for interesting reading nonetheless, and there's a grain of truth in most of them, along with the grain of salt."

"Well..."

She chuckled and put a book she was looking at back.

"I probably shouldn't get TOO distracted, or else I'll be in here forever. Still, if you see anything that looks interesting in particular with these journals and atlases..."

Sora looked around to see if there was anything from Rokugan in particular, but not many writings came from the Emerald Empire, let alone actual books and not scrolls.

"Any lands are of a particular interest to you, Sayyeda?" Aydi started perusing. There had never been many books in his father's house for all the inobvious reasons, but by virtue of who he was he had both attention and skill to make good use of them.

"The Emerald Empire, the Ivory Kingdoms... I know how to read Rokugani, and it is such an exotic place from everything I've read! The Ivory Kingdom I've become more interested in recently, but have not heard as much about."

"Looks like you have a long-standing interest in the eastern empire, having learnt the language. I know it's not easy. What is driving it?" He was genuinely curious.

"Hm? Having a couple of scrolls from there, I suppose. I have one scroll called "The Tao of Shinsei" that sounds a lot like the sayings of Mekhem. And another thing called a "pillow book" from a young woman who was about my age now when she started it. Oh, also, one of my teachers was from Rokugan! One Utaku Mariko. She taught me how to sing, and actually gave me a lot of pointers on how to climb."