Library || Variable thirteen

Spruce quickly consumed everything, what he ordered, then he opened his guidebook. "How about we go to visit a park next?"

Yew, who was still eating his berry salad, looked at Aspen, who just finished his fried eggs.

"What else is there?" Aspen wanted to know more before making a decision.

"Hmmm… just school buildings," Spruce answered, "a lot of classrooms, four parks, one fountain garden, this cafeteria, a fighting arena, and a library."

"A fighting arena?" Aspen thought he had misheard.

"There’s one in Ares," Spruce stated as if it was the most normal thing to find in a school. "Do you wanna visit it?" he asked them.

Yew shrugged his shoulders. His father graduated from Ares, so of course, he had heard about the fighting arena many times.

"I want to see it," Aspen declared. Secretly, he doubted that the place labelled «fighting arena» was an actual fighting arena.

After they filled up their stomachs, they headed toward their destination, which was just around the corner.

The schoolground of Hecate had a circular shape with a diameter of more than twenty hundred meters. To get from one end to the other, usually took about an hour by foot, unless someone was a fast walker. However, all classes for the first year students were always held in buildings not farther away than ten hundred meters from their hamlets.

The school had five parks in total. Four parks were located at the border, and one park was in the center of the schoolground. The central park, fittingly named the fountain garden, was about two hundred by two hundred meters in size. The road, which surrounded it, also functioned like a fence separating the park from the school buildings around it.

The schoolmanor, where all the teachers had their offices and living quarters, was northeast of the fountain garden, while the library was on the southeastern side. The cafeteria was located southwest, and the fighting arena was on the northwestern side.

The boys used the road, which surrounded the fountain garden to get to the fighting arena. From a distance, the building looked like a low-rising stone tower with many tiny holes for windows, albeit it was wide enough to contain a lake.

All three passed through the huge iron gates, which stood open at the entrance, then they walked down a wide long hallway into a spacious platform surrounded by spectator seats from every direction. The fighting arena had tall walls like a fortress, but it had no roof.

"It’s empty," Aspen sounded disappointed at seeing no one around.

"Well, the school year hasn’t even started," Spruce pointed out. "And I think you cannot hold magic battles without a teacher’s supervision. At least, that’s how it works in Ares."

It was the forty-first day of Dees, which meant that classes were to officially start overmorrow. However, there was no guarantee that the boys would be allowed to enter the fighting arena once the school started, since as first year students, they had no classes scheduled to take place in this building.

After taking a good walk around the fighting arena, checking out several open rooms and a variety of spectator seats, they went to see the fountain garden, which by far exceeded their expectations.

Upon entering the park, the boys were greeted by large fountains, which were sprinkling crystal-clear waters high up into the sky. Their droplets were sent by the wind onto leaves of neighboring plants, where they shone like morning dews.

Wide shallow brooks ran alongside the paths, and small waterfalls accompanied every staircase. Narrow deep creeks hid themselves behind the bushes, whence they serenaded in their water language. Cherry trees grew adjacent to a pond farther in, while tall walnut trees stood in a circle around the lake in the center of the fountain garden.

Just as its name implied, the fountain garden was the most beautiful park in the school.

The boys spent many hours playing with water. They made ships from leaves and sticks, and let them float on the brooks and ponds, challenging each other to see whose ship lasted the longest, or sailed the farthest.

They so enjoyed the game, that they didn't realize how much time had passed. After numerous sunken ships in several brooks, and even more in ponds, they felt hungry. Late in the afternoon, they headed back to the cafeteria in order to eat their lunch - almost dinner.

While eating, they argued over where to go next. They didn't have much of the day left, so in the end, they agreed to see the library, which was the nearest.

The boys had already seen it from the outside, because they passed it on their way to get brunch.

The library was a very wide three-story building with elaborately designed doors and ornate windows. An abundance of stone statues, built around and into the walls, made it look more like a palace than a library.

A wide staircase with medium walls led to the patio of the main entrance. The entry room was spacious but completely devoid of any furnishing except for several narrow tall paintings. Even though the exterior door was made of wood in an iron frame, the interior door was made of etched glass framed in gold.

"Wow," Spruce pointed at the huge shelfcase right after entering the main hall.

Numerous books lined up on the shelves, which stretched up to the ceiling. Each book was labelled with a different year on its spine.

"It's a list of all graduates of Hecate," Aspen deduced.

Yew looked at the volumes of books in astonishment. There was a chance that the names of his biological parents were somewhere in there. Yet even if he read through all the names, he wouldn’t be able to guess which namehoods belonged to his parents.

He wondered if his adopted parents had any documents regarding his biological parents. He regretted that he hadn’t searched the house before he left, due to his chances being slim. Kapok and Nettle didn’t want him to know about his adoption, so it was unlikely that they would have kept any documents, which could reveal it by accident.

While pondering, Yew realized yet another possibility. His parents’ names might not be listed as graduates of Hecate, because for one reason or another they hadn't graduated. He had to admit to himself that his search would be far more difficult than he anticipated.

"This is just a summary," an older woman, presumably a librarian, informed the boys. She was organizing books on a neighboring shelfcase. "There is actually a more complete list of all, who studied in Hecate, which includes even their photos."

"Really? And we're also there?" Spruce asked.

"Not yet, but you’ll be added after the first day of Byzh," she replied, then murmured to herself, "some students leave before the classes even start."

Before Spruce or Aspen could ask her about students, who leave prematurely, Yew intruded with another question.

"Where is that complete list?"

He saw a glimmer of hope, when he heard that the complete list had photos. If he could take a look at them, he could narrow down his search to those, who looked similar to him.

The librarian answered in a flat tone, as she returned her main focus back onto her work, "on the third floor, third section. But that area is accessible only to the students of the ninth year and to the teachers."

And that was the end of Yew's hope. As a first year student, he still had a long way to go, until he could access those records.

Since the librarian looked busy, the boys decided to ask no more questions. They talked in hushed voices as they toured the first floor of the library, which was filled with warning signs at every ten steps, all of which expressed the same message in three different ways: «Be quiet», «No noise», and «Silence is gold».

With their first year badges, their access was limited only to the first section of the first floor, which didn't have anything other than basic textbooks about magic, and some other books, which they had already read in kindergarten.

Aspen, who looked forward to reading the books, was disappointed. He was hoping to get his hands on something new. However, upon inspecting the shelves, he didn't find even one book, which he hadn't read prior to enrolling.

The sun hung low on the horizon, when the boys exited the library. They headed back to their hamlet, while making plans for tomorrow. As they stood in front of Yew's cottage, Linden returned from his outing, and Yew introduced his roommate to his neighbors.

Spruce told Linden about the places, which they had visited with so much enthusiasm, that he looked like a bird about to take off the ground.

"So you visited the main school attractions," Linden stated in the most disinterested tone humanly possible. "And you went to the cafeteria to eat."

"For breakfast and lunch, yes, but not for dinner," Yew clarified. "We haven't had dinner yet."

"The cafeteria was too busy," Spruce recalled. "We barely found a place to sit for our breakfast, and we had to eat our lunch standing."

"Idiots," Linden snickered. "You’re not supposed to stay in the cafeteria. Just get something to go, and eat anywhere you want." He raised a bag in his left hand. "Anyway, wanna join me for dinner?" he offered with a smirk of someone, who would intentionally put habanero peppers into a tomato soup as a prank.

"All of us?" Yew asked in disbelief, then looked at Aspen and Spruce.

"Sure," Linden confirmed. "I bought a lot, because I assumed that a certain someone wouldn't have enough money for food," he grinned at Yew, before he entered the cottage, leaving the doors wide open. "Hurry up, slowpokes," he shouted from inside.

"Let’s go," Yew hurried his neighbors, hoping to get the food before Linden changed his mind.

"Is he a nice person, or not?" Spruce was confused by Linden’s behavior.

"Uhm, kind of both," Yew replied.

"A nice jerk," Aspen concluded based on the atmosphere, which Linden created.