"We are headed up to the third-floor office," Elnora told Deamon and Thalin once they entered the library.
As they made their way to the stairs Deamon was in awe. He had never known there were this many books. The walls and shelves were stacked with rows and rows of books and scrolls. "How many..."
"I'm sorry?" Elnora asked as she turned back around.
"How many books are there?!" Deamon asked excitedly.
"Oh, there are countless books and scrolls in the world but if you mean in this building then we have about fifty-eight thousand different items. The only problem with that is that only about ten thousand are legible." Elnora said.
"Legible? What's that?" Deamon questioned.
"Legible means readable. Most of the items here are either in ancient dialects or languages that we can't understand or don't use anymore. Elder Noct and a few other have tried to decipher and translate the writings but it is very difficult to do so." Elnora said as they made their way up the stairs. "This is the room where I will test you, Thalin I must ask for you to wait outside of the room for the duration of the test."
"Alright, I can do that. Just please go easy on him he's just a kid and Deamon you'll do great I believe in you." Thalin said before stepping aside.
"I make no promises. Now come Deamon the sooner we start the sooner we finish." Elnora gestured towards a chair in the room for Deamon to sit in. Deamon went ahead and sat in the chair quickly. Elnora closed the door and sat in another chair on the other side of a desk separating them. She pulled out a parchment and a quill to write on then looked at Deamon. "The first question I must ask is how old are you."
"I'm five and ill be six in two months."
"Months? I thought ferals use moons?"
"My mother taught me both and told me that most races use months."
"Your mother is human correct? How did your parents meet?"
"My dad rescued my mom a long time ago from monsters outside the village and they stayed in the village together after that."
"Outside of the village or the forest?"
"The village. She found it running from the monsters."
"So she's loved by the forest? Or maybe just strong enough to ignore the fog? No, if she was chased by anything in the forest it has to be the former. OK so why do you want to access the library?"
"Before today I didn't even know about the library but after seeing it I would love to study here." Deamon hung his head. "I'm very weak in all types and have the lightning element so the only way I can be of help is if I know things and I can read very well so I think that's why they did this..."
"There's no reason to hand your head. Not everyone can be strong and not everyone can be smart. Sometimes you need to trade one for the other."
"But isn't that a bad thing?"
"What do you mean?"
"If you only have strong people then you have the thinking done by dummies who only know how to fight and if you have only smart people then the fighting is done by weaklings who are afraid."
"That...is a very advanced way of thinking. Where did you get that?"
"A book my mom got me told me about the good and bad of knowledge. How too much can be a bad thing and too little can be as well."
"Yes, that's right. You need strength and power to be a leader however if you understand power and have knowledge you can lead well and vice versa. What do you plan to do with the knowledge you can gain here?"
"I want to be useful to my people and the whole forest."
"So you don't aim to be a leader? Just an adviser?"
"No, I want to not as an adviser but as a researcher for runes and crafting."
"So you wish to make weapons of war?"
"If it's to protect then yes, I'll make what I need to to keep my home and people safe."
"So you would sit on most of the knowledge and only use what's needed when it's needed?"
"Yes. Anything can be bad if bad people use it and it can be good if good people use it so knowing what and what not to do is important."
"You seem a lot more mature than your age. Maybe at the age of thirteen? Fifteen? Maybe even older. If you had power what would you do with it?"
"Make my parents and the forest proud."
"Hmm... Your answers so far have been concise and well thought out and you haven't lied so far but these have been the easy questions to answer. Now we will start to have more difficult....deeper questions. A friend is near you and is stricken with poison, there is also poison in a nearby water supply that feeds a village of a thousand and you have a single antidote that can cure it or clean the water. What do you do?"
"I...I would cure my friend."
"Honest but foolish. Next..."
"You're not going to ask why?"
"Does your selfishness need justification?"
"With two of us, we can warn the village. From what you said the water was poisoned not the people so with the two of us we can save far more lives."
"So you would save a friend with a few hundred casualties than save a thousand lives?"
"I would rather have a chance to save everyone than someone dying with no chance. Especially a friend whose worth more than a thousand lives."
"Selfish and arrogant but a thousand and one lives is better than a thousand. Alright, next question."