Ivan was quiet for a moment. "You're welcome." he finally said, still leading Will through the stacks, weaving through the beautiful library until they arrived at a quiet, out of the way section. It was near one of those big windows, and the view was out to a garden and courtyard area, where a few (though not many) more Fae were visible, talking or sitting with books held in their hands. A few had notebooks and seemed to be writing or sketching. "The history section starts here and extends that way." he gestured with one arm down along the rows, his voice soft and hushed as the atmosphere of a library demanded.
William nods, pausing a moment to take in this new sector of the library. The room's much larger than it had initially let on. He slowly begins to approach the center of the room, turning in a slow circle to take in the titles on the shelves. His gaze hesitates on the window. How many of the Fae outside know of his existence? Zero, probably. Excluding Kazimir and the guards that dragged him here in the first place, but he's really not trying to think about them too much.
"Do you know where I can find more recent anecdotes?" Will asks in a similar hushed tone. The history section is large, and - if Will's being completely honest with himself - he doubts he can even begin to figure out where to start.
Ivan nodded slightly, leading Will to a specific area. "These shelves will probably have more recent publications." he explained, stepping back a bit so that Will had room to look at the various books on the shelves. "Is there, uhm, a specific topic you wanted books about?" he asked slowly, raising his eyebrows at Will.
Slowly, Will approaches the bookshelves Ivan had gestured to. The spines read various different things, some clearly more biased than others. "Anything on Kazimir's life?" He asks eventually, swiping his fingers over the spines as if one would suddenly speak to him. "Or any recent wars? I'm afraid I'm not versed well on the history of the land."
"The, ah, emperor?" Ivan hesitated, clearly a touch anxious about that topic. "He…that is…" he ran a hand through his hair, movements quick and slightly anxious. "There are no biographies on him, save for one, uhm, palace-sponsored one." he touched a few books in order to point them out. "These. Recent wars there are more on, those are…" he searched the shelves for a long moment. "Here."
"Yes, yes, the emperor," Will huffs, indignant towards the title. His annoyance is quickly snapped away, staring at the lone title sitting on the shelf. "Only one?" He hisses, quickly snatching the book off its resting place. "Would've thought the egotistical bastard would've had more on himself," he grumbles, only really half-caring that he said the last bit aloud. Upon Ivan's direction to the recent war memoirs, Will briefly glances towards them. He'll get those at a later date.
Ivan blinked at the way Will referred to Kaz, clearing his throat faintly. "Perhaps you shouldn't speak of him that way." he suggested quietly. As for why there wasn't more…Kaz had made it clear he did not want people digging into his family background. Most in the country didn't know where he had come from, what he had been (a dirt-poor kid who had been abused for much of his life). He preferred for his story to start with power. For his reputation to be one of power, that of someone feared. Never someone weak.
Will sighs, sparing the man a quick glance. "I think this is all I need from the library, thank you, Ivan." With that, Will turns on his heel and slowly begins to make his way out of the history section – however, the vast window catches his attention once more. The Fae mill about outside, books and journals in their hands, smiles on their faces. Ah, intellectuals, Will muses softly. He wonders if he could ever pick their brains for their Fae knowledge. (The real question is if Kazimir would even let William near them.)
Ivan gave him a quick bow. "Yes. Shall we go back to the bedrooom now?" he asked, taking a small step towards the doorway. "Or was there somewhere else that you wished to go first?" his wings twitched faintly, feathers rustling lightly against each other as they did so. It was just a small, nervous movement, nothing more than that.
Will purses his lips. "I'd rather not revisit the bedroom." It feels like a prison, He wants to add, but he holds his tongue. "What's that's area outside?" Will points to the area through the window, to the group of Fae sharing their knowledge with the others. Hell, is that a picnic basket? How long has it been since he's eaten?
Ivan's gaze moved to the Fae outside, and he hesitated. "I, ah…I do not think it would be safe for you out there." among Fae who did not know Will was Kaz's. Among Fae that would look at him and see only human. He tugged at hte sleeves of his shirt, eyes moving around the library.
(sorry about the wait i was unexpectedly swamped this weekend and just barely got around to this!!!)
Will blows a piece of hair from his eyes and turns to face the servant. "I'm not asking if I can go out there." He knows his place. He knows when to interact. "I'm just asking what is out there." He turns back to watch the Fae for a brief moment. "As in, is it annexed to the garden at all?" The flowerbeds are actually quite lovely. Will's fingers itch for his pencil.
(it's fine, no worries!)
Ivan thought for a moment, eyes flickering as he traced a route in his mind. "Sort of. There is a route there from the gardens, but it is mainly a courtyard designed for the library's use." he replied, shrugging a shoulder and looking from Will to the Fae milling around out there.
Will nods, glancing over the garden one last time before moving on. He'll have to find that passageway. The geraniums and hyacinths there were lovely. He would have to find them one night, sketch them in lanturnlight. "Thank you," He says, though monotonous in tone, he really does mean it. The servant has been useful to Will, though he does wish that he would loosen up. The tension riding in the teen's shoulders transfers over to Will just looking at them.
"You're welcome." he replied quietly, exhaling. "Do, ah, do you want to head back to the bedroom now?" he asked, taking a small step towards the way to the exit. He didn't move any further, though, wings shuffling faintly against his back, but not opening. He didn't know what to do here. Will was…different, and he was Kaz's concubine. That alone was enough to make Ivan slightly anxious about all of this.
Will purses his lips, keeping his eyes trained on the wall as he makes his way out of the history sector and more towards the main reading area for the library. "I'd prefer not," He answers. "Could we just stay in here for a little while?" But Will's already sitting down onto one of the lush leather sofas. His eyes skim the synopsis of Kazimir's biography. He briefly glances up to the young servant. Surely Ivan wouldn't disagree with him.
Ivan hesitated for a very long moment, hands fidgeting for just a moment. "I…suppose so." he finally replied slowly, hands returning to his sides. What else was he supposed to say? Will outranked him, and he could not order the concubine around. Kaz would not be happy if he came back and found out a mere servant had tried to tell his concubine what to do, so Ivan had no choice but to agree with what Will wanted.
(What sort of stuff do you think Will will find in the biography? Maybe you could 'play' the book and give a vague synopsis and stuff on what he finds in different sections or something?)
Will flips open the front cover of the book, noting the author and date published. There's a short table of contents, though there are no page numbers. He'll have to flip through the entire book to find what he needs. However, exactly what he needs is a full mystery. Past battles, his family, his method of destruction (because Will knows the Snake always has one). Without a doubt, the perspective will be biased towards the Fae King, but Will hasn't spent years in corners with books obtaining critical thinking skills for nothing.
(I can do that!)
The book was not as thick as it could have been, really, and it seemed to skim over the Snake's childhood, too, starting more with his career in crime than anywhere else. Even then, it skimmed over most of the details, glamorizing it and making it into something more admirable than it had been. It detailed how he became the previous king's righthand man, and then became king from there. There were less details than perhaps there should have been, less precise information than many biographies would have had. This was likely on purpose, to obscure Kaz's origins so that the thing people knew most was his power. Not where it came from.
(swag!)
Will purses his lips, vaguely skimming over the even vaguer details. Nearly nothing on the childhood, though Will wasn't quite expecting much to begin with. He sweeps his hair out of his eyes with an agitated huff. They're glossing over the violence, Will murmurs internally. He knows how the Snake works. And he knows his rise to power wasn't a pacifistic affair. Mostly skipping over the rest of the pages detailing Kaz's past, Will finds himself at the next section: his first years in power.
This section had more detail, and was more interesting. It laid out the various laws Kaz had put in place (none were overly punitive, and they all made logical sense. The Snake had never been one for nonsensical laws), and what he had done in his first years as king. Then it took a sharp turn, and told of the country's fall. Of an attack from a larger country. Of the king, taken captive. The details of the imprisonment were vague, and it moved then into telling of how, in Kaz's escape, he left swathes of dead behind, paying the rightful price for what they had done. What, precisely, it was that they had done, was not related. If Will wanted to know, he would have to ask Kaz for those details. Then, it narrated how Kaz had regained power, and then turned the country into an empire through conquest and, in one case, marriage, to the woman who was now his wife.
A kidnapping? Will's brow shoots up to his hairline. He… was not expecting that. It doesn't take a thousand lifetimes to know that the Snake is a powerful man with great capabilities, how could he have let himself become abducted? What sort of people– Ah, there's the massacre. Will involuntarily purses his lips and nods in tune to the second shoe dropping. Now the victims could have deserved it (Will doesn't trust this biased text's claims that they had it coming), but Will holds off on drawing his conclusions. He mostly skims over the part on the wife, catching her name once or twice and then not truly caring enough to remember it. Mary? Marie? Maria? Something along those lines. And so he continues past the sections headed Abduction and Reclaiming the Throne to find himself at the fourth section of the biography.
This last section was slightly more…propaganda-like than the others, with praise for the way Kaz had taken control of the country again, coming down with laws slightly more strict than before. It did touch on the fact that Kaz would punish some offenders himself, in ways that were not pleasant. It also spoke of an attempted coup, which had been swiftly dealt with with an iron fist. The Emperor, it seemed, did not tolerate dissent.
Will barely even bothers to read the last bit of the book. He skims for important events, momentarily glances at propaganda articles and stops only to marvel at a very well drawn sketch of Kazimir on a throne. I bet that's where he is now, Will concludes as he finishes reading the author's miniscule biography. He closes the book. The sun sits off the middle of the sky. It's sometime after noon, perhaps three or four hours. For the first time since he sat down, Will clears his throat and acknowledges Ivan. "What time is it?"
Ivan startled slightly when Will spoke, having sat down a while ago and fallen into a light doze. "I, uhm…" he checked a watch, then looked over at Will again. "About two in the afternoon." he replied, rubbing sleep from his eyes and shifting, ready to leave if that was what Will wanted to do now.
