“There must be two hundred books here!” one commented. Father appeared carrying six bags slung over his shoulder.

“Two hundred twenty seven books, four tablets, and thirty one scrolls,” Father corrected. He placed the bags on the ground, then tossed one aside, “Our project is to move every single one of them into these five bags.”

“That’s impossible!” one observed.

“With magic, it’s quite possible. This room is enlarged to fit this library. We can fit the books into these bags the same way. Your job is to move the books into the bags. We will start from the back and move forward. Do not lose the order of the books, whatever you do! They are carefully cataloged, and I will know if one is lost or put out of order. So be careful! Some of these books is worth more than your entire company. All of them are worth more than your individual lives.”

“With all due respect, that’s not saying much,” Lola informed him. Father snickered.

“I suppose not, then. Well, get to it! You, hold open this bag and keep it open for them. Don’t drop the book in, either! Set them carefully in the bag. If you call it, it won’t be hard to pull you out. Dillidus, you make sure that they do it right. I’ll go fetch the tablets.”

The working line began, with the soldiers grabbing five or so books at a time and bringing them to the bag. The first one wasn’t sure on how the expanded bag worked and fell in as he tried setting down the very old and very valuable books, and had to be pulled out of the bag, though the soldier that tried helping him fell in, as well, and they both had to be pulled out. Once they got the hang of the process, Dillidus pitched in, as well, using magic to move the books to the bag whenever a new stack was started. Father seemed to have disappeared as he prepared the tablets and scrolls to be stored, as they were the oldest and each were priceless. Each of the tablets were written in the ancient language, but their writers were never identified. Father guessed that they may have been written by the Gray Folk themselves.

While moving the books, Lola took a moment to study the spines of each one. Some were marked, most weren’t. Many were written in a language that were completely alien to her, others were written in the common human language. Most of the ones that she did recognize she knew were to be illegal in one way or another, and she voiced her concern to Dillidus.