“Come, let’s go see it together!” exclaims Aranya, taking Yvonne’s hand to start to lead the way. Aw, she’s made a friend and wants to share. I’d like to let them just relax and bond, but unfortunately, I have them outside the enchanting lab for a reason.

Teemo squeaks and Fluffles hisses, refocusing the two residents. Aranya looks at the two scions, wondering why they made noise. “What? You didn’t want me to come take her to the core?”

In response, Teemo scratches at the door. “Ah, there’s something in here it wants you… and possibly me, to see.”

“You can understand the dunge… the Sanctuary?” asks Yvonne, looking like she wonders if those robes bear more significance than simply to cover the kobold’s decency.

“Erm… not quite. The Sanctuary tends to not interfere with what I’ve wanted to do, so long as it doesn’t interfere with its plans. It communicates through the scions, most often Teemo and Fluffles here,” she says, motioning at the two, then continues. “I think it mostly uses them because they’re a lot easier to communicate with. Tiny is… not tiny at all, so he doesn’t even fit in a lot of places. Poe and Coda are usually busy up on the roof. Queen is in the alchemy lab basically all the time. And Jello… is a slime.”

Yvonne looks a bit lost at all that information, and Aranya can’t help but giggle at the overwhelmed avian. “You’ll get to know them all, I’m sure. Most of them have their various areas they tend to focus on, but Teemo and Fluffles are the most likely to be wandering around.” She smiles at the new Resident and gives her hand a reassuring squeeze. “You’ll get used to it just fine, I’m sure.”

Yvonne doesn’t look so certain, but she seems determined to try to find her place here. She nods at the door. “So we should go in, then?” Aranya nods, and Yvonne cautiously opens the door.

Inside, they see the enchanter’s lab, which looks a lot like a complicated mundane workshop, for the most part. The biggest difference from the one in the house, though, is the number of crystals and various things inscribed with runes. There are tools for working with practically any material, even a loom over in a corner! I wonder if that’d make it more or less complicated for my spiders to make clothing.

In the center of the room is a table with a multitude of clamps, as well as a legion of lenses on swivels. That must be where the enchanting actually takes place. Aranya and Yvonne both look on in awe at the things before them. They each slowly enter and look around, carefully examining the various things around. The array of lenses draws Aranya’s attention first, and she takes several minutes to simply play with them, learning the magnification properties of the array.

Yvonne takes a look at the various crystals, before coming to examine the small shelf of books. She pulls one out and opens it, taking a brief look at a random page.

“It looks like a book on enchanting,” she says, clearly able to read it, but not able to get much out of it. I guess it’d be like handing a calculus book to an English major; they can read it, but it probably won’t make much sense.

Fluffles, go ahead and take that book, and as many others as you can carry, too. The Secret Library should be big enough to hold them, and if not… they can just be on the floor. I want that stuff secured ASAP.

I want the actual library down here secured, too, but I don’t think that’s in the cards right now. It’s not a small library. I’ll focus and examine everything later. Fluffles telekinetically plucks the book from Yvonne’s hand, and after a few moments of consideration, reshelves it and simply levitates the small bookshelf. It’ll be a bit crowded in the secret library for a bit, but I think it’ll all fit.

With the stuff I needed them for done, Teemo and Fluffles head off: Fluffles to deliver the books and Teemo to scout all this new territory and make more shortcuts. Aranya and Yvonne watch them leave: Aranya with a shrug, and Yvonne with apparent confusion. The kobold looks to her new fellow Resident and speaks up.

“Looks like the Sanctuary is done with what it needed us for, for now.”

Yvonne looks lost. “Then what do I do? It saved me, but… I don’t know how to repay it.”

Aranya takes a few seconds to consider, seeming to be thinking about her own start, before smiling at some of the memories. “It saved me, too, and I still don’t know how to actually repay the Sanctuary. In some aspects, it’s like it’s straight out of my people’s legends. And in other ways, it’s utterly different and confusing.

“But I think this Sanctuary, at least in part, wants us to find our own path. It doesn’t seem to just want servants or worshipers. It seems to be happy to provide what it can… but it is a young sanctuary, and so can’t provide much more than protection.” She smiles and looks towards my core, and Yvonne can’t help but follow her gaze, even if it’s aimed at the wall of the enchanting lab right now.

“Yet it’s also a wise Sanctuary. It recognizes it can’t provide everything for us. And as we learn to provide for ourselves, we can teach the Sanctuary to better provide, too. It knows how important knowledge is. It brought us here, to secure this knowledge, after all. I think, as long as we all learn, we can all improve.”

Aranya’s little speech really seems to give Yvonne something to think about, and apparently she already has a question.

“What did you do when you first arrived?”

Aranya blushes a bit, embarrassed, but responds truthfully. “I mostly screamed and ran. I was fleeing a tunnel horror, and the Sanctuary saved me, and killed it. After that… I slept. I was exhausted. But after it accepted me as a Resident, I explored some.”

Yvonne considers that and looks around the room, and at the doorway. “I’m a ranger, so I’m pretty good at exploring, at least. Perhaps we should explore some here, before going to the core? You mentioned safeguarding knowledge, like the books the snake… Fluffles?” She shakes her head at the strange name for my little telekine noodle.

“The scion confiscated. I doubt that’s all the books Neverrest had. If there’s more, perhaps we should look for them?”

Aranya looks a little uncomfortable at the idea, probably because she can’t read. After a few moments, though, she seems to steel herself and nod. “You can read, then?”

Yvonne seems a bit put off by the question. “Of course. You can too, right?”

The kobold sighs and slumps a little, shaking her head. “There’s precious little chance to learn down in the depths.”

Yvonne blinks in surprise at that, before stepping up beside her fellow Resident and placing a hand on her shoulder. “Then I can help. I can help organize what information the Sanctuary can find.” She smiles and kneels down, to look Aranya in the eyes. “And I can teach you to read. We can both grow and learn, and help our new home.”