Galecrest Library
| Type | Library |
|---|---|
| Kingdom | Galecrest |
| Notable inhabitants | Knowers, Seely |
| Status | Roof brought down by the earthquake at the High Moon Festival |
| First appearance | Sacred: Eslura's Calling |
The Galecrest Library is the great library of Galecrest and the seat of the Knowers, the order of scholars who spend their lives among its rows and rows of books.[1] It stands on the plaza at the heart of the floating city, across from the Eslurian Opera House, and it is the most famed library of a city Eslura calls its "capitol of knowledge".[1][2]
The building
A flight of marble stairs climbs from the red brick plaza to the front doors, and a large stone statue of an open book stands beside them. That statue is the only thing that marks the building for what it is: Beatrice Tidal, seeing it for the first time, could tell it was a library from the statue and nothing else.[2]
What lies behind the front doors is not recorded. Millennium Loftwind stood in the doorway after the earthquake and the Sacred Guard was inside on the night of the High Moon Festival, but no account in any of the three books describes the interior. What survives is the plaza, the marble steps, the doorway and the roof.[2][3]
The collection
Books elsewhere in Eslura are measured against what Galecrest holds. In Varaar, books are luxuries imported from the far eastern city of Galecrest, and a man of Aero Ellisvat's trade would never be found there, or welcomed.[4] Millennium keeps a library of her own in her castle and reckoned that Alistair Archibald might have more dusty old books in his study than she does, at which Alpin Loomin objected that it was not a fair competition when she had the city's whole collection at her disposal.[5]
Nothing is recorded of how the collection is arranged, how large it is, who may use it, or what is kept back from the public. The knowledge the Knowers guard is deliberately not all of it: Seely was expelled from the order for pursuing research that Eslura would rather her people did not find, and got further in exile than he ever would have at Galecrest.[6]
The Knowers
It is rare to find a Knower anywhere outside Galecrest, and rarer still for one to be released from their duties.[1] Seely worked there before his expulsion, and when he slipped away from the table at Millennium's castle in Galecrest, Bea took it for granted that he had gone back to the library.[7]
Notable events
- Millennium waited alone at the top of the library steps for the Sacred Rulers arriving for the Festival, and told Alistair Archibald there that Lumikki Otsby had not been seen in Ovallia for several days.[2]
- The earthquake struck while they stood on the stairs. The top of the library shuddered, stone and debris rained down on the square, and the roof came down onto the marble steps in broken tiles. A shard of tile opened a gash down Bea's left arm. Millennium stood in the doorway afterwards looking up at the gaping ceiling while smoke went up over the golden moon.[2]
- When the Nelazgians set fire to the east side of the city that night, a Sacred Guard threw the front doors open and brought Millennium the news on the steps. She sent the whole Guard out of the building to clear the streets, and Alistair led the fighters down the library steps and away into a side alley.[3]
- By dawn, with the city rising back into the clouds, Bea, Alpin Loomin and Barnaby Britto returned to the library and found the rest of their party waiting at the top of the steps.[3]
Whether the roof was ever repaired is not recorded.