Private Finished Researching For Dummies

Vito was used to being in libraries, but he wasn't used to being a librarian. It was an adjustment, to say the least, and one he was relishing.

The students, on the other hand, took some getting used to. For the most part Vito left dealing with students to the other librarians, focusing instead on the books themselves. The books were familiar, easy to understand. The students... less so.

He was in the middle of shelving some books in the library as Katie was walking around when his familiar decided to hop up onto his back, staring towards the girl and cocking his head.

Vito didn't even seem to notice what the creature was doing, intent on his books.

Vito looked up when someone spoke near him.

Not at him, but near him. He wasn't distracted enough to think that little guy would refer to him, but it did take him a second to realize who she was talking to, right around the time she asked if she could pet him.

"If you want," he said after a moment, lifting his hand for Sapere to hop onto. "I should tell you that they aren't really a real animal." Maybe that would bother them or maybe it wouldn't, but Vito would rather inform them ahead of time. Too many people on the island with powers that could interact, after all.

"...He is physical, though." And particularly soft and fluffy. A bit like a chipmunk, really.

"Sapere," Vito said, which was only sort of a name. It was just know, which was what Sapere was: a reminder of who he was right then. Of what he knew. Sapere was, in a strange way, an aspect of him, but it wasn't as if he could feel the touch or anything like that.

"I'm new," he clarified as the girl pet the small, velvet-soft little creature, who patiently sat still and let himself get pat. "I only started the job a short while ago, so it isn't surprising that you don't recognize me." Simple enough: he was still meeting people, even his own coworkers. He doubted he'd ever remember even a fraction of the students who walked through the library doors on any given day.

Ah, how timely and topical. If she wanted to know about magic, she'd certainly come to the right place.

"Of course. I could direct you at the section that has adult magic books, but I'm afraid most of them assume more than a passing understanding of magic to begin with." He imagined that was the problem: you couldn't just drop someone in the deep end, after all. "I assume you're a first-life?"

Oops. He realized a moment after he'd said it that it wasn't really the best term for it, and he shook his head, backtracking to correct.

"I mean, I assume you don't have much of an academic understanding of magic?"

A safe enough assumption, in a world where anyone under the age of eighteen probably had less than eighteen years of experience. Not what he was used to, but he could manage.

Vito wasn't familiar with the book at all, but that wasn't unusual. The books in the library were foreign to him, and he'd read only a tiny fraction of a fraction of them.

"Mages, from what I understand here, tend to be an intellectual lot. Most powers can simply be used, but magic requires a great deal of education to understand so that one can use it safely." Of course he couldn't speak entirely in absolutes, but the idea of it was valid in a general sense, at least.

"Would you say that you have abilities similar to magic, or do you have a specialized kind of magic in particular, and that's what you're familiar with?"