Two Crows Watch from the Gallows Tree (part 3)

That was why Aleth wanted her. But they weren't going to get into that.

"For sure," Ky agreed. "I think I had an easier time than most because we spoke Standard at home but my friends only knew Aikha, so I learned both side by side." She smiled a little. "The adults would get annoyed with me when I was little because I didn't realize they were different languages and would just cram them together and confuse everyone... I eventually learned to tell them apart, though."

"Are there any languages you don't know?" he asked. He was still fidgeting with his cane, passing it from one hand to the other and spinning it.

"Certainly," Ky answered. "Orchian, as I mentioned, was positively impossible for me to learn. My Nortung is shaky at best, though I can get by -- not with a decent accent even if my life dependent on it, mind you. And there were a few tribal languages throughout the South that I haven't picked up."

And didn't plan to, if she didn't have to. She'd lost count of how many languages she knew at this point -- but it was too many as it was. It was so hard to remember the correct order of the parts of speech and which words went to which languages.

"You've got quite an arsenal, it seems." Gaius nodded, impressed. She knew more languages than he had at her age, certainly, which was saying something. "Language is a very useful thing to learn."

Ky grinned. Had she really just gotten a compliment out of the grouch? It was an even better trophy than the half-smile she'd earned earlier.

"Yes, sir--" she grimaced. Then she had to go and screw it up. "Yes. I've been thinking about it lately, and I think I've got a lot of options open to me since I've got a solid literary and linguistic ability. I'm quite fortunate to have had the opportunity for an education."

She hesitated. Was she, though? Really? It certainly didn't feel fortunate. She would have much rather stayed in her township with Papa, not knowing languages or reading or writing or diplomacy. But that was neither here nor there.

"At least... I've got something to show for the past year if nothing else." She subconsciously laid an arm across her scarred abdomen. She had plenty of things to show from her time with Aleth.

(He also laughed at her anxiety face earlier)

Gaius noted the movement. A sore spot, perhaps, an area of abuse? He himself was intimately familiar with such gestures, having many such sore spots himself. His hand and leg were only the most prominent ones.
"There is nothing more important than an education," he assured her. "Well, almost nothing. But no matter where it takes you, that knowledge is indescribably valuable for thousands of reasons."

(xD such a dick)

"Agreed." She nodded. As if he needed her agreement. "I've already found it helpful -- not only in communicating with people I otherwise wouldn't have been able to but also in setting people at ease by speaking their native tongue, even if they happen to know a different one. It seems easier to make connections, I think, when you can meet people where they're comfortable."

She flushed a bit. She was talking so much. Too much? He didn't need her to over-explain the point he'd just made. It was obnoxious.

"Plus I had no idea there were so many things that I didn't know, before all this," she added, unable to, in fact, shut up. "It's like the more I learn, the less that I feel like I know. It all seems very backward."

"There's always more to learn." Gaius set his cane to the side and clasped his hand over the wrist of his maimed one to stop himself from fidgeting. "I felt much the same way when I first began reading through everything in my library, and eventually you get over the hump and start feeling like you know everything. That's dangerous in it's own way, of course."

"You've read everything in your library?" she asked with wide eyes, missing the point entirely. How could a single man read enough books it took 16? librarians to curate?

"Oh, gods, no." Gaius snorted. "I'd be bored out of my skull if I had. I'm just working on reading everything. Sara would have left me by now if I'd read everything in there."
"It'd take two lifetimes for someone to read everything in there," Sara chuckled. "I'd be dead if you'd read everything."

"Oh," Ky said sheepishly. She probably should have inferred that much. "Right. Yes. That makes sense." She nodded. She hesitated, feeling like she should keep the conversation going so that her hiccup was less awkward. "I only had three books when I was little to practice with, so I read them over and over and over. I'm still so amazed by how many books are here. I can't even begin to imagine how many you have in your Keep, if it's so much bigger than this one."

"The library was built to be accommodated by two floors," Gaius said proudly. "Large enough and long enough to have a small battle in it, with chairs and tables enough for eighteen people. The Librarians have a tally of the books, but I don't know how many there are. Tens of thousands? Hundreds of thousands?"

Ky shook her head slightly, amazed. “Wow! It sounds positively magical!”

Why had she admitted she only had three? Now it felt even more puny then before.

"May I ask which books you have?" That was enough bragging for one day; he was supposed to be the quiet one.

“Oh, I, uh… I don’t really have them anymore,” she admitted. “Left them all with my father when I left home.” She was still being so vague. She felt like a liar. Were Ash and Sara mad at her for borderline lying? Did the rest of them already know the truth? “But I used to have one called Beasts of Old which was an index of different Beasts, most of which were mythological. I had another called The Dragon of Nykeria which was just a ridiculous fiction book. And then I had one called A Day In The Market which I’m pretty sure was also just a story, but I had never been to a real village and was fascinated by the concept so I enjoyed reading about what it was like and what all kinds of vendors there were.”

She shrugged, realizing she hadn’t been asked for the descriptions.

“And then my papa had a copy of his old ledger from when he was a merchant. And also a copy of the Holy Book. Both of those were what I actually learned to read on — my uncle brought me the others when he heard I had an aptitude for reading… it was very kind.”