Kael
The journal arrived in a box with room for a much larger book.
I disliked that before anyone opened it.
Lysander Quill set the box on the reading table and checked the seal against the courier's receipt. A second librarian recorded the condition of the wrapping.
I stood with my hands off the table.
"Sit," Lysander said.
"I thought I shouldn't touch anything."
"The chair isn't on loan."
I sat.
He lifted the cover.
The book inside had a dark, worn binding and a pale repair along the spine. It looked less imposing than half the volumes I had ignored on the way in.
No lock.
No blood waiting to recognize my hand.
Just old paper which someone had taken the trouble to preserve.
Lysander placed it on a support and opened the condition record beside it.
"The collection has approved supervised reading here. The journal stays in the library. You may make permitted notes for the medical comparison. Any copied diagram is checked against the loan conditions before it leaves."
