The Scrollrunners

Chapter 15 | The Founding Festival

People paraded in the streets. Beautifully dyed cloth flung and fluttered above their heads, clutched in waving hands, adorning the hair and garments of Alexandrians and foreigners alike. Decorated booths and stalls boasting sweet-smelling breads and spiced, roasting fish and meat perched on every corner, filled each inch of market spaces that wasn't already filled with the celebrating masses.

High-spirited people played games, drank, ate, and payed respects to the city's eponymous likeness displayed on flags, baked into pastries, and stamped into coins: Alexander the Great.

His larger-than-life statue stood proudly in the center of the agora at the harbor's edge. Surrounded by stately, columned government buildings and offices, and the Library of Alexandria, Alexander's chiseled features were the picture of institutional power.

Already, silks and bright banners embellished his immortalized body, casting colorful shadows onto the sandy ground beneath where Talibah and Omari stood.

Talibah hadn't been this close to the Library since she and her father had been evicted from it. She missed it's old, echoing walls, it's rooms full of precious scrolls of knowledge and maps and mathematical and scientific instruments. Her emotions were at war with each other; some raged and ranted and lamented against the close-minded exclusivity of the institution, while others longed to be once more enclosed within its walls in that wondrous space of learning.

Omari must have noticed her discomfort (she was fidgeting and tugging at her dark, wild hair rather a lot).

"What's your favorite part about the Founding Festival? Mine is the dancing and music." He closed his bright green eyes for a brief moment and swayed with the cacophony of the crowd as if remembering a long-forgotten tune, preserved only in his own mind.

Talibah had to think for a minute. She tapped a finger against her lips. "I know you won't let me get away with saying I love it all, so I'll go with the food."

Omari laughed and answered, "The young ones always love the food best."

"The woman who took my father and I in, Nailah, is a cook for the Library. She is exceptional in the kitchen. Today is one of the only days of the year she doesn't cook. She loves to go out during the Festival and spend all day eating food she didn't prepare." Talibah said, thinking fondly of Nailah.

"Will Nailah be at the stand-in?" Omari asked, crazy white eyebrows raised.

"Yes!" Talibah smiled. "Do you know her?"

"Of course I do! She used to come by the temple all the time, sometimes bringing your mother along. Haven't seen her in years, though." Omari scratched his head.

He knew my mother, too?

"How many people at the temple knew my mother?"

"Everyone who is old enough to have been there when she frequented it as a Follower of Ma'at. We all loved her, of course. It's such a shame..." Omari's old eyes became distant before snapping back to the present. "Anyway, I see her in a lot of you. Same fire, same grit." He chuckled an old man's laugh again.

"Thank you, Omari. That means a lot to me. Especially today. I'm doing this because of her. For her. And for me."

Talibah's black eyes looked up at the Library past the people dancing, marching, laughing, and marveling, seeing a future for herself and other outcasts walking up its marble steps, school bags slung over their shoulders, ready to learn about the world and contribute their own brilliant minds to it.

Letes stood on the corner where two of Alexandria's busiest main roads intersected. She leaned against the clay and stone wall, foot tapping.

"Don't look so worried, Letes, today's meant to be enjoyed. Even if were are instigating a rebellion this afternoon." Vara joked as she emerged from the crowd and handed Letes a coconut from one of the vendors at a nearby stall. Even amidst all the colorful banners and beads and adornments everyone dawned on this auspicious day, Vara's red-tinged black hair and tall, strong body stood out, striking as ever.