He was Almost Absorbed by the System

Chapter One Hundred And Sixty - The City Of Grand Central Library

The Grand Central Library was the central pillar of the whole of society for it contained the one thing that the people felt was the most important aspect of their lives; knowledge.  The backbone of their knowledge constituted of their history.  Whether it was the history of a most important person or of the evolution of their people or even a small tale in the life of an average man, it did not matter.  If it was recorded, it was important and if it was important, it could be found in the Grand Central Library.  This is not to say that other words of knowledge could not be found within the library, for within history, there have been times when a herbalist might have found out the importance of a herb or a fisherman might have documented the types of fish he had caught.  Or an old woman spoke a few wise words that someone thought great and recorded so he wouldn't forget them.

Every book that ever existed could be found in the Grand Central Library, but only a few copies of those books could be found in town libraries, so though the latter were still important, it was the dream of every person to at least once visit the Grand Central Library.  It was not something one could do on a whim either, for to enter the Grand Central Library, one needed to pay a donation of Clay tokens.  This fee covered the costs of the librarians, their assistants, new books to replace old, the scribes that needed to write them, the book makers needed to make them and so on and so forth.  The entry fees were not large, but they were not small and happened to increase if a respected Teacher came to offer words of wisdom within the Library halls to eager ears.

As with every central pillar, a town or in this case a city, had grown up around it.  And for the privilege of living in the shadow of the Grand Central Library, naturally fees would also be paid.  The city consisted of many shops run by trader families, Inns and taverns, estates of minor branches of families who lived a distance away and the Five Elite Families, whose greatest fortune happened to be due to the fact that the Grand Central Library grew within a location close to all of them.  From these five families, most of the Grand Central Libraries librarians and assistants were born from.

Two of the five families also ran paper mills and it was to the one east of the city that K'tai-tul headed to, simply as it was the nearest.

P'nun-gu was sceptical at first, but then impressed by the quality of the wood K'tai-tul showed him. The farmer was also very earnest and open about why he had to travel all of this way from dawn to late afternoon in an attempt to trade his wares. P'nun-gu was stunned and felt anger on his behalf that the farmer's neighbour could be quite so dictatorial in an attempt to grab his land from him. He decided that he definitely wanted to do business with this man, but he needed approval from the family head, even though he was responsible for this side of their businesses.

As it happened, P'nun-gu need not have worried. The Gu family head approved and the men could shake hands tentatively. P'nun-gu would still need to visit the farm and inspect the trees before all was sealed, but for now he would claim the wood K'tai-tul had with him. The farmer was then invited to stay for dinner and for the night.

"Are you sure there is space," K'tai-tul worried. He knew that the five families were reputed to be large and numerous.

P'nun-gu eased his worries. "Yes, there is room," his words were almost disheartened, but as K'tai-tul expressed concern, he decided to be as honest as the farmer. "Just as your family has met with a downturn in numbers, as has ours. Not quite so dramatically, I might add. I must say, you are certainly working hard to keep your family from being lost. It is most admirable."

"Thank you," K'tai-tul replied. "My family is not the only one to have suffered in recent generations, I thought it might be just bad luck in our region, but it seems to be wider spread then."

"Yes," P'nan-gu agreed. "I have heard other families whisper worriedly about the lack of children being born. How will we all hand down our trades if such continues?" K'tai-tul sighed, but felt there was little he could do. Nature could be as cruel as it could kind. Maybe this had happened before, in their history. Likely it was recorded in the Library if that was so.