Find this book!

Yalda rested his head on his hand while he listened to the old fart. When he saw the flyer with the job, it hasn't mentioned that the old hag was going to be such a boring and foolish person.
Yalda couldn't care less about the "fairy tales" that she had read in his youth, whenever that was. The fact that she dismissed them as just fairy tales was enough for him. He knew better than that. He knew that all legends and myths are based on truths, and the ones that appeared on the "Ancient Folklore of Ishgard" were not different in the slightest. Why would have a powerful and wise wizard like the author was, spent a single minute of his time writing tales for children? That they talked about long extinct magical creatures, dark ages of old mages and the mythical Black Library of Ishgard didn't help Yalda to dismiss his intuitions about that book. He needed to get that book for himself, never mind the lady. A lot of knowledge could be gained here.

After what it seemed an endless barrage of useless and nostalgically talk, he dismissed the offer for a cup of tea and left the old lady with her memories.

" It would be a shame... no, a crime to let such a prized knowledge be forgotten and treated as a fairy tale by fools who don't know any better. " - He though to himself - "I'll take this job, but to get the book for myself. Well, the money won't hurt either, i guess... ".


He covered himself with his travel robe and started walking to the old part of the village. The stone stairs led him to the library of the town. It was a huge building, but in a poor state. After he went through the wooded door, his impressions didn't improve. It was dirty, covered with dust and practically without any personnel to help him out. He sighed with annoyance over how such an important thing was treated so awfully and went through the part of the library where he would find the book.

He started looking in the A section. He instantly noticed that the books were disorganized and placed in the wrong places.

-"This isn't just something that you do out of negligence or sloppiness" - He though - "This is intentional".
He sighed with annoyance and went to the first shelving in the room, to begin his slow and painful search.
- "This is going to be such a waste of time... Oh, well. I might find some interesting books after all. And I might have time to think about what I'm going to do next... "

He wondered who could have done this to the library. Someone wanting to hide some important knowledge? Unlikely. They wouldn't have chosen this place to hide it. Anyone could have found it by accident. That couldn't be it. He ended the shelf and started searching in the one below it.
- " This isn't going to be good for my back ". He noticed, however, that the books weren't placed absolutely at random, only some of them were.

- " If just a couple of them are misplaced, then probably it's just some form of vandalism " He thought " Probably some of the brats of the village ... ".

After all, he had entered the library without anyone noticing or caring about it. The kids could have done the same and no one would have realized what happened. - "What a way of having fun those brats have... if I happened to find one of them, i'll teach him a lesson or two..."

After finishing the search on that bookshelf, he moved on to the next one, and after that, the next... and on and on.

He found some other books that, without being the ones that he was sent to get, might prove to be useful. - " Well, now it hasn't been a total waste of time, regardless of the final outcome of all of this. It is something. "

After he finished yet another bookshelf, he noticed some movement on his left side and turned to see what it was.

A group of children, probably the same brats that vandalized the library before, were at it again. The oldest, and presumably the " leader " of the group, which probably wasn't even 8 years old, was doing the deed while the others laughed. However, what it captured his attention was the book that he was holding in his hand. It was " Ancient Folklore of Ishgard " itself.

- " Well, now this is convenient " - He though - " Two birds with one stone ".

He went towards the noisy children, that noticed his presence immediately.
The oldest of them turned to Yalda: - " What do you want ? "
He smiled at them. "I want that book that you are holding. "  He said " Give it to me right now and i might forget about you vandalizing the library "

The kids started to laugh. They probably didn't know what it was happening. They would soon know. They stopped laughing and looked at him with malice.

- " We don't want to! "
The group of children started running towards the exit with the book.
- "oh, no you don't" - He casted Gleipnir on the kid that had the book, stopping him in place and squeezing him a bit. He started to cry. He even might have wetted his pants.

- Those silly pranks of yours aren't so funny now, are they? " - Yalda smiled at him while he tried to break free from the chains. "Please, mister just let me go, I didn't want to cause any trouble¡¡ ".
He stopped smiling. - "  Oh, I do think that you wanted to cause trouble, all right, what you didn't want was any trouble for youself". Yalda grabbed the book, and felt filled with satisfaction. The other kids had left the library fast, scared of what it was happening. He lifted the spell from the kid. - "Get out of here before i change my mind. And don't you ever get inside this library again, you hear me?"

The kid left the library at full speed, while crying and sobbing loudly.

Yalda turned his attention back to the book. It was a gorgeous tome, decorated with drawings. He decided that he will read it, before thinking about what to do with it.
It certainly didn't disappoint him. The tales about the sphinx on the countries of the far east of the continent were likely true, some of the immortal dark mages mentioned were actually historical figures whose names and certain details had been changed, and so were the heroes named in it. Yalda read most of the book voraciously, and started to appreciate the style and the way that the histories were told. - " No wonder that the old hag wants this book back, it's pretty well written on top of everything else ". He finally arrived at the part that he was waiting for: The Black Library of Ishgard.

It didn't mention where to find it, nor where to look to get more information about it, but it confirmed Yalda that it was a real place as well as what books he might find inside if he were ever to enter into it, as well as its origins, function and purpose.

Yalda smiled as he finished the last part of the book - " All right, this settles it. I'll copy this book and take it with me. I'll give the original to the old lady so i can get the reward of the job. " - He thought.

He started to copy the book on another paper. He took cautions and copied every little detail of the history of the book - " Who knows, maybe they are hiding something that i'm not seeing right now. Better safe than sorry and all that ... " - It took him all afternoon and part of the evening  to be done with this menial task, but he felt really satisfied when he finished. - " Finally... Too bad that it's too late to give them book back. I'll have to wait until tomorrow ".

He went to the exit of the library and left. The night welcomed him with silence. It was later than he thought that it was. Darkness had already engulfed the streets of the village. He really needed to get to the hotel, soon.

He arrived at the hostel where he was staying while he was in the town. The hall was poorly illuminated. Exactly as he expected for such a cheap place. Oh well. It was non-important, just something temporal. The moment he finished his job, he would leave this village, hopefully to never return. He hated it everything about the town from the first step he made into it.

He gazed at the hall. There was none in sight. - " Yeah, it's kind of late... I still will need something for supper, though... - " He went to the kitchen to get something to eat. - " Phew, I'm starving and I barely even realized... ".. After he found everything that he needed and cooked it, he took everything to his bedroom and ate it there. It wasn't precisely the best that he have ever tasted, but he didn't complain. After that, he left the book and its copy in the closet, locked the door and took off his clothes to take a shower. Finally, he went to sleep.

He got up early, having barely even slept a couple of hours. This was usual for him, he rarely slept more than he needed to. He was in a good mood. - " I'm not going to need to spend much more time in this village, and I got something useful out of all of this mess... great "-. He collected his belongings, packed them and left the hostel. He went up the main street to the house of the old hag which had asked him to do this "job".

When he finally entered into her house, his hopes of collecting the reward and leaving quickly faded away. She still bored him with some more memories of her infancy. Yalda though of doing something stupid, but he repressed the urges - " Wouldn't be too wise. I don't want any unwanted attention ... ".

After the grandma finished the endless barrage of stories, he finally got to collect the reward for his job. Yalda managed to leave quickly after that, barely even saying goodbye. He went to the way out of the village, hoping that he wouldn't come back there, ever again.