Mia walked up to one of the benches in the courtyard out in front of the Library and sat down. She wore some of her most practical clothing and her most comfortable pair of shoes but she was still tired and her feet still hurt. She stretched her legs out in front of her and flexed her feet up and down, trying to relieve a bit of the strain.

Mia was in tolerably good shape and certainly had no problem with physical exertion, but today she had visited every building on the University campus. Every…last…one. She looked down at the slim stack of papers in her hand and examined the flier on top for perhaps the thousandth time. Across the top of the page in bold print was “THE READING ROOM! GRAND OPENING! Bethas 29th” A beer mug with an open book sprawled beside it was drawn in simple lines beneath, and below that a small paragraph read:

All are welcome! Come have a beer, mixed drink, or just tea. Grab a book from the bookshelf, bring your own, or just come for a drink.

Students and University Professors are especially welcome and will find several rooms set aside for their use.

Professors: The Lounge is your private territory and you may allow, or disallow, entry to anyone not a professor.

Students: The Study room is a quiet place to study when you need time away from campus.
The Student Room is a place just for students to congregate, drink, and relax.

The Reading Room is open to all; Human, Passive, Wick, and Galdor.


Mia realized that the last line would be off-putting to some, perhaps many, especially her fellow galdori. However, she counted on curiosity drawing many in and hoped that, as the professors and students had rooms of their own upstairs they would come anyway.

There were only a few fliers still in her hands. She had started out with a hefty stack that had been a bit of a pain to cart around. Most of them had gone in small stacks in the entryways of the buildings on campus. Others had been pasted to posts or other available surfaces both on campus and in the Stacks. She had done the rounds in the Stacks the day before. Brunnhold was now liberally sprinkled with the fliers.
Mia looked at the fliers in her hand one more time, shoved herself up off the bench and walked into the Library. That was the place she expected most of the students to see the fliers so she figured another few in that stack wouldn’t hurt.

Once she was done with this she could go back to The Reading Room and polish the bar again. And maybe dust the chairs and tables. She could certainly go through the inventory one more time. Or she could look through the books on the bookshelves.... Books! She had nearly forgotten the books! Mia had boxes of books lining her room at her parents house ready to go onto shelves but had forgotten to take them to The Reading Room and put them on the shelves. That would be rather embarrassing; to open a pub called The Reading Room with no books on the shelves. Although surely she would have realized before opening night.

There were books on many subjects from travel and foreign lands to books of legends and novels to history and biographies of famous (and not-so-famous) historical figures. Mia had even included most of her old school books to put up in the Study Room for the students. Most of Mia's own collection, all the books that she had accumulated over the years were in the pile. If she was going to live above the pub there was no reason for her to keep any of them back. She would have access to them whenever she wanted after all. She had even culled some books from her parent's library. Mostly books they had not read in years or said they would not read again. Just because her parents didn't want them anymore didn't mean no one else would want to read them.

Mia trotted up the steps of the Library to deposit the last of the fliers on top of the stack already there and determined that she would get at least half of the books to The Reading Room that afternoon. There were only three days left until the 29th after all. Mia smiled as she opened the door to the Library. The Reading Room was almost ready.