"Livehouse," Martel murmurs, echoing, curious - given his own mix of blunt honesty and reticence, he's not instantly interrogating Doul about his own universe of origin. It interests him, though, the notion of it.

"I have an inventory of the collection as it is presently - books that require a warning are marked on it, and I store them locked in the upper level - that you might look at. Some of the languages will be, I suspect, very foreign to you - some of them I'm only learning now myself."