Welcome to Gaia! ::

I have lost all sense of home, having moved about so much. It means to me now -- only that place where the books are kept. - John Steinbeck

Silas was quite as fond of libraries as he was of bookstores. There is, of course, something to be said for owning a book, but no one who loves knowledge can argue against the glory of an institution dedicated to sharing as widely and freely as possible.
The gentleman was perched, primly, at a small study table, with a small pile of archane looking volumes surrounding him. He'd found libraries in Gaia to be in general quite as impressively varied in the books they contained as the bookstores. A small leather bound notebook sat on the desk beside him, and he occassionally noted something in it absently with a pen and never seemed to leave his right hand. He would occassionally stand, and wonder off into the stacks of books apparently entirely absorbed in whatever process of thought he was following, and fetch some book or another back with him to add to his growing pile.
Settled quietly behind a stack of books on the desk, was a small feien. He was reading as well, though it was a smaller paperback book and was apprently entirely unrelated to anything Silas was doing. Now and again, the gentleman would glance up, as if to assure himself that the feien was still present, before continuing his research. Both appeared entirely satisfied with complete silence.

Ravi, Silas noted absently, was now well into Hamlet. Either the young feien was perfectly capable of understanding Shakespearian vernacular, or he was to proud to ask his bond the definition of words and attempt to look them up later when Silas was not paying attention.

For his part, the mage would obligingly pretend later that he did not notice. He slid his glasses further up the bridge of his nose, and muttered something to himself in latin. After a moment of studying the paragraph he'd been reading, he stood slowly, still apparently turning the phrase over in his thoughts as he walked down the row of desks on a tangent to find another text.

The gentleman paused in his forward motion, and turned looking almost as if she'd startled him out of a daydream. An expression settled on his face that was somehow almost a smile even though he wasn't exactly smiling.

"I beg your pardon, madame?" He spoke softly, even more softly then usual out of respect for the place, but even so his annunciation was precise.

Somewhere behind a paperback copy of Hamlet, an orange feien was rolling his eyes.

"Oh, no, madame I do apologise, I fear that I only recognised that I was being spoken to after it was already far too late to actually discern the words."
He smiled then, a kind quiet little smile.

"You refer, to Ravi. We are indeed bonded." He bowed, slightly, in a greeting as archaic as his suit, "Dr. Silas Redbourne, at you service. Whom do I have the honour of addressing?"

He accepted her attempted curtsy without comment, though some barely contained amusement sparkled in his eyes.
He returned the nods of Alaw and Edwyn. "A pleasure to make your aquaintence, Alaw, Edwyn, Ms Enfys."

He glanced over his shoulder, at where his feien sat. "Ravi rather prefers to introduce himself as he likes."

He said it just a touch louder then the very soft voice he had been using, and an irritated sounding voice drifted back from the desk in answer, "I'm reading."

The gentleman smiled warmly, "No, I am not a knight, merely an untitled Doctor."

There was a thud, as of a book closing and falling onto its side, and a small orange feien landed heavily on Silas' shoulder, frowning and folding his arms, "Knights don't look like they do in those pictures anymore you know."

Silas sighed very quietly, almost unnoticably, and murmured, "That's a narrow view of things, Ravi."

The feien ignored him, "You're a knight, if someone knights you. It doesn't matter what you look like."

His bond gave up and settled his hazel eyes on Blithe instead, "And did you find what you were looking for," and he hesitated slightly, as though he had to correct himself mentally before saying the name, "Blithe?"

It was amazing, how the gentleman and his feien seemed to manage to carry on two seperate conversations, with one riding on the shoulder of the other.
Ravi answered with exaggerated patience that suggested he wasn't particularly patient at all, "No, a person is defined by what is inside them and their actions towards others. A knight, is a person holding the title of knight, who has been therefore knighted by someone with a higher title. All re-enactments and costume parties aside."

Meanwhile, Silas appeared as remarkably adept at tuning out his feien as the small fellow was at ignoring his bond.
"Indeed, dreams are quite as important as facts, and oft times somewhat more inspiring. I am sorry, however, that you've not found the texts you sought. I admitt that I find it somewhat vexing when I've prepared myself to set about a direction of inquiry only to be myself thwarted by lack of the necessary materials."

"Then you should have said knightly, and not a knight." Ravi said blandly. "If that's what you were talking about, then, yeah." The small feien shrugged Personally he wasn't a fan of old legends about knights and fair ladies and courtly romance and chivalry.

Silas looked slightly embarased at the lady's suggestion that their meeting was fortuitous. The gentleman was polite but not, apparently, particularly dashing. "Ah...well for the most part I have, yes. I rarely find research to be an entirely linear path. I've found some of what I was seeking and some things that I had not thought to look for until they presented themselves."