Dani slipped her books through the return slot, listening to each volume thump onto the conveyor belt with a sense of satisfaction. The Emperor of All Maladies. Network Effect. Dark Matter and Dark Energy. Harrow the Ninth. One by one they returned home. Dani let Star Wars: Guardians of the Whills go with a little nod for Chirrut and Baze on the cover, then took the steps two at a time and opened the door to one of her favorite places: the Mayet public library.

When she was small, trips had relied on her parents' or brother's schedules. They were book-lovers too, but the bakery took a lot of work, and Alex could be maddeningly elusive if he didn't want his little sister tagging along. She could check out eBooks from anywhere, but the library was so much more. Solo travel privileges into the city, and the autonomy that enabled, couldn't come fast enough. Although the volume of her reading list waxed and waned with the school year, her visits were constant as she systematically worked her way through the catalog.

Recently the library offered more to digest than information, and Dani had shifted her visits to Saturday mornings to take advantage. She lingered near the notice board a moment and continued on, looking for the familiar form of Mayet's head librarian as she beelined for the front desk - or rather, the tray next to the summer reading program standee.

Lithiasaur