Extra, Extra, Read All About It!

“Ah, yes, you are the 67^th patron to ask about that today. All of the releases of the day can be found over there in the lounge area. Is there anything else I can help you with?” The patron shook their head no before walking away from the information desk that Etain was in charge of for the day.

Ever since the news spread about the late Queen Deja statue being stolen from Verdant Castle, anyone and everyone had been talking about it nonstop and trying to find the latest news, gossip, or clues regarding the incident. And because of that, some library patrons assumed that Etain would be the person to talk to. Information Services and all that.

He, of course, did read anything and everything regarding what was happening.

Not that he would tell anyone about that.

If he did, he’d never get any work done.

Passing questions were hard enough to answer, let alone a whole speech regarding what Etain knew as well as researching the voracity of each source to determine how credible it was.

What he also didn’t tell anyone was that he had requested some vacation time off that recently got approved so he could go do his own investigation. After all, he had read the entire library’s mystery genre collection several times over. That should qualify for something. What that should qualify for, who knows. But one thing was for sure: he loved a good mystery.

BUT he still had a few days before he could travel to Haven so he had to wait, and while he was waiting, he was researching.

Etain set up his device to give him notifications whenever a new article or rumor popped up on the web, and he received notifications for the duration of his entire shift. When he wasn’t helping patrons or doing other tasks, he spent his time reading and reading and reading. Of course, this wasn’t his only method of gaining information.

He also read all the daily publication news outlets as they were being processed to be read by visiting patrons. He and the other librarians spent time talking theories and motives before the library opening and continued while closing up.

While there were some wildly outlandish theories, there was one thing Etain was certain of.

Whoever did this was quite bold and did not seem to care about consequences.