Chapter 16

Summary

• Irad's great-grandmother was tricked into an education by a serpent, which led to her eviction. Despite this discord, when Irad founded the first library—the athenaeum—the serpent became a regular visitor.
• The book's characters, Livira, Arpix, Jella, Carlotte, and Meelan, are on a quest to find a particular book named Algar’s book in a gigantic library within two days.
• The library is located deep in a mountain, and the journey to it seems like an expedition. Food is not allowed in the library because of its vast size and enormity, which Algar believes requires days or weeks to navigate.
• Upon seeing the enormity and magnificence of the library, Livira is awe-struck; she's been used to living on the Dust, and seeing this marvel for the first time is overwhelming for her.
• The group is admitted to the library by guards wielding what they call "arrow-sticks," which can fire small lead balls using compressed gas as a propulsion method.
• They reveal that their mission to find a book is driven by a political issue with Lord Algar. At the heart of it is a belief that Livira and her people from the Dust are not as intelligent as the city's inhabitants. They call them ‘dogfaces’ or ‘dusters,’ implying they're less human.
• Lord Algar dislikes Livira because the progress she is making in her education challenges his prejudice. He believes she will serve the king's aims better in the sewers or the mines than in the library, despite her talents.
• Livira and her friends reveal that these discriminatory beliefs come not only from the king’s family but are also validated by books from the library, which state that their people are not fully human.