When the conversation behind the bookcase continued as if nothing had happened, Sue finally let herself breathe and then remembered why she’d been startled in the first place. As far as she was aware, picking up a book from a shelf in a library wasn’t against the rules, and so it had only been the sight of the two elves that had made the young human uncomfortable of the situation. No elves she knew of had ever behaved like that. Were they all like this behind the façade? Arguing with each other… about numbers… arcane something… cast cycles… recoil… fatigue… Well, at least that word she understood, but it probably meant something completely different in the context.<br/><br/>Did they talk about magic? Sue sure hoped not, because all of it went way over her head, and she’d spent the last couple of weeks getting really excited about magic, as all the books she’d read so far made the art of spellcasting sound like something she could easily learn… at least, if she tried very, very hard. Now the discussion between the elves made her feel like perhaps she shouldn’t have sold the farm, shouldn’t have come to Stormwind, and most importantly, shouldn’t have gotten her hopes up. Maybe it was too late for her, after seven years of counting grains of wheat and exchanging them for grains of gold. Maybe humans were meant to stick with what they were good at and let the immortals chase after their dreams.<br/><br/>A tasteful offer… Sue awoke from her saddening thoughts and focused on the conversation again. An easy alternative… a shortcut… Now this was a language she understood, and for a moment it made her feel back at home where she once knew everything that went on between the housemaids and the farmhands, and even learned some tips on how to treat her own husband by listening in on the stable girls and on pretty much everyone who failed to consider that a woman the size of Sue could move without making a sound…<br/><br/>Of course, this had been in her own house with carpets on every floor, where she knew about every squeak the floorboards would make, and where no one would even think to judge her if she wore a pair of woolen stockings, even in the middle of the summer, even in the bedroom with her man. Sue looked down at her brand new high-heeled boots and put up a little smile. Fuck those woolen stockings. They never made her look good in the mirror.<br/><br/>The book that was pulled off this time was much thinner than the last one, and it hadn’t been picked because someone wanted to read. The adjacent books silently collapsed against one another and formed a tall, triangular peephole where a curious eye continued to spy on the elves.<div class="messageTextEndMarker"> </div>