The library was easily the largest building in the city and rose so much over the other buildings that it offered easily the best view by an order of magnitude.  Some said that it was the best view in the Protectorate; not so much that it was the highest but that there was so much more to see.  This view had generally been proferred by the head librarian which was vigorously disputed by the rulers of other cities as well as the head of Mardock's Awesome Viewing Tower (hitherto the 3rd, now 4th tallest building in the city.)<br/><br/>Beings from all over the world had arrived, both in the protectorate and without.  Humans, cyborgs, Aberants, Flergs, werewolves, Vampires, Floating Fish, A constrained dragon, 6 gods, a robot, a man made entirely out of legos and the characters were encouraged to sit in various wooden pews that had been dragged up six thousand flights of stairs only for the express purpose of honoring the will of the former librarian.  Everyone else took the lift.  The lift was one of the great curiosities of the building since the librarian did not want to trust the building's security to higher tech devices when unneeded, so it was powered by a series of clever cogs, gears and pullies that could apply the power of 4000 people chained in the basement who had over due library books.<br/><br/>People didn't forget to return their books with the librarian in charge.<br/><br/>Incidentally, the librarian had, as her first act on death, freed all those who owed over due library books, which made it somewhat of a mystery how the lift functioned but few truly questioned it.  Each floor of the library had a specialization and its own floor specialist, a sage who knew more about that subject than anyone else in the building.  The exception to that was the top floor, where all of the most dangerous books in the collection were stored in Special Collections.  Many wanted to put them in the vault, but after several break-ins, the Librarian had decided that she would be a better security.<br/><br/>Right now, she lay in stately repose, body preserved by some form of Nano trickery, hands in a relaxed curve while a series of several books had been stacked at least three feet high.  The books that had been cleared for the pews, could not, after all, leave the room.  The podium, also made of books, looked somewhat like a lecturn as a Hippo man walked towards it, grufting deeply under his breath.  A series of pages and interns who worked for the library walked among the crowd serving light snacks but also eyed the books closely.  It was said that the knowledge in but one of these tomes could conquor or over turn worlds.  None dared open them under the eyes of the hippo man (or assistant librarian) who stood at the lectern and coughed, "If we could all please be seated."