Chapter Text
“You said you wanted to go to the library?” At her question, Jaskier nodded. Ciri’s face twisted in concentration. “Alright, I can show you where it is. Do you know which library?”
Jaskier nodded, giving her hand a squeeze. “I do, it’s the conservation library—Eskel showed it to me yesterday and it was beautiful, but I’m not entirely sure I know how to get back there. I’d be honored if you could show me the way.”
Ciri grinned and bounced on her toes some more. “Oh, yes, I know that one! It is really pretty in there, the windows are so big and you can see forever when it’s not foggy.” She started walking, tugging him along while continuing to talk. “I don’t go over there that much since I think some of the conservationists worry about me since I’m a kid, but if you’re there they probably won’t say anything!”
Jaskier was forced to smother a grin, instead looking ahead as he let her pull him along. “I’m sure they just haven’t spent much time with you, you seem perfectly well behaved to me and I don’t think you’d ever do anything to ruin any of the books there.”
Ciri sighed and nodded. “That’s what I said! But they still get that pinched look on their faces when they see me around there, which I think is very rude of them.” She held her nose high, looking for all the world like the peeved princess she was. Jaskier choked down another chuckle and instead just squeezed her hand.
“Well, with me there they’ll have to see that you’re fine. Plus they might not even be there right now, Eskel said that they’re not always there.”
Ciri hummed, much like her father, and continued to lead him along. They walked in silence until they reached the glass-paned doors of the conservation library. Jaskier pushed them open and the two of them stepped inside. Since the sun was still rather low in the sky it shone through the windows brightly, casting long shadows along the length of the floor and bouncing light off of all of the glass cases in the room. In the daylight with the sun streaming in, the room was even more impressive, and it was all Jaskier could do to keep from drooling.
He let go of Ciri’s hand in order to walk over to the nearest bookshelf, pulling down a book at random and opening it to the first page. There was an insert before the first page, a note that marked the book as a copy of the real thing, which was in magical storage so as not to be damaged further by time. As he flipped through, he realized that the book was a detailed history of the worship of Melitele, going back multiple centuries. Some of the descriptions of how humans’ worship for her and ceremonies and customs had accompanying illustrations and he was stopped dead when he flipped another page to find a full two page spread illustration of a ritual killing that a Town in Southern Kovir performed once a year in her honor.
The image was beautifully drawn but terribly grotesque, with rolling heads littering the town square. A small box with a caption noted that the ritual had only been abandoned some hundred and fifty years prior, and it was implied that the town hadn’t entirely given up the practice on its own, rather the Kovirian king had forbidden the practice of ritual sacrifice altogether.
Ciri came over from where she’d been peering into one of the cases and looked at the book in his hands. “What’s that?”
Jaskier snapped the book closed quickly, slotting it back onto the shelf where he’d gotten it from. He was not going to be the one to expose the king’s daughter to such horrors if she wasn’t already aware of them. “A book on the ways people used to honor Melitele. It looks rather dull though, I was hoping to find something livelier to read.” A lie, Jaskier was very interested in reading more of that one as soon as he wasn’t around an impressionable young girl. “Hmm, I guess without much information we could probably just start looking through these, then?”
Agreeing happily, Ciri nodded and walked over to the shelf, pulling another one down at random. This one had a dark green cover but no title and when she opened it up, they saw that it had a list of all of the betrothal and wedding presents sent to the new king and queen of Rivia, some six hundred years past. While the idea of looking through such a list sounded interesting, they found quickly that most of the book was dedicated to listing out all the titles and standing of all of the gifters at length, while the gifts themselves were often given no more than a one or two sentence description with accompanying monetary value.
Ciri wrinkled her nose and flipped the book closed. “Ugh, this one is no fun. Should I pick again, or do you want to this time?”
Humming, Jaskier replaced the book back on the shelf. “You pick again, I trust your judgment.” She gave him a serious nod, showing she understood the confidence being placed in her, and scanned the shelves for something good.
It took her a minute or two to find the next book to try but when she brought it back over to the table Jaskier had taken a seat at, she was grinning. “I know this one is going to be good! It’s orange, orange means it’ll be good.”
Jaskier smiled at her. “Oh, it means it’ll be good? How do you know?”
With an eye roll, Ciri stuck her tongue out at Jaskier. “Because, silly, orange things are always good! Oranges, orange juice, both are great. So a book that’s orange will also be good.”
He chuckled and opened it up, flipping through a few pages. The first page he opened had a drawing on one page of a lion mid-roar, with the opposing page containing a children’s nursery rhyme about lions and not being eaten. He looked to Ciri before flipping the page and found her looking down at the lion but not actively reading. On the next page, there was another illustration, this time of three bunnies chasing each other in a circle. It had an accompanying nursery rhyme, this one about bunnies.
When Jaskier looked up, he caught Ciri’s eyes. He shrugged at her, fine with reading this one if she was, and she shook her head back at him.
“No, this is for little kids. I want something more interesting.” Jaskier had to bite back a smile at that but let her close the book and replace it on the shelf. Instead of picking another book, however, Ciri came back and sat down at the table next to Jaskier. “You pick something this time.”
He gave her another shrug and nodded, standing from the table. Jaskier scanned the shelves, trying to make out information, but since most of the books were replicas they had little to no information on the spines and he had little success. Eventually, after another moment of looking, Jaskier lighted on a book that was so blue it was almost black, the cover undecorated save for a simple stitched square in silver thread. He gently eased it off the shelf and brought it back to their table before opening it.
The first page it fell open to wasn’t that interesting at first glance, it just had a bunch of lines with some strange markings on it, and there were a few words below every set of lines. Jaskier almost closed it again immediately, not seeing anything of interest, but before he could his eyes caught on a few of the words at the bottom of the page. He recognized them, though from where he couldn’t remember. Frowning, Jaskier set the edges of the book back against the table and flipped back a few pages, trying to find some sort of description of what he was looking at.
A few pages back in the book there was a page that was clearly the start of whatever it was that he was looking at, it had a bolded title and a small description underneath.
The Golden Goose and Her Three Hens
A Redanian folk song, this is one of the earliest known scribed copies, with different wording than current versions, likely changed to fit the times. The song describes a female ‘goose’ who tends to her three hens, long thought to be a metaphor for a same-sex multiple-partner relationship formed when the women decided to revoke their vows to their husbands and instead run off with each other. Several possible origins for the story have been proposed, but none have been proven to be the original source material.
It was Redanian, which made sense why Jaskier recognized it, he supposed. He looked over the words under the strange lines and they seemed familiar, although he couldn’t tell what the symbols above them meant. Before he could give up trying to figure it out, Ciri leaned forward and stuck her head into his field of view to look at it.
“It’s music!” Her voice was loud in the quiet room and Jaskier nearly jumped in shock.
“Music? The book said it was a song and I think I might have heard the words before, but I don’t know what these are.” Jaskier traced a finger along one set of lines with symbols. Citi looked up at him and grinned.
“They’re the notes! Each line and space means a different note, and they’re written so you know how to sing the song.” She frowned, her tongue poking out of her mouth in concentration. “I had to learn them when my tutors tried to get me to learn how to play the flute, I think I remember them all.” She landed a finger over one dot placed in the space between the first and second line. “This one is….an F! It’s an F.” She frowned again. “I don’t know what F is though, what it’s supposed to sound like.” She turned towards Jaskier, a sheepish smile on her face. “I wasn’t very good at the flute.”
He chuckled and ran a hand over her hair. “Oh, I’m sure you were fine. And that’s quite interesting, I’ve played music before but I’d never seen written music before, it was all just what I picked up from listening to others.” He drummed his fingers on the table, looking down at the book again. “I wonder if it would be difficult to learn?”
Ciri jumped up, shaking her head. “It isn’t! Wait, I’ve got an idea—I know I’ve still got the books they gave me to learn the notes from, I can go find them!” She hopped up and down on her toes a few times, grinning at Jaskier. “Wait right here, I’ll be back in a minute!”
She left before he could even respond, the door clanging shut behind her. Jaskier stared after her for a moment before chuckling to himself, glad for the girl’s enthusiasm. He’d not realized that there was a written form of music but it made sense; otherwise you’d have to have musicians teaching each other new compositions and having to either learn it perfectly the first time or hope you weren’t remembering it incorrectly.
While he waited for Ciri to return Jaskier flipped through the book some more, finding a song here and there that he somewhat recognized the words to, although most of them were foreign to him. The tunes that were written in that strange notation still looked more like nonsense than actual music to him, but he suspected that Ciri’s workbooks would be a lot of help once she got back.
Soon the doors to the library were pushed open once more and Jaskier looked up to see Ciri standing there breathing heavily, a wild grin on her face and a couple books clenched in her hands. She let the doors fall closed again and strode over to Jaskier with a triumphant expression.
“I found them! I wasn’t sure where I’d left them, since well, I wasn’t all that interested in them at the time, but they were on one of my bookshelves! I think my dad must have put them away there, I know I wasn’t the one who did.” She cackled at the last part and Jaskier joined her in laughter, greatly enjoying how unrepentant she was about it.
“Well, I thank you then, kind lady, for retrieving them for me to look at.” Jaskier bowed at her without standing up and then patted the seat next to himself. “Do you want to show me how much you remember?”
With a nod she hopped up and plunked the books down on the table in front of them, pushing the book of music they’d found to the side. “Yes! Here, okay, this one is the one I started with.” From the pile she pulled a thin, soft covered book with a purple design on the front. Inside, Jaskier saw more of that same music notation, although this time it was accompanied by a lot more words explaining it. He peered down at the page, looking over the description of the notes. There was an enlarged version of the five lines they were drawn on, plus a nice graphic that showed what each note was.
Jaskier frowned as he looked over the page of the book. “This makes some sense, but with just the names of the notes I don’t think I’ll be able to read the music, since I don’t know what they’re supposed to sound like.” He tapped his fingers over the page once more, staring down at the page as though he’d be able to convince it to tell him its secrets.
“Oh, wait, I had to learn a song to remember them!” Ciri wiggled in her chair, accidentally elbowing Jaskier in the side. He let out a dramatic ‘oof’ and rubbed at the spot she banged exaggeratedly and got a pout for his troubles. He grinned at her to let her know there weren’t any hard feelings and gestured at her to continue. She stuck her tongue out at him but did. “The song is pretty easy, it just lists out the notes I think.”
Jaskier leaned back in his chair. “Well if you wouldn’t mind singing it for me I’d be grateful for the knowledge.”
“Hmm. I’m not really that good of a singer, though.” Ciri looked away from him, back towards the book in front of them. “I can try but it might not be great.”
Offering her a reassuring smile, Jaskier put a hand over her own on the book, patting it. “I promise you’ll be great. You’re only—” He frowned and looked her over. “How old? Twelve? Thirteen?”
She nodded. “Twelve and a half.”
“You’re only twelve and a half. People get better at things by doing them and you’ve simply not been alive long enough to be truly bad at anything yet, you just need more practice.” He nudged her with an elbow of his own. “Go on then, get some more practice.”
He got a grin for his efforts and Ciri nodded, looking back at the book. “Alright. The first note is ‘do’.” She pointed to the note in the book, labeled ‘C’. “For some reason they’ve got names and letters, I don’t know why, I think it’s just to make it harder.” Jaskier stifled a grin at her huff of annoyance. “You start with ‘C’, or ‘do’.” She cleared her throat. “Do, a deer, a female deer,” she sang, her voice warbling a little with the changes that came from prepubescence. Pointing to the next letter, she continued. “Next is the letter ‘D’. That’s ‘re’.” She took a deep breath and then sung the next line of the song, “Re, a drop of golden sun—”
Jaskier grinned as he listened to her sing the rest of the notes, outlining each note and the corresponding letter. Once she’d gone through the whole list, she sang the whole song through, going through all the notes.
When she finished, Jaskier applauded, grinning widely. “Bravo! That was marvelous Ciri, I won’t hear you ever saying you’re not a good singer again, you’re far too talented to claim that.” She blushed a little at the compliment but gave him a shy smile of thanks. He grinned at her and then looked back down to the book. “I think I know the song now, would you like to sing it with me? So I know I’m doing it right?”
She nodded and Jaskier held up three fingers, lowering them one at a time to signal when to start. On three, they both started singing, Jaskier adding his more trained voice to Ciri’s and smoothing out the rough edges she’d had when it was just her singing alone. They ran through the entire scale and when they finished they both cracked up into giggles, leaning against each other enjoyably.
Ciri was the first to compose herself, pushing upright from where she’d been leaning against Jaskier’s side. She rubbed her eyes and then looked back at him. “That was fun! I think I’d have liked learning music more if you were the one teaching me.”
Jaskier grinned back at her and ruffled her hair again. “Well considering that you still know more about it than I do, I’d say you’re the teacher here, not me.” She snickered again and batted his hand away.
“Yeah, but I’m sure you’re going to be better at it than I am soon, if you aren’t already.” She shrugged. “I never really cared that much to learn it so if you want to take the books, you can; I’m not using them.”
Jaskier looked at her for a moment before nodding, grinning at her. “If you’re sure, I’ll take you up on that offer, Ciri. Thank you, I’m excited to be able to learn more about reading music.” He patted her on the shoulder. “I suppose that once I’ve learned enough to be passable, I’ll have to give you a concert of your very own, then, hmm?”
She nodded vigorously. “Yes! That would be great, Jaskier.”
He ruffled her hair again, enjoying how she huffed when he did it, and then looked away, towards the windows. In the time they’d been there, the sun had moved quite noticeably and it was now much higher in the sky, nearly out of sight through the tall windows. Jaskier gave it a glance and then looked back to Ciri.
“Hmm, would you say that it’s close to lunchtime?” He asked. She looked from him towards the sun as well, squinting to see where exactly it hung.
“I think it might be, yeah. Did you want to go get lunch?” She started bouncing up and down in her seat again, her exuberance showing through the measured words.
“Yes, if you’re hungry; I think it would be a good idea for us to head back and see about lunch.” Jaskier stood from the table and Ciri did as well, pushing her chair back forcefully.
“Alright! Let’s go!” She was rocking on the balls of her feet and Jaskier chuckled, shaking his head.
“Yes, we can go, but I want to put this book back and if you’re truly alright with me borrowing your music books, I’d like to drop them by my room so I’m not in danger of spilling my lunch on them.” Ciri giggled at the image and nodded at him.
“Alright, that sounds fine.”
Jaskier poked her in the ribs with a grin. “Fine as it may be, don’t think you have to come with me while I head back to my rooms. Just because I’ve got to take a detour doesn’t mean you have to be late for lunch, you should just go straight to the dining hall when we get close enough.”
She frowned and then nodded. “Yeah, you’re probably right. Plus, I don’t want to get you in trouble for helping me hide from my tutors, since you’ve been so nice and all.” Jaskier’s heart melted a little and he squeezed her shoulder.
“I appreciate that, Ciri.” He turned towards the books still on the table and gathered up the ones Ciri had brought, piling them up before closing the music book and turning to replace it on the shelf where he’d plucked it from. He noted where it was located, certain that once he was able to read music, he’d be back for it, thirsty to learn more of the songs inside. When he turned back to Ciri, having gathered the remaining books into his arms, he swept one hand towards the door. “After you, my lady.”
She giggled and hopped over to the door, pulling it open for Jaskier so he didn’t have to shift the books in his hands around. They made good time heading in the direction of the dining hall and when they reached the fork where Jaskier was to peel off and head for his rooms, he reached over impulsively and gave her a one-armed hug, holding her against his side for a moment before letting go.
Ciri looked up at him in surprise but then smiled and wrapped her arms around his waist for another moment. She let go almost immediately and before Jaskier could respond to that, she’d skipped away in the direction of the dining hall. Jaskier smiled and shook his head and made his way back towards his rooms to drop off his precious new books.
He only intended on dropping the books on the table and heading back to lunch, but when he reentered his rooms his eyes caught on the brown parcel still sitting on his bed. Powerless to resist the temptation of clean, never-belonged-to-anyone-else underclothes, Jaskier put his books down and walked over to the bed.
The string tied around the parcel untied easily and Jaskier pulled the edges of the paper back to reveal a stack of what looked like well made underclothes, all in a silky smooth fabric that flowed like water under his fingertips when he touched it. Underneath the underthings there were also a few more basic sets of pants and shirts, rounding out the few she’d already given him. The quality was much higher than he’d expected and he found himself caught between anxiety that the clothes were much too nice for the likes of him and a wanton desire to say nothing and let them be his. He decided that if worse came to worst, he’d return them if it was determined that they were too nice for him, but in the meantime he’d make full use of the silky underthings.
Jaskier shucked his pants quickly, folding them in half and placing them on the bed before pulling on one pair of the underwear. He tugged them up his body, relishing in the softness of the fabric and the way they clung to his ass and his cock, cradling them comfortably. It was one of the nicest quality pieces of clothing Jaskier had ever worn and he shivered, enjoying the feeling of the silk cupping him.
He felt himself start to get the stirrings of an erection and he brushed away the urge to take himself in hand through the underwear and bring himself off, dirtying up the pair he wore. Instead, he shook his head, kept his hands firmly away from his cock, and donned his pants once more. He could still feel the underwear underneath them, an entirely different feeling than the pants, but he resolved to ignore the sensation, determined to get used to it.
Once he was clothed Jaskier left his rooms and headed towards the dining hall. When he got there he found that lunch was indeed in full swing, and both Eskel and the king sat at the high table with Ciri on the side of the king opposite Eskel. He spared a grin for her and she grinned back.
Jaskier made his way to the high table, a little more confident this time as he slid into the empty seat next to Eskel without having to be told to. Eskel turned to smile at him before sticking another large bite of roast into his mouth.
Lunch passed smoothly and Jaskier found himself enjoying it, making light conversation with Eskel on his left and the man who sat to his right, who he learned was one of the king’s advisors. The man—Roger, Jaskier learned—seemed pleased that Jaskier seemed able and willing to help the king regain the upper hand in their trade negotiations with the surrounding countries, and drew Jaskier into a rather interesting conversation about the differences in manners and customs between different regions.
When the meal wound down Jaskier turned back to Eskel, wondering if the man still wanted to continue their discussion that afternoon. He found that Eskel had just turned to him as well and they grinned at each other.
“I assume we’re on the same page about continuing to discuss our plans for next month’s visitors, then?” Eskel asked. Jaskier nodded at him.
“I’m more than happy to, Eskel, if you’re not too busy with anything else.”
Eskel shook his head. “No, not busy. There are always things that need tending to, but I’d rather make sure that we manage to get this right, and everything else can be dealt with after.”
Jaskier nodded at him, understanding the urge to get it done right the once so it would be easier going forward. “Well then, lead the way.”