The Pyramid Scheme of Prayers

After I finished writing my last entry, Kovach had to go to work, so I figured would hole up in the library at the Benevolent Order for a while. In hindsight, I really should have gone to the Vault.

The library itself was…interesting. The clerk at the front desk told me there was a small war for library space going on between the culinary school and the religious studies program, and from what I could see from the space itself, the culinary school seems to be winning. When I got there, there was someone from the culinary school making an omlette in the library. I don't have enough context to know if having an open fire in the library is normal, but I doubt it. At least she was talkative enough to fill me in on how this “war” works.

Each side's goal is to make the other side sufficiently pressed for shelf space that they have to get rid of unused texts. Fortunately, there's no actual destruction of books. It's up to the individual sides to pick which texts they want to get rid of. I pressed a little bit, and it turns out the professor Kovach and I talked to yesterday would be the one making the decisions on what stays and what goes, with the help of some of the advanced students. Like that TA I talked to yesterday. You know, the guy who's drowning in student loan debt. I wonder if he'd be willing to let me take some of the books they're getting rid of off his hands. If I can find the funds, he might be willing to sell me some. I figure that if the library isn't going to be using those books, they might as well go to the vault.

I didn't find anything useful in the library, unfortunately. Just some pretty entry-level stuff about the worship of Brother Autumn that I'm already familiar with. But I did find Delta. Which…ugh. She has it in her head that there's some kind of rivalry between us. Normally I don't actually care that much, but now she has it out for me since I had the audacity to ask if the had any insight on the Autumn Banquet. Heaven forbid someone ask a colleague about their area of expertise. Now she thinks I'm trying to leech off everyone else's research without contributing anything on my own. And it sounds like she's spreading the word.

She was so much more normal when we were out fighting fires. I don't know where she got so narcissistic.

And the worst part? She's taking the Theoretical Prayer night class. She challenged me to see who learns more from the lecture. And I am not going to fail to someone who's taken it upon herself to talk shit about me behind my back.

Kovach got back from work just in time for the night class, and when we got there, we said we were with The Brotherhood. The security guard asked if we'd paid our tuition, which…nope. I forgot to mention it last entry, but there was this Aelfir in the professor's office when we got there who was also attending the night class. She paid for our entry and chatted me up before class started. Her name's Maewin, and she seems to genuinely enjoy her studies and wants to share the knowledge with others. Apparently she has a habit of paying people's tuition. Even paid Garris's way in. She's nice enough, I guess. A bit too friendly for my taste.

While I was talking with Maewin, this guy named Partridge started talking to Kovach. He invited us to get coffee with him sometime and left us a calling card. We'll have to get in touch when we have a moment. He wasn't overly friendly the way Maewin was, so he probably has an agenda. And I'd like to know what it is.

The lecture was…mind numbing. I don't think I would have been able to focus if Delta wasn't sitting in the back row judging me the whole time. But I walked out with a solid ten pages of notes on the theory of hand positions and the types of prayer they're used for. And you know I'm going to be obsessing over these later. There's no way I'm letting Delta win this stupid competition. And maybe it will get her off my back. She's petty enough that I'm not optimistic, but you never know.

At least most of the lecture was pretty boilerplate. It was about channeling other people's energy into your prayers. All you have to do is form a prayer group and have them direct their energy towards you, then you encourage all of the other members to form their own prayer groups, and then the other members of those groups form more prayer groups…

It's a pyramid scheme of prayers.

The only interesting part of class was the woman sitting behind us who was solely in the class to find out whether this spooky skull she bought would curse her bar. It eats crystals and grows tentacles. And she brought it with her. I didn't get a good look at it, and that might be for the best. I'm curious, but not that curious. I'd rather not risk the wrath of a large tentacled skull, thank you very much.

After class, Maewin invited us to a prayer group that the professor runs. It starts in a few minutes, so I'll update more once we get back. Hopefully it's not just a sales pitch for the professor's prayer scheme.