Kore is a small moon in the outer reaches of the galaxy, bristling with odd little flowers that resist the attempts of hapless strangers to encourage them to grow under a roof. It was just the right place for me to be, on the occasion a trader swung by.

The three of them sat together outside the library in that little dark crevice of the universe, watching the lights in the sky, whilst a song about home wafted in the air. Tallis glanced over their shoulder for a moment at the building behind. Eleison’s library was still nowhere near as grand as a good chunk of those Tallis had seen. But it didn’t need to be. It had books.

People had pretty soon decided that there wasn’t much else worth exploring in the vast empty stretch of space beyond, which people called the Night, and attention had moved elsewhere. Not for the first time, Tallis groaned inwardly and forced themself to remember that they were lucky to still be employed by the Librarians’ Guild at all after the unfortunate Charlotte Brontë incident. This posting was just something they were going to have to endure for a while.