Teleporting into a brand new world as the member of a different species demands a search for knowledge, and it was a search Renaud had been desperately pursuing since his arrival on Caido. Naturally, it had disadvantages - one being that it had proven less than simple to find another Ascended who could explain to him what the hell being such a creature really meant. He had learned of a pantheon of gods and that some favored his kind more than others. He had learned that there was "The Voice", one of these "new gods" that apparently favored the Ascended as well. He also had no idea how reliable any of this information was, as it had been given to him by men with only an outside understanding of his condition.
So, when he learned of the existence of something like the Atheneum, a partially collapsed building holding tomes upon tomes of knowledge, he was compelled to travel there with incredible haste. He came at night - because why wouldn't he? - and set about looking through the rows of books for something that might be useful to him. As he was alone, and as there seemed to be little to no organization about the place, he was mostly pulling out every book that appeared interesting, flipping through it, and then either putting it back in its place or tucking it under his arm. After some time of searching, he had about three that looked interesting.
Eventually he noticed a door, not overly interesting but also not covered in rubble, which struck his interest. It was as if something was calling to him through the wood grains, urging his curiosity. He elected to explore whatever was behind that door while he was at the Atheneum, but decided it was best to at least flip through the books he head gathered before he took what could possibly be a dangerous journey deeper into the building.
So, in pursuit of that decision, he found a place to sit on a roughly square chunk of rubble. He placed two books to his right, and opened the third in his lap. It appeared to be a history of Caido, or at least a partial one. He flipped through the pages, skimming some chapters and examining the organization of the tome as a whole.
When he was finished determining the usefulness of one book, he closed it, set it aside, and picked up another. He had no interest to fully read the books then and there, of course - he only needed to assure that they were each worth being carried all the way back to Loren's manor.
Moonlight shined through the opening of the Atheneum where the building had been partially destroyed by forces Renaud could only guess at - either time, weather, or something more supernatural. This moonlight seemed to dance against him, either illuminating half of his face or none at all depending on how he shifted around on his little rubble seat.
He remained there, flipping through his books, assuming that nothing more pressing would come up that evening.
