Reaching High

Sam found work a struggle to focus on when he had so many things suddenly occuring in his personal life. The odd and disturbing revelations with Remi, his painful experience in the Spire, his new roommate...all of it was swirling in the back of his mind and making concentrating on the distant happenings of history and myth, of the uncertain futures before them...it felt like it could not matter less to him. But sometimes it offered a good escape, so he tried to set to it at least every couple of days. The obligation of sorting his logbook for the guild came first, then he could research for his project. While he did often find it difficult nowadays to get his mind in the right gear, it was hard to deny just how fascinating the tomes in the Atheneum were. This day, he was trying to find an obscure detail on a kind of armour popular several decades ago. He knew there had to be a name for the specific shoulder piece he needed a reference on, but whatever it was was eluding him and he knew he'd have to look it up. He saw a promising book up on the top of a tall shelf, something black and he knew mythical-related. It was a starting point at least. But there was a problem: it was very high, and he was not a tall man. Dragging a chair over he unsteadily climbed on it, wobbling on the edge on his toes as he reached up for the book, the clattering of the chair's legs against the floor echoing through the Atheneum. It was clear without assistance he would soon fall, but Sam's attention was entirely on the book. Samuel At seventeen, I started to starve myself I thought that love was a kind of emptiness And at least I understood then the hunger I felt And I didn't have to call it loneliness