* This still being the lunch hour, the library is almost totally empty when Mariah walks through the doors. * Mariah looks for a table or study carrel that's a little secluded. * There are several small rooms suitable for a single person or small group to study or watch movies in, scattered around the edge of thel ibrary. * Mariah finds said small room and closes the door behind her, sitting so she can see out into the library. From her backpack, she pulls out her geometry book, her health book... and a hefty book wrapped in brown paper, labeled "Advanced Algebra." * Mariah flips open the geometry book first, pulling out a notebook and starting to toy with problems. "Might as well get the bad stuff out of the way..." * Two-space geometry makes Mariah's head hurt after considering the problems of time, space, fate, and destiny. * Mariah struggles through about five problems before pushing the notebook and textbook away. "Man... metaphysics is easy. Why is math so hard? ... speaking of which..." She flips open "Advanced Algebra." * The book reaches out and grabs hold of Mariah, dragging her down into its world, a world of long journeys made on the spur of the moment, constant adversity, revenge, and above all, triumph. In short, it's like Lord of the Rings, only not. ... I wonder... * When the book finally lets go of Mariah, she's got such a crick in her neck. * Mariah rubs her neck. "There's *got* to be something I can do with this." * Nothing is immediately jumping out. Maybe another read would help. There's another half of the book, even though the story is over. .. oh, I get it. I bet I didn't get to the *real* part yet. * Mariah glances at her watch. * About four hours have passed. .. oh, geez! I should get to the fight! I'll do the rest of this tonight, when Isaac can get me help... and... yeah. * Mariah rips off a bit of notebook paper to bookmark her place in "Advanced Algebra" and starts hurriedly packing up books. * It doesn't take long at all to get the bags packed, and thence to get Mariah up to the wall, where people are already starting to gather for... the fight. [Session... end.]