Swamped

It's called "Master Flint and the Helpful Rocks". And there certainly are a lot of rocks in the illustrations, but not that many examples of them being helpful. Mostly you see people talking and occasionally picking up rocks.

Though the last few pages look like some kind of diplomatic summit. Just, one where everyone's sitting on rocks. You suppose that using them as seats could be viewed as helpful, though personally you'd prefer it if there were a cushion between you and the rock.

The other thing you notice from the illustrations is that the artist seems to like drawing mountains. They're in the background of almost every scene. They actually look fairly detailed... maybe these are based on drawings of real mountains.

You vaguely remember hearing something about Kandria and mountains, too... oh, that's right. There's a lot of mountain tribes living there. Most people in the cities are descended from one tribe or another, and so there's a lot of stories and traditions from the mountains that are still widespread.

So maybe this is one of those stories. Maybe there was some famous meeting that was negotiated by people sitting on rocks. Or maybe it's just a fairy tale, not like you'd know the difference. You definitely don't know who "Master Flint" is.

The weirdest thing is that the book is here at all. The nurse was just in here - did she just not take a close look? Or did she toss a book in a corner for some reason? May as well ask her about it, you suppose. You head on over to the washing station. You come in just as the nurse is drying her hair.

"I hope you've taken care of your business."

"Yeah. Uh, anything I should know about washing up?"

"It's not very complicated. The showers are behind those doors, and there's space to put your clothes. But flip the sign on the knob around so we know you used it. There's spare clothes in that cabinet over there."

"Uh, I'd just as soon not deplete your supply. And my armor should keep my underclothes pretty clean."

"Hmm," she frowns. "Yes, you are wearing armor. I'm not sure how to handle cleaning that - oh, wait, Evan might have some ideas there. Just clean yourself up and I'll see if I can find him."

"What about cleaning books?" you ask, presenting it. "I found this one lying around near one of the latrines, maybe that should be taken care of."

"Huh. Wonder how it got there," she says, staring at it. "Well, at least it doesn't look like it fell into the latrine, that's the biggest problem. Might be some stray mess on there, though. Well, we've got a place to keep lost property that may be contaminated, so just put it over there for now. We'll clean it up and see if we can figure out whose book it is."

She's pointing at a table in a corner with a few objects on it. You put the book down on it.

As you do, something else on the table catches your eye.