Year of the Boar, Thirteenth Month, Day 21.

 I decided that I had too much time with which to dwell on my suspicions and my paranoia. The only solution to that was to keep myself busy. I wondered if the Clerk of the Chronicles would see me so I went to the library to ask if he would give me some more of his time. 

He was delighted to have some company and once he had organised some tea, he invited me to sit with him and talk. I asked him if he would tell me what he knew about the other Houses and their libraries. Were any of them known for holding particular types of documents or was it hit and miss? Did all the libraries use the same methods of archiving? I was quite surprised to learn that the Clerk was not well versed in the practices of the other Houses when it came to their libraries; I had somehow imagined him to be an expert in libraries but he chuckled gently and pointed out that it is quite challenging to become an expert in something one has never seen.

In fact, the Clerk has only travelled to one or two of the other Houses and has no idea at all what the rest have in their libraries. I must admit to being rather disappointed but I supposed it was not his fault that I wanted to know everything. I had an idea that the other Houses were not vastly different to Silent Thunder and I reasoned to myself that I could surmise what might be in other Houses if I knew more about this one.

I asked him about the types of records Silent Thunder holds and was only mildly surprised by the answer: births, deaths and marriages, of course, documents relating to purchases and sales. There is actually a trunk full of receipts for good purchased from merchants and several trunks containing records of suppliers and purchases from them. The House has an archive of land disputes and their resolutions, rights given to farmers and small holders and the like. It went on and on. I was amazed by the amount of information the Clerk has swimming around in his head which he can recall instantly.

I thought I knew a lot of things but it seems that I know very little ... I have asked his permission to view the documents related to land disputes simply as a way to keep myself occupied and he has said I may return tomorrow when he will have them available for me.

What a lovely man he is. I feel quite excited at the prospect of burying myself in scrolls for a few sticks.