alieka works and lives in a library in ancillary 2, which is one of the oldest of central's colonies

it was originally used for outsourced factory and workshop space. the existing factories changed hands a few times as companies came and went and now it's a fairly well populated island with a small port "city" that has at least a few comforts

the majority of the population still works in workshops and factories, but most of them are on the higher side of skill so it's less disposable labor and more slightly underpaid but skilled workers, so, like, the ancillary can manage to have some things on it

like the library

which

isn't really an amazingly impressive library

but it pulls a lot of extra duty

they have important, actual like, reference books, scholarly publications and stuff. dry stuff most of the people on the island don't care about. but. you might want to have on hand? they also technically own all the school books, and school is also taught within the library

alieka could theoretically teach classes and get a double paycheck but for some weird reason, parents aren't super into a void monster with missing parts teaching their children??? something to do with a void monster murdering hundreds of soldiers trying to put down a rebellion like super super recently?

education isn't mandatory. parents have to sign children up and pay a small fee that's separate from taxes

they accept children basically from their 20th 100 cycle until their 60th 100 cycle. after that point you know they are probably actually working jobs, and if they love academia so much then uh, okay, we DO have that research section?

families that do well enough and want their children to continue education after 60-100 tend to just, like, send them to some kind of university, so

mostly what the library does though is renting out cheap trashy novels. cannibal island stories (cannibal island stories were an old popular genre, became stale, became parodied, and now are back unironically), romance novels (alieka has to check them for damages every time they're returned) and swashbuckling fodder for little fetradden boys who wanna grow up to be like the pirate king.

and when the books aren't new or exciting anymore they sell a bunch of old ones to make room for the new ones

it's really where the library makes most of its outside money (it is actually financed by the companies that own the factories on the islands, but, like, it's not that well financed)

the library also does documents. notary public stuff. marriage licenses. the ancillary offices like to frontend a lot of the work load on the poor library staff so they have ultimately less work to do (let's be fair, the ancillary offices have a lot to do)

but the ancillary isn't all that great

the work was done during the creation, and during a renovation period when Emblix-Greens took over most of the workshops on the island and set it about to making artificials

but the library is falling apart

and the island isn't honestly very fertile.

and most of the children that leave the library's school end up moving to another ancillary looking for work

or go and join the pirate king

or the iron empire's fourth armada

or the free islands

alieka just

likes working in the quiet, shelving books. checking books for damage. organizing. keeping the records. ordering new books.

sitting on the roof and staring up at the void

and break-sleep boardgame fests