Kaede, meanwhile, is in the library, sitting at a desk piled high with books on strategy and warfare. All of them are unfamiliar to her, and reading through them is a slow progress; some of them contain diagrams, and she keeps referring back to them as she reads on and around them. It will be better, when the battle takes place, if she is prepared. Certainly the process of preparation makes her feel less afraid.

Her back is to the door, and her attention is wholly focused on the book open before her; she is all but oblivious to the world beyond her desk.