Atticleaves is a bookstore currently owned and operated by Rimas Nolie.
Atticleaves has existed for over 100 years, and has changed hands numerous times.
Atticleaves was founded as “Moira's Pages” by Basil Moira in 403 GD. The Storm of 401 severely damaged the area around Atticleaves, resulting in many of the residents moving elsewhere. The businesses which originally occupied the building were forced to shutter, and Basil, who lived in one of the apartments above the building at the time, took the opportunity and bought the spaces out.
From 403 GD to his death in 440 GD, Moira's Pages was owned and operated by its founder, Basil Moira. Basil specialized in procuring and promoting books that were locally produced by Kalts, especially by residents of Tolikra.
From 440 GD to 462 GD, Moira's Pages was owned and operated by Basil Moira's firstborn child, Jonah Moira. Jonah found it difficult to operate a bookstore on the scale of the original floor plan (which took up the first two entire floors of the building), and made the decision to scale back the size of the operation and lease out the remaining floor space to other businesses as a new revenue stream. Roughly 40% of the second floor which was at street level on the west side of the building, and roughly 70% of the first floor, which was at the lot level on the east side of the building. The business with which Atticleaves shares the second floor has been a restaurant consistently since it was split off.
From 462 GD to 501 GD, Ulysses Moira owned and operated Moira's Pages. Ulysses took the business in another direction, buying out the space beneath the bookstore once again, and forming a network of contacts across the world to seek and acquire rare books, texts, scrolls, and research papers. Ulysses displayed these on the first floor to paying entrants. Included were books from dead civilizations, research papers describing technologies which had never been built, spell scrolls which were still charged with magic, single-print novels from authors who never wrote again, and artworks of all kinds, from all sorts of people.
He would ban anyone who attempted to steal anything on the first floor, and issued a stern warning to those who attempted to buy anything from there.
“You can't put a price on what's in here. This is knowledge. It's knowledge that wasn't valued by the people who previously hid it from the world. I will not allow anyone to put it back into the dark. This knowledge is for everyone. Period.”
Samuel Nolie was given ownership of Atticleaves in 501 GD by the previous owner, Ulysses. Ulysses had met Sam while he was a student, and the two became friends after the latter graduated. Concerned over the war with Opanan, lamennting the recent Annexation of Kalt and his aging body, Ulysses reportedly told Sam:
I don't know what is going to happen to this country, or this world. But I know what will happen to my bookstore. You will safeguard it from the Adenian dogs. They wish to rewrite history, they wish to remove anything that will call their rightful rule into question. They think this annexation business means they own our minds. Our souls. Our blood. They do not. If they knew what was down there in the archives, they'd burn it all.
Sam replied:
If they knew, they'd burn a lot more than just the archives. They'd burn us, too. Unfortunately for them, I don't burn easy, and while I'm watching over them, neither will the archives.
Following his battle with cadmium poisoning pancreatic cancer and subsequent death, Francine attempted to take it over, but she could not keep up with the medical debt bills and was forced to sell it in 518 GD. This decision which was loudly protested by local residents, foremost among whom was Sal Mooney, who unsuccessfully petitioned that the business be handed back to Francine.
You have no idea what this place means to this family., Sal said.
If it meant so much, why did she sell it to us? was the reply.
The archives on the first floor were, notably, excluded from ever being sold away by a clause in Samuel Nolie's will. The archives remain, nominally, in Francine's possession to this day.
Locke and Haynes is a chain bookstore operating throughout Aden. Despite the local protesting over the change of ownership, their tenure in the location was unremarkable. A hallway connecting this business to the neighboring Moonbrew Café was shuttered by Sal Mooney shortly following the sale.
The business remained a Locke and Haynes until an anonymous donor gave Sal enough money to purchase it outright in 537, provided he immediately transferred ownership to Rimas Nolie, younger daughter of Sam. Sal complied enthusiastically, and Locke and Haynes readily agreed to the sale, as the location was losing money.
An employee from this time, Lorraine, remained employed as the business was transferred to Rimas.
Rimas Nolie, the current owner and operator of Atticleaves, is the younger daughter of Samuel Nolie. The business has returned to the roots of the location, with Rimas seeking and publishing books and other media by local artists and writers, specifically those from Tolikra, such as Princess Potter.