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"Through the opposite archway, the Professora's study lay, lined with books;
the light from the hall picked out an occasional bit of gold lettering on an
ancient spine in the gloom. Roic wasn't bookish himself, but he liked the
comfortable academic smell of this place. It occurred to him that back when
he was a Hassadar guard, he'd never once gone into a house to clean up a bad
scene, blood on the walls and evil smells in the air, where there were books
like this."

Might need a bracketed phrase to clarify, such as:
"Through the opposite archway, the Professora's study lay, lined with books;
the light from the hall picked out an occasional bit of gold lettering on an
ancient spine in the gloom. [Former policeman] Roic wasn't bookish himself,
but he liked the comfortable academic smell of this place. It occurred to
him that back when he was a Hassadar guard, he'd never once gone into a
house to clean up a bad scene, blood on the walls and evil smells in the
air, where there were books like this."

Ed