Emirikol, Part III scene 8

[subplotkudzu]

Cyble and Dietrich head through the streets of Serin to the Ferrantino library. That edifice was as impressive up close as it had been driving past the day previous - gleaming white marble stairs and pillars leading into a large central chamber lit by both magical globes and large skylights. The expected echoing effect of such a space was obviously being muted by permanent enchantments to muffle the sound within the atrium, allowing the crowds of scholars, tourists, huksters and couriers to move about and through one another without disrupting those actually working. In the center of this room stood a table promising information to the new attendees, so after a moment of marveling at the size and scope of the learning about them the two nobles made their way to that point.

 

Cybele offers up her questions first, asking where she might locate information on both a wizard mark and on the magical properties of some materials. She is directed to the old part of the library - taking the long corridor to the north, and then down a flight of stairs to the arcane researches section. She is also warned that there are wards preventing access to some parts of those areas, but such restricted stacks will be well identified. Dietrich then introduces himself and says that he has received an invitation to make an appointment with the lady d'Farrentino. He too is sent to the old part of the library, only to head up the stairs to the Loremistress' offices to make an appointment with her secretary. Nodding their thanks, the pair follows the given directions, with Dietrich stating that he will come to aid Cybele in her research once he is finished making is appointment. According to their earlier agenda, Hiram would be joining them at the library later for the three to share lunch. As they parted company at the stair they saw a sign warning that in the lower levels there was no fire. They both took this as being a statement of hard, magically enforced fact rather than a warning against open flame.

 

Up the stairs Dietrich once again learns that the Von Eisenwald family name - and his appearance to his deceased uncle - proceeds him: the secretary places him immediately, and the two quickly settle on an appointment for dinner between lord Von Esienwald and lady d'Farrantino two days hence. Dietrich learns that just as his uncle was a friend to the paladins, he was apparently also a friend to the library, so it seems he has many roles to fill as the next lord.

 

Downstairs Cybele began her investigations into the mark found on the lead case at Hightower Tor. With three lines of inquiry - the Imperial Wizards Registry, the letters of the local wizards in the archives and the contracts of the city - to search through she began with the imperial registry. The mark was not listed, which means that it was adopted by someone within the last 40 years, as the Republic had de-funded the imperial wizard's registry at that date. She also learned quite a bit about the official terms of the registry, and how students very seldom take their master's marks upon their master's deaths - when it has happened it has a disturbing tendency to mean the master has stolen his apprentice's body. Still, other than diminishing the likelihood that the mark's owner was of a long lived Elvish blood due to its recent adoption there this was a dead end.

 

As she prepared to move on to the collected letters she was interrupted by Dietrich and Hiram, who had finished his morning's activities and met his fellow on the way into the library. As it was still over an hour before lunch time the pair asked for direction and she set them to researching the uses for Green Dragon's Blood, one of the other items found along with the Cockatrice Feather in the Tor.

 

Her next line of inquiry was equally fruitless - the letters from the local wizards were not cataloged as in a matter that made sense to her, leading to several frustrating returns over the same information before she tossed up her hands and moved on. She did not have great hopes for the contract files, but as fortune would have it she located the mark almost immediately - the mark's owner, one Alsan Nightshade (Bec: Aslan Nightshade? Does that ever sound pretentious! Dave: And confused. Tom: Maybe he's bipolar?), had recently secured ownership of one of Serin's wizard towers. The towers themselves are centuries old, and any vacancy produces some complicated contractual wrangling and character references with the city for the right to residence in the hallowed spires. The papers showed some concerns about the human wizard's personality, but other than some rumors that were run down as being groundless there was no evidence of chaos taint or illegal activity. Hence he was awarded right of residence in the tower with the standard contracts for mandatory civil service on 6 major holidays and if the city ever needed defending from invasion.

 

Jotting down the pertinent details she went to join her comrades, who were being stymied by a surplus of information. Green Dragon Blood, and dragon blood in general, is a component in hundreds, if not thousands of major enchantments and transformations. It can restore the near dead to life, provide proof against any toxin (while being a virulent toxin itself), grant the ability to communicate with animals, allow the transformation to other forms, restore sanity to the mad or flesh to ones ancestors - all when mixed with other magical items or enhanced by other magics. While they cannot know what it does, there can be no mistaking the apparent value of the vial. Before the group can engage in any further discussion they, and everyone else in the room, are interrupted by the sound of a crash from the floor below, followed by a cloud of white smoke billowing up the circular stairs from the arcane research levels below. 

To be continued