The Fire and The Black: Daemonfold [IC]

[Hazuki]

Solys looks between the Fey, and the stairs, then back to the Fey, and sighs. "Um, could you send a letter to The Beaten Rest? It's just,
I, um, always wanted to meet Fey, but they didn't come, even though where we were, it was, we were in the Land of the Linnorm Kings, and, uh, anyway. I want to talk! But I have to go. Bye!" She says, then hurries after Rakinen.

[Genth]

Tsōlg stares for a moment at the water, before grumbling in a low voice "Wonderful..." and splooshing through the water to get to the stairs. "This is the problem with the Academae. All unfocused, playing around. Sure, some of them become feared spellcasters,
but there's no order. If it was run properly, the nation who owned it could conquer the world..."

[PersonMan]

The tree-woman looks over to Solys with a raised eyebrow. "The Beaten Rest?" She smiles. "We'll see," she says with a wink, giving a wave as the group goes up the stairs.

The stairwell itself is surrounded by frescoes that shimmer constantly, showing various scenes of student life one level, then the sun and shining stars the next, then grand castles. The fourth floor's frescoes show piles upon piles of books, surrounded by quills and disembodied hands or eyes, staring at and attempting to pry open the tomes around them to no avail. As with the others, the way leading from the stairwell goes into a short hallway with walls made from moss-covered wood, before opening into a room far brighter than those before it. The air cools and loses its cloying oppressiveness just beyond the threshold. This room is bathed in the light of the sun, which pours through a wall of glass showing the upper portion of the wall around the Academae, and offering an incredible view of the lower parts of the city. From where you stand, you can look out and see ships moving through the Jeggare, docking and lifting anchor at a constant pace.

The room itself sports an almost fifteen-foot-high ceiling, and bookshelves that reach that high, as well as a half a dozen tables with low chairs set around it; dozens of cushions litter the ground as well, and each table has a large egg-like shape in its center. Seemingly made of porcelain, on closer inspection they are actually a cleverly-stacked set of cups resting on a supporting structure, likely with some drink in the center of the whole thing.

The room is not unoccupied, with four students inside. Two are entirely focused on the books open in front of them, scribbling notes or simply glaring at the text. One is in the process of leaving, and the last is a touch familiar - an orange-skinned tiefling woman, the one who had been speaking with the guard at the administration building just before you arrived. At present, she sits at a table with a white cup next to her, filled with a steaming black liquid, tapping one finger against the table as she looks down at a closed book.

Spoiler: OOC

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I don't think it's worth a Knowledge check, but the drink is coffee, though it's not commonly known enough that it would be unusual for some/all of you to have never seen it before.

[Stelio Kontos]

"My money's on the one in the back there" Rakinen murmured quietly to the group. "She was talking to some of the guards when you decided we should split up. Maybe it was about Jerrick."

"Why don't you go talk to her and get her comfortable, I'll wait here by the door in case she tries anything stupid." He half-smiled sheepishly. "I think I've pissed off enough people for one day."

[Genth]

Tsōlg smirks. "No, not at all. We haven't had any fruit thrown at us yet." he says back to Rakinen. For a moment, he seems on the verge of saying something else, but instead walks brazenly into the room and heads for the bookshelves, looking to see if any tomes here either interest him, or are copies of the books in Jerrick's room. He also looks to see if there is anything on symbology here.

[Hazuki]

Solys looks between the allies beside her, then at Tsolg going to the bookshelves, then at the tiefing woman. "I'll try." She responds to Rakinen, then walks over to the orange tiefling woman and rapidly goes through a list of things to say. By the time she's beside the table, she has something that's pretty solid.

Solys puts Hardcheese on the table. "Hedgehog."

[PersonMan]

As Solys approaches, the tiefling woman sighs, opening the book in front of her only to look up a moment later, spotting the enormous woman with a start. Her expression a touch confused, she seems about to speak when Hardcheese reaches the table, and Solys speaks. For a moment, she's silent.

"Ehm," she says, before looking down from Solys to Hardcheese, her expression fading, then shifting. "...Yes," she says, smiling slightly now. "I, well, I'm no expert, but that's a hedgehog, if an oddly-colored one," she continues, extending a finger over towards the albino hedgehog to give her a pet, if the phantasmal familiar will allow it. "What brings you here, hmm?" She asks, though it's not clear if she's speaking to Hardcheese, or Solys.

Spoiler: Tsōlg

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The bookshelf is dominated by books on illusion and, as you get closer, you realize that many have a slight shimmer to them. Trying to reach for those proves pointless, as your hand simply passes through them as if they were never there. Luckily, a few titles he remembers being in Jerrick's room, all introductory texts to magic of the Illusion school, are present here as well. In fact, there are several copies of each.

[Hazuki]

"She, um." Solys thinks for a moment. "She's looking for someone named Jerrick. I...speak Hedgehog. that's how I know. Yes."

[PersonMan]

The tiefling woman looks up to Solys with a start. "Jerrick?" She asks, brow furrowing at she looks at Solys for a moment. "Who are you looking for him for?"

[Hazuki]

"His father." Solys says, as Hardcheese gently clasps the tiefling's finger.

[PersonMan]

The tiefling woman swallows. "t̬ʊ̈ðʒʳ," she says, quietly but with force; though none of you understand what she said, it was clearly some form of swear. It's then that Hardcheese grabs her attention again, and she smiles down at the albino hedgehog. "That...that's good, and bad, to hear. At the same time," she says. "Oh, ah - introductions. My name is Irena, Irena Devold," she continues after a moment, smiling at Hardcheese again. "And you are?"

[Hazuki]

")h. um, I'm uh - hello Irnea, I'm Solys, and this is, that one, she's Hardcheese." Solys nods at the hedgehog, who starts to nuzzle the tiefling's hand.

[PersonMan]

"Hardcheese, hm?" Irena says, gently petting Hardcheese. "Interesting name. As for Jerrick...I don't know where he is exactly, but given your arrival, I'm fairly certain I know at least the general route he's likely to have gone," she continues, before giving a glance over to the other student in the room. "I take it the other three are with you?" Irena asks, nodding towards the two at the door and over towards Tsōlg.

[Hazuki]

"Ehm, kind of. Not normally, but for this thing, yes." Solys nods.

[PersonMan]

Irena smiles. "Are you the one who usually does the talking?" She asks. "You look more like the type a group keeps ready to fight off any angry trees or animated houses, if you don't mind me saying so."

A moment later, she adds: "Should we call them over, then? I imagine you'll all want to have this information."

[Hazuki]

Solys furrows her brow. "I'm an alchemist..." She says, then shakes her head and waves the rest of the group over.

[Stelio Kontos]

At Solys's wave, Rakinen trudged over, nodded briefly at the tiefling, and gently sat down without a word at the far end of the table.

[Genth]

With a grumble Tsōlg leaves the damnable illusion books and too, joins the table. Gruffly, he inclines his head to Irena. "I am Tsōlg."

[PersonMan]

Irena nods to Rakinen and Tsōlg as they arrive, then turns back to Solys. "I see why you do the talking."

[Hazuki]

Solys can't think of a good way to reply to that, so she doesn't. Hardcheese tries to crawl into the tiefling's hand. But Solys doesn't want to immediately confront Irena with the topic. But she can't let there be silence.

"I like your horns." She tells the tiefling.

[Stelio Kontos]

Rakinen arose, somewhat stiffly. "I'm sorry -- Miss Devold, I suppose? Rakinen Davarii." He extended his tattooed arm, palm up, in offer of a handshake. "It has been a very long day."

[PersonMan]

Irena smiles at Solys. "Thank you. If you don't mind me saying so, yours are nice as well," she seems about to continue, when Rakinen speaks, and she extends a hand. It's her left, since she doesn't seem to want to move her right one from its current position, where she has made it into a sort of hand-cave for Hardcheese to crawl into. "Irena," she replies to him. As she shifts to reach his hand with hers, everyone in the group gets a glimpse of a single glove, barely poking out of one of her pockets.

"Anyways - the information I have, or maybe a clue is a better word..." Irena pauses, and shuffles through a small bag on the floor at her side for a moment before pulling out a few folded-up pieces of paper. "It's a letter I found slid under my door, in Jerrick's handwriting," she explains. "Unfortunately, the contents don't make any sense. I think it's some kind of code, but don't know what..." the tiefling sighs, opening the papers on the table.

Spoiler: Papers

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The first paper is covered in atrociously-written love poetry, showing the evolution of a few stanzas through what looks like five dozen revisions, none of which managed to make it good.

The second and third (which each bear a 1/2 or 2/2 in their lower right corners) are covered by what looks at first like a proper letter, thanking Irena in a very long-winded fashion for helping him "crack the Uric-Sandri Puzzle at long last!" and for providing him such great assistance in understanding several other odd-sounding things, which Tsōlg and Solys both recognize as being complex (but, as far as arcana goes, intermediate-level) concepts primarily related to Abjuration magic.

Waiting for a few moments to let the group look over the papers, Irena jabs the letter in the middle of one of the paragraphs about theoretical Abjuration. "This is wrong," she says. "I wasn't tutoring him for a few months by the time he disappeared. And when I was, we never discussed Abjuration. That's why...I think it has some sort of coded message, somewhere."

Spoiler: Tsōlg, Solys

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You both recognize the glove as the sister to the one you found in Jerrick's room.

[Stelio Kontos]

Rakinen sighed, then spoke with a mixture of resignation and disappointment as he grabbed for the letter. "Let me take a look at this for a bit. If it's anything to do with your magical studies this is yet another waste of time, but... maybe not having the faintest idea what anyone's talking about will be useful for once. You certainly don't need me for anything else."

"I assume you've checked to see if the paper itself has any spells on it or if it's in some magical writing?"

Paper in hand, he began to speak very softly at the table -- or perhaps at his arm. "Lord, grant me the strength to let my talent shine through, that others may see Your glory".

[PersonMan]

Irena frowns. "It...honestly hadn't occurred to me. Jerrick was, to put it politely, rubbish at Illusion, and I don't know any other ways of hiding the contents of a letter with the kind of magic he'd been able to master."

Spoiler: Rakinen

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Rakinen, after quite a bit of trial and error, gets the following from the text: "Old One's Nickname".

[Genth]

Tsōlg purses his lips "Jerrick's room was pretty ransacked. Many books destroyed, particularly the parts around practical elements. And Abjuration has practical elements when it comes to Conjuration, no? Though from your possession of these books, and the fact you seem to have been waiting for this, you probably know that." he taps his fingers on the desk. "Solys. You mentioned perfume in Jerrick's room. Does this woman smell the same? Just to confirm a few things." he asks, evidently uncaring or unaware of the directness of his question.

[Hazuki]

Solys blinks a few times. "I...what? You want me to smell a person?"

[Genth]

"...Yes. Do you not get much call for the common tongue in Alchemy?" Tsōlg asks. "You smelt perfume in Jerricks room. Does this woman use the same perfume?"

[Hazuki]

"...if she gives permission." Solys decides.

[Stelio Kontos]

Rakinen, completely ignoring all conversation, had by now pulled his pen and journal from his pack, writing down a few letters, shaking his head, crossing them out, and starting over, all while talking quietly to himself. "J... E... Y... M... no, that's no good. Every tenth letter maybe? O...L... M..., no wait, D ... O..."

He went silent for a minute, then emerged with "Old... One ...Snickname? Oh. OH! Old One's Nickname!?" He looked up expectantly at the group. "Old One's nickname. Does that mean anything to anyone?"

[truemane]

Cecil saunters over from where he had been chatting amicably with several half-elven students further back in the stacks. His saunter was a little faster than one might expect, a little more hurried. Almost as though he knew he was late and should have been here a few minutes ago.

"Apologies, apologies," he says in his best soothing voice, "I was asking around about our man Jerrick. I found a couple of, erm, associates. But they didn't know anything worth knowing."

Certainly the smudged lipstick on his neck didn't have anything to do with Jerrick.

Seeing the teifling, he sketches one of his signature bows.

"Milady, I am Cecil Sicilia. And I couldn't help but overhear you as I approached. You mentioned a route. In regards to us? Or to his father? What route? And why would our appearance make you so sure of it?"