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Post by Bippwatt on Dec 5, 2014 19:22:58 GMT
Eliora plodded along, Bonnie at her side.
"So, where we going now?", the ex-lady-in-waiting asked. "We'll need some sort of honest pay soon."
"Oh, I figured we'd go toward Validor Castle by way of White Peak Keep."
"Uh...that might not be the wisest route."
"Oh? Why-? Oh. Did you piss off the local lord?"
"No. The local lord is dead."
"Ah...gotcha.", Bonnie said with a knowing expression.
"No! It wasn't me!" Eliora sighed. "White Peak is - was - my home. The lord was my father. The lady rules now. And she's the one who did it."
"Lemme guess. Stepmother?"
"Uh...not exactly. It's a long story. Suffice to say let's avoid that area."
"Alright...we can make for Validor by the Barony of Fawlking. That should do the trick."
"Alright. That's sounds good. Thanks, Red."
"My pleasure, Snow."
They continued on in silence.
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Post by Spartan 999 on Dec 5, 2014 21:52:15 GMT
The quick whistle of an arrow flying past his head made Hakim crouch even lower on his horse. First an uncooperative baron, then an irked diviner, and now bounty hunters of all things! He'd counted five of them when he'd set out from the nice little hamlet several miles back, and they'd caught up about ten minutes ago. Oh, he led them on a merry chase that was for sure, but even with what he could do on the fly in this unfamiliar part of the land, they were still on his tail and gaining fast with every minute that passed.
Thinking quickly, he remembered the most common type of bird in this area and whistled the appropriate song. Soon, he felt something small land on his shoulder. The bird tweeted in curiosity, wondering how Hakim knew its kinds' song and why he'd used it.
“Tell me about your favorite places here in your part of the forest,” Hakim said in the most pleasant tone he could muster.
Delighted to have an eager audience to hear its song, the bird chirped and twittered for almost a full minute before Hakim heard what he wanted to hear. If it seemed at all concerned by the riders closing in on their position, the bird gave no sign.
“Thank you for you story, my friend,” He said. “And I believe this should be good payment for your time.” Hakim took out a bundle containing half a loaf of bread. “I will leave this behind for your family, but if you would kindly lead me to the pond you mentioned, I have something special just for you.”
The songbird was thrilled by the gesture, and called to its family. Hakim tore the bread into large chunks and dropped them to the ground behind him, just in time for a flock of birds to materialize from the trees on either side of the road and descend on the bread.Startled by the sudden event, the bounty hunters' horses came to a halt and paced back and forth on the other side of the feathery barrier for a few seconds.
Following the first bird, Hakim urged his horse into a faster gallop. He turned a wide corner ahead, and saw flashes of red through the trees. At least one other person was further up the road, and he had just enough time to call out a warning.
“Watch out!” He yelled, and he saw that there were actually two people walking side by side. One in red, one in white. They moved out of the way as he barreled through. “Sorry!” He said over his shoulder as he passed.
A few seconds later, when the people he'd passed were once again mostly hidden behind the bend, the bird made a sharp turn into the forest. Hakim directed his horse through the trees after it. After some moments, the trees started to thin, and he could see a clearing ahead.
“Woah,” He pulled on the reigns gently. The horse slowed to a stop a couple meters from the edge of the clearing and whickered in what sounded like exasperation.
Hakim dismounted and pulled the hood of his cloak up before sneaking over to the clearing. There was indeed a pond there, and it was at the bottom of a short drop of about ten feet. The water was clean but dark so you couldn't tell its depth just by looking at it. Perfect.
He returned to his horse, and got it to lie down almost completely flat off around nine meters to the side in order to hide it in behind the underbrush. The bird returned to his shoulder and chirped expectantly then.
“I'd like to pull a prank on my friends back there. If you help me out, I will give you two pieces.” He lifted his hand up to show two pieces of a fruit native to Validor, but not generally found in this area.
The songbird agreed, and acquiesced to having Hakim's cloak tied to it. As the material was quite light, it wouldn't affect the bird's flying much. He also lashed together two flat stones to a thick stick, then had the songbird grab hold of a looped knot he made on the top. He laid a quick spell on the stones and stick that decreased its mass.
Hakim heard the distant sounds of the bounty hunters searching for him, and even caught a couple muffled words that were directed at the two people he'd passed on the road. Probably inquiring as to whether or not they'd seen him and where he'd run off to.
“WOAH, BOY!” Hakim yelled quite loudly. He counted to three, then dropped the stick and stones over the edge of the drop.
The bird flapped its wings hard, and the rocks made loud smacks when they hit the water. It flew low over the pond at a decent speed, dragging the lashed materials through the water. Shouts came from the bounty hunters, and he saw their outlines as three of them headed through the trees in his direction.
He whispered an illusion spell out on the bird, his cloak, and the rocks and stick so that they looked like him on his horse, galloping through ankle-deep water. That done, he slid over the edge of the drop, held on with one hand, and drew his sword and jammed it into the side of the drop. Hakim lowered himself even further to prevent anyone from seeing him and clung to the side of the drop as close as he could.
A couple seconds later, the bounty hunters arrived. They saw what looked like Hakim riding through a shallow pond, about three-quarters of the way to the other side. Almost as one, they “followed” him down the drop. Too late they realized their mistake, and each one of them splashed into the deep pond. With heavy armor on and confused horses bucking under them, the bounty hunters were going to take quite a while to get themselves out of that situation.
Idiots... Hakim thought as he clambered back up to solid ground.
The bird showed itself again, and seemed tired but proud of itself. He took his cloak and donned it, then let the songbird take the fruit pieces from his outstretched hand.
“Say hello to the family for me,” Hakim waved farewell to the bird as he approached his horse. It rose and stood up when he approached, and whinnied once in disappointment. “Sorry, girl. I won't call you a boy again.”
The horse seemed to take the apology in stride, and nuzzled him once. He mounted and guided her back to the road quietly, any telling sounds the horse might make concealed by the magic of his cloak. Once the road and the other two bounty hunters were in sight through the trees, he stopped the horse and snuck closer on foot.
The leader was angry, since the three he'd sent deeper into the woods after Hakim weren't responding to his calls. The second one held a loaded crossbow, and seemed slightly nervous about the whole thing. Hakim let the full magic of his cloak flow over him, hiding him from mind as well as sight, similar to what a sci-fi geek on Earth might call a perception filter.
Hakim drew his sword, stepped up to the back of the horse, and smacked its rump as hard as he could. It reared, neighing loudly. In two quick movements, he cut one of the stirrups with his sword, and snatched the crossbow out of the man's now-loose grasp. The unfortunate bounty hunter slid to the side and was dragged across the ground by one foot when his horse took off
He sighted the bounty hunter leader with the crossbow, and fired a bolt that slammed into his shoulder. In pain and flailing wildly with a startled horse, he flopped off ungainly when it bucked, and sprawled on the road. The leader groaned, and tried feebly to grab and draw his sword when Hakim pulled his hood down and approached.
The Ash Lad kept a wary eye on the two people he now saw were young women as he approached the downed hunter, but his tone was polite when he spoke.
“Sorry for the disturbance. I hope they didn't do or say anything too terribly rude?” Hakim dropped the crossbow on the hunter's face, breaking his nose and making the man clutch his face with both hands. He drew and kicked the man's sword away with one foot, just to be sure he wouldn't be able to cause as much trouble if he was able to get up and try to attack.
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Post by recoveryfive on Dec 6, 2014 1:37:05 GMT
"Nope. Pretty damn civil for bounty hunters, actually." Bonnie replied, watching the newcomer kick the sword away. Her hand was close to her pistol in case he tried anything funny, but she was holding her fire for now. "I'm Bonnie Scarlet, but you can just call me Bonnie if you want. The fancy one's Eliora." She jerked her thumb nonchalantly towards her companion on the second sentence.
She sized up his expression and body language, estimating how much of a threat he would be if he chose to attack them. "So why were those guys after you, anyway?" she asked Hakim.
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Post by Bippwatt on Dec 6, 2014 7:51:43 GMT
Eliora gave a perfunctory nod, sheathing her blade, which had once again lept to her hand with no warning.
She watched the young man warily, wondering what his story was.
She chose to remain silent. Silence often led people to ignore her. Which meant they were ill-prepared to deal with her if they attacked.
Instead, she gave the bounty hunter leader a bit of a chill, knocking him out cold, pun very much intended. She withdrew her power. She'd used very little of it, so hopefully this boy hadn't noticed it.
She searched the leader's saddlebags and found the bounty posting.
"Well, what do we have here?" Eliora's eyes widened. "A thousand gold eagles for the capture of this man! Damn, boy. That's a heap of money!"
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Post by Spartan 999 on Dec 6, 2014 16:31:58 GMT
“Well, nice to meet you. I'm Hakim.” He knelt down next to the leader in order to interrogate him. “No idea, I'm afraid. I didn't think I pissed off the baron that much, and I haven't done anything illegal. Recently.”
The bounty hunter's eyes widened when Hakim gently placed his hand on his shoulder around the bolt imbedded there. “That's gonna get infected soon, mate. You should get medical help as soon as possible, but that won't happen until you give me some answers.”
“I don't know nothin',” The hunter grumbled. “Just saw you was wanted for some reason and tried to bring in some coin, y'know?”
“Ah, but I can see that you're not being completely honest here.” Hakim said. “I'm quite good at reading people.” He reached down to a pouch on his belt, and that's when he noticed the man shudder, eyes rolling up into his head. The hunter was unconscious, and upon further examination, Hakim felt that the air was cold around the man, but the weirdness in temperature swiftly dissipated.
Even had he not been able to detect magical effects, he would have figured it was some sort of spell. The cause pointed to one of the two women, though he bet it was the one in white; magic users often times tended to favor colors associated with their preferred element. His suspicions only heightened when Eliora found the bounty and read off the reward.
In the blink of an eye, Hakim had his pistol drawn and aimed at her. Indeed, with his focus now concentrated on her, he saw that she was radiating a bit of magic power.
“Please refrain from knocking out people I'm trying to question, Miss.” He glanced over at Bonnie before speaking again. “And by chance, does it say why I'm wanted?”
Unfortunately, there was no reason listed, and the person who had put it up did not leave their name either.
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Post by recoveryfive on Dec 6, 2014 19:53:33 GMT
"Calm down, we're not gonna take you in." Bonnie said, having drawn her own gun and pointed it at him out of instinct. "And hold on, Ellie. We can't capture this guy unless there's an actual reason he's wanted. Someone could've messed up and falsely accused him for all we know."
"You think so?"
"I botched an assassination attempt on a low-level noble one time, and he retaliated by accusing me of trying to fuck his daughter. Trust me, it can happen."
"That still doesn- wait, what? Did you actually do that?!"
"Of course not. I fucked his son, though."
"......."
"Yeah, I'll tell you that story later. You'll probably get a kick out of it."
Bonnie turned her attention back to the guy they had ran into, Hakim. It was at this point that she finally noticed what type of gun he was holding. She sort of stiffened, but managed not to show it too much.
"Hey, Hakim...where'd you get that gun?" she asked him half curiously and half suspiciously.
"Where'd you get yours?"
"It was a gift from my mom." Bonnie answered him, her gaze unwavering from the Glock-19 he was holding. "She gave it to me before she died."
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Post by Bippwatt on Dec 7, 2014 19:23:50 GMT
Eliora arched an eyebrow at the weapon, ready to summon ice to simultaneously generate a shield and to try and snuff the ignition charge on the bullet. It was hard to do, but when Bonnie had showed her how her's worked, Eliora was confidant that she could make it happen.
"I have no intention of taking you in. Also, I was unaware of your intention to interrogate this...man. I can wake him up if you so desire."
Eliora turned her back on the young man and searched through the saddle bags again.
"Well...crap. You wouldn't happen to know if these bounty hunters went through White Peak, do you?", she asked Hakim as she pulled another paper out.
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Post by Spartan 999 on Dec 8, 2014 20:01:54 GMT
“Interesting,” Hakim nodded once after Bonnie explained. “I got mine the same place yours came from. I imagine ammunition must be scarce around here, and expensive to have specially crafted.”
“That would be an understatement.” Bonnie said.
Then Eliora spoke up again. Hakim lowered his pistol and holstered it.
“I probably would have found that out had the interrogation not been interrupted. Why, do they have a bounty for you or your friend?” Still, his tone was amicable, and his following chuckle didn't sound malicious in the slightest. “That would be quite a coincidence.”
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Post by recoveryfive on Dec 9, 2014 16:55:44 GMT
"I don't even remember if I have a bounty or not." Bonnie commented. "I mean, I had my face hidden and didn't say anything when I tried to kill that noble, and I don't thinking bedding low tier royalty is that serious of an issue..."
She shrugged casually, holstering her gun. "I'd say I'm probably safe as long as I don't go prancing around there blabbering about it, which I'm nowhere near stupid enough to do."
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Post by Bippwatt on Dec 9, 2014 17:11:08 GMT
"No. It's for me. Ten thousand gold eagles for locating and returning 'Lady-in-waiting Eliora White' to 'Lady Sandra White'. One thousand gold eagles for information leading to her return."
Eliora shook her head, then finished reading and swore viciously. Well, Hakim knew she was cursing like a sailor at any rate.
"Elonim mani verigota, selblena ovoto malo paloda, Eris" is what Bonnie heard.
"Suck my giant dick, you overbred pointy eared harpy, Eris!" is what Hakim understood it as.
Both people blinked at her, though for very different reasons.
"Uh, Ellie, what's going in?"
"The damn sheet! It's got some information. Including that I'm heading towards Validor Castle! Which we only decided a couple of hours ago! Eris is fucking with me!"
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Post by Spartan 999 on Dec 9, 2014 20:56:02 GMT
“Mom not happy with you then, I take it?” Hakim said, noting the titles and surnames that Eliora read off. “Probably good I stopped them before the leader could find out who you are.”
He snorted when she swore in one of the Fey languages, which itself was only a moderate surprise. “Funny, didn't take you for transgender...” He muttered under his breath. When Bonnie looked at him with a brief quizzical glance, he shrugged. “What? Just thinking out loud.” She seemed more than satisfied with that answer.
“So Eris must have some sort of scrying or prophetic abilities, whoever she is.” Hakim said after a moment.
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Post by recoveryfive on Dec 18, 2014 17:51:28 GMT
"Remind me again, who exactly is Eris? I remember the name, but the rest isn't clicking for me." Bonnie asked Eliora, eyeing their new...ally? Acquaintance? Whatever. He was a pretty ok guy so far, but the hooded girl wouldn't hesitate to shoot him if he tried anything stupid. Then again, Hakim probably had the same plan in mind for the two of them.
Seeing as how this guy managed to outsmart a whole team of bounty hunters with no problem, I'd rather not get on his bad side. she decided.
"Bonnie, I told you who Eris is!"
"I know, but I forgot. So humor me, please."
Eliora snorted at the concept of Bonnie genuinely saying please and rolled her eyes.
"C'mon, help a sister out here."
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Post by Bippwatt on Dec 18, 2014 18:44:20 GMT
Eliora sighed. "Sometime, Red. Sometimes." She shook her fist in mock menace.
The former Lady-in-Waiting of White Peak took a deep breath and began.
"Eris is the Maiden of the Fey Winter Court. About eight years ago...by my reckoning anyway, I had summoned her without realizing who she was. My circle had a bit of an...issue, apparently, so she escaped.
"Needless to say, she wasn't happy. My payment for disturbing her was a year in the Fey Realms. Anyway, long story short, she's trying to get me to ask a favor of her that she can leverage against me. I think she's angling for making me one of her Knights."
Eliora sighed and waved the sheet. "And this just proves that Eris is trying to put me in a bad position. Just what I need. A Fey queen on my ass."
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Post by Spartan 999 on Dec 18, 2014 20:12:47 GMT
“That doesn't sound very good,” Hakim said. He guessed she'd summoned the Fey for some important reason--that or it was one of those incidents where a kid got their hands on something they didn't understand and tried it out for kicks. Regardless, it wasn't really his business, and he wanted to depart as soon as he could.
The Ash Lad whistled to his horse, which came trotting out from the forest and over to him. “Well, I'll take my leave, now,” he said after mounting.
“What about interrogating him?” Bonnie looked at the unconscious bounty hunter.
“Changed my mind. It's not that important anyway, and I need to get to my destination quickly.” Hakim nodded to the two, said “Good day,” and took off.
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Post by recoveryfive on Dec 23, 2014 0:57:07 GMT
"See ya around." Bonnie responded, waving her hand in a farewell gesture.
She watched him ride out of sight on his horse, crossing her arms as she watched him disappear. "Weird guy." she commented. "Ok enough, but still pretty weird."
With her two cents given, she focused on Eliora's most recent words. "So basically what you're saying is that one of the Winter Court's top bitches wants a favor from you so she can make you one of her bodyguards?"
"Something like that."
"......"
"Bonnie, if that grin means what I think it means-"
"Looks like we've got another adventure after this one!"
"Oh, goddamnit..." Eliora muttered, her palm meeting her face upon viewing her friend's confident expression. "Bonnie, listen to me! This isn't some small time bandit gang we're talking about here, this is the Winter Fey Court! We can't just waltz in there and gun down everything in sight!"
"I know, which is why we'll obviously need a plan of some sort."
"No, Bonnie. We'll deal with them later."
"......"
"Just trust me on this. Please?"
The two stared at each other for a few seconds. Finally, Bonnie sighed. "Ok, fine. But only because you said so." she gave in, surprising the ex-lady in waiting with how fast she had given up the argument. Usually it took her a while to agree when it came to these kind of things. "So how far we got until Validor Castle?"
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Post by Bippwatt on Jan 5, 2015 8:26:46 GMT
"Well, it's a five day walk to Fawlking. And then a nine day walk to Validor City."
Eliora got a look at her face and looked at the now riderless pair horses. "But we got a couple of horses now. We can probably halve that estimate if we ride."
"Sounds good!"
"Great! Mount up!" Eliora swung up into the sattle with the ease of drilled practice. Not surprising if she was to be a lady of an earldom as wealthy as White Peak.
The young woman took up the reigns and clucked to the mare. "Briasle belis, mochree. Velmis dormos.", Eliora said in the same language that she had used earlier.
The horse seemed to respond to it, stepping more lively and Eliora cantered off a dozen or so yards then turned to wait for Bonnie.
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Post by Spartan 999 on Jan 5, 2015 19:48:02 GMT
After arrived at Validor City, Hakim had made a beeline straight for the castle, specifically the extensive archive within. He wanted to find someone who'd vanished, not to be found on Earth, Validor, or one of the neighboring planes. Finding information on an artifact or being that would be able to help wasn't easy, however, and he'd broken in to the restricted areas of the archive more than once in pursuit of the knowledge he sought.
Some time passed, and he felt he was honing in on something promising. Unknown to him, Eliora and Bonnie were seeking similar information, and they would soon meet one another again...
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Post by recoveryfive on Jan 6, 2015 16:48:38 GMT
Bonnie pulled herself into the second horse's saddle, also taking up the reigns. The horse fidgeted when it felt the new and smaller rider on it's back, making a whinny of surprise. "Ok, here goes." Bonnie muttered, putting a calming hand on the back of the horse's neck and gently stroking it before speaking to the horse itself. "Ssshhhh, it's ok. I'm not gonna hurt you...just relax..."
Against all odds, it worked. The horse eventually ceased it's nervous pawing and became more responsive to Bonnie's voice. "Good boy." The red-hooded girl said soothingly. "Or girl. Not really sure which one you are."
She moved the horse over to where Eliora's was, smiling nervously. "Well, that went better than last time." she joked, feeling much more confident in her horse riding abilities now.
"Why? What happened last time?"
"Angry guards happened. There was a cabbage cart involved too, but I could be wrong."
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Post by Bippwatt on Jan 6, 2015 17:20:28 GMT
Eliora laughed. "A cabbage cart? That sounds like you."
They trotted off together, heading in the same direction that Hakim had gone. Little did they know, they were actually going to the same place.
Five days later, they rode into Validor City, a few scant miles away from the castle of the same name.
Within that castle was an archive that rivaled every other archive and was larger than the next ten archives combined.
And buried somewhere in their was the information they were looking for.
"Come on, ya wench.", Eliora said with a grin. "Time to find a needle in a haystack."
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Post by recoveryfive on Jan 7, 2015 18:14:03 GMT
"Right behind you, ya mingy tart." Bonnie responded, using a bit of slang she had picked up from a rather drunk man at a tavern. "Damn, this is incredible. They've really fixed everything up since a year or two ago."
She looked around, scanning to see if they were drawing any unusual amounts of attention. "As long as no one tries to start a fight with us, we should be fine." she added, her tone of voice sounding almost like she was hoping for just that to happen.
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Post by Bippwatt on Jan 8, 2015 10:58:19 GMT
A few hours later, they had lodgings and were now ensconced in the archives, reading and reading and reading.
"Okay....I love reading and this is starting to get a bit tiring.
One of the scribes that kept them supplied with note paper and writing implements walked by again. Eliora nodded to the shaggy brown haired scribe as he passed.
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Post by recoveryfive on Jan 8, 2015 21:40:48 GMT
Bonnie yawned quietly, covering her mouth. "Pretty sure we've gone through about a hundred books as of right now." she whispered to Eliora, flipping through her current book for anything of use. "I'm starting to think that this was a-" The ex lady-in-waiting heard a pause from her friend.
"Bonnie?" she asked curiously, wondering what had rendered her friend speechless. "What is it?"
"Ellie...I think I may have just found something. Or at least something related to what we're looking for."
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Post by Spartan 999 on Jan 11, 2015 0:28:45 GMT
A bleary-eyed Hakim shielded his eyes as he walked out of a section and towards the exit of the archive. He wanted to check out something in one of the restricted areas, but he generally waited until night to do so; less of a chance of a passerby spotting him that way. However, having stayed up for the past two days straight, he was rather groggy, and the afternoon sunlight shining through the windows and directly into his eyes wasn't helping matters. He wanted to get at least a little bit of sleep before breaking into the archive again.
The Ash Lad passed a scribe with unkempt brown hair, then looked down just in time to step on a carelessly discarded book. And of course it just so happened to be lying just right for him to stumble to the ground. He didn't land flat on his face, fortunately. Instead, he rolled slightly upon landing, but because of his slower reflexes, he still ended up lying haphazardly on his butt. Hakim muttered something involving the words “damn”, “book”, and “only when sleep-deprived” under his breath as he pushed himself up to his feet.
He noticed a person in red and a person in white and took a moment to focus and mentally confirm with himself.
“Oh...well, hello again, I suppose.”
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Post by Bippwatt on Jan 11, 2015 8:57:22 GMT
"Well, lemme se-"
And then Hakim fell face down in front of them.
"Hello, again to you too. Are you following us?"
Eliora was leery of this man now. On the road, he'd seemed nice, if paranoid. Now, having apparently followed them and looking a bit...unhinged, the former lady in waiting was uneasy.
The scribe with the unkempt and tangled brown hair bent down and helped Hakim to his feet. Then he grabbed the book that had caused the whole thing. As he examined it, Eliora noticed a gleam of vivid blue eyes. But then he spun and left.
And then it was only the three of them.
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Post by recoveryfive on Jan 12, 2015 5:08:59 GMT
"Hey, how ya doin'?" Bonnie matter-of-factly greeted Hakim, not paranoid just yet. Seeing as this was only his second time encountering them, it could just be a coincidence of some sort. Three times would definitely be a sign of him following them, but for now she was willing to give the guy the benefit of the doubt.
"So...I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that you're looking for something important here." she stated to him.
"How can you tell?"
"Well, at the risk of sounding like a bitch, you look half dead. And you have bags under your eyes."
"........"
"I seriously feel bad for you on that, by the way. Sleep deprivation's a terrible thing."
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Post by Spartan 999 on Jan 21, 2015 0:40:16 GMT
“I'm fairly certain I got here before you did, so I should ask if you were following me,” Hakim replied to Eliora. There was no aggressive, accusatory, or defensive tone in his voice, just the simple, mildly pleasant one he almost always used. He smiled, though it wasn't nearly as broad as he wanted it to be, due to the sleep deprivation and all. “Just can't stay away from each other, I guess.”
Eliora blinked once as she processed what he'd said.
“I jest. And yes, I am looking for something, but it's my little secret. I assume you are as well?”
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Post by Bippwatt on Jan 21, 2015 23:38:27 GMT
Did he just-? Yeah, he did. "Yes, we are. A needle in a haystack, I thought at first. Though as of late, I'm thinking it's more like a needle in a needlestack."
Eliora turned to Bonnie. "Although, Bonnie thought she had found something just before you dropped in."
"Oh, right! Here. This book describes a man who was felled by the prick of a needle. It sounds kinda like what you'd described."
"Hmm...Coschi. Doesn't look right, but sounds familiar. Though maybe...." Eliora put Bonnie's book aside and shuffled through a pile of scrolls. "Here we go! Cosichi and the Needle. Still doesn't look right, but that could just be clerical error."
"Well, what's it say?"
"It's very vague...but it talks of a needle in a box without hinges, key, or lid, yet golden treasure inside is hid. ..that's a riddle. And not a very good one. The answer is an egg."
"So now we have to crack every egg we see?"
"Doubtful. This is only the beginning. Or, rather, I suspect, the end. When I heard Eris speak of this man, she'd mentioned that to attempt to kill him was far more trouble than it was worth. If it was simply hidden in an egg, she'd have done it long ago."
Eliora began searching again, having quite forgotten that Hakim was there.
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Post by recoveryfive on Jan 23, 2015 21:01:55 GMT
"Hold on a minute, did you just say Koschei?"
The two girls looked up in alarm at the quiet voice, expecting some shadowy figure standing in the corner of the room. What they got instead was a young boy in his very early teens, sitting against a wall nearby with a book in his hands. His eyes seemed magnified by his glasses, making him look a little like either an owl or a lost puppy.
"S- sorry..." he apologized, adjusting his hat. "But I overheard you talking and saying a name that sounded like that."
"Do you know anything about him?"
"Not really." the boy admitted. "All I know is that my great grandmother tried to find him once, but she failed."
"Huh...what's your name?"
"Gerlach. I'm a wizard...or at least, a wizard-in-training."
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Post by Spartan 999 on Jan 31, 2015 0:33:16 GMT
Hakim thought hard while the others were talking. He'd heard of Cosichi or Koschei before, but he wasn't sure where. Sure, he'd come across a book mentioning him the night before, but that wasn't it. And he didn't read anything concerning the supposed needle in an egg at that time, but it was only a passing mention in the one tome...
“I actually think our goals may be similar,” he said. “If there isn't anything more you can find here, I can have a look at something where I last was after I get some sleep.”
“Oh? And where was that?” Eliora said in passing, her eyes still glued to the page.
“Other side of the library, or thereabouts,” Hakim answered as he walked off.
A look of puzzlement came over Gerlach's face. “...That might be the restricted section, I think.”
Eliora nodded once, then slowly looked up at the wizard-in-training once she'd processed what he'd said.
“I doubt he has access to the restricted section, though.”
Eliora gave him a “You don't say?” look.
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Post by Bippwatt on Feb 13, 2015 18:55:38 GMT
"Well. If he can get in there, it sounds like we need to be with him. I suggest we pack it in for the night and get up early tomorrow and show up when he decides to sneak in there again."
Eliora waved over a librarian. "Where can we put these when we're finished?"
"Oh, just stack them neatly, return the scrolls to their carriers and the staff will see to it."
"Thank you." Eliora did as the man instructed and as she did, a scroll that had been buried beneath the pile of them rolled out and bounces off the toe of her boot.
The fey-touched woman might have ignored it...but the label on it's case caught her eye.
She turned to the librarian, who was already taking stacks of books and putting them atop a floating disk of force.
"Is it possible for me to get a copy of something here?"
"Yes. It can be expensive though. Even with magical assistance, transcribing is no simple task. You wish to have that scroll copied?"
"Yes, please."
"That's simple enough. At least it's not the entire set of Encyclopedic Magicka books. Had a man in here once request that. He was most peculiar. Let me have the scribes assess that for you and I'll get you a price for that. Come by the front counter when you leave."
"Thank you."
Sent from my Galaxy S3 with a cracked screen. So please forgive minor typographical errors.
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