To Learn Anew (Vers, Private, Fish Stick)

[Erenthril Mael'tharias]

Third Cycle of Kalendryas, Season of Winter, Era XV
Candlemark 1200 – High Noon

The old library of Vers had also been removed from its current position - like the School itself it had seemed to be too outdated to fit in with such a dynamic and upbeat town. Rather than dark, musty halls where elderly scholars would peer silently at dust-ridden volumes by torchlight, the new facility was a large, windowed building with vast areas of reading tables and benches that was cheerily light during the day and warmly-lit at night. There were no torches here, of course, due to the paranoia that the librarians had with naked flames being so close to priceless volumes and manuscripts; rather, the School had hired several Elementalists to cast several Glowing Spheres to hover around the ceiling, casting a fair ammount of light below.

The building had been erected in memory of Balet'hos, a highly successful businessman who had donated large sums of money to the construction of the school. Sadly, he had passed away during the building process from serious illness of the heart, but not before bequeathing several hundred thousand crowns to the massive project - his entire life savings and profits. It was fitting that a new section of the campus would be dedicated to him.

Row upon row of easily-accessable bookshelves were arranged in logical patterns around the building. Along the walls were several fully-transparent windows - not glass, but still highly-polished and well-crafted crystal. Light streamed in to all corners, enabling the spines of books to be easily read and selected. Around the entrance were large see-through locked shelves, in which were contained the most rare and valuable manuscripts. They were for display only, and never taken out unless in the most rare and ceremonious circumstances.

The faeries were no longer around to swap their wings and hover around the place, making book access a lot easier. A bunch of other employees now had that duty, one or two being capable of flying or grabbing books from affar through arcana methods. A long flat desk was placed perpendicular to the wide entrance doors and a metre or so to the right, so that as one walked in one could see almost the entire Library. Above the desk was a large carved wooden notice. It read: Only registered and current students of the Imaden School of Higher Learning or those with signed permission forms from a Faculty Head will be permitted to borrow books. Limit six books per person per cycle.

Posted by xGM Tatercake

The Archmagus opened up the large wooden doors bearing entry into the library, holding his breath while they quietly shut behind him.

Vers. The City of Magic. Birthplace to Julos.

It had all started here…right here…. the Elflord considered, tasting the remnants of arcana contamination on the tip of his tongue even as he breathed. He glanced around the foyer of the library, atypical for any sort of institutional place of learning. His almond eyes came to rest upon the sign depicting the accessibility of leasing to students, and warranted a small frown. He would have to do his studying here. Yet perhaps…

Walking over to the large desk perpendicular to the doors on his right, he glanced around and attempted to spot a receptionist. “Serale? I was looking for a few books on the history of this city…hello?”

[Fish Stick]

A young woman by the name of Tress came to answer his call. Smiling as she looked at the handsome elflord, she wondered exactly why he had come to the library. "Serale there my good sir, You say you are looking for some books on the History of Vers?" she asked slightly, her blonde hair falling over her shoulders as she pushed her glasses up on the bone of her pointed nose. Having been adorned in a silver dress for the day, she finished her pace over to him, and then asked, "Are you a student at Imaden by chance?"

[Erenthril Mael'tharias]

Erenthril turned to the source of the voice that lilted out towards him, smiling expectantly as the librarian began walking his direction.

“Yes ma’am,” he murmured appreciatively as he fidgeted with the cuffs of his jacket, giving her a quick subtle look over before reasoning she must have some idea of what she was talking about. Whether or not that went vice versa…however…well, “Imaden? I’m afraid I’m not – I was just curious about visiting the local library and was directed this way as to the answer of my inquiries,” he smiled tepidly, quite unsure if coming her had been the best choice after all. It would seem he’d need to learn a little more about whatever this ‘Imaden’ location was…

[Fish Stick]

"Ah, Imaden is the local school of Higher Learning... they have a fantastic Arcana school which you might want to look into... Masters of all sorts go there, and i'm sure if you cannot find any books on History here, you might try looking to talk to some of the masters, or the Thane about our history. Eitherway, i'm sure we have something if history for our city..." she said, and then led him back towards a few rows of books to the back.

A man was sitting there, himself reading a book, and looked up when she approached him. "A Tress, what brings you back into the history section?" he asked her. "This man is looking for information on Ver's history, and i thought with you being the guy always in our history section, you might know where to point him.." she said. The man looked up and laid his eyes upon the elflord, then asked, "Well well then my boy, what parts of Ver's history are you looking into finding out about?"

[Erenthril Mael'tharias]

The statements were almost enough to make him laugh.

He’d left universities of Arcana two and a half eras ago because of the very advertisement he’d just been given. He could run off and learn Arcana. Just like that. The simple-minded concepts he found within the universities were somewhat distressing to the Elf, seeing as how he found the real knacks and uses for the various spheres to be outside a well-honed, trained, and rigid classroom setting. Shaking his head, he smiled politely at the woman and waved his hand after she left him with the man within the aisles of the bookshelves.

“Serale,” he began, with a small nod and grin. His hands shuffled into his pockets as he stood there glancing over the man. “I was actually interested in learning about past and recent events up to Julos’ reign as self-proclaimed Emperor of Alleria. I heard a crazy story that at one point this city wasn’t located…here, but on the other side of the river. That true?” he asked, not entirely believing the validity of it himself.

[Fish Stick]

"Ah ha! the moving of Vers, well, no doubt you read the herald article about it. That was the most amazing trip i've ever been on, and in my long life, though perhaps not as long as your's, i've been on quite a few journeys. You see, history is my thing, i love it, and having visited quite a few libraries, i'm glad to have found this one, for it's very interesting here in Vers. Lots of mages doing wacky things to almost anything you could think of. Anyways, I digress. Basically what happened was that there was a planar shift. For whatever reason, not many people knew why it happened, save for the council, but they speak naught of it. A group of Mages from the academy, masters all of them manage to bring us back, but sad to say we lost our council president, the prefect and the aedile in that endeavor... they are stuck somewhere in whatever plane we went too... i think it may have been the plane of Power, but one can never be to sure, there was a lot of fire around the city. luckily that orb that consumed us also protected us somehow while we were in that plane. Thank Ioannes that Rak didn't find out why we were there, we might have had an even bigger problem on our hands... Luckily though, the masters managed to get us back in time for Pracenda... and a good pracenda it was..." spoke the elderly man, caughing a bit as he finished, not having talked that much in a while. He looked up towards Eren, and then said, "By the way, my name is Daved... I didn't catch yours?"

[Erenthril Mael'tharias]

“Erenthril,” he grinned and reached over to shake Daved’s hand, before taking a polite step back and nodding cordially to the stack of books housed within the shelves. “I take it you read quite a bit?” he asked with a chuckle.

He paused for an answer before continuing.

“Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to read the Herald Article – I knew of the travel, sort of,” he shrugged, “but never heard any information in depth. If you keep a copy of past Herald articles around somewhere, I’d love to look through it. And…well, the history doesn’t have to be written for me to take notes. If you remember anything important of it – I think that would be more than enough to satisfy my interests,” he smiled politely once more. Though he did find the fact that the Masters were able to float the city and portal it out of the Plane of Force fairly sufficient to his intellectual tastes – and far more than satisfactory towards his Arcanic hungers – he was here to learn of the rich cultural and historical context of Vers itself. Albeit the event was important, he was far too concerned with being derailed from his goal and having to circumvent a rather lengthy explanation of arcanomechanics to be bothered going into details at present.

[Fish Stick]

"Ah, but of course i keep a copy of that, right here with all of my other copies of things... and as for loving to read, yes siree, I am an avid reader... And are you an avid reader? It is nice to meet you Erenthril!" he said, and got up out of his chair, bent over a bit as he was sort of hobble-backed. Hobbling over to one of the shelves, he reached up, and pulled out a copy of the herald that spoke of the movement of Vers, and gave it to Erenthril.

Smiling as he handed it over, and Erenthril continued to speak, he then replied, "Well, the main thing i remembered about it was that it was a strange planar distortion caused by Rak... not many people where aware as to why he was attempting to bring Vers into his realm, but rumor has it some of the sorcerers may have been playing with arcana that they should have left well alone... It might be nice to look into that rumor at some point, or perhaps the rumor that Rak has a grudge against one of the masters there for syphoning too much power from his plane of existance... these are all just rumor's i've heard about though, so i wouldn't take too many of them seriously..."

[Erenthril Mael'tharias]

“I see,” Eren spoke, moving over and taking the offered Herald article the man held up for him to read. He would definitely scan through this, if only to get a sense of the history from it beyond what Daved was just telling him. He listened intently, recording most of it to memory, somewhat certain a bit of it might be flawed, but nonetheless willing to take the man’s word for it. “As per the reading, well, I don’t have the time I used to,” he grinned; boy, wasn’t that the truth. Give Eren a book and a nice corner and he’d live his life to contentment and beyond should the plot be interesting enough. But nowadays? He had trouble even staying in one place, let alone finding a decent book and sitting down to read. Perhaps that might change if he ever eventually settled down, Phedos he hoped so, but for the time being?

Not a chance in hell.

“How was Vers created? Back before the planar tour and virtual replacement?” Erenthril asked, pondering the question himself. It was a bit harder, perhaps out of the man’s league, but then if he was a local historian he probably had some good idea. Eren kept his speculations for himself, but wouldn’t be surprised if it had been a Mage-ish town from the very beginning.

[Fish Stick]

"Well, that is a tricky question you see, because not many people know the history of Vers. I am not one of them that knows, but you might try to ask the secret council, or the thane, he'd know the answer to that. I only know rumors, if you're interested in rumors? the man asked, and then awaited the response of the elf before going on.

"The biggest rumor going so far about how Vers was created was that originally, the school of Arcane, at Imaden academy was on the other side of the river, before we got located. And as mages went there, they began to build up buildings, and homes around the school. Pretty soon, the city of Vers was created, and the mages formed a secret council. Who knows how many of the original council members are upon that council today, since elves such as yourselves have long lives. But, one thing i know, is that not many people know how to find this council that have been in control of Vers. Some say that some of the Rakyra are still on the council, waiting for their chance at taking over the empire again, but i doubt it..." the man finished, and then awaited a response from Erenthril...

[Erenthril Mael'tharias]

“Oh, I see. A secret counsel, though? And rakyra involved too, even? That seems a little suspect…” the Elf frowned, rubbing his chin a bit and wondering how in the dickens the Rakyra had managed to survive almost complete and utter persecution after Julos had fell. Even Julos hadn’t managed that – and he’d been an Archmage. And this Imaden Academy nonsense…well, just what was going on here?

“You said you think they control Vers? Isn’t there a Thane? Or is it one of those puppet politician things,” he murmured, eyes fleetingly travelling around the small aisle for a bit. “Where could I find them?” was the final question asked, out of a series of many, and perhaps the most important one yet.

[Fish Stick]

"There is a Thane, but most people in the city believe he is a puppet thane, being used by the council as a show of good faith on their part. Most people just ignore that they are there since they haven't done anything recently for the city. So we live on in peace, although, it was their idea for the Annual Winter Arcana Festival, so i guess that some good can come out of them still..." he said slowly, a grin cracking across his face...

[Erenthril Mael'tharias]

“Oh, I see,” he responded in kind, his anticipations and suspicions for this winter festival rising a little bit now that it seemed it had come from the prudent suggestions of an ex-Rakrya faction. That was never a good thing, doubly so if these people were attracting a plethora of individuals for an arcanic tournament. Weren’t these the same fools whom had followed Julos’ command and fallen under the ranks of a Mageocracy before? Weren’t they responsible for the Sentinels?

He shook his head at the logic of this.

“And if I wanted to somehow contact this secretive bunch and figure out the truth of Vers’ history for myself, what would be my best bet for doing so?” he asked, rubbing the back of his neck before propping himself up against one of the bookshelves in the aisle, glancing at Daved patiently.

[Fish Stick]

"No one knows how to contact them, least of all me... the only direction i could really point you in is the Thane, and i doubt he'd talk except for under the threat of death. And even then you might not get him to talk about the council's whereabouts. He might mention them, but he would certainly never give away any pertinent information about them..." said the historian, as he looked up towards Erenthril from his seat.

[Erenthril Mael'tharias]

“Ah, I see. Well, I’m not overtly fond of death threats – so I suppose that’s ruled out of the question,” he shrugged his shoulders and chuckled, glancing over the list of tomes to his immediate right. He was curious what they were, and more importantly, what sort of books Daved himself was looking through in the aisle. He took a few steps forward, eyes scanning the loopy title scripts and eyeing over the dusty pieces of literary achievement. History was such a fascinating thing. It chronicled all of the progress mankind had made throughout recent years, surmised in only a few pages describing the lifetimes of some people. Everyone was part of it. There was virtually no real exception; history existed so long as time was relative, and time…well, time wasn’t very fickle in how it changed.

He smiled at the thought.

“So, have any other interesting bits of history I could pick up on? You see, I took some collegio classes in Medonia covering the Epic of the Aelyrian Empire and the Historias themselves, so…I was looking to do a little bit of my own research through books or eavesdropping before I continued my studies,” he idly remarked, selecting one tome off the wall and propping it open to peek inside.