rogueinladysclothing | Scholarly meeting [Tagging Viatorus]

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Scholarly meeting [Tagging Viatorus]

On the border of the Parklands and the Commercial District of the Nexus stands a grand library. Its tall, arched entry way and high vaulted ceilings remind one of a church rather than a library. Inside, though, the walls of each of the three floors are stacked high with books, their ranks broken only by the large, stained glass windows. Rows upon rows of bookshelves across the floors offer even more volumes to those who set foot inside the library. A true scholar's delight.

For Amelia, though, the rows of books mean little. Without direction of where to start, it would mean little for her to delve into the complexities of new technologies or the rich histories of the many worlds from which the books come. She'll start in on them, someday, when she knows the best place to begin.

In a small alcove off the main entryway, there stands half a dozen polished wooden tables with matching high backed chairs with plush cushions. It is one of several, all of which have varying decor and furniture, but this one inspires the feel of the European Renaissance. Rich tapestries hang on the walls and a suit of armor holding a tall battle axe stands in the corner. The room makes Amelia feel more at ease, especially when she finds Viatorus Durant sitting at one of the tables with several large volumes spread out in front of him.

Although her entrance would cause no great alarm to him, she stops in the doorway and shuffles her feet noisily. No visible weapons hang from her belt, though the discerning eye would notice the two daggers still laced into her boots. She smiles in Viatorus' direction as she leans against the doorway. "Hard at work?"

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There's a reason Viatorus likes this room. He's always grown up around old world grandeur so it makes him feel comfortable. As do books. Which is why he is steadily building a fortress of beautiful spines and piling notes. His papers sprawl across the table, notes and sketches as varied as the subject materials he's surrounded himself with: Portals, curses and ethics being the primary concerns.

The shuffling doesn't stir him from his work, but the question does. He turns around and, seeing a familiar face (and a distinct lack of weaponry), he smiles. "Miss Ronsam."

He takes time to finish his sentence before he sets his pen down and stands up, approaching her with a bit of fidgeting. "How are you?"

Piles of books. Stacks of paper. Nose to the grindstone. Completely oblivious to one's surroundings. And that smile? It was just like--

--like being at home with someone who wasn't there anymore.

The smile he offers is returned in kind. "Please, call me Amelia," she chides gently. No need to be so formal around her. "I am feeling well and a little more at ease when I stand in this room." Her smile broadens as she looks around. It felt like home, at least a little. "How are you ?" She slowly steps into the little room and closer to him, her eyes flicking to the many books and papers he had laid out. "Find anything interesting today?"

"I'm good. I'm well." He follows her gaze to the books and then smiles back at her. "Too much. I feel seven again. Everything's so... new. I don't think I'm going to learn a fraction of what I want to. But I can try."

Her mention of the room doesn't go unnoticed, however, and he tilts his head at her. "Is your world more like this? This... style? Or do you just like books?"

"I take it you've always had a great desire for learning?" It's an admirable trait and not one she would dare laugh at. One of her brothers is a scholar, after all.

"My world is more like this." She gestures to the room as a whole. "It's a place of sea faring ships, guards and knights in bright armor, of kings and courts." Her smile falters the slightest bit as she continues. "Perhaps it's not quite as exquisite as all of this, but the basic elements are the same. Though I admit the library in the city I'm from is far less extensive than this. I'm certain the whole library could fill up only a single wing of this place."

She tries to manage a full smile again for him, but isn't able to do so. "I hope to learn more while I'm here, though."

"I have, thank the gods." He smiles, betraying a sense of relief at the thought. "In my family you are either a scholar or the businessman and fighter who protects them. I'm neither any good at business nor fighting."

"It sounds wonderful," he tells her with a smile. "Like a story, or a dream. But I don't think all the libraries I've seen could match the size of this one. It has everything here." He points to a shelf nearby. "I found a book devoted to explaining how to grow a vegetable I'm pretty sure doesn't exist."

"Funny - I'm the businesswoman and fighter who protects everyone in my family." She chuckles softly. "Perhaps we were meant to meet, then, since I assume you're not bringing any protectors with you to this place." She's not trying to suggest anything by it, but she's been told to keep an eye out for a possible reason for having been brought to the Nexus. For the first time since she's arrived, she gets the feeling that might be true.

"Really? Let me see that..." She walks up to the shelf and pulls out the book he was pointing at. She's not really one for gardening or knowing about her vegetables, but the subject is fascinating enough that she wants to take a look. As she leafs through, an eyebrow raises. "This is... one of the strangest things I've ever seen. At least as far as vegetables go."

As if caught, he leans back, pressing the heels of his hands onto a desk and sinking into a guilty shrug. "My sister is my protector, but... I... I don't want her to come here. She might not let me come back, even if it is perfectly safe."

The strange expression that appears on her face gets a grin from him. "I'm pretty sure it talks about it shivering. I wouldn't want to eat it, anyway."

She thinks for a moment, her lips drawing into a a thin line of concentration. "Perhaps it would make you feel better if someone were to look out for you while you're here? I know someone who would be well suited to the job..." As she trails off, she flashes him a grin. "I could use the help of a scholar. I have so much I want to learn - about the technology I've seen, about the history of the more popular worlds that people come from, about... about magic. I could use a guide to determine where to start."

"Shivering?" Her expression gets more confused and she slowly places the book back onto the shelf. "I think you're right. Perhaps I don't need to spend my term learning about that, then."

It takes him far too long to understand her meaning. Understanding clicks into place only when she grins at him. His brow raises slowly at he blinks at her. "You... You'd do that?"

His eyes dart from side to side as he thinks it through and then he looks at her with hopeful uncertainty. "Would you... If she asked, would you be alright with meeting my sister? If... When she finds out about this place it would be extremely helpful to show her I wasn't being reckless. I think she'd like you, and it would bring her some peace of mind."

Of all the conditions he might've placed onto their working together, that was honestly the last she had expected. Still, it didn't seem like too much of a stretch for him to ask. She shrugged nonchalantly.

"If you think it's necessary, then I see no reason why I should fight against it. Besides, if you can help me as much as I can help you, there's no reason I shouldn't acquiesce to this request." It would be the first of many, but he didn't seem the type to ask all that much in return. She smiled softly. "Whenever you're ready, I'll meet her."

When she accepts the condition, he looks visibly relieved for a moment. The anxious fidgeting soon returns, though. "I... I must warn you... I've never taught anyone before. I'll explain as much as I can as best I can, but... I might not be very good at it."

"All I'm really asking for is direction," she points out. "I have no idea where to begin and that is my biggest challenge." She shifts her weigh to one hip and puts a hand to her chin, considering something. "Perhaps I should tell you more about my world so you can help me? Having a base of knowledge about where I am may be the key to all of this."

"Of course. Yes, that... that would be a good start." He nods and then moves back to the chair he'd been glued to for the past few hours. Gesturing to another chair, he sits down. "Please, tell me."

She pulls the chair out from the table a bit and turns it to face him before taking a seat in it. He can tell she's settling in. The gesture is a universal one for telling someone about something very important to them.

"My world - a place called Kairn - feels so small compared to this place. There are three countries: Etras, Coretica, and Ketesh. The city I live in, Masarra, is a port city in Etras. Etras and Coretica are rather large and powerful allied countries ruled by a monarchy, while Ketesh is a relatively small island nation. They're all... mostly peaceful, but something's been going on between Ketesh and Coretica. Something... that doesn't make sense. Ketesh is small and not nearly as powerful as Coretica, but they're winning battles, sinking ships without cause. It's..." She shakes her head. "Sorry, it's not important right now." There's a shadow across her face as she speaks of it. It's obviously disconcerting to her. She won't allow him a chance to ask more, though, before continuing.

"Humans, elves, dwarves, and a race called 'dragonborn' - men and women with scales for skin, tails, and the ability to spit fire - make up the peoples of Kairn. There's racism across much of the world, but in Masarra, everyone is free to do as they choose. Hell, two of my friends are successful blacksmiths and make some of the best weapons I've ever owned, and one is a dwarf and the other a dragonborn. I wouldn't trade the work they've done for me for anything." That thought gets a bit of a smile.

"Our most advanced weapons are the cannons we mount on walls or the occasional ship. Sea faring vessels have seen the most improvements in the past few generations and people still make their way across the land on horseback when they need to travel great distances. Medicine is limited to healers who work with herbs and plants and, very occasionally, a bit of alchemy. I'm afraid I don't know much about it, though. I know how to patch myself up, but that's as far as my medical knowledge goes."

Her gaze falls to the floor for a moment before moving back to his. "And then there's magic. I've heard tales, of the great wars in which wizards determined they didn't want to be pawns of the ruling class anymore. After the wars, they hid themselves away, and no one has seen one since." She looks away slightly. "At least, that's what I've been told. But some of the things I've seen... I can't be sure."

Although she wants to continue, she stops. She's certain Viatorus has questions by now and wants him to ask before she overloads him with information.

While she gets herself comfortable, he pulls over a notebook and a pen. Even when he watches her, his hand moves, constantly taking notes. Looking back over them he notes that she's covered most of the key markers of civilisation, which is convenient. He wants to ask desperately about magic, but there's a lot of other things to cover.

He flicks through the pages he's already used to try and figure out what gaps he should know about. "What about science? Do you have scientists? And religion? How important is religion? Does each race have different rulers in each country?"

"What do you mean 'science?'" It's such a broad question that she's a little in the dark. "No one in my world has the title of 'scientist.' In fact, I'm not sure the term exists in my world."

She tackles the political question next. "Each country has a ruler. Everyone within that country recognizes that person as the highest legal authority, be they human or something else." That one's easy.

"Religion is a more difficult topic." She sits back in her chair and crosses her arms in front of her chest. "In Etras and Coretica, there's no real belief about something or someone guiding their actions during life. It is believed that when people die, their spirit passes into what's called the 'Eternal Dream.' If a person is a generally 'good person' during their life, they will spend eternity dreaming of wonderful things. If they're not, then they will have an eternity of nightmares. It is important for someone to lead a good life and to leave the world a better place by your actions. There are priests that study what texts and parables there are, but most people strive only to be the best they can and do not go to any services offered by priests. Wishes for a peaceful rest, however, are common at funerals and there is some small amount of ceremony around it that many people observe. Others choose to offer their wishes in private, though, and have slightly different traditions." She pauses to let him finish his notes before she continues. "The Keteshi, however, believe something else entirely, and I'm afraid I don't have any knowledge about it. I believe they have people they call shamans that are seen as religious leaders, but I don't really know what that means for them or their religion."

"Oh." That's going to be... interesting. "Science... Science is... is the study of the world by observing and experimenting and coming to logical conclusions. It... It's how most of the things that are foreign to you were discovered. In my world, at least."

That is a simple system that he suspects requires a lot of finesse and politics to function. He decides to leave asking about it until much later.

Her description of the Eternal Dream is taken in with rapt attention. For a second he even forgets to take notes. It's how he wishes the afterlife was, though he suspects it won't be anything like that on arrival. Viatorus wonders if the Eternal Dream is a dream at all, or something simply similar to one. What would it be like to dreamwalk in her world? If it was a dream, could a walker enter it? Could he leave? What would death be like for a dreamwalker there?

Somehow he manages to pull himself from his questions and try to focus on his own. Scratching the back of his head, he hums. "But the gods... There aren't deities that are active in your world?"

She thinks about that explanation for a moment before answering. "I suppose that could apply to some of the people who live in my world. Alchemists dabble with spices, herbs, oils, and other materials to make tinctures and solutions for a variety of uses, though I know very little about them beyond what ingredients many of them come... go to my family's shops for." The distinction is made only because she is reminding herself that she's not in Masarra anymore. "There are people who invent and tinker with machines all the time as well. I... have a friend who dabbles in such things. His master was a man who made many machines and small contraptions for clients and who also dabbled with explosives." The second hesitation is less easily explained, but she'll continue on before Viatorus can ask about it.

"There are no beings called 'gods' in my world. If anyone believes in them, they are not part of the main religion that the people of my world follow and they keep to themselves on the edges of society." She pauses thoughtfully, a small frown playing at her lips. "Although, perhaps that's what the Keteshi believe in? I'm afraid I don't know."

"Alchemy, yes!" He perks up as she makes the connection. "Yes! That can be a kind of science, I think. A-And people who make machines learn about science even if they don't know that's what they do."

As someone who regularly halts and hesitates as he speaks, Viatorus is unlikely to pick up on anything strange about other people doing it.

"What about supernatural beings? Ghosts? Demons? Sea monsters?"

The excitement in his voice, in his facial expressions, when he finds common ground for 'science' makes Amelia smile. For a moment, she sees someone else excitedly telling her about his latest invention while they take a break from their accounting studies. A young man with unruly dark brown hair and the most mischievous of grins looks out at her. But the moment fades quickly, as does her smile. "It seems my world has much to learn about 'science,' then."

The mention of demons earns a small shudder. "There are monsters in my world - trolls and kobolds and a few other things like that - but they live far from the more populated towns and cities. I have no idea what ghosts are and there are no sea monsters in our world, but..." She stops, her gaze falling to her hands, which she folds neatly in her lap. "I never thought magic could possibly be real until I met the... thing I fought about a year ago. A great monster, unlike any I'd ever heard described before, that erupted from a crystal covered in strange runes. A man, whose life I ended for the crimes he committed against me and mine, tied a fuse around the crystal and lit it. The monster was..."

There's another long pause before she continues, her eyes still focused on her hands. "It stood nearly 7 feet tall. Its face looked like the helmet of an armored warrior, but it was made entirely of bone and there were holes where the eyes should have been. It had the body of a strong, fit soldier, but it was covered with bone-like armor and some kind of... red, molten ooze poured out from any wounds we inflicted. And when my friends and I killed it, it erupted in a spray of more of that same ooze." She shudders, quickly wrapping her arms around herself. "If there were any word to describe such an abomination, it would be demon."

Her dramatic account holds his focus once again. The emotion behind her words and in the physical reaction the memories bring makes him feel as if he might have been there. She has his complete and utter sympathy. True, he's never been faced with something like that before, but it sounds terrible to have to fight such a creature.

Quietly he offers, "I... I've never heard of anything like that before. Maybe... maybe some kind of golem... Was that in your city? Or had you maybe stumbled into a mage's lair?"

She grips her upper arms tightly with her hands at his last question.

"It wasn't a wizard's lair or anything like that. It was an abandoned tower, used long ago during times of war. The men who lead us there, who set that demon loose on us, they..." She can feel her chest tightening with the pain of the memories. Even though a year had passed, the pain is still fresh. "One of my friends... one of the people I travel with, the inventor... Those men kidnapped his master's daughter, a girl who was like a sister to him. He followed after them with the man who was his father in all but blood. When they found where they had taken the girl, my friend came back for me and the others. We rode as hard as we could, slept as little as possible to make good time. We rescued the girl, found her safe and relatively unharmed. But..." Her grip on her arms tightens even more. The fabric on her shirt is straining against her grip now, threatening to break. Her voice becomes hard, cold, dripping with hate as she continues. "But those men, those animals, they drugged and tortured this man, this person who had been my friend, and because of their abuse and our late arrival, he died. He died, and there was nothing we could do about it. I had to watch that boy I had met years before grow up suddenly as his father was murdered, his master and his family moved away, and he was left all alone, with nothing but his thirst for revenge to keep him company."

There are no tears in her eyes in spite of the pain. She's barely managing to breathe given the tightness in her chest, but it's as if she doesn't notice. It's as if this pain has become a part of ever day for her. As she continues, her voice lowers to a whisper, full of sorrow.

"And now that friend is gone and I don't know if I'll ever see him again."

If it wouldn't be terribly improper of him to lose his composure then he might have felt his eyes watering for her. It's a horror story. And she lived through it. There are no sentiments he can offer for that, no experience he could possibly compare to it. He feels rather lost, horrified for her and wanting to comfort her but having no idea how to.

His hand moves to touch her arm in some display of compassion, but he gets awkward halfway through and pulls it back again. Instead he deflates and watches her sadly. "I... I'm sorry. I really am. That... That's terrible, it's awful. No one should have to go through something like that."

It takes her a moment to bring herself to look at him. She watches the awkward movement of his hand and offers a sad smile in return. "No one should have to live with it. That's why I want to go back home. If... if my friend returns, then he may have information on the men who ordered this to be done. If we can find them, if we can stop them, then maybe no one else will have to suffer like he did."

Carefully, she holds a hand out for him. He had wanted to comfort her and she's giving him an open invitation to do so. "Thank you for listening. Other than those directly involved, no one else knows the full truth of what happened at that tower. I didn't even tell my family what happened when I let them know of my friend's death." Does he realize the weight of all of this? Less than a dozen people know about this. And she let herself be vulnerable around him. It's a dangerous thing to do, but she feels oddly safe around him.

"Such a terrible burden you feel you bear," he mutters vaguely. With her hand searching for his he's drawn to take it as he'd planned to; fingers curling around hers although they tremble slightly with the contact. An attempt to imitate comfort he'd received before by warmer, steadier hands with a firmer grip.

Viatorus fully understands the importance of such honesty, even if he understands it from a place where the key is in playing political and social games. Still, the mention that she didn't tell her family surprises him and it shows. "Why didn't you tell them? They probably would want to help, or at least support you."

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(Sorry for the delay - I wanted to give this post my full attention to get it right)

It's no problem!

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