Story [I.1.ii] Eyes on Emak in the Imperial Library

Aethera · #1 May 16th, 2019, 04:02 PM

In spite of the important meeting she had been in, but definitely because of it, Emak had practically fled the Palace of War back to her room, asking the surprised servant for pen, ink, and parchment in sufficient quantity to write a number of letters. Even if the Emperor had sort of asked them to keep things close to their chest, that wasn't going to stop her from writing to her family. There were likely things to pack, and supplies to ask for, but Levi had certainly seemed well in command of that. Aside from a change of travel-worthy clothes (which she could likely pick from the things spread out in her guestroom) and the food Levi had requested, there wasn't much else she needed that she didn't already possess.

She knew her way back to the Imperial Library, and once supplied with what letter-writing supplies she had requested, she left the guest house with Guythraxix and headed back to the place she'd originally discovered him. The streets were still lively, the citizens of Axis happy to celebrate any opportunity they were given. She was greeted by a few people before she realized she could slip off her circlet and get by all revelers by being unknown and moving quickly enough not to warrant being stopped. The rest of the way to the library was uneventful, and it seemed even the librarians were celebrating, because she slipped inside without seeing anyone paying enough attention to query her. She had plenty of quiet there, if only she could quiet the noise in her head enough to get the words she wanted down on paper. The lizardwoman had her pick of places to set up, so she chose one where she was unlikely to be disturbed and laid out the intelligent tome, the blank parchment, and her ink.

She was midway through her first letter before she got the strange sensation creeping up her neck that someone was watching her. Upon looking around, however, it wasn't clear there was anyone else present. The feeling did not go away immediately, however.

AwesomeEllie · #2 May 23rd, 2019, 01:01 AM

EmakFinally getting to the library, through its heavy doors and into the aisles of books, had both Emak and Guythraxix relaxing notably, although for different reasons. For the little lizard, towering rows of tomes gave her the comfort and familiarity that she needed to just bring it all back down a bit, and for Guythraxix, the Imperial Library was a vast jungle and he was its tiger who had finally returned home. Indeed, if the other books could understand and move, they would be quaking in their dust sleeves.

Her first letter would be to her mother. At the very least, it would allow her to then notify the rest of the family. Not the best, but a good start. She kept the details loose, as loose as possible and not revealing her coming role in moving the Princess, but she still pressed the importance that her message be taken seriously - pack whatever they could, and leave. Her family had land and relatives deep in the middle of nowhere, and that'd be safe. Bring as many of the lizardmen and queens as they could. It was during a short break, as the ink was drying and Emak was sliding Guythraxix back to the center of the desk, away from the books she had picked up on her way here earlier that he had been inching towards, that she felt a change in the atmosphere.

It wasn't anything she could put her finger on but she didn't like it anyway. It was off, something in her territory that shouldn't be. A subtle glance showed nothing in particular but did little to soothe her mind so the moment the ink was dry, she snapped the parchment roll closed and snatched up all her things in one near-silent lunge, slipping on her circlet as she moved to the long rows of books. She moved to turn down one, and at the exact moment that one could blink and miss her going down the aisle or pulling back from the aisle, she instead flowed up, small feet catching shelves as she propelled herself up and away from whatever was on to her.

Up above, she silently put her items in her back, leaving one hand open and the other holding on to her companion, before she began to nimbly flicker across the tops of the shelves, skulking deeper into the library. This was their home, where the two of them had met, and they needed to dig up who was intruding on them. If this was how the danger was to find them, at least whatever it was decided to give them the home field advantage.

Aethera · #3 May 25th, 2019, 02:28 PM

The family-centric lives of the lizardmen would be upset by the oncoming storm of... well, whatever it was that had the Emperor spooked. She was smart enough to know that a man of such importance rarely told the whole truth to strangers, even strangers he sought to recruit for a cause. Whether he had outright lied, Emak couldn't tell, but someone that powerful could probably lie through his teeth without getting caught by anyone but another of his caliber. He had mentioned demons, orcs, and sahuagin. Whether there was more incoming, he hadn't specified, but threats to the Empire on multiple sides had not spelled the end of an Age before. What he might not have said aloud could be just as important as what he had been willing to tell them--upsetting them but earning their focus in turn--and she could only guess what other threats he might fear.

It took her little time to scoop up everything once she was concerned about something unspecified being nearby. Experience had left its mark on the lizardwoman, and she moved quietly--albeit not silently--up the shelves to the tops of the bookcases to take a less visible route to somewhere else, somewhere her sense of the library did not concern her so. She made it a fair distance before she came across a missing bookshelf. A quick glance downward told her that the bookcase had apparently fallen, leaving splinters of wood and a plank that might once have been a shelf on the floor below. A librarian had stacked books neatly against the next bookcase over, so all was not in total chaos, but Emak found herself at an impasse; she could climb down and continue at ground level, or she could go back, back to where she felt certain something was amiss.

Her decision-making was interrupted by a sigh from nearby, and another glance around found an old man in a dirty robe of orange seated at a table with a stack of books. Bare feet were visible beneath the table, which begged the question how he had gotten in here without one of the librarians complaining, but his focus was on an open book before him. Without shifting position or raising his eyes from the book, he spoke. "You can come down. I won't bite. Your... friend... has a monopoly on that in this arena." He turned the page and read for a moment before looking up directly at Emak in her hiding place. "I have sealing wax and seal if you would like to seal that," he told her before chuckling a strange little laugh. "I even have a seal that marks the letter important to the Empire and grants it priority, if you'd like." His gray eyes sparkled up at her. "At least drop that menace down so I can say hello, won't you?"

AwesomeEllie · #4 May 25th, 2019, 04:27 PM

Emak the Meek and Guythraxix the HungryMoving bookshelf to bookshelf didn't make the feeling that something was amiss go away, and it was driving her nearly mad, an itching under her scales that only grew in annoyance even as it stayed the same. The general unease spiked when she came to the collapsed shelf of books, though, as this was almost certainly a new development and put her at a relative dead end. She was only just moving to the edge of the shelf, to drop down to the floor and reposition across the aisle, when her watcher decided to show himself at the other end of the row. The first words had Emak reaching for her blade, but she stayed her hand, still and silent, watching from above. After a moment, even less reassured than she was before, her hand fell to the top of the shelf and she deftly dropped herself down, landing low and unseen from the watcher before she slowly stood back up and dusted herself off, cautiously rounding the corner and approaching.

Where the man sat now wasn't in line of sight with where she had been but she had not heard him move there. And he knew about Guythraxix, a thought that hung in her mind as she gingerly felt her way forward around the splintered shelves and disorganized books. Those two things had her very concerned, but he didn't seem... hostile, exactly. As she moved, she gingerly picked up three of the cheapest books she passed, each with duplicate copies beneath them in their unsightly piles.

"I'm not yet done with my letter. And I have a few more to write. Is that acceptable?" she asked, still cautious but sliding into the seat across from the barefoot man. She placed Guythraxix on the right corner of the table before her before placing the three picked up books next to him, giving them a slight bump. Maybe it'd shake up the rule-breaking man before her, maybe it'd unnerve him, maybe it'd do nothing of the sort. At the very least, it'd delay Guythraxix's pestering for food, if only for a few days.

She then began to get out her parchment and writing utensils, eyes not leaving the other party across the table. She didn't even glance over at Guythraxix as he began to eat, tuning out the crinkling and crunching and slurping and snapping with the help of many years' practice. She watched the man's reaction, watched his eyes, knowing full well that he wouldn't be able to not see her partner dining if he wanted to keep her gaze. Once the noise died down, replaced by a content hum from Guythraxix, she tilted her head and spoke. "I am Emak. Emak Goodman. But you knew that, I take it? Who might you be, mister...?"

Aethera · #5 May 25th, 2019, 04:57 PM

If this was the same presence which had unnerved her earlier, it was unclear, for apart from knowing things he oughtn't, he didn't feel particularly dangerous. That was not always a guarantee, danger lurked in many innocuous places, but the worry that had made her move still felt vaguely behind her, not present here. It mattered little, he was still odd and that meant danger in and of itself. "By all means, sit down. I'm not going anywhere, and the night is yet young." His eyes barely moved from the page he was reading.

When she put Guythraxix down and left books nearby, the only reaction--again without even looking up from his heavy history book, a book which had a chapter heading 'Turn of an Era' written across the top of the pages in view of Emak--was to shift his pile of books to a slightly further away position, which both rescued them from the predatory book and made more space for the intelligent tome and his dinner. His hand disappeared below the table for a moment, returning to set a lumpy stick of wax and a small brass stamp on the table in her reach. "Seems you've much on your mind," he ventured, turning the page of his book. "And you, Gygaxix, what did you have to sell to get her to carry you about? I know there's no soul in there to wager." His eyes glanced sideways at the rather awe-worthy display of pure hunger and destruction. "You've certainly achieved a pristine view of what's to come." The tome barely ceased his meal save for a brief hiccup in the sounds at the mangling of his name, likely on purpose.

The robed man chuckled, but it was not an easy sound. There were darker undertones to it that were not dissimilar to the intelligent tome's feeding habits. "You do well to seek asylum among the books," he said, presumably to Emak, though his eyes returned to the book laying on the table before him. "If only you knew how apt that was. But enjoyable for me, even if not." There was no straightforward meaning to his words, which resulted in his somewhat stringy beard and general unkempt appearance taking on a new level of unease. He didn't seem crazed, he was far too still, and apart from the words he had spoken, he was eerily silent. Too silent to be fully mad, for the mad did not have the luxury of self control. "There will be little enough of it to come for you, might as well seek solace while it is available, aye?" He straightened and flipped back several pages to an image that took up the whole spread, which he turned around to face the lizardwoman, for the first time looking up to meet her eyes with steely gray ones of his own. The image was a hellhole, actively in conflict between mixed forces bearing the Crusader's gauntlet on their banners and the demons of the pit itself. "An interesting dilemma. The Crusader fights to claim the hellholes, but the demons do not usually stray outside them without aid." He left it at that, pulling the book closer to himself once more and turning it back to the page he had been on. This time his eyes remained on the lizardwoman, rather than the book.

"Your value, whether you believe it or not, is in the disconformity of your life compared to those of your comrades. Whether you choose to believe it or not, you'll have quite a bit of say in the decisions ahead, so heed me. Your role is fixed within the grander story of fate which She Who Writes has penned. Your beginning, your end, even your encounter with demons are already written, but the journey is much more important than the destination."

AwesomeEllie · #6 May 25th, 2019, 06:03 PM

Emak the Meek and Guythraxix the HungryThe book rumbled a low laugh that seemed more ravenous than he had any right to be, given his most recent meal. "A soul is but the essence of a person. If you think that requires being clad in human skin, well, I'm sure I could try that on for size?" Guythraxix rumbled, with enough edge to his words to make sure that it was clear it was only half a joke. He fell silent when Emak set a hand on him, just enough to reassure him that she was here and had his back. The stranger shouldn't get to him.

Her hand came back down and she began to write, hardly glancing down at her work and not having much trouble juggling her letter duties and her talking. "Mister Not Going Anywhere, then. Nga?" Emak voiced the acronym name, and it tasted well enough. Better than his... strangeness did, anyway. "If my role is fixed, Nga, then wouldn't my journey and destination also be similarly bound?" Her tail shifted behind her, turning within the confines of her dress, tip topping against her lower leg thoughtfully. After a moment, she shifted her weight forward, hunching over her writing slightly. Say this conversation was required to get his... seal? To send letters quickly? Then it'd do well to at least embrace it fully. So she chewed over his broken words carefully, quill scratching away.

"But if all things were penned, books within books, a telling of the Akashic Record... then wouldn't She Who Writes be responsible? For the lack of solace, the destination and journey, the demons. Even if her... characters were the ones doing the things, they do so at her direction." Now that was an interesting thought, in the theoretical, and a delicate hand came up to scratch a thumb against the bottom of her chin. "Even if the entities thought they had full agency, it'd only be the illusion of such, no?"

She finished the letter to her mother and then fell to work for the others, to her brothers and fathers that were not at home currently. Thankfully her correspondence back home had kept her up to date on where everyone was, but it was still worrying. In the midst of her writing letters, she put together another letter, formatted the same, but in this one she jotted down her current encounter, including a description of the man across from her. The man was peculiar, and had gone out of his way to demonstrate his knowledge of both of them while also not giving out his own name.

"Of course, that assumes agency on behalf of She Who Writes. The Akashic Record works as an asynchronous, descriptive measure of all that has happened." Emak took a moment to shoot Guythraxix a look, the two seemingly communicating more than they could in silence. "Being made aware of the Akashic Record, though. That intersects with your She Who Writes, I suspect. To know the future, and not be able to change it. What is described is set in stone. Is that similar to what you speak of?" Her eyes sharpened a bit but Emak remembered where she was, and how she was talking to a stranger. She clammed up slightly, unsure of what to do. What to ask.

"What character is helping the demons?" she asked, eyeridges pulling forward. "Since it is set in stone."

Aethera · #7 May 26th, 2019, 12:21 PM

When the intelligent tome spoke, the strange man did look startled, but it only took him a moment to reject the impression that it was due to the book being able to speak. "My my, you have changed. Is it because you no longer reside in the library, I wonder? Or is your memory more like hers?" He only spared Emak a glance, almost as if the current conversation was between him and Guythraxix, rather than between him and the lizardwoman. "You honestly do not recall me, is that so?"

This time the book did not have the same confidence in its tone. "We have never met, old man." The eager devouring of the cheap books resumed, but slowly, and with much less gusto.

Their conversationalist looked almost sad for a moment. "Shame," he muttered, more to himself than either the book or the reptilian woman. "Perhaps my involvement made her scrap the scene. I can only hope that I've not set up another scene's destruction here and now." He shrugged, and his eyes rose to Emak once more, his voice resuming a normal volume. "Oh, hardly, hardly, miss. The journey may be started, but most of it is your doing. Only occasionally does She interfere, and then it is usually to improve your chances. You've plenty of agency, assuming you will actually use it." One raised eyebrow offered a comment on whether he believed it or not. "But the same is true for others. Plenty of agency can be applied against your mission as well. My lady is both scribe and author, it is up to you to determine your own fate until she sees fit to cause changes."

His eyes moved across Emak's face as she spoke, reading into more than just her words. "You say this as if She Who Writes does not know what choice you would make, where you would go, or what you would do. Even now that I have made you think in different ways, She knows you might well choose to act against your nature, just to be contrary. That does not make the choice any less yours." The grey eyes might seem a bit crazed, but Emak had looked long enough to recognize the depths of knowledge behind them. This man, for all the oddities he spoke, had some kind of agency himself.

"If I were to meddle in Her plot, this would certainly fall into the category of things that never happened, and I'm keen to make sure you remember what we've said here." He chuckled, eyes moving to the talking book. "I am apparently quite forgettable when She deems it so. No matter. Keep your eyes and ears open, and consider how your journey might be interrupted or detoured. Perhaps then you might manage to avoid those very demons."

GMI'm noting down your rolls, the 28 and 26 for Demons and Coast should get you some decent information, which I will have to write up. Poke me if I fail to get it to you when Emak actually has a chance to do some research.

AwesomeEllie · #8 May 31st, 2019, 03:18 PM

Emak the Meek and Guythraxix the HungryEmak listened and watched, carefully. It didn't interrupt her writing, but it did slow it for a few moments. Most of the information she absorbed but didn't respond to, being respectfully thoughtful, but her silence is not so easily kept up. "Is it really a choice, though? She Who Writes knows my response, my reaction, as you said. And makes Her decisions in accordance to how all the little pieces will react, a known factor for her. I know how a ball will react if I throw it up into the air, so would I not be to blame if I threw it up and it fell onto you, Nga?"

The philosophizing was interesting, but not all that immediately relevant - her understanding of it was nebulously useful, even assuming the man across the table was correct. She took a bit of the sealing wax to the lamp at the table and began to apply it to her letters, working industriously to seal up the messages to her family, and her written description of Nga. "I will keep my ears as open as they can be," she said with a small laugh, turning her head slightly and pointing up her neck, where her internal ears sat. If they were open open, she would be having a very bad day. Certainly a more chaotic and painful one, not that today was anything but chaotic and painfully pungent.

But, even with the mammalcentric idioms, Emak wasn't about to look a gift riding lizard in the mouth. "I will try to remember everything as best as I can, Mister Nga. Is there anything else you... can tell us? Anything at all?" He believed he was bound to not speak too much, lest it all be erased, so letting him said what he could seemed best. Even if she was not entirely sure of how much of it to believe, much less trust.

Aethera · #9 Jun 1st, 2019, 11:40 AM

The robed stranger chuckled when she tried to turn his logic around. "Intelligent question, yes, but a ball has no choice, it is not intelligent, and gravity is going to apply to everything, including you yourself. Does that make it Her fault if you trip and fall?" He made a little snorting noise rejecting the rhetorical question. "You have a choice, believe me on this, if naught else. There may come a time when you do not have a choice, and you may even recognize it as such. Then you may blame my lady. But it rarely does any good at that point, you're already ensnared. It is easier to try and accept it and figure out what you do next. Easier is relative, of course."

"Forgive the expression," the old man apologized, looking truly sorry for a moment. "I am not accustomed to those with backgrounds farther away, or farther from mine, at least. I have my hopes that you have a different perspective, and thus you might recognize odd things your companions do not." He nodded at her, and then eyed the book. "You as well, Guythraxix." The ease with which he pronounced the tome's name (and not in jest this time) lent some credence to his claim of having met the intelligent book in the past, but then, he'd seemed to know Emak as well, if he waited on her here.

He paused then, and he seemed to consider her question at length. "I do not know quite how much I am permitted," he said at last. "That is why general advice is wiser. Tends to keep things from becoming a problem later on. And indeed, forget all that I've said if it contradicts your common sense. It's not impossible for Her to change her mind." He shrugged. "I believe that is all I can offer you. If you're finished sealing your letters, I'll take that back and be on my way." He nodded at the wax and seal he'd loaned her as he rose. "Good luck to you both."

AwesomeEllie · #10 Jun 1st, 2019, 12:44 PM

Emak the Meek and Guythraxix the HungryEmak listened still, but she noted the shift in tone. The apology she waved away, not all too concerned with the issue. "I am not unused to it. I spend most of my time around mammals these days, it seems. Mammals and books," she said with a small, flicking the quill's tip back so she could safely run a hand down Guythraxix's spine. Books were good company in all their forms, at least.

"That's a fickle goddess you follow, Nga. A fickle writer of things that most certainly aren't predetermined, even if the outcome is known," Emak said with a sly smile, passing the seal and wax across the table. "I do tend to feel that common sense is rarely common between people, rarely shared. But that does not damage the credibility of your advice." She meant her words too - she knew her own common sense could be deeply flawed, and who knows if she'd still be here today if she didn't have Guythraxix looking out for her. While she didn't know how useful what Nga had said would be, she'd do her best to leverage it anyway. Such was her role, apparently.

"I do hope you have a good rest of the evening, Mister Nga," she said, standing. "I have some more work to do here in the library - brushing up for the coming trials, I suppose." Reading about demons, and perhaps looking for references to She Who Writes. If she could help it, at the other end of the library. This man wasn't the one that was making her unsettled, in spite of his more unusual qualities. "And, since you might be in the market, might I suggest some reading? Not by She Who Writes, I assume, but the Moonlight Dance series is quite enjoyable, if you're in the mood for it." With that said, she gave a half-bow, half-curtsy and turned to walk off with her letters. She would have to talk with the others tomorrow about this meeting though. Much to investigate.

Aethera · #11 Jun 1st, 2019, 05:00 PM

As Emak left, the man nodded and took back his seal and wax, pocketing both. When she glanced back, he was gone. The only suggestion that he had been present at all was the stack of books and the open one on the table. Was the library haunted? Or was it just her? Or Guythraxix, potentially. He had eaten his share of intelligent tomes over the years. One could have come back to interfere with their chosen mission, in theory. The robed man's exit had made no noise, something that was possible in a library like this, with so much dead space, but unlikely, especially hobbling on the staff which had been leaning against the table beside him. Where exactly had he gone?

"What's on the agenda for tonight?" Guythraxix asked without preamble. "If you find me a map I'll carry it for you?" Likely that meant eat it, but when didn't he want food? It was almost like the incident had already been glossed over and he was on to the next topic. It was a bit odd for him not to have some kind of commentary, however.

GMI'm happy to leave it here and give you the information you're looking for, but for a fun note, Guythraxix won't remember the old man at all. If she tries to have a conversation about what just happened, he'll be quite insistent nothing of the sort had happened and what sort of joke was she trying to pull?

I'm sure you're quite capable of writing that scene all by yourself, so feel free to keep going until you're out of ideas.

AwesomeEllie · #12 Jun 9th, 2019, 02:04 PM

Emak the Meek and Guythraxix the HungryWhile Guythraxix was called The Hungry for a good reason, his appetite was rarely so great as to overpower other topics of interest. And given what they had been told and that he had just eaten, it seemed peculiar that he was asking that now. She padded along the rows of shelves, thinking heavily. This had, in part, been within Nga's expectations. It had not been his and Guythraxix's first meeting, even if her friend didn't remember the previous ones.

She stopped, turning to pry a thin book from the shelves that mentioned demons. "There was a man back there. He had met you before, but you didn't remember him. He knew your name, what we are going to do, and... other things. He did not give his own name." The information was delivered dispassionately, as if it happened to someone else. She didn't stop from browsing the book either - they had a limited window of time, and she had to get back to sleep eventually. The following day would be a long one.

The book (the talkative one, not the other) was silent for a few seconds, processing what his companion had said. After a moment, he gave a short laugh, working hard to try and transition into his new, novel role as straight man of the two. "Ha, pull the other one, it's got bells-"

"No." The interruption had the weight of gods behind it, and it shut Guythraxix up prematurely. "He knew both of what we are going to be doing and who we are travelling with. He even mentioned some of the dangers we are likely to face, before I had even begun properly researching them. That lends weight to his other words, even if they are less easily interpreted." And they needed interpreting, she was pretty sure. Even if he had been speaking literally, it was not framed in a way that she could understand it. Under one arm, Guythraxix hummed, clearly still doubtful but pressing for more nonetheless. Curious, as he often was.

As she began working her way down the aisle of books, she recounted what she had learned. It was clear Guythraxix didn't quite believe her - he had been there, and now she was claiming things had happened that, for him, hadn't. It was as if the encounter had been overwritten in his mind, and it was with some concern that Emak assumed her retelling would be wiped clean as well. Thankfully, after a few minutes of contemplative quiet, Emak asked with mild trepidation, "Do you remember what I just said?"

"It's hard to forget that babbling, yeah," he griped, apparently not noticing that her lapsed guard brought an unprotected book closer to him - an opportunity that would normally at least draw comment. "Which is part of what makes it so hard for me to believe you. You realize that, right? The comment was half joke, but the other half was under the surface and dark, something more. Emak wasn't gaslighting him, but it had to feel like it, and she did not like that one bit.

"I know it seems that way, but trust me. It sounded like he was talking to... a lot of people. Hopefully I'll be able to prove that it happened." She gave a heavy nod, wondering what she would do if it fell through. That would get rougher. "That'll be later though. For now, we need to get ready."

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