open | Seek and Receive

Days of canvasing the Atheneum had led to this. While the door to the Loreseeker's Guild had not been all that difficult to find, Melinoë still held reservations about falling in with crowds in an unknown place. To say she was suspicious was perhaps too much credit in her favor, however, as Jigano and the Sanctuary had offered her little but charity. No, the witch was very clearly paranoid to some degree, using her recovery as an excuse to avoid interaction as she developed her own thoughts about Caido, most of them involving the flora and fauna that populated the pages of the books she had found at her bedside while still a charge of the infirmary nurses. She had read them quickly, devouring the information as she could, constructing her own sloppy notes on the matter.

Going had been slow at first - between the dislocated shoulder and adjusting to life with one eye she had forded her share of difficulties and misery, expressing deep frustration in the early weeks, though the obstacles between her and autonomy lessened as her body began to knit and repair - she was almost as good as... well, not new, maybe not even secondhand. Third or fourth hand would maybe account for the damages. As the nurses had reminded her, and she in turn had reminded herself time and again when the aggravation of an uncooperative body began to get to her, she had come a long way but there was further still to go. Recovery, like that infinite walk back to Sanctuary that they had filled with what they could remember of their lives and the structures they passed, was a long road.

But it didn't have to be lonely. The books, she learned shortly after waking up, were a gift from the bard. She had not spoken to him in nearly a season and wondered how he had fared since she'd last seen him. His penchant for knowing things and willingly letting her also know the things certainly put him high on her list, as did his being one of her few acquaintances. So she sought him out, but not without her characteristic caution (crazy), even now lingering before the door as she considered how to best address the situation. How to introduce one's self after months of absence and bed rest.

After long deliberation, she settled simply on knocking, folding the small stack of books to her chest.

The Blight.

His promise to Arduinna filled the time not spent worried about the new regime and the other two projects he had wanted to undertake, and the time he spent helping around the farm. This morning had been spent feeding goats and mucking out the barn, followed by a quick wash in a clean horse trough before he'd left Rory to his leatherworking tasks and headed into the Settlement for the afternoon.

White wings made the journey go by faster, and he dropped in through the hole in the Atheneum that they were slowly in the process of repairing, shifting back to human in the shelter of half-collapsed bookcases. He took the opportunity to peruse the shelves on his way towards the Guildhall door, plucking a few likely-looking times, ancient with dust and mildew, as he went along.

What he hadn't expected was for someone to be standing outside that door, a barely-familiar fall of dark hair down a petite back... but he'd know that limp anywhere.

"Melinoë?" He called softly, approaching on quiet feet as he produced the key from his pocket while shifting his precious cargo carefully. "It's good to see you up and around again. What can the Loreseekers do for you today?"

Answering questions was, after all, part of the job description.

To turn was a labor, so instead she merely backed into the nearest shelf, clearing the door as she did so and ever so slyly concealing the moment where her feet did not quite agree with instruction and she had begun to topple backward thanks to her own momentum. Adjusting her grip on the tomes in her arms, Mel steadied her breathing and flashed a sunshine-y smile, at odds with her Victorian waif aesthetic. "Jigano." Peeling herself off of the shelf she stood up as straight as she could, wavering uncertainly on her feet. The walking stick was nowhere in sight, a silent vote of confidence the witch had cast for herself.

She looked different when she wasn't all wadded up on the floor and shredded half to ribbons. As she had regained her autonomy and taken to exploring the Sanctuary, Mel's interest in her appearance had returned, everything about her from the waist length mop of dark hair to her water-stained leather boots was looking rather chipper and clean, even the drab beige and gray clothing looked rather cheerful. All it had taken was a bit of careful seam work and adjustments. Tucking the legs of her pants into knee-high boots and cuffing the sleeves of the tunic almost made her look, could we say, stylish? Nothing, however, detracted from the pink scar jagging across her face or what the mind could imagine lay beneath the black fabric patch. She'd taken care at least to stitch a staring stylized eye into it, a cheeky thing of silver thread salvaged from what had remained of the cloak. Was it humor? Was it aesthetic? Was it both? Did it matter?

At her left hip hung an empty scabbard secured about her waist and thigh, the belt (some artifact of her former life) looking quite worn but still up for the duty of holding up pants and carrying things her hands couldn't be bothered with. The clasp an eerie mirror of the gazing eye worked into the patch wrought in silver. Image was important to the witch - that much was evident - but these things were all she had left after the river - things she did not recognize but had obsessively poured over, attempting to suss out ever last scrap of the person she might have been. That she had taken such attentive care of them was no surprise. The books in this very library had even helped her to remember some parts she'd forgotten, but once she had truly started the repair and maintenance, even the complex stitching that had gone into her clothing, seemed strangely natural. That, too, she held close, both delighted and grieving for the things she simply couldn't make out. There were details and hints, but nothing that painted a clear picture. She wondered, even, if she might have been happier all that time if she couldn't remember these fragments of someone that, by now, had likely been laid to rest... or worse, forgotten.

By now, she was over it. She was good - that's what she told herself. She was moving forward. Mel offered the books out for Jigano to see, though did not offer to add to his own collection. "The nurses told on you, if you were meaning to be sly. Months later I thought you might like these back. I had questions, though. For you, if you're not busy." Hugging the books back to her chest she cocked her head to the side, eyes darting from his elbow to his hand to his face as he retrieved the key, not once blinking. There was a delay, her thoughts scattered for a moment before coming back together, her good eye lighting up in realization as the metaphorical thought train screeched back onto its rails. "How did we get here?" The question was sudden, followed by rising color in her cheeks, wondering if she had been so impulsive and forgetful before. Was she really such a ditz? "Sorry - if you have time, you know."

She was almost a different creature entirely from the hissing, muddy, bloody mess he'd found beside the spire. Clean was a good look for anyone, of course, but considering how they'd met he was even more impressed to see it on her. The eyepatch was impossible to miss, as was the scar, and he wanted to wince at the remnants of her misadventurous arrival on Caido, and ask why she hadn't allowed such injuries to be healed. But... that was her own business, and none of his. They didn't know each other well enough for him to pry into such matters - or at least, so the memory of Remi chided him - so instead he merely smiled at her offered books and edged past her to unlock the door and push it inwards. "I had hoped they might give you some much-needed mental entertainment," he admitted with a chuckle. "Thank you for returning them. Come, it is my guild's business to ask and answer questions, and there is much I will do in exchange for books."

With a grin he led the way down the shallow spiral of stone stairs and into the guildhall beneath the Atheneum, with its large central table of petrified wood and the chandelier of mirrors above it, reflecting light throughout the room. Bookshelves lined the walls, interrupted by four doors, two on each side of the hall, and on the far end was a large fireplace with clever doors of cutout metal and fine chain netting keeping sparks from the hearth. There were chairs along the table, and several more comfortably overstuffed ones in front of the fireplace, which was currently safely banked. In spite of Longheat's signature temperatures, the underground hall was comfortably cool in comparison, well-insulated from the world above. The ceiling was high enough to prevent it from feeling too claustrophobic, luckily, and Jigano gesture for Melinoe to join him by the fireplace as he set his books upon the table and went to stoke up the embers to make tea.

"How did we get here,"he repeated, his voice giving the question a wry lilt. There was a question for a priest or a philosopher! Luckily he was a bit of both, but in the current context he chuckled and bowed gallantly for Mel to take a seat before he did as well. "I don't mean to make fun, but its both a simple question and a complicated one. For the answer to make sense, there are other questions that need asking first. In your time convalescing, what have you learned of this world? It's gods, and its last few hundred years of history?"

This was not the first time he had this conversation, nor would it be the last, he knew. It bothered him not at all, though, patient and relaxed as he waited for his guest to let him know where and how to begin filling in the blanks around what she already knew.

"Something to chew on while the nurses fretted, no doubt." She wobbled on her feet as she considered the first step forward, moving only when she felt that she had regained what balance had been lost in her anxious shifting and moving to get out from under foot of the bard. "You're only lucky I had ages to study them. There is much I will do in exchange for knowledge."

Descent proved a challenge but not insurmountable as she clamored down step by step, catching her breath at the foot of the stair a brief moment before making her way to the fireplace as bid. As she lay her own small pile of books to rest beside his own, she practically collapsed into the nearest chair. She had not yet encountered so many stairs and was actually quite proud of making it down them upright, though her neglected muscles screamed at the effort. Quickly she pulled herself up, straightening her clothing and sitting up as straight as she could, distracting herself from looking guilty by inspecting the room in mute fascination, gently rubbing a spot between her eyes.

"Admittedly little - after the field guides you left behind I've not read much - this library is sprawling and my movement - well..." She was moving, though it was clear the hiccups in her giddy up were causing her some frustration. Recovery was not merely a long road but a track that seemed to grow easier day by day but with no end in sight. "I found tomes on leather maintenance! I discovered Caido even has a cobbler, though you'll excuse me, I don't think I'll find another pair of these so readily." Whoever she had been, at the very least she had good choice in shoes.

Taking a breath she leaned forward, tucking her ankles around one another as her hands folded in her lap, head canting to the side. "I understand that the state of things has recently changed - there was a barrier, no? And there's trouble - there the details blur. I don't have the context." She shrugged, toying with her fingers. "I understand you have a new crown? Like I said, it blurs. I don't have the context."

"A woman after my own heart," he said approvingly of her thirst for knowledge. "When you're feeling a bit better, you're welcome to spend some time here with the Guild, see if it might be a match for you. Knowledge is our stock in trade, after all." He smiled as he said it, but there was pride in his voice, too, for what the Guild had built together, and how far they had come.

"I can pull some new books for you to read," he offered, hiding a small smile at her great curiosity being contained in such a petite frame. "And it has more than one worker of leather, nowadays. Though I am rather, ah, personally biased in preferring the original," he admitted with a grin that was perhaps a touch softer than any he usually wore. "I've been learning quite a bit about leather maintenance myself recently, though Outlander boots do tend to be made of better quality leather in general." Healthier animals to provide the hides and cobblers who could dedicate their lives to their crafts, not split their attention between farming and hunting and making belts and scabbards and bags, as well as shoes made a significant difference, it turned out.

"Change... yes," he agreed, settling back in his chair and tilting his head thoughtfully. A neat stretch of fluff and feathers pattered down the stairs a moments later, talons clicking on stone as she Reep!ed an excited greeting to Melinoe, the little gryphon - now looking a bit sleeker and with more of her proper plumage and colors grown in, including the dark blue primaries of her wings - barreling to hop onto the young woman's chair arm, peeping an exuberant greeting. Jigano chuckled, sending a tickle of thought to his companion before nodding at Melinoe again. "So. Would you like the context of the barrier first, or the context of the crown?" he asked wryly. "The two aren't entirely unrelated, though the connection is somewhat tenuous. And in the matter of the latter I might have more than a little personal bias," he acknowledged with wry honesty.

"Actually, I'm tired of sitting around. I made it here on my own two feet today, why not tomorrow?" Even if Jigano had the heart to tell her no it wasn't as if he could keep her out of the building. Melinoë smiled and did her best to appear the definition of a girl who could probably manage reading. Probably.

Warmed by this example of the bard's stunning willingness to share, Mel's expression softened some at the offer of books, murmuring an agreeable, "if you'd be so kind." As conversation turned to that of Caido she cocked her head and listened attentively, her conversation with Are coming to mind again, this time with slightly more dire circumstances. Jobs. The thought gave her anxiety, as she was not unaware that in the harsh environment of Caido she was essentially dead weight for the time being. It was an uncomfortable position to be in. Still, she wasn't certain how to bring it up quite yet, her brow furrowing as she shelved her concerns for the time being. Perhaps there was an answer in the Atheneum itself.

Isuna's arrival was received with a clap and a gasp of purely sincere joy, Mel greeted the bounding gryphlet. Her concerns faded as she cooed and praised the lovely blue feathers, responding to the excited peeping as she offered cheek scritches. "You are so lovely, aren't you - yes you are, dressing in your finest now? Oh-" It was only out of her dedication to good manners and form that she looked up as she spoke to him, thoroughly charmed by the puff of fur and feathers. As she regarded the bard she continued to offer pets, pursing her lips as she weighed her options. "Well, seems the barrier is the best place to start, I suppose. Did you see it?"

"Why not?" he agreed easily, grinning approval at her fierce determination. "You are welcome here, Melinoë, whenever you feel like coming by!" Seekers of knowledge were generally welcome in his Hall, after all, even those with whom he had personal differences - Remi came to mind, a young man with whom he couldn't seem to help but strike sparks even when they were both on their best behavior. Still, the alchemist was welcome to come to him and his guild, because Jigano knew the pup at least meant well.

Zariah, on the other hand...

"I'll pull a few Outlander journals, perhaps," he murmured, focusing on his offer of books. "It can be interesting to read about the similarities and differences other lands have with Caido, and how their authors explained them. Perhaps one of them will even sound familiar to your world."

Isuma was more than happy to be made much of, and the little gryphlet leaned into Melinoe's cheek scritches until she half-melted into the witch's lap, purring ferociously at both the physical pets and the complimentary tone of the girl's voice. Jigano hid a laugh behind shifting the kettle and pouring it over a nearby pot and the tea leaves held within, settling back to let them steep. "Mmm. The barrier... yes, I did see it. It only came down a season ago," he explained, tapping his chin thoughtfully as he ordered his thoughts. "The barrier... it was raised three hundred years ago, roughly, by the combined power of the Old Gods, for the purpose of trapping the Voice and her people, containing them away from the rest of Caido. The Voice was once a mortal woman, a mage, who sought to challenge the gods themselves... and at that, she succeeded," he warned soberly. "We don't know the details, but she managed to ascend to godhood of her own, raise an army of Ascended, and there was a war. Right or wrong, the Spire where you first arrived became both prison and key, and there the Barrier was raised, trapping all within its bounds - gods and mortals alike. Any living thing that tried to get near it would weaken and sicken... and die, if they tried to touch it. Nonliving things would just bounce off it, as if it were a physical wall. For three hundred years it stood, isolating this place from the rest of the world, and everything within seemed to lose vitality, generation after generation, until the earth itself was weary and all that grew was a stunted shadow of what it was before." He paused then to let Melinoe soak in the tale and ask any questions that she might have devised while he spoke.

Pleased that her proposition had gone over so well as expected, Mel flashed a smile and gave an appreciative nod, and again at the mention of journals. Uncertain exactly where they were in relation to where they had been, she wondered if there might even be a pattern. Regardless, Jigano was right - it served an opportunity to perhaps reconnect with the world she had been plucked from, and to better understand where she had come from and perhaps even who she had been.

She entertained these thoughts even as she toyed with the puddle of gryphlet that occupied her lap, warm and vibrating in her arms. Oh, how Mel adored the precious creature's presence. The witch split her attention comfortably between working her fingers through the beaked kitten's fur and her companion, watching his movements with a calm interest as she tickled down along the spine between Isuma's wings. The smell of tea was an additional comfort that had her easing back into the chair. The tale that Jigano shared did well to pique her interest. It was a tale that she could easily obsess over. Certainly there were lessons to be learned from this place, but so too were things she felt she had learned ages ago, familiar like a favorite pair of shoes. Fear and longing sang in her veins, veins that recalled once coursing with power everlasting, Jigano's words echoing as both a warning and a challenge. Perhaps too she could wrestle with the forces that be of this world and venture to divinity herself. The thought nearly made her laugh, bringing a flush of color to her cheeks - she did not want to appear rude.

Kneeling, she gropes beneath the bed, her arm too short to grasp the box, gap too narrow even for her. There is a scrape as the box is pushed into her searching hand firmly and she pulls it free, pausing to glance at the closed door to her back before teasing the latch open. Inside is a stack of pages, the top most a diagram of runic figures and their associated meanings. From beneath her blanket she pulls three new pages to add to the collection, the top most titled simply "Curses".

Shivering at a sudden chill, Mel blinks and returns to Caido, the memory fading as quickly as it came on. "Sorry - the curse, does it still linger? Or was it banished with the barrier?

Isuma was delighted at Melinoe's attention, wriggling with feline delight as she was scritched and scratched and petted, her purring occasionally interrupted by happy little peeps as the witch found a particularly itchy spot. A quiet thought from her companion reminded her not to knead her talons against a scarred leg, so her long fluffy tail lashed instead to show her approval of the treatment she was receiving.

Jigano watched his guest as he spoke, trying to discern where she might have questions or misunderstandings - or moments of recognition, clarity of things that reminded her of her own world. Her flush might have been anything, though; excitement or fear or anger at the mention of a mortal ascending, and she seemed to become distracted after that, at least until he came to the end of that particular chapter of the story. Her question was unexpected and he tilted his head thoughtfully. "Curse? I do not think there is a 'curse' if we mean the same thing by that word," he offered cautiously, shifting to pour the tea into two cups and setting one on a little table at her elbow that had been placed there for just such use. "Aside from the barrier itself, I suppose. Do you mean the loss of vitality in the earth? I think that is just a result of it being cut off from the world. No new seeds or animals were brought in... no new people. The fields grew tired of the same crops, the land itself grew weak from being cut off from the rest of the world and the greater Gods of life and nature outside the barrier as well. Things should begin to change now, but it will take years... and we may have released more than just a dangerous goddess," he admitted, blowing on his own tea with a faint grimace. "There is a new disease in the Greatwood, the forest to the north where the Fae live, that is unnatural... and began after the barrier fell. That might be a curse," he admitted soberly. "But it doesn't merely weaken, it kills, and swiftly. And it is spreading."

What Mel remembered of curses, that was what it sounded like. The corruption of life had been a primary tenant of her former life, one with far-reaching effects that even now left slow-healing scars and physical strength akin to a partially drowned kitten even now, months after her rescue. Though she could not conjure the link between these things consciously, there was a deep and instinctual knowing that made her hesitant to agree with him and ignore her base judgement of the circumstances.

She would need more information. His theory was sound, but with magic involved...

Her fingers had not forgotten Isuma in her mental ruminations, tickling fur and feathers behind the gryphlet's ears, her off hand running down her back and along the lashing tail, massaging the last few vertebrae before reaching to take the cup. With a grateful bob of her head Mel sniffed the drink and nursed a sip of the steaming liquid, scarcely batting an eye at the temperature. "That's unfortunate," the witch responded soberly as she rested one hand on Isuma's side, the other cradling the cup on the arm of the chair. "I would like to see this blight. Take samples, study it - there must be a way to stem the spread, or at the very least identify it."

Jigano was more careful sipping at his own tea, but the smell of apples and cinnamon was a pleasant aroma in the air and he inhaled it appreciatively. Isuma settled down as Melinoe took her tea in hand, the gryphlet not needing her companion's gentle warning to not jostle their guest now that she had a hot liquid in hand.

"Ah, well, therein lies the problem." Jigano smiled crookedly at the little witch's enthusiasm. "Though your instincts are those of a Loreseeker, and I commend them. But the self-annointed, self-styled new Tyrant in town has forbidden anyone to go into the Greatwood. Which is something of a problem for those like myself." He nodded towards the books on the table that he had collected when she had arrived. "Arduinna, a Fae of great age and power, has accepted my help in searching through the human archives here to try and find a record of such a disease in this world's past. Or at least, this corner of the world," he admitted wryly. "Most books don't even go back as far as the raising of the barrier three hundred years ago, but I promised I would try." He hesitated for a moment, tilting his head - and a silver brow - at Mel consideringly.

"Though... if you're going to be doing a lot of reading in the near future... I could use a second pair of eyes on the texts," he suggested tentatively.

"Of course." The answer came without hesitation when he had suggested she could be of assistance - though having lost an eye, reading was like breathing to the witch and brought her both a great sense of comfort and control in a place where she could find decidedly little of either.

Still, her mind churned at the thought of their brave new leader, now gently patting Isuma's side with a soft hollow pat pat pat. It didn't seem like her battle coming into it, but she had developed a decided opinion about the nobility in this place quite readily. Zariah must have been very powerful indeed to make such a claim, but here Mel had a sneaking suspicion the play fields could be leveled, or laws circumvented in some way.

Perhaps she could sneak out a back door. Perhaps when she could walk.

Shaking away immediate thoughts of rebellion innate to her very being for the time, the witch flashed a grin. "I'll help you - climbing about this place could be a really good amount of exercise, I'm sure. Are there city plans? Blueprints? Maybe records of the Merciless herself? Light reading if I grow sick of trees, you know." Melinoë did not feel particularly pressed to disguise her stubborn refusal to accept the status quo plied by good company and fabulous tea.

Jigano's smile widened at Melinoe's acceptance, and he bowed his head in gratitude. "Then I'll send some of those books with you when you leave," he decided. "The disease - or curse," he allowed with a wry tilt of his chin, "is clearly magical in nature, or at least unnatural, which should help narrow down what historical afflictions to the crops and plants to focus on and which can be ruled out."

Her enthusiasm was infectious, and he chuckled, a gleam of approval in his blue eyes as Isuma purred along to his delight at finding a fellow scholarly rebel. "Reconstructed blueprints of some of the larger public buildings, yes, but no city plans that I've found yet - which doesn't mean they aren't here!" He cautioned. "The books stored here are vast and we've barely made a dent in beginning to catalogue them. But we haven't found anything in the Atheneum itself that predates the Barrier rising, and the Settlement here was constructed before that happened." His shoulders rose in a careful shrug as he sipped his tea, but that wicked grin still danced at the corners of his mouth. "Plenty of buildings have been repurposed as homes or shops since then, and many more have been left in ruins, so any map more than a year or two old would already be out of date. Zariah, though..."

He hummed thoughtfully, smile fading as he considered the rude young woman with the dead eyes. "No records, no. She is a... Northhavener," he said, arching a brow wryly at Mel. "Since we're not supposed to use the words 'Outlander' and 'Natural' anymore, even if they're useful ones, according to the royal fit she threw. But she arrived with the rest of that group last autumn, not even a full year past. In truth, she's largely kept to herself; I've seen very little of her around town, or helping anyone not from Northhaven since I arrived. But a few weeks ago she suddenly declared herself Queen, got a dozen or so bullies to back her up, and has been swanning around making decrees and throwing people in her new jail since then, if they don't knuckle under." He sighed, glancing down at his reflection in his teacup for a moment before returning his gaze to Melinoe. "It's not that everything she's proposed is wrong... I'm not against letting the mages choose a new name for themselves, if they don't like 'Abandoned,' but by and large the people who have lived here all their lives never had a government and mostly comported themselves just fine. There are thieves and bandits, yes, but when they become a problem people band together and take them out, just as they do to handle problems like the flinthopper fires, or building the Sparkbird perch in Deepfrost, or planning the Fiat Lux celebration."