{32nd of Summer, 513 AV
Early morning}
Isolde hesitantly pushed open the door to the laboratory. She was warring with a strange mix of emotions. She hated to have had to come through the Bazaar, and though it was morning and not yet choked with activity, there had been enough people milling about to make her journey here unpleasant. At least none of them had bothered to shove her out of their way, this time. It had just been all the curdled faces, disgusted or frightened or angered by her mere presence, noses wrinkled and eyebrows brought down in scorn when they noticed what she was, as if they'd come across a walking, talking glass of stinking, spoiled milk. So that experience had conjured up a lot of bad feelings, though the Nuit tried not to let herself feel too downhearted, unloved, and upset.
At the same time, she was the happiest she'd been in forever. After an entire Season, she was finally, finally on the path to achieving her goals. Gods, it was great. The excitement was something she had to wrangle and wrestle with, rising up in her, trying to make her wiggle in pure joy like a puppy...
And at the same time, too, there was the usual nervousness and hesitation. Because she'd never been to this place, and she'd never met this Dev-something-or-other mage, a powerful man, and she didn't know what he'd be like, or if he'd even be willing to help someone like her. No matter. She would try. The Nuit would do anything for her goal. Anything.
So she stepped into the Dra-Kalinor, and stumbled through the sudden darkness of the place towards the rather large desk perched in the room. Her movements cast strange shadows which seemed to writhe and creep and undulate oddly in the eerie, soft blue light.
There was a figure behind the desk, tall even when sitting, and the Nuit parked herself uncertainly on the other side, peering over at him, surprised to see one with skin so pale almost to match her own deathly pallor. "U-Uh, e-excuse me," she started, and good thing Matthew and his ultimatum weren't present to hear her stammer, "B-But I was wondering if you w-would help me. P-Please? If you d-don't mind... a, uh, friend of mine and I w-were looking to study Alchemy, and w-we don't know exactly where to start. W-Would you know anything about that? A-And actually... w-would you happen to have a d-doorway that we could r-rent, or borrow, or purchase? O-One of those alchemical rings that can be charged and used to transmute properties--? N-Nothing fancy; we're only beginners. Just... a novice piece of e-equipment to get us started."