Discerning the Transmundane Pt I

[Alric Lysane]

23rd Winter 521AV - Library & Alric's Shack “Remmy, are you sure this is the entire section about history, everything back to the founding of Sunberth and the like?” he asked her, not for the first time and with some crackling frustration to his voice. “Yes Alric and should you ask me again I will take that entire section and bury you underneath it, your usually charming cheerfulness has vanished and you are starting to annoy” she snapped back, he could not blame her he had likely asked a dozen times by now. He sighed and returned to the desk he had been working at, casting his gaze across the various scattered journals, books and even just folder scraps of yellowed parchment, or rolled scrolls still with cracking wax attached. He had tried everywhere and by now he felt as if he had read every book upon the shelves more than once. It was starting to become infuriating despite the fact that he rather enjoyed the process of learning about such things. He felt more connected to Sunberth now than he had ever felt, having read the words of its denizens across the seasons and centuries, in their own ways of speaking, and yet he felt more removed than ever. Time was moving, that much he could feel even as he tingled with delight at being surrounded with all of the collected writings of his home city. Learning of magic, and how to do magic, with Taz was gratifying and though he was terrible at it he at least could see how he might improve with practise and repetition, like flexing a muscle with weight, over and over again. Resting, then trying once more. They needed more, though, they needed everything they could find on the Nymkarta and its lineage. As for himself he wanted, so desperately wanted to learn of his ancestors. All he knew of was the Valterrian and what other fragments memory tea, Dreamwalking and myths and legends told. If I am to not make the same mistakes I need to know at least what mistakes they made! he snapped at himself internally, throwing down his quill and pinching the bridge of his nose, elbow resting upon the arm of the chair he was sat in. “You’ve been at it for days Alric, only stopping to go to work and sleep what little you seem to have been sleeping. It’s wearing you thin, you should rest” “I know!” he snapped and then sighed, shook his head, and looked at Remmy apologetically, “I’m sorry Remmy, I…I just need to find this out and I can’t find it anywhere” “And you won’t tell me what it is so how should I help you?” she responded in a tightly controlled tone, nodding at his apology but still he could see the control on her temper was fraying. “Anything pre-Valterrian, or as close to it as possible. Maps, histories and the rest” “But why that far back” “I can-“ “I can’t tell you, yes you said. Well in that case I can’t help you. This library possesses much but Sunberth was apparently a shyke hole then more than it is now as nothing goes back that far. At best you might find random scatterings in the personal journals but it’s a miracle th-“ “That anything survived beyond a century in this city…yes…you told me,” there was silence for a while before they smiled slightly at each other, “I just…it’s important” “Then head to Zeltiva” “Zeltiva?” “They have an old and much larger library. They will probably have what you seek but to gain admittance would require you to work for it and frankly I’m not sure they’d take you…your clothes are rumpled and you don’t bathe as often as you should” There was silence once more before Alric lost his sense of frustration and burst into laughter for a while. He liked Remmy, she didn’t care what he thought, or who he was, she’d insult him at her leisure as this was her domain and he was simply a guest. After a while his laughter subsided into a fit of chuckles before fading completely. She ignored him but she was smiling to herself he knew, her quill scratching away at parchment as always. He wondered whether the Nymkarta who had actually ruled things had surrounded themselves with such people, people who would not shatter then but perhaps, on occasion, make them stumble in public so as to keep them honest and retain perspective. He doubted it and perhaps that was where the mistakes first started to emerge, they lost touch with those under them and then from there things got worse and worse. He had no way of knowing but he suspected that as power corrupted then the powerful would remove any criticism. Certainly, he had seen the fair share of that in Sunberth and it was a city of anarchy where everything was supposed to be fair game. Even in that environment fear kept tongue silent on some matters. He mused for a while longer before returning to the shelves and trying for another search, this time expanding it to other sections. Words: 854

[Alric Lysane]

He felt a sense of urgency bordering upon desperation that he tried to bury deep down within, but the control that he usually had was starting to crack here and there, pieces of emotions flickering through in ways he didn’t like and did little to instil him with confidence in himself, or his abilities. Given that he was now training with Taz to learn about magic, though he still had reservations about actually being a mage, the urgency was growing every stronger. He didn’t just want to know about his ancestors and what kinds of people they were, if he were as bad as they were or as weak, he needed to know. If he was to be wielding such power as he feared, even if it was out of necessity, he didn’t want to make the same mistakes. Even so, as he almost brushed the spines on the shelves – Remmy disliked him actually brushing them if he wasn’t reading them – he did admire the little storehouse of knowledge that had been amassed, incomplete as it was. It reflected the city that he both loved and disliked, a rough little gem, tarnished and in need of some affection. The fact that he had found it at all had brought him considerable pleasure, not to mention no small amount of usefulness, the past season or so. As his memory returned, he had had flashes of his mother, teaching him to write and read and say silly words. Ink was always smudged upon her fingers and he had had a habit of getting it upon her cheeks too. She had laughed and her enjoyment of the scholar’s art had clearly infused him so deeply that even before his revelations at the Outpost he had had a reverence for knowledge and an enjoyment of simple facts no one else really cared much about. He smiled as another memory surfaced of him in her lap, his gaze not looking at the books now but turning inwards, for a fleeting moment, to a better time and a different path his life might have taken. Would he have been like he was now? He doubted it. Would he have been better? That was truthfully what he wanted to know, would he have been better, was he as he was now the bad version of himself. It gnawed at him. He selected a few promising titles about bloodlines and the tales of the old world and sat down again to read and see if further knowledge might fall into his lap. He read for a while and found little that had anything to do with what he wanted to find but still he found himself chuckling away to himself. A series of amusing accounts of people trying to survive something that felt like it was the Valterrian but was clearly mostly fabrication. Even he, desperate as he was, would not fall for the ridiculousness of the tales. Everyone was arguing with everyone else, people were taking other’s partners to bed and it seemed that everyone gathered towards the end of each chapter in one central place to ‘have it out’ according to the text. It was amusing and refreshing, a glimpse of better times perhaps, when humour mattered more than blood. It eased his mind slightly that he could still find some simple pleasures in life, against all of the odds. He fully expected Arcadius, or someone who worked for him, to burst through most doors most of the day but for a while he was lost in the simple, rosy tinted world that was presented to him by someone who for all Alric knew was centuries dead. The parchment was yellowed and old, that was all he knew. There were no dates and not even a name left that he could make out. Was that the end result of everything, to be forgotten in name but perhaps not in story? Was that all that knowledge was, a way of passing on? Did these silly stories hold deeper truths or was it just something for him to laugh at, a joke shared across the ages? “It must be quite the read” a soft voice spoke to him from the corner of the room. Looking up, startled, he saw a woman, human and beautiful and of perhaps middling years. His eyes narrowed briefly as they darted from side to side to see if this was the moment that shadows would leap from the bookshelves and grab him, take him, his muscles tensed for a few moments. They relaxed once it became apparent nothing was going to happen, and the woman just smiled at him. She was shadowed slightly and so he could not make out all of her features, her eyes in particular, but seeing as she was not about to be a threat it mattered not. “So?” “I’m sorry what was the question?” “You were laughing, so it must be quite the read? Your book?” Words: 828

[Alric Lysane]

“Oh! Sorry, I just didn’t realise you were there, I hope I didn’t disturb you” “Not at all” she shook her head slightly and it tilted in expectation of his answer. “It’s terrible really…and glorious. The stories inside read like they’re supposed to be fact but it’s so outlandish it must be fiction. Clever though…very clever. I would have liked to have meet the writer to see what they were like” “Perhaps you already have, these must have been written by many people, it is possible that you have met many of them and just don’t know it. Exciting, isn’t it?” “I don’t think so with this one, sadly, it looks to be older than I am. Which is in itself impressive, given this city’s need to smash things down every so often. But yes,” he conceded thoughtfully, “I suppose I might have met some of the writer, though I’ve not read all of these…it’d take a lifetime” “More, I’d say, but why should that stop anyone trying?” she laughed, and it sounded more musical than anything he had heard before, “surely it would be a worthy goal? And you look to have many years ahead of you, you are young, at least on the surface” Alric paused at her comment, wondering where it had come from, she could clearly see he was barely halfway through his lifetime, at least if he had anything to say about it. Perhaps she had been there, quietly reading and unnoticed, whilst he had been talking to Remmy about what he had been looking for, getting frustrated? Another bystander for his turbulent emotions that he was ashamed for. His cheeks darkened red slightly and he looked back at his book, wondering once more whether he would manage to resolve the churning within at any point in his life. “Perhaps I will, one day. I have something I need to do first and I’m not sure how long it will take. The idea of spending my grey years somewhere nicer and surrounded by books, artefacts and other things…it does appeal. But once my current business is done, whenever that is” “You carry a great burden” she stated, it sounded like it was a simple fact but there was no way, he knew, that she could know what his troubles were – only a handful of people did, though many were impacted by them, another fact that twisted at him like a dull knife. “Don’t we all? Who would I be to complain to a stranger who may well be worse off than I?” “That is wiser than you think, you have empathy for others despite your own burdens. You’d be surprised how many do not. But look around you, us, surrounded by stories and solutions, the puzzles you face have been faced before and you may find the answers, the key, in these bridges to the past,” she swept her arms to illustrate the point before they folded back into her lap and she smiled once more, “isn’t that what wisdom is? The building up of experience over the ages, the attempt to learn what has come before…” “So as not to repeat it in the now. Yes, I have been thinking that of late. More often than I would like,” he said, finishing the sentence he felt she had been urging him towards, though why he was not sure, “but I’m not sure it’s as simple as that. Circumstance is circumstance but people are people. Not many are wise, I certainly am not and wouldn’t even know where to begin. Making the same mistakes seems to be human nature. I can’t vouch for other species but it may be the same. Either that or fate has a sense of humour…what did I say?” he asked at the bubbling up of her musical laughter once more. “You are wiser than you think if you know that you know nothing. Much of what you might think of as evil has been done because people were sure of themselves, never tried to learn from what came before, from others they saw as not worth their attentions. You say you wouldn’t know where to start but you already have” “If I were wise I wouldn’t be in the mess I’m in now,” he gave a wry smile, “no, I am not sure I ever will be. But that does not mean that I can’t learn what I can and try to be better. What man is a man that does not want to make the world better?” Words: 758

[Alric Lysane]

“Do you mean that? How would you go about it? Force, perhaps? It has been done before, many times. Or were you speaking metaphorically? In which case the game is in the words and words reveal much of the person” “Both, I suppose, and no I don’t see the point of force, all that would happen is when the force stops things would return to as they were before. People only change is they want to is what I mean. It was a joke, a poor word play, at my expense. I cannot force people to change and so they won’t and yet I’d like to make the world better, for all of my other flaws” “You like word games then?” the woman raised an eyebrow in an all too familiar manner for his liking. “Is that a challenge?” “Only if you are prepared to lose to someone who has heard every word game ever invented,” she said, watching him carefully once more as if weighing him, “a box without hinges, lock or lid but golden treasure inside is hid” “Eggs, that’s an easy one,” he responded as he leaned back in his chair, deciding that he liked her and thinking quickly, “voiceless it cries, wingless flutters, toothless bites, mouthless mutters what am I?” “The wind, that was a harder one…for some,” she continued smoothly, “Great deeds with little strength I do, I close the open, open the closed for you. I keep the master's house, the master keeps me, too” He frowned in thought as she watched him with a slight curl to her lips as if she were able to see into his head and know what he was thinking. He ran it through several times, his eyes turning inwards and he puzzled and turned it in his mind. Was it something nebulous…hope perhaps? No hope could do great deeds but no master kept it as far as he could see. Perhaps something more cerebral like and idea? Great ideas could be kept by masters of knowledge and opened doors, but close them? No, something physical then perhaps…yes…opens and closes. What is kept and opens and closes doors? As he worked it out and got closer to what he thought the answer was she seemed to take more notice and tilt her head as if listening to something, her gaze becoming warmer he thought. “A key!” he said finally, and as she nodded he leaned back with delight, he had not played word games for quite some time and she made it feel so easy, drawing him in much like the stories he read, “you like your games indeed, I’d not heard that one before. Where did you learn it, I might have to travel there one day” “Long ago, somewhere that no longer exists. But you are welcome to have that piece to teach to others as I’m sure you will in time. One more for you, but this one is no game. It may matter a great deal to you one day, if I may?” “I’d be unwise to say no, you might say? Very well” “What can be held but never touched, and given but never removed? Do not answer now, think upon it, you have a sharp enough mind it will come to you eventually. I have enjoyed this little exchange, it has been some time since I have spoken to one like you” she got up then, as Alric tried to puzzle out her words, and pointed at a shelf he had overlooked before as she passed it, walking towards the door, “I have found when I have come here that these shelves have been quite…illuminating…good luck, Alric” Words: 615

[Alric Lysane]

At his name the book fell from his hands with shock, he had never seen her before and that could mean only one thing and it wasn’t good. He jumped up but she was already gone, all but running around the shelving he tried to find her, grab her, ask her who she was. He got all the way to the entrance and out into the street before he gave up, with no trace or trail to follow. He backed carefully into the library, looking this way and that for the impending assault but once more it never came. Perhaps she had left a message? Yes, that might be it, an offer of peaceful capture or some such. He returned to where he had bene sat and found nothing, the shelving she had indicated also held nothing obvious. Gripping the shelves tightly with his fingers, knuckles going white, he tried to breathe deeply and restore order to his shattered calm but found it difficult with his heart racing and his knees feeling like they were going to give out in fear. He rested his head upon the books in front of him and took in ragged breaths, rocking back and forth so his head kept bumping into the spines. He did what Moritz had told him, focusing in upon an imaginary flame, trying to imagine some serene void around it, feeding it with everything he had that he didn’t want to feel. If it were real, he felt sure he’d have created a bonfire. As it was after a few chimes he felt his calm return once more and with one more ragged breath everything returned to normal, struggling through the moment into tranquillity. Or as close as he was going to get to it. Eventually he raised his head and looked once more upon the bookshelves that had been indicated, this time searching for something tucked between the books there. Finding nothing he frowned and felt as if something were missing from the equation – he had not told her his name and she had not seemed threatening. If anything, she had been warm and welcoming, after a fashion. Her way of speaking had been a little odd, but he could put that down to from being elsewhere. He disliked the mystery and instead of being distracted by his problems he was now distracted by the new riddle to solve. His eyes roamed the shelves over and over again, not finding anything until he calmed and instead of furiously searching for it instead methodically and slowly looked – magic. There…a book not teaching it but commenting? A small thing, so small that it was practically tucked between two far more interesting looking tomes. He pulled it out and took it to the desk, his hair standing on the back of his neck at the coincidence…no this wasn’t a coincidence. Too many things were lined up, this was something else. Direction? Assistance? He was not sure exactly but he knew, deep in his bones, that there was something else at play now. If this had been Arcadius he’d be taken by now and no Sunberthian would have shown him something about magic, even a commentary, they’d have burned this most precious gift. That annoyed him more than he expected it would, considering the subject. He thumbed through the little pamphlet and found references he had been looking for, for days. There were no grand lessons or historical accounts. No lineages or anything like that but there were a few things that stood out – mention of a Treval Codex and a few names that were legend – Kova and Alahea. Little more was discernible as something that could give him guidance, but he made sure to stash it at the back of the shelves just in case and took what he had gained, the beginning of a thread to tug upon. Perhaps he could get a copy of this Codex, whatever it was? It sounded like a book of some kind from the description given, stories perhaps. He turned back to the other books with more of a settled smile this time, he had something at least and the woman had been right, it was worth reading these windows into the past, even if it were just to relive their amusements one more time before they passed from the world for good one day. He read until finally he could have been found, watched over by Remmy and her scratching quill, snoring softly into the wood of the desk he had been sat at. Words: 760

[Alric Lysane]

Your Grades Alric Lysane Skills Interrogation – 1 Investigation – 3 Meditation - 1 Philosophy - 2 Reading – 2 Rhetoric – 2 Running - 1 Socialization - 3 Lores Eyris: Gave Alric A Riddle To Puzzle Eyris: Likes Riddles Knowledge: A Worthy Goal Nymkarta: Don’t Repeat Their Mistakes Nymkarta: Treval Codex Remmy: Direct & Blunt Remmy: Helpful Associate Serana: Scholar Of Knowledge Wisdom: Knowing You Know Nothing Wisdom: The Build Up Of Experience Zeltiva: Library Of Knowledge