Scaring the Servants? Us? Never!
"Well then, sister, now that the light is comfortable once more... shall we eat?" Tirv smiled, gesturing for Les to take a seat, as he took the other.
"I very much agree with you, Tirv," she returned his smile, settling into the empty chair and looking at the food that Tirv uncovered.
::Amazing, it's actually still warm.::
She nodded agreement, as she placed a portion of each dish onto the plate in front of her, marveling that they weren't being served breakfast food like they had been at the last several inns, ::And good, at that.::
::I'm surprised.::
Both of them settled into a comfortable silence as they ate, not needing to keep up a constant chatter in order to remain comfortable as some people, even siblings, seemed to need to do on occasion. It was into this light silence that a knock sounded on the door.
Lesara rose, quickly swallowing her mouthful of food as she strode to the door and opened it, "What?"
"Ah, milady..." a servant shifted nervously, eyes quickly jerking down to avoid having to meet Lesara's glowing eyes, "You and your brother requested a bath?"
She nodded, "We did."
The servant nervously glanced around Les and into the unnaturally dark room, shivering as she caught sight of a second pair of glowing eyes in the darkness, the reddish tint to the violet color giving them an almost demonic appearance, "Ah... ah... milady, it is... it is here..."
Lesara turned her gaze from the cowering servant, coldly looking over the two young lads that carried a large metal tub between them, then nodded, "Our thanks." With that, she turned and closed the door behind her, leaving the servant staring after her, mouth gaping.
The two lads stumbled slightly, as their burden suddenly vanished from their hands, and gave each other a fearful look. All three of them instantly made the sign of warding, as they escaped the vicinity of the rooms and the ‘demonic' visitors that resided within.
Searching for Anything Interesting
::The sun sets, sister mine.::
Lesara muttered sleepily, as she pulled the covers tighter about her body and flipped onto her side, ::Sleeping. Go ‘way.::
Tirval laughed as he rose from his own bed and sat on the side of it, slowly pulling on his clothing once more, ::Tch, its time to get up, Les, and you know it.::
::Do not.::
::Do I have to go in there and tickle you awake?::
::Fine! Fine... I'm up, I'm up!:: She suited words with actions, throwing the covers aside and rising, ::You are entirely too cruel, Tirv.::
He laughed, leaning against the doorframe between their two rooms, "Cruel? Me? Never."
"Cruel, you, always." She stuck her tongue out at him, as she finished buckling her belt about her waist, then adjusted her swords slightly so that they hung comfortably.
Tirval smirked, lifting his chin proudly, "You say it as if it's a bad thing."
"It is," she snorted, "Well? Have any ideas of what we should do? Move on or spend a night or two here?"
"Starlance and I cast a wide range finding spell together... there are a bunch of places in this city that remain open after dark, and not all of them are questionable in nature, so if its agreeable to you..."
Lesara nodded, "Sounds good to me, lets go."
"They should still be serving food in the common room below us."
The two of them walked out of the room together, squinting slightly as their eyes had to adjust to the lantern light that lit the hallways, and the fading sunlight that found its way in.
The common room was more than halfway filled, with a combination of workers that had stopped in for a quick meal, to guests that were getting ready to retire. They quickly found a small table off in a corner and sat down, absently speaking about where they could visit this night.
A waiter came up to their table, "What do you want to have, sir, madam?"
"We'll have some stew, with bread on the side," Tirv spoke first, flashing a small smile to the waiter, who nodded, and turned to get their order.
::Will you two be ok?:: Tirval aimed the thought at Starlance, then nodded in relief as the stallion sent him back a sense of contentment and ease, "They'll be fine."
"That's what Starsilver told me," Lesara smiled, "So, I say that we should go and see what this scholar's quarter is all about. Sounds fascinating to me."
He nodded, absently moving his arms as the waiter set a plate in front of him, and then in front of Lesara, then moved off as a second waiter set two glasses of water next to them, "And to me, as well. I'm all for spending a night or so exploring that area. The spell said that it was rather large."
They settled into a companionable silence once more, as they both ate the food that had been set in front of them. Once they were finished, they rose and strode out, leaving most of the common room staring after them and wondering what blue blooded aristocrats were doing in a common inn like this, instead of one of the high and mighty inns that lined the street farther up.
Books! Our Only (right...) Vice!
They walked side by side, peering into the dusty windows of the shops that lined the street. Shelves and shelves of books and odd little things met their eyes, and each pointed out something that caught their eye to the other.
Eventually, they paused outside of a somewhat small shop, and, with a questioning glance at the other, shrugged and walked in.
The place smelled of leather-bound books and ancient times, scrolls rested on shelves on the wall, while books were resting on every flat surface available. A tiny figure of a man sat in the back, a lantern resting beside him to illuminate the book that he was pouring over at that time.
Tirval lifted up a book off of a desk near him, handling it carefully and squinting at the title that was embossed along the cover, though much of it had been lost with age, "Les... if all of this place is filled with books like this..."
"A treasure trove unlike anything we've seen before," she glanced about, eyes wide and sparkling with interest as she carefully wended her way deeper into the shop, pausing occasionally to examine a book or two.
The man looked up at their voices, "Be careful of what you touch, children," he snapped somewhat crossly, "Some of these books are old enough to make your entire family line look young."
They exchanged glances, then bowed to him, Lesara speaking for both of them, "You have no need to worry about us damaging any of these books. We would rather face an army alone than do so."
He frowned, then slowly nodded, convinced by what he heard in her voice, "Very well then. Are you looking for anything specific?"
"What do you have in here?"
"Well..." the man frowned in thought, as he rose from his seat and wended his way through stacks of books, "I have the Chronicles of the Le'jah, along with several of De'encara's journals and treaties on various subjects. Then there's..." he rattled off several other names and titles, before shrugging, "There's many more here, but those are the ones that I know off hand. Some of these books I can't even seem to translate, despite all my efforts."
The siblings exchanged wondering glances.
"How did you manage to get your hands on these?"
Another shrug, "I may not look it now, but when I was younger, I made it my business to explore the world and gather together any ancient books that I found."
"You did very well," Lesara breathed, as she lifted up a book gently, and opened the cover page, frowning as it crackled with age, and exerted a bit of her magic to repair the pages enough so that they could be turned without worry.
"I still have agents out in the world right now, searching for even more books to bring back to me."
Tirval looked over Lesara's shoulder at the book that she was looking at, "I do believe that I'm jealous. Even our library, large as it is, doesn't have some of these books."
"And which library would that be?" the man seemed genuinely curious.
"The one in A'vredon Castle," Lesara answered absently, eyes squinting at the faint lettering on the page, trying to decipher what it said.
"So! You two are two of those mysterious people, hmm?" the scholar laughed softly, as he turned and wended his way through the piles, speaking absently to himself, "Now where did I place those books..."
"Mysterious?" Tirv shrugged, "I suppose some people might call us that... the people in our land don't seem to have any difficulties dealing with us, though."
"Aha! Found them!" he started flipping through the pages, absently answering, "Well of course they don't, they've lived all their lives knowing your family, and knowing the boundaries and unwritten rules that mere visitors don't... here, these books might be of interest to you."
He offered a stack of three books to Tirval, who accepted them. Lesara set the book that she had been looking at down, and took one of the books from the stack that her brother now held, opening it open, eyes widening in a combination of shock and amusement.
An artist's rendering of the face of an A'vredon Night Mage stared back at her, the drawing capturing the pride and vanity of the family perfectly, but also hinting at the scholarly interests and the friendly personality that lay beneath what most people saw.
"What in the..."
The scholar shrugged, then gave the two an amused smile, "As I said, your family is considered a mystery to many people. So much so, that several people decided to attempt to write a history and general overview of the entire family. I managed to get my hands on a copy or two of the result."
Tirval laughed, "We haven't even vanished from the face of the planet, and people are already writing histories about us."
Lesara shook her head in amusement, "How much for these three books? Since I'm going to assume that the other two go with this one as a set."
The scholar nodded, "They do. I'll accept... hmm... seeing as it's your family that's being discussed... three gold."
"It's a deal," Lesara closed the book and set it on the stack once more, pulling the three coins out of her belt pouch and handing them to the scholar.
With a flick of his mind, Tirval pulled one of the mostly empty saddle packs to him, and slipped the books carefully inside of it. As he looked up from doing so, though, his eyes caught the corner of a partially hidden book and he reached over, pulling it slowly from its hiding spot.
"What's this book on?" He turned it over and over in his hands, looking to see if the cover had any writing on it at all, but finding none, not even the imprint of where embossed letters may have been.
The scholar shrugged, "Honestly? I don't know. That one is one that's frustrated me for the longest time... I can't seem to translate it with any success."
"I see..." Tirval opened it, glancing at the odd lettering that covered the pages he had opened too, a small frown forming on his face, "... How much do you want for it?"
"Normally, I'd say around fifteen gold."
He nodded, "I can understand that... how about this. I'll pay you seven gold for this book, and then, if I get it translated, I'll send you a copy of the translation."
The man considered the offer for a second, before nodding, "I accept."
Tirv smiled, as he set the book down for a second and pulled out seven gold coins from his own belt pouch, and handing it to the scholar, "A pleasure doing business with you... I have a feeling that we'll meet again someday."
"Feel free to drop in at any time, both of you," the man smiled, "And I look forward to seeing if you can make any headway with that translation."
"I intend to try my hardest," Tirval nodded to the scholar, as he slipped the book into the pack as well, then slung it carefully over his shoulder, "Till next time."
"Lehra guide your steps."
"And yours as well," the two chorused, as they carefully wended their way out of the small shop and out into the street once more.