Nature, Nurture, and Catalysts - Part 1
Academy Library, July 26th
Few places were as quiet as an academy library on a sunny weekend afternoon, but the day was not one of sunshine. Grey skies and warm rain ushered bodies inside the nearest building, even if it was such a bastion of scholarly pursuit. Professors working on lesson plans were forced to retreat deeper within in order to avoid the influx of quiet chatter and damp bodies. Although as yet not a proper teacher, Shae was also working on the same. One would think she was just another patron of the library were it not for the fact that she was sitting behind the circulation desk while she worked. She would miss this job, the perks of getting paid while doing her personal reading once she had streamlined her daily tasks to a minimal requirement of time, but her notice had already been offered and the challenge before her had personal significance.
Today the woman moved a little stiffly, favored one arm over the other, but only to those who had observed her long enough. Loose fitting blouse, for a change, over a layered skirt. Her familiar was a sullen addition to the piles of books spread across the desk, tolerated by those who hired her because of his tendency to hunt any mice that dared encroach upon the feast of paper and glue throughout the building.
Perfect weather for a Drow, at least one who'd been traveling the surface lands a few years. Training against the ravages of sunlight had extended back much of his life, but a dark elf never got used to that burning orb in the open sky, not in truth.
Rain was merely water, annoying but not hurtful, yet he kept his hat's brim low, and half cape and wings were cloaked tightly around him as he stepped through the library's front entrance. Something about him forced a bubble around him that none would enter, some subtle, lurking menace of power kept at bay, but reflected in the red glow of his eyes, as a nimbus of stars around his pupils. Though something of a charlatan at sorcery, he was an Archmage, and it would be hard to say what secrets he might have accessed, if the Key had in fact granted him entry to the Citadel somewhere in the lost Isle's maelstrom.
Giving a moment to let lingering rainwater drip free of his clothes, he approached the circulation desk, silent despite the heaviness of his riding boots. "Bwael tangi, Shae. I trust you have some time to speak?" he said without much preamble, coming to rest near her desk with his thumbs hooked to his belt, fingers extended to be in plain sight.
Fox's head lifted from where he had lain it across his paws and the neglected reference volume left open to a page concerning minor illusions. The prospect of a conversation was something that perked up the otherwise bored creature.
Although his approach was silent, he stepped into her air in the process. The early warning meant that she wasn't startled when his voice came in close proximity, but there was a slight delay to her response. Uss klew'ar. Begged the gesture in handsign as she finished jotting down her current line of thought in the notebook that was a ubiquitous asset for all of her research.Quill set aside, Shae lifted her head and sat back with a smile. "Vendui', Spider. I hadn't expected to see you again so soon after our match. Of course, what can I do for you?"
Spider took the moment she bid of him to greet Fox also, tipping his hat to the creature as he would any he considered equal. And not all creatures were, in his mind, but Fox was certainly of a different order of 'familiar' than most.
"So soon after our match? I felt no malice toward you after the battle. I had wished to speak with you last night, but we both had our duties to fulfill to our teams." He paused, freeing his fingers from his belt and removing his gauntlets, then tucking them where fingers had been. An array of rings glittered on his fingers, as often, and at least a few exuded far more power than they had during a conversation between these two, here, some months prior. The Drow was certainly changing, somehow, and quickly.
"What do you know of the tagnik'zun, specifically those of the red, fire breathing variety? Will they develop true to nature or with training, can their evil be mitigated or controlled?" He wasn't wasting time with pleasantries today! A faint quasi-smile did touch his lips after the question, and his posture became more relaxed, but he was clearly here on business.
There was a dip of a russet head in return to the winged Drow, and a flash of pointed teeth in a feral grin. The fox was unpredictable, at times, in his displays of intelligence, but generally once the proverbial cat was out of the bag he didn't bother hiding they way his ears tracked conversations as more than just noise or the way certain words and gestures elicited a response from him.
"I didn't mean to suggest that there were any bad feelings, merely that you have been rather busy, of late, and our history of interaction has not been one I would classify as 'frequent'. My congratulations, by the way, for your recent string of victories. Archmage, even. You'll forgive me if my demeanor doesn't change, I'm rather jealous in the imagining of what you might have access to inside that tower." All this said with a faintly teasing tone. The woman was genuine in her celebration of his accomplishments. "You were smart to leave when you did. I still have a headache from the amount I drank to kill the memory of some particularly noxious personalities I encountered after your departure."
Gold eyes were drawn, with magpie attention, to the glittering sight that adorned his hands. Absently, the difference in the feel of the Drow and his possessions was noted, something filed away for later. His question shifted her gaze to his face again, one brow arching in surprise. "You may have come to the wrong person. In this city I'm probably one of the few people who isn't some sort of expert on tagnik'zun and their nature. I can only speak from the perspective of wild things. Evil isn't, in my experience, an inherent trait in born creatures. Created creatures, certainly. Those born? They may have tendencies towards violence, towards flaws in temperament that might make such paths more appealing, but nothing is certain. I would wager that, with respect for natural leanings towards savagery, any raised thing can be steered away from what is considered to be 'evil'."
He listened to her reply impassively, the faint smile fading back into his usual, cool demeanor. When she spoke, he listened very intently, perhaps an ingrained trait to pay heed to women of power, some vestige of his upbringing's conditioning. But he also knew Shae knew what she was talking about, knew her own abilities and talents very well. Her answer was not unexpected. Before responding, he unhooked a bag from his belt, a small cloth pouch, and laid it on the floor - where a hole suddenly appeared. The extradimensional nature of the 'pouch' was clear, when he reached both arms in, and withdrew a large (perhaps basketball sized) red egg, leathery of texture and appearance, its warmth palpable once it left the space of the portable hole.
"I understand, Shae. But also, you mentioned in passing last night you might not be working here longer. I come to beseech your skills as a librarian, not simply to pluck your own brain." With that, he allowed a full smile, teeth startlingly white against the black of thin lips. A rare, rare expression for this Drow. "I cannot imagine what would take you away from your love of books, but it must be something quite compelling." A gentle, almost motherly caress by his right wing brushed the egg.
"This, Shae, is Cinder. A red, as you can see. I wish to train her, as I do my orben killian, to fight. But not to grow large and consume me, for instance." A flick of eyes to Fox to make sure the appearance of the dragon's egg had not upset the familiar. Spider paid no noticeable heed to any others who might be nearby, and in fact if any had looked in his or the egg's direction, they'd have seen little more than a murky haze. He was not here to alarm the literate public.
