The Silver Library

[The Forgotten God]

The largest known library in the world, the Silver Library is filled with millennia-old tomes and texts. It is magically curated to keep bone-dry and temperate to best preserve the ancient pages. Aside from the antechamber the entire campus is under a powerful silence spell, so magicians who frequent it have adopted a sign language called Handspeak to convey complex ideas. One sorcerer spent so much time in there he had gone utterly mad when re=exposed to the noise of everyday life.

[Thalia Vedas]

In order to speed up her translations, Thalia arrives here to look for books on the language she didn’t have.

[Justine-Juliette de Vair]

Rebs next day after her conversation with the two gentlemen of Valgard, Justine made her way to the library. Her new (old) sword hung at her hip and she seemed to walk with a little more bounce to her step. She had with her all the mysterious documents.

As soon as she arrived, she looked for a librarian to help her out. She was uhhhh kindof new at this.

[The Forgotten God]

An elf sits behind the counter, reading a scroll and muttering to herself. She looked up and saw Justine. “You lost?” She asked. “The monsters got cleared out yesterday,” she added, looking amused at the weapons on her belt.

[Justine-Juliette de Vair]

Justine looked a little embarrassed at that, but decided to ignore the librarian’s quip. She cleared her throat just to give herself a little more time to pull it together. “I’m not here for that. I was hoping to find books on the noble houses of Innuria? A roll of arms or something?” It was shameful how high her voice went at the end of each question.

How not to look suspicious... “We found some heraldic items in the mists, wanted to figure out whose?”

Damn...went high again.

[The Forgotten God]

The librarian looked at her a second wordlessly then rose and pointed her long finger to a row of books near the beginning of the place. “There’s some old ones over there,” she said. “Newer ones will probably be at the government building near the governor’s castle.” She sat back down. “Hope you find’em,” she offered offhandedly before returning to her book.

[Justine-Juliette de Vair]

“Thank you.”

She trotted off, feeling like a child. Ugh, that could have gone better. Still, she made her way to the old books the librarian had indicated and began to flip through them to find anything that could pertain to the animals her father had drawn.

[The Forgotten God]

She flips through and discovers there are several houses that could all match the description of it’s a simple Heraldic match. However, there is only one family in the last century to use a toad that is also based in Vittoria, a certain House Tanberlin of the Craglands, a very isolated area that comprised a few small islands off the southwest coast of the peninsula.

[Justine-Juliette de Vair]

She noted all this down and sought more information on the Tanberlins. Could be relevant, could be...not.

[The Forgotten God]

The only noteworthy Tanberlins are Katarina, who was a Reclaimer nearly fifty years ago, and Philometer, an explorer of the Spice Islands and a ship’s captain she found a few brief mentions of in the Spice Wars Records. Neither had done anything overly significant according to the books.

[Justine-Juliette de Vair]

Justine made a note about both of them, but mostly Philometer. She tried to see if he was still alive, or any other significant facts about him personally.

When that was done, she attempted to find information about the de Vair family and the Valgard, just to see.

[The Forgotten God]

She doesn’t find up to date information on Philometer but he’d be in his early sixties approximately. Terrence Arroyo of Valgard is the current lord of Tempest Hall, a small castle right on the border with the Azuremist elves. The family wealth comes from trading woven goods and, somewhat amusingly, their reputation for culinary prowess. Tempest beef is a byword among the more expensive kitchens in Innuria. House de Vair of Crestwave Keep was a house of winemakers and adventurers and spice traders, ended two decades ago. There’s a few cousins that live in the area but that’s all she finds. One is named Coral and she is apparently still a sommelier according to the book.

[Justine-Juliette de Vair]

She made a note to ask Nigel if he had ever met such a person as Philometer. Adventurers of about the same age...it was likely.

She smiled at the facts about the Arroyos, and frowned at those about her family. She missed them suddenly, a deep ache she had tamped down for so many years. It was hard to remember her mother as she had been instead of what she had become. Spice...she wondered if that was part of it all. People willing to risk their lives for pink peppercorns, Terrence and Papa as privateers, the spice wars, adventurers, the Lockharts with their fingers dipped into all of it...more scribbles on paper.

Lastly, with a deep breath, she read about them, the Lockharts.

[The Forgotten God]

The Lockhart entry starts about two hundred years ago when they won a victory with the giants over the sea goblin armies of the Kraken, and their asylum was built by Mathilda the Healer. Everything newer than fifty years or so has been either torn from the book or somehow magically erased. Someone doesn’t even want public information to be public.

[Justine-Juliette de Vair]

So much for healing, Justine thought. The hidden passages raised more questions than they answered. That was enough for the day, she thought, and slowly replaced the book on the shelf. It had certainly given her a lot to think about.

Perhaps a visit to her cousin was in order...but that was for another day.

She left the library.