I was worried for a second at the start of the update, but the meeting with Belegar being about Karak Vlag and its Runesmiths and the library was pleasantly surprising. That was a fun way to reveal that.
[...] He looks to you. "For this to not come across as you intruding on business that you shouldn't, I would have to cast you as the avalanche that uncovered the seam. Not the most flattering role."
You shrug. "It wouldn't even be inaccurate. It's not the first time I've reshaped the landscape to fill the shelves, and knowing my luck, it won't be the last."
Darn tootin'. Literal landscapes, given Drakenhof, and political landscapes, given how big it was to give Laurelorn so much ithilmar.
Your subsequent meetings on the matter are full of carefully-chosen words and intense silences, but after thoroughly vouchsafing the security of your library and when the talks were on the verge of being presented to the Runesmiths as a shored shaft, you find a place in conversation to gracefully bring up the matter - though the intense silence that was the initial response made you question whether you had actually done so. But after an equally intense sidebar, the worryingly lithe Vlagians lay the matter out for you. "If the Kron-Azril-Ungol were to come into possession of the originals of certain volumes in a more heavily distressed state than they were last known to be, would it be prepared to take on the burden of not answering those questions?"
That answers a suspicion you had and then some, all but confirming to you that in their long tenure in the Aethyr, not only did they bend the trust of the Fire Spire enough to peruse the books left in their custody - people already dead at that point, though the Vlagians had no way of knowing - but they did so thoroughly enough that there might be some dogears or margin notes or collateral damage that would raise unanswerable questions.
Man, this is so huge. We weren't even sure whether they
had Fire Spire books, and we even considered we might have to use the Vlag Boon, but... well, now we're just getting them basically for free on top of helping ease along another problem. The wonders of being a well-connected person never cease.
"It would be," you reply, "especially since I believe that nobody remains who would have greater authority than the Collegiate side of the KAU partnership to demand those answers."
"Empire authority over Kislev Wizards?" Interestingly, they use the Reikspiel word for Wizard instead of the Khazalid Zhufokri or any of the less flattering alternatives.
It definitely seems like the Vlagians have taken steps to connect to the outside world better. I have this very strong mental image of them taking small tentative steps outside their hold, and then feeling, either for the first time in their lives or for the first time in several hundred years,
the wind. How great and terrible it must have been, those first few steps outside!
And yet now they call wizards by the name they are called in Reikspiel, rather than that which mainstream dwarf culture does. That speaks of a certain amount of effort adapting to the outside world.
They take some time to discuss that answer between themselves, probably more time than it would have taken if you had given a less honest answer. But when they do return, it is with an estimate of weight and volume that will be added to the shipments already planned, and the quiet understanding that the matter is never to be discussed again. The main thrust of the discussion continues on, and the eventual conclusion is a simple one: when, in the fullness of time, the Runesmith Clans of Karak Eight Peaks and Karak Vlag are refounded, it will be as Brother-Clans, more so than is usual for even the descendants of Thungni. And until the day when they take shared possession, there will be an extremely well-defended chamber deep in your library that not even you can enter.
Concealed among those shipments is a few shelves worth of books for you to sort through at your leisure, mostly in Reikspiel with a minority in Kislevarin dialects. The distress the Vlagians referred to seems to not be any physical damage - they're actually shockingly well-preserved for their age - but a great deal of Khazalid notes in the margins that, from the brief skims you've been able to give them, would raise a great deal of questions that it is now your responsibility to not answer. You look forward to being able to carve out enough time to sort through them.
The political will to vote for learning Kislevarin is now firmly secured, that's for sure.
"So, what is it that made you look at ten million acres of spider-infested forest and say, yes, I think I can find one specific rock in that?"
"We could get lucky."
Johann gives you a searching look. "Do you know something I don't and you're being coy about it, or do you mean the other thing?"
"The other thing."
"Oh. Okay. Let's see this forest, then."
Johann is a treasure, and not just literally. You smile and clap him on the shoulder. "And besides, this isn't going to be just anywhere - it's going to be somewhere very significant to either the Beastmen or the Forest Goblins. That makes this a matter of information, which means we can use what the Dwarves already have as a starting point, and even if we don't actually find the stone, any information we do get along the way will still be useful in other ways."
He perks up. "Like old times, then?"
You return his smile. "Very much like old times."
I regret I only have a single heart reaction to give.
The shadows here are impenetrably deep, and would remain so even if the webs above were removed entirely. They retreated in a circle around the hole of sunlight that Adela's fire let in not as a surrender to it, but as a welcome.
You called on a divinity to seek something ancient and lost, and in this place, it is impossible for that divinity to find anything but this. This place was sacred to Them before the name and form that you know, before the name and form that others know, before any name still spoken on this world. This place is more ancient than anything you can name, and more lost than anything you can comprehend.
...How very typical of Ranald, to answer one question and then raise another. But perhaps we shouldn't be so surprised at this. It's the Forest of
Gloom, after all.
Man, I have
zero regrets about putting the Gambler on this action. Paid off more than I could have imagined.
The immediate relevance of which is that when you request a Journeyman with auditory Magesight to assist with your idea for an auditory seviroscope, the Wizard that responds - who is able to take a break from their undercover duties in a Reikland troupe due to their overwintering in Altdorf - you're not sure whether their aggressively contradictory approach to gender cues is a personal choice or a professional requirement. You do know that your inability to read how complimentary or not their calling you 'My Lady Sotto Voce' is, is going to get very distracting in the coming weeks. Their name, at least for the purposes of this collaboration, is Kas.
Our Lady Who Speaks Softly (And Carries a Giant Sword)? Hilarious.
"And yours, in some areas," Egrimm replies with an odd little smile. The tone he used is odd, an inch away from well-practiced slickness but some element deliberately left out to prevent it all from harmonizing, which must have taken more effort than actually following through. Your first thought is that he's toying with you, but he's not watching you closely enough for that. He's not amused by your reaction, but by his own - he's mocking himself for defaulting to that form of oily flattery when it's entirely unnecessary.
"There are mystics in eastern province troupes that find grey to be the colour that gets the best reception," Kas... agrees?
Hedgewise, I assume, although it's possibly also Strygany mystics. I could see them having more flattering portrayals in-quest than they do in canon.
- Reading through the new additions to the library (and getting a glimpse into the Vlagians' adventures in Worst Narnia) and sorting them into their proper categories will be a social action.
Well, I know what I'm voting for this social turn.
But speaking of voting... Aesthetically speaking, I prefer stringed instruments!
[X] Fiddle
[X] Spinning Lyre
