12.23.2132 - Investigation

[Dray]

“Oh..well, that is”...hiccup[/i]...”just strange is all” she exclaimed, now ignoring her hiccups.

“Anyway, I found it in the vault beyond this very room. Beyond the last aisle, number 28B where the volumes are found on the Deadly Plague of 502 ESH, which are some great stories I will have to say, is the vault”...hiccup[/i]...”door in plain sight”.

She paused and lowered her volume a bit, but the speed of her voice resumed. “Anyway, one night I came here to peruse the volumes with a detect magic cantrip as requested by Renee. A task that I have to tell you takes a very long time when one considers the sheer volume of this room, let alone the whole library”...hiccup[/i]...”sorry”.

“Go on,” Temmit said with a wave of his hand. He knew to ask her to get to the point only made her divulge even more detail and would make the entire ordeal that much longer.

“Anyway, I got here and the House Guard of Kaine was watching over some priests as they walked back and forth from the vault. The priests were emptying out volumes and volumes of books, journals and all other sorts of parchment. Not sure as to why though, they did have some shovels and sledgehammers with them though.”...hiccup[/i]...”ooo, that would took a bit longer this time. Anyway, while they were pre-occupied with banging something that sounded like stone in the vault, I swiped the journal off the table while they weren’t looking.”

She stopped quite suddenly and smiled with pride.

[Johan]

"Leslie, do you have an appreciation for how dangerous what you do for us is?" Temmit asked. "What might happen if the wrong people should find out how talented you are?"

[Dray]

Her smile faded a bit, Temmit could almost see the intellect behind the girls huge blue eyes recognizing the lecture he had been saving all weekend for her.

“I um...well, if they found me here I would just tell them that I um...wanted to do more reading,” she answered simply, dodging the point.

...hiccup[/i]...”Oh! The contractions are getting father apart! I may live after all.” she exclaimed.

[Johan]

"Damn, she's as dense as you are." Smokey observed. "Such smart people who can't see past their own fingers."

Temmit cast about for other people in the hall. He drew Smokey from within his shirt and hung the crystal over his back. "Just keep me aware of anyone who might be listening in." Temmit requested.

"Look! It's Fresenius!" Temmit knew deep down that Smokey was lying - jesting, the crystal would say - but he had to look anyway. There was no one.

"Thanks." He said.

"What? I didn't say anything."

"Leslie," Temmit began smoothly. "You should know that I am fully aware of all that you do for us." He looked at her quite pointedly. "But it's a dangerous path that you tread, and it's getting far more dangerous. I think that anyone who was watching you at our meeting this week would have known that you were the source that Renee kept referring to."

"We can't have that." He held her eyes. "I've asked Renee to stop being so complimentary to you in the future."

[Dray]

Her smile completely faded and for a long moment Temmit thought she was going to either burst out in anger or worse, start crying then and there.

“Alright Temmit,” she said as her gaze lowered to her hands and she turned back towards her book. “But what would you have me do?” she asked in a whisper. “I am just trying to help like everyone else in the guild.”

She then closed her mouth tight and attempted to stifle the next hiccup, the affect it had was almost comical as her eyes bulged and she then caught her breath wrong afterwards. She didn’t smile though. “Sorry.”

[Johan]

"Well, we certainly have a strong need for you to ply your talents."

"I think that what I would have you do is this: learn to play poker." Temmit suggested. "And I've got a few lessons for you now, if you have the time?"

[Dray]

"Poker?" she asked, obviously not getting it. Although the illegal card playing game was very popular amongst the older boys in the orphanage, it apparently never made its way into her life.

[Johan]

"In the game of poker," Temmit explained with patience, "it's not always the case that the player with the best card hand wins. It is often the case that the player whose hand isn't reflected in his face who wins."

"What you need to learn is to not look so proud when somone tells you that you've done well. Know that you always do well, and  you are always valued, but don't let anyone read from your face that you are the one who is being complimented."

"Tell me you understand, and that you would like to commence a lesson or two." He smiled at his young friend solicitously.

[Dray]

"I understand, you value my work and that is enough for me Temmit. I will try not to gloat or make myself more visible in the meetings," she answered in a surprisingly mature fashion.

It was at these moments...

'Hey her hiccups are gone! Try to scare her to bring them back!'

...that Temmit could sense that there was a very keen intellect indeed within the young Leslie, she just lacked the experience that came with age.

"So, what lessons do you have for me Mr. Tutor of all things wise?" she teased.

[Johan]

Temmit leaned even closer to Leslie. Anyone looking on might think that they were leaning in to kiss, he was so close.

He whispered almost impreceptibly, "Do you know the student Marcus Faithborn?" He asked.

[Dray]

“Duuuuuuh” she whispered. “It’s my job to know everyone. Why? What about Marcus?”

[Johan]

"I need to know everything about him. Or as much as can be known. I think that he is a new and very dangerous enemy. I would like to know what he was like at the end of last year. I also need to know about his mother. Who is she? I have a theory that more or less depends upon her being close to Fresenius."

"Do you also know his mother?"

[Dray]

Leslie smiled in pride and then quickly caught herself, she successfully squelched her glee at being able to help.

“Marcus Faithborn was born in Southaven, he is 13 and a member of the Harvesters House. Up until about a month ago he was a completed introverted kid with no social skills whatsoever,” Leslie began.

"I remember trying a couple..."

[Johan]

"Interesting...he went from a complete introvert with no social skills to a complete extravert with consumate social skills."

From Blip to Bull, baby!

"Yes...?" Temmit prompted.

[Dray]

“...of months ago trying to befriend the kid at lunch time. I love stories about Southaven and want to know more people from there. River is from there but he doesn’t like talking to me, and Jared seems to have spent his entire time there with his head in the sand, he knows no one from his own hometown.”

“Anyway, I tried talking to him and he shuddered away from me after making a strange animal cry sound, really bizarre. It was as if the kid had no idea how to talk to strangers. I have no idea how any kid could live like that.”

“From what I have heard about him in the gossip trade at school, he is pretty much a loner because of this lack of being able to communicate. At least he was...until a month ago. Ever since his disappearance for that week in FallEnd break he has been a completely different person.”

Leslie finally stopped her dissertation for a question of her own. “Why do you ask about him?”