Chapter 8 - The Capital and the Guild (2/2)
”Xavier. A former soldier of the Galian army.”
”Hmmm. Is he of the Bloody First?”
”I honestly have no clue, but he seems to have a connection to them.”
”Hmmmm. Meet me in the 25th annex. We have much to discuss.”
The 25th annex was a rather small room compared to the others. All of the books contained inside were about extra-dimensional travel, a difficult and esoteric subject. Compared to the annexes dedicated to illusions and elemental spells, both of which stretched on for miles without end, with shelves that towered over everything, this room was like a closet. On one of the small benches sat a man, hunched over an archaic tome, scribbling notes on a sizable stack of parchment. He was Ash Tarot, an ancient man even by Elven standards. He did not notice me and instead was lost in deep thought.
”Ash!” I said with slight amusement, standing right in front of his bench.
He turned and looked at me. Hastily, he stood up and dusted off the front of his sable robes. He appeared very disheveled. A small, red book poked out of his pocket, and he was covered from head to toe with chalk dust and alchemical powders.
”Where is Daeric?”
”He had a number of errands to run, procuring research materials. Finding 'willing' test subjects, like trees and large rocks, maybe the occasional corpse. A squirrel and such. You could say he is… uh… doing a job for me.”
”Oh. Well, should I tell you what happened?”
”Of course. This is interesting in the extreme. Reminds me of that time you told me you were from 'Earth'.”
I launched in the saga of the past few days, describing each and every detail while Ash sat there, thinking. I noticed that he realized something in my words.
”Find something out?'
”Maybe, I have a hunch. I need to talk to Emmyth about it. He has the research papers on him right now.
”Has there been any successful findings yet?”
”Afraid not,” Ash sighed heavily, ”We still grasping at straws, hypothesizing, if you will. We will make a breakthrough, don't you worry about that. But it will probably be within the next 100 or 200 years. Too bad your human lifespan won't last.”
”Is there anything I can do to speed up the research? Maybe another person on the team might help? I'll do anything I can to return home.”
”Bring Xavier to me. I want to see it in person. By it, I mean his magic, not the dangly bits between his legs. Meet me in my lab under the guild next week. I need to collect my thoughts.”