RP:A Business Proposal

Part of the On Stranger Tides Arc

This is a Necromancer's Guild RP.

Summary: Khitti asks Bradyn to meet her at the Black Library to go over a series of topics, one of which being whether or not they approve of her taking over the Necromancer's Guild. In the end, Khitti goes to finish her paperwork to become the guild's official leader and make plans to search for Amarrah in the Shadow Plane with Bradyn.

The Black Library, Vailkrin

Khitti had considered wandering around Vailkrin looking for Bradyn. There were probably only three places he’d be: the Necromancer’s Tower, the Black Library, or the Maharan home. But, she decided to stay at the Black Library instead and let her come to her, by way of sending out a note to those places. Something like ‘I’d like to speak to you about a few things. Meet me at the Black Library at X date and X time’. She’d be there, in the dimly lit reading room, leafing through a book on Carnology, taking notes here and there in one of her many notebooks. And at the end of the table, sat that book on the Shadow Plane that had been borrowed some time ago, still in pristine condition.

The notes that Khitti sent out would be received, not all of them by Bradyn directly, but they would be received. The one that is actually successful in locating Bradyn is the one that is sent to the Maharan manor. It was a short walk between the Library and the home of Maharan’s, but Bradyn did not arrive early. Or late. He arrives at exactly the time that Khitti had written and not a moment sooner. As is fairly customary for Bradyn, he does not actually waltz in through the front door but rather some inner room of the Black LIbrary. Honestly the male probably has established some sort of portal between his home and his office if only because of the sheer amount of time he spends at this place. When the Maharan locates Khitti, he is dressed in his normal attire, still as formal as ever. Crisp black slacks, polished black loafers. As he nears her table, the sight of the Shadow Plane book does catch his eye but he does not comment. He also takes note of the subject matter that Khitti herself is currently studying. Hm. “Khitti,” he greets the redhead, his voice still carrying that usual flat tone.

Khitti slid the Shadow Plane book towards the Maharan, offering him a nod. “I'm finally returning that. Apologies for it taking so long. I know you don’t like things leaving the library for extended periods of time.” One hand closed the book on carnology while the other towards the seat across from her. She made no demands for him to sit, as this -was- his house’s library after all, but offering up a seat was the polite thing to do anyway. “I’ve three things to speak on, so I’ll get right to it and not waste any of your time. The first is that I plan on expanding on that book,” she said motioning to the one on the Shadow Plane. At the moment, that suffices greatly as a travel guide of sorts, but I’d like there to be something much more detailed. A copy would be given to the library, just like its predecessor.”

“The next thing is--you remember Amarrah, yes? The being that I was fused with years ago, whose heart we put into my sister’s body and it created that amalgamation that eventually died the same day I did? Well, it would seem that she’s returned, in the form of a shade, and seemingly lacking any of the madness she had before. She aided me, Quintessa, Kanna, and two others with restoring Kasyr to his revenancy before disappearing into the shadows as shade would and I think she has important information that can help me finish my quest to be able to wield the rest of the black tide elements. Which in turn allows me to expand them for the guild and write that book on the black tides that we spoke of before, that would also make its home here. I would ask you to go with me to find her, to the Shadow Plane. I think you’d find the Shadowseers in the Larket region as… interesting, I suppose, at the very least. Their race are keepers of knowledge much like the Maharans are, though they mostly deal in prophecies. There’s also other creatures there that could prove useful to you and your experiments, I would think. The Gloomglut in the Mountains of Madness--their version of Frostmaw-- come to mind. They’re nearly invincible and devour anything in their path. Gevurah got her hands on one at one point, but being the drow that she is, she kept whatever secrets their makeup she happened to find.” She let those two topics linger on the air for now, letting Bradyn absorb it all before touching on the third and final issue. The redhead seemed strangely… business-like. Much moreso than usual.

Bradyn was not entirely confident if Khitti was strangely business-like because she had a lot going on or because of how their last few interactions went. It was not exactly lost on Bradyn that Khitti often thought that he was a jerk. Did that mean that he would improve his behavior? …No. It did not bother him overly much and he would mirror her business-like behavior, grabbing the back of the chair across from Khitti and pulling it out far enough for him to be able to comfortably slide into the seat. A glance is given to the book that is slid across the way to him but his gray-eyed gaze is back on Khitti’s face. In typical Bradyn fashion, the Maharan does not give much of a reaction as she goes through the points. The first point is the most appreciated, not that his facial expressions would reveal as much. Khitti would have to settle with a nod of acceptance. The second point has Bradyn curious yet the Maharan does not speak much, opting to keep his willingness to help himself for the time being. He wanted to at least hear what the third point Khitti wanted to discuss was. He confirms, “I remember Amarah yes…” Despite the fact that Bradyn has not readily committed his willingness to help, Khitti has managed to appeal to one thing that House Mahara holds dear: the expansion of knowledge. Vampire politics have taught the Maharan to think these moments through carefully. “Your request is intriguing enough, but I will need to hear what the third issue you want to speak on is.”

Khitti || “I’ve stepped down from the Devout’s Guild leadership position, been thinking that I’d like to shift to that of the Necromancer’s Guild instead, but I wanted to hear your thoughts on it. While the three of us do well enough as a sort of council, we’ve been basically running on auto-pilot for as long as I can remember. Pretty much since our dear Raevyn up and disappeared and left things to rot, in a very Larewen fashion. I had meant to talk to both you and Quintessa about it but she is currently… indisposed,” Khitti said, with a vaguely annoyed sigh. “I have all the paperwork for it filled out, but that was mainly a means to an end to rid myself of some anxiety. They’ve not been signed yet and can find the trash quite quickly if you’re not keen on the idea. Nothing will really change, of course, when it comes to whatever duties you’ve given yourself as Provectus Malus. And the same for Tessa. And in fact, if there’s other things that you’d like to do with your time here, I’m pretty much open to anything.”

Bradyn :: The fact that Khitti wanted to take on more responsibilities within the Necromancer’s Guild did not come as a shock to Bradyn, not that he’d reveal any proper reactions even if he were shocked. “I think that you are probably the most suitable candidate for the position and that it is high time that we had a good leader. My tenure was brief and the impact that Larewen had on the guild…I mean, while she seemed to somehow be able to maintain membership, in the end she was prone to letting her political aspirations get in the way of guild functions. She often used the guild as a pawn to achieve her goals without consideration for the aspirations of her members.” Not Bradyn had been the most thoughtful guild leader, but he at least was not the total chaotic mess that Larewen was. It should be evident to Khitti that Bradyn is in support of this leadership, well as evident as his lack of emotions will allow. At least he is not getting up to try and set fire to this unsigned paperwork! “In terms of what I would like to do with my time at in the guild. I have long been thinking of shifting my teaching positions from Luctisonus to The Animus Ligeratus. I think the role of Luctinsonus will be easily filled and the role of Animus Ligeratus more closely aligns with my personal research into liches.” There is a pause as Bradyn considers the rest of what Khitti has told him. It does not take him long to reach a conclusion, only a matter of a few split seconds, “As for your want of help with Amarrah, you will get it. I will help. If there are any preparations that you feel I will need to make in advance of this trip, then please let me know.” Armor. Weapons. Unique ingredients. It is no secret that Bradyn is not a fighter, he relies on spells…

Khitti outwardly grimaced at the thought of Larewen’s “leading” of the guild. “I’m the one that did the majority of the work back then when that damned woman had control of it too. My only regret is that I didn’t rip it out from underneath her.” She shrugged and sighed dramatically, a hint of a smirk showing. “I’m glad you approve though. As for the teaching, you could certainly do both if you wished. After I finish expanding the black tides, I’d technically be the teacher for both the basic and advanced forms. So one of the changes I considered after taking hold of the guild was going to be to allow members to teach both a basic and an advanced art. And I figured there could be a couple teachers per art too, since some will teach differently than others. You could be the first, if you wished. I’m completely fine with you being one or the other as well. Whatever you want to do.” There was another shrug before she continued on. “I don’t think you’d need to prepare too much for the trip. Whatever we might run into, your magic there will be exponentially stronger than it is here, so I don’t think we’ll have any problems really. The area we’ll go to look for her in will be new territory for me though, so I guess keep that in mind. When we get there, I’m going to attempt to scry for her to help us along. We’ll be in their equivalent of Rynvale, which has an active volcano on it and some jungles and swamps, so if there’s anything else you can think of that might help. I’ll bring my own weapons too though, just in case. And if I think of anything else in the meantime, I will let you know.”

Bradyn has zero objections to anything Khitti presents. Much of what the woman is explaining with how her views on teaching should go within the guild align with his. “I have long since thought that we should be able to have more than one instructor per art and given the numbers in our guild, I think it makes a lot of sense to. I think this would be a wise move. So I would not be opposed to any of those.” Did Khitti and Bradyn manage to agree on something? Actually this probably is not the first time this has happened, but it is still pretty impressive given their general temperaments. Since it seems like the two of them are reaching and understanding and coming to the conclusion of their conversation, Bradyn starts to reach for that book that Khitti slid toward him at the beginning of this encounter. “If there is nothing else…? I am going to take this and put it somewhere safe before -someone- decides to take it from me again.” This was a joke. If Bradyn was a better person, he might have given some smirk or change in the tone of his voice to suggest he is not being serious. Khitti is going to have to figure it out for herself….which, she is probably used to that by now. Damnable Maharan. “Then we’ll be in touch?”

Khitti nodded along with Bradyn as he actually, out loud, agreed with her. She resisted the urge to see if anyone else might’ve heard it. She didn’t sense anyone else nearby at the very least. Sorry, Khitti. No one will ever believe you. Things were going well until Bradyn made a joke. Bradyn made jokes? Was she being pranked? Maybe this was really Brand using an illusion to look like Bradyn? The look on her face was one of vague disbelief. Mixed with a little bit of confusion. And maybe some skepticism. “Yes, yes. Return it to your hoard, you dragon,” she said eventually with a smirk. She stood up and collected her things, offering him a nod. “We will indeed be in touch.” And with that, she headed off to the tower to finish that paperwork and finally get it filed away before anyone decided to change their mind about it--her included.