RP:About A Book

This is a Necromancer's Guild RP.

Summary: Khitti sends Quintessa to get her book back from Bradyn.

Necromancers Tower

Quintessa Dragana stands alone at the top of the Necromancer’s Tower, her ebony cloak billowing in the wind as her icy gaze of mixed colors watches over the Dark Forest. It seemed to the girl that it was as fitting a location as any, a guild monument that she had very recently vowed to protect from interlopers, stretching out into the sky next to the construction site of something bigger. This was somewhat intentional; if Bradyn did not already know about Quintessa’s activities in what she called her domain, he certainly would know now. However, Dragana’s heir apparent did not call upon Bradyn Mahara to meet her today to talk Vailkrin politics, or even Necromancer’s Guild business. Quintessa was after a particular book at the behest of Khitti Herzegler, a book that contained important information about the Shadow Plane. The changeling wasn’t certain if the Provectus Malus would be willing to part with the tome, even temporarily, but she had to try; her teacher was counting on her, and such responsibility over the task had stressed the teenager out enough to pick up her smoking habit again. Flicking the ashes of a clove cigarette over the side of the railing, she waits, wondering if she shouldn’t have just asked him to meet at the Black Library like all the other times. Too late for hindsight, however.

Contrary to popular belief, Bradyn Mahara can be found in another places other than the Black Library. Those places just do not really include public spaces like the Hanging Corpse Tavern..Which..Can we really picture Bradyn hanging out and socializing over a glass of bloodwine? Naw. The Maharan would arrive as asked, with very little flare to his arrival for he has decided to take the scenic route this time, strolling from the Maharan manor through Vailkrin and to this very location. It meant that he had plenty of time to observe what in specific Quintessa was trying to accomplish in the area, if he was not already aware of it. He prefers to keep how much he does or does not pay attention to the happenings of Vailkrin to himself. This habit is born out of a long standing mistrust over the political players of Vailkrin, well prior to Quintessa. The changeling will have ample time to observe Bradyn's approach, the Maharan ultimately coming to a halt a few feet in front of Quintessa.

Quintessa allows her mismatched eyes to flicker over to the vampire, her lithe hand moving up to provide her with one last drag of her cigarette before she let it fall to the balacy floor beneath her. “Lord Mahara,” she says, the tip of her boot moving to snuff the tiny ember, “Punctual as always.” The hex blade has actually imagined Bradyn in the Hanging Corpse before, after all, he or somebody else in his House had left notes there in the past, but the idea still made her giggle. There would be no giggles in his presence today, however. ”I didn’t go into details,” Quintessa turns to face him, hands placed upon her hips casually as she continues. “But I want to borrow a copy of a book that’s in your possession. I’d ask if I can copy it, but Khitti has expressed her immense displeasure at this idea.” She always assumed the man’s silence meant he was waiting for something, so she didn’t want to delay long, getting right to the point of the reason she asked him here. “Is this agreeable?”

If Bradyn Mahara was actually prone to revealing his emotions, his facial expression would be that of one of annoyance. Alas, this is Bradyn. Still, the irritation forms very shortly after Quintessa explains why exactly she wants to meet with him today. In his usual flat tone of voice Bradyn responds almost instantly with, "That's it...?" There is a long moment of silence before the Maharan speaks, "The expectation of this meeting is for me to turn over a book and then be on my way?" The voice that normally lacks inflection breaks this pattern as he utters two words in irritation, "Countess Dragana," A pause, and then back to his regularly scheduled manner of speaking. "I thought you might have valued my time more." Another pause. "When Khitti presented me with the book in question she was very particular about the details of me keeping it, notably who may or may not see it. She seemed concerned enough that I would have assumed she would have come to collect it herself. It's on that basis alone...that I am sorely tempted to say no. And yet, that would mean that she would turn up on my doorstep only to further waste my time with mundane requests." It might have been wiser to meet at the Black Library for this request. Without explanation, the Maharan is consumed by shadows, but his vanishing act would not be a long standing one. The Maharan would reappear this time holding the book in question out toward Quintessa.

If Quintessa thought she could get away with a grimace, she would have shown one just now, instead she hides behind a stoic wall of indifference, already preparing to defend herself. Bradyn vanishes and reappears before that’s necessary, holding the book out for her before her long fingers tentatively reach out to receive it. “Thank you-” She tried to recover quickly, changing the subject from anything Khitti related to other concerns. “This isn’t exactly the only thing I wanted to talk about.” She holds the book tightly against her body. “My proclamation. I expanded my territory without consulting my allies first, not thinking about how it would look. The response from House Mahara seemed less than pleased. I just want to be clear that this wasn’t a power grab- I just wanted to be able to monitor the border to the southeast.”

Bradyn has no qualms with speaking to Quintessa frankly when it comes to the matter of Vailkrin politics as they have already had a number of honest and frank discussions. "Your proclamation in combination with the one made by Xzaen was less than pleasing. Yours in specific was not particularly upsetting, at least there is merit behind it. It is practically your backyard." And the House Mahara is found of flaunting their patronage of the Black Library, so to an extent he does understand. "With two claims to territory made, I presumed other Houses would be quick to follow suit out of greed." Be it monetary greed or the greed for power. "And then before we know it would be entering another civil war because the wrong house entered the incorrect territory and how dare they." The normally expressionless Bradyn rolls his eyes at this point, because it seems to him that Vailkrin is very great at fighting among itself. "So long as I can travel freely through the dark forests, I don't care about your claim. Yet it was important for House Mahara to send some sort of message that it cannot be the norm. Lest we want to travel down the same path that Larewen was set on taking us down."

Quintessa seems relieved at the vampire’s words, yet her gaze still drifts away from him to spy upon the building site below. “Yes, practically my backyard. I perhaps was a little aggressive in my response, but it is well known that House Dragana protects the Dark Forest. When Xzean tried to not only claim this tower, but also demanded that anyone else wishing to use it inquire with him first, I felt insulted. I do not ask a Novos Morior permission for anything, least not to use a guild asset, so I wanted to make an example out of him. It was not my intention to rekindle the flames of Larewen’s War, I'm sure you know this.” Sapphire and topaz eyes return to Bradyn as she gives him a smile. “And of course you may freely walk about the Dark Forest. I consider House Mahara one of my closest allies, and I will do my best to see that neither you or any member of your house are harmed while within my demesne. The days of Larewen’s petty villainy are at an end.”

"Xzaen's claims will not have taken him far." The Maharan does not expanded upon his opinion, for in many ways he does realize that his assessment of Xzaen would be like the pot calling the kettle black. Entitled? Arrogant? These were qualities that Bradyn also possessed and did not personally care to correct. The Maharan snorts, "Amusingly, he wanted a place in my House. I am relieved that he seems to have vanished and that is not a conversation that I have to continue." The Maharan clasps both hands behind his back. "But that is irrelevant to the topic at hand. House Mahara would have sooner sided with House Dragana. It seems that there is finally the potential for a lasting alliance between our two Houses, and I am thus far not interested in disturbing that peace." Bradyn allows dark eyes to shift around the tower that Xzaen unsuccessfully tried to claim for himself before returning his gaze to Quintessa, "We are both very busy people, so I will not be lingering much longer. But before I go, I am curious to know what you and Khitti need her precious book for?" He might have had more leverage in getting an answer before handing the book over, but Bradyn assumes that it probably would not have mattered. Khitti probably instructed Quintessa to lie, an assumption made because Khitti has fibbed to him before over such matters.

Quintessa feels a strong sense of pride well up inside her, the polite smile she showed growing into a wide grin. She was happy that she was doing her best to maintain the stability of Vailkrin as a whole. Secretly, she was also happy that Xzean had vanished like all the other would-be challengers that came scratching at her door. When Bradyn shifts the conversation back to Khitti and the Shadow Plane, Quintessa looks down at the book in her grasp and frowns at it. “Oh, that,” her teacher hadn’t -explicitly- told her not to tell anyone about it. “I need to extract a spirit called Caiburne from a tree and use his knowledge to reverse some environmental damage his experiments have caused in the Realm of Shadows. Khitti wanted to destroy the research, but I convinced her otherwise- after all, the damage has been done. Saving what Caiburne learned will keep others from repeating his actions, as well as give us an advantage dealing with what they’ve caused.” Quintessa shrugs. “It’s really more complicated than all that, but I’m not good at giving an abridged version of anything. If you want, I’ll write you a full report on it when it’s all over.”

From what Bradyn can ascertain, it sounds like Quintessa and Khitti are off on some do-gooder's quest...which reduces Bradyn's interest in what they're doing quite rapidly. About the only thing that Quintessa explains that Bradyn does find to be of note, he soon speaks on. "Yes, it is important to retain the research. It should not be destroyed." This statement is not made because Bradyn thinks it could be put to preventative use in the future. "Well...I wish you the best of luck but I think that we both know that I don't really care if you succeed or fail. I will instead leave you with...Don't die, because if I have to bring any guild members back from the dead, I won't be happy. Until next time, Countess." And without further adieu, Bradyn turns to make the walk home.

Quintessa was so prepared to automatically have to justify her actions that she forgot who she was talking to. Of course she didn’t have to pretend that she cared about the plight of the Shadow Plane around Lord Mahara. For her, helping Khitti was a favor and retaining the research a bonus. Quintessa would never tell -her- that though. “Um, thank you,” she responds to his wish of good luck, giving him a slight tip of her head at his departure. “Farewell, Provectus. I’ll try not to get myself slain in the meantime. Oh, and careful of the feral lycans on your way home. The noise from the builders makes them quite intractable.” Once Bradyn was out of sight, the changeling would tuck the book under her arm and light up another cigarette. All in all, that went pretty well.