...And also these.

[thespaceopera]

[ Calibration Rooms ]
( for N-Z characters )

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ROOMS BY CHARACTER

N - Q Nami Natasha Romanoff Nelkeila Tarid Nux Nyssa al Ghul Octavia Blake One Peggy Carter Phèdre nó Delaunay de Montrève

R - U R. Daneel Olivaw Rapunzel Remy LeBeau Riku Robin Redbreast Rogue Santanico Pandemonium Shawn Hunter Stefan (Alesci) Salvatore Steve "Orion" Rogers Steven Quartz Universe Souji Seta Stiles Stilinski Syeira Tadashi Hamada Tekhetsio

V - Z Vash the Stampede Vima Sunrider Vision (The) Wanda Maximoff Wrath Yamanaka Ino

Comments

[lord_wizard]

While it isn't a place he's been before, the library instantly makes Felix far more at ease with where he finds himself this time. The place has a comfortable sort of claustrophobia to it, and even the mustiness isn't a deterrent. Rather, it smells like home. If there was anywhere in particular he could really afix that word.

He walks the stacks in rapt silence, brushing bejeweled fingers across the spines of the books. There's a trove of subjects here, all of which he could lose himself easily, but naturally the section he settles in front of is the one on magic.

It doesn't really occur to him to look for the owner first. Instead, he chooses a title randomly and goes to pick it off the shelf.

[child_of_bhaal]

The moment he opens the book, everything changes.

Your hands are very small, pushing open the heavy wooden door. The bedchamber is just as dark as the hall, with only a stingy beam of moonlight squeezing through the gaps in the shutters, but you know it like the back of your hand.

"Im? Immy, you awake?" You whisper loudly into the dark, though you know the answer. Imoen is afraid of the dark. You can hear her muttering and sighing under her blanket, trying to soothe herself.

"Syeira, you're not supposed to be out of bed! Did you have another nightmare?" Your best friend whispers back, just as loudly, as you shut the door and hurry across the room. You climb on the bed, ignoring her question, parchment crinkling in your fist as you put a little too much weight on it.

"I brought you something. I'm going to make it so you don't have to worry about kobolds getting you in your sleep." You talk as you climb under the blanket with her, scooting into the thin beam of moonlight.

"Trolls! Not kobolds! They eat people!" You smile in the dark at her protest. As far as you both know, you're of an age, but you've always behaved like am older sister to Imoen. Teasing included with the protectiveness.

Imoen now finally sees what you've brought, though, and gasps, in shock and awe. "It's a spell! You stole a spell!"

"And a re-gent." You inform her proudly, showing off the little pouch around your wrist, full of glittery shaved rock, utterly unaware of your mispronunciation. And you are quite proud. You compete in many things, and the best Imoen has stolen so far has been a sweet roll from the cook.

"But you can't do magic."

"Yes, I can. Just watch." Challenge issued, you begin to read the scroll aloud. It's harder than your adoptive father makes it look. The words are very hard, especially for a girl who's only begin to learn to read. But you apparently do something right as the bag full of shaved rock starts to glow. There's a pop and a rushing sound as you read the final word, and suddenly the room explodes in colorful sparkling dust.

It's everywhere, on every surface and all over you both. The two of you erupt into elated cheering and giggling. Until the door bangs open; a bearded man in his night clothes standing there with a candle, looking astonished. For all of two seconds.

You're in trouble now.

As quickly as the vision took over, it is gone. He's back in the library, holding the book he chose.

[lord_wizard]

It isn't the first time he's been thrust into a memory like this, though it's no less jarring for that fact. He chews on the details, however, even as the alien feeling of sharing in a mind that wasn't his own. The companionship of the girls feels familiar enough that it hits him almost sideways. It was easy to let himself forget what that was like, once, though the situation of these girls seemed at least somewhat better.

He shakes his head, going over the foreign magic as a means of diversion. What was that word she'd used. Re-gent? Reagent, perhaps. It sounded more like alchemy. Casting from a scroll. Not completely unheard of...

He keeps going back to the man. Who was he, and what did he do to the thief after the memory faded away? That's something he can't quite let go of, no matter how hard he tries.

Felix slips the book back onto the shelf, wondering if the rest of this section would yield answers about what he'd seen, or more memories he'd be forced to trespass in. Eventually, he decides to search elsewhere. If this was a library, perhaps there might be a librarian.

[child_of_bhaal]

There's certainly someone tending the place. Syeira is reshelving some books. She'll not acknowledge the visitor until he speaks to her though.

[lord_wizard]

Well, he feels less alone now, but for a moment he's not sure how to broach the questions he needs answering. Or if he knows what those questions are.

He can see the chained off section just beyond her, and he feels a tug of curiosity. Instead, he tears his gaze away and addresses her.

"I beg your pardon, but, where are we exactly?"

[child_of_bhaal]

She becomes aware of him seamlessly, laughing a bit, as if he'd made a light joke.

"The library, of course."

[lord_wizard]

He smiles back as if the jest had been intentional.

"Of course. I meant to ask to whom this impressive collection belongs," he says, lightly flattering. He wondered if there was such a thing as mental geography, or if maybe that's where he should search next, if this conversation didn't go anywhere.

[child_of_bhaal]

Her attention seems suddenly clearer. He must have said something right.

"It belongs to us." The inflection hints that she's not including him on the equation. There is a separate 'us'.

[lord_wizard]

He gets the hint, though the particulars are still incredibly fuzzy. He's at least starting to grow increasingly certain of her resemblance to the small girl in the memory he'd experienced.

"And do you represent a nation or a group that curates this library?"

[child_of_bhaal]

Her smile is patient, understanding, unoffended.

"I am a piece of the whole, to whom this is a comfortable, metaphorical, illusion." And this piece seems to really enjoy vagueness.

[lord_wizard]

Vagueness is in itself a comfortable tool he's used himself from time to time, and he can appreciate the way she's wielding it now, despite the frustration it might cause. Besides, metaphor is even more so something that he understands on a fundamental level. There are rules here he has yet to learn, but his curiosity is sparked - and when that occurs there is often little than can divert him.

So perhaps this didn't represent anywhere specific, but something that felt like home.

"I see. Are there any sections you recommend I explore?"

[child_of_bhaal]

Without pruning for further details, he will not know if he is right, wrong, or something in between. She's not offering anything without prompting.

"Anything in the light is good." Still clearly delivered, but also weighed with potentially divergent meaning.

[lord_wizard]

He wouldn't be surprised if this was literal, at this point in the conversation, and glances around to see if any particular sections of the library are uniquely illuminated in some way.

[child_of_bhaal]

It's not that one is uniquely illuminated, but uniquely dark. The Restricted section, set behind it's gate, is shadowed, more than it should rightly be, even at the entrance, with all the ambient light from the rest of the library.

[lord_wizard]

It dawned on him that this shadowy corner was where she likely kept all those secret things she'd rather keep hidden away from view. The section has a siren's call all it's own but even if he were to venture that way, he'd not do so so boldly in the view of the librarian.

He turns back with a smile. "Perhaps I'll browse a little more. Thank you for entertaining my questions."

[child_of_bhaal]

She nods, her gaze seeming to pull back, returning to the almost vacant quality it had before. "I'm here if you need anything."

She turns away, back to her work, and it's suddenly like she doesn't know he's there anymore. He's free to go and do whatever he likes.

[lord_wizard]

He watches her a little longer as he continues down the aisles, as if she might reveal something more when she thinks he's no longer looking.

The real answers are in the books, though, he's certain of that much. It was a truth of his life that he do best not to forget. He circles back to where he'd started and finds the sections that might have most to do the host. The magic section tempts him to return but it's a book from the History section that eventually ends up in his hands. After all, he likes history.

[child_of_bhaal]

What he learns is that she goes right back to her task, as if she never stopped. She is not following him, or tracking him whatsoever.

Maybe helpful. Maybe not.

Anyway, on to the really important part. The books. When he takes a book, he is treated to another memory.

Your hands shake as you open the letter and start to read.

Hello Syeira,

If you are reading this, it means I have met an untimely death. I would tell you not to grieve for me, but I feel much better thinking that you would. There are things I must tell you in this letter that I might have told you before. However, if my death came too soon then I would have never been given the chance. First off, I am not your biological father, for that distinction lies with an entity known as Bhaal. The Bhaal that I speak of is the one you know of as a divinity. In the crisis known as the Time of Troubles, when the Gods walked Faerun, Bhaal was also forced into a mortal shell. He was somehow forewarned of the death that awaited him during this time. For reasons unknown to me, he sought out women of every race and forced himself upon them. Your mother was one of those women, and as you know, she died in childbirth. I had been her friend and on occasion, lover. I felt obligated to raise you as my own. I have always thought of you as my child and I hope you still think of me as your father. You are a special child. The blood of the Gods runs through your veins. If you make use of our extensive library, you will find that our founder, Alaundo, has many prophecies concerning the coming of the spawn of Bhaal. These are many who will want to use you for their own purposes. One, a man who calls himself Sarevok, is the worst danger. He has studied here at Candlekeep and thus knows a great deal about your history and who you are.

Gorion

You feel suddenly as if you can't move. Can't breathe. Your mind races, reels. You feel dizzy.

And then just as suddenly, the memory ends.