Snippet #2045699

The corners of Tess' eyes crinkled as she cupped her own thin, frail, fingers over his and offered a heartfelt squeeze.

"Too long," she agreed, releasing his hand, and cast a critical eye briefly over the elf before allowing her lips to turn up in the slightest of gestures. "It is good to see your years away from the academy have not gone to waste."

"On my return with the class visiting Fort Nuoro this afternoon, I detected a temporal anomaly that, while of no discernible origin, seems to be coming from within the town itself. None of us have been able to pinpoint its location, and if not for the strange happenings since last night up to the Watch's discovery of the recent murder victim this morning, I would have not thought to look for it."

The archmage began walking at a slow, measured pace around the circumference of the sundial, occasionally surveying one of the many buildings surrounding the town centre or glancing at each symbol and 'hmming' in noting some passing detail.

"As you may recall, for thirty years, the Gray Scholars, a group of the academy's elite students and professors, have been on the hunt for an magic book allegedly written and secreted away by one of the Drenn themselves. When sought after, the book erects a barrier within a certain radius preventing its discovery. It is said the mysteries of our world lie within its pages, and whosoever dispels the enchantment and locates this book will potentially wield the power of Ruyn itself.

"That is not all," she continued, stopping at the north-facing copper lemniscate on the sundial, and ran her fingers across the symbol. "Just before the fire, unbeknownst to the public eye and most of the students, one of the Grays went rogue and tried to unleash a spell strong enough to tear a dimensional rift spanning across the realms. You may remember Professor Belmont, our adept Chronomage?"

The old woman paused to led the name and titled sink in.

"He was one of our top scholars. The Council of Mages placed him under investigation shortly before you were expelled. Despite never going to trial, they exonerated him of all charges of arson based on lack of evidence of his involvement, but impeached him on grounds for abuse of magic. Angered, he threatened the council mages with retribution and disappeared shortly thereafter, though we learned through his writings he may have been close to finding the book. What may happen upon unlocking the secrets of that tome is all wild speculation, but I know of no other mage in Zamil powerful enough to fathom let alone dispel an anomaly of this proportion. If he is here, in Gooseneck, vouchsafe he will prove a most formidable adversary."