Tollevangyre

Eberous leaned back and chuckled "That's quite a proposition you have there. I do have some interest in the Ilth and I could use an outing...Himmm". The Straudeku got out of his seat and and looked Athir in the eye with his featureless face "Yes I would absolutely love to gain possession of a live Ilth but if you are asking seriously then you must take into account who exactly it is you're talking to". Eberous broke eye contact so to speak "My methods are considered beyond questionable and my results are considered abominations so while I would enjoy accompanying you I will advise you to consider whether or not you are comfortable giving such a valuable dangerous thing to someone like me".

"Well, the value you place on such a thing seems academic, yes? Academic value far outweighs coinage in my eyes, think of the knowledge we could all gain for learning how these...things work. I do have experience with cataloging flora and fauna, perhaps you wish an assistant?." There was an eagerness to him that was dampened quickly when reality dawned on him.

"However, it is remote we shall run across an Ilth, if we are lucky. I believe as raiders, they are long gone by spring. Perhaps, they cannot survive outside cold temperatures. " He found the Professor fascinating and frightening. But like a limitless well of potential, he could see the danger of the depths along with the opportunity for exploration.

"But your guidance would be needed, I think Limial is pushing on a bit foolhardy." He bit his knuckle "I had better get those flint vials for Requin. A shame he isn't human, he could make a great Professor too. I just do not see the Church allowing any Champion races in anymore. Actions down out of fear." He added to the end, he did not entirely agree with their stance. He did not disagree with it either. Seeing how easy it would be for some of these Champion races to dominate humanity, there had to be a line somewhere.

"I'll gladly join you. I think I may even bring one of my experiments in case of any...complications" Eberous said going back to his notes. "As for Limial...she is disconcerning. That may be too harsh but from my experience that much pride only serves to taint academics but then of course that sort of thing is not my field of study" he said as though he were reading a grocery list. The professor put his pen down at Athir's political comment "Perhaps but that is also not my field".

"Experiments sir?" Now the curiosity stirred in his voice. "What manner of experiments?" The need to know hung there, Athir was the nosiest of pupils by far, he had a shameless sense of entitlement when it came to information. He barely realized how intrusive it could be since he felt deep down all knowledge was inherently communal. To hold back, to keep it secret, now that was the rude portion to things!
"I could help you transport it or perhaps if you had some notes I could learn of it some. " He felt the urging to head out the door and pack, obtain the flint vials, or any other aspect of his day fading under the all encompassing need to know. He knew he had to hustle into the city to meet his relative and nothing was simple with such exchanges. Gold was not going to work as currency either, family needed the currency of gifts, compliments, and time. Outsiders would never understand or have the patience for Yellow Hills bartering, it seemed to exist to sap time.
"Or when I am in Cantherdron perhaps I can pick you up something you need? I have to head toward the bakery for a ...cake to pay for the flasks. Then some wine to pay for it. Perhaps gifts for his wife..."

Athir stumbled to Requins door at half past ten with a crate and a decidedly leftward lean. The world was still swirling despite the bracingly cold walk across the courtyard. An hours walk had taken him from slurring drunkenness to the ominous hints of the headache he would have in the morning. The crate in his arms was heavy and wooden and packed with straw to protect the precious cargo. He looked down at his full hands, considered putting down the crate and knocking like a civilized man, and just set his forehead to the door a moment.

He slowly set down the crate, more slowness than was ever required but he could not be too sure of his senses in this state. He knocked clumsily on the door and called out.

"Hey Requin, I got that...stuff you wanted me too." He laughed to himself as he could not remember what he had been asked to get. He knew he had gotten it, he was still sober when he asked. It had been a long night of social banter between compatriots washed down with what seemed to be endless glasses of wine and delicate glass bowls of spirits. He had managed to grab a heavy woolen tunic before leaving the city, courtesy of his relative, of course. It was slightly too large and he had to roll the sleeves up, hiding the intricate embroidery on the cuffs.

"Come on, open up, it was a really long walk and ..it is really cold." He added with a smirk. "I think I hear wolves!" He leaned his head down, looking at the distant box, and smelled the scents rising from his tunic. Cardamon and tea, incense and wine. He smelled like home in this thing.

Rolling out of his bed with a crash, the draekon got even more slowly up from the floor. He had only fallen asleep an hour ago, putting him in a state in which he could barely think. Seeing the fire slowly nearing death, he moved over and put on a few logs before finally realizing that a knock to the door had awoken him.

Stumbling as if he was drunk, Requin rubbed his eyes before slowly openning the door. He had fallen asleep in his day clothes, as it slowly dawned on him. His eyes slowly moved about the ends of his vision, noting the two large crates. "They can go on the lab table." Requin stated, nearly falling over as he pointed to the cleaned lab across from his bed.

"Give the fire a minute, I just stoked it." Requin stated as he slowly closed his door.

"Ah, it is alright, friend. I realize it is late, I could not get away earlier." He looked around as he walked in, the crates sliding back ans forth on one another precariously but by the grace of some unknown god they did not fall. He set them down on the lab table and looked around.
"This is nice, very far away from the dormitories like the others. I share my laboratory and study with three others, most inconvenient sometimes especially near the spring testings. " He patted the crates with a clumsy hand then turned to lean on the lab table, arms crossed across his chest. Upon his right hand was a familiar ring, the sigil of the Church of the Ascended. Most of the student body followed the religion as a matter of ease, it was increasingly difficult to hold outside faith. No doubt, a few of the students had their own religious opinions but were wise enough to keep it to themselves.

He glanced to Requin, noting his rumpled clothing and bleary expression.

"Nose to the grindstone always, yes? Will you be ready to depart in time?"

Responding to the comment about being in an isolated room, Requin stated "After the first night of the explosions from my experiments keeping up other students, they decided that my private lab should be at a distance from the others."

Even though Requin noticed the ring, it meant nothing to him. To him, church was just another point of corruption. It had to have a good basis for all the humans to group around it, but it need the uppers purged. Still, he kept it to himself, as a few worlds like that could do quite a bit of bad.

"Not really. I just had to clean up my lab area. Explosives in a small area tend to destroy other equipment." Requin replied, taking a quick look at his now neat and clean shelves.

"Fair enough, most of my research is not liable to explode." He rubbed at the bridge of his nose and glanced around.
"That and since you are not...human. Not that I mind working with you. You know things I do not and unless I learn from you, I learn from no one." He said firmly and yawned.
"Since we are both awake, want to work together on it? Guide me, I help how I can. Can you throw a kettle on, I think I need some tea to clear my mind. We are not the only ones burning the midnight candles either, I passed Limial's study and she is working on something too. She must have a few student's over, I saw some horses tied to the post. " He rolled the tunic sleeves higher on his arms and rubbed his hands together. He unshouldered the knapsack from his shoulder and withdrew a cylinder of charcoal held in a brass holder, some paper, and a small knife for sharpening it.
"I should have asked long ago to work with you on the explosives. I was nervous about stepping on anyone's toes, you know how people are with their research."

"Research is the part that I mind when people try to help with. Once a product is perfected, or at least finished, I don't mind teaching others." Requin stated as he pulled out one of the flasks, looking it over carefully before slamming it on the table, causing it to produce a spark. "These should do." Requin stated, with no particular target in mind.

"You will have to start the tea yourself, I have to get the first one made to test. Wouldn't want to learn that it doesn't work in the field." Requin said as he began grabbing only small bits of the ingredients that he needed to make the explosives. The first thing his did is grind most of them, leaving only fine powders of reds, greens, and silvers. Next, he took a strange looking fruit from one of the shelves, squeezing it so that the juice filled a small bowl. Throwing all the powders into the bowl, he put a lid on it and shook it with extreme vigor before pouring a small amount into a flask that he had pulled out. The whole process taking about 10 minutes.

"You ready to test the first flask?" Requin asked Athir. When Athir was in toe, Requin walked just out the door. Holding the flask by the long, handle-like neck, he chucked it down the stone path. When it hit, the flask shattered with a series of sparks, with fire consuming almost a 20 foot radius without any more sound than the braking of the flint flask. "Perfect." Requin said, pleased with how this recipe worked out.

He watched him working with the flask before rooting about for a kettle. He filled it from the pump and set it over the fire on a hook before walking over to closer examine the work. He kept close eye on the powders, sniffing the air slightly.
"What are those you are working with? That fruit?" He was curious but not so foolish as to meddle with them now as Requin worked. The shaking of the bowl did make him nervous, he stepped back and gave Requin fair distance now. When the kettle whistled, he poured them both tea he took from a dark wooden box in his satchel, it gave off rich scents of spices.

He measured them both out tea and whispered something over it, the small runes he drew in the air causing the tea to sink into the liquid and stick to the bottom like a brick. He turned to hear they were testing and followed to the door, drinking deeply despite the burn on the inside of his mouth. The strong taste pushed aside the residual effects of the drink and the explosion was so shocking and silent that he was stone sober.
"Blessed spirits of the grit, that is amazing. It is not loud but like a ..a snake!" He grinned from ear to ear and turned.
"Let me try now, I am impressed. The spellcannons are so loud that the one firing has to wear protection for his ears. " He was like a kid in a candy store now that he could see results for these. A newfound confidence showed in his features as he moved quick back to the table.
"An Ilth would have to be invincible to shrug off THAT."

In a large cellar off the side o the school set up to function as a lab the professor was walking past many crates with holes in them pouring scraps from the cafeteria into the tops of them and lighting candles about the way. He was looking back and forth between the clipboard in his hand and the numbers on the crates. he eventually made it to one specialized crate lined with a special reflective material "Hello 209. We're going to be going on a field trip very soon. Now isn't that exciting?".

"The powder itself will not ignite easily, but explodes near silently. Not like it gives off much force. The fruit, from the fireflower plant in the draekon swamps, is quick to light and sticky when burning. Mix that with the spark from the flint, and you have a throw-able fire bomb. Still, it is the fire that would kill anything in that blast radius, due to the low power of the powder." Requin explained after the test. To those who know a ounce of knowledge of the swamps, the second thing they were taught was to never, ever, step on a fireflower. They liked to explode in a huge flame when the stem snaps, creating a flint-like spark.

"Now for what you are going to want to do is take an ounce of silverfruit dust, ground liferoot, and dried ground zyphen, mix them with a pinch of gramel dust, dried black nector, and wiffen scrapings. Then shake them all together violently. They will only explode from flame, plus you want them to be mixed evenly, or they become unreliable. That would be the last thing we would want. After that, pour 2 teaspoons of that into a flask, filling the rest of the space with fireflower juice. I will go set up something flammable to test on." Requin said to Athir before rummaging around the various other parts of his room.

As the professor was feeding his prize specimens, he may hear some murmuring come from a nearby hallway. The murmuring was accompanied by footsteps and bits and bites of a conversation fade in and out as the steps grow closer.

"...w long?"

"...said they leave in three.....she said we go on day five." There was a scuffling of feet then a glow of a candle illuminated the doorway of the laboratory as they passed.

"When will she be back?"
"She said day six at latest, once she gets rid of the prob..." They continued onward and then at the end of the hallway a key entering an old lock caused a squeak and creak then the groan of an aged door being forced open.




"Fireflower plant, I have seen drawings of those in the botany class. Grow nowhere else from the Draekon swamps, very valuable if you can get a live one out here. I have my guesses your people are not exactly trading in them if they do this." He soaked in the new knowledge, the after effects of the alcohol fading quickly under the light of new knowledge. He cracked his fingers and then shook them out before leaning over the table and searching out each of the ingredients he was told.

"Silverfruit.." He lifted the small bowl and slid it before him then ordered the rest, nodding as Requin spoke. He was careful but moved slower than Requin, he was not as sure of himself with practical explosives. He was a thinker, a planner, and he always relied on someone else to be the builder.

"Do your people use these for self defense? What kind of dangers are in your homeland?" He set a lid on the bowl and began to shake it back and forth, jaw set as he still awaited the worst. He poured two ounces into a flask then and the rest with juice, glancing over and around the room in search of flammable things.

"One draekon's things are every draekons' things. We share with only ourselves, and those we trust. We are born guardians, and we all feel the call. That is why you won't see a single draekon to draekon crime. That is how I get swamp plants out here. Now their use is not common within the swamps. Either you will die from disease before you can get that deep into the swamp, you will be killed by a poisonous creature of the swamp, you will be eaten by a plant in the swamp, or you are draekon. Thus, unless we are at war, rarely will a swamp draekon do anything more than remove them from the village.

Most of the dangers of the swamp are easy to avoid if you know what to spot, excepting the diseases and poisonous creatures that pose threats to all non-draekon who enter the swamps. The swamp is really only dangerous to outsiders, and my people like it that way. Who would try to invade a place that kills them, without the need to have big, scary beasts or warlords?" Requin stated before finally finding what he was looking for. He pulled up a fairly fresh wolf carcass that had not one ounce of fur on it. "This should do." Requin stated as he walked out and placed it on the ground.

Looking back into the room, the draekon called to Athir "You going to test your first one?"

Whatever was in the reflective box spewed a short plume of flame with an angry grunt "We certainly are going to leave a lasting impression aren't we 209?". Eberous poured a special cocktail into the water supply for the creature "Now do develop before you're urgently needed. The last thing I need is to field test an underdeveloped specimen again". Eberous scribbled in his notebook -Purchase larger kennel for 209- .

"Hard to believe a ..culture that gets along like that. I mean my people we uh..do not war often. Not as often as the Dulmur up here, that is for certain. But we have a way of settling conflict. You see, my people long ago were Arcans. Worshippers of Arca. Back then, we warred all the time, as is her way. But our numbers grew so thin and Arca sleeps now. She answered prayers for awhile but it has been over a hundred years since anyone felt her presence." He shook his head and held the jar gingerly, watching Requin ready the wolf carcass.

"So we worked out a system of courts and elders for things now. Not to say we do not occasionally give service to Arca, but that is between you and I. It is ...not looked on well here in Dulmur. I imagine it will only get worse now that the Ilth are moving southward with their raids. " He walked forward and nodded.

"So go uh..over on how I light this." He tried to imagine a place like the swamps and found it difficult. His own land was so dry that to see water soaking about on the land was foreign to him. He imagined ponds with plants overgrown and that was as close as he could get. The Draekon world really was a foreign one to him.

"One day, if allowed, I would like to see your country."

"Revealing your secrets would only lead to questions for me. Not the kind that I like answering either.” Requin stated at the end of Athir’s little speech, adding in “We are guardians from birth. This simple fact allows every draekon to have a far different respect for other draekon without question or meeting. That is how we draekon can always share and understand each other.”

“You don’t light it. When the flint of the flask breaks, it will light the contents. Put a cork on it and put some force behind it when you throw it at the carcass.” Requin instructed.

“I doubt that you would want to do that. Humans don’t tend to make it very long in the swamps, and it’s not like the draekon bother them. Most die from the diseases, but what those don’t get, the plants and small, colorful animals will finish off. The records my people have found from the human invasion recalled an entire human army wiped out within three days while the draekon ran deeper into the swamps, not fighting them a single moment.” Stated Requin.

"You need not be so reserved, it does not endear you to the others. Not to be rude, but you need all the help you can get if you will climb the ladder. We all need to work together as a floodgate to keep the Church zealots out of the Professorship here. They distrust magic, Saint Andrew distrusted magic too. All that rot about it perverting the natural order of society and undermining lawful rule. I cannot force you to talk about yourself, to open up, but at least see me an ally." He had an odd tone to that, he hid annoyance well and took on the faux friendliness of a White Salts merchant. He leaned his arm back, thinking back on the stones he used to toss to drive lions away from the herds. One rock was nothing, a lion would eat you. But a legion of youths tossing them and the lions thought twice.

He tossed and there was a crack and clink of glass breaking before a bright burst of flame that engulfed the carcass as he watched in wonderment.

"Well they work, lets work together, churn them out and we can get on the road all the quicker before the slave driver shows up."

"We all know the power of spoken words, but to those words that go unspoken, a greater power is hidden. A single secret can destroy an empire. The only question is which secret will it take. It is when one does not speak of something that others assume secrets, thus the power of the unspoken word begins. Sometimes, the unspoken word becomes most powerful when another speaks it, causing all that one wills others not know to be known. Then what happens? The power of the words begins to destroy in their own way. I know many secrets that others think I don't, and if I was to reveal a single one, then questions of my own secrets would rise. I don't like those kind of questions. And climbing the ladder would only make more secrets." Requin stated. Many people around the academy did not realize how draekon would talk between one another. How quick city draekon would tell Requin the secret of the others who went to the academy. He could nearly recite where everyone liked to shop, how often the would go to the town, their favorite time to shop, and any shady dealings they might have. It could be powerful knowledge in the wrong hands.

"Well, the more that is done before we leave, the better." Requin stated as he went back inside his room, leaving the door open for Athir to enter through. Once he got back to his lab, he began getting all the grinding done. Best to have that finished before he would begin making the rest.

Eberous had since finished feeding and watering his experiments and was setting up his classroom for his next lecture. He had a few of his experiments set up to be revealed during his speech to drive his points home. He never admitted it but the mad doctor had a flare for theatrics. Aside from that he was making sure every reference that would need to be referred to was already written on the board. He found this more effective for those who took notes and had since made this one of his teaching habits. Once the presentation portion was set he began setting up the work stations which would be needed for his biological alchemy course. His class set and his notes ready for reference the only order of business left was to check this semesters roster for any students he might recognize.