(Jiluria) Fair Play (26th Board)

Subject: Re: (Jiluria) Fair Play (26th Board) Tue Jul 15, 2014 6:37 pm

“No ill towards me until your own interests are compromised, and then you are not quite so amicable towards me. Pretty words, Rintho, but you can save them. I will not be taken in by mere verbal apologies.” His gaze bored into the lich, making his point fastidiously clear. Rintho could go so far as grovelling, but he would not make his way into Atoro’s good books for a long time even if he debased himself so far.
Everything the man said made him prickly, even more so that he already was, with such an utterly ruined day. In one way Atoro did not wish to let Rintho wriggle his way out of the Jilurian headquarters so quickly as he was, under such an excuse, and scot-free, so riled he was. Another part of him knew it was foolish however, and he wanted the knowledge that was offered… but it was this man’s doing that Yuzan had escaped. Her absence, he would notice much more once he returned to his room, once he found her papers unfinished… here, it was different, where she had never been and never disturbed him.

“You have already wasted my entire afternoon. Be my guest, waste the rest of it.” His tone turned more caustic again with these vehement thoughts, resting back against the desk behind him, although his arms were crossed. The look on his face only darkened as Rintho rambled on, apparently still naïve as to Atoro’s anger surrounding Yuzan.
“Get out, before I change my mind about letting you go back to your hovel, and have you thrown in chains instead. Have it finished by tonight, or I will rethink that again.”

Subject: Re: (Jiluria) Fair Play (26th Board) Wed Jul 16, 2014 9:24 pm

Atoro had lost none of his glare, which Rintho thought the man had been honing since an early age, perhaps when intimidating his mother as a babe and straight from the womb...only a tragic wrongness in his early years could make such a foul and bent sort of man.
Speculations aside, Rintho only offered formalities to the best he was able, more apologies, and then further promises to what he had already made, re-stating how much he wished to do this piece of work for Atoro. Surely the Lord had grown tired of lies in his lifetime, when he already gave so many of his own to others.

Rintho did not waste time in leaving, scarpering a little too quickly to be called polite as he left the Jilurian Council Hall, which was little more than a comfy Surahnian mansion, now.
Returning to his home was another matter however. As Rintho was on his way in the bright afternoon through the shadier parts of the town with cryptic alleyways and bends, he was then quite anxious in his mind to have this all done and forgotten. His stern appearance dropped to one of disbelief however as he shuffled up to his unseemly home, only to see a thick black slash of paint from one side of the door to the other. The meaning of it was far from clear, but the coarse sounds of a near group of men did pique his curiosity. Actually, it should have made sense then, all of these Surahnians and even natives, milling about in these tightly knit groups - organised and on duty.

He took a step back, hands rested on his hips and a crick in his jaw as he watched them from a distance.
One stepped forward from the group and struck what must have been a door with his fist twice, before pulling back his hand to stand stiffly. Time passed and he then knocked twice again.
This time the door must have opened as he saw the man step forward.
He did not look like any guard Rintho knew of, few though those were, not even the Surahnian ones - perhaps one of their militia?
The man was speaking and then gesturing with a strong motion of his arm to one side, in the vague direction of the central square of Jiluria.
Having Rintho's attention now, he leaned on the wall and continued to watch as the scene now played out, three of the men entered the house. A frantic woman stepped out, her moves sharp and flustered though for all the flapping of her arms, she was nonchalantly subdued with only the half-hearted palm of a hand to hold one of her wrists. Not long thereafter one of the men emerged from the doorway carrying a small trunk and the woman started becoming riled. Vocal, in fact, as Rintho could hear her coarse and common voice rise up and hiss in the air.
More belongings left the house in single file, in and out the men went until presumably nothing of much value remained but the house itself and then an angered woman standing in the street, looking after the group as they marched onward to the next...depositing the items to one side for others of the militia to carry away for good.

That was entirely rude. Rintho thought, his brows knitted as he then scuttled to the gutted house, the woman having retreated to its likely sparse interior. He only needed to take one glance to see the line of paint and a small, high-pitched gasp escaped his throat as he quickly then put a fist to his lips.
Hastily he made his way back to his home and began the swiftest and perhaps only clearing of his possessions in his entire life.
"Where to put it, where to put it all!" He whispered quickly under his breath, whirling about and only seeing piles of this and that, tins and pots, arrangements and heaps...

"Well..." He said, abjectly. "They still can't take the floor from under my feet." He announced to himself...glancing down at it as he shuffled a foot over the same loose floorboard as he often did, having lost many a small trinket to it...
"Oh, my. What a stroke of fortune." Well, there was hope yet.

----

It had taken him decidedly too long to have it done, but done it he had. With a combination of desperation, panic and a stripping away of his preciousness for his tender books, Rintho had managed to deposit his most esteemed items beneath the floor of his home. At least he had taken the care to wrap them in blankets from a bed he never needed nor used.
So when the men came to his home, they did not steal all of his life's work...though Rintho had had to settle for parting with a few entertaining little extras amongst his magical inventory. If nothing else, seeing the eyes of naive and unadjusted Surahnian men as they took jars of tiny little snakes and pig snouts, for their "loot" if it could be called that, was worth it.

All this of course meant he was thoroughly unprepared for Lord Reimeghan, even if he was the cheeriest man in his entire street, knowing he had hidden the greater part of his pride from the sticky fingers of invaders...that would not help him when he faced the least cheery man for the greater part of the Isle.

Making his way back to Atoro was the least difficult part, and unfortunately, he knew it would be the quickest part in all of this too. Presumably Atoro had made sure for the guard to be expecting their unusual guest, and so this was the first time in a long while that Rintho entered the official way as ordinary people did, even if he did still skulk past them in suspicion. The feeling was obviously mutual, and Rintho did not fancy his chances when he climbed the staircase, only to glance back down and catch the eyes of one of the guards, marking his left eyelid with his finger and then turning his pointed nail to Rintho.

Bemused as ever, Rintho fumbled his way back to Atoro's room and pattered on the door with several small knocks.
"Great Lord." He began. "As I promised, no doubt."

Subject: Re: (Jiluria) Fair Play (26th Board) Fri Aug 01, 2014 6:00 pm

Decidedly less muddy than when he had returned to Rintho, Atoro had spent a frustrating afternoon and evening trying to concentrate on more important matters than his own personal contentment. He had mostly managed to succeed, achieving a few useful things, but a few useful things hardly made a dent on his own personal happiness, when those particular things were no better than, to take the common word for it, shit. The fact that he would have to deal with Rintho for the third time that day hardly improved his already sparkling mood.
[i]Men of my position should not have to put up with such farce,[i] he thought to himself as he heard the unwelcome few taps at the door, disturbing his work once again. Perhaps he shouldn’t even have bothered to begin, when Rintho would just ruin the whole evening’s productivity.
He made sure to take his time with laying down his things and packing his books away from Rintho’s sadly intelligent gaze as the lich made his way inside, giving him a cold look that promised nothing good for the conversation that would follow.

“And my papers, as promised?” A cursory glance over Rintho did not reward any indication at all that the lich had done as commanded, and Atoro’s tone and expression was immediately icy, his eyes scouring the lich’s folded hands. “I do hope you have not disappointed me again Rintho. My temper is not bearing well with your constant failures.” And he would not put up with many more from such an irritating man when there was proper work to be done.

Subject: Re: (Jiluria) Fair Play (26th Board) Sun Aug 03, 2014 6:06 pm

"No papers, but you don't care for them anyway, my Lord." He said politely, dismissing Atoro's question perhaps more curtly than he intended. "I have all the knowledge here that you need." He spoke, tapping on his temple. "I would have written all my thoughts down, my Lord, but then your people's men came to clear the possessions of those in my roads...I could not leave all my life's work to those that would not respect it. I spent my time hiding it all Lord, while I memorised all the most crucial of items in my mind to tell you. Still, your most vehement poison is here, too."
Once thing that he could claim to have. And so he pulled the bottle from his side, no longer paying a whim of a thought to what Atoro might do with it - it was as good as anything to help himself out of this mess.

The sooner he could be free and away of Atoro's demands, the better. Then maybe he could dwell with those more amicable to him; speak with Apollo about the great state of what he had discovered in Celen's Fall. Atoro's interest was only cursory, utilitarian and the man was poisonous by association. Soon Rintho would be moving away with Syru to a better place, and have his work in peace. Then Atoro would be nothing more than a distant shadow in his memory, and with any luck, be killed by a lucky burst of lightning from a dragon.
"I thought this might be for the best anyway, much better for you to make valuable notes as I tell you what I have learnt, than for me to give you an incomprehensible string of words upon pages that you would not understand without guidance. The guidance of myself or another person that is so inclined to magic, that is."
Wordy as ever, Rintho weaved his way beyond incrimination to the best of his ability.

Subject: Re: (Jiluria) Fair Play (26th Board) Tue Aug 12, 2014 11:28 am

From the moment Rintho opened his mouth, Atoro knew he was not going to come out of this meeting satisfied. His expression darkened.
Why did the lich think Atoro had instructed him to write down what he would need to know? So he did not have to put up with the man’s intolerable company for any longer than he possibly needed to. And yet, he was so utterly oblivious…
Not for the first time, Atoro asked himself why he continued to grit his teeth and put up with Rintho.

“So you spent your time consolidating your wealth instead of doing what I ordered you to do.” Perhaps he himself should march to Rintho’s house and take his possessions, when he could be so very insolent. “You are an oblivious fool.”
He snatched away the potion Rintho proffered, returning his good work there with a scowl and a close look at the bottle, then tucked it away and set his fierce gaze again.
“Why is it that I must put up with so much from you? You are intolerable.” Alas, there wasn’t much that could be done about it however- Rintho would happy get off scott-free once again. It made Atoro’s blood boil.
Pulling paper and pen together and, with some noise, arranging them on a clean surface, he mouthed a couple of obscenities underneath his breath with his back to the lich.
“Get on with it then, or do you intend to make your company even more torturously extended?”

Subject: Re: (Jiluria) Fair Play (26th Board) Thu Aug 14, 2014 7:01 pm

"My Lord, it is not quite as that sounds." Atoro phrased it so inelegantly that it might as well have been Rintho's prosecution before his hanging. If such a punishment would have mattered to the lich. "And I wish to waste no more of your time," or mine "as I understand this has been trying for you." A perfect day to lose one of Atoro's things and then also forget his demands. Rintho did also vaguely wonder why he had not been simply sent to prison to write out the piece, but he knew his blessings when he found them, so he did not comment.
"Of the lightning stone, my Lord..."
And so Rintho began to speak, with difficulty at first, ill at ease as he was with Atoro's impatience.

The Lightning stone.

Legend has it this was the last stone the Arch Magician made on his way back home to not-so-distant-Nusfar...
My Lord, all stones are greatly charged with a controlled form of magic, that is to say 'magic that is easily directable', as it needed to be able to maintain consistency over the island with its influence. All the stones exert their power around the landscape, and you can see it in the weather.
You will find this in the harvest of Racksom in the next year, when the earth stone comes into its own. Even now perhaps, you would see there are still many crops that you would only expect at an earlier time.
I digress. The lightning stone is said to gather storms, can enhance all sorts of lightning magic (though being near the stone, or any part of it, does help all types of magic. It is also greatly influential when faced with water magic and is dwindled in the face of earth magic.
The shard you hold works just like the stone, in a smaller way. Though it will not hold nearly so much influence as the mighty stone, it in itself, is far more mighty than many other magical artifacts.
As long as you hold it my lord, you will find yourself a certain level of protection granted from water magics...
Those that might wish to harm you with their water spells or use them otherwise upon you, will find they have great difficulty in doing so.
Beware the earth users however, and do keep your shard sealed away when you walk past the tower of the earth stone in Racksom city, I would advise keeping the shard away from Racksom altogether, frankly.

You will find, conveniently, that lightning magic is a part of toxic magic. As such, it does empower any toxic type magics, such as the Charis poison, and I have no doubt in my mind that you will use this with wisdom above all.
My word of caution however would be not to tempt fate when a storm befalls you and your men, as the shard calls strongly to the lightning forks of the heavens.

I would also suggest keeping such a shard away from the free magic, as there is no telling how it will react and you might also seriously harm yourself in this way.

On the other hand, my Lord, such a thing can also be turned against your foes.

Having elaborated countless times on several points, Rintho realised that he should perhaps have stopped a bit sooner, sometimes having found himself straying into areas that would confound the man. And if there was anything Rintho did not want, it was a curious and confounded Atoro, hounding him for more answers with sufficient knowledge to threaten him with an attack from the lightning shard.
"And my Lord I must ask now, are you satisfied? This is the most useful of knowledge I can give you, without boring you with countless little meaningless details. I would not wish to overstay my welcome any further than I already have."

Subject: Re: (Jiluria) Fair Play (26th Board) Tue Aug 19, 2014 9:20 pm

Atoro took rigourous note of everything Rintho told him, quickly writing down the most of what he said, omitting only the deviations that the lich so frequently (and unfortunately) deigned to make.
That he couldn't have merely written it himself however, Atoro did not understand, and it would be a constant frustration to him that Rintho would never quite deliver the most useful product straight off. It was always such a struggle to extract information- perhaps Rintho cringed so every time he crossed Atoro because he recieved his poor side... but he did bring it on himself.
Perhaps Rintho was starting to think Atoro enjoyed having to pin him down every encounter for the smallest scrap of information. He certainly didn't; quite the opposite, when he was always left with a feeling of discontent, and the vague sense of being robbed of information he might have gotten had Rintho been a little less... himself.

There was a fair amount that Atoro found himself wondering about when it came to quickly skimming through what the lich had told him as he fell silent, although he was fairly contented with that which he had been given. It was a good base point to start work from... a good place to find a few rudimentary books on magic and read around a little. The lightning shard he had been given lived up to all his hopes for it however- thankfully. All that effort to get it, had (surprisingly, given Rintho was involved), actually paid off.

"That will be sufficient." Brushing his quill over his lips, he rolled his newly-filled piece of paper up into a scroll, idly flicking the edge between his fingers as he regarded Rintho again. He toyed with the idea of detaining him longer, but even the thought of the fuss Rintho would kick up gave him a headache.
"You have already overstayed, by not following my prior express command. However, despite your failing... I will let you go. Do not neglect if there is another time, or you will not get off so lightly."

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