The Metal Man

[Call me J]

(Closed to Anila and Zook)

The scream that ended abruptly still startled Jame. The half dragon closed his book and wished that he had some weapon on him other than the delhar claymore that he was only beginning to understand how to use. There was something wrong in Ankhas, and within seconds, Jame could see that the entire place was surrounded by guards from the Kyorl. He gulped nervously, being around so many well armed soldiers moving in unison was unnerving, even though Jame knew he wasn’t the target. They blocked off all the walls and barred the exits.

Soon, Jame saw them carrying out a metal statue on a stretcher as if she was wounded, and he blinked in disbelief, because if he remembered correctly, the statue looked identical to one of the librarians. “The librarian who screamed,” he realized.

“Hey claymore!” one of the guards shouted over to him. “You see anything?”

Jame didn’t respond at first, but then he remembered just having a weapon in a place like the library was a sign of respect. “Me?” he asked. He knew he didn’t actually need an answer to go over, and so he made his way over to the guard.

“Someone here has the ability to turn people into metal…” the guard said, speaking in a light tone. “In five hours, we’re expected to find this person if we can. We’re barring all the doors, and keeping our forces there, and then we’re arming all the people inside. We know the killer is still in here, so he’s going to have to show his talents if he wants to survive among an armed group of people…”

The proposal seemed preposterous. “Won’t these people attack the guards?” he asked. “Think about it! There are a lot of people in the library, they might all team up against you…”

The guard nodded. “We want to find this metal man,” he replied. “We know he will be useful for us, but unless we identify him, then we’ll have no way of knowing.” Jame looked as weapons were being carted in through the only open door left. Once the weaponry was brought in, the last door was sealed and the guards began to move into their formations.

“Find the metal man,” the guard continued. “We need him captured.”

Jame nodded. “Alright.” He could tell that the guard no longer wanted to talk to him now that all the rest of the soldiers had been taking their positions. “I’ll take care of things…” As he moved away, Jame heaved a deep exhale and looked around the stacks. There were fifteen people that he could see, and that was just in the stacks closest to him. The half dragon realized that the chances of him finding this metal man were not going to be very good. There were just too many books, and too many strangers reading things. Wearily, he regretted ever coming to the library. “To think, all this trouble just for some books…” he thought. “I could have stayed in the Palace but I decided for answers instead- some answers I’m getting here.”

[Zook Murnig]

The Slayer's Songbook. While that book was designed to combat the undead, it could easily be turned to the devastation of the living. The Order couldn't allow that to happen. That ancient tome of elven battle magic had resurfaced in the possession of one Damon Kaosi within recent years. That much, Caduceus knew. But where was this enigma of a man? He had disappeared from Althanas, and none knew his current whereabouts or what he was up to. That was what this founder of the Golden Dawn had gone to Ankhas to find out.

Not that he'd had much success. The magician stood over a long table covered with open librams, leaning on the sturdy wood that sat nestled between two tall, impossibly long bookstacks. Each book held information about Kaosi and his exploits. None held anything since his disappearance. It was like he just ceased existing...

Exasperated, Caduceus closed one book, moving to take it back to the shelf he found it on. As he walked, he breathed a deep sigh, rolling his head back to look upward. His tied hair rustled against the cloth of his robes, getting caught in the cowl of his lowered hood. "Lord," he whispered, "where is this man? Please, give me a sign..."

Mere moments later, a cry rang out, and the shocked scholar froze, eyes wide. A second passed before another loud sound broke the silence, the weighty tome striking the floor with a protesting report. "God..." That was a scream, his conscious mind stated the obvious. Has someone been attacked? In a library?

His hands shook, and he turned about quickly, his robes swirling about him as he did. Glancing around, he wondered if he would be allowed to continue his research. If he, or anyone, would make it out alive. No. I won't think about that. Shaking himself, he turned back around.

"What in the Abyss is going on, here...?" he growled, regaining his nerve. He strode quickly to the main section of the library, the book lying where he left it, forgotten in a world of action.

[Anila]

Despite the fact that she didn't really take her position as Matriarch of the House of Sora's Lodge Divoyani seriously, Sakurazuka Anila had gone to Alerar to scout out the political situation of the nation for herself. It was about what she'd thought. The Elves here were suspicious of outsiders, and almost more suspicious of insiders. No one trusted anyone, especially not on a political front. If she ever sat down at a table across from the nobility here, she'd probably find it more difficult than having a discussion with her father, the estimable Duke Sakurazuka Yukio.

Anila had been in the library doing research on the political structure of Alerar; understanding was, after all, the first key to success. Unfortunately, all of the texts she'd found were in the local tongue. Alerian had always been one of her weaker languages, despite the fact that she was nearly fluent in Raiaeran, its sister tongue.

She'd been poring over a text on the history of the Monarchy of Alerar for a couple of hours with some difficulty when a sharp scream, sharply ended, pierced the quiet hum that had surrounded Anila for the past several hours. Leaving the book on the table and smoothing down the sleeves of her comfortable traveling suit, Anila stepped forward, almost into a swarm of the local law enforcement, the Kyorl.

"Did you see what happened?" One of them addressed her, an insignia that she'd come to recognize as about midway up the food chain, a second lieutenant, or some such. She shook her head, answering him.

"I merely heard the scream." She listened with half an ear as he told her the same thing that another officer had told Jame on the other side of the library. It was only logical, save for the part about arming everyone. If anything, they should have been demanding that anyone who had a weapon relinquish it, at which point she was glad that her fans had their ornamental silken coverings. If she'd been caught with bare war-fans, she was certain things would have gone unpleasantly for her.

As the Kyorl moved away from her, Anila moved down the stairs to the main floor of the library. Doubtless they would need everyone to meet so that they could be questioned. And doubtless it was going to take too long, so that Hissomi would be worried and fretting by the time her noble mistress returned to the little suite they were renting for the time being.

[Call me J]

Before Jame could begin to panic, he noticed someone who could help him. It was Anila, the woman who had taught him everything he knew about combat in the Citadel. He was very happy to see her, especially because of how very little he knew about combat. With her help, he figured he could track down this metal man who had caused the entire library to be shut down.

With a sigh, he wondered if he should talk to anyone else as well. Normally, Jame didn’t like to go on adventures unless he had a strong, overwhelming amount of force on his side. He liked going on adventures that were bound to have violence even less. In this case though, with the exception of Anila, he didn’t know who to trust. He didn’t really even have enough reason to trust Anila, after all, he had only met her once. Given the situation though, he really felt as though he couldn’t afford but to trust her. It was either use her as an ally, or end up having to face the metal man on his own.

Knowing that it was an awkward time for reintroductions, Jame still made his way over to Anila. She had just made her way down the stairs, so Jame wasn’t sure how much she knew of the situation, but even then he approached her somewhat timidly. Even though he had decided to trust her, he didn’t know if she was going to make the same decision. He figured, given that she had seen his martial prowess in the Citadel, she would have been inclined to believe that he was relatively untalented, but even so, he thought caution was going to be preferable.

The first thing Jame did when he got close enough to Anila to speak with her in a regular voice was to wave. “Hey Anila!” he said. “It’s Jame Whitizard, remember me? From the Citadel, you showed me how to use my sword. We had that battle where you showed me what I was supposed to do, do you remember that?” He paused only long enough to give her time to process the information before continuing, simply because he was nervous and wanted to get it off his chest. “Anyways, there is some kind of man here who turns things into metal, and none of us are going to be able to leave until we catch him. You should help me, you know much more about these things than I do. They just told me because I know people in the government, but you’re the kind of person who’d actually take the metal man out…”

Now, Jame paused long enough for Anila to respond. Once he got the entire statement off his chest, he felt a bit calmer. He bit his lip nervously, hoping that she would respond with something positive. Otherwise, he didn’t have much of a plan at all. In fact, even if she agreed to help him, Jame didn’t have much of a plan. He was just going to hope Anila would be able to think of one.

[Anila]

Anila was more than a little surprised to see a familiar face approach her as she descended the stairs. She remembered the boy she had come to the Citadel specifically to teach a few months before. Despite the fact that he had then possessed no knowledge of her, the Ai'Bron monks of the Dajas Pagoda, where she held the position of Warrior, had communicated with the Ai'Bron monks of the Citadel that she was perhaps precisely what he had needed. She remembered that he had been a fast learner.

He came at her with the nervous air of a puppy that isn't sure whether or not he's in trouble, and she met his nervous babble with a slight smile.

"Of course I remember you. Though I am challenged to many battles, I am rarely requested to teach."

As she reached the bottom of the steps, Anila looked up at Jame, who stood a full head and shoulders above her. Had he improved so little in these months that he needed her protection? Or was he just that uncertain about how he fit into the world? Either way, his idea of her taking down this mythril mage? Pure and utter foolishness.

She let her dark eyes drift around the cavernous spaces of Ankhas, noting that from the center of the building one could scarcely see either end. Yes, there were shelves upon shelves of books filed away in its halls and valuable trinkets and artifacts that were displayed quietly in its cases, but the fact that it was full almost to bursting with such did nothing to mask the sheer size of it. If the Kyorl were gathering everyone up and he wanted to hide, it could be hours before he was caught, if ever he were caught at all.

"I have heard about the...incident. I agree that it is imperitive to locate this person and see that justice is served, but I will not take the mage down. Nor should you. That would be foolish, especially since the Kyorl are as thick in this place as are ants at an outdoor feast."

She looked back at Jame, making sure that he understood what she was saying. To send her point even further home, she made a gesture, encompassing the library and all within it.

"This crime was committed against a citizen of Alerar on that nation's soil, and within a public place of that nation. It is not in my jurisdiction to serve punishment, nor is it yours. If we were in the North of Akashima, then perhaps it would be my call, in the absence of my father or brother. So no, if you intend to fight him, unless it becomes a necessity, I shall not. But...this library is well stocked. You have influence here, I do not. See if you cannot get us excused to do some research. Doubtless such an ability as the power to turn flesh to mythril has surfaced before, been documented, and identifying traits noted. Perhaps, through research, we can find this criminal."

[Zook Murnig]

So long had the magician been wandering the halls and shelves of Ankhas that he had little difficulty in finding his way back to the atrium, where he found it to be swarming with the Kyorl and other library patrons, most of whom seemed confused about what was going on. However, one pair near the base of the stairs, appeared to be speaking confidentially, as if they knew what was going on.

He made his way over to the conspiring couple, climbing down the flight of steps. As he approached, he vaguely recognized the dark-haired woman. "Ah, lady Sakurazuka! You don't know me, but I recognize you from your picture in one of the House leaflets, matriarch of Lodge Divoyani." He smiled as he introduced himself. "My name is Caduceus. Caduceus Grimaldi. If you look through the House records, you'll find that I am a former member of your organization. Regrettably, I was never able to meaningfully contribute to your lofty goals."

He sighed, and glanced around before continuing. "But I digress. What I came over to say is...Do the two of you know what's going on? Who screamed?" His voice began to quaver as he recalled that blood curdling screech, and he wiped a single bead of sweat from where it formed at his hairline. He had every hope that he was wrong, that there wasn't an attack. That someone had just fainted in excitement.

He had every hope he was wrong. And he knew he was right.

[Call me J]

Jame didn’t much care for Anila’s idea of discovering the metal man through research. Perhaps, it was possible that they could turn up something useful, but even then, he was somewhat reluctant to engage in a game, when he was confident that Anila’s fans would be more than enough to diffuse the situation. “If all this was going to take was just leafing through afew books, I don’t know if I would have asked for the help of one of the world’s best fighters. I’d have solved it myself, after all, I can read…” he thought.

Still, before he could offer a plan, he was interrupted by a stranger. Jame considered reaching for his claymore, but after what the man said about knowing Anila, he was willing to accept that they might have been allies in the past. He knew her last name, and that was something that Jame hadn’t mentioned. “Anila, if you want him with us, then he’s welcome to come,” Jame said. After all, three is better than two.

With that, Jame made his way to the second floor of the library, towards the West wing where he knew the majority of books on the occult were kept. He knew something like a man who turned others to metal had to belong there, because it seemed impossible to be the natural ability of a race. If it was, they would have been among Althanas’ greatest metal producers.

Jame even had to wonder why, if someone had such an ability, they would turn to a life of crime instead of business. The profit they could have seemed like it would be enough motivation for most. However, given the situation, Jame didn’t let his thoughts wander too much. The stacks were mostly empty, and save for the sounds of his group, he couldn’t hear anything else around him. Jame didn’t know if that was because the books on the occult were seldom read, or because the commotion downstairs had caused more people to file in to the atrium.

As he moved deeper into the piles of books stacked one on top of each other, Jame began to believe the latter. The shelves were dusty and he coughed just picking up a tome to check its name. “Combat alchemy” he read. “This might be it.” There were a bunch of other books near it that were likely on the same topic, but many of them were in Dark Elven, a language Jame could speak a bit, but had not yet learned to read.

“There are probably books here if any of you read Drow…” he said dryly, not expecting a positive answer.

[Anila]

Anila watched Jame start up the stairs to start doing exactly what he thought least useful. She'd leave him alone for a minute, but first she would see to the other person who had recognized her. She'd seen the papers on the names and House names of each member, and Caduceus Grimaldi was only one of the names that she remembered from those papers.

"I am Keikoku Sakurazuka of the House, Azoth. I remember you leaving shortly after I took my position as Matriarch of Divoyani."

She gestured for him to come back up the stairs with her. Originally, she'd been uncertain that it wasn't a bad idea to wear her travel clothes into the library, rather than her kimono, but now she was glad of it. She had full mobility, which would be useful should the Kyorl fail and there arise a need to fight.

She heard Jame's snide remark as he pulled down a manual in common. She chose to peruse the texts in Drow, taking one whose title translated to "Mages of Metal: Common Abilities and Symptoms."

"Xuat ori'gato dosst ehmtu niss'nir d'equidai ulu phord ori'gato dos z'reninth l'toha d'byrren," she told Jame as she opened the book.

"Languages are essential...and I believe I may have what we need."

She set the book down on a table between the three of them, turning pages to the section on mages that specialized in working with mythril.

"I read somewhere that there are very few mages who work in metals because their very magic is toxic to them. Some even have physical symptoms of their magic, and those who specialize in mythril are among them. We're looking for a person - man or woman - with silver eyes and what appears to be silver residue on the fingertips. I doubt it will be easy to see either on this person, since he or she knows the symptoms and knows that someone might be looking for them."

Her dark eyes scanned calmly over more of the information. "Apparently, they also have the metabolism of a shrew. If this person is not found within twelve hours, there won't be much problem. He won't have enough energy to move."

[Zook Murnig]

Caduceus made note of the Akashiman's controlled and polite manner, thinking it fitting for the leader of the diplomatic branch of her organization. "Ah, yes, I was a member of the House for only a short time," he mused. "I never took part in any missions, and I felt guilty for that. My research took precedence, and it now is central in my work for my Order." He stopped himself there, lest he reveal too much about the secretive Golden Dawn which he had helped found.

As they made the three made their way through the stacks to the occult section, Caduceus listened intently to their discussion of what had occurred. Apparently some magician of metals was loose in the library of Ettermire, turning people to pure mythril.

Mythril, the alchemical Quicksilver, he began to think. Denoted by the symbol of Mercury, which corresponds to Hod, where transformation of energies takes place. If my anatomical correspondences are correct, the liver is found in the region of Hod, where heavy metals and poisons are metabolized. That would explain the poisonous qualities of the magic, and the high metabolism.

Caduceus gathered himself together, making the sign of a cross over his chest and visualizing a hexagram with all points glowing and shining their lights inward to a central focus. He muttered a soft "Ain Soph," and his vision became clearer, more focused. He saw the hints of a strange magic about the silver-haired Jame, and he noted a flash of silver through the ornamental coverings on Anila's fans.

The young magician grinned. "I believe I have a way of detecting this 'metal man.'" And he began to explain in a hushed tone how he would identify the mythril magician.

[Call me J]

Jame was pleasantly surprised with how quickly Anila and her friend had found information. He had been leafing through a book on his own, and had found nothing of very much interest, other than that with hard work and a lot of dedication, he might be able to become a metal man himself. Now, he listened to them intently, surprised with how much they could manage. He grinned. Now he had a better plan than reading more about the necessity of hard work had he wanted to become a mythrilmancer of his own.

With a smile, he placed his book down on the table and clasped his hands together. “It’s time to make a move,” he said. “We know what this person is, and what they want, so it’ll be up to us to catch him. The sooner we do that, the sooner we leave. I didn’t want to tell you this earlier, but I know the guards out there aren’t going to wait for very long. They’re willing to go through and kill everyone until they find the person they’re looking for if we don’t weed him out ourselves. They’re hoping that the combat within the library is enough for this man to reveal himself. They’d rather have us do the job than take the risk themselves. Just thought that you should know.”

Now that he’d got that off his chest, Jame brought his attention back to the issue at hand. He had spoke somewhat blankly on the subject, as if the fact that the Kyorl held life in such low regard that they were willing to kill a library’s worth of people just to get one magician was not particularly surprising. That was, because for him, it wasn’t. He had already met Alerar’s High Graf Schynius, and based on their meeting, there was very little about the Machiavellian calculations of the Alerarian government that could surprise him.

Eager to change the subject, Jame asked questions about the books that Anila and her friend had read. “Are there any abilities that go along with transitions to metal?” Jame asked. He didn’t want to say what he was thinking, but he feared that if the man they were tracking had such a high metabolism, then he was likely to turn to cannibalism if there was no other source of food. “Either that, or anyone know a place where he could eat?”

Jame thought that would be the quickest way to catch the metal man, if he could, in fact, be caught. The book he had was vague enough, and probably written for children. It talked about metal mages as being very powerful, and quite well respected within their communities.

Tired of the book, Jame mindlessly tossed it back over to the pile where the others were collected and sat down on the table. He looked around, cautiously, now more fearful of the metal man than he had been before. Originally, Jame had imagined an assassin, someone who was now hiding fearful of being caught. Now, he worried that the transformation had resulted in a creature so powerful that once cornered, it would turn into a vicious animal.

His face in a tight knot, Jame scanned the rows of books again, both the piles of occult literature near him, and the bigger, majestic bookcases to his left that contained one of the library’s many collections on military tactics. He wondered for a moment, if he was a fugitive, if that would be the place in which he would hide. It was on the second floor, in a remote part of the library, and the stacks were tall. The darkness in the area suggested that it would have very few visitors, except from those dark elves particularly interested in combat. However, before Jame was going to suggest that they investigate, he wanted to hear what the others had to say.

[Anila]

"What do you mean by 'abilities that go along with transitions to metal?'"

Despite the fact that the young half-dragon's question had been about as clear as mud, Anila's brown eyes were already skimming over the rest of the page to try and answer his question. Most of what she caught were snippets of magical jargon that meant nothing to her, but she didn't see anything that might answer Jame's question, at least not at first.

"For a limited time, they can defend themselves by making their own skin as hard as the metal they specialize in, but this is only for a limited time, and it drains them faster than if they conserved energy. In any event, we should begin seeking out this individual, if the local law enforcement is as useless as you intimate."

That said, Anila straightened up, closing the musty old book with strong, delicate fingers. Those same digits drummed softly on the smooth tabletop for a second before she again regarded the two men standing with her.

"Grimaldi-san said he had a way of detecting this person, and Whitizard-san looks as though he has an idea where to start. Let us hear and do, since apparently, time is of the essence."