The Collection of Khal'Jaren

[Silence Sei]

(Closed to Arsene and Artamos Alcor)

Khal'Jaren's library would have the answers.

Sei had heard of the Sage Thayne’s housing of all the worlds’ literary works. It was something men with a thirst for knowledge dreamed over. Anyone who could find the extensive library would be privy to all of the world's written text. After all, Khal'Jaren was nigh immortal, and as such, had all the time in the world to copy even single copies of certain books.

Sei had thought about quest for the library when he had first started his adventures on Althanas. However, things kept arising to stop the telepath from accomplishing his goals. Between being the Protector of Radasanth, chief strategist for the Aleraran Special Forces, and placing in tournaments, who had time to go search for hidden catacombs?

However, Sei had finally gotten some down time. The criminal underbelly of Radasanth was slowing down, and Letho Ravenheart could take care of Corone as a whole. With this in mind, Sei packed a few things with Anita and the duo had made their way to this town just at the border of the Black Desert. There were many dangers that would await the two, and Sei was unsure as to whether or not Anita would be safe amongst the deadly scorpions and dangerous fauna.

The girl insisted she would be fine, but let her father know if it were that much of a concern, that he could find someone to help him protect her. As Anita mapped out areas on a parchment to where the catacombs leading to the library could be, Sei walked the town. He had heard that Khal'Jaren's harp was an artifact many musicians sought out as much as scholars sought the library itself. Of course there would also be those interested in finding the library just for the sake of finding it.

Without much to go on, Sei entered a small inn and looked around. There didn't seem to be very many people staying the night. Naturally, when all you had was sand and sandstorms, who would want to be in a place as damned as this? Sei shifted his eyes around as he began to speak, his daughter interrupting him.

"Listen up fellas! We're going to the Black Desert to find Khal'Jaren's library. Anyone with a thirst for knowledge or any music lovers who want Khal'Jaren's harp of ultimate intelligence, come on!" The demand brought many laughs about the inn. The innkeeper looked to the two for a moment, blinking in surprise. "Wait a minute...they're serious!"

The crowd gasped as Anita continued to look at the map. Sei merely nodded to the innkeeper. He didn't need people who would back away from danger. He needed people who would be willing to place their faith in him, so that he could return the trust. He needed bodyguards for Anita.

"I am Sei Orlouge, Protector of Radasanth. I am a long way from home, and I seek help. Is there no one willing to travel with me?"

[Artamos Alcor]

The frail and small man of no great feats nor reputation unlike many other adventurer about the tavern where enjoying a ale on this particular day. Though the man enjoyed most his day with his head in study and his brain strained on matters that even kings as well as other men of wisdom would find preposterous to imagine. But no, Artamos Alcor knew otherwise, he knew of knowledge that others could only dream of, he knew what capabilities that science held, what greatness that could be unlocked from such information was better than any lotus vine in the land. Knowledge came to him in his dreams, gifts of knowledge given from father to son. Though as of late the knowledge that came to him was not as indulging as before, no longer did it give him a pat to walk and study of how he could imply it to this world and how it would benefit him in his quest towards flawless.

Because of that, he today found himself in the company of strangers in the tavern. Though the red cloaked man did not drink any alcohol induced beverages. He still found the tavern a rather, strange place. The people that came here where of all the sorts you found, even wizards that where remarkably known to never leave their endless journey through mountains of books and scrolls. Barbarians that contested in a feat of strength as they arm wrestled. People drank for joys, sorrows or just for the sake of getting drunk. Though the apothecary used the tavern for one thing, money… His intellectual mind made the card players here an easy target for his raising of founds. Already he had been here for a good hour and filled his coffers with 400 gold, tonight was a good night. Nothing could go wrong.

Though a man entered the tavern with offers of adventure, he was about the sixth person the last hour that had done so, and any of the offers adventure and treasure sounded more ridicule that the previous, like a competition to outdo the rewards and danger of the last man. Because of that, his offer fell on deaf ears around the game of cards. After all the apothecary where counting cards and calculating carefully his chances of winning and odds as each round passed.

[Arsène]

Raiaera was hotter than anyone had ever mentioned. The lush forests were muggy on the border of the desert, and the desert was a dry, harsh place that refused to leave a traveler in peace even for a moment. The still, calm coastline gave way to endless dunes of black that rolled to eternity and back; no matter what the maps said, the desert was infinite.

Why Arsène chose to holiday within the land of the elves remained a mystery. The war with the undead was winding down to its closing chapters, and even the more dangerous areas felt safer with the stench of death receding to the far corners of the continent. The arts, though stunted by years of warfare, still flourished in a way that made men weep at the technical beauty and craft that went into it. Most of all, the melancholic needed a break from life in Radasanth, and the busy hassle that day to day affairs had become. The tedium of it all drove him to play larger venues for a far richer clientèle, and this put the money in his pocket necessary to take that vacation.

From the moment he'd arrived in the tavern, he'd been hammered. His violin was carefully put on the seat next to him as he drank glass after glass of a fruit based wine that left him with a sickeningly sweet taste in his mouth, and a massive sense of flush in his body. He wouldn't put it past the elves to spike his wine; practitioners as they were of the love that dare not speak its name.

Every few moments or so, another adventurer would enter the tavern with promises of gold and glory. And every time, corners where these mysterious men would sit seemed to grow dimmer and more ominous, perhaps melodramatically so. Still, with every new entrance, Arsène would raise his glass as high as gravity and drunkenness allowed, to cheer on the adventurer for lucks sake.

[Silence Sei]

"Kinda dumb to start an adventure in a bar, don'tcha think, Papa?" Sei's daughter asked the telepath. Perhaps asking for assistance in a place that was continuously bombarded with requests was not the brightest of ideas. The mute may have well put his call to arms on a mission board somewhere in the Raiaera.

Sei looked to Anita and waved the child off. She jumped with glee at the permission to run free. Though she was a teenager, Sei had managed to keep quite a leash on the girl. Keeping her in a cave since she was eight helped with that too.

The teenage girl ran over to a table where several people were playing poker. She noticed that a red clothed man happened to be raking in the winnings from all of those around him. After about three games of cards, one of the patrons stood from the table. His tall demeanor quickly overshadowed the smaller Anita, and she could see the rage in his blue eyes. He hid his clenched teeth underneath his well-kempt beard, and merely stormed off.

Another man, a blonde youth looked to the guy in red. "Looks like Jim lost all the money he had to play tonight." Anita smiled at the prospect of an empty seat, and instantly took it to her rear. Reaching behind her to pull out a small glass bottle of what appeared to be water, she looked at all the men. "Can I get in on this?" she asked with a wry grin.

She placed the bottle on the table as the cards became dealt. Keeping them close to her eyes, the girl reached into her backpack once more, pulling out a bag of GP and setting it upon the table. After taking about five of the coins, she separated them from the rest. This was going to be her first bet.

Sei meanwhile made his way to the bar. He had noticed a particular black haired fellow raising a glass to him. It was a simple gesture typically meaning 'good luck'. The mute took the empty stool beside the man, his eyes shifting towards the fancy instrument in the other seat. Across the bar was an older man, balding at the head and engaged in some sort of prayer. Or perhaps he was whispering to the small mantis scuttling across the bar. Sei paid the old man no mind as he looked back to the musician.

"Do you play here?"

[Artamos Alcor]

“Items are not allowed on the table, only gold and that which is served from the bar. You never know how people tend to use items for all purposes of cheating, once saw someone use a key that was enchanted to tell the owner what cards were not dealt. That I did.”

Said a fellow by the table, looking at the girl, he studied her and took his fair share of measure of her body. The table was amused by the little girl will to play cards. 5 gp was a small bet at this table, such funds wouldn’t last her the river. The apothecary was amused at how easily males where distracted by a female body, perhaps this girl could win some gold just by doing that. Artamos assumed that the girl had to be pretty or good looking for the female standards cause several men around the table lost interest in the game to the advantage of looking at her. It gave the short red cloaked man a fine opportunity to mix the cards as he pleased, he winked at the girl, cause she was the only one at the table that could notice it. He gesture that he would help her out in the game, if she would do the same. The cards came and the apothecary held a pair of ace on his hand, and if he had done it correctly, the girl would hold a pair of ace as well. One of the fellows would hold a pair of kings and the other one would have a queen and king. They would play high on their cards, no doubt. First round of bets came

“5 gp” said the first fellow with a queen and a king keeping his bets on the cards that would come
“I see you, and raises with 10 gp” came the guy with the pair of kings with a huge grin on his face
“I see you and do not raise” the apothecary said calm
They waited for the girl…

[Arsène]

Turned around and too drunken to notice mental communication, the musician turned to his drinking companion without the slightest hesitation.

"Play here?" Arsène could only wince at the strange character that sat next to him: feigning a smile and a healthy flush to his cheeks. "I've played far too much recently, and I doubt my talent would be properly enjoyed here." Solemn adventurers always made a poor audience; their coin was spent away on provisions and weapons, and their angst could bring a room lower than any sorrowful violin.

His guest's forwardness was awkward and intriguing enough that Arsène rose slightly from his stupor. The taste of dirt was ever constant, so talking was done at one's discomfort. Running his tongue along the sandpaper roof only made civilized conversation more irritating.

"I'm really only here on vacation, though it's nothing like I expected. The Elven lands are suppose to be packed with adventure and excitement, executed in a timeless fashion. All I've found here is men who tell stories and ask the mundane." Another sip of the loathsome wine brought bitter lips to his face.

"How rude of me, however," he apologized, breaking only to take another sip. "I am Arsène. And you?"

[Silence Sei]

"Sei Orlouge, better known as the Avatar of Alerar, the Hero of Radasanth, the Dragon of Drantrak..." Sei stopped for a moment, realizing that he was getting too caught up in his own propaganda. Anita had that effect o the telepath, rising him up to such an elitist status that the mute began to believe it himself. In truth, Sei always saw himself as a simple warrior, just trying to do what was the right and moral thing to do.

Sei shook his head, taking with it the many nicknames he had been given over the years. The mute looked to the bartender and motioned towards Arsene's drink. The large, tanned barkeep nodded, walking away from the duo in order to make Sei's new acquaintance a new drink, and give the telepath the same beverage. Sei rarely ever drank alcohol, never finding a taste or the stuff over a cold glass of orange juice, but he would occasionally partake in the tasting of a little liquor if it showed good faith to his compatriots.

Sei looked back to Arsene, offering him a handshake in friendship. "It seems as though I was probably one of the later men that you mentioned. One of those seeking the mundane, as it were. I was honestly just trying to find Khal'Jaren's library to satisfy my curiosity if the thing even existed. I would go into tales about how I met a few of the Thaynes on my adventures, but it seems you're tiring of people telling stories. Let's just drink the night away. If we get knocked down, let’s get up again." A smile formed on Sei's lips. He hadn't just had a good drink with a stranger in a long while. Why not start again now?

~~~~~~~~

Anita nodded to the dealer, a wide smirk coming across her face. She threw her head to the side, her brunette ponytail swishing back and forth. The ends of the hair tickled the noses of the men on either side of her, enticing them to her 'charms' further. It seemed as though these guys had not found a decent looking woman in a long while, as the blue eyed teen considered herself rather plain looking compared to most people. As the dealer threw out the cards, Anita looked at her hand, instantly knowing that the strange man was keeping up his end of the bargain.

"I see you and raise you 5 more GP" Anita said, taking her holy water and placing it in her lap. She then emptied the bag of GP she had placed on the table in good faith. A good thousand coins seemed to pile out nicely upon the table. This brought grins to the men around her. They thought they were going to scam this girl for every coin she had. Anita had spent a lot of nights in bars hustling suckers who thought themselves her better, be it in drinking contests or card games.

Anita winked at all of the guys around her, distracting them a bit more. She then shifted her gaze to the next player, wondering how exactly this first round was about to play out.

[Arsène]

Posting with Sei's permission to move on. However, I am willing to delete my post should Alcor come back.

So many titles, Arsène thought as the man spoke. Perhaps it was the drink, but Arsène remembered a fraction of the life he had sailed away from just a few years back. Dukes, counts, barons; these men carried themselves the overinflated burden of stackable titles.

With every sip and word, Arsène grew warmer to the man, if only as a curiosity. As the musician's eyes darted back and forth from Sei and the bartender, a slight grin formed on his drunken lips. The free drink was an added benefit from the conversation, though it in itself had been all the more eye opening.

Wallowing in the wastelands of Raiaera had only grayed Arsène's hope of finding something worth finding. There was no spark of life or improved mood since his wife had passed away a year ago. Had he not found this strange man, perhaps his life would have ceased under its own sloth and tedium.

And what a strange man he had found. He had all the trappings of a court jester and the preternatural face of a spirit. Above it all, his new drinking companion seemed stark raving mad. Perhaps it was the drink, or the contrast to those friendless nights he spent aboard ship and caravan, but Arsène felt an of happiness beneath the ash as he took Sei's hand.

"Tell me a bit about the Thayne. I find people's thoughts on them interesting.

[Silence Sei]

((Going on without AA, though he is welcome to hop back in at any time, provided he shoots me a PM)

Sei's glance went over to Anita. The girl was still having fun with the group of poker players she had settled down with. Upon realizing that nobody had thrown a drunken temper tantrum yet, the mystic' blue orbs went back over to Arsene. He had asked the telepath of the Thayne. Sei smiled as he ran his ringer along the top of his beverage.

"Well, I suppose I should start with the first one I met," Sei began. "N'Jal is everything you would expect from a Thayne known as The Dark Lady. Raven black hair, red eyes like the fires of Haida themselves, and a sweet hiss to every word she speaks. It was odd, I expected a giant spider of some sort, and yet I got a, for all intents and purposes, a gorgeous woman."

Sei's eyes wandered back over to Anita, who was laughing with the group. It seemed as though one of them had just told a dirty joke. Sei hoped that the merriment would not lead Anita to tell the disgusting one about the Radasanth prostitute. As Sei focused back on his audience, he once again noticed the instrument of the man.

"I've heard there are a few musicians who can embody descriptions and tales through music. I don't suppose you are one of them?" Sei was never one for bard theatrics, but he figured if he had some music to accompany his words, especially music that fit each Thayne he discussed, it would make him not sound completely crazy.

[Arsène]

Arsène could not help but smile beneath another grimaced sip of strong local liquors. He smiled because the tavern's hodgepodge of smells and sounds filled a deep need for human contact within the man. He smiled because the gentlemen who had taken an interest in him seemed like a kind and hospitable soul. He smiled because he came to the amusing realization that his fellow bar patron was completely insane. The musician was never one for tales of miracles. He found the entire thing unappealing in principle. Miracles were violations of natural law set down by the very gods that created the laws. It was mind boggling to consider the fallacy of it all; considerations that let a soft chuckle escape from the melancholic's mouth.

It took a few seconds for Arsène to regain his sense of somber composure. He grin faded into obscurity with another bitter splash of cheap spirits. Sei's eyes caught the man for a moment. His focus never broke from them, and he was still left blind to the man's obvious preternatural powers.

Another string of words, and the strange question the left to their listener. Arsène had never thought of himself as a bard. An artist who took some deeply disturbed pleasure in his broody nature and obscurity of his work was more his modus operandi. It left him with a smug sense of satisfaction to think his work was brilliant and under appreciated, and his attitude generally alienated most passersby.

"A bard is something I've never been called," he whispered into the air. The smell of succulent meats wafted into the tavern's main floor and caused a blush to the muscian's cheeks. "However, if I'm given ample time and material, I imagine I can compose something noteworthy."

[Silence Sei]

The sound of all the men at the table vomitting in unison filled the ears of both Sei and Arsene. The mute turned to find his daughter pounding the table and laughing in hysterics. All the other poker players seemed to forfeit their current game. Sei closed his eyes and sighed.

She told the Radasanth postitute joke...

Sei opened his eyes and looked back towards Arsene. The man seemed to be questioning what would have a teenage girl lauighing so hard, and grown men eager to leave her company. Sei shook his head in a 'you don't want to know' fashion. Truly, the joke was probably the most horrific and disguisting thing the mute had ever heard. Once it was told, you could never unhear it, and the punch line would haunt the listeners forever.

Before any other exchange could be made between the two conversationalists, the corner of Sei's eye caught something quite paculiar. One of the men who had been gambling with Anita was running towards the bathroom, presumably to recycle the rest of his lunch. The strange thing was, as soon as the man got to the athroom door, he seemed to disappear in a puff of smoke.

"Papa..." Anita spoke, her holly laughter now replaced by somber worry. All around the three, the bar patrons began to just puff away, as it were. Soon, there was no one left but Sei, Arsene, and Anita. Sei looked around to see if he was dreaming, and then shifted his focus back to Arsene. Suspicious as to whether or not the man was real, Sei leaned in, and poked the man in the arm...

[Hysteria]

Arsene cleared his throat, a sound that seemed to cause every other sound to cower in the corner until told they could come out again.

“I'll tell you a story Sei. This story is of a hero, a man who travelled far through dust and sand to find and pit himself against the might of the Thaynes. This man was lucky, and his luck was the only thing that allowed him to gain the favour of some of my less intelligent brothers and sisters. When he came before me however I saw him as the fool he was.”

The man who had identified himself as Arsene waved a hand and cut of Sei before he could respond. Cutting off the mute's thoughts as only a god could.

“Your daughter has quite the...” Arsene paused as he decided on a word, “Talent for telling jokes. But that shock was not your doing, and I will not grant you my favour because of your daughters dirty mouth. No. You will have to solve these problems yourself.”

The man turned to the Saviour of Radasanth and sighed. Like everyone else in the tavern he then simply puffed out of existence. A moment past and the only sound was the cracking of the fire pit.

“Sei.”

Where Khal'Jaren had been was suddenly replaced with Talen. The youth looked around the room slowly with his normal cautious eye. Satisfied that nothing was going to suddenly attack him, the youth turned back to his Captian.

“What the hell did you do that got me dragged out of bed and brought to wherever the hell we are?” Talen looked at Sei with accusing eyes.

Talen lifted his hand to point at the mute when he realised he was holding a piece of paper. The youth stopped in mid-point and unfolded it.

The man who invented it,
Doesn't want it for himself.
The man who bought it,
Doesn't need it for himself.
The man who needs it,
Doesn't know it when he needs it.

Talen jutted the riddle towards Sei.

“You fix it.”

[Silence Sei]

Sei stared blankly for a moment, completely taken aback by the events that had transpired. Apparently, the man he had been talking to had been Khal'Jaren all along. Before the telepath could ask any questions about the sudden revelation, the Thayne puffed out of existence, leaving behind a small gray cloud and the smell of sulfur. Talen's sudden appearence also stunned Sei, as did the riddle that he had been presented with. Why did Talen go to bed holding folded up riddles?

The mute shook his head, satisfied to not knowing the answer to that question. As he glanced over the notes, he could feel Anita's back bump into his own. The girl had been slowly reversing her steps as she tried to approach her father, afraid that if she had taken her eyes off of the table she had been playing cards at just seconds ago, she would vanish as all the patrons had. He ignored the girl's fear for now, his mind slowly trying to wrap around a man could buy, but not need for himself.

The first thought was a present. After all, one did not need a present for themselves if they planned to give it to someone else. However, the telepath had a difficult time believeing that someone could 'invent' a present, much less not want one for himself. After all, even someone as selfless as Sei Orlouge still had occasional pangs of want. It was the reason he had come in here to this bar, after all. The mute rubbed an invisible beard on his clean shaven face, continuing to ponder the answer.

His attention was broken once again by Anita, who nudged her father and began to point around frantically. This finally got the patriarchs attention, casting his gaze to every which way the teenager was pointing. The mute had lost all of his room for surprise when he had found that various bits of the ceiling around them had now formed cracks. Several spider web-like breaks in the oak wood hung overhead, and it seemed as though the black lines were spreading. Was this a timed riddle, or another one of Khal'Jaren's illusions?

"A coffin," Anita spoke, bringing the azure orbs of her father to see that she had glanced down at the paper. He shifted his gaze back down, trying to run through each question in his hand. The inventor of a coffin would not want it, a man who buys one obviously would not be dead, and those that were dead would not hold conscious thought, and thus not know they needed it. The mute smiled as his gaze finally focused on Talen (or what he had assumed was Talen at this point).

"The answer," the mute said, hoping something would happen once he made his final decision, "is a coffin."

[Hysteria]

Talen yawned loudly as he lent against the bar. Slowly his fingers scratched his stomach through his black shirt. An idle smile settled on his face as he was taken back to his days with other street kids as they practiced rubbing their stomachs and patting their heads at the same time. His wistful thoughts broken by the weight of an intense stare from Sei. Without breaking the grin, Talen just shrugged.

“Is this one of those fight-for-our-lives-because-Sei-decided-to-seek-the-power-of-a-Thayne things? Because I was pretty sure I did my quota of those. You don't hear of Revenant being dragged out of his body and placed in some alternate reality...” Talen twisted his eyes upwards and tapped his chin as thoughts of the fiery demon made their way through his head, “I guess he'd probably just eat the Thayne. Yeah, wrap it in foil and bake it.”

As the little warrior talked about nothing important the thin spider-like threads that etched across the wood of the room started to glow a pale white. Rather than stopping with the Mute's answer, the webs expanded. The sounds of hundreds of tiny cracks bounced all around the trio as the room was ripped outwards in every direction revealing only the darkness of a void in every direction around them. All three fell, air whipping against their cloths.

“You, Sei!” Talen sailed backwards in a pseudo-sitting position, “I am not happy Sei. When I joined the Knights this was not what we agreed to.”

“Papa!” Anita pointed past Sei below them. The thin outline of words because visible across an endlessly wide floor.

The Immovable Object

“Sei...” Tale pointed upwards.

A giant object, so large that no one could possible see the edges hurtled towards them. The only thing that granted perspective to see it grow bigger were the words The Unstoppable Force.

Talen twisted around to face Sei. “What happens when they meet?”