He raised a finger for her to wait as he placed down his own glass again and began to slide his hand into the inner pockets of the coat. As he did so Stare began to hear the unmistakable sound of the rustling of paper. Sitting up, intrigued she realised this must be what he had procured from the mage's office.
"Indeed," he nodded, then he paused before bringing out a hand full of papers.
This time Stare got up of her own accord and she grabbed the tray from the table to carry it away and dump it beside the door. By the time she had come back he had three good piles of scraps, bound notes and assorted documents. Seeing this and seeing he was still pulling out other items she proceeded to clear the entirety of the table. He made a small nod and began to spread the papers around as she moved off the various goblets, maps and books that had been left there. Grabbing various small smooth rocks that they had used the day before for the maps. Vitruvion said nothing but moved in harmony with her, spreading out the papers in various piles. As she looked around she saw the amount of articles there and she let out a soft gasp.
"Is that ... Everything from the office?"
He nodded. "Everything. The drawers at the desk, and there was a cupboard behind a wall also. There was all of this and ..." He brought out a series of refined metal cubes. Both in bright gold and another dull grey. A metal that looked very similar to ...
She raised her wrist and compared it to the tarnished, unshining silver. The metal could be said to be the same, in fact she was ready to swear it. It was the same as with the type of blue stone that Vitruvion had enchanted to send Merla back, and the one Raevin had used to come and get her from Corone in the first place.
"This is called dehrtine," Vitruvion said quietly, plucking up a nugget of the grey material. "Yes it is the same thing that makes your cuff. It is a mixture of delyn, adamantine and a rare metal called platina. Adamantine as you know is unknown as to its origin, but ancient relics can be found that are melted down to make dehrtine." He fixed his eyes on her. "Very few know how to make dehrtine, Stare. Very few know of its properties. It is indestructible, acts as both a resistor to and holder of magical properties, and is far stronger than any other material I know. Besides perhaps dragon bone and so on. But," he tapped the small nodules and she felt her heart pound. "It is very, very rare. Only the wisest even know of its existence. One of these could feed a town for a year."
The realisation of just how much Vitruvion had used for her cuff hit her and she clasped her hand over it. "You spent ... That much?"
"I have spent much more money on you than just that," he started to pick up the nodules and place them back in his pocket, "But my point is, they should be very rare to get. Only the greatest mage orders have them. Know how to make them!"
Stare blinked, "So how did you ..."
"A mixture of contacting my father at the time ... And I may have some influence with the high bards of Istien University," he mused. "When I first arrived in this world I went there to see what I could make of this land. They offered me a permanent position teaching. That would have been a very different life."
An image of Vitruvion bustling through town as a lecturer caused Stare to smile. But it faded fast, to be replaced by the strong-willed, well-respected meglomaniac she knew him as. Her eyes briefly flittered over him, taking in his almost white hair (she was sure it had once been more blonde) and his cool blue eyes, before she sighed and looked down.
"Okay so, something that only the Istien has was in there. The gold is ...?"
"Just gold," Vitruvion shrugged. "It was the dehrtine that I was more concerned over. Now. These papers."
She looked at the gold for a moment longer, still considering the power of the dehrtine - which showed just how powerful a demon there would have had to have been before to be able to take off her cuff - and then nodded, finding both of their wines and setting them back on the table.
"Right. Well," he laid two fingers on a large stack. "These, from what I can tell are nothing more than orders, internal notes from hunter group to hunter group. These," he pointed to a smaller, neater stack, "Are reward posts for the different victims. Call outs, that sort of thing. Then we have the messages, letters and the like some of which might be useful," he moved to a further pile, "The journals of the leaders of the room. The notes, logs and so on." He finally touched the notes bound with string. "What I want to know is the person in command of this all, and the notes concerning you. I suspect what we found is one hovel out of a few, but we will be able to find links to others, mentions to them."
Stare grunted. "They might have been stupid enough to make a map of them."
He nodded and gestured at the top bound stack. "Start with then."
The kenku's eyes looked over the tightly bound pages and immediately felt grumpy. Grumbling she reached for the first, knowing though that it was really the only place to get answers. She paused when she saw Vitruvion begin to stand.
"Where are you going?" She asked, confused.
He looked down at her and smiled brilliantly. "I am going to consult our other line of enquiry," he said.
Then his smile expanded to reveal his full set - she had to admit then - of extraordinarily sharp teeth. It could have been a trick of the light, it could have been some illusion by him, but she knew she saw them. Then he turned, a swirl of black on white, and began to march away, cane rapping.
She watched until he disappeared through the door.
The screams began a minute later.
