by Kordin » Fri Apr 23, 2021 3:34 pm
Kordin was sitting on a chair, watching a cat play in front of one of the large windows of Aludra’s study. A small chunk of sulphur crystal, hung from a wall brazier, had fragmented a sunbeam and scattered small motes of light on the ground. They danced around the cat, sliding over him as he frantically batted at them. He spun in place, following one as it rushed past him, and leaped on it, trying to pin it down. Kordin smiled, amused at the animal's tenacity. The cat landed on a spot, placing his paws over it only to watch it flit away again. Kordin watched the cat's tail twitch and slap at the ground, annoyed that his prey could not be pinned.
“So the Seanchan commander drowned?” He asked.
Aludra took a sip of tea from her Sea Folk porcelain cup. She placed it on the table beside the countless parchments and books piled up.
“Yes, you ship managed to survive and dock safely, thank the Light. But the Seanchan raker was absolutely trashed in the storm. Word is already spreading that the official position of the Seanchan is that there are so called “marath’damane” in the city.” She let out a long sigh and looked out through the window. “There will be another bloodbath soon...”
“What is the situation at the Chapterhouse?” Kordin asked, still looking at the cat playing with the sunbeam fragments.
“We have removed all sensitive records and schematics a while back. Those should be in Cairhien by now, if the caravan did not encounter any trouble.” She took another sip of tea. “Most of the remaining Guildmembers are scattered throughout the city, on Maseta and Verana peninsulas. The Seanchan haven’t caused much trouble for those who were housed on Calpene peninsula, but as a percaution we moved them.”
Kordin rubbed his eyes, the pain in his head still bothered him, even after drinking some potions and chewing on herbs that were supposed to help. “So the Chapterhouse is basically abandoned?”
“There are a handful of Guildmembers in there. Simple orders. If possible, maintain the integrity of the Chapterhouse, but should the doors be breached – either by Seanchan or Civil Watch – evacuate and the few barrels that were left are to be ignited beforehand. The oil will speed up the destructive process, and it will all look like a terrible accident. No secrets leaving the Guild, no property taken.”
Kordin pinched the bridge of his nose. “Good....I think..” He was tired, frustrated, angry. He looked through the window, trying to silence the pain in his head by focusing on what else he needed to check up on, duties he had to attend to. “Despite the occupation and rise in crime, the city still seems alive.”
Aludra nodded slightly, trying to see what he was looking at through the window. “Tanchico is a center of trade even during times of trouble and the people on the streets reflect the city's importance.”
Kordin ran his left-hand knuckles over his beard, then pinched his mustache with thumb and index knuckle. “Hmm.” He was about to say something on the matter but something caught his attention instead.
A small crowd gathered near the sturdy stone wall on the Verana road, that keeps people from falling off and down onto the roofs below. A man stood against the wall, making some kind of a speech. The crowd formed a semi-circle around him as he spoke. His voice carried over the sounds of the city, since both Kordin and Aludra could hear him through the closed window. The man spoke of the world, history, Creator and various other topics.
From what Kordin could overhear, there did not seem to be a subject he lacked at least a passing knowledge in. People asked him questions and he answered in return, sometimes in depth, other times only giving a general answer, quite often in some odd riddles and half-poems. Regardless of what was said, all of his answers seem to hit at the heart of what was asked and people left looking satisfied with what they've been told.
“What’s the story there?” Kordin asked, nodding in the direction of the crowd.
Aludra’s eyes narrowed. “They call the old man ‘Itesh’. Some half-mad hermit. He comes to the city every once in a while, and stands in the middle of a road, talking to himself. “ She smirked. “Eventually a crowd gathers and one time someone asked some question and the old oddball apparently gave a very enlightening answer. Ever since more and more people have been looking for him in the streets, hoping to get some ‘wisdom from Itesh’. “ She turned and looked at Kordin. “One of our apprentices went out in the street one day, wanting to see and hear what it was all about. Poor thing stood there for several hours before managing to ask only one question.”
“And what question was that?” Kordin asked, genuinely intrigued.
Aludra grinned slightly. “Why are you the way you are?” She said, changing her voice to sound like a childs.
Kordin boggled at that. “And the answer she got was...?”
Aludra searched through the pile of parchments on the table next to her. “Oh I had her write it down...let me see where is it...” After a while she pulled out a fine parchment and handed it to Kordin.
He took it and attempted to read what was written on it, vision still somewhat recovering and it was hard to focus at something so small like written words.
My momma always sayaid layaf was lark a box of choccerlates: you realise that chocolates are your sole source of happiness and the consumption thereof fills the aching void within where norms keep their feelings, that everything should be compartmentalised in receptacles of mashed wood pulp, and then your pancreas packs its bag and sets of for Illian.
“What in Moz’s third chin is this....?” Kordin looked up from the parchment, dumbfounded, and asked Aludra who simply shrugged.
Shouting and incoherent cursing from down the road, towards the Panarch’s Circle, took a hold of their attention. A woman running up the road, pushing her way through the crowd, heading towards Andahar Boulevard. She glances over her shoulder as she shoves people out of her way. Her hair is disheveled, face dirty and clothing torn. She appears to be attempting to escape from something or something, but her demeanor suggests she seems to sparkle with joy. Kordin could hear a small giggle escape her as she passed near the house.
As she looked over her shoulder again, she ran head-first into a man standing near a wagon left in front of the adjacent house. In a half moment, after seeing the man, her face changed and all glee was gone, replaced by fear. A frown and quivering bottom lip replaced the grin and glee. The man, seemingly well-dressed, seems to express concern for her well-being after seeing her appearance. She leaned against him, and Kordin and Aludra could overhear bits and pieces of a tale being woven. A brutish man with wandering hands and evil intentions. The well-dressed man was so caught up in it, he failed to notice her own hands traveling all over his person, seeking something.
A shout broke and an angry, quite large man pushed his way through the crowd that separated him and them. The woman feigned more fear and the well-dressed man stepped in front of her. A gleeful cackle, and the woman began running again, away from the men. Her new victim turned, confused and saw her shaking a coin purse as she races off. The man felt at his belt, coat and pockets, face hardening. Soon both of the men were chasing her, as the laughing woman was lost in the busy streets.
"That looked awfully like..” Kordin began saying. “Astrid?” Aludra finished his sentence, casting a curious glance at Kordin.
“No...couldn’t be...” He said, looking through the window, trying to catch another sight of the woman, but the street went back to usual business of pretending the city is not about to turn into another river of blood.
“Speaking of Moz, we received another package from that landlady, Serinla, along with this letter.” She handed Kordin a simple piece of paper and stood up from her chair, walking towards a small cabinet.
Hello again Mr. Illuminator.
I have been able to track down the whereabouts of my former renter, Nyro - the light-blasted fool of a man! - in an attempt to return to him the charred remnants of the teddy bear with which he slept every night. The smell was beginning to bother me, and though I would rather never see the bloody woolhead again, my better nature compelled me, lest he try to return for it someday. I found him living in what looked to be some sort of crater that had been blasted out of a clearing far from the city walls. From the looks of things, he had recently built a small laboratory in the center of the crater which he claims was already there when he got there. He was overjoyed at the return of his stuffed bear and he wept openly for several minutes before babbling something about a clockmaker and handing me a lumpy package. I discarded the package, however, as it was emitting a monotonous ticking noise which I didn’t quite trust. On the way out of the crater I did manage to find this journal wedged underneath the blackened mass of an old desk that I came across upside-down and several paces from the edge of the clearing. I thought I would pass it on to you as it may be of some small interest to your profession.
Yours in the Light,
Serinla, Landlady
As he finished reading the letter, Aludra returned with a parcel with familiar binding, inside which are the burnt remains of another book. Kordin carefully picked up the book and opened its charred cover.
NYRO'S JOURNAL, Vol II
8th day of the month of Taisham, year 1356
Welcome back, dear readers, or just welcome, if you have only just found my new journal and didn’t read my first journal. Though, how could you have? It was hidden in a most secret location where my previous landlady was likely never to find it. Anyway, I won’t bore you with the specifications since I clearly already covered them in my first journal, but from what I can gather from the whispered conversations here in this infirmary, the device I designed was nothing short of an unqualified success. My hearing is only just now returning but it sounds like the other patients that were in the vicinity have only great things to say about it. As I listen now, I will record for you some of their comments along with the likely words that I’ve filled in with brackets myself as I couldn’t quite make them all out:
“If I ever get my hands on the guy that set off that [really amazing] explosion, I’d [tell him how great he is]!”
“Will you guys keep it down? My ears are still wringing [with joy]!”
“Yeah, mate, well if I ever get MY hands on him I’d [buy him so much ale] he would drown!”
“I WISH I could get my hands on him! I lost both of mine in that, and I can’t [thank] him enough for [saving me money on hand soap]!!”
I could go on, but I think you get the point. I must rest now - this nurse needs to change the bandages. They say they think I’ll even regrow my eyebrows once the skin heals.
20th day of the month of Adar, year 1356
Hello again. It turns out I misplaced my notebook, and only just recently found it again with my effects as I was leaving the infirmary. Please ignore the rude drawings of myself in the pages since my last entry. I did not write them, though I did see my nurse laughing over something with the doctor when she saw me reading them... Clearly, she has the hots for me and they are obviously written in jest. I will keep them as a memento of the nurse’s love for me.
I am fully on the mend now these few months later, and have found the location of my old laboratory. Unfortunately, someone has dug a crater-like depression here in the field and burned and scattered my belongings about the edges. It must have been those local hooligans from the foregate! Them and their silly pranks!
I suppose I have nothing left to do but pick up the pieces where I left off and rebuild my lab. I have an idea for a new device, one that operates off the workings of a clock which I purchased from a clockmaker for a hefty sum along with promises of an introduction to my former landlady (that he is completely enamored with), and with whom I am very close friends. I am confident my new device will work flawlessly, but for now I will store my journal here in this desk for safe keeping as I continue to work.
Kordin closed the book, a bit too hard, causing a tiny soot cloud to blow up in his face and the book spilling from his hands onto the floor, in a mixed pile of ash and paper. He pinched his nose with one hand to suppress a sneeze, and after that simply brought the fingers a bit higher to pinch the bridge of his nose, again in apparent frustration.
"We have a few friends out and looking for him." Aludra said, while offering a hankerchief. "He'll turn up soon enough." She paused a bit, as Kordin wiped his face. "Are you certain he is Guild material?"
Kordin almost handed her the soot stained hankerchief before realizing it is ruined now and simply crumpled it. Somehow failing to put it on the table, he accidentally drops it and the cat sprung to action, hugging the hankerchief with all its paws with claws out and rolling away with it like a little furry ball with a soot stained cloak.
"Yes. He doesn't seem to be showing any signs of being like his uncle Moz. Might be lacking all fuses in his powder keg, but nothing we haven't seen or dealt with before. Hagbard still refuses to bathe, Larc still wants to stab everything and well, Iovin...." He paused a bit as the furry ball of soot hit a small stand with some vials, causing few to drop to the floor, luckily none broken. "If my burnt senses do not deceive me, he may become one of the greatest some day. Or cause the greatest disaster not related to One Power the world has ever witnessed, if the world survives it...."
Aludra simply nodded. "You're a fool, but I might see some of that vision of yours...."
Kordin yawned and winced at the same time. "I need to rest some more...." He tried to stand up. Tried. Failed. Fell. World went dark again.
DISCLAIMER: Letter from the landlady and journal entries were written by Nyro, not me.
[quote]Kordin was sitting on a chair, watching a cat play in front of one of the large windows of Aludra’s study. A small chunk of sulphur crystal, hung from a wall brazier, had fragmented a sunbeam and scattered small motes of light on the ground. They danced around the cat, sliding over him as he frantically batted at them. He spun in place, following one as it rushed past him, and leaped on it, trying to pin it down. Kordin smiled, amused at the animal's tenacity. The cat landed on a spot, placing his paws over it only to watch it flit away again. Kordin watched the cat's tail twitch and slap at the ground, annoyed that his prey could not be pinned.
“So the Seanchan commander drowned?” He asked.
Aludra took a sip of tea from her Sea Folk porcelain cup. She placed it on the table beside the countless parchments and books piled up.
“Yes, you ship managed to survive and dock safely, thank the Light. But the Seanchan raker was absolutely trashed in the storm. Word is already spreading that the official position of the Seanchan is that there are so called “marath’damane” in the city.” She let out a long sigh and looked out through the window. “There will be another bloodbath soon...”
“What is the situation at the Chapterhouse?” Kordin asked, still looking at the cat playing with the sunbeam fragments.
“We have removed all sensitive records and schematics a while back. Those should be in Cairhien by now, if the caravan did not encounter any trouble.” She took another sip of tea. “Most of the remaining Guildmembers are scattered throughout the city, on Maseta and Verana peninsulas. The Seanchan haven’t caused much trouble for those who were housed on Calpene peninsula, but as a percaution we moved them.”
Kordin rubbed his eyes, the pain in his head still bothered him, even after drinking some potions and chewing on herbs that were supposed to help. “So the Chapterhouse is basically abandoned?”
“There are a handful of Guildmembers in there. Simple orders. If possible, maintain the integrity of the Chapterhouse, but should the doors be breached – either by Seanchan or Civil Watch – evacuate and the few barrels that were left are to be ignited beforehand. The oil will speed up the destructive process, and it will all look like a terrible accident. No secrets leaving the Guild, no property taken.”
Kordin pinched the bridge of his nose. “Good....I think..” He was tired, frustrated, angry. He looked through the window, trying to silence the pain in his head by focusing on what else he needed to check up on, duties he had to attend to. “Despite the occupation and rise in crime, the city still seems alive.”
Aludra nodded slightly, trying to see what he was looking at through the window. “Tanchico is a center of trade even during times of trouble and the people on the streets reflect the city's importance.”
Kordin ran his left-hand knuckles over his beard, then pinched his mustache with thumb and index knuckle. “Hmm.” He was about to say something on the matter but something caught his attention instead.
A small crowd gathered near the sturdy stone wall on the Verana road, that keeps people from falling off and down onto the roofs below. A man stood against the wall, making some kind of a speech. The crowd formed a semi-circle around him as he spoke. His voice carried over the sounds of the city, since both Kordin and Aludra could hear him through the closed window. The man spoke of the world, history, Creator and various other topics.
From what Kordin could overhear, there did not seem to be a subject he lacked at least a passing knowledge in. People asked him questions and he answered in return, sometimes in depth, other times only giving a general answer, quite often in some odd riddles and half-poems. Regardless of what was said, all of his answers seem to hit at the heart of what was asked and people left looking satisfied with what they've been told.
“What’s the story there?” Kordin asked, nodding in the direction of the crowd.
Aludra’s eyes narrowed. “They call the old man ‘Itesh’. Some half-mad hermit. He comes to the city every once in a while, and stands in the middle of a road, talking to himself. “ She smirked. “Eventually a crowd gathers and one time someone asked some question and the old oddball apparently gave a very enlightening answer. Ever since more and more people have been looking for him in the streets, hoping to get some ‘wisdom from Itesh’. “ She turned and looked at Kordin. “One of our apprentices went out in the street one day, wanting to see and hear what it was all about. Poor thing stood there for several hours before managing to ask only one question.”
“And what question was that?” Kordin asked, genuinely intrigued.
Aludra grinned slightly. “Why are you the way you are?” She said, changing her voice to sound like a childs.
Kordin boggled at that. “And the answer she got was...?”
Aludra searched through the pile of parchments on the table next to her. “Oh I had her write it down...let me see where is it...” After a while she pulled out a fine parchment and handed it to Kordin.
He took it and attempted to read what was written on it, vision still somewhat recovering and it was hard to focus at something so small like written words.
[i]My momma always sayaid layaf was lark a box of choccerlates: you realise that chocolates are your sole source of happiness and the consumption thereof fills the aching void within where norms keep their feelings, that everything should be compartmentalised in receptacles of mashed wood pulp, and then your pancreas packs its bag and sets of for Illian. [/i]
“What in Moz’s third chin is this....?” Kordin looked up from the parchment, dumbfounded, and asked Aludra who simply shrugged.
Shouting and incoherent cursing from down the road, towards the Panarch’s Circle, took a hold of their attention. A woman running up the road, pushing her way through the crowd, heading towards Andahar Boulevard. She glances over her shoulder as she shoves people out of her way. Her hair is disheveled, face dirty and clothing torn. She appears to be attempting to escape from something or something, but her demeanor suggests she seems to sparkle with joy. Kordin could hear a small giggle escape her as she passed near the house.
As she looked over her shoulder again, she ran head-first into a man standing near a wagon left in front of the adjacent house. In a half moment, after seeing the man, her face changed and all glee was gone, replaced by fear. A frown and quivering bottom lip replaced the grin and glee. The man, seemingly well-dressed, seems to express concern for her well-being after seeing her appearance. She leaned against him, and Kordin and Aludra could overhear bits and pieces of a tale being woven. A brutish man with wandering hands and evil intentions. The well-dressed man was so caught up in it, he failed to notice her own hands traveling all over his person, seeking something.
A shout broke and an angry, quite large man pushed his way through the crowd that separated him and them. The woman feigned more fear and the well-dressed man stepped in front of her. A gleeful cackle, and the woman began running again, away from the men. Her new victim turned, confused and saw her shaking a coin purse as she races off. The man felt at his belt, coat and pockets, face hardening. Soon both of the men were chasing her, as the laughing woman was lost in the busy streets.
"That looked awfully like..” Kordin began saying. “Astrid?” Aludra finished his sentence, casting a curious glance at Kordin.
“No...couldn’t be...” He said, looking through the window, trying to catch another sight of the woman, but the street went back to usual business of pretending the city is not about to turn into another river of blood.
“Speaking of Moz, we received another package from that landlady, Serinla, along with this letter.” She handed Kordin a simple piece of paper and stood up from her chair, walking towards a small cabinet.
[i]Hello again Mr. Illuminator.
I have been able to track down the whereabouts of my former renter, Nyro - the light-blasted fool of a man! - in an attempt to return to him the charred remnants of the teddy bear with which he slept every night. The smell was beginning to bother me, and though I would rather never see the bloody woolhead again, my better nature compelled me, lest he try to return for it someday. I found him living in what looked to be some sort of crater that had been blasted out of a clearing far from the city walls. From the looks of things, he had recently built a small laboratory in the center of the crater which he claims was already there when he got there. He was overjoyed at the return of his stuffed bear and he wept openly for several minutes before babbling something about a clockmaker and handing me a lumpy package. I discarded the package, however, as it was emitting a monotonous ticking noise which I didn’t quite trust. On the way out of the crater I did manage to find this journal wedged underneath the blackened mass of an old desk that I came across upside-down and several paces from the edge of the clearing. I thought I would pass it on to you as it may be of some small interest to your profession.
Yours in the Light,
Serinla, Landlady [/i]
As he finished reading the letter, Aludra returned with a parcel with familiar binding, inside which are the burnt remains of another book. Kordin carefully picked up the book and opened its charred cover.
[i]NYRO'S JOURNAL, Vol II
8th day of the month of Taisham, year 1356
Welcome back, dear readers, or just welcome, if you have only just found my new journal and didn’t read my first journal. Though, how could you have? It was hidden in a most secret location where my previous landlady was likely never to find it. Anyway, I won’t bore you with the specifications since I clearly already covered them in my first journal, but from what I can gather from the whispered conversations here in this infirmary, the device I designed was nothing short of an unqualified success. My hearing is only just now returning but it sounds like the other patients that were in the vicinity have only great things to say about it. As I listen now, I will record for you some of their comments along with the likely words that I’ve filled in with brackets myself as I couldn’t quite make them all out:
“If I ever get my hands on the guy that set off that [really amazing] explosion, I’d [tell him how great he is]!”
“Will you guys keep it down? My ears are still wringing [with joy]!”
“Yeah, mate, well if I ever get MY hands on him I’d [buy him so much ale] he would drown!”
“I WISH I could get my hands on him! I lost both of mine in that, and I can’t [thank] him enough for [saving me money on hand soap]!!”
I could go on, but I think you get the point. I must rest now - this nurse needs to change the bandages. They say they think I’ll even regrow my eyebrows once the skin heals.
20th day of the month of Adar, year 1356
Hello again. It turns out I misplaced my notebook, and only just recently found it again with my effects as I was leaving the infirmary. Please ignore the rude drawings of myself in the pages since my last entry. I did not write them, though I did see my nurse laughing over something with the doctor when she saw me reading them... Clearly, she has the hots for me and they are obviously written in jest. I will keep them as a memento of the nurse’s love for me.
I am fully on the mend now these few months later, and have found the location of my old laboratory. Unfortunately, someone has dug a crater-like depression here in the field and burned and scattered my belongings about the edges. It must have been those local hooligans from the foregate! Them and their silly pranks!
I suppose I have nothing left to do but pick up the pieces where I left off and rebuild my lab. I have an idea for a new device, one that operates off the workings of a clock which I purchased from a clockmaker for a hefty sum along with promises of an introduction to my former landlady (that he is completely enamored with), and with whom I am very close friends. I am confident my new device will work flawlessly, but for now I will store my journal here in this desk for safe keeping as I continue to work.[/i]
Kordin closed the book, a bit too hard, causing a tiny soot cloud to blow up in his face and the book spilling from his hands onto the floor, in a mixed pile of ash and paper. He pinched his nose with one hand to suppress a sneeze, and after that simply brought the fingers a bit higher to pinch the bridge of his nose, again in apparent frustration.
"We have a few friends out and looking for him." Aludra said, while offering a hankerchief. "He'll turn up soon enough." She paused a bit, as Kordin wiped his face. "Are you certain he is Guild material?"
Kordin almost handed her the soot stained hankerchief before realizing it is ruined now and simply crumpled it. Somehow failing to put it on the table, he accidentally drops it and the cat sprung to action, hugging the hankerchief with all its paws with claws out and rolling away with it like a little furry ball with a soot stained cloak.
"Yes. He doesn't seem to be showing any signs of being like his uncle Moz. Might be lacking all fuses in his powder keg, but nothing we haven't seen or dealt with before. Hagbard still refuses to bathe, Larc still wants to stab everything and well, Iovin...." He paused a bit as the furry ball of soot hit a small stand with some vials, causing few to drop to the floor, luckily none broken. "If my burnt senses do not deceive me, he may become one of the greatest some day. Or cause the greatest disaster not related to One Power the world has ever witnessed, if the world survives it...."
Aludra simply nodded. "You're a fool, but I might see some of that vision of yours...."
Kordin yawned and winced at the same time. "I need to rest some more...." He tried to stand up. Tried. Failed. Fell. World went dark again.[/quote]
DISCLAIMER: Letter from the landlady and journal entries were written by Nyro, not me.