"As much as I'd like to, I'm afraid I can't do that. I can't leave until I've delivered my message."
Enter the room and face its hiding place.
"But, as long as I'm here, why don't you try talking about what troubles you? It helps ease the burden of your problems when you share them with another. I bet recent experience has shown that to you. Together in the promise of success, together in failure."
The shade pokes its head out along the side of the hatch. Just as purple-eyed and featureless as any other.
"A message? For Bonzo, I'd guess. Rest of us haven't done anything wrong. You gonna break his legs in three places each, then? It's been long enough already, hasn't it?""Sniff Sniff"
(Okay okay I'm sorry. Let's just go over the situation again. Then maybe we can think about it in a more logical fashion.)
"Oh no you don't! That tactic may have worked the first twenty times you did it, but not this time. Just pick one already, denture magic plus a touch of holiness, nonspecific magic without a touch of holiness. You can't have nonspecific magic with a touch of holiness, no way, nuh uh, not ever. Now pick already and leave me alone!"Tiana looks around in amazement, and turns to face the woman.
"Well, my desire is to learn magic, and that's pretty much the only thing I came for.
After saying this, she continues to look around the library.
Many of the bookcases are overturned, books spilled out on the ground in a disorganized mess. A few places in the ceiling have cracks or holes, and water damage is evident beneath these on both the books and the floor. There's a conspicuous trace of red off in one of the aisles, though nothing remains other than a stain on the carpet.
As you state your goals, however, the mistress fetches a book from behind her and slides it over to you along the ground - one of the dogs springs to the front to intercept it, arresting its progress with a paw, snuffling as it navigates its snout over the thing, then shoving it in your direction once again. It lands at your feet. The cover says "Crystallokinesis: A Different Kind of Physics", and seems adorned with all kind of new-age mysterious symbols.
"Take the book, tear out a page, burn it and watch the flame," the mistress of magic herself says slowly and deliberately.
"I like your style," she adds.
"Straightforward-like."Roger looks unimpressed.
"I desire a hot dog. And maybe some way to protect myself, since I was perfectly happy until I was disturbed by... well, you may not want to know. Magic sounds like a good defense against magic, at least, so I came here. So, uh... are these dogs yours?"
"Yeah, they are. Have a book, too. Same deal, burn a page, watch the flame," she says, sliding a book over to you as well - the dogs don't appear to care about this one, and you notice that it veers wildly off-target, almost getting shuffled into one of the dogs now pacing behind you. It has "Longing in the Jungle" written on the cover, and features a shirtless man sitting on a tree branch with an intense look on his face, with a half-transparent, odd face of a generic woman in the background.
Samson was tired. He was tired of fruitless groveling, of empty ritual, of fake mysticism and false mystery. First thing's first, he had to know if this was for real.
What do I want? I want the truth. Tell me, what true sorcerer gives away her secrets to whoever shows up at a library?
She rolls her eyes at the question, her expression becoming a little more animated, though her speech remains slow and, you think, a little bit slurred.
"All true sorcerers, genius. Beats having to drag you in one by one," she says derisively.
"Take a book, burn a page, watch the flame," she says, passing a book to the space right next to you. It's a copy of Hodgman's All-Purpose Compendium, Volume 15.
"Then we can... talk more."
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Topic: The Forgotten Art: Approaching the Nexus (Read 248943 times)