Time passes and Primus moves in the heavens as the little Aelfin busily moves about the library in an attempt to find the books she requires. A bit of magic, a bit of luck and some hope are usually the only resources the girl has to locate what she seeks. This has been so for quite a while. For when the Aelfin is not off on another duty, she spends her free time here. Currently she is standing in front of the books that relate to the various heavenly bodies around Sinai.

"There's quite a collection here," a soft voice comments behind (and unsurprisingly above) Scarlet's back. "I was allowed to read these astronomy texts a while back. I'm afraid they aren't entirely accurate, though."

Startled by the sudden noise in a usually peaceful library, Scarlet stumbles with a large book she was trying to pull out and nearly falls over from it. Laying the book carefully on the shelf first, she soon turns to look up to the oddity that stands behind her. After a moment of careful study, the Aelfin tilts her head a bit. "You know of this material, then? I am here to study what I can find of the planet Ashtoreth. I may, if I can convince the Temple to assist me, be heading to that very place," she tells her before looking the woman over again curiously and then curtseying. "And do pardon my slow introduction. I am Scarlet, a Water Mage."

The creature bows and introduces herself, "I am Envoy, an exile. I'm only allowed to read one book per day here."

Scarlet scoots away from the Exile when she bows. Perhaps it is the mention of the word Exile, or the fact that Envoy is taller and much more imposing than herself, that she does such. Regardless, she nods after moving and puts her paw on the book she recently put down. "Only one? I … I can see why that would be. I have met Exiles before… but… I heard the last one was possessed and caused quite a bit of havoc. So, pardon my distrust of you. I mean not to be rude, only … safe. But if you can excuse that, I would like to talk to you about Ashtoreth and yourself. Perhaps you can give me some insight into my quest?" she asks.

Envoy blinks a few times, then smiles in a friendly manner. "Certainly, Mage Scarlet. I suppose I must look like some sort of Aelfin demon to you. And your distrust is probably justified."

"Our demons have wings of a different sort – or did, not long ago. Rarely do those of the feathered wings figure into it all. I do find it interesting you know what I am, for I was not aware Processing reviewed my people." Having said that, the Aelfin picks up the book with some effort and carries it under her left arm. She begins walking towards one of the tables and gestures for the Exile to follow. "Do follow me, should you wish to converse further. I am afraid I have much to do, and must speak while I move."

The Exile follows along, and says, "I encountered your ambassador once, briefly."

Scarlet nods as she walks, her staff thumping along the ground. "Our ambassador? Well, that must certainly have been a recent occurrence. As I am sure you are aware, we have been having trouble with the local Eeee for some time. I am thankful to see that end. Praise be to Wynona." Upon reaching the table, a very short table, the book is put down and opened to the index. "So much water. I may be a Water Mage, but this planet will be hard to navigate."

The book has many pictures – artistic renderings, of course – some of them renditions based on blurry images seen through the best telescopes available to the Temple. Since no one in known history has actually done any exploration of Ashtoreth, this book is light on fact, no matter how heavy it may be in pages. However, it does have what might be fairly good calculations on the rotation and year of the planet, and estimates at what the gravity might be at the "surface" – fairly close, actually, to Sinai, though a bit more heavy.

The general gist – from what can be quickly gathered in an introductory paragraph – is that, like all other planets in the Primus system save for Sinai, this is a lifeless world, devoid of a breathable atmosphere. And even if it did have one, it surely seethes with colossal storms, making life unthinkable.

Envoy takes a seat next to the diminutive mage, perking her ears at the oath of praise. "Where would you navigate to on an alien world? The only point of reference would be where you arrived."

A Korv acolyte shuffles by, straining under the weight of a tome comparable in size to himself. He pays no attention, however, to the Exile and the Aelfin, and once this minor 'disturbance' has passed, all is quiet again.

Pages are flipped, and the Mage's expression droops with every one. "Unbreathable atmosphere. I may not be a Wind Mage as Wynona was, but I know enough about such things to be discouraged. However, given the fact you know of our ambassador, I am willing to give credence to the idea that you are someone with a interesting position or interesting ties. Perhaps then you have heard of life of Abaddon. I am willing to suspect Ashtoreth may well sustain it also. Perhaps underwater, since I see no records of surface life," the Mage rambles. Once she has stopped, however, she pauses and then turns to regard the Exile again. This time she seems focused on her wings. "Hmm."

Envoy shrugs. "I wouldn't trust the descriptions in the book. There aren't even spectroscopic analyses of the light reflected by Ashtoreth, so any notes on the weather and atmospheric composition are likely to be apocryphal. Besides, I've seen that the link between worlds and their related spheres of magic has some basis in fact. I don't think a world like Ashtoreth would have been made not to be visited."

Certainly the Exile's words catch the Aelfin's attention once again for she stops starring at her wings. "I … cannot say of what arcane magic you speak of. I am not familiar with these… 'spect-o-sophics' and the 'apocaliptal'. Unless of course it is some sort of machinery, something I also have little understanding of. Anyway, if it is true what you saw, my own magic may be more powerful upon the planet, which would certainly be helpful in both my study of the planet and of magic itself," Scarlet tells the white and gold woman with a hopeful smile, before adding something. "After all, my magic was stronger on the surface, and since I encountered that dragon and so many magical items, it has improved. Also, your wings give me an idea. Would you care to assist me in a magical test?"

Envoy smiles. "Assist you? I'd like to, yes, but I should warn you that my past experiences with magic haven't all been … tame."

"Interesting. Perhaps your Exile nature affects magic. Either way, this should be fascinating and will help my studies," Scarlet tells Envoy. She stands up and walks a few steps from the woman, before turning back around. She moves towards a leather band that tightly secures the "Wand of F", and removes the wand. "Anyway, I plan to see if I cannot make my very own pair of wings using this wand. I will use you as a visual reference for now. So you need not worry; the magic will not touch you."

"Your own… wings?" Envoy asks, looking worried now. "Aren't you worried about turning yourself into a Creen or something by mistake?"

The wand held by the diminutive mage is a plain cylindrical rod, possibly made of enameled wood, with no visible ornamentation, save for a filigreed letter "F" near the tip.

Scarlet shakes her head slightly. "I trust if I do something so silly, there is sufficient magic in these walls to assist me. This is a place of magic learning; I trust my teachers have seen far worse than that. I could tell you of all manner of problems sometime. Anyway, magic is about trial and error." The wand is lifted above the Aelfin's head and wiggled about much like the actions of street conjurers, giving rise to the idea that the Aelfin may be trying to be overly dramatic. "By this wand and the strength of my intention, I call upon you, wand, to summon your powers and grant me majestic wings upon my back so that I may soar unhindered through the sky above!"

In actuality, the wand doesn't do much of anything at all. That is … save for sparking weakly some time around when the Aelfin said "have seen far worse than that". A couple of acolytes cast confused or annoyed glances in the Aelfin's direction, then return to looking at their books.

Envoy eyes the sparks, and her brow furrows with deeper worry. If any books get damaged, they'll surely blame her for it.

The wand is looked at for a moment before it is lowered to the nearby table edge. "Perhaps here above the clouds, the wand has no affect. None the less, it sparked. Certainly there might be something that occurred so, no need to let it go wild." The wand is picked up again and the Aelfin raises it. "Magic cast by the wand, fail."

The wand sparks again, at the word 'fail'.

A couple of Jupani guards can be seen coming into the entrance of the library. One of the librarians, an old raccoon, shuffles over to the guards, and exchanges some words with them, as they look around.

The Exile continues to watch, daring not to move lest the 'wand' notice her. Finally, she asks, "Does it usually work better than that?"

"Hopefully that will have negated any previous castings by this wand. If not, we … shall see what happens. Either way, we can consider it magical research, although I do hope nothing happens to this place. I trust you will assist any cleanup; if not, I will clean up myself," Scarlet says after putting the wand back in its holder. She nods a bit to the question. "Usually, but it is also slightly unpredictable. I should perhaps consider Chaos magic sometime to prevent it from acting oddly."

Envoy says, "I've never seen a magic wand before. I don't remember Wynona ever using one, and her spells often had unpredictable results anyway."

Scarlet glances around for a moment and inclines her head. "Wynona was said to be a strange mage, but I do not doubt the power behind her presented chaos. Anyway, I, do not see any magical occurrences. Do you?"

Looking over the small mage's shoulder, Envoy says, "Well, two guards have materialized, but I don't think it was due directly to any magic."

The mage turns around to review the two guards Envoy mentions. She bites her lip as she studies them for a moment and then turns back around. "They were likely notified because of my use of a magical item. There has been trouble with another object recently, and they are rightly paranoid. Still, I would like to try my magic again. Having wings would be extremely helpful in traversing Ashtoreth."

"So would a boat, I imagine," Envoy says. "I hope the guards don't think you're my daughter, though. The Temple would probably not be pleased to think I'd started to reproduce."

The guards start walking down one of the aisles, as directed by the raccoon. At least they aren't headed this direction. Not exactly, anyway. It looks like they are headed to the place where all those books on the planets were located.

The Aelfin giggles softly at the idea of such a thing. This distracts her for a time, and when she recovers, the wand is tucked away in its special holder. "The very idea is quite amusing, but I do not think that would be good for either of us as well. I see the guards have walked towards where we were just at. Let us see if something has occurred." The Aelfin begins walking in the aforementioned direction, still giggling softly.

The Aeolun gets up and follows … at a distance, but still close enough to look concerned and helpful.

The guards are looking around the general area of the shelf. One of them is questioning an acolyte … who helpfully points at the Aelfin as soon as she comes into view. The wolf furrows his brow.

The Aelfin stops walking and perks all four of her ears in surprise. She taps her staff on the ground once, causing all her various gaudy baubles to jingle slightly before speaking. "Honored guard of this place, is there something I can assist you with?"

Envoy stands behind the mage and just waves to the guard with her fingers, hoping they don't appear to be an escaped circus act.

The wolf guard says, "We received a report of unauthorized magic use on Temple property. Were you participating in the casting of a ritual, or other form of magic, on the premises, or did you witness anyone participating in such an act?"

"I did indeed practice magic. I am reviewing some items of study and required the assistance of magic as well as casting to prepare for a journey in the name of the Temple," Scarlet responds with a slight curtsey. The Exile behind her is motioned without turning. "This Exile was assisting me in my research under my request."

Envoy blinks three times, but doesn't add any comments.

The wolf raises an eyebrow. "Oh, so Envoy here is assisting you, eh?" He shakes his head, making a 'tsk' noise. "Brother Azrael isn't going to be very happy when he hears this."

The Aeolun slumps. "Really, I was just being friendly… "

The wolf perks his ears up. "No participation in magical rituals in the library, then, Citizen Envoy?"

"I am sorry for the inconvenience, dear guard. If my future quest was not of such high interest for both the Temple and the College, I can assure you such magic would not have been used. As it was, it needed to be done and was quite informative at that." The girl turns to examine Envoy for a moment before turning back to the guard. "Was I not supposed to speak with this one? She mentioned knowledge of the subject I am researching. She had no involvement in my magical castings however, no more than a model who poses paints the picture."

The other guard sniffs a bit, coming back from the table where the Aelfin was seated. "No signs of a magic circle or other magic stuff. Can't rule out cantrips, natch."

The first guard shakes his head. "No, this wasn't a cantrip. They wouldn't have run us out here so fast for that."

Envoy quietly asks, "How did you know any magic had been done?"

The guard raises an eyebrow. "We have our defenses against that sort of thing, Citizen Envoy." He then turns his attention back to Scarlet. "What was the nature of the magic used? Sorry, Ma'am, but we've got controls on this sort of thing. Especially with the recent troubles."

Scarlet tilts her head to the side and wiggles her ears slightly before speaking again. "As you can see, nothing has occurred, and there are no signs of rituals. It was indeed a wand I used, of which I have improved control now, to such an extent I can negate its magic as simply as I can cast it. But to assure you, I will not use it again here."

"A wand?" The wolf's ears flick back. "I'll need to see it, Ma'am."

Scarlet reaches over and removes the wand from its holster and holds it with a firm grip where the guard can see. She does not seem inclined to hand it over for reasons she soon explains. "I hope you can review it this way, as I cannot with good conscience hand it to you, lest you err with it and turn yourselves into something strange."

Envoy raises her eyebrows with interest at that comment, wondering what sort of trouble the wand has caused before.

The first guard furrows his brow a bit further. He reaches for the wand, and forcibly yanks it out of the mage's hand. "I'll have to take this to have it tested." He gestures toward the second wolf. "He'll take your name, so you can get it back later. If you get it back."

The Exile winces at the Guards' actions, even if she can understand their paranoia.

Scarlet raises her eyebrows and steps back. "I am not pleased, but I understand your concern. However, that wand is a gift to me from Lord Kurai and I do need it back. Oh, and I do fear you may have triggered the wand just now. I cannot say I did not warn you. Having brought the Sword of the Necromancer King along with that object, you should have more faith in me."

The guard's attitude doesn't seem to be the least bit improved by Scarlet's warning or admonition. He marches off quickly, stuffing the wand in a large belt-pouch as he heads out of the library.

The second guard pulls out a small tablet. "Name and place of residence?" he dryly asks.

"How irritating," grumbles Scarlet to herself as she watches the wand vanish off with the guard. "I do hope he does not hurt himself with that." She shakes her head a little before facing the other guard and answering his questions. "Scarlet; my residence is the student dorms of the College."

"Which school?" asks the guard.

"The magic school, the Sphere of Water Magic, to be exact," Scarlet answers.

The guard puts away his tablet and writing charcoal. "Thank you. That will be all for now." He then walks off without further ado, leaving the mage with the Exile.

Envoy smiles half-heartedly down at Scarlet. "It could have been worse."

Scarlet sighs softly and closes her eyes, leaning on her staff. "It likely is. That wand has a certain power that the guards did not know about. Hopefully it will not hurt them too much, and maybe they will see why I did not want to hand it over. Perhaps I can have the Temple return it when I go on my mission." The girl leans on her staff a bit more and lowers her head some. "Bother. I really did like that wand. It was a gift from Lord Kurai for assisting him with his lands. It is … quite valuable to me. Alas, I may not see it again." She sniffs a bit as if she was trying to fight down tears, showing she may not be as strong as she was trying to act.

Envoy places a hand on Scarlet's shoulder. "Look at the bright side… They didn't make us leave the library." The Exile smiles, trying to cheer up the Aelfin.

Scarlet sniffles again and nods quietly. She reaches over towards the Exile and tries to hug her, seeming to need the attention. "Why are these things always so hard? I try and I try, but it just does not seem it goes well. Even my biggest success was marked with so many problems. Why can they not just go smoothly for once?"

Envoy kneels down to hug the smaller girl back. "I don't have an answer for that."

Scarlet rests her head against the Exile, apparently exchanging her fear of the alien for the need for a hug. She lowers her ears and places her staff to the side so as not to crowd the woman with their presence. "This is so much harder than I thought it would be. Because I am an Aelfin, most people on Rephidim cannot tell my age, and I used that to my advantage when I could. Maybe … maybe that was a mistake. In truth I really do not know how to use that wand properly. I just want to be a good mage, that's all. Just like Wynona," the girl explains with shaken words.

Envoy smiles and listens. "I suppose you faced the same sorts of problems I did, perhaps. How old are you?"

The girl slides back a bit so she can look up at the Exile and see her eyes. Golden eyes are certainly as unusual as they are fascinating, and the Aelfin stares at them a moment before answering. "I … I would not be an adult yet with my people. I was only able to get here because Winterhind decided she could not convince me otherwise. She knew I wanted to be a great mage, and she helped me come here. I wish I could go home sometimes."

Envoy nods. "We are alike then. I'm only three years old, but have been treated like an adult. I miss my home too, but I can't ever go back. It's hard putting up a brave front all of the time."

Scarlet blinks more than once. "Three … years old? You are very mature for only three years. Is this a fact amongst your people? And, who might your people be?" The girl tries to smile and manages to succeed, if just a bit. She hugs the woman again, and talks a bit more. "It … it is very hard. I once made a dragon my friend because I could not kill it when it was sleeping. And, I scared a lot of people when I brought it to town. And … and, I nearly turned Lord Kurai into a girl."

Envoy giggles.

"Poor Feli," Envoy whispers. "I'd like to hear about it all, though. Your questions are a little harder to answer, since I don't want to frighten you away just yet."

"Feli was pretty mad when I did that, too. He was sort of mad that I nearly destroyed his castle and his grandma was just as upset. I do not think she likes me, although I wish she did. She seemed like a nice person, despite being married to one of the Compass Rose," Scarlet responds as she begins to relax and calm down. Now, she simply leans into the Exile and hugs her from time to time. As for the part about frightening her away, she tries to show she is unafraid. "I had a pet dragon once – a … a hydra. I named him Ashtoreth, and each head used a syllable for its individual name. He was a nice dragon and he gave me a ride once. I lost him when I botched my magic and created a twin girl dragon. At least … at least he is happy now. I also met a Savanite that said he is from another world. A 'Lost One'. I… I am used to making unusual friends now. Maybe because I am unusual too."

Envoy blinks three times as she absorbs all of this. "Maybe we are related after all. No sense in entertaining the acolytes here though. We could talk more over at Freedom Park; it's pretty quiet this time of day."

The little one finally lets go of the Exile and blushes slightly. She smiles over at the woman and offers her hand to her. "I would like that. I think I study too much anyway. All this magic, it's sometimes all I have to keep me company. But, I am getting better! I have found some lore I was not aware of, and my use of magic has helped me learn how to control it." Despite all her nervous ramblings, she seems both proud and quite happy now. Hugs certainly can do wonders, one might think, more than even magic to calm an injured heart.

Hand in hand, the pair of white-and-gold figures leave the library.