The College Esoterica, located in the heart of the Scholars' Quarter, consists of an expansive complex of grounds and buildings, the most visited being several large libraries (and it is said there are more underground), though there are plenty of other structures vying for attention, including the classrooms, dormitories, laboratories, observatories, offices … and various towers and domes with no immediately visible purpose.

While the Spheres are not segregated by species – or else one would soon run out of Spheres, since there are only twelve, and Sinai has far many more races than that – there is a high incidence of Nagai influence to be found in the offices of the Sphere of Mind, especially in the areas around the largest office in the building, that of Dean Malthus. Whether that is his first or last name, there is no indication, but no one has any trouble knowing who owns the name when asked for directions.

After stopping to get directions, then stopping again to get CORRECT directions, Envoy finally arrives at the Dean's outer office. Clutching the letter inviting her here, she goes up to the receptionist and introduces herself.

A spectacled and nervous-looking mouse-like Skeek with brown-grey fur nods at the introduction, and quietly motions Envoy toward the wooden double-doors that presumably lead to the Dean's primary office. They bear the rune of the Sphere of Mind, which looks roughly like a large letter "X".

Envoy pauses at the doors, then asks the Skeek, "Do I knock first?"

The Skeek says, "Just enter. He'll tell you he's been expecting you." She sighs.

Envoy ohs, slightly confused. Nonetheless, she opens one of the doors and enters.

Inside, the office is quite large, with plenty of room to fill with artifacts and shelves … which is precisely what has been done. Shelves are loaded with books, scrolls and tablets, occasionally intermixed with curios which serve as bookends, sometimes perhaps inappropriately so, if they are as fragile as they look. The desk dominating the far end of the room is low to the floor, as the one reclining on a pile of pillows behind it is not the sort to use a conventional chair. The black, robed Naga sits facing away from the doors, staring away as if he were looking out a window at the surroundings … but like the rest of this building (and so many on campus), there are no windows, and he's only staring at a more-or-less blank wall.

"Do come in. I've been exsspecting you," hisses the Naga, still looking away. As for where one might be seated, there are a few cushions on the floor on the near side of the desk, and no sign of more traditional chairs or benches to choose from.

Envoy closes the door behind her, and approaches the desk. She makes sure to look at all of the artifacts and books along the way, also.

Envoy stands in front of the desk, and says, "I got your letter."

A large portion of the artifacts may well be mementos from the Imperial City of Nagai, in the heart of the Nagai Empire, given what Envoy has picked up during her time on Sinai, and there are some maps of the various lands claimed as part of that Empire, though many of those claims are dubious at best, and laughable at worst. A number of other artifacts seem to be more in line with obscure tools and equipment associated with the work of magicians on this world, plus some of perhaps more scientific interest, such as a preserved brain of some smaller creature floating in a seamless glass container filled with an almost-clear fluid with a faintly grayish-green tint.

Envoy looks for an interface helmet, but supposes only the Temple has those.

There are no interface helmets or any such items to be seen. While Envoy looks, the Naga at last turns around … his head, that is. His lower torso is actually facing toward the door, but he has an especially long neck, one that allows him to turn completely around without any effort for all that can be told. The piles of dark coils about him suggest that his overall length is greater than average for his apparent bulk.

"Pleassse," hisses the Naga, his tongue and eyes as black as his scales. "Be ssseated."

Envoy focusses her attention back onto Dean Malthus, and sits down.

The Dean flits his tongue a few times, then hisses, "I read your report. It wasss mossst interesssting. Have you any further detailsss to add? And have you had any more sssuch dreamsss sssince then?"

Envoy hmms, "I haven't had any more dreams, but… I have reason to think the figure in the vision is a real person."

The snake replies, "Isss that ssso? Why isss that, might I asssk?"

Envoy says, "An acquaintance of mine refused to tell me about the figure."

The snake pauses a bit, tongue flitting a few more times, then hisses, "A curiousss manner of reasssoning. Consssider thisss. I refussse to tell you about the Great Bromthen-Truffle that fliesss about, giving trufflesss to good little Nagasss. Doesss this mean that there mussst be sssuch a thing now?"

Envoy says, "I've never heard or seen such a thing, so I cannot conclude that it exists."

The Naga nods. "Neverthelessss, you felt obliged to sssend a report of a dream. Why isss that? Or wasss it only becaussse of the … unfortunate csssircumssstancesss sssurrounding that dream? Perhapsss you ssseek an interpretation or to recover repressssed memoriessss?"

Envoy fidgets, "Yes, given the circumstances of the vision I felt it best to report as much detail as I could. If it was an actual event, then the other figures in it must have had a similar experience."

Envoy says, "And also, if the central figure was another mind-mage, I thought she might have been responsible for Isstan's collapse."

The Naga nods slowly, shifting his coils into a new position, an action that takes several seconds. Eventually, he hisses, "Othersss have had a sssimilar dream. You are not the only one. There have been theoriesss that sssince Isssstan was casssting a ritual of the Sssphere of Mind when he died, that hisss death throesss may have sssent hisss lassst visssions to sssensssitive persssonsss nearby. That you had sssuch a dream isss not quessstioned."

Envoy blinks. So, it WAS a vision, and not a dream or memory.

Envoy hmms, "If you already knew this, why did you wish to see me?"

The Dean hisses, "It isss not ssso much what I desssire, Exile, asss I am interesssted in what you desssire. One of the assspects of the Sssphere of Mind, and to a degree in all Ssspheres, isss the finding of anssswersss, and you are full of quessstionsss, are you not? I cannot claim to have anssswersss, but consssider that I am curiousss to sssee what your quessstionsss may be."

Envoy leans forward, "I want to know if the experience is responsible for certain changes in the way I think."

The Dean narrows his eyes to slits, and lowers his head enough so that he can reach his chin with one hand, adopting a "thinking" position. "That isss sssomething that would defy an easssy anssswer, without better underssstanding the way you think in the firssst place. You are, after all, an Exsssile."

Envoy nods. "I was just wondering if some of Isstan's emotions had become imprinted on me. And what else might have been transferred besides memory."

The Dean hmms. "Possssible. Have you had any insssatiable desssires for yifflesss asss of late?"

Envoy blinks. "No."

Envoy says, "But I've become suspicious, and insecure, and I get angry a lot… "

Envoy adds, "I also like to dress in black now."

The Naga asks, "Isss there anything wrong with black?"

Envoy blinks again, "No, but I never cared one way or the other before."

Envoy decides not to mention her growing uneasiness around Bem.

The Naga's head sways to one side, then the other, looking at Envoy from different angles. "You have ssspent a great deal of time in ssself-analysssisss, sssince thessse dreamsss, yesss? You are concsserned, it ssseemsss. Do you fear other changesss asss well?"

Envoy nods, "Yes, I do. I'm not really designed for change, I have no way to cope well with it."

The snake says, "Many have trouble coping with change," managing to get off a sentence without that distinctive hiss.

Envoy blinks, "Oh, I have no problem with external change though. I expect the world to change, just not myself."

The Naga shifts his head to the other side, then hisses, "Do you wisssh to go back to the way you were?"

Envoy pauses to think.

Envoy says, "No, I don't want to be a wimp again, but I do want to know why I'm changing."

The snake brings his head back, nodding faintly. Then, he hisses, "Thisss isss not natural for your kind?"

Envoy says, "Nothing is natural for my kind, technically. I was created to fulfill certain functions, but I have had to operate beyond them on this world."

The Naga says, "Very well. Ssso. Back to your dream. You ssspeak about 'the figure'. Have you any notionsss about who or what thisss might represssent? Doesss thisss remind you of anyone you know or oncsse knew?"

Envoy says, "I didn't recognize the person, no."

The snake says, "But you sssaid sssomeone refusssed to tell you about thisss figure. What wasss there about thisss figure that prompted sssuch a resssponssse?"

Envoy says, "Well, from the conversation I overheard this person was very dangerous or malicious. I was suspected of being a 'minion' for knowing anything about her."

The Naga's head drops a bit, resuming that pose of contemplation. "Lissstening in on a conversssation? What made you cssertain anyone wasss ssspeaking about thisss figure? Only overhearing, perhapsss you misssunderssstood. From what little isss dessscribed, I cannot sssee how you could be sssure of sssuch a thing."

Envoy says, "I was in the same room, and know the people involved fairly well. But they had changed since their experience with this figure, and said they had taken an oath not to tell anyone, even me."

The Naga raises his head a bit at this, then hisses, "Did they have a name for thisss figure, if they knew it?"

Envoy says, "They didn't mention any name."

The snake sways back the other way, then hisses, "A pity. They were not magesss of the Sssphere of Mind, were they?"

Envoy shakes her head.

Envoy figures she isn't lying, since the Savanite mind-mage isn't a member of the Sphere exactly.

The Naga says, "If they had recsseived this visssion, then, it would not fit with the theoriesss. Hmmm." He lowers his head low enough again, so that he can rub his chin with one hand.

Envoy says, "Was there anything else the mages noticed in the vision that I did not? Did they all see the figure approaching them, or just moving among them?"

The snake moves his head over to one side, looking at Envoy from another angle, then hisses, "The 'figure' approached an image that quite probably wasss a represssentation of yourssself."

Envoy says, "Did anything happen after my link with Isstan was severed?"

"Presssuming the time of the ssseverance of the ssspell … no. The visssion ended with the ssspell," the snake hisses.

Envoy hmms, "So it was being maintained by Isstan, apparently. There were memories being transferred. Were any of them picked up by the other mages?"

The snake hisses, "It isss unknown how thessse memoriesss might comprissse thisss visssion of yoursss."

Envoy blinks? "There were memories transferred then?"

The Naga hisses, "One can only presssume. Isssstan isss not here to exsssplain the workingsss of hisss ritual, and the resssults thereof."

Envoy frowns, "Presume? Wouldn't the other mages know if they had received memories?"

The Naga hisses, "I am sssuggesssting that perhapsss thisss visssion represssentsss the contentsss of recovered memoriesss, in sssymbolic form."

Envoy says, "Isstan's memories, you mean?"

"… or perhapsss yoursss … or a mixsssture of the two," the snake hisses, head nodding slightly.

Envoy shakes her head, "My memories are not stored symbolically."

"Oh?" responds the snake. "Perhapsss your mind would be worth further ssstudy."

Envoy asks, "There is something I am curious about though. I did not have a subconscious mind before the spell, but experiences following it suggest that I have one now. Is there any way to test this?"

The Naga hisses, "Perhapsss, but there are no othersss of your kind on thisss world to compare againssst. From what I have obtained, many of the tessstsss taken on your physssiology at the Temple were inconclusssive."

Envoy says, "They just don't understand how to interpret the results. If I have a subconscious now, it does not serve the same function that yours does."

The snake makes a gesture as if throwing up his hands. "Well then, isss it truly a sssubconssscious, then? But there are ssstill possssibilitiesss for further ssstudy. If it would interessst you, perhapsss sssome exsssperimentsss could be arranged. But ssspecial precautionsss will be taken, given your unique nature, of courssse."

Envoy asks cautiously, "What sort of experiments?"

"Divinationsss," the snake answers. "The Temple'sss facssilitiesss for medical examination are unsssurpassssed by the College Esssoterica. But tessstsss of the mind of a more magical nature are our ssspecialty."

"I exsspect that the risssk involved would be nearly negligible," the snake adds.

Envoy nods, "Magical examination is acceptable. I will be compensated for my involvement, correct?"

The Naga moves his head around, then hisses, "For now, the compensssation would only be whatever resssults might be obtained. However, if you are willing to wait, the board might be approached to approve a more official project for purposssesss of resssearch."

Envoy nods, "Knowledge is the only compensation I value, so knowing the results will be enough."

The Naga's mouth widens in his version of a smile. "Very good. I will sssee who is available, and you will be notified when arrangementsss can be made."

Envoy is unsure if that was a dismissal or not. "Is that all for today, then?"

"If you wisssh," the snake hisses. "Isss there anything elssse I can do for you?"

Envoy pauses, then asks, "Does the College have information regarding chemical hallucinagens or other mind-altering substances?"

The snake nods. "Yesss. There are alchemisssts among many of the Ssspheresss."

"We do not encourage, however," the snake adds, "the ussse of mind-altering sssubssstances in ritualsss. It isss too dangerousss, and unhealthy, dessspite claimsss that such thingsss as yorssspice are not addictive."

Envoy says, "I would like to meet with one at some point then, to learn if such substances are used by the Temple."

The snake raises his head a bit. "Perhapsss that can be brought up."

Envoy stands, and bows from the waist. "Thank you for your openness and aid, Dean Malthus. It is a refreshing change."

The Dean bows in return, from the neck up (which is a considerable part of his body). "Feel free to visssit again. I will be curiousss to be informed of any progressss you make in invessstigating thessse ssstrange visssions and changesss."

Envoy smiles, "I'll be sure to keep you updated, sir."

Envoy thinks to herself, { The Nagai may be best able to weather the coming changes in the Savan. I'll have to figure out which information is best to present to them. }

Envoy leaves the Dean's office, and navigates her way towards the College gates.

Outside, Chiaroscuro sits on the steps leading up to the college… combing through his tailfur with an almost obsessive meticulousness.

Envoy smiles and tries to sneak up on her friend from behind.

Envoy hisses in her best Naga voice, "What are you doing here, Chiarosssscuro Themyssst?"

Chiaroscuro doesn't seem to notice Envoy's approach, as small threads of loose fur get combed neatly out.

Chiaroscuro jumps! high in the air, coming down on all four paws, tailfur bristling out…

Envoy giggles.

Envoy says, "Sorry. The meeting went well though, for a change."

Chiaroscuro blinks. "Envoy? But… " he looks left and right, before finally realizing what has happened, with a chuckling grin. "I am glad your meeting went well… "

"… As did mine," the mongoose continues. "Though it has left me with much to think about… "

Chiaroscuro says, "And some matters I need to discuss with you… shall we head home, or did you have other things to do this day?"

Envoy says, "I didn't know how long the meeting would last, so I didn't plan on anything else for the day."

Chiaroscuro nods, and walks quietly alongside Envoy on the path home…