|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Fri Apr 13, 2007 8:43 pm
Nara stamped a book a little too hard with the date stamper. Was she supposed to be stamping the book? Hell if she knew. Keeping her eyes trained on the books in front of her Nara shruged. For a moment she kept her lips pressed tightly together, trying to choose the path to answer. "I don't think this is getting through. I can't help without more information, more specifically what is on the scroll. Now you have two options. You may provide this simple information, or you may try your luck somewhere else." She did not add that her partner would escort the man off the grounds if Percival kept this up.
And if he insisted on getting mixed up in the Templars. Well, she warned him.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Apr 14, 2007 11:13 am
Percival swallowed. He was probably batting over five hundred on the lies, but they all had enough degree of truth to them to pass muster. If he said it had a rat, they would surely identify it as Teqatia's scroll. What was similar enough to a rat but different? "It has a bird!" he blurted. "I'm not an ornithologist!" Just in case they asked him to say what kind of a bird his nonexistant scroll had on it.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2007 6:08 pm
Nara waved Iain off as she thought. "A bird." It reeked of lies. The man wouldn't have to be an ornithologist to read the name on the scroll. But on the other hand, not everyone could read ancient Earth Greek. After considering for a moment she gestured for the man to follow her.
"We have a large compilation of the scrolls found and those writers have suggested once resided in the Royal Library of Alexandria.. Eygpt by the way and not Britain." No she hadn't forgotten that mistake. "The Library was sacked by the Templars, whose descendents are still bent on eliminating the scrolls. Thus it is with much care that these documents must be.. handled." The woman didn't add that Percival, well.. didn't seem much of a threat to the scrolls. She paused to see if he was following.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Apr 18, 2007 9:00 am
Percival did hang back a moment, hesitating, but decided to follow Nara, conscious of passing the point of no return. Dear God, Teqatia, you had better be worth this. He did have to correct Nara on one note, barely registering the details about the Templars and the Library of Alexandria. "Egypt practically belongs to the British Empire, or haven't you heard about what happened at the Suez Canal? And the spring before we had ships at Alexandria! It was the talk of London. Wait, no, don't tell me you're one of those followers of that Colonel Orabi!" He was clearly outraged by the idea.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon May 07, 2007 9:56 pm
Leading the way through the fairly organized library it slowly began to become more chaotic and twisted into a labryinth. Sure there was a much easier way, but he was still a stranger.
The woman narrowed her eyes, "The Suez canal has been under UN control for over seventy years. Britian hasn't had an official part of the government for just as long." What exactly was this man trying to pull on her? If he was from Gaia, he was doing a horrible job at pretending to be from their Earth. If he wasn't, why did he assume that everyone followed his history?
At best, he was innocent and not from the Templars. At worst.. He was a new type of nutjob they'd have to worry about. Glancing at her partner who trailed behind them, the relic gave serious thought to calling in some of the younger scrolls.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed May 09, 2007 5:59 am
"Yuen?" repeated Percival. "Is that Chinese? Or some indigenous rebel group?" He was quite sure that, regardless, the British Empire would prevail. In fact, if he was walking into some kind of a trap, he fully expected they would charge in to rescue him. Besides, if the Egyptians were making some sort of deal with the Chinese, the government would be sure to want to know about i!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri May 11, 2007 8:38 am
Deeper and deeper the group moved, at some point shifting underground in a series of stairs. Nara led the way silently, going over her options in her head. What to do, what to do..
Eventually they came to a large circular underground room, easily two to three stories tall. It was filled with unsorted books, scrolls, the works. Marching to one of the rooms off the side of the wall, Nara spun around to face Percival. "The U.N. stands for the United Nations. Obviously we don't come from the same place regardless of similarities. Now. What, exactly, do you need to know," the woman demanded while her partner shepherded the back of the group.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun May 13, 2007 7:19 am
Percival looked around, thinking this place was awfully dusty and messy and someone really should do something about that. He shuddered and wrung Reginald's kerchief in his hands. How far down had they gone? Would he be able to get back up? He really did not fancy dying a second time. There was a sort of romantic appeal to being rescued by someone, but Percival would rather get out of here in one piece than risk detainment or harm for a romantic ideal.
God, he needed a cup of tea.
"Uhm," Percival began, looking at all the books and scrolls. He tried to remember some of the things he had taken down in his capacity as Council Secretary, but his mind was drawing a blank. A few months ago, Etteras had given a long, droning presentation on scrolls and Percival had tuned the whole thing out. He wished he had listened now. "Everything, I suppose. The... nature of the scrolls, what type of magic is it, who created it and why, the purpose of the child, the... history of it." He had to take into account that Teqatia was a historian if he managed nothing else.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed May 16, 2007 9:09 pm
"...purpose of the child..." A chill ran down the relic's back. Was there anyone else like this or did more scrolls spontaneously unseal? Closing her eyes, Nara mentally listed all the one's she knew of being unsealed. Were there any other's who seemed so.. confused? Not that she could remember. Still... There was that crystal boy and he didn't need her around to be unsealed. And if they were in an alternate dimension... well she'd only feel a light buzz and things had been crazy lately..
Gesturing the way in before her, Nara took a seat at oval table and began to talk, "The easiest is the history. Thousands of years ago there was the Royal Library of Alexandria in Egypt. It held the most comprehensive collection of knowledge in the ancient world. Some people, the knights Templar, tried to burn it down for the pagan knowledge it held. These scrolls were part of the collection and managed to survive. It is supposed that these scrolls had to do with some sort of holy power, though the Historians were never clear on the ritual in which they were made."
The woman shrugged, unwilling to tell more to someone without a scroll child with them. Some had to do with things only the kid really needed to know, some was dangerous to give to anyone without clearance, and some was just personal. Staring at Percival she waited for the next barrage of questions or whatnot.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon May 21, 2007 9:44 pm
"Oh," said Percival simply. He reached up and adjusted his glasses. "Could I-- could I write that down?" So much for the barrage of questions. He began glancing around for some scrap of paper and a something to write with. Percival did not carry such things with him for fear the ink chamber of a pen might burst and ruin his fine clothing, or a pencil poke a hole in one of his pocket linings. There was also the issue of unsightly bulges to consider. Nothing ruined a good silhouette like an overabundance of junk in one's pockets. No, despite his current secretarial occupation, Percival carried no tools for writing. He supposed that, in a pinch, he could use his needle and thread to stitch out a message on his handkerchief. The idea seemed a little extreme for the moment.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun May 27, 2007 9:22 pm
Much as it gnawed at the woman to put all this into writing, a very traceable trail, it was more or less common knowledge. And she couldn't keep the scroll kids a secret forever anyway. It was just the headache that went along with all the things that she really didn't want. After a rather unhappy silence, Nara sighed and grabbed a blank paper and fountain pen.
"Here." came the careful attempt not to sound hostile. "Is there anything else you need?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Jun 13, 2007 5:34 am
"No, thank you," said Percival so matter-of-factly it sounded obligatory rather than appreciative. (The tone was unintentional. There was a certain level of snobbery hardwired into Percival from years of training, and it reared its self-righteous head whether he intended it or not.) He sat down at the table, Reginald's handkerchief by his hand, and started scribbling out notes. The lines and squiggles looked like the deranged marks of a two-year-old, but then, such was the case with nearly all forms of shorthand. "Go on," he said, not looking up, intent with his ears on the information and his eyes on the physical task. Shorthand was still new to him and it necessitated some concentration.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Jun 25, 2007 6:35 pm
Nara raised an eyebrow. No, she definately did not like this man. Narrowing her eyes the woman smoothly shifted into a few white lies, "No one's quite sure why they were sealed or why they are unsealing now." Mentally, the woman tried to recall his list of questions. "Any thing else you would like to know," she asked Percival dryly.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Jun 26, 2007 7:40 pm
He looked down at what he had written, taking a moment to translate the marks. "It's not much," Percival concluded, sounding mildly revolted. It was much like being shown the artistic accomplishments of somebody else's two-year-old. Colorful crayon scrawls were unimpressive to an outsider, but the sentiment was not usually voiced out of consideration for the parents. "This is a library. Haven't you got any books on the subjects I could take or copy out?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Jun 26, 2007 8:03 pm
Nara snorted, wasn't it obvious they weren't in a normal library already? "Not anything that would be useful," she replied bluntly. "There's a bunch of history books about the Royal Library of Alexandria, some legends but nothing that comes close to the truth." Resentment crept into her voice despite her attempt to keep it away. "You've now got the only written copy."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reply
