Welcome to Gaia! ::

“Onagae…emyth, and…cirem,” Lithian murmured, mouthing the name of each of the three herbs as he drew his finger down the page before him. After squinting at the text a moment and then scanning the information beside each of the hand-drawn images etched in to help the reader identify said plants, he lifted his writing instrument and turned to the scrap of parchment to his right, scribbling down notes on each beneath the rest of what he had written.

Late afternoon sunlight wound down from the upper, arched windows of the fortress’ main library, setting the dust motes aglow with a soft, white-yellow light and spilling onto Lithian’s pen and parchment. He was, as per usual, tucked into one of the farther corners of the first floor’s main room and taking full advantage of the library’s peace and solitude to carry out his studying.

In this case, the research wasn’t strictly required. Herbal remedies were more the specialty of ysali and oblivionite healers, the first because they specialized in plants by default and the latter because they had no choice but to turn to the land itself when the very nature of their magic prevented them from tapping efficiently into the power of healing. But Lithian’s tutor had recently stressed to him the importance of never relying on only a single avenue of power when tackling an issue. Each branch of magic had its own set of strengths and weaknesses, and to practice only one was to cripple oneself from the inside out. In addition, if one only ever practiced what they were already good at, how could they expect to learn?

Thus, Lithian found himself bent over an aged book, picking over the healing properties of herbs and sprouts from all corners of the lower worlds and making notes for those of interest. The text itself — gifted to him by a personal friend of his who ran a bookstore on Eowyn which specialized in banned or ‘controversial’ texts — was co-written by a pureblood oblivionite healer and their partner, a ysali dovaa. It expounded in detail on both the benefits, and poisonous effects, of grown life from fungal varieties in deep sea caverns to lichen capable of surviving on the frozen tundras of aisko and tiny seeds that could last for years in Eowyn’s desert before finding a suitable place to take root.

The concept of oblivionite healers in and of themselves fascinated Lithian. What must it be like, he wondered, to be born with a passion for the healing arts, only to learn early in life that your very blood was against you, dampening your ability to tap into the natural flow of light and natural magics? He could scarcely imagine it.

But, as his tutor often stressed, even if he had not endured another’s struggle, it did not mean he could not benefit from what they had learned on their journey.

Lithian blinked, jerked out of his reading by the sound of his name, and then winced at Vyren’s sneer. “I, ah…I’ve been well,” he answered, self-conscious of the other boy’s jeering tone despite the fact that Vyren's expression seemed to relax into something less condescending and more smug by the time he reached his final comment. “It’s…good to see you again? A pity we never exchanged information properly last time…”

Glancing briefly down to his book and then notes, Lithian hastened to slip a strip of parchment into the manuscript to save his place before closing it and setting his notes aside. The last thing he wanted, since Vyren seemed to be in somewhat of a poor mood, was to agitate the firani further or come off as rude somehow.

“Little exciting has happened to tell of on my front…” ‘Except perhaps for watching a woman die in an arena, listening to the crowds cheering after her death, watching my best friend kiss a girl, grappling with self-induced pity, jealousy, and guilt, admitting to—’ Lithian’s expression pinched with a tight frown as he slammed down on his train of thought and shoved it away for another day. “And you? I didn’t take you for the ah…library ‘type’. Not,” he hastened to add, “that I didn’t think you intelligent, just…you didn’t seem particularly interested in more docile things, such as—” He pinched his lips closed and resisted the urge to strum his fingers on the tabletop before him. “Anything I can help you find?”

Lithian blinked at the request, and then relaxed a fraction, offering a genuine smile. If Vyren had come here to study — which seemed to be the case — then Lithian could certainly help him there. Information, fictional and otherwise, had fascinated Lith since before he could read, and the discovery of the library, a literal sea of more than he could absorb in a lifetime, had been a treasure trove to him as a young boy. Now, it was a second home.

“Certainly,” he said. “Anywhere in particular you’d like to start? A specific breed or simply a broad clan as a whole? As you likely know already, even within a clan, dragons can differ in any number of fairly crucial ways depending on the roots of their breed. Ysali native to the grassy plains of Serenia, for instance, will harbor and utilize a different make up of toxins than those which inhabit the more marshlike expanses of Soudul, both of them different still from those in the green areas of the Terra Expanse. Despite being extremely plentiful across most of Magesc, each individual cluster has adapted to make use of the specific plant life of their region and fine tuned their magic as such…”

Lithian walked as he spoke, leaving his things temporarily behind and motioning with his head and hand for Vyren to follow as he started towards a spiraling, railed staircase. The second floor of the fortress’ library housed the vast majority of technical tomes, everything from the in-depth medical pieces he scoured through to missives on dragon anatomy, habitat, diet, magic structure and specializations.

“The same can be said of most breeds, of course — at least those that inhabit more than one area natively,” Lithian continued. “Peisios, for instance, differ quite drastically between the salt-water varieties native to the open oceans and coastlines to those who make their homes in freshwater rivers and lake regions. The freshwater variety tends to be slightly smaller in stature but twice as territorial, since ocean groups are more naturally migrant…” Lithian paused at the top of the stairs, glancing out over the endless collumns of books before them, and then back at Vyren with a sheepish grin. “Ah, this is, well…this…” He cleared his throat. “If you wanted any references on any of the dragon species or even a broad tome that covered some things on all of them, this is the best floor for you. The first floor has a lot of basic history, lore, and literature, but the sciences, medical, herbal, magical, anatomical…all of that is here in far more depth. Did you mention where you wanted to focus…?”

Lithian flushed, embarrassed by the generally headstrong boy’s dramatic change in tone. Had he talked too much? He’d likely talked too much. Rubbing at one of his horns, he shook his head and answered the first question.

“I read a good bit, I suppose…” After trailing off, though, that felt like a pitifully weak response, and Lithian cleared his throat, tugging at the end of one of his braids. “I was quite frail as a child, especially so when I was very young…it wasn’t until much later that I even began to consider following in my elder siblings’ footsteps and taking the path of a soldier. At the time, books were everything to me, and I had little other way to pass the time. It seems the habit stuck, to an extent? It was a way to see things I never expected to see and expand my knowledge base even if my legs couldn’t take me there…”

He eyed Vyren, debating a moment before continuing.

“I’ve always been especially fond of fiction and folklore, actually…but nothing wrong with brushing up on the facts every now and then?” After offering Vyren a hesitant smile which, he hoped, might dissuade some of the uncertainty he’d given rise to, Lithian nodded to his left and stepped that way as he continued speaking. “There’s a great wealth of text on ysalis by the researchers Ikkanrai and Verthrim, though I think personally Ikkanrai’s tomes are a good bit more readable. Mmhh…” Moving down one of the isles, he thumbed over the spines of a good number of tomes, squinting, before plucking one out. “This is Ikkanrai’s initial text, a very broad, first look at her findings on them. There’s at least one chapter dedicated entirely to their poisons, though I think her focus was on Serenia ysali…some of her later texts include more specific looks at other varieties. If you’re especially interested in remedies and healing herbs for their poisons, though, the book I’m currently reading has a wealth of information specifically on that, in addition to antidotes for the other ailments you might receive from other brands of dragons and the various beasts of Magesc.”

Once he’d handed over the first book to Vyren, Lithian began scanning the shelves again, thoughtful, though his mind wasn’t focused on the titles before him.

“Cillra and urdock, I think…” he murmured, almost to himself, then shook his head, remembering he had an audience. “It would depend on how you were poisoned, obviously. If it was a spit poison that stuck to your skin and ate at you, like acid, you’d need a gelatinous mixture of urdock root crushed and blended with clean water to scrub away the burning toxins and then cleanse the skin. If it was a poison bite or gash, something that soaked into your bloodstream, you’d likely want to use the cillra leaf, ideally chewed and swallowed or brewed in a tea. It helps to absorb and mask the existing venom in your blood, but also encourages the body to sweat it out and…well…excrete it quickly in most any way it can. Not always an elegant process, but effective. There are a good number of others that might also do, though, depending on the situation…iniger blossoms, yarroi…”

Lithian stepped forward, plucking down two more texts and folding them into his arms before glancing Vyren’s way. “So you said this was personal research, not something for your classes?”

Lithian startled, and felt his pulse pick up for Abronaxus knew what reason when the Vyren stepped forward, closing a good bit of the distance between them. His attention flicked down as the other blushed, momentarily focused on the warm glow between his already naturally red-tinted scales, and then down to his—

Lithian jerked his eyes away, his own cheeks blossoming hotly when a request for ‘something I’ve never asked of anyone before’ turned into a hunting offer. Of course the boy wanted to train. Where on Magesc had his mind been headed? Just because he had twisted, ridiculous dreams didn’t mean anyone else actually thought like—

Lithian slammed the brakes on that mental line of thought.

“Of course,” he said aloud. “Of course I would be happy to get physical with you. Physic…” Lithian choked. “Physical. With dragons. I would be happy to train with you, and fight…dragons. Things. Anything you wanted…anytime.” He winced, face burning, and exercised every bit of his willpower not to squeeze his eyes shut completely and wish himself invisible.

Lithian clapped his lips shut, diverting his gaze and nodding in silence at Vyren’s words. Quiet. Don’t babble. Don’t be irritating. Right. He could…handle that?

His own personal embarrassment aside, Lithian agreed readily to the offer for doing some herb hunting on Serenia. However awkward his interactions might have been thus far, the idea of getting to know Vyren better appealed to him, at least on some level. Not to mention, Ysette had brought up taking him on a trip down to Serenia on multiple occasions now. Although he had been down with her in the past, he had not taken her up on an offer for some time, and perhaps it was high time he did so. He spent far too little time with his eldest sister, after all. What could it hurt?

Thus, he exchanged information with Vyren, letting the boy know where he lived so that they could get in contact if need be and arranging a date, time, and location to meet once on Serenia.