Board Thread:Roleplaying/@comment-25828117-20200205021240/@comment-7262318-20200206011834

“Hello?” Shrava entered the small hut. Inside, there was very little to note. The walls were adorned with bookshelves, filled to the brim with aged novels and files from the Mages Guild exploits. Across the room, there was a desk with even more files upon it, and a frail dark elf sitting behind it.

“Please, come in,” The Dark Elf said, shuffling a few papers around. “You’ll have to forgive us, the Guild… shall we say, is operating at full capacity right now.”

“Full capacity?”

“Oh, as full as this shanty mud hut would allow!” The Dark Elf cried. “Mostly just overlooking papers and sending it back and forth from city to city… you know, the cities that truly matter… With the liberation, this shack has been our archives, essentially. All these records here, awaiting transport to their true home… Fegh!”

Shrava gazed on at the bookshelves as she entered. “You are…?”

“Ramas, my dear. You should know, I’ve been working in this blasted outpost for 5 years now!” He muttered. “Everyone in this itty-bitty map-dot should know the only man who has been consistently stuck here…”

“Yes, well… This One is not from around here.”

“I see,” Ramas said. “What can I help you with? Supplies, messages, requests?”

“Request, yes….”

“… And the request is?” Ramas leaned forward, impatiently tapping his fingers on his desk.

“Records… she wanted to see if you had records on… This One.”

“… Are you Mages Guild?” Ramas arched an eyebrow. “If we have records on some-one-person, it’s typically only members or local populace. Or merchants we’ve done business with…. You a merchant? You don’t look like a merchant.”

“She… believes she’s Mages Guild, yes.”

“… You believe you are with us?” Ramas frowned. “… As in, you’re not sure?”

“This One… please, do you have anything on a Khajiit named Shrava?”

“… Well, I suppose I can check,” Ramas said, rising from his chair and quickly descending down the rows of bookshelves, browsing through the names of people. “It’s very unlikely, you know… the amount of Khajiits we’ve had in Morrowind chapters of the guild are next to none! You know Khajiits, they very much hate the ashes! Gets in their fur, you know? Although, sand is pretty much just a heavier ash, and they seem to love it. But, who am I to question cultures, hm? Us Dunmers, we live in Mushrooms!”

Shrava stood by, too anxious to consider this man’s ramblings.

“Let’s see…. S, S, S, S… Shipments, Shillings Count, Siranya… Shhh… no, ma’am,” He spoke. “I’m not seeing Shrava around here…”

“Anywhere else on this bookcase to look?” She pleaded.

“Afraid not… and I gotta say, I keep a very thorough collection. I have names and dealings of the Mages Guild from Blacklight to Tear down through here… well, Tear when it was home to a Mages Guild and not the Laumer!“

Shrava sunk down the wall, staring onward at the bookshelves. She was furious with this outcome, but her fury was not taking hold on her like it usually did. She had no desire to burn down this hut, lay waste to this insufferable man, or scorch the earth as she normally did. She just felt tired. Like she wanted to lay down and nap for an eternity.

She put her head down and shut her eyes for a moment, shaking her head. The man turned back to her, awkwardly scratching his head. He hoped that she wouldn’t cry, as he was quite terrible with dealing with emotional people. That was one of the perks of working here though, most people were just traveling merchants and warriors. Not the “emotional” type.

“… Ma’am, if I may ask… what made you believe we would have your records?” He asked.

“Oh… This One was told by a… a man, that he received her from a member of the Mages Guild. At a very young age,” She murmured. “And it was here, in Morrowind. That much she is certain of.”

It was at this moment that the face lit up. “Hold a moment… Ma’am, does the name “Tolendir” mean anything to do you?”

“… No?” Shrava looked up at him.

“… Hold, hold a moment!” He said, springing forward to  one of the bottom shelves and running his fingers through a new section of files. “T, T, T… Ta, Ta… o, o… aha!” He said, roughly pulling a file from the shelf. “Tolendir’s Trial!”

“… Who is that?”

“A man from the Ebonheart chapter…” He said. The file itself appeared to be filled to the brim. “This is… all of his trial work. Official testimonies, transcripts, the works…”

“Trial?” She asked. The phrase Ebonheart rang a bell. If she recalled correctly, the city where Reloth conducted most of his business was Ebonheart

“Oh yes. Very immoral, he was. He was accused of falsifying documents and fabricating stories, mostly to incriminate his fellow guild members of following the House of Troubles…” Ramas explained, thumbing through. “Wasn’t very publicized, but for us shut-in mages, to have one of your own expel people in such a manner…”

“… Why would he do that?”

“Don’t know. He claimed paranoia, said he wanted to ensure that the Mages Guild was squeaky clean… most seemed to think he was just trying to make himself look good and take up the positon of his superiors that he had accused… I was there for that, I was quite younger at the time”

He got to a specific spot and stopped. “This one here… Part of the accusations was that the Ebonheart chapter received a young infant by the name of Kizura… the prosecution, if I recall, claimed that he had a hand in her disappearance. Said that he disposed of her based on racial prejudice…. Ah, here! Yes, they claimed racial prejudice, and he claimed nothing to do with it… and then, we skip ahead a few weeks here and he changes it up. Said that she was a dremora in disguise…. And then a while after that…”

Shrava stood up, and her eyes met with Ramas’ as he looked up. “… Do you have a file for Kizura?”

“Well… yes and no… See, not officially, but… we do have some stuff here. Back of the folder. Kizura was a name that was just tossed around for argument purposes. Everything that belonged to her, if I recall was… roped into here! Here! I have it here!”

He went to the back of the folder, and pulled out a few slips of paper. “Now… ma’am, I am not at liability to say that for certain this is what you’re looking for. After all, this is not even the name you gave me but… you are free to look. Or, better yet, allow me to make this copy for you! It’s not much, I can transcribe it in a quick moment!”

“… Yes, that would be nice…” Shrava muttered.

“Wonderful!” He cried, running to his desk and getting to work. “I, uhm… well, I’m not good with emotional business, but if you look upon these items and think perhaps… well, it shall be for you to judge, I suppose!”

“… What is in these papers…”

“Uhm, let me see, let me see… Some statistical stuff, eye and hair color… some notes regarding her stay, arguments against Tolendir for his actions in dealing with her… and this, I… believe this was the letter.”

“The letter?”

“Oh, they flaunted this around at the trial very much… A letter that came with her when she first arrived. We presume it to be written by her father…”

He glanced up, and their eyes met again. “… Well, I suppose if… this is true, possibly it would be your father… again, this could all be coincidental but... it's never a shame to look, yes?”