[IC][Ryuutama] Off the Beaten Path

[Magnum Opus]

Oakentown, usually booming with life and energy, was eerily slow and silent. Red leaves from the town's giant oak were dancing to the cold wind blowing in the streets. The city was mourning one of its most important figures, the professor Sirocco. The town's musicians were playing the Aria of Storms, Sirocco's favorite melody, while villagers went to the base of the tree to offer their last words to the professor.

In the small park, surrounded by many, laid the body of the professor wrapped in a cotton shroud. In just a few hours, he would be burned by the town's priest and his ashes would be scattered to the wind from atop the giant oak, to cast him on his final journey across the land. Among the crowd stands 3 persons, a small group of women - and a girl - who would embark on their own journey soon after Sirocco's funerals.

ArcaneArts MCN The Kings Raven

[The Kings Raven]

"I always used to have nightmares of Coco all lonely and lost in the gear tunnels. I'm glad he didn't go, and we can say good bye to him properly". Alice places a few sheets of paper on the professor's body. It was the last piece of homework he had assigned her, and it must be said that it was not even close to Alice's best work. After all, the Sirocco wasn't going to be marking it was he.

Alice turns to put the wind in her back and looks into the distance. "He would have known, I wonder why he wanted to go that way"?

[MCN]

"It c.... c... could have been worse." A sniffle came behind Alice, as Lauren wiped away some tears from her eyes. "I... I miss him already. And he's not even... Its just..." A sob escaped the young woman, dressed entirely in black, complete with veil over her face. Though, the clothes were admittedly rather poor quality, given everything, but it was the nicest looking outfit she owned. Long skirt down to her shoes, and a black blouse, head covered with the thick veil, obscuring her face and hair. "It feels like we could wake up tomorrow and he'd be there, but then I look over there, and just..." and she trailed off.

Lauren glanced around, looking between Alice and the others in the funeral, shaking her head, and a little bit of light humor made her way into her voice. "You know he hated grading papers. He'd probably like having them and laughing at how he would never have to mark them. Probably put them in a little frame or something so he could laugh every time he walked past them and didn't have to do it."

[The Kings Raven]

"But..." Alice's face superposes between confusion and annoyance as her young mind fails to grasp the solomenty of the situation and with it Lauren's obvious distress "if we both don't like papers why did I have to do so much homework?"

[MCN]

"I don't know. You'd have had to ask him that." The responce was low and quiet. A single hand, even the nails died black with ink, rested on Alice's shoulder momentarily, giving the young girl a small hug, more out of the need to hold another, than anything else, before slipping over to the side, out of the way. "I really don't know. Come on, lets let other people pay thier respects."

[ArcaneArts]

She knew that conversation. She tried not to choke up at the memory of the night her old pa took her to the roof to explain the whys, but she was failing. Composure, the guild had taught. Compsoure and dignity at all times. Pa laughed hard when he first saw her trying to be composed. Darling child, you are many things, but you are too in love with your feelings to ever be a stiff-lipped merchant. You'll win your wages drawing them in with your laughter, not your poker face.

It was stupid, so stupid. She hadn't even seen the body up close yet, and she was on the verge of breaking. She couldn't help it, but she wished more than ever she was could adhere to the conduct. She had already drawn so much attention-the prodigal returns? Bold. No, of course it must be hard for her, poor lamb, but there's no pretending she doesn't get what she deserves- and she just wanted to go pay respects without hearing more.

The line moved, and she got closer. She could see his arm, from where she stood, and the ceremonial arrangement. The smooth rust silk of his academic robe was too smooth, not flapping in cadence to an explanation about the habits of weather dragons and ley lines in the stratosphere. It was at odds with the large green leaf laid under him, like the wings of crows who took the shining souls beyond the horizon to the place of rest, the Sleeping Lands. Those leaves didn't belong to that arm, always shaping the clouds and the winds, to that hand, sun-worn and dark, rough and lined like the sculptures of the hill away and over, the hand that should be tracing, drumming, caressing, and why was it so hard to breathe and and see and-

She couldn't take it. Bowing her head, locking her jaw, she slipped out from the crowd, away from the lot. She heard a new wave of whispers emerge, but she didn't care. They were going to draw their own conclusions anyway. Her tears, her collapse,-those were for her father, even if she couldn't give them to him personally.

She would go to see him the last time when everyone started dispersing. For now, Ainsley Sirocco needed to cry, and she needed away from people who tolds tales of how such a wonderful man produced such a greedy, unloving daughter.

[Magnum Opus]

A priest, clad in flowing robes of all the colors of autumn, laid a comforting hand on Ainsley's shoulder. His long, white beard betrayed his age, as did his wrinkly face. He smiled a honest smile to the woman.

"In the name of Oakentown's temple, I'd like to offer you my condolences. Your father was a pillar of our community, and he will be missed from all of us." he said formally, fighting the tears in his eyes. "And in the name of your father, I would like to give you this." he continued, offering Ainsley a cast-iron key. Ainsley didn't even need to know what it was for; Sirocco's study had always been his private sanctum, a room which she had only been to a handful of times.

"He asked that his students be allowed in" continued the old man, looking over to Alice and Lauren, "but I figured that it would only be fair that you get to go too."

[The Kings Raven]

Wordlessly Alice nodded and walked underneath the priests elbow and into the sanctum, eager to see the hidden room she'd known about but never entered. On the whole Alice found being the usual size for a girl of her age to be a limitation, but it did have some advantages.

[MCN]

Lauren noted the comotion as the priest gathered Alice and Ainsley were gathered and led to the private study. On the way, she put a finger on Ains' shoulder, and whispered softly. "I'm so sorry for your loss. He was a good one. If..." her voice broke under the strain, but then she tried to rally. "If you need anything, you know how to find me. You shouldn't be alone. We could go out for drinks and talk about everything in peace, if you want." Then, the arm fell away, and she followed after the priest quietly.

[ArcaneArts]

Ainsley nodded quietly. She wasn't sure if she wanted to stop for drinks until she was in the next town at least, but it was good to know that Lauren wasn't keen on starting with her. Ainsley took a second to notify one of the priests of her departure, and the request to not burn pa until she came back and had her time. She wasn't sure how that would go over with the townsfolk, since it was customary to have the burning be a public affair and so many people would stay up. She hoped whatever was going on with the key wouldn't take too long, but if the act caused people to leave in disgust, she could live with that too.

Ainsley followed shortly behind the priest, Lauren and Alice. her mind slowly clicked some things into place-she had already been to a few of the will readings, and she was fairly certain the majority of it had been handled. It was possible this was a small part of the will she just hadn't expected, but a small part of her wondered if this was something off the tables.

[Magnum Opus]

They all walked towards Sirocco's study, a small building just across his house. The priest unlocked the door and signalled them to enter.

"If there's anything you'd like, I think he'd want you to have it" said the smiling old man to the 3 girls. He stayed outside, refusing to enter the domain of the professor.

The place was filled with dusty books, disorganized parchments with notes written on them and souvenirs from Sirocco's journeys across the world. Small figurines, tribal masks and paintings of faraway lands were exposed everywhere. Even with such activity, the room seemed calm, with a few rays of light passing through the curtains and dust flying in the room.

The professor's desk, lying in the middle of the room, had a few letters of correspondance laying on it, as well as a single, thick book "The Dragon Temples, or the encyclopedia to the world's first structures, by Professor Henry Sirocco". The last third of the book was blank pages, and the last written chapter was not completed.

On the wall behind it, a wonderful, purple silken cloak with a golden embroidered symbol was displayed. A plaque underneath it could read "Three Streams - The town on the lake"

Lastly, laying in a corner of the room, a glass case on a pedestal. Inside it was an egg the size of a cat, with scales of bronze on the bottom half. A similar plaque could be found near it "Dragon Egg - Spring 254", a weird date, especially since the current year was 253.

[MCN]

Lauren would pick up the book, flipping through it as she settled into the desk chair, glancing through the notes he made, instantly drawn to stories he may have written. She always loved the stories. Still, she paused, and looked up at the other two, flushing as manners hit her. "Ah, sorry, I just..." A small bite on her lip. "I just..." A shake of her head, her voice small. "Did you two want to see this?"

[The Kings Raven]

Coming from a privileged background meant that Alice was no stranger to beauty or gold. She ignored the cloak and finery to coo over the exotic, trying on one tribal mask after another and inspecting each figurine.

"Did you two want to see this?"

"Oh. So that's the book Coco was always talking about, does it say why he was so interested in ancient buildings? He never did tell me."

Quite gently, but with an aristocrats confidence that no one would tell her no Alice took the book from Lauren's hands and placed it on the floor balanced upon it's spine to see which pages the book fell open too.

[Magnum Opus]

The book opened with a loud *thump*, revealing two pages. On the left, a drawing made in ink, showing a weird stone structure and a single man. The drawing was noted as the Cliff Temple.



As with the other temples, the Cliff Temple was well hidden. Two days of trekking north of Amberstars, stood the building of the old times. Forests were crawling around, but the temple refused to let go. We searched the ruins for two whole days, looking for its instrument, but to no avail. We concluded that it must have been stolen, and with it were stolen the powers of the temple. Since the instrument is lost, it serves no purpose to find a guardian for this temple. The symbols carved into the pillars referred to the sounds of a rock slide, which points towards a drum. Trail informations can be found at the Amberstars Library, and the citizens are always happy to guide travelers on their way.

The rest of the page seems to be a map from Amberstars to the temple, with various possible trails and detailed coordinates, dated as Summer 241, and signed by two names: Henry Sirocco and Urha Stonehands

[MCN]

She just glanced down Alice as she opened the book, wincing at the way she was handling it, but letting the issue go. Instead turning her attention the egg on display, letting her nose come close as possible without touching it, and staring at it. "Pardon me, but what's with the date on this? Did you happen to know anything about it? Alice, Ainsley, would you hapen to remember hearing anything about this? Is it going to hatch or something? What do you think?"