There is this new thing happening...

[ezra_pyreborn]

Who: Ezra, Anyone
When: Arrival
What: An undead arcanist gets a library card.

Ezra L. Pyreborn, historian, linguist, and arcanist, architect of peace in his native Lordaeron, speaker to Titans and dragons, was lost. This wasn't the first time for such a thing. Wandering the world of Azeroth, crossing and re-crossing the line between death and life, negotiating between the competing factions of the Alliance and the Horde, had led him far afield. He was confident in his ability to navigate unknowns. But this time was different.

The interview with the Bronze Dragonflight was the last thing he remembered. They had opened a portal across time and space, and told him that his next destination lay beyond. Trusting them - for what else is there to do against an entire flight of dragons? - he stepped through.

He'd come out in a library. That much was clear. There were books, stacked and shelved to the lofty ceilings of a grandly furnished old building, and more books than he'd seen in one place in his life. Reading was clearly the business of whoever managed this establishment. His unnaturally glowing eyes found the darkness not at all troubling, though he found only a few candles, and no lanterns at all. Were there living patrons? If so, did they come only during the day?

Was the portal still there, closed and quiescent? It was not. Damn those dragons. What are they up to?

There was a reason he was here, surely. There was meaning in all this vast conglomeration of knowledge. There was no rush to be anywhere - dragon magic could cross time as well as space. And so Ezra Pyreborn, undead, zombie slave of the Scourge turned crusader of the Forsaken, loyal follower of Sylvanas Windrunner, tireless servant of peace, did what he had lacked the opportunity to do for a very long time. He sat down, and he began to read.

Comments

[ezra_pyreborn]

Ezra laughed. It was a hideous, unearthly sound, and it kept rolling out of withered lungs and blackened mouth longer than it ought.

"A power able to mock the Bronze Dragonflight would be potent indeed, yess. But grant ssuch a thing the power and will to ssummon, but not to sspeak its wishess openly and insstead watch its guessts flounder in darknesss.. My lady Khemrysss, you have far more to fear than one wretched Forssaken if that tale is true. For what you desscribe is not a being of good ssense and reason, but merely a potent child, and we be itss playthings."

He set the book down with exaggerated gentleness on the table and gestured around him with a bandaged hand. "Far more comforting to think there iss some mysteriouss purpose given to me by the dragonss, yes?"

[homeless_pard]

She had to close her eyes a moment and still the urge to flee once more at that sound but she managed, yes. "Mayhap, then what of I though? I know of no dragons and hold no ship with those who may. My kith are not beholden to such, nor are they present here beside me. The city speaks, and true at times it seems so very eager to see me settled, like a child, and others it seems distracted. I could find fear in either aspect, truth told." Unknown powers either way honestly.

"My care is that I may aid and that I not be returned to my own world, beyond such I will strive to make a home and hold what peace about me I may."

[ezra_pyreborn]

"My comforting illusionss do not account for your presence," Ezra confessed lamely. "I prefer to think that my masssters of the moment are enigmatic rather than capriciouss, yes."

"You say 'that I not be returned to my own world'. I very much wissh to return to mine. There is a war to prossecute, one on which ressts the survival of civilization and culture and freedom. I have friendss and allies who will need my sservices. So then what of you, if I may inquire further?" He rested against the table behind him, clasping his wrapped hands together.

[homeless_pard]

"My world is one in which I grew knowing of far greater Powers who may shift a world and person within; but in kind one learned forms and respects to aid in keeping one safe. Mayhap I am less afraid of great Powers because I grew believing such may be safely respected," and as such the capriciousness of any tempered somewhat.

One could hope anyway. That was her comforting illusion.

"My sorrows for you, lord, to be away from such a place of need. As for my own world, well and so it is a simple tale. I am fair unlike those I was raised among and in time I was hunted, I ran, far and long," and indeed the signs of depredation were upon her yet if one knew how to look. She held little to no weight beyond the necessary, hands and face too thin by far even yet. "In doing so I fell between in a place others had learned to travel and I was taken to a new world. Small, so small, I could run around the whole in less than a day, but safe despite such. There I learned of doctors and earned my way as such. I had...just purchased a home with my finding sib, and then was plucked away once more. Now I am here."

[ezra_pyreborn]

Hands folded, Ezra listened and nodded at points. "To be hunted, to be different, to be sstrange. Yess.. you alsso are Forssaken in your own way. Thiss is the common history that binds my people together under the Dark Lady."

"Perhapss there are otherss we meet here who will tell a ssimilar tale, yes. It would be a ssad jest to have nothing but a healer attending a dead man, eh?" The laugh came again, but it is less ugly if no less inhuman. Perhaps he was capable of genuine amusement, not merely sardonic wit.

[homeless_pard]

"...no, forsaken bears a far different weight in my own world," she admitted. "I may give thanks to the offer of kindred to forsaken is perilously close to the oath broken, those beyond forgiving and targeted by Power because of such. I wouldst not claim such attentions even in jest lest my own traditions bring ill upon this new land." Because where one of the Old Blood walked so too could the Powers reach.

"And mayhap. Two I have known in passing have also stumbled here but we did not speak after their arrival. I...have not stepped forth from the hospital until this day." For many reasons truth told. "And pity indeed. Should it prove that we are mostly and ever alone I am certain we shall endure and mayhap create a reading circle between us. Such would pass the time without the possible mishap of my ability and your body disagreeing with one another!"

[ezra_pyreborn]

Ezra tilted his head for a moment, and his body quivered. He seemed to tense. Then his body exploded outward in a shower of sand. It whirled about a central point for a heartbeat, then began to coalesce. First a vaguely humanoid outline, then a clearly-defined shape, emerged from the chaos. The sand fell away, seemingly evaporating into nothingness.

In its place stood a humanoid figure, as before. Bandaged, as before, and clad in the black hat and coat as before. But beneath and between the bandages was living flesh. Pale and hairless to be sure, but something akin to living flesh.

Ezra peeled away the bandages, revealing a human face. He smiled, showing white teeth and healthy gums. His eyes, fully restored, gazed steadily outward.

"It seems the dragons' gifts are still with me." He probed at his flesh with experimental fingers. "I felt a curious sensation, like a whirlpool below my soul. My arcane reserves are being drawn on by something about this place. Like.. a place of power, but in reverse. I.. still feel it. Curious."

He looked up, finding Khemrys with his living eyes. "This is me before my death. But.. I don't remember that life. I had another name. A wife, and a child. It is no longer who I am. But I will wear this mask if it will be safer, or easier."

The aura of death was gone. Whatever had been done, it was no mere illusion.

[homeless_pard]

Had he ever had cause to see a cat startled in his own world? An explosion, no matter that it canceled the wrong feeling, was by far and enough for her nerve. Even as he was coalescing once more she was, somehow in an arching, startled hop, atop the card catalog cabinet,. There she balanced easily, fingertips lightly touching the wood before the pool of her skirts, eyes bled to golden once more in panic.

A gracious act, perhaps, but a startling one, and she was only grateful she had managed not to fright entirely into fur! "...so..." ah, that wasn't working. She licked her lips and peeled her tongue free from the roof of her mouth to try again, "...so I have felt. It is not great, and in the hospital it seems to work as the source of light? I feel the pull, gentle and small, and the wealth of lights upon a floor lives upon my arrival." She'd had ample time to observe the thrifty nature of the hospital at least?

"Easier by far, yes, thank you for such kindness."

[ezra_pyreborn]

"I was right." Ezra peered closer. "Your eyes. I thought I was imagining it earlier." He sniffed, and rubbed his nose with a bandaged finger. "Well. I'm gratified to know that my display wasn't for nothing."

He walked in a slow circle around the table, rotating his shoulders to work out the kinks, rubbing his hands, cracking his knuckles. "It is curious indeed what is happening to us. But there will be an answer."

And then he stood tall and smiled, a real human smile rather than the ghastly maw of the undead shape he wore moments ago. "Very well! There is this new thing happening. Someone wants me to be part of it."

He rested fingers on the leather book, still resting on the table. "So if we are to be here, it amuses me to be the caretaker of this place of learning until someone more suitable displaces me. And perhaps if I do not dance to our host's tune, I will feel his strings tighten and learn from whence they come. Nothing uncovers a hidden agenda like defiance."

[homeless_pard]

What in the worlds Was he?! And if he had the option of not being so very wrong why had he not taken it sooner?! Perhaps not the most charitable of thoughts but she was a bit unsettled at the moment yes. She'd never had anyone explode in her vicinity after all. "Your pardon, I am a bit unsettled," she replied to his comment on her eyes.

The voice from speakers above clicked on, forestalling anything else as it spoke, "Welcome head librarian!"

Well then.

"It seems we both find ourselves in employ," she chuckled softly.

[ezra_pyreborn]

The wizard answered the voice with a flowery, exaggerated bow. "My thanks to you, oh new comrade, the head enigma."

He rolled his eyes and shook his head, returning his attention to his more comprehensible guest. "My apologies. I have grown accustomed to that demonstration, perhaps too much so. But it has been a very useful tool, this becoming-flesh-again."

Returning to the table, he took the book and walked to a nearby shelf to return it. "There is much to learn here. Does my undead state matter? Does proximity matter? Magical potential? And so forth. So many experiments.."

He glanced back. "Your introduction made me assume you were similarly elected 'doctor'. But are you instead head greeter here?"

[homeless_pard]

...

...

Had the exploding addled his brains?! "Healer and Stillmistress cum doctor," she repeated softly. "The position was offered upon my arrival, I assume as I am qualified for such, and I did agree." But what was a head greeter? Would it be like a seneschal in a greater house?

Ah, but..."You are a fair strange individual."

[ezra_pyreborn]

"Healer and stillmistress cum doctor," repeated Ezra. "I know. But I am fair strange, and a thing of necromancy rather than a proper man. That you stayed despite your fear was... welcoming. I am past the need for medicine. But I felt welcomed." He flashed a simple smile. "Thank you for that. It is.. a comfort, in this dark place."

[homeless_pard]

"This is not my home to bid one welcome to," she admitted, finally slipping out of her crouch to sit properly on the cabinet. "But as you come in peace I could do no less than to give my greetings. It would be a terrible and lonely place without others to speak to beside the city."

[ezra_pyreborn]

"You dislike the word 'Forsaken'. It means something to you, something other than how I use it?" Ezra thought back to earlier in the conversation. "For us it is an identity. Those free-willed undead who found a place with each other. The Dark Lady, first of our kind, pulled us back from mindless servitude."

"Though I am free of the Lich King's whispers in this place, it reminds me of that time when I was the slave of the Scourge." He studied the high ceilings of the library, eyes flickering about to spot signs of movement. "To dream someone else's dream, to watch your body move beyond your control, to enact horrors upon... well."

"You understand, I hope, why I have no love for this mystery voice or its dark and hungry city."

[homeless_pard]

"What I know is that this world does not reek of evil nor Dark. Confusion perhaps, and an eagerness that speaks of loneliness, but no ill intent I may sense as of yet," she admitted. "I was displaced, worldless and staying in a world not my own, I do not find it strange to be lost yet again. I am sorry you may dislike this, I cannot feel the same. It is no less hospitable than my last abode, nor more dangerous than my original world." And for that she could be grateful at least?

"But to those with a place and a purpose, yes, I might imagine. I cannot offer either to you, but I may come by and offer tea as I may? Or stew if you should need to eat at times."

[ezra_pyreborn]

"Eating is foreign to me. But I have always known hunger."

Ezra smiled again at a passing thought. "Tea would be nice. And, if you are willing and it would not pain you to do so, tell me stories of the world you lost."

"I am an anomaly even among my fellows. They hate the living, but regret the loss of their lives. I have no such reference points. Life, in all its variations, interests me."

[homeless_pard]

"An unkind world, yours, that a people may cause to hate so thoroughly for so intrinsic a thing as life," she admitted softly. She had thought she would not care to visit it. "But then I admit I am a stranger to a 'people' mayhap such is common, a uniting, if ill, emotion."

Ah, but that..."for most my life it was a quite a gentle existence, not a tale to stir the imagination. Lore I may give as you wish and time allows us, but of my life and living such there is little I would think to offer a newly appointed head librarian."

[ezra_pyreborn]

"My friend, a gentle existence is precisely that for which my people have hungered. My unlife began with an act of love which I cannot remember and an act of murder I shall never forget. Since then I have fought, schemed, and betrayed. I have aided my fellows in averting genocide."

Ezra curled a hand into a fist, leaning forward intently. "I knew only that I had a wife and child. I wanted them to be proud of my actions. Such a simple thing, yes? But from that tiny ember, a sacred fire spread across two continents. The living think too little of trivialities. The dead know there is nothing more important."

He leaned back, mollified a little. "Anything of life, no matter how small, is of interest to me."

[homeless_pard]

She watched him intently, unblinking for several long moments as she turned those statements over in her mind. That Which Ran the Ridges was said to hunt and take even the memory of who a person had been should they pass too close. Was it that sort of hunger, then, to take the memory of living so one might be closer to such themselves?

"I will share what I may," she promised at last. "But being one accustomed to quiet living there are many things I may not think to share."

[ezra_pyreborn]

"Just so." Ezra thought a moment. "Let me tell you about peacebloom. I am many things - historian, linguist, and mercenary wizard - but I am also an alchemist. In the region of Tirisfal Glades, and many other places besides, the traveler will see an herb called Peacebloom. It is not a particularly attractive plant, but it has its uses."

"Green leaves at the base of the plant, a long thin stem, white petals forming a conical shape. Plucked with a rapid motion. One digs fingers into the soil, twisting it about to loosen the roots, and then--" The wizard demonstrated with his hand, ending with a rapid jerking motion.

"It alchemically combines with earthroot to create potions or elixirs of healing. The so-called troll's blood elixir is made in this way. There are seventeen steps to refine the essence of life and earth within both herbs, the basic 'enek terebaro' series all novice alchemists learn."

Ezra grinned. "A simple plant, allowed to grow anywhere, and it has saved countless lives. Its usefulness comes from its ubiquity and plainness. That is one example of what I mean by the value of trivialities."

[homeless_pard]

She tilted her head, listening, "that is not alchemy as I know of such," she admitted softly. "In my own world that would fall under the aegis of stillwork, and so. I do not craft potions that may save a life beyond medicinal means, that is in myself, but refinement and blending in many, many ways as well as the testing and classifications of new herbs and roots is stillwork."

What she knew of alchemy, well..."A dear friend of mine is called The Flame Alchemist. He is quite skilled with the creation of such, and his method is fair different from what I would work in a stillroom."

[ezra_pyreborn]

Ezra spent a few moments making strange sounds. The syllables were flowing and harmonious, but foreign, like a babbling brook that could be mistaken for a human voice. "That is one of the languages of my world," he explains. "I use the spell of many tongues to talk to you. What I say may not be what you expect. The magic does its best, but it is imperfect as it cannot read your mind, only the ambient memories of the world around you."

"Your word 'stillwork' is equally foreign to my experience. But the process sounds familiar. When I say alchemy, I mean.. " He thought for a moment. "Think of language. Words are just sounds I make, but they stir the ineffable essence of their meaning in your mind as you hear them. The essence of life lies deep in Peacebloom, and all other plants, and its particular texture may be extracted mystically. The plant is the word; the essence of life is the meaning. A potion or elixir is the reduction of an altered essence back into a more basic form, but with more potent properties."

"It is as if I took the essence of 'irritation' and distilled and refined it until only 'rage' or 'wrath' were sufficient to describe the essence. Or 'relaxation' to 'tranquility'. A more potent, concentrated form of the basic ingredients."

[homeless_pard]

"Most I have met beyond my world find my speech 'archaic' as I am told but understandable. Have you considered attempting to listen without the aid of your spell and speakwork?" she asked, curious rather than judging. She was wondering if perhaps unbeknownst the friends she held shared ancestors to the younger races of her world while mayhap his did not.

Well and so, the Kolder had been incredibly alien, and that was the closest she knew of to what this man was. She did not wonder that they had managed as great a harm as they had if they had felt as wrong as his previous form did! Even Dalesfolk, thick and stubborn as they might be, would have felt their hackles rise!

"Stillwork, to work within a stillroom distilling and combining," she listed easily. "Many a lady leaves it at such, oils and soaps and simples for their homes. I work in all manner, most common in medicinals and aids as others are not skilled in such. Whereas the term alchemy, as I know it, is to shift energy from one state to another in some manner, the maths of such never quite connected well but then I needs not such a tool. I was content in the fact my friend understood his alchemy well and was a kind teacher."

[ezra_pyreborn]

Ezra nodded agreeably at the descriptions of the arts. "I see, quite good, yes. There is some overlap, but not much from what you say."

"Which brings me to the use of translation magic. In my world, the spells of translation and communication are an adjunct to a mundane education. For a linguist, though, they are as much a tool as a hammer is to a carpenter, or a bow to an archer. Creatures without their own magic, like goblins, use artifice in place of the arcane, while magically strong beings like night elves have little use for more than the most basic artificial tools."

"The weakness of spells is that they may be disrupted. Not only this. A deep understanding of a language allows one to anticipate the moods and mind-set of its speakers. For example, Dwarven has seven different ways to refer to oneself, and a similar quantity to address someone else. One may infer that they have a stratified society and social classes, which they do. One misses such distinctions when all you hear is Gutterspeak's two forms, the impolite 'you' or the rude 'you'."

"But for me, and for now, the magic is a survival tool. I must know what people in this place are saying, in some way, or calamity may result. In time I hope to learn all of your native tongues for myself."