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

[p_51]

Roy's advance was heralded without light, but with a soft voice giving directions such as, "Three feet ahead, two paces left." and the like. In time the reason for that became...somewhat clear. The man had a few large books under one arm, and his other hand was firmly on the harness of a dog wearing a vest that proclaimed her to be a SERVICE ANIMAL. The man himself had a mumbled litany of; "I hate this city, I hate this city, I hate this city." the entire time that he was guided by dog and voice towards a table.

[ezra_pyreborn]

"Not so alone as it seemed. Perhaps I should set out a sign." The voice was thin, reedy, ready-made to softly calm or regretfully sigh. Its owner still looked human, out of deference to his first visitor's sensitivity to the undead.

A trained animal meant only one thing: a tracker, ranger, or naturalist. Ezra's eyes carefully appraised his new visitor for a military bearing, while his voice continued on as naturally as anything. "Welcome, friend. Acting librarian Ezra L. Pyreborn, at your service. Perhaps we can assist each other."

[p_51]

"Colonel Roy Mustang, late of the country and army of Amestris and rather more recently late of the world of Penrose. A sign wouldn't do me a damn bit of good I'm afraid." he didn't bother swinging his head towards the voice, instead allowing Merlin to guide him to a chair and setting down his book. "I suppose I should say ex-colonel, but you can take the sight from the military man but you can't take the military from the blind one."

[ezra_pyreborn]

"A pleasure, sir." Ezra's bandages still gave off the faint odor that masked his undead body's foul stench, even though he had no need to do so at the moment, and the smell wafted through the room as he moved to sit opposite.

"I lost more than my sight in the last war, in my homeland of Lordaeron. I lost my life, and in returning from the grave I lost my wife, my son, and the rest of my memories. Happily I was able to meet my family again. Perhaps in your travels you will encounter a similar blessing. But, perhaps you have met our fair city's resident healer and had a consultation already?"

[p_51]

"You mean Khem?" he smiled, wryly, "She's one of my good friends. Hurt her and we'll see if pyreborn can also be pyreburned." that was said with flames dancing above his open hand rising in intensity from the coolest of flames to the hottest in a pinprick too small and smokeless for the city to douse him. This time. There was a learning curve when it came to sprinklers. "Regardless, Khem can't do anything for me."

[ezra_pyreborn]

"I am sorry to hear that," the wizard replied softly. "I have indeed been burned, as well as stabbed to death, buried, soul-severed by dragons.." He ticked fates off on his fingers as he reminisced.

"Regardless, I have no wish to hurt anyone. There is far too much war in my world, too much suffering. Elaine, Kagarn, and Kaliera would never forgive me for injuring a fellow healer, especially. She seemed startled by my abrupt return to mortality, but I have come to expect that reaction."

His eyes flickered to the flame-wreathed hand. "I am gratified to know that she is not without other friends here. Your magic.. have you also felt a draw on it, some force siphoning away your strength?"

[p_51]

"As long as you understand." he said with a nod, "Khem's been hurt too much in life." and couldn't protect herself. Roy felt it was his honour to take the place of her missing ability to hurt even in self-defense. "Hmm? Ah, I haven't really, no, but my method of alchemy doesn't draw energy unless I'm actually using it. I think if I tried to go all-out I probably couldn't, but I use external power rather than power inside myself."

[ezra_pyreborn]

"There seems to be a shortage of that," the wizard remarked wryly, gesturing at the darkened library surrounding them. "I feel rather like I'm hosting a social function at the bottom of a well."

"It was my pleasure to know other military men who protected those around them. The Forsaken knights of my own Undercity saw to the unlives of our civilian population. The Argent Dawn, faithful defenders of the living against the Scourge. And of course.." Ezra eyed the other man's sightless eyes for a moment. "Demon hunters. Elves - and others - who sacrificed their sight for power to slay the demonic forces of the Legion. My world had far too many enemies for comfort."

[p_51]

The gesture was lost on Roy, of course. As was Ezra's look at him. Roy sighed and sat down at last, rubbing his face with his hand, "My sight was sacrificed for me. It was intended that I be a sacrifice...not a willing one. They needed a specific trait for the sacrifices and forced me into having it. The side effect was loss of vision. I've been, essentially, rewritten to be blind. Khem can't heal me because this is the new healed."

[ezra_pyreborn]

"Interessting," the wizard mused. After a moment he spoke again, mindful of his academic tone in the face of personal loss. "Do not take from that remark that I lack ssympathy. Ssuch actss of ssacrifice - and always 'for the greater good' - are turning points in my world's recent history."

The rustle of his clothing was the only noise he made when not speaking. The faint sounds of breathing that would mark a living person come only when he prepared to do so again.

"Your animal companion, then.. a compenssation for losst vision? I disscern no magical connection or druidic bond."

[p_51]

"Don't worry about it." he said with a wave of his hand, "You don't know me." he didn't expect sympathy from a stranger. He preferred the lack, honestly, because it made him feel patronized. "It's sad that evil is all over the universe on world after world."

He noted, but didn't mention, the lack of sounds associated with life. "Merlin? Yes. She's a well trained guide dog, but we don't have any bond other than that of any man and dog."

[ezra_pyreborn]

"Interesssting." That word again, and that tone. "More than evil is universsal, it sseems. Thiss creature, the dog, is ssimilar to those I have met. A different breed to be ssure..."

An idea came to him. "Ssuppose that the Firelandss were sstill accessible to my magic. I feel no ssuch connection now, and a library is hardly the place to conjure one of itss inhabitantss. But it makess me wonder if you could esstablish a bond with an elemental creature of fire. Would your power facilitate it? Perhapss idle sspeculation, but we are in a place of learning after all."

[p_51]

Roy absently rubbed at Merlin's ears, the dog easily ignoring everything going on (including the dead people), because they weren't part of her job. Roy settled back in his seat and pondered things, "I don't know if I would or not. Honestly I don't really want to. I have something of a problem with power." it was said wryly, but...it was true. "My ambitions can overwhelm my common sense."

[ezra_pyreborn]

"To have the wissdom to recognize ssuch a rissk, I conclude that your ambition musst be indeed boundless," observed Ezra. "It iss an unlikely plan, of coursse. I am given to ssuch sspeculations. The mind decayss when idle, and I have indeed decayed enough for my own liking." His awful laughter came again to a dead throat.

[p_51]

"It was brought rather inescapably to my attention." he said dryly, rubbing a spot on his side wryly. Everything from the fight with Lust on made him reevaluate...pretty much everything. "Decayed?" he asked, an eyebrow raising in habitual invitation to continue.

[ezra_pyreborn]

"Mosst people resspond to the ssight of charred flessh first." The wizard unwrapped his bandages, freeing the undead flesh from their perfumed protection, and allows his corpse's natural smells to waft into the room. "Conssider yoursself fortunate if your nose is similarly impaired. In ssuch a case.. my body no longer livess, no. My people - the Forssaken - are reanimated corpsess, haunted by the murderous whisperss of the necromancer king who gave uss this unlife."

"Well.. it iss not all bad, I confess."

[p_51]

"Blind people," he pointed out, "tend not to respond to any kind of sights." the smell of the dead...well. He'd smelled worse. Nothing, nothing, smelled worse than his memories of Ishval. Nothing ever would. Not being a complete moral degenerate the scent of being on the killing side of a genocide wouldn't fade. "I'd lie if I said that was the strangest thing I've heard of, but it does make my top ten."

[ezra_pyreborn]

"That iss .. not a contesst in which I wissh to emerge the victor," Ezra chuckled. "If none thought anything of the Forssaken on my home world, we would be relieved for ssuch a blessing, yes."

"It is.. a comfort to sspeak to you, then, knowing that my presence itsself does not offend you ssufficiently to disstract from conversation."

[p_51]

"The last place I was...it was a cube shaped world." the scientist in him was highly, highly offended by that.

[ezra_pyreborn]

"Azeroth - my home - iss known to be a sphere, with two moonss," Ezra remarked. "We know thiss only from recordss left by itss builders."

"Rumorss of Draenor, from which ssome of our alliess come, ssuggest that it is... well, not flat, but no longer a sphere. Chunkss of land drifting endlessly in the Twissting Nether. A doomed world, desstroyed by a diabolic greed. I am ssure itss inhabitants would happily emigrate to a cube-shaped anything, provided it wass sstable, yes."

"Perhapss the builders of your cube were not sso obsessed with geometry as our Titanss, eh?"

[p_51]

An expression of pain so intense it might be mistaken for physical pain crossed and then lingered on his face; "Physics doesn't work that way." he wailed, if quietly.

[ezra_pyreborn]

The wizard shrugs winsomely. "Arcane power has limitationss which frusstrate me from time to time. All we can do is work with the world we are given, yess."

"Jusst conssider it.. an opportunity. A ssense of wonder and disscovery is a joyouss experience. Even thiss inconvenient and frusstrating city iss a chance for me to learn."

[p_51]

He dropped his head on the table in front of him and mumbled some choice words regarding magic, magic users, and the universe fucking with him. Roy had issues with certain things other people took for granted.

[ezra_pyreborn]

"Perhapss you would like to tell me that the undead are impossible too, and I sshall obligingly crumble to dusst," remarked Ezra, unable to keep a sardonic amusement from his voice.

"Well. If that unfortunate fate does not come to passs, I hope to sspeak more with you. You sseem like a reliable and interessting ssort, well worth one's time, yes."

[p_51]

"Oh no." his voice hardened, "I know the undead are quite possible. If you are a product of the Philosopher's Stone, however," oh, he hated the Philosopher's Stone. Beyond rational thought, "I have more experience killing homunculi than any other person alive."