Yvls and Evil - RPLOG
Participants
Date
24/10/477
Log
It is quiet, here in the stacks. Hundreds of tomes and scrolls. Grimoires and textbooks sit side by side here in this repository of knowledge. The shelves seem almost to whisper to each other. Ancient and forbidden secrets hidden down here for ages, many not even seeing the little math lights carried by scholars for years and years.
Yvls lingers amidst the books that line what he has called his second home. The lynx reading through a thick, dusty book on history. With a few more select ones piled up so high that it towers over the small folk, a stack of discards racked up equally high. "Scholar, scholar..." He mutters under his breath. Was she merely a legend?
There is a tittering laugh over the lynx's shoulder. "You are not likely to find anything about HER in any of these dusty old things?" a light, female voice says, "They are not nearly old enough for that!" When Yvls turns to look, he finds a young, comely feline in scholars robes standing behind him, a chunky to,e of her own in hand.
"There is nothing to lose by trying." Yvls turns around and smiles at the lady who's approaching him, closing his current book but slipping in a bookmark to see where he left off. "And even if I do not reach my objective I at least get to entertain myself for the evening." He curls his foot around the leg of a chair and pulls it out for her to take a seat. "I do apologize if I have any of the books you want. Please aquisce them as you desire."
"Oh! Not at all!" the woman says in warm, educated tones, "It's just not often that I find anyone down here so late." The feline draws closer to look over Yvls's collection. "What are you studying?" she asks, "Not many refer to research as entertainment."
"You are not the librarian. A fellow night owl then, I bet." Yvls leans back on his chair a bit, hand reaching back to make sure the burlap on his sword is still wrapped tightly before he continues. "A little bit of this and that. Reading up on the Scholar. Interesting character, don't you think? And from the sounds of it, a terribly misunderstood lady."
The woman smiles a little. "No, I am not the librarian," she says, sliding into a seat beside the lynx. She looks over his notes, that little smile staying in place. "And what have you learned about this, Scholar?" she asks, "She must be interesting to have you in here so late!"
"All I've learnt is old wives tales and legends of other lost civilizations ruined by her hand. Never directly. A nudge here. A notion there. And that was all it needed for people to collapse. Macabre reading, yes. But still, very interesting." Yvls points to the feline's book. "I see you have good taste in reading as well."
The feline looks flattered by the comment. "Just some light reading," she says, setting aside what seems to be a collection of treatises on Dark Mathemagic, "There is so much we could still learn about the Shadows, after all. They are fascinating!" She runs a finger almost lovingly along the spine of the book. "Why do you want to learn more about something so terrible as this Scholar?" she asks, though it is obvious that she is interested herself, "I mean, if all she does is destroy, then what is the point?"
"It's the way she does things. So cruelly efficient. It's not like the other evil characters in history...or even fiction. Where all they seek is destruction, death. She seeks the truth. And you know they say the truth always hurts." Yvls nods and sighs. "I know all too well from the field."
"The field?" the woman asks, seeming to be honestly interested, "And what field would that be?" She shifts her chair closer, seeming to be entirely absorbed in Yvls. "What do you mean by truth?"
"Well. I was in the Firmament military for a good long while as an elistee. One day I spied on a private training. The week after a couple of superiors came and told me I was going to change unit to do covert ops. Ever since then I've developed a taste for...forbidden information. Part of the job, but to be honest, it was always in me, I suppose." Yvls turns around a little on his chair, evidently interested in the woman's change in behaviour, and deciding to talk face to face. "As for Truth...well. That's a question only you and I can answer, isn't it? Some people go as far to say that everything they've ever lived was a lie. And that wouldn't be far from being right."
"Really cousin?" comes another voice from behind the conversing duo, "I expected you to be more subtle." A fox in a strange, garish suit and wide brimmed hat is leaning against a shelf of books with his arms folded and a grin on his face.
The woman that Yvls has been talking to, frowns at the intruder, then pouts a little. "Honestly Puzzler," she says, "I don't interrupt your silly little word games, why would you interrupt me during such a fascinating discussion on Truth?" She returns her gaze to the lynx with a rather predatory smile. "You DO want to learn the Truth, don't you, Yvls?" she asks, her eyes suddenly inky black.
"Desires shift very quickly. You of all people should know, Scholar. Tell me your truth." Yvls accuses before he grasps the hilt of his sword and with a flick of his arm, draws it from the sheet of burlap covering it to reveal an almost demonic looking, if dull, life drinker. "Now." If there is fear in his voice, he is hiding it very well, the lynx's fur standing slightly on edge. "I feel like I should state that if either of you want to attack me I'll at least get one hit in. One good hit."
"You'll learn truths, and secrets peruse, should the Scholar's path you choose," says the fox in a sing-song voice, "But wary be, for what you'll see, may cause you heart and mind to lose." He looks like he wants to say more, but as he takes a breath to spout another couplet, the feline, whose outline seems to have become suddenly indistinct beneath her scholar robes, laughs loudly. It is a beautiful sound, elegant and wise, making the fox's silly rhymes sound even sillier.
"Yvls, please," the Scholar chides, "Why resort to something so base as violence? I expected better from you." She, for though she has shed her feline guise she is still obviously female, laughs again and rises from her seat. "I must confess," she says, her voice like thick cream, spilling from invisible lips, "I am impressed that you have found any hints of me at all in these texts." She waves a hand dismissively at the books. "They are all rubbish and fabrications, of course," she says haughtily, "But occasionally they bring me an acolyte with a glimmer of talent."
The fox, meanwhile, is standing uncomfortably in the background. It seems like he would speak, but for some reason, he defers to his dark counterpart.
"Violence was not my intent. I would be a fool if I thought I could scare either of you away, even if I do have a very large sword." Yvls forces a smile, bowing his head politely. And then resumes his seat. "I expected as much. Your modus operandi is never to get detected. But years in the covert ops have taught me never to show my hand. I know far, far more about calling the corrupt court than this library can ever provide."
"Yes," the Scholar purrs, "I suppose you do." She gives a smug grin to the Puzzler where he stands off to one side. Well, it seems like a grin at least, though there is no visible mouth to give it. "Off you go, cousin," she says, "You are not needed here." She turns her blank, inky gaze back to Yvls. "How much more do you want to know?" she asks the lynx, "And are you ready to show the truth to the world?"
"Oh no. He is needed here. You sly, sly thing. You lure those of weaker minds into with false promises and every now and then, a drop of knowledge." Yvls does not seem to have any problems maintaining eye contact with the Scholar, even smiling a little wider. "If you're lying. I will know. /He/ will know. And the next thing you know I'll be wearing his hat."
"Though, the reason I am even looking for you should answer quite a bit about me, don't you think, Scholar?"
"Mmmm," the Scholar hums, not seeming the least put off by Yvls's stand-offish attitude, "Now, now, how could I cheat someone as clever as yourself?" The inky presence floats around to the lynx's shoulder. "I will never lie to you," she says, eyes flickering, or the sense of her gaze at least going over toward the puzzler, "Only truth. No tests, no inane puzzles, only tge naked truth! Is that what you want?"
"Even at it's greatest cost." Yvls nods in response to the Scholar, frowning.
The Puzzler frowns and steps a little closer. He folds his arms and watches in silence. A sense of smug satisfaction comes from the faceless form of the Scholar as she floats to face Yvls directly. "Will you pledge yourself to me?" she asks, her voice smooth and refined, "When you call, I will come and when I call, you will be ready! I will give you Truth! The Truth that others fear and you will shine the light of Truth upon the world!"
Yvls kneels on one leg and lowers his head, as if receiving a knighting. "As you wish, Scholar. I will swear your vow." He keeps both hands on his sword meanwhile, though he looks up for a short moment to see the Puzzler's reaction.
The Puzzler's frown deepens, but he does not move. The Scholar bears him no more mind, all her attention focused on Yvls. "I bid you claim what others shun!" she intones, "I offer you insight into the forbidden!" She raises her hands as if in benediction. "You will cherish the forsaken and reveal its horrible wonders to all that will listen," she says, producing what seems to be a dark feather quill and holding it out to Yvls.
Yvls grasps onto the quill and while his face remained mostly emotionless, one could swear a grin creeped on his face only for a brief moment before he caught himself. "I will claim what others shun. I will cherish the forsaken and reveal its horrible wonders to all that will listen." He echoes.
The Spirit suddenly jerks the quill aside and stabs it into the side of Yvls's hand before sliding the bloodied quill into the lynx's hand. "My path is one of much solitude and pain. You will be reviled by the ignorant, fearful and small-minded, but truth shall prevail in the end," she says triumphantly. There is a moment of pain from the jab, then the lynx is flooded with a sense of power and confidence! What has he to fear from dark knowledge? He is one of the chosen! The true elite!
Yvls squeezes the quill, his brow slightly frowned as he deals with the pain. It's quite a deep wound too, blood splattered across his snowy, white fur. "Your wish, Mistress." He picks himself up and keeps the quill quietly, looking around the library to make sure nobody else saw him. And then he just brushes the stack of books aside to topple it and cover up the bloodstains on the floor. "We are done here, yes?"
"You witness?" the Scholar says, turning to the Puzzler. "Yes," the fox says with a nod, "I know. I saw and heard and now I go." There is a sound like tearing paper and the strange fox steps through a tear in the air and is gone. The Scholar looks back to Yvls and strokes the side of his face with a cool finger. "Yes," she says, "We are done here. For now." There is another tearing sound and Ylvs is alone in the stacks.
