Xavier's hands felt numb as she pressed the adjacent 'I' into place. Restlessness plagued her as her mind whirled through many thoughts at once. From where she hailed God's did not exist, so neither did temples. 
This was a first for the Trickster, but she had research to do, to find knowledge even the divination of her tarot cards could not. She did not allow the door to open far, instead she slipped inside and made certain the door closed quietly. She did not wish to disturb anyone else's work. As her manners decreed her first line of enquiry was to make herself known. She felt uncomfortable roaming a sacred temple unannounced. Although the entire concept was foreign to her. She supposed she looked quite ordinary as she ghosted through to the visitor's book, which she noted had already been penned with her full name in beautiful scrawl. In reality she felt awkward, the whole structure intimidated her. 

She pushed it aside however and continued deeper inside, where she approached the centrefold tree and the codex underneath. She had heard all about the functioning of the temple and what to expect when studying there. She had asked many on her way as she never liked being unprepared. 
She approached the codex carefully and looked around to guess how loudly she should speak. There was no one to be seen, and yet the thought of disturbing the serenity of the library for even a moment pained her. 
"General Histories of Parvpora" She spoke gently as the thread of enquiry appeared to greet her. She took the thread easily, noting the silken texture, although she was not sure if she just imagined it. 
She followed it to the shelf it had determined, weaving her way around travelling books as not to disturb them. There she found what she had expected, huge dusty tomes numbered or dated dependant on who they were recorded by. As this was only her first topic of enquiry she brought down the first on the shelf. It weighed much and instead of opening it then and there she took it back to a small study area she had passed. She secretly thanked the codex for its help before she sat down and flipped over the cover.
She needed to find out about the land she planned to travel, for she had no understanding of it as of yet. Then she needed to find out more on shape-shifters and shades, her heritage was known but to aptly harness her natural abilities she needed better clarity. 

It had been recommended to her that she take some time off to visit Tar Eisalae for some extended research. While her workshop in Baltil was typically stocked with everything she could want, the home of the God of Knowledge had a much bigger selection of ingredients that were hard to come by in the dwarven mountain city, and it was a much shorter trip than trying to go all the way to Karith or even Iria to do some trading. Not only that, but Adraejen Porthyrius was known to have the biggest Alchemical Library found in Parvpora, rivaling that of the College of Magic in Iria and even the Library of the Awakening Gardens in Canelux, and that was DEFINITELY a trip she did not want to have to make.

Her hair burned brightly with enthusiasm as she ground the small crystals into the provided mortar with the pestle as her eyes flicked over the new recipe she was trying out. It was one of her recipes, specifically meant for mining, but with more precision than what she was getting with her normal blasting vials. This she hoped would be a little more on the acidic side and allow for a more controlled burn and explosion. 

Scarlett read over the recipe list one more time before she picked up the mortar filled with the finely ground crystals and carefully tipped the contents into the small simmering cauldron she had over a burner on her workstation. The concoctions fizzed and spat sparks that made the Fire Genasi step back a moment before the reaction ceased. Taking a pause to scratch down some notes on her recipe sheet, Scarlett went to grab a vial with the next ingredient from the shelf above her. As she did, she accidentally knocked over another vial, and several seed pods from one of the magical trees native of Feeorin fell into the cauldron. The mixture began to react and glow brightly. She knew that reaction well. She swore in primordial before she turned and dived under the nearest bench, covering her head with her hands as the concoction exploded across the workroom with a loud BANG that echoed throughout the whole of the Temple Library, as smoke billowed out through the southern archway. 

A grand library with basically everything anyone could ask for when it came to the written word. That is how this place had been described. Traveling from one end of the world to the other when asked where one could find the answers, the Tar Eisalae Temple Library. Those were the words spoken from hordes of people and visiting could be put off no longer. The bits of knowledge from across the lands of a people long since vanished from this world were few and far between, but this library, maybe it held the key.

Several days earlier the silver haired, mercury eyed woman had arrived at this holy place. Several days she had called upon the codex. Her first try, speaking the name of her people, the code had flipped no pages, leaving her disheartened. It wasn't long before she had realized that maybe there was no record where the name they went by was remembered. So she had settled with scouring through the books the code pointed to her on ancient civilizations of this world. She had not slept, her nights and days filled only with the written words circling around her head.

That brings us to the current day. Many sleepless nights were beginning to take their toll on the woman as dark bags had formed under her eyes and she struggled to keep her eyes open. It wasn't long before she doze off with her face in a book. Several hours she was wrapped in a seamless sleep, everything peaceful and quiet…

Bang!

A loud bang startled her from her sleep and smoke poured out of the archway to the south. She jumped out of her seat wide eyed and still not fully awake. Had there been some sort of attack? What was going on? She rushed towards what seemed to be the epicenter of the disturbance, coughing as the smoke filled her lungs threatening to strangle her. She burst into the alchemy work station, her concern that someone might be hurt overriding her need for self preservation. She coughed as the smoke wrapped around her thicker than ever now that she was at the source. She summoned up her magic and a small almost fairy looking creature appeared and circled her head. It seemed to be composed of swirling winds. "Would you please?" She asked before being interrupted by another bout of coughing. The little creature made a chirping noose before a swirl if wind burst forth from it, sucking away the smoke in a thin cyclone that drew it out of the building and led it off into the sky.

The room, now cleared of smoke looked ever so curious to her. She shook her head and focused not on the things in the room but looking for if anyone was inside. "Is anyone here? Do you need any healing?" She called out, praying that no one was hurt.

Scarlet coughed and hacked on the smoke, throwing her face into her kerchief sleeve after the initial explosion from the explosion. She lay there under the bench, not quite able to answer the calls that came from the doorway because the smoke was so thick. Had it not been for her goggles, she probably would have been blind from the smoke too. However, the would be rescuer at the door proved resourceful in ejecting the smoke from the room. Once the smoke was gone, still coughing slightly, Scarlett made her way out from under the bench, accidentally striking the top of her head on the bench as she went.
"Yeah, I'm here," she muttered as she stood up rubbing her fiery red hair and coughed before she looked at the new comer. "No healing needed," she said as she pulled her hand away from her head. No blood. She sighed and lifted her goggles up and put them on top of her head. 

"Nothing hurt except for my pride, really," she admitted as she went over to the still slightly smoking pot on the burner. She waved the smoke away and reached into the small cauldron with a pair of tongs. "Damned seed pods," she muttered as she fished out the now charred pods and dropped them on the top of the work space. "That was three weeks of research down the drain, and now I've got to go collect those ingredients again," the Genasi muttered. She sighed and dropped the tongs with a clatter on the bench and wrenched the goggles from her head and stuffed them into a pouch at her belt. 

"To hell with that, I'm not going through that mess again," she said looking at the woman standing in the doorway. "Thanks for coming to check on me though," she said with a half smile before she looked back at her cauldron, still irritated with the way her little experiment had turned out. 

"Well, I guess that means I need some food. You look peckish yourself. What do you say we find ourselves some vittles?"

Kit was on the verge of falling asleep on top of her third tome when the explosion rang out. She bolted upright, knocking her chair down behind her and reflexively drawing a dagger. Her heart thrummed in her chest from the sudden adrenaline boost. Straight after she heard calm chatter drifting from the alchemy section of the library and immediately assumed that nothing too serious had occurred.  She chuckled under her breath at her over-reaction and slipped her dagger back into her boot. The acrid smell of the explosion remained ever though the smoke had never reached where she sat. 

Still, she though there was no harm in double checking that no one had been injured. She needed to stretch her legs anyway after such a long period of study. 
As she turned into the aforementioned alchemy workshop she saw two women looking rather bemused. One, evidently the source of the accidental reaction, standing closest to the workbench and crowned with a set of goggles. And the second a silver-haired lady who must have come to check on the issue. 

She choked a little on the residual scent of the backfire and cleared her throat before approaching the two.

"That must have been the greatest scare I've had in a long while! Something about loud noises in quiet places makes them seem all the more deafening. I hope you both are alright?" She spoke curtly as her rose-quartz eyes naturally studied their features, her mind subconsciously adding them to her wealth of memory afforded to her shifting abilities.                
In all the excitement she noticed she had worked up a craving for her tobacco pipe although she was not sure smoking was permitted, she supposed if space in the library was provided with the assumption explosions and such could happen, a little tobacco smoke would not hurt. 
She pulled her pipe from her bag buckled around her thigh and expertly filled and lit it within moments. Taking a long draw before exhaling with a new string of words.

"I though for a while I was here on my own, considering how lifeless it is here. What knowledge drew you here?" Her boredom and curiosity got the better of her and she remembered hearing the tail-end of their conversation. "If you are not so weary of strangers perhaps I might join the two of you on your hunt for food?"

She let put a sigh of relieve, a least this woman wasn't hurt. She hated when people got hurt around her. She let out a small smile and replied to her, "Ah well pride is a small price to pay when it could have been much worse don't you agree?" She watched her curiously while leaning on the door frame as she went through her mess and spoke about the seed pods that seemed to be the source of her experimental agony. Her exclamation that she wouldn't go through that mess again brought another smile to her face. She seemed so enthusiastic that Lily bet she would take up the experiment again in time. Her invitation to find food was met with another brilliant smile and she replied, "Sure, though I'm not quite sure where to start looking in this place. It's my first time here and I was brought to the library directly so I'm not quite sure where anything else is."

That was when another woman made her appearance and spoke about the noise in a way that made it obvious she wasn't complaining, just making an observation. Lily let out a little laugh and said, "You're right, it scared me too. It seems everyone is alright.  At least physically. Thoigh it does seem like ahh, sorry I don't have your name, but it seems like she lost an important part in her research." 

The new woman had pulled out a pipe and started smoking. Lily looked at her curiously, she was blowing smoke like she created it but it's origin wasn't from within. It was quite interesting to see. She had never seen someone smoking before, it wasn't something that her people engaged in. So seeing it for the first time was a bit fascinating. She was almost too enthralled in the simple act of smoking to understand the words coming from the woman's mouth. She stood her head to collect herself and put on a smile once more before answering, "Oh, hehe, I've been here a few days sorry I haven't bumped into you before. I'm here just trying to look up information on an ancient civilization that is long gone, and find out why they are gone." This was true in a sense, the only thing she didn't mention was that the civilization was her people. She had been lost in a magically reduced sleep for so long that her people had vanished and she wanted to know why. 

She clapped her hands and looked at the new woman in excitement as she asked to go along with them to find food. "Oh, please do come with, the more the merrier as they say." She couldn't help herself but say yes even though she was not the one who had suggested the idea in the first place. She realized her mistake and how it might be seen as rude to just suddenly invite people when she wasn't the one on charge of the little event. She had no choice but to shrug it off though because there was a more pressing matter at hand. Who were these two? Introductions hadn't been made. "Forgive my rudeness, I haven't introduced myself yet. I'm Lily, it's a pleasure to meet you both"  she said, letting things go from there seeing as she had no idea where they would start their little hunt anyways.

The two women seemed polite and well-mannered enough, and Kit felt she could take a shine to them almost immediately. 
She watched every mannerism meticulously. At the opening for introduction she reached her hand out in order to shake Lily's although she left her hand mid-way in case she did not wish to. 
"Xavier Kit, but Kit will do just fine. I'm here looking into my dual bloodlines, and quite a task it's proving!" As she spoke she saw her previous tome drift past her face on it's way back to the shelf.
"Some help you were" She whispered sarcastically to it as it passed by. Quickly remembering she was in polite company she cleared her throat and took another draw from her pipe. "Although I cannot help in way of its location, I have heard there are large kitchen and pantry facilities in here somewhere. Perhaps the index may be able to enlighten us as such." It was a mild suggestion at best but she thought she would add her two-pence for consideration. "Perhaps a bite to eat will help refocus us, as it seems we all are struggling to some degree" She added politely before her gaze turned to wandering the floors above her and the equipment around her. She was no alchemist but the swan-necked bottles, shelves of ingredients and such things fascinated her. When she thought about it she easily understood how you could spend weeks inside without meeting a single soul. She had decided that it was fortunate that she had, she was a patron of social environments after all. 

"I don't mind an extra body. It means more conversation, and I am so beyond done being on my lonesome working. I need social interaction," the redheaded woman replied as she tussled her curly flame red hair. She smiled brightly at the second woman who puffed from her pipe. She had half a mind to take it from the pale woman and puff on it herself but she refrained. Her stomach growled pretty loud. 

"Right,food. I heard the same rumor too. It can't be too far otherwise you'd have visitors coming to practice passing out. This place is miles from any real town after all," Scarlett muttered. "Let's consult the Codex then," she said motioning to the other women to follow her. 

As she turned to leave the lab, a huge black bear stood in their way, grunting and regarding the three women with curiosity. Scarlet's eyes went wide for a moment. "Ok, I know that Lord Porthyrius keeps exotic animals, but aren't they supposed to be contained in the Conservatory?" the Genasi asked with a hushed tone. 

The bear, on the other hand, sniffed and huffed at the three women before it turned around and with a grunt began walking off through the bookshelves.

"All right," Scarlett said slowly. The bear stopped and looked back at them, and then swung its head around as though it was motioning for them to follow. 
"I think the bear wants us to follow…" she said slowly. "What the hell, couldn't be worse than blowing myself up," she said with a shrug and followed after the bear. 

The bear moved through the shelves and Scarlett looked up through the temple to the Occulus high above and whistled. "Oh, wow. I didn't realize it was so late. Look, Canelux is full tonight," she said pointing up to the Occulus above them as she followed after the bear. 

As the reached the rear of the library, an archway opened up in the wall and the most delicious smells began to waft through. Inside was a rather large well stocked kitchen, with a massive wood island in the middle that had stools set about it. The island was heaped with different foods and there were plates piled there for, apparently anyone who was hungry. 

The bear moved to the island and grabbed an entire chicken from off the top of the counter and began munching on it contentedly.

"Come in ladies. Help yourselves,"  the thought projected from the bear as he munched. "Don't mind me. The Moon called out to me and I decided to indulge it for an evening. Fear not, I won't bite any of you without provocation."

She happily shook the woman who introduced herself as Kit's hand and said, "It's a pleasure to meet you Kit. Although it's a difficult task, don't give up! Knowing who you are and where you come from is a great gift and may help you find a hidden potential for something you never thought you could do. If I didn't have my own important task I would offer to help, but the things I seek are answers that must be found." The other two seemed to have both heard similar rumors of a kitchen and Lily was a bit disappointed that she had missed out on hearing such a thing, surely she wasn't that blind to what was going on in the world around her, right? 

She was prepared to follow the other woman to the codex when she noticed the bear blocking their path. She furrowed her brow in confusion, she should have sensed if anyone was approaching but she had completely missed the approach of the bear. Was something wrong with her? She pushed the question to the back of her mind, it would be something to focus on later, not now amidst the group of strangers, or as she liked to think of them potential friends. She nodded as Scarlett voiced her thoughts on the bear wanting them to follow it. She agreed, it did seem that way with the way it looked back at them while walking through the shelves. She agreed with Scarlett's statement that following the bear couldn't be worse than what she had already been through. "Then it's time for a mini adventure! The search for the hidden snacks!" She said with enthusiasm as she followed the bear with the others. 

She looked up when Scarlett mentioned that Canelux was full. A small smile spread across her face and as they continued walking she asked, "it truly is beautiful don't you agree?" Her musings were interrupted by the delightful smells that now surrounded them. A child like grin overtook her face at the sight of food. It was a wondrous display and she couldn't wait to try something, if not a bit of everything. Thoughts projected from the bear fluttered across her mind and she became, if possible, even more enthusiastic. "Ah, thank you Mr. Bear, you're so kind, and look so soft and fluffy! I just want to cuddle you!" She said and took half a step forward as if unable to contain herself but stopped and got slightly pouty when she continued, "but you probably wouldn't like that… at least not while eating." She seemed slightly disheartened for a moment before her enthusiasm returned in full and she looked at the other two. "Well I guess this means that it's time to eat." She walked up to the island and put her hands together for a moment in a whispered prayer of thanks to whoever had provided to the food before filling a plate and eating.

The massive bear regarded the lithe blonde woman who wanted to cuddle him with a rather surprised and skeptical look, before he seemingly shrugged his massive shaggy shoulders and took his meal over and sat down contentedly beside her. 

On the other side of the island counter, the fire Genasi could not help but hide her mouth behind her hand at the rather amusing sight before she too sat down and began filling a plate with some finger food.

The bear perked up again as Lily whispered her prayers of thanks. That had been a new one. He honestly thought that was the first time someone had actually offered up any sort of prayer to him. It was weirdly refreshing. It was too much. 

There was a grunt from the bear as his form began to shift, and grew to the full height of a handsome man not quite middle aged, clearly of half-elf descent. He was shirtless, and wearing some plain trousers, his long black hair looking a little unkempt at the moment, possibly due to his transformation. His eyes seemed to be glowing as bright as the moons that were high above them. He leaned his well-groomed bearded face over Lily's shoulder.

"Your prayers have been received. I do hope the food is to your liking," he said, his voice a little husky as though the bear still had a bit of control over him.

Scarlett on the other other hand, couldn't contain her laughter and about fell backward on her stool as she looked on at the man who had among other titles, bore the name the Bear King.