Meeting of the Minds [SpiritAdept/Ribitta]

A small speck of dust descended from the beams of the ceiling, floating down at a gentle pace. The library was huge, the finest in Hyrule, and for that delicate speck of dust, to descend from the rafters meant a beautiful view. Only a few hours after sunrise, the light struck the eastern stain-glassed windows, revealing the speck in its rays as they washed the entire room. Down it went, floating left to right as it neared the floor. Perhaps an artist would look upon the scene and comment on the serenity in the still building.

But for Brynn Nimess, that speck of dust was a deadly adversary, especially when the thing landed on his nose a moment later. His eyes widened and twitched, and frantically he tried to pull out his handkerchief. The button guarding the pocket, naturally, refused to come undone in a timely manner, and the best he could do was half-raise his elbow in protection. A loud sneeze tore through the room ungracefully, causing several people to look up irritably. With a tendril of snot hanging from his nose still, Brynn met their gazes fiercely, challenging anyone to say it had been more disruptive to them.

Finally getting that button on his breast-pocket open, the man wiped his nose with an already dirtied handkerchief and looked reluctantly at the damage that little speck of dust had caused him to inflict on his work. Well, that would be another book he would have to buy, probably. Already he was sure the librarian was writing up the damage to property the sneeze had cost him; the book was useful, at least, but that was hardly the point. Annoyed, the man set to trying to mop the thing up so he could resume his work, already forgetting the stares that likely still followed him.

Selena perused though the shelf of books with near careless abandon for the books she was manhandling. Yanking books off the shelf for a brief moment to look at their covers before jamming it back into place. At least she was in the corner of the library away from everyone else, no one to see what she was doing. Either to the books themselves or what she was looking for. Going to the library in Hyrule Castletown was kind of a risk for her to begin with, the less attention she drew to herself the better off she'd be.

The Haunting of the Lost Woods...useless. Algebra Through the Years...pointless. A Completely Truthful and Unbiased Retelling of Recent History...Selena spared a moment to stare at the book before returning it to the shelf with a slam and a low groan. She was rewarded for such an action with a young looking scribe poking his head around the corner and shushing her with his finger. With little patience left already Selena snapped her fingers, producing a tiny flame to show that she was a mage.

"Make me bookworm, I dare you..." Selena bared her teeth and growled at the boy, who quickly decided this was more trouble then it was worth and returned to his desk some few rows away. Having something to briefly blow off some steam on did wonders for her temper, she was finally able to take a deep breath and relax a little. That little display was going to come back and bite her in the rear, Selena realized as she hurried away from the mess she had created. For all she cared the library could burst into flames after she was done with it, but she had to remain undetected until she found what she was looking for.

Once she was back in the main study area of the library, Selena slowed down to a casual walk and pretended as if nothing had happened. Going through the library by hand wasn't working, so it was time to take a different approach. Maybe charm one of the other scribes to help her look or something. This wouldn't be so hard if she had a title to go off of, at the moment all she had was a description of the cover. It was something old and worn, a book about Hyrule that didn't have any Triforce markings on it. Something that looked totally useless to a magic user. Something that...

...something that looked an awful lot like the top book on some short little scholar's stack of books!

It was old looking which a leather bound cover that was cracking and peeling all over, and not a single triangle to be seen anywhere on it. And the fact that Castletown Architecture sounded both related to Hyrule and something she'd read if she needed to die from boredom gave Selena the feeling that she had just stumbled upon what she was looking for. Now all she had to do was get the book away from Trollface over there, and that was probably easier said then done.

And then he sneezed...

Selena had to hold back a gag as she reeled back in disgust from what she just witnessed. Obviously this guy didn't give two cares what anyone thought of him so a polite request for the book was probably out of the question. A quick look around gave her a better idea though. The librarian saw the whole thing unfold and was more then a little irritated looking with the damage that had been done to the book. Trollface wasn't walking out of here without a new book purchase one way or another, so Selena decided to speed up the process.

The mage walked by the librarian for a moment, turning to him to ask a pointless question about some books located behind Trollface. When he pointed and she smiled in thanks, Selena walked up to the scholar and presented him with her best looking sheepish female look possible.

"So uh...." Selena started, scratching the back of her head and changing the inflection of her voice to make her seem extra harmless and vapid. "You know the librarian over there? He uh...he told me to tell you to like...talk to him or something? I think it's about the book you sneezed on?"

In a foul mood now, Brynn tried to recover the work he had lost from that terrible speck of dust. Looking up suspiciously, he glanced around to make sure no more were already on their way to assault his nose further. That looking around caused him to catch sight of a woman, though, and he paused to take in an eyeful at that. Perhaps a little more unkempt than he preferred, but she was not particularly harsh on the eyes either. However, when he realized that her conversation with the librarian was bringing her over this direction, Brynn tried to hide the fact that he'd been staring, looking anywhere else until she actually arrived at the table.

Any reserve to be polite was almost completely shattered by her tone, though, adding in all sorts of frivolous words and pauses in her speech. Did she care at all that she sounded like a complete dolt?! What was most insufferable, though, was what she had to say. The librarian wanted to talk with him? Oh no, he would be talking to them about the cleanliness of a place like this; it was entirely their fault, after all. Irritation fueled every step of his thought process.

Gritting his teeth, the man stood up slowly, cringing instinctively as his stomach unsettled itself and sent a barrage of lightning bolts through his intestines. This was the last thing he needed right now. He did his best to suppress the desire to shout at the woman, managing what he considered a very polite tone, "Fine--fine! I have some words for him anyway." Brynn jabbed a finger at the woman before he walked past her, "You, though. Stay right here. I have some words for you too." Perhaps after he chewed her out for being impolite he could ask her out to dinner.

Walking past her uncomfortably, Brynn proceeded to confront the librarian, starting off with an insult for a conversation the woman had tricked him into. Needless to say, Brynn did not handle the misunderstanding very well.

Selena clenched her jaw as the guy got up and walked away in a huff, it was all she could do to not burst into laughter at her amazing success. It was a shame she had to continue to be sneaky about this, her ego would have loved nothing more then shout some snarky remark as she ran off with the book. It was fun to know that if, goddess forbid, being a mage never worked out for her that she could look forward to a successful career as a thief.

Not wanting to waste any time though, Selena grabbed the book with a muttered "Yoink!" and rushed off to another corner of the library. After a quick look around to make sure she was alone, she plopped down on the ground and began flipping through the book like a woman possessed. Hopefully she could get through this thing before Trollface started making a ruckus.

Table of Contents...flip flip flip...Hyrule Castletown Important Buildings...flip flip flip...Acadamia...flip flip fl-found it!

Selena could hardly contain her glee as she landed on the page for the library she was in. The building was much older then most people thought and had more then one incarnation. A few pictures showed how the library looked many years ago, even showing a few layout diagrams. The mage dove into her pockets and ripped out a crumpled up ball of parchment which contained a modern layout of the current library. Switching between the pictures like a hummingbird, Selena searched for a single common point that rumors and stories said lead to an amazing secret.

The conversation with the librarian very quickly turned into a shouting match between the two of them. For several minutes they seemed to argue about nothing in particular, and Brynn only finally shut his mouth when the librarian threatened to throw him out of the building altogether. The man was an imbecile, of course, and it lit Brynn's spine on fire, but there was nothing to be done about it. He'd have to put up with their rules, despite the fact that it was absolute nonsense. His voice hoarse, he shot the librarian one last dirty look before stomping back to his desk. His nerves now raw from frustration, when he returned the man's heart stopped for a moment.

It was gone?! No, no it couldn't be! Frantically, he shuffled through all the books on his table, hoping against hope that he'd simply misplaced it or that it had fallen onto the ground. Of all the books that could be missing, why did it have to be one of the useful ones? He'd waited weeks for that book to be off reserve, and now it was gone. A thought struck him that made his blood boil hotter than it had in days. Glancing around frantically, he opened his mouth to scream 'THIEF!' but, before he could, one of the librarian's caught his eye, forcing Brynn's mouth shut.

He couldn't shout--not after that argument--even if there was a thief roaming around in the library. If he got thrown out now, he'd probably never get the thing back. Seething, he abandoned his work at the desk. He would find that wench, wherever she was. If she thought she could simply get away with that, then she was terribly, terribly mistaken.

"There..."

Selena whispered to herself as her eyes lit up in understanding. On the far side of the library was a large cobblestone pillar with books kept far away from it. It was thought to be a leftover support pillar from one of the earlier builds, some 'genius' architect decided to convert it into a fireplace not knowing what it was really there for. Before it was a support pillar it was a stairwell that lead straight into the basement of the old library, which existed a couple dozen feet to the east of the current building. The modern building plans told her that the cobblestone pillar ran into the basement that existed nowadays.

Content with the knowledge she had gained, Selena discreetly slipped the book under her robes and made for the exit. She retrieved her traveling gear from the coat room and rushed to the back side of the rear side of the library once outside. Just as the floor plans revealed, there was a back entrance to the basement from outside. It was an old slanted double door entrance way made of rotted wood and latched from the inside. Probably with just a tiny latch at that Selena guessed since the doors were bending inward and didn't look to be supported by a beam or something.

Selena paused for a moment to calm herself down before proceeding. Rumor had it that the old library basement contained ancient books filled to the brim with long lost techniques for casting spells. Of course, she also heard that there's a pile of golden diamonds, a portal to another world, and an ancient tomb for fallen soldiers, so Selena was taking all of that with a grain of salt. Still it was a library basement, something book related was likely to be down there and she figured it was worth the time and effort to find out.

There was nothing in her way now except a few rotted doors and a rusty latch Selena was sure she could break with a simple kick or two. The young mage couldn't have been more happy or pleased with herself at that moment.

For the next several minutes, Brynn crept through the library as quickly as he could without probably getting thrown out. Every time he was sure he was going to find her in some corner with his book, and each time he popped his head out suddenly to see. Disappointment plagued him. Was it possible the woman had just simply left with the thing? Possible, certainly, but if he tried to take the search out of the library there would be no hope. No, she had to be here somewhere... Growling under his breath, the man peeked through bookshelves and around corners.

A door closing to his left suddenly caught his attention, and Brynn snapped in its direction. Narrowing his eyes, he slinked over in that direction, pulling at the door handle and sticking his nose through the crack into the outside air. After a moment's pause, Brynn flung the door open. He didn't even have to look around frantically for the answer was right in front of him. Lighting up, his eyes locked onto the woman who had delivered that delightful 'message' to him and then surely stolen his possession. He couldn't see it on her right now, but he was sure it had been her.

"You!" he said, frustration marking his tone. "You have something of mine, and I want it back."

Dammit...

Selena quickly realized that she had underestimated the guy she stole the book from. She didn't think he'd come after her like this so quickly, if anything she thought he'd sit tight for a few more minutes if he didn't bother to go find a new book. He must really like architecture...

With her foot frozen over the basement door, having gotten ready to break it down, Selena took a long look at Trollface and the backdoor he came out of. Part of her debated simply killing him right here and now. He didn't look like someone important, they were alone in the back alley here, and he certainly didn't look like he'd be a match for her. She could make it look like a mugging, a quick stab few stabs to the side and he'd bleed out in seconds. She'd be a few rupees richer for her efforts too.

Of course, this all depended on her ability to kill him quietly, which was never Selena's forte. All it'd take is one yell and there's a chance a guard would find her. She'd have to vacate Hyrule Castletown immediately and leave this treasure for someone else to find. And that was simply unacceptable.

"Soooo..." the mage responded with an awkward start but otherwise dropping her previous persona in favor of more confidence. "What are the chances I can just toss you the book and we both go on our merry way pretending this never happened?"

Had her tone changed a bit, just then? Brynn narrowed his eyes, unsure of what to think of this woman. He found it hard to swallow that she would steal a book on Castle-Town's architecture and then try and break down this seemingly random door. She feigned stupidity, and while he was sure she was stupid, perhaps it was not to the extent she'd projected. Furiously, his mind worked through the possibilities and came to one answer that seemed plausible. Was it possible this wretch of a woman had managed to stumble across something worthwhile?

Smoothing his face, the man stood as straight as he could comfortably, suppressing an urge to cackle with glee. Despite his intellectual superiority, unfortunately he was quite vulnerable. The woman was probably harmless, but he'd not give her another chance to take advantage of him! It burned his soul to know it'd happened once already. Closing the door softly behind him, Brynn took a couple of steps forward to the woman, crossing his arms across his chest.

"No. No, I don't think that will suffice, miss." His tone was bitter but otherwise not terribly cruel, and he grimaced a bit as his stomach panged sharply, "If you don't want me to report your inevitable destruction of property, then show me what you've found." He could always report her afterwards. Did he still want to ask her for dinner after all this? He'd have to think on that.

Double dammit...

Selena growled in irritation as her motives were discovered. That meant she only had one choices now, taking him along for the trip. He caught her nearly in the act of breaking in, there was no way to feign ignorance out of this one. Selena was trapped between a rock and a hard place, and it drove her nuts knowing she effectively lost this little battle.

"Well you're not as stupid as you look, I'll give you that." Selena finally responded indignantly after a moment. She removed the book from her robes and tossed it to him gently enough so that he'd be able to catch it easily.

"Open up to the page I have bookmarked with that piece of paper and take a look at the floor plans. The piece of paper is the floor plan for the library as it stands now. As you can see the library has a fireplace now, but before that it used to be a support pillar. And before that, it was the stairwell into the old old library's storage basement, which is not where the current basement is. See what I'm getting at?."

With that Selena bashed her boot into the door and as she predicted, the latch popped off and she was able to open the doors with ease.

"Now hurry up and lead the way down unless you want little old delicate flower me to go find a guard and..." With the most girly smile possible, Selena clasped her hands over her heart and continued talking with a soft and innocent voice "...tell him that a big mean guy stole my book and is trying to break back into the library that kicked him out for sneezing on books, something I certainly didn't do because I'm weak and womanly."

Selena punctuated the point by switching back to her normal, more irritated voice. "Got it?"

Brynn rolled his eyes without hesitation. As if the wench would be so lucky! The guards knew him much better than her, he suspected, and while he was not particularly loved, they understood what he was capable of. 'Big, strong man' didn't exactly summarize his description particularly well, emaciated as he was. With a sneer, Brynn deposited the book into a pocket in his robes, walking toward the woman as he adjusted his clothing. Half of her seemed dim-witted, but the other half seemed sharp. A facade or just lucky? Likely the latter, but he could not know yet.

"Fool that I am?" he growled under his breath as he made it to the door, peering down into the darkness. "We walk together; there's room enough for at least three men across in this passage, and I don't particularly feel like finding a thief's knife in my back once we get to the bottom." He was annoyed with the woman, irritated at her pettiness and even more frustrated with her snares. The wretch probably had no clue what she was getting into.

But she'd sparked something in him that he found increasingly familiar: ambition.

He'd expected this day to be mostly useless and fruitless, yet here they were. While he hated her perhaps a bit more than the rest, at least she had a pretty face. Who could say what was down there?

"Relax, meatshields work better when they're alive..."

Selena walked side by side with her new 'ally' into the library basement. It immediately became clear they weren't going to have to worry about anyone walking in on them, the place hadn't been visited in ages. Cobwebs hung between shelves of storage boxes, their content labels unreadable due to the layer of dust on every surface. Selena couldn't even tell if the floor was stone or dirt. It was so dirty Selena didn't even light a spark in her hands to see with for fear of sending the whole place up in smoke, instead she opted to use the light coming in from the open door as best she could.

Fortunately it wasn't too hard for the mage to locate her target. The cobblestone pillar stood out like a sore thumb against the wooden shelves. A careful dusting of it revealed it had cracks in it, large barely holding together cracks. It looked like whoever rebuild the library didn't bother paying much heed to the pillar, in fact the fireplace above probably just had some touch up work done rather then any actual support work. Nobody bothered with this part because the public wouldn't see it.

"So, you have anything for breaking down extremely cracked walls?" Selena asked her new companion without bothering to look at him. "I have a spell or two that'd do the trick, but I wasn't counting on the extreme fire hazard down here. So either give me a good idea or grab a broom and start sweeping the dust out of my way."

Brynn shot the woman a glare but followed her anyway. She was insufferable, of course, but he had to hand it to her; he never would have suspected there could be relics under the very place he practically lived. Placing his handkerchief over his nose, he looked around warily as they walked into the dusty deathtrap, wondering how many spiders lived down here. He'd been bitten by one of those once; the venom had left him ill for several days. The man had no desire to repeat that. Ambition beckoned, though.

When they reached the bottom, the light coming from the doorway was quite minimal, to say the least. Straining in the darkness, he managed to make out what the woman was looking at. A large pillar made out of stone that had long since expired stood in the room, standing out a bit amidst the dusty shelves and boxes. According to the woman, this thing surrounded a staircase that led to untold riches, or something like that. Brynn was still suspect of the whole thing, but how could he pass up on it now?

"And you don't suppose destroying this pillar will shatter the whole thing, do you?" he asked snidely, walking around the pillar and squinting at it in the darkness. He supposed they'd probably added some sort of support on the upper levels to keep that sort of thing from happening. In terms of treasure hunting or conquering situations, Brynn didn't have much to offer, but for once perhaps the man might actually be somewhat resourceful. Reaching into his robes, he pulled out one of the rarer items in his possession.

It was a purple lens, about the size of a monocle, and he'd found it some time ago. He was sure it was magical in nature, though he hadn't figured everything out about it yet. Often he found that it would reveal things you really needed to see though. Putting it to his eye, he closed the other one and watched the world change in front of him. Despite a color difference, most things looked the same, but something was different now. There seemed to be a hole in the stone now, and he could see what looked to be a pull-switch in that hole. Had his device cut through some sort of illusion? He lowered the Lens of Truth and watched the stone reappear over where that switch was supposed to be.

"Oh, very interesting," he breathed, putting the lens back up and reaching for the switch, grimacing a bit as his hand passed harmlessly through the illusion. Brynn grasped the switch and gave it a hard pull, taking a quick step back a moment later. The ground shuddered a hair, and the stone groaned at that. A second passed, and Brynn watched with surprise as the stone seemed to crack further. With a rumbling sound, the pieces began to fall apart, revealing an entrance.

Selena watched with disinterest as Trollface went about his inspection of the pillar. At the very least he managed to find a way to remove the obstacle without fire or explosions. Certainly less boring then what she would have preferred to do herself, but much more effective at keeping them from being discovered. And it revealed to her that he's the kind of guy to keep a magic item or two on his person, which meant his body was worth looting should the best case scenario happen to him. Although the fact that there was an illusion there bothered Selena to a degree.

"That's not a good sign that an illusion was there." Selena remarked in a matter of fact voice as she walked forward to investigate the passageway. "You don't put up an illusion with a stopping mechanism to guard a few books or something. Takes way too much time and effort to do that. A lock and key would have been better, and if you never wanted anyone to reach it you'd just seal the whole thing up with actual rock. So I'm going to guess two things: one being that mages built all of this and the other being they probably have something really nice down here they wanted to keep safe."

As Selena spoke she examined the stairwell that was hidden in the pillar. Or at least, what was left of it. The whole thing was made out of wood, and none of it looked like it aged well. A firm push from her boot made the whole thing creek with an uneasy tone that lasted far longer then Selena would have liked. This was a problem of of course, but not a major one. Something easily fixed with an alternative method of descending.

Setting down her traveling gear, Selena pulled out a long rope and attached one end to the sturdiest looking beam in the cellar before dropping the rest of it down the center of the stairwell. The load thump it made told her the pit wasn't very far down.

"By the way, I think now is an excellent time to talk about who gets what treasure." Selena continued talking as she prepared to climb the rope down. "I'm looking for something specific, it'll be a book or a scroll or something like that. I'll know it when I see it. We'll split any rupees or riches we find fifty fifty, and you can have any books or stuff we find, but the thing I'm looking for is mine. Got it?"

Brynn looked down the staircase uncertainly, wondering if it was too late to back out of this. Probably not, actually, but did he want to? No, he couldn't now. While he certainly wanted some of whatever was down there, there was another part of him that couldn't stand the thought of letting her have anything down there either. Not without him taking some of it first, at least. That thought alone might be enough to convince him he should go down that 'staircase' if you could even call it one anymore. The only troublesome part was that he certainly did not have the strength to pull himself back up if he had to.

But now she had brought up the reward itself, and the man licked his lips in spite of himself. She was right about the illusion meaning something extra. He had not thought of that, though he would be loath to admit such a thing. Instead he simply nodded impatiently, as if waiting for a child to explain something he already knew before getting to the request itself. So she wanted something in particular, did she? Perhaps the woman was more than a petty thief after all.

"That all depends," he said slowly. Whether or not he wanted the item at all was completely up in the air, but he had no reason to waste a leveraging piece she'd given him. "What is it exactly?"

"A spell." Selena offered as she held onto the rope tightly and began to climb down. This being her climbing rope, it had a series of knots running down it to help give her some grip. Between that and using parts of the stairwell to hold some of her weight, the climb was fairly easy. "Nothing you'd be interested in, I promise you that. And you'd have a hard time selling it without drawing unwanted attention to yourself from various people, the least of which being the law. Beyond that though is none of your business. Besides..."

Selena spared a moment to look up at Trollface once her feet touched solid and she conjured a flame in her hand to offer some light. "My division of treasure isn't up for debate. You'll take what I'm offering and you'll like it."

The tunnel Selena found herself in definitely looked different from the current architecture of Castletown. Everything was build from smooth stone bricks, grey in color and uninviting in nature. A quick scan around revealed to her a torch, which she quickly grabbed and set ablaze in order to provide more light then what the candle sized flame in her hand could have done. As soon as she did so though, the mage could hear something skitter off in the distance. Whatever it was sounded like it was of unusual size and the thought of not being alone down here made the hair on the back of Selena's neck stand up.

"Unless you can prove to me that you are a master swordsman in the next handful of seconds, I'm putting you on torch duty." Selena called up to her companion again, masking her slight worry in a tone of irritability.

Oh how insufferable she was! Brynn very seriously considered cutting the woman's rope while she was descending and going to fetch some guards to alert them of the break-in he'd manage to catch just in time. Only, he knew he could not do that. He knew that even if it took groveling in the dirt, he'd give almost anything for one book, one filthy rupee, from this abandoned place. Simply the prospect of being here was all but legendary in the sickly mage's mind. Already he was resisting the urge to pick up one of the stone fragments that had shattered off when the pillar had collapsed.

Glancing down the staircase uneasily, the man grasped the rope to prepare for the descent. So he'd be on torch duty, would he? He'd like to slap the woman for her insinuations on his physique, truthfulness be damned, but now was not the time. A thought occurred to him that managed to buy him some time, however. "Hold on," the man muttered equally as irritably as her, retreating from the staircase and back up to the entrance. A moment later, Brynn draped the entire passageway in darkness as he shut the door they'd come in through. If they had a torch, they'd be best off leaving their presence here unremarked upon.

All but jogging, the man returned to the staircase again with nerves barred. Clutching the rope, he did his best to put most of his weight on the thing, as he'd need those stairs to get back up probably. Despite the knotted rope, the descent was quite ungraceful, and after a painful minute or so the man placed his feet uncomfortably on the ground, extending a hand to receive the torch from the woman before offering her a question in annoyance, "What makes you so sure this spell of yours is down here anyway?"

"I don't know, what part of you doesn't understand the phrase 'none of your business'?" Selena snapped at Trollface as she all but shoved the torch into his hand. The truth was she didn't know what was down here specifically, if anything. She was working off of rumors and mysteries, which is usually the best one can hope for when looking for dark magic. But she wasn't going to let him know about it, she didn't want to hear a rant about dragging him into this on the hope that something worthwhile was down here. Selena had the feeling the guy was only following her because he honestly believed that there was something to be found.

A short walk forward down the hallway lead the two to a door made of rotted wood but definitely still more solidly built then the stairs. It wasn't closed all the way though, there was a thing gap between the door and the wall like the door didn't swing back and latch properly. The fact that it swung out did nothing to relax Selena after she had heard the previous skittering sound.

"Okay, all this fighting back and forth has been really fun," Selena told her companion in a sarcastic hushed tone. "But in all seriousness we need to stop screwing around. When I climbed down I heard something big move around and I'm willing to bet whatever it is makes its home in here. Do you actually have any ability to fight and not die? Because now would be a great time to share that with me."

Brynn all but snatched the torch out of the woman's hand in irritation. None of us business, was it? Nevermind the fact that they could easily share a coffin down here, he had every right to know what they were looking for. True, she'd found the place, but only at the expense of his book! He regretted that the little knife he carried probably would never be enough to kill this woman when you considered his lack of strength. He turned his frustrated pout into a sneer, holding the torch above their heads and shooting daggers from his eyes as they walked.

When they stopped, it was with as much patience as he could muster that Brynn even listened to the woman. Her words made him pale, however. Something living down here? He'd been a fool to not simply turn the woman in! Immediately the man considered turning back, dropping the torch and fleeing for his life. Perhaps she'd lured him down here to get him eaten by something terrible, wretched woman that she was. The treasure, though. Brynn kept that in constant consideration.

"I'm a scholar, you fool," he hissed back at her, trying not to sound overly pathetic, "do I look like a creature bred for combat? I know a bit of healing magic but don't expect me to be of much use in an actual fight."

Selena high sighed, half growled in frustration as she came to the realization that out of the two people in the hallway, only one of them was in any way, shape, or form suited for combat. She had been hoping the guy at least had an item or two for self defense, like a fire rod or something. Instead, all he'd be doing is just holding a torch and hoping to not get eaten.

"You're useless, you know that?" She all but hissed at Trollface. "You're a scholar, and you haven't taken the time to learn a single spell to set something on fire? How could you be so...ugh! Nevermind, just keep holding that torch and swing it if anything gets too close to you. And if you can manage it in between being useless and staying out of my way, try to find a way to make yourself useful."

With that Selena threw open the door and let out a loud whistle. At this point the mage was a dangerous mix of lividness and frustration, she was looking forward to a fight to let loose some of her rage. The large chamber she stepped into helped amplify her whistle, making it echo all over the room. It looked like some sort of round cistern almost, long since drained of its water and bone dry. Dimmly, she noted the amount of barrels, crates, and building supplies lining the walls. It was almost like construction on this place had to be halted and abandoned in a hurry.

"Dinner time! Come and get it while it's hot!" Selena drew one of her daggers in one hand while she charged the other one with a bolt of dark energy. With an odd mix of impending doom and absolute glee, she watched as a particularly large skulltula descended from the ceiling on an invisible thread. It's short stubby legs carried a round body with two unnervingly large fangs in the front that drooled some sort of mix of saliva and poison. Selena was thrilled to have such a large target to squish, but at the same time she was all too familiar with just how deadly a giant spider could be.

Selena quickly learned two things as she fired off her first strike. One was that the spider's smaller then normal legs made him slow and easy to run away from, which was good for her. The other was that the mages she was almost certain now designed this death trap counted on other mages finding this and created a spider with some strong magic resistance. The orb off dark magic she flung at it managed to push it back and made it hiss in pain, but was otherwise deflected off its shell into a stack of planks. This was bad for Selena, very very bad.