Tangled Web: Faint Lines

Somber Library - 


 * The atmosphere of the library is one of sobriety and quiet, with muted shades of gray for decoration on the walls that aren't stretched with floor-to-ceiling shelves. Leatherbound tomes and scrolls are lined neatly along the shelves, held at various ends with onyx raven-shaped bookends.


 * A single large rug is set into the center of the room, muting footfalls and reducing the noise level to a mere whisper. A single large desk dominates the center area of the rug, set about with inkwells, quills, parchment, and other various tools for paperwork and correspondence. A grey-cushioned biinwood chair completes the decor.

Esvan is at the writing desk today. There is a creased and crackly parchment on it, laid out before him and held still with a few purloined bookends. The thing holds his careful attention.

Darksteed steps slowly into the library, looking. "...Esa? Are you in here?" he calls softly.

Esvan nods. "Yes," he says, looking up. "Have I been here long, then?"

"A while," Darksteed says with a faint smile. "What have you found?" he asks curiously, peering over Esvan's shoulder at the parchment.

Esvan shrugs. "I do not know," he admits. "It fell out of a book." He runs his finger along what seems to be a simple map. "No name, no date. No labels."

Darksteed blinks a little at the map, looking closely. "Hmmm. It is certainly interesting."

Esvan nods. "I have been trying to figure it out all morning," he agrees. "Why should someone make a map and then forget it? Where does it point to?"

"Does it have any recognisable landmarks?" asks Darksteed, frowning at it.

"That is what I have been trying to figure out," Esvan nods, stepping back to let Darksteed look. The map seems to try to indicate territories with sparse lines and the occasional triangle or circle.

Darksteed hmms, peering some more at the map. He points at the lines. "These must mean something. PErhaps if we search the library for maps with labels and see if any match up?"

Esvan holds up a book. Its spine reads 'Deed Grants, 430-492'. "It fell out of this book," he says. "I have no idea why it should be there."

"To keep it flat?" Darksteed asks with a somewhat straight face. "Could we find maps from that time in here which may give us some sort of idea as to what this map refers to?"

Esvan points at the creases in the parchment. "It was folded," he says. "And I am not sure I could have unfolded it, were it as old as that."

Darksteed looks over the parchment some more. "Newer maps?" he muses. "Or perhaps, any water ways on this map?"

Esvan frowns at one of the lines. "That...*might* be a river," he concedes, somewhat doubtfully.

"Does it look like any known river?" Darksteed asks, faintly amused.

"...The Lightholder...possibly?" Esvan hazards, eyeing it skeptically.

"Now.. if we can get a map and compare the two," smiles Darksteed, looking about for a book which might have a map in it.

Esvan makes a face. "Let us see if Matriarch has a book called 'Lives of the Great Accountants' or something," he says. "I cannot imagine any of the family caring about such a subject enough to commission a tome on it."

"Bored of the map already?" Darksteed asks curiously, searching the shelves.

Esvan shakes his head. "If you will hide a map in a book, you will want to hide it in a book no one else will have any urge to open. Such as a record of deed grants from centuries ago. Or tales of accountants."

"Ah, I see," agrees Darksteed. "But I merely wish a full map of Fastheld to compare that one against."

Esvan pauses. "Oh. Hm. Matriarch said we were not to go into her chambers, though."

"We are in a library, Esa," Darksteed says softly. "Surely there is such a map in here."

Esvan slants a *look* at Darksteed. "Where would you like to look? It is all books in here. And that painting."

"Surely there is -some- order in here?" asks Darksteed, trying to find one.

Esvan sighs, and starts walking along the bookshelves, scanning titles. "Maybe there is a book on geography. Little maps."

"That is all we would nee, I think?" Darksteed muses.

Esvan nods. "Help me look," he says. "Two people is faster than one."

Darksteed nods at Esvan, starting in a different section of the library.

Esvan prowls the shelves, rather impatiently, looking for any aid to geographical navigation. He pulls out a book thoughtfully.

Darksteed pulls out a book of his own not long after, flicking through the pages.

"I have...a captain's log?" Esvan offers. "Nothing about land, but there are nautical charts."

"Of the rivers?" asks Darksteed curiously. "I have... a book on cooking. Perhaps not."

Esvan offers the tome he has. "Shall we see if anything matches one of the lines?"

Darksteed puts the cook book back and moves to Esvan. "Yes."

Esvan hands the tome over, and goes back to the 'map'. One hand is not so good for reading books," he says.

Darksteed smiles faintly. "Of course," he murmurs, moving along, holding the tome carefully.

Esvan points at the longest line. "That might be a river?" he asks.

"It could be," agrees Darksteed. "It could also be a path... or a line..." he notes.

Esvan nods at the book. "Look?"

Darksteed nods, flicking through the pages until he comes across what seems to be an unfinished chart of rivers. "...Could this be one?" he muses, leaning forwards to compare.

Esvan peers over Darksteed's shoulder to see. "Maybe....here?" he says, pointing to a section of the line on the parchment, and then the chart.

Darksteed investigates a little closer, moving the book around and and around. "..I think so, yes."

"So that would make this," and Esvan points to a lone x on the map, "....Marble Grove?"

Darksteed cross-references the two quickly. "I believe it would, yes."

Esvan frowns at the map. "Well. I suppose we should go and see what is so important about Marble Grove that someone would hide a map to it in the Matriarch's library," he says, a bit doubtfully. "It is at least something to do..."

Darksteed peers out of the window quickly. "And it -has- stopped raining."


 * That* makes the boy grin. "Okay. We go, then."

"Before it starts again," Darksteed says dryly.