*Vanitri is not able to get a meeting with Housemistress Valpyren in the intervening time, but he does get a hold of Rayne Liore much more easily. He and the half-elf housemistress share tea and talk about their lives before the Academy.*
*Apparently she lived in Orussus, where she managed to get a job as a clerk at the library before reading about the Academy and deciding that she must find it one day and join. They almost turned her away, but she was able to impress a few important people with her previous studies, including the old Housemistress, Adriona Mineria, who sponsored her as a graduate student and selected her as her successor when Rayne became a professor.*
*Meanwhile, his research reveals little about the Lord of Shadows, at least initially. He tries asking the first librarian he meets, a surly old woman who dismisses him after saying she's never heard of it. He tries again later, when this time the librarian's desk is staffed by a chipper young bespectacled girl named Chesa who offers to check around for him among the reserve books. There are still more regular history books to check too, so he can continue with that over the next few days.*
*Elektra seems to pop up everywhere, leaving classrooms, entering classrooms, studying in the library, studying in her room. With twelve classes, she must be hustling about very quickly at this time of year.*
*Laynie abandoned Vanitri's book as boring and is now reading the Codex Anathema, which she managed to find somewhere, as well as the spellbook.*
)
