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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lars Frehse" data-source="post: 349554" data-attributes="member: 1674">Strange Bedfellows-- part 3 of 4Khemaitas bowed foppishly while the rain and the wind got even worse, and as Torn was about to introduce himself, he straightened up again, and pointed to the deck:” Let us go into my cabin. We can properly get to know each other there. I am afraid that my hair is already in disarray and my clothing is not made for the water.”.They went on board and into the captain’s cabin. It was a small and comfortable place with a small ebon table with maps on top and chairs that were cushioned with red velvet. A small oven was radiating heat so that they could get out of the heavy coats that had been protecting them against the cold of the evening.After they had closed the door behind them, Kemaitas got a bottle of wine and three glasses out of a small cabinet and as he used one hand to absentmindedly dry his long blond hair with a towel, he put the three glasses and the bottle down with his other hand.He rolled up his maps and put them into a drawer and then, he leaned back in his chair and threw his feets on the table. He called for one of his crewmen to fill up the glasses, and when they were alone and everyone was holding a full glass of red wine in his hand, he said:” Now, please tell me good gentlemen, how can I be of service to you?”“Captain, this here”, Torn said, pointing at his friend:” is Trepat and my name is Torn. We are on an important mission, and it could take a while to tell you what it is all about.”.“I have time to listen to you. My men are overhauling the Ghost Maid now, and it will take at least four days until she is ready to sail again. Until then, you have my ear.”Torn told him about the epidemy and Trepat added something when he thought his friend had forgotten something important. They talked for an hour and Khemaitas listened intently, rarely asking clarifying questions.When they were done, the forsaken elf nodded slowly:” So, unless you get to Thalien with this orc, more and more of the orcs will get killed by the epidemie…”It was a rhetoric question, but Torn said:”Yes” nonetheless.“The balance is in danger”, Khemaitas said and his voice was barely audible:” There are too few orcs already…”.Then his voice got louder again:” Sure, I will take you for onehundred goldpieces each. Each passenger may take one “steed” along for free.”.Torn and Trepat were delighted. And since the elf was already offering the passage for much less than it was worth, they agreed right away. When they told him that they would still have to search the archives, Khemaitas told them that they shouldn’t have to worry- his crew would actually be glad if the search would take a little longer, since they hadn’t had a decent shoreleave in a while.For the next days, Ben and Niklas searched through the archives, but it seemed that the library of the Brothers was built in order to keep knowledge within it’s walls instead of passing it on. They searched and searched, but everytime they found a book that looked promising, it never contained anything about Thalien or the ancient orcish culture that used to live there.After they had spent almost a week looking for a clue, brother Juverus had pity with them and said:”You know, there is a layman we always go to when we see that our library is keeping it’s secrets from us. He is a bit strange, but he has a lot of tomes with rare knowledge and often before he procured books of which we thought that they would have been lost forever.”Niklas and Ben were both interested:” Who is he?”“His name is Chel Azatam and he owns a bookstore down in Gull Street in Harbor City. The store is called “Rare Books”.”The two friends were happy for an excuse to leave the dusty library for a while and went downtown. There, they soon found the bookstore and after Ben decided to take a walk, Niklas entered alone. Each of the walls were boasting shelves which were filled to overflowing. Everywhere, there were piles of books: on tables, on chairs, on the floor and even on the stairs that was leading up to a single bedroom.In the middle of this chaotic mass of books, Niklas was greeted by a thin Calastian expatriate: “Welcome, welcome! My name is Chel Azatam! How may I help you?”“Greetings. My name is Niklas and I am a member of the Fists of Mitril. I am searching for a map of Thalien with the Orcish ruincity on it.”.“Ah, Hor’ Kung you mean… Yes. Yes… Yes, I do have such a book. After Mithril was founded, missionaries went out to the toes, and one of them made a map of Thalien on which he marked Hor’ Kung!”Niklas was surprised: They had searched for a week, and it took this man less than a minute to get the needed information. Chel pulled out the book from under one of the piles, to him, there was a perfect order in the chaotic pile of books, and Niklas asked:” How much?”Chel pushed the book against his chest, and his voice became protective:”You know, actually, I wouldn’t want to part with this one here.”Niklas was surprised: “But I thought that this was a bookshop? Why wouldn’t you want to sell a book?”“Yes, yes, you are right. But, well, take a look around… Everytime I buy a book, I say to myself:” Chel Azatam, you will sell this one”. But then the books grow on me and I don’t sell them… Sometimes I sell them, of course, but I buy more often than I sell… “That is why this store looks like that. Fortunately my cats are all out right now. Else it could get really crowded. But, hey, I can make a copy of the map inside it.”Niklas agreed, and before Chel started to draw a copy of the map, he served tea and cookies to his cutomers. As Niklas drank tea, the bookshop owner told him that for a while, after the foundation of Mithril, Thalien had been where Mithril had gotten it’s marble. But then, the bloodstorm, the pisceans and the pirates made the operation of a quarry unpracticable.After he had the map, that showed the ruins of Hor’ Kung between a forest and a magroves swamp, he asked Chel whether he had any books about meditation and combat techniques, he was shown a book that had been written by an Exemplar.Exemplar’s were the chosen ones of Hedrada. Like the fists of Mithril, they were striving for perfection of their body and mind, and to help them, Hedrada has even granted them the gift of reincarnation: Everytime an Exemplar was reborn, he immediately knew of his old self, so that he could go on perfecting himself.This book now described techniques he had never heard off before. Leafing through the pages about meditation and discipline, Niklas saw that there were many things in there that he could use in the future. He bought the book and the next time he met his friends, he showed them the map.Now, they were ready, and a few days later, their journey on the “Ghost Maid” began. As they left the harbor, the wind blew up the sails, and they left the harbor and sailed out to the red ocean.</blockquote>

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