An Overdue Visit

Aubrienne knew it was foolish to put off meeting with Gelin, given how much more information and experience he had to draw upon, but an old impulse made it difficult to admit ignorance to her first teacher. Still, the strange events had reached a point she could no longer put off this particular conversation, and she knew Gelin must have marked her extended absence from his shop.

Having gone to bed uncharacteristically early, she rose similarly early, the better to do some pre-meeting shopping. The various fruits and pastries would be an obvious bribe, but a traditional one for the times Aubrienne came seeking more than the usual idle conversation.

At length she made her way to Gelin's shop, smiling at the unchanging nature of the place. Like Gelin himself, Aubrienne suspected the shop would well outlast her and Vrag-knew-how-many more generations of Averonais. She made her way past orderly shelves to the small counter tucked against the wall separating the general literature from the more esoteric tomes.

"Good morning," she called brightly in her ever-more-passable Shadar-kai, setting down her burden. "I hope I'm not interrupting any business," she added playfully, looking around the otherwise empty store.

Gelin heard the door open and popped his head around from the back room where he had been taking advantage of the quiet time to do some reading. He smiled to see Aubrienne there, but felt like he should nevertheless give her a bit of a hard time, for old times' sake.

"Oh, it's been so busy this morning - you just missed the Emperor and his retinue stopping in, actually. Not that you'd know, since I never see you anymore..."

"Well, I hope you got an autograph," Aubrienne responded, her smile widening. "Might be worth something someday. And I do apologize for my absence. Can't disappoint the fans, you know how it is."

She started unpacking food from her basket, careful of the thermos of coffee.

"I come bearing food and drink in honor of the ancient ways," she said in a playfully solemn tone. "So come eat up so I can try to wring some guidance out you while you tell me what an amateur I am."

Gelin marked the page he was on and emerged from his hide-out at the back of the crowded shop. "I accept this tribute," he acknowledged formally, "especially since it looks like you got those pastries from Tebzaer's, if I'm not mistaken. Only person in the city who knows how to do proper ulakh."

"Hey, I know my pastries," Aubrienne commented haughtily. "And, as I recall, ulakh these a lot."

Gelin narrowed his eyes in either pain or disapproval, but the tasty treats alleviated the pain of the pun. "So," he said once they were both settled in with some food and coffee, "what am I telling you you're an amateur about today?"

"Because I'm doing some research slash investigation and I'm in somewhat over my head," Aubrienne replied. "Hmm, I'm not entirely sure where to start. I don't suppose you remember, oh, jeez, a few months ago now, there was a murder at the cabaret where I work. As part of that, we think, there was a fey creature that attacked a few employees and generally tried to cause some major accidents. Not long after, a friend at the temple of Vrag had a vision or episode where he mentioned 'unseen' beings, 'breaking through the walls.' Worrying, but he said he had a history of visions and only some of them have truly been important."

"A few weeks later, a friend from work had a similar episode, where he mentioned trees, and a lady...that's all kind of vague, but he's a veteran, and we've done some double-checking, so we think we know a little bit what it's about. Another friend, Lathra, if you know her, one of her clients had been having similar episodes that were causing him nightmares. Like my work friend, he a veteran, and he was able to clear up a few things. Apparently they were both at Seda Grove, where there was something called the Forestheart, a large tree with a stone and pool...he said it reminded him of the Arch. Well, before, you know, what happened with the grove..."

Aubrienne was quiet a moment, but it was obvious there was more she wanted to say.

"My brother was there. Before everything went down there, he...that's where he disappeared. His old commanding officer found me a few weeks ago; she brought me his last letter. He said he was hearing something calling him, that he was going to them, that 'The Forestheart is open.' We're worried this is something big, and we no experience with this kind of thing, and no real clue what to do. It just seems like it could be dangerous, so, I thought, maybe, you might have some, you know, knowledge or advice or helpful insults."

Gelin listened to Aubrienne's tale, first somewhat bemused, but with increasing concern as she went on, until by the end he had even stopped remembering to take occasional bites of his pastry.

"That is quite something," he began, shaking his head slightly. "I haven't heard of this 'Forestheart' before, but if this concerns matters of the fey, you need to be cautious. And I'm not simply saying that because you're young and inexperienced - I would be cautious too, in such business."

He stood, wandering over to search through some stacks of books. "I know I have some writings about the fey somewhere here..." As he searched, he continued to muse out loud. "If it was just one person having these odd experiences, I might chalk it up to madness, or trauma of the war, or drugs, but if this many are having visions and dreams, there must be something behind it... although I find myself hoping that the answer isn't the fey, for from anything I know of them, they can be quite dangerous and troubling. Besides, there's some history there that makes it particularly... Ah, here we go," he interrupted himself, drawing a book out of the middle of a teetering stack. "I should have known it would be in the pile of things I had set aside for M. Orecalo."

He returned, offering the book to Aubrienne. It was clearly an old tome, written in shadar-kai, titled "The First World".

"This was already set aside for someone?" Aubrienne asked curiously. "Academic? Or has someone else been looking into this?"

She stared at the book a moment, taking in the title, then carefully opened it and began skimming. She absently moved her pastries away from the tome as she read.

"First World? What does that mean?"

"That," Gelin replied, resuming his seat, "is an account of where we - the Shadar-kai, that is - and the elves - or perhaps there was no difference then - where our peoples, whatever you wish to call us, originally came from. It is also the homeland of the fey."

He shrugged slightly. "Of course, this emigration, or exile if you prefer, assuming it actually even happened, would have been many thousands of years ago, so the veracity of the account may be somewhat lacking. But some scholars posit that the fey are, after some fashion, relatives of ours - perhaps less corrupted and burdened by the coarse material world we are forced to live in." His tone indicated that he thought this was quite possibly nonsense, but that nevertheless he would relay the information.

"And yes - M. Xandhil Orecalo has both an academic and, let us say, a professional interest in the subject. When I received the volume from a collector in Ariège, I felt sure he would at least wish to see it. But how can I refuse my dear student the first choice?"

"Hmm.  That seems to jibe with what we've been finding," Aubrienne agreed somewhat distractedly.  She scanned through the table of contents before flipping to the index and endnotes.  After a bit, she looked up.  "M. Orecalo has a professional interest, you say?  Do you think he might have more information?  If he lives here in Diablotin, and you could be persuaded to give me his address..."

"His business office is located near the Castalia, on Griffin Road. He's a ...professional purveyor of information, specializing in arcane, esoteric, and historical matters, so if he doesn't know about the subject you're interested in, he'll probably make it his job to find out. For a fee, he might even tell you," Gelin added with a slight smile.

"Sixes," Aubrienne replied cheerfully. "I'll look him up, maybe try to get an introduction."

Aubrienne gave the book one last long look before closing it, turning her attention to Gelin.

"So, you said you'd be cautious with this. Any other advice? I want to help, but, honestly, I have no idea what I'm doing. Lathra and I are looking into things, but, beyond getting information, I don't really know what to do with it."

Aubrienne sighed and picked up a pastry, idly taking a few bites.

"Well, are people being harmed by this matter?" Gelin inquired. "Beyond things like nightmares and troubling visions, at any rate. I know you mentioned a fey creature causing some kind of mayhem at the club, but was the murder you mentioned connected to that?"

"I honestly don't know," Aubrienne said with a shrug. "The creature may have been some kind of distraction, or a bizarre coincidence. But, the murder aside, it would have done a lot of damage if people hadn't interfered."

Gelin considered the matter for a moment, tapping his fingers on the table in absent-minded fidgeting. "A religious person might say that you've been led to these disparate people, with their stories or visions or dreams, for some greater purpose. Actually," he added, "I might not disagree with them - but whereas they might say that you should trust the gods' plan for you, I'd say we can't understand their reasons and therefore have no reason to trust them. But I didn't intend to get off on a theological tangent," he continued. "I do think the fact that you've been able to draw these connections - well, possibly you've been well-placed to see them, and you have a personal interest due to your brother, even if you don't know yet what it means or what conclusions to take from it. The talk of something 'breaking through' feels apt - manifesting now in forms humans can access, like dreams or visions, but perhaps meaning something broader, something that is ultimately physical rather than solely metaphysical, triggered by some change or other factor. What happened at Seda Grove? If that is a common thread that seems to link several of these tales, perhaps you can follow the threads back to there."

Aubrienne listened intently, considering. Much as she didn't feel quite qualified to deal with the entirety of the current goings-on, she had some sense that she was meant to, at least in part.

"Yeah, I think it's time to talk to my brother's old commanding officer again," she said when Gelin finished. "She might have some more information, and Lathra and I are a little better equipped to ask questions than I was last time I spoke to her."

"That sounds like a sensible course of action," Gelin agreed. "And give that book a skim - you can always pass it off to M. Orecalo when you've finished with it."