zombra: (Default)
Tessa MacKenzie ([personal profile] zombra) wrote2018-04-08 09:02 pm

{ inbox for fade rift }


( sending crystal messages and action )
assistente: (04)

[personal profile] assistente 2018-08-09 08:32 pm (UTC)(link)
One of the copies. The original--the Compendium, that is--I have it locked, in one of the cupboards, but, um--

[Many of the cupboards have locks, but the locks are not often employed. Salvio can only dream of an office where the cupboards are locked to prevent unnecessary viewing of files. Sensibility and good practice keeps the cupboards unlocked, for transparency. No one can accuse you of embezzlement if your records are there for the viewing.

It is a rare honor, therefore, to use a lock. Salvio fumbles at his worktable and unearths a small box. He presses his fingertips to its sides, and with a soft click, the lid springs open, revealing the key. This, he carries to the cupboard and opens it.

The Emergent Compendium is a large, thick tome, with a solid cover of cloth and board and a red gemstone embedded in its center. A pair of straps are stretched over the dense pages, as if to keep its vast knowledge contained. Salvio hefts it in his arms and turns to present it to Tessa.]


This is the original.
assistente: (13)

[personal profile] assistente 2018-08-13 10:01 pm (UTC)(link)
I imitated its magic. Yes.

[The most mild of corrections, because he knows what she's getting at. With some reverence, he looks down at the cover of the Compendium.]

It says--well, many things. Inside. The pages are ever-changing. The theory is that it is connected not to another book--but to an entire library, unseen, from which a wealth and variety of knowledges might be contained or divined. Pictures, even.

I, uh--I can show you?

[Invitingly, he lifts the book, as he crosses back toward his work table. Quite overrun with forms and parchment and ledgers and things, but--after tucking the Compendium safely to his chest with one arm--Salvio clears a space, gently.]

I am hesitant for too many to see, but--then again, it is not up to me what knowledges and, and the like, might be shared.
assistente: (12)

[personal profile] assistente 2018-08-14 06:38 pm (UTC)(link)
[Cool is not a new word or a concept to Salvio, but not one he frequently uses himself. For Tessa's sake, he musters a,] Yes.

[Warm, but with no attempt to repeat the cool. It would only sound stupid from him. Carefully, he sets the Compendium in the space that he has cleared. Carefully, he begins to undo the straps that bind it.]

Its magic is inscrutable. The pages fill in order, as if it is an unseen hand writes in it--but the pages, they empty, as quickly as they fill. Words appear and then disappear, and are replaced by new words. Or drawings. Sketches. Things-- Ah, and mostly they are rendered in a code, of some sort. The words, that is. Phrases. The drawings remain drawings. Um, here--

[He smooths open a page and steps back to give her a better view. On the parchment page of the book, lines of text fade in and out in quick succession: !pbafO leT, vlY qxeQ !alebY, and then, the line after it, LifxE qfeP L, and the line below that, bE qlK. An illustration of a dragon in flight filters in, almost obscuring the last letter of the last inscrutable phrase.]
assistente: (04)

[personal profile] assistente 2018-08-15 09:53 pm (UTC)(link)
Ah--

[Salvio tips his head to see the L, when she points it out. He catches the tail end of its shape, before it fades from sight.]

It-- No, I have not. Uh, that is, I have not--made particular study of the, um. The code. It is but one theory, as I say, and my interest--my skill, what, little there is, it is not, uh--not to do with code.

[He sneaks a glance at Tessa, with wishy-washy hope.]

I don't suppose that you....?
assistente: (07)

[personal profile] assistente 2018-08-16 05:26 pm (UTC)(link)
[Salvio is already nodding, rapidly, before she's even finished that thought. Yes, of course. Yes, it was a stupid question. Yes, he really knew better than to hope for that coincidence to be at all true.]

Yes. Yes, I thought-- ah, we are of. Similar mind, then. [Too weird? Okay, whatever, just keep it moving--] I had thought to contact the, um. Scoutmaster. To see if there might be someone with that specialty, that she is aware of.

[Beleth Ashara, the money-waster. Salvio looks down at the Compendium, which is rapidly spilling out another line of encoded text, obeqiJ oriV obeqiJ oriV obeqiJ oriV obeqiJ oriV.]

If I can trust in her. That is.
assistente: (07)

[personal profile] assistente 2018-08-17 09:25 pm (UTC)(link)
Well. It is a rare book. To be sure. But the scoutmaster would not--of course, she would not willfully or, you know, willingly, purposefully--harm it, or.

[He frowns, and then covers that frown by rubbing his fingers briskly over his upper lip, working that disguise.]

It is not a story. The scoutmaster is a fine leader of her, her assigned members of the Inquisition, they do fine work under her, she is fairly organized by all accounts. And she is... generous, with resources. By the books, I mean, this is from the ledgers, and-- I have no grudge, of course. No complaint. Merely a... caution.

Anyways, it hardly matters. If the code were deemed to benefit the Inquisition--if there was some merit, to be found, in the breaking of it, or some--knowledge, that it conceals, for as of now, we can only guess--well, then, of course, the Compendium would be entrusted. To the Scouts. For--research.
assistente: (09)

[personal profile] assistente 2018-08-21 09:49 pm (UTC)(link)
Well--

[Salvio looks back at the Compendium. Upon its pages, a sketch of a tower is flying by, lines whipping up a structure of a size that would be staggering to behold in reality. Pointed spires at the top, like a crown. A moonlit night--and then it is gone, fading away, replaced by a jumble of letters. He runs a thumb along the bottom of the page, reverently.]

Yes. I will admit to-- curiosity. It is a marvel, if nothing else. To learn more of it--well, that would be significant. For the Inquisition. Deeply significant.
assistente: (10)

[personal profile] assistente 2018-08-24 02:17 pm (UTC)(link)
Of course. Yes. I will tell you first. [Uh.] As a fellow-- member, of this. Of the Inquisition. And Base Operations.

[Yeah, there we go.]

And you, um. You will take one of the books? To, to experiment with?