Tome Appraisal for Scylla Azyslis
June 17, 2021
From the Client
Scylla stretched her arms out, walking in after a long day of healing. Adventurers who wandered too close to the Tower always needed healing, and healing often led to the desperately needed funds to run their little free company.
But today had been a quiet day, so quiet that the White Mage had left the camp with only a half-day of work. Scylla had only scraped up enough gil to pick up a new tea over in the city marketplace on such a slow day. Instead, in her hand, she carried a simple, non-descript tome. She slid the tome and the little bag of tea over the counter. He always did like it when she brought him new teas from caravan wagons.
“Well, Maxears… It would seem that some adventurers dug up an old sealed shipping node around the base of the tower.”
Scylla leaned across the table, poking her finger at his petite button nose.
“I usually don’t bring you these… but this one looks like the shipping code ties it to your office in the Syrcus laboratory.”
She crossed her arms, looking a bit insistent. “So -what- was so important that it was shipped in an express node?”
Tome Attributes: Nothing of interest
Gil Donation: No, but I did pick you up some new tea from the market!
Tea Order: Earl Grey Esoterics
Amon looked on in surprise as Scylla appeared at the counter. His first thought was to tell her she should scan her own Tomes. But the fact that the Tome was being shipped to him made him bite his tongue. He wasn’t entirely sure he wanted her to see whatever the data really was.
Then there was the gift of tea. Which is what he chose to focus on.
“Ah! ‘Tis a blend I haven’t seen before,” the Elezen noted, sniffing the bag with a show of much aplomb. “You really shouldn’t have, Princess. Are you certain you merely want some Earl Grey? I could crack this open and see how it steeps?”
But she knew him and his distraction tactics all too well. And he knew she wasn’t going to let him off the hook for a Tome reading.
So he inspected the Tome – which looked like nothing special – then inserted it into the reading slot. Jiggling it around a bit, he made it look as if the connections were bad.
“Oh, do you see that? ‘Tisn’t reading well. Now that is a pity.”
That did not go over with Scylla either. At this point, the look she gave him made him stop his antics. And, of course, the data files quickly appeared on the screen, written in Allagan text that she was more than capable of reading for herself.
Appraisal Outcome
The Study of the Forest Elezen Clans and the Validity of the Elementals they Revere
I… really don’t recall why I placed a Tome with this sort of data on order. I suppose every now and then, I always questioned whether the Spirits of the forest were real or a fabrication of a more primitive people who needed something to put their hope in.
Of course, I never believed in such mumbo-jumbo. So it was difficult for me to understand why my family was so taken with these odd concepts.
Now. Are you content with this reading?
When Amon removed the Tome from the drive, he moved to keep it. It was addressed to him, after all. And it did contain information on it about his own people and their beliefs.
Lately, he’d come to question a lot of things he thought he knew as facts from his previous life. The existence of the Elementals was still something he grappled with… especially seeing the Gridanians hinged everything on pleasing these spirits. Much the same as his own people had done eras ago.
It was so odd that two sets of civilizations at very different times could come to the same conclusions. That had to mean something was out there… right?