Normally, the day of the Ball would be no different for the Diplomat Leliana. When she was a younger woman, she had been amused at the goings on in the high culture. Even her first few seasons as Diplomat she attended out of curiosity. By now, the spectacle and drama had grown stale. Drama was more amusing when fixing it wasn’t your full-time job. She read through her ledgers that evening with a sinking feeling turning in her gut, but put it to the anxiety over the heap of work to do the coming day. She should have listened to her instincts, but then, there was nothing to prepare her for this night.

Breaking her mathematics, Arturri did not knock but burst through her door. Her pen went off mark as she looked up to him, eyebrows at first raised at the intrusion, but soon furrowed together. “Excuse you, young sir, do not simply burst in-“

“The Library,” he interrupted, breathless.

The Library? She looked at him for a shocked moment and saw that he was not at all alone, and that on his back was a boy. A Sedralogue in fact. Green cloak reeking of something putrid which she would come to recognize as smoke. He did not look physically harmed, but he was looking off in colour. Nadira came in as well with them, and helped to lay him down, bundling up her veil to have as his pillow. His chest was going up and down as they laid him out on the floor of her office. Not at all a suitable place.

Her mind raced with new tasks arising. “He needs someone professional to look at him. I must contact the Sedralogue and inform them. What happened exactly?”

“We aren’t sure, but… Daress is missing,” Nadira said.

“The Library is burning,” Arturri added as calm as anything. He was focused on attending to the boy and trying to revive him.

Leliana stopped breathing for a moment and had to remind herself to resume the activity. “Did you say… Burning?” Her heart was aching in her chest. Her stomach became stone.

Nadira shot her a harsh look. A glance with more honesty than all the past month of passivity she had given to her activites around the Orphanage. Leliana felt it like a stab. “Daress loved the Library. She could be - she could…” Nadira’s words failed her, and her shoulders started to crumble in on her.

Leliana reached out to the girl despite herself, but halted her hand and put it down. She had to remain in control of the situation. No matter how out of control it may seem. There must be something that she could do to improve the situation. She was a Diplomat, after all. She was there to solve problems. “We will have to send in a rescue team. You both did so well to bring someone out.”

“No.” The words came from the boy, barely managing to open his eyes. His face was rosy, and he was starting to shiver. “It wasn’t them that took me out… A girl… An Orphan… she was reading about old magics…”

“Don’t push yourself, take it easy,” Nadira told him, helping him as he started trying to sit up. Her eyes danced across his face as she processed the information.

Arturri narrowed his. “Daress… She had a book on strange magic alright. She left it for me.”

“How long have you known about this?” Leliana began.

“How dare you accuse us of conspiring with her! We came to you for help!” Nadira rebutted before the words had even been processed by the others.

Leliana felt dizzy. She lent back on the desk for a moment to steady herself as she tried to think. She needed to get a rescue team out. Thankfully, automatic systems would lock down the building and stop the smoke from spreading to the rest of Entithea. Vents would redirect the worst of it towards the surface - but the books? They may well already be lost. Of course such a thing would happen on the one night a season when no one could be called on. Although she felt her body ache to run and try to save it, she knew she would only hurt herself in that process. The city of Entithea was designed for such things.

“I think… she put me outside. She got out… she put me out. She…. She did something.” The boy furrowed his eyebrows. “What did she do? What did she do to me?”

They all glanced over. It was more than strange to see a Sedralogue not remember - it was unheard of. The silence as he tried to recall was dreadful. Although none of them understood what was going on, they all knew it was unprecedented.

“She had a book. Old magic?” Leliana felt like some old piece of information in the recessed of her mind was being called upon now. “Arturri?”

“Yes… I still have it..” He reached into his satchel and brought it out. “She left this in my room, just before whatever happened at the Library, I suppose.”

She picked it up and inspected it for several moments. The timing seemed conspicuous that she would leave that with him. Leliana was aware that him and Daress had gotten on more recently. She had put that down to their shared criminal past and figured it was an inevitability. Nadira and Daress, on the other hand, seemed to have grown somewhat distant since Nadira’s return. Nadira, as far as Leliana was concerned, had been distant to everyone. At the very least, to her.

But she had been so careful. How could this have even happened? Everything had been locked down. It seemed that no matter how hard she tried to stop the worst from happening, even worse would find it’s way through a crack. Perhaps, it may be more beneficial if she just played things by ear for the moment. It seemed planning could not help her now.

“Tell me child, can you normally connect with your ancestors? Or have you angered them recently?” Leliana asked.

“…. I… I can normally - but how could I have angered them?!” His face was strained by fear and uncertainty. “I don’t understand… I don’t…”

Arturri put his hand on the lad’s shoulder to calm him.

The Sedralogue’s Family motto after all was to pursue Knowledge and Curiosity. The fact that he was clearly in the wrong place at the wrong time was a testament to the fact that he was telling the truth.

“We must tell your Family about this incident. Unfortunately, that means I must go to the Ball.”

“P-perhaps, we can go too? If, maybe, you need witnesses?” Arturri said with a small break in his voice he tried to cover up.

Leliana could tell his noble blood missed the grand event - particularly since it was set in his old Family home. She let out a sigh at his flippancy.

An idea started to bloom in her mind. Daress had clearly been distressed about her predicament and left them a key. “I think we’ll need you for more than that, I’m afraid. I have a suspicion we might find Daress there. It will be easier for either of you to get close to her if that is the case. In fact…” She looked between Nadira and Arturri. Both fresh of face and rebellious by nature. Could they accomplish what needed to be done? She took a breath in. “I’m afraid I have no choice but to trust you both with a heavy task.”