The library walls shook as the city took another pounding, and it made Sister Alharrow nervous. Lycans weren’t the sort to be in the middle of wars. Wolf-shifters were meant to be out there, in the wilds, constantly traveling from place to place, realm to realm. They specialized in stealth and sneak attacks, not direct conflict.
It was a marvel that they had even decided to settle in Blackwood, actually.
But we were lost. At our wits’ end. Only a fraction of the original pack…
Another problem was just how much Lycans were hated by almost every older realm. Their infection changed a soul’s path, their allegiance, and for this, they were driven out wherever they were found.
“Sister?” Tobias sniffed at the musty air and blinked. He was clearly overwhelmed, and for good reason, because the room was full of racks of scrolls and leatherbound books. There tens of thousands, if not hundreds of tomes. “Where do we even start?!”
Now look at me, in HERE, surrounded by all these…WORDS!
“You people have libraries, don’t you?” Alharrow snapped, and the Verdainian flinched a little. Even though he had to be easily over level twenty, it seemed it was easy for Alharrow to intimidate someone. “I came prepared,” she said sourly, fishing into her pockets and drawing out a scrap of colorful clothing, torn from Esther’s tunic. “Now, clear your mind, Tobias El-Sandro.”
“El-sandro V'endoornath the Second. Everyone forgets that bit.” Tobias puffed up a little. It was so annoying that these other realmers had no idea how to talk properly.
Sister Alharrow ignored him, placing the scrap of Esther’s tunic in his right hand and making an indent in his left with one long nail. She murmured, “We’re both of the Earth Path, so this should work.
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She bagan to chant. “Spirit of Earth, the life that binds all things together, all things as one, join these creatures, by the life that flows through all…”
Green energy started to swirl around Sister Alharrow’s finger, sinking into Tobias’s skin.
>
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> Do you accept Sister Alharrow (Level 23) as your patron?
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Tobias blinked and accepted.
>
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> Sister Alharrow has shared Hunter’s Nose with you.
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>
Tobias felt a surge of power, and his eyesight. . . changed. He could see a rising green energy swirling around the scrap of Esther’s tunic, but it wasn’t the healthy deep green of the Earth Path. This one was lighter, lurid, and toxic.
“What happened? What is that?” he murmured. His senses seemed sharper. His nose could pick out the delicate vanilla and musty decay of the books, the layers of old wood varnish, and underneath that, a cold, damp, and mineral taste that he knew instantly was the stone blocks.
“Concentrate on Esther’s scent—or more specifically, the qlippothic scent. Now, the real work begins. If there is anything in this library that deals with that same energy, that even talks about it, then you will be able to find it. But that is only half of the hunt. We have to use our minds as well as our noses to find the scrolls that not only talk about the Qlippothi but also their cure,” Sister Alharrow explained.
“The Oldtree Shrine,” Tobias whispered.
“Yes.” Sister Alharrow nodded then turned and started to sniff around the room leaving Tobias to marvel at his new senses. She concentrated and could make out thin, almost invisible lines of that same lurid green dotting into the distance and disappearing into the shelves. She was vaguely aware that Tobias eventually did the same.
“I’ve got something!” he exclaimed a short time later.
“Yes, good. You take that side of the library. I will search this one,” Alharrow said pragmatically, just before there was another, powerful shake of the walls. Dust drifted down from the ceiling. “And we had better pray that we are quick, as who knows when that war will find its way here!”