— Keira —

Once Keir stopped looking around at the expansive library, the reference desk was fairly obvious at the base of the large statue of Syliantha. The curved counter was carved from rich grained magewood with coral accents.

From what Keir could tell the library portion was either unusually quiet or simply winding down, as only three of the eight stations along the counter were currently staffed. Of those, only the white and pale pink flower like mantiskin was helping a supplicant.

The silver scaled kobold in the middle looked to be finishing some paperwork or perhaps closing her own station, so Keir approached the remaining member of the clergy.

The young gnomish woman standing behind the counter was dressed in a more ornate version of the simple novice robes worn by the other two. Given none of the decorations were symbols of the goddess she served, Keir suspected it was more a matter of style than rank. As was often the case with gnomes, the woman’s hair drew more attention than her admittedly eye-catching garb.

The woman’s beard was cut and shaped to resemble an unfurling scroll and her hair was braided into a number of double and triple helix-like braids complete with silver bars that stood out against her metallic copper hair.

As Keir approached, the woman started speaking before looking up “Welcome to the temple of Syliantha. Do you seek or uh… Oh wow, I’ve never met a wight before. No, with those eyes are you an abyssal wight by any chance?”

Keir was more than a little taken aback that the gnome had identified her not only as an undead but even recognized her specific type. After a moment she managed to nod and began saying “I am actu..” when she was interrupted by the gnome continuing “Now that is fascinating. The fact you were able to enter the temple means you have the willingness and capability to learn so must be free willed. Are you an ancient undead that regained a portion of your soul or were you, maybe, raised by a legendary tier necromancer specialized in soul manipulation?”

Keir briefly considered how much to tell the young woman. In the end she decided that if the woman was enough of an expert on undead to identify Keir at a glance, explaining the situation could be helpful. It also wasn’t exactly a secret so she said “Are you familiar with Still-Leaf Village?”

From the way the woman tilted her head she seemed to think it was an odd non sequitur but she pursed her lips and seemed to be racking her memory before saying “Hmm, I don’t believe so, but give me a second. I assume from the lack of context it must be a local area and probably either still extant or not long gone. No wait, I think Tercia might have said something about it while she was updating the record of lost settlements in the region. Was it perhaps the one slaughtered by a vampire lord that was apparently leaving the Beast Plains? That would make sense, but no, I think that was Silver Oak Village. Was it the one destroyed by some sort of water elemental they found in their mine. From your expression that must be a no too.”

Keir opened her mouth to reply but the woman barreled on “Oh i know it was that one where everyone just vanished. I remember Tercia talking about the meals left barely touched on tables or even still cooking and the lack of any sign of a struggle. Did I get it?”

Finally with a chance to speak Keir said “Sort of, but not really. It was, or actually is, a village not far from the plains that was destroyed by vipers. I was killed on my way there and some time later resurrected, most likely by Mortis given what happened next.” The woman was clearly about to speak up and Keir just wanted to get the story out of the way quickly so she hurried to continue “After I avenged the village the system offered to resurrect the villagers and suddenly had advancement options tied to Mortis and her favor.”

Hearing the last part of Keir’s abbreviated version of the story the young gnome’s lapis lazuli colored eyes almost seemed to glow with her excitement and she even more quickly blurted out “Wait, are you saying that the entire village is undead? Are they all the same types? Oh, Is it possible that some of the rest are also free willed?”

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Keir was starting to get used to needing to interrupt to get a word in so when the gnome took a breath she said “Not everyone chose to return but all of the ones who did are entirely free willed and there is a variety of types of undead present. That’s actually why I’m here.”

The woman was clearly barely holding herself back from unleashing a tidal wave of questions so Keir hurried to finish saying “I’m here to meet with a scholar from the village named Antheia of Stone Lilly Cove who came here ahead of me. If you have time to speak with her, she could likely answer your questions better than I could and I know she’d appreciate any information on the undead you care to share.”

Keir barely got the last of her sentence out when the woman said “I'll guide you to her, Please wait for just a moment.” and stepped down from her raised standing area, almost disappearing behind the counter.

Keir was amused as watched the top of the woman’s head hurry over to the kobold before the gnome's rapid fire voice rang out saying “I need you to call over someone to take over my station.”

The kobolds response was too quiet for Keir to make out more than a couple of words but it was fairly clear what she must have said as the Gnome answered “A research emergency just came up. An invaluable source of information for my thesis just walked in.” After a beat in which the kobold must have said something the gnome continued “That’s great, you're the best thanks.”

Not more than ten seconds or so later the gnomish woman stepped out from behind the counter and hurried over to Keir. As she drew close she clearly tapped into a skill as her eyes flicked back and forth as if reading something in the air in front of her and when she reached Keir she said “It looks like Antheia of Stone Lilly Cove is in a private reading room. Follow me.”

The woman set off surprisingly quickly considering she couldn’t have stood taller than three foot ten at most, even in her tall soled boots.

Following behind the quick gnome as she led the way towards a fairly plain door, Keir said “Things got a bit derailed there but my name is Keira, I hope we can work well together.”

The young gnome looked a bit surprised for a moment as she turned to look back at Keir. After another step she said “Oh sure. Nice to work with you, my name is Iida.”

Clearly introductions were enough to reopen the dam holding back the flood of questions.

For what must have been well over ten minutes of questions, many of which Keir either couldn’t or wouldn’t answer as they navigated the maze like warren of passages and staircases.

Keir finally decided to ask a question of her own as Iida said “So have you eaten a soul yet, or just blood and flesh? If so, what does a soul taste like? What few accounts I've seen were never clear.”

Keir didn’t even try to hide a grimace at the thought and said “I haven’t eaten anything yet so I have no idea what souls taste like. I have a question of my own, however. Do you always guide people to these reading rooms or do they just wander around until they find them?”

Much like the introductions, the question seemed to throw Iida off a bit and there was a relatively lengthy pause of at least a second before she answered “Huh, oh, no we don’t typically guide supplicants. The key to the room directs them to their destination and for someone meeting them like yourself an elemental would be summoned to lead them to the room.”

Keir was satisfied so she was fine going back to the constant questions as they walked the remainder of the way to a door marked with a brass ninety seven.

There was still an obvious note of eagerness present but Iida's voice was slightly more professional when she knocked and said “Supplicant Antheia of Stone Lilly Cove, I have brought the elf Keira you requested be guided here.”

After a fairly short pause that felt longer after spending even a short time with Iida, the door swung open revealing Antheia.

Antheia looked around and then down towards Iida and said “Oh thank you, I appreciate you bringing her yourself.” She then looked over at Keir and said “I hope your objectives were completed to your satisfaction. Did my note find you?”

Keir nodded and said “I confirmed your theory, but that’s about all. I did, however, luck into finding something of an expert on the undead. Iida?”

The gnomish woman had been surprisingly restrained, but when her name was spoken she said “Oh, yes, I believe we can each help the other with our research.”

Antheia glanced over at Keir, her glowing crimson eyes sparkling with the excitement for knowledge as the bright blue eyes of Iida so Keir said “We can go over what little I found later, you might as well take advantage of having an expert here.”

Antheia nodded and immediately turned her full attention to Iida and said “That sounds like an excellent idea. Come in and let's get started.”

Keir almost entirely forgot her soreness as she followed the pair into the room as they exchanged rapid fire questions and answers. It was always pleasant to see people so passionate about a subject get to speak with someone equally passionate about it.

Once she was settled into one of the chairs Keir prepared to enter her soulscape. She might not be able to add much to the other women's conversation, but she could follow the advice of Mortis and seek answers in the library in her soul.