"Well, you aren't doing too badly so far," Vera looked down at Kaleeth's tablet and sat down beside her. "Learning to read and write isn't too hard once you get into the basics. Reading and writing well, however, that takes practice, like you said. As long as you have a willingness, it's no problem at all, really. And living day to day, it can be very hard without knowing how." Vera looked up at Kaleeth, and nodded encouragingly, "You could keep attending my lessons as long as you're here, if you wanted. You're certainly not the first adult to do so. Can others in your pack read and write?"

Carana pinched at the skin on her temple and gave a worried look. "I should have known. If there is one thing that Vile's followers are doing if this poison is theirs, it is driving us to madness with trying to figure it out. Very well, Safina?" Carana lowered her arm and looked up at her assistant, "Fetch a human heart and a pint of human blood from cold storage. We'll need them."

The next while consisted of a friendly discussion between Sabine and Carana regarding whether to use a human heart or liver for the test. It contained as much jargon as before and they had set up the test with the heart before they even knew they had come to an agreement. Curiously, Sabine's anxiety seemed to fade off and turn into a sure confidence as she spent time talking about alchemy. The threat of the clan falling apart if she said the wrong thing was all but gone from Sabine's mind. As they worked, there were a few other scholars that came and went from the loft. They gave curious glances, but didn't cause a disturbance.

An hour of precise frost and fire spells later, the four in the scholar's loft beheld a large flask filled with a thin mix of blood and water. Suspended in tendrils of ice was a fresh heart that had been administered the poisoned water. "There," Carana breathed once the poison had been added, "Now all there is to do is watch and wait. This will likely take a while."

"Cheydinhal? Hah! I should have known. We sometimes get Cheydinhal Orcs coming by, they've all got the same...hmm, how do I put it?" Harriet lifted a finger and pressed at the front of her mouth in thought, "I dunno, you all got somethin', I think it's the way you talk." Harriet waved the thought away dismissively, "Anyway, so your mother was the warrior and your pa was the smith? I tell you, from the perspective of a stronghold girl, that's just weird. At least you had your parents teachin' you," Harriet stood up and began stretching her arms, "My parents weren't too keen on me worshiping Hircine instead of Malacath. The clan had plenty of teachers when I joined it, though." Harriet tensed her face, then released her breath through her nose, "Your parents still around?"