[center][h2]Making Friends and Influencing People: Part II[/h2] [i]Fairess, [@Rockin Strings], [@Themerlinhawk] (Thanks to Merlin for the collab!)[/i] Eve, Adam, Abbadon, Lady Silver Day 1, Later That Morning[/center] [@Rockin Strings] [hider=Last Post] Upon returning to the tower, Ulrich asked about the group who'd been sent into the Narrows, who had yet to return yet. He'd had a bad feeling about that particular quest. Then again, he had a bad feeling about anything involving the Stygian Blade. Abbadon, however, went straight for the cute woman he always flirted with and always got shot down by. "Hey there, cutie. Why aren't you out on a mission? Couldn't go without me? I understand. I am, after all, irresistable." [/hider] A coy smile immediately tugged at Eve’s lips, her head turning to get a good look at the cocky fellow. Truth be told, she didn’t really get around much outside of her lab. Rather than make her antisocial, the isolation simply made her more keen on accepting any kind of invitation, no matter how silly or lewd. She winked and was just about to say as much when-- “Hello, Abbadon. Please excuse us--we’re on our way to the Masters and can’t keep them waiting.” Adam offered Abbadon a curt nod in greeting, one of his metal arms curving around the small of Eve’s back to keep her walking. That did not, however, stop Eve from turning to mouth words as they rushed off. ‘Call me,’ she seemed to say, spreading out her thumb and pinky and bringing one hand to her ear as if it were a phone. [hr] Only a few minutes later, the siblings were walking into a conference room. It seemed they were the first to arrive, so Adam nervously fiddled with the lapels of his vest while Eve plopped into a chair. Her face turned sour as she looked about--the utterly plain and crisp room was all metal and glass, not a spec of dirt between the conference table and the large windows along the wall. Calrisa’s steps carried her down the hallway towards the conference room. Just one more meeting in a long string of placating gestures and attempts to end the constant fires. Looking up from her dataslate the angel pinched the surface of the slate and flicked it to the left of her as she walked. Archive obliged her by projecting the information so that she could read as she walked. One of the few perks of being in charge of the Tower was that the A.I. catered to her every whim which was a small consolation given the loss of her husband. Pausing just outside the door she took a long breath and a single slow beat to compose herself. Some days this was easy. Other days it was far harder than she had ever anticipated. Once upon a time she had been able to run around all but carefree and play the spiteful spoiled brat she still felt like at heart but now it all rested on her shoulders. Letting the breath go Calrisa pushed the doors to the conference room open and stepped in pulling her wings tight to her back so that they didn’t brush the doors as they closed. [i]The Siblings[/i] It had been a challenge getting to know everyone of the Knights and she had found herself having to give them nicknames just to keep up. Calrisa was not sure exactly how her husband had managed to know them all by name and keep up with their lives. No doubt it came with practice, one thing she did not have the time for. Forcing a smile she walked to the table and settled in at it. “I’m sorry you two, the Mistress of Shadows won't be joining us so you will be stuck with just me for this. I had to have her round up a strike team, something came up early this morning.” Calrisa had briefly glanced at the report that Archive had provided her with on Adam and Eve’s work. It had something to do with the ruins of Angel’s Landing that had been built over. No doubt Christian would know exactly what to ask them given that he remember the original city, a gift of his long years. No that she wouldn’t live equally long but she had only been born in the last eight hundred years and many of them had been sheltered. “You’ll have to excuse me if I ask some uneducated questions. I only had a little time to review the report Archive gave to me. Feel free to start whenever you’re ready. Senechal, give them the rooms controls would you?” The A.I. pinged it’s assent in her ear. ‘Whenever you’re ready.” “Of course. Thank you so much for your time, Lady Silver. I wouldn’t have asked you here if I didn't think our discovery was of the utmost importance to the rest of the Tower.” Adam finally sat down himself, taking a seat next to Lady Silver while Eve busied herself with the control interface of the table. All it took was a few seconds before Eve had pulled up their visual data, springing up all manner of images taken from Adam’s recent spelunking. “I’ve been searching for a place known as the Seraphic Library for a few years now. There are a number of ancient texts that mention it--city records, philosophers, famous dignitaries--but actually tracing these documents back to the library have been… well. Nearly impossible for anyone over the last few decades. It’s like it just disappeared, and the fact that the city has expanded and rebuilt over itself over the two thousand or so years since hasn’t helped.” Adam offered a vague smile as he magnified one of the picture thumbnails on the table, displaying a view of the ruins he’d come across under the city. It was strange how, even while in the middle of a conference, just the sight took him back. The scent of fresh water mixed with the musk of old moss and stone, the sewer stretching out beneath him for what felt like an impossible distance… Adam coughed into his hand, bringing himself back to the present as he magnified the view further, displaying the high-definition take of one of the pillars. “I used the details I found to locate these ruins and found the clues I was looking for. These markings--they’re the names of the sculptors who oversaw the construction of the aqueducts… and even more importantly, the same sculptors who were said to have worked on the Seraphic Library, dating this location back to somewhere around 2,400atf. “While I was scouting out the area, I found remnants of golden silt accumulating in one of the aqueducts. It resembles pyrite, but the cleavage and composition was unmistakably paint. When I followed the aqueduct up through a tunnel… it brought me to this.” Again, Adam selected an image and magnified it, but this time the sight was almost eerie. A massive face carved in stone shone against a harsh LED, part of its skull caved in. A hint of mossed-over gold was visible in the eyes and across the lips, the expression of the statue noble and apathetic even after so much time. Soon after that image, Adam brought up another, this time showing what was most likely the statue’s arm, which had been detached among rubble and boulders. In its hand was a broken page, but some of the ancient text carved into it was visible. “I don’t have the full page reconstructed, but there’s enough on it that I know exactly what passage it’s from. ‘Let no man be the hand of another’s mind. Let man, instead, guide his own hand, the imperfections of his creations the admittance of man’s own genius.’ It’s a somewhat popular phrase of the time from the philosopher Avitus, but most importantly, I know for a fact this phrase and this manner of statue were displayed just outside the Seraphic Library. I believe we have just found the outer wall of Angel’s Landing’s most ancient and potent vault. If the legends are even remotely true, the purest and oldest source of artefacts and knowledge obtained from Orieon over two thousand years ago could be right at our fingertips.” At first Calrissa wasn’t sure if this was going to be at all interesting. Occasionally meetings like this were just the day to day efforts of the Order of Steel to be useful beyond working on the weaponry that they used to arm the Knights. Leaning forward on the table Lady Silver propped her head on her hands as they displayed the images from their exploration of the ruins beneath the city. Absentmindedly Calrissa took one of her silver locks and twirled it around her finger as she listened to Adam explain what precisely he had been after. The words Seraphic Library perked her ears up immediately. It was a fairly common legend almost five hundred years ago but now it was largely considered to by myth. No doubt Christian could probably have said one way or another although she suspected he might have been in his infancy at the time it would have been buried. The images were certainly a strange look backwards in time, if anything it almost made her want to go explore herself but the duties of the Tower made sure she had little time for such things. As the presentation progressed she leaned forward studying the image of the sculpture and the damaged page. Initially she had doubted that the two had found anything worth dedicating Tower resources to but it did in fact seem as though they had found something of note. In her mind she ticked off the amount of manpower they would need in order to conduct an excavation on the scale they were suggesting. Not only that but they would need equipment, beyond that they would probably need at least a few mages...frowning to herself as the thought led to the inevitable end result of: we don’t have the resources. Something about the whole thing stoked the fires of the rebellious brat she had once been. The two had clearly done an excellent job and to add to it there was no doubt they had found something worth at least [i]Investigating[/i]. How in the world could she managed to justify this though? Even if it was the library she knew its contents wouldn’t include a few high profile items that were on the Tower’s radar as [b]Retrieve at all costs[/b]. [i]Unless…[/i] “Sentinel what clearance do the Clarke siblings have?” The A.I. responded in its usual monotone machine tone “Level Three Lady Silversun.” Calrissa screwed her face up in a surprised and annoyed look. “They don’t have level two clearance? Why not?” “Adam and Eve Clarke have been flagged as Lady Ralrisk has been unable to fully validate their background. They are considered a level six threat to the Tower if exposed to Level Two information.” Calrissa’s eyes bulged “A level Six threat, Sentinel? Are you serious? That's what we flag over zealous journalists as.” The A.I. did not dignify the outburst with a response. Looking at the two siblings she pursed her lips in vague irritation. “This is so fucking stupid….Sentinel! Override Iota Psi. Clear both Adam and Eve Clarke for exposure to Level Two sensitive information for the purpose of conducting an investigation into the ruins of the Seraphic Library, on the authority of the Mistress of Stars.” It was a petulant thing to do since Ralrisk could be sent to clear their background but Sentinel’s tone pissed her off. “Right.” Stretching like a cat Lady Silver looked at the two of them. “I can’t give you any manpower at all.” She paused just a moment before smiling like a cat who had caught a particularly interesting insect. “But. You can have me instead. I have a few toys that might make this a little easier.” Both siblings blinked in surprise and shared a glance. Eve looked like she was about to burst out laughing, but reigned it in after a warning glance from Adam. Her brother was… almost cute at times like this. He was so much more eager and sincere than he realized, the energy infused into his voice as he went over his findings like an artist describing his own painting. He was, undeniably, in [i]love[/i] with the dead remains of some other time, and the notion that one of the Tower Mistresses had taken just as much of a shining to his findings floored him. “I… that’s… more than I could ask for, thank you.” Adam cleared his throat again, the amber glow of his eyes studying Lady Silver carefully. He’d made note of the tension in her face as she’d spoken and had started to think her reaction was leading exactly where he hadn’t wanted it to go. Eve, however, was unfazed as she brought up lists and blueprints on the space in front of her. “Just the three of us, huh? I mean, I have some manpower in the form of Jack and Perkle, but a little more muscle wouldn’t hurt. We have plenty of room on the ship for you, too, Silver.” Grinning now that she felt like she’d finally slipped a little of her responsibility even for a little she chuckled at Adam’s reaction. “Please I’m not half the scholar the two of you are but there is no way we could mount any sort of actual excavation of the scale you need in order to safely extricate anything and everything that is in that library assuming that you have in fact found it. This way, if you have, we should be able to handle it. If you haven’t I get to go on a field trip. No harm no foul.” At the mention of Jack and Perkle, Calrissa shot an eyebrow and her grin widened. “Oh I have an idea of who might like to join us. Sentinel? Would you do me a favor? Wake up Cartographer and prep him for travel.” All but giggling Lady Silver raised both her eyebrows this time. “Bet you didn’t know that the Tower has another A.I. did you? And he’s field deployable.” Tapping her fingers on the dataslate next to her she bypassed half a dozen screens in rapid succession with an increasingly lengthy series of alphanumeric codes. “I also have an idea as to how we are going to shift that much rock safely….which is why you need me..” “I certainly couldn’t turn down assistance like that.” Adam smiled, relief relaxing his shoulders. “Again, thank you, Lady Silver.” Eve smirked at the exchange, finally glancing up from her screen on the table. “As long as the A.I. doesn’t interfere with my Ace program. If you like A.I.’s so much, I think you’ll enjoy your stay on the Pegasus.” “Oh Cartographer plays nice with everyone. It was originally designed to track troop movements and construct firing solutions for field artillery but Christian rebuilt his program after the second war. Now he can map just about anything as well as coordinate survey and excavation automatons. My husband planned on using him when he determined how to breach the Everwinter.” Tapping the last of her keys Calrissa stood up. “I need to go retrieve something from the Vault and change, let me know when they two of you are ready.” Standing up Calrissa started towards the door. Pausing just before the conference room doors she looked over her shoulder through the waterfall of silver curls. “Thank you. Both of you.” With that Lady Silver pressed through the doors of the conference room heading towards the elevator.