[h2][color=firebrick]Ishtar Astarte Resheph[/color][/h2]
[b][color=black]The Grand Kingdom of Kron-Nesis[/color]
[color=black][indent]The Capital City of Tarantis[/indent][/color][/b][hr][hr]
“The next book… Finally one of interest…” Ishtar remarked with a certain degree of insolence maintained in her voice as she brought the heavy leather bound grimoire down onto her cart wheeled throughout the archives of the Southern Jewel. It was just the title Ishtar— or rather the court wizard, her superior, was looking for. She spent a moment slipping a hand over the weathered cover to reveal to herself the title hidden behind a layer of dust: [i]On the Nature of the Dead and the Risen, Volume IV: Liches, Wights, and other Immortals in the Darkness; By Lacerus Golgathya.[/i]  

It was certainly pertinent to Ishtar, but to Sirro the book meant something different entirely. The aged wight spent a long moment staring at the volume and recalling the meeting she had with the wizard only a few hours before:

[indent]“We have a Wight 'problem' actually." Sirro said as his eyes flashed purple for a moment and looked towards Ishtar with a knowing grin. "Word has come from the Archclericy that a high ranking official has recently been outed as a Wight and sealed Valon’s Forbidden Archives." He waved his arms around dramatically. "Sounds like a veeery dangerous individual. Don't you agree child? Of course, those simple minds turned to someone who could solve all their bloody issues for them." Sirro sighed and rolled his eyes overdramatically. "Thusly, I’ll be 'searching' for the identity of the now missing creature to find and deal with it and others of its kind in the area..” 

“And—” Ishtar started up only to be swiftly cut off.

“And yes, you’ll be helping me, obviously. This will be on top of your current tasks, and you’ll mention this to no one. Else…” The elder man trailed off sending Ishtar a lecherous gaze while quirking a brow. "I'll just recall my protection and have a bit of fun before sending you back there. Don't lose that charm, its in your best interests after all." He said and chuckled before looking through some notes. He knew of her true form, and had been holding it against her for a number of weeks now. In exchange for the silence of the powerful wizard and the solace his mentoring provided, Ishtar would work as an apprentice. Along with her work as a personal recordkeeper, Ishtar was a bit of an expert on the dark threats that the wizard dealt with on a daily basis. Her more clandestine purpose was to assist in thwarting various undead and vile threats around Kron-Nesis. It seemed the Archclericy was trying to keep things hushed and deal with things themselves. How vainly expected of them.

“And what of the archives? Shall we be helping break the barrier as well?” A certain hunger overtook Ishtar’s voice. She wasn’t as good at hiding things as she’d first imagined. The thought of breaking back into the Archclericy’s Forbidden Archives held a great deal of momentous benefits for the weakened Wight. The wizard chuckled at her query.

“Perhaps… I’m sure you’d love to deviate and peek back inside, is that it? It seems dealing with the Wights that are apparently now running rampant about the south may be more paramount, at least for appearances sake. However I'd love to take a look at those archives as well.” As the court wizard spoke, Ishtar tapped her gauntlets along the edge of his desk rhythmically producing a set of excited clacking sounds. Finally, it seemed Ishtar may have had a shot of rising back up to greatness. Her ultimate goal was finally charted with a path. Of course, these pinnacle achievements were still a long way off. The wizard made sure to remind her of that with his next comment.

“But that’s a conversation for another day. Gather the texts on the list and deliver them to myself or a servant once you are done. I have some matters to attend to for now and can’t be bothered.” With that, Ishtar’s superior was already out of his chair and leaving her behind. This was how things were, and this was why the Wight wanted things changed. Ishtar could have sworn she felt the unconscious clenching of her fist as Sirro stepped off and out of the room. She sighed. It was so difficult to feel simple sensations these days. With her vile form slowly twisting into something even more demented by the day, Ishtar was somewhere along the way to losing all of her humanity. Unfortunately, that deadline that was ever approaching was not so easily discerned.[/indent]

While Ishtar wasn’t one to fancy combat as much as the common warriors of the Southern Jewel, she would still relish in the vanquishing of her lesser undead counterparts. In her weak form, however, she recognized the difficulty in such a prospect. The aged creature had seen her fair share of obstacles though, and she wasn’t one that was easily thwarted, but Ishtar’s prowess stemmed not from strength, but resilience and intellect. As such, she was already devising her own schemes outside of Sirro’s plans. In between the massive shelves of the extensive library, Ishtar found herself propping open the grimoire, flipping to a specific chapter— one which surprisingly had nothing to do with Wights like herself, and carefully bisecting a page from the binding with the sharp tips of her gauntlets. In her slow and cautious procedure, Ishtar spent a great deal of effort leaving no trace.

Before anyone knew, the recordkeeper was wheeling her cart back out of the archives, a hidden page carefully rolled and concealed beneath her cloak. [i]One step closer…[/i] It was a thought for another time, though. For now, Ishtar was concern with the duty at hand. By the time she had managed to bring the number of books back towards the quarters of the court wizard, she paused. Another moment of peace before dealing with the erratic man was always pleasant. Unfortunately, Ishtar’s momentary respite allowed a pair of individuals to walk into the magical door of the court wizard. Ishtar had presumed it was another of his meetings. While she would often be uninterested by his daily toilings, Sirro’s recent task had offered Ishtar quite a bit of intrigue. 

With haste, Ishtar moved with the sly and vile agility of her Wight heritage as she stepped to the door. The human and the beastkin had just entered by the time Ishtar managed to pushed the metallic length of one of her gauntlets into the door’s crack, preventing it from fully shutting. Once she had ensured her ability to listen in, the servant Wight poised herself against the adjacent stone wall, remaining in utmost silence. Ishtar was a gatherer of information— an archivist. This was her art, and should she be able to gather intelligence on any of Sirro’s vile projects, she may accrue an upper-hand in a future scenario. For all she knew, he could have been fully aware of her presence with all of his magical prowess, but the Wight cared not. Should she not be stopped she would remain. Just listening…