[@Rhiven Knight]
The Imperial Library was one of the largest in the world, though you couldn't tell by looking at it. The place was a veritable maze of bookshelves and corridors, and you only ever saw a small fraction of the whole place at any given time. Allegedly, a remodel was ordered to make navigating the library simpler, but until then, the employees continued to find part-time work as tour guides.

Rose approached the front desk. Behind it sat a woman in conservative attire with an unflattering set of glasses. The name plate on the desk said [i]George[/i].

"Can I help you?" said the woman.

"Yes, I'd like to speak with the librarian, please."

The woman leaned forward and folded her hands. "What sorts of books are you looking for?"

Rose smirked. "Ones with pages in them, preferably. Do you know any?"

"In [i]this[/i] library?"

"Good point. What about records of the Anciet Artifacts?"

The woman pushed up her glasses and whistled low. "I'd better find the librarian. Wait here."

Rose glanced back at Rhayven and grinned. "I used to come here often for medical research, and at the time, most of the research journals I found had pages missing from them. They weren't missing them when they got here, so...you can fill in the blanks."

The woman came back with this vast, burly man in tow, whose arms were nearly as big as the assistant's whole body and whose towering height would even give ogres pause. He braced his hands on the desk, earning a serious warning shriek from the offended furniture, and rumbled:

"What do you want?"

Rose brushed a hair back as she fumbled through her notes. "We're looking for records about the Ancient Artifacts and their locations, like any ancient documents, transaction records....anything you have."

George dipped his head in thought. At length, he stood up and motioned for them to follow. "Come." He led them down the twisted corridors of bookshelves until he gestured to a certain section. He said, "This is just about everything around that war period. It's not much, but it's all we have. Enjoy."

With that, he stomped off to leave Rose and Rhayven to fend for themselves. Rose scanned the titles.

[i]
The Lost War: A Retrospective
Magic Corpses? The Horrifying Secret of Mana!
[u]The Knight and the Fairy[/u]
War & Peace & A Thousand Years of Dirt
[u]Records from Midhaven [b]Please handle with care![/b][/u]
The Septra Papers
[/i]
and a handful of others.

Rose pulled out [i]The Lost War[/i]. "You start from that end, and I'll start from this end. Actually, since there's not very much here, and there's a table over behind us, why don't we just take everything?"

She pulled out the whole section, stacked it atop her existing pile of stuff, and balanced it in her arms. It started to tilt...
__________________

[@Lumiere]
Queen Vali inclined her head. "I owe you that much. We shall commune later, then." She watched everyone leave the room.

Once the room was empty, she turned to King Alexander and clutched at her heart. "I feel wretched," she confided, "not only because our daughter is gone, but because we made those two knights feel mocked. What should we do?"

Alexander pulled out a chair and sank into it. "Talk to them, at the very least. They'll be valuable assets on this mission; I almost think we should have pretended we invited them.

"No. I believe honesty is more important, whatever the cost. Perhaps we could invite them for real?"

"After the fact? It would feel more like a pity invitation."

Vali ran a hand through her hair and sighed. "Maybe I could pay them a visit on the down-low and hear them out first. They'd be more inclined to believe our invitation if they first knew we understood why they felt hurt."

Alexander nodded. "Do it."

[@AtomicNut]
The queen went back to her room to change into her traveling clothes. She stopped by the armory to fetch a sword for defense, where she found Darvus picking out equipment for the journey. She leaned against the doorway to watch him.

[i]I wish he wouldn't go, but...gosh, he's so responsible when he's not playing the delinquent.[/i]

Vali sighed and folded her arms, a subtle smirk forming on her lips. "I guess you're pretty dead set on going, eh?"
__________________

[@Lumiere][@Darkwatck01]
The nearest pub was "The Mangy Mug," but the cleanest was the Brewer's Guild Hall, or just "Brewer's" as it was more commonly known. The birchwood floors were waxed and mopped daily, and the wait staff kept the tables tolerably clean all day long. Considering the quantity of alchohol served at the establishment, a suprisingly high number of its patrons were sober. Perhaps it shouldn't be so surprising - this guild hall served as the de-facto hub for adventuring knights. Here, the imperial Mission Bulletin Board System (BBS) here got updated regularly.

Today was listed a routine batch of missions, such as:

[hider=Cargo Delivery]
Primary Objective: Safely deliver a crate of spices to the local butcher.
Quest Giver: Killick & Co.
Quest Start: Killick & Co. Pier at Port Southaven, Drakengard, at the most convenient available time
Destination: Rigg's Butchery, Southaven
Quest Reward: 5 coppers
[/hider]
[hider=Escort]
Primary Objective: Guard Baron Hirage on his way back to Leevalt.
Quest Giver: Baron Hirage
Quest Start: Hotel Rich, Southaven, Drakengard, tomorrow
Destination: Leevalt - west gate, Drakengard
Quest Reward: 2 silvers
[/hider]
[hider=Search & Rescue]
Primary Objective: Rescue Angel 1
Quest Giver: Angel 1
Quest Start: Midhaven Perimeter Barrier, South Gate
Destination: southern boneyard
Quest Reward: Angel 1
[/hider]
At the bar, a drunk foreigner was retelling a tall tale to his unbelieving friends. "...zere was zis [i]huge[/i] quake, ze earth split, and vast pillars of liquid [i]fire[/i] shot from ze earth! It vas terrible! Ze whole city vas levelled. I saw a dragon! A dragon, I tell you! And, vould you believe, a goddess! She shone like the sun, and I could not look at her directly. Ve really should have listened zat day in court vhen Qu-"

The man choked.
"-the Qu-"
He choked again, mysteriously unable to get the word out. He pointed to a pretty platinum blonde cleaning a nearby table.
"-looked like her! With sil-"
With a sickening gag, he collapsed on the table.