When we left our heroes, they were in the office of the eccentric Archivist Khasar, in a place that doesn't seem to experience normal time, about to have a serious talk about what's been going on.
"Can I offer you anything to drink? Coffee?" She gestures to an icebox and a small, antiquated-looking coffee maker in the corner. "It won't have much flavor, I'm afraid. I can't really get milk products in here."
The cat curls up under Seline's chair and rests its head on its paws.
"I have both!" she says brightly, and clicks her tongue at the cat. The cat rises, with a mrow of reluctance, and jumps gracefully up onto the counter and bats at the coffee maker with a paw to start a cup for Hopford, then picks up a tea bag and begins steeping it for Seline, very expertly and acting as if this is completely natural cat behavior.
@Hikari The rumbling purr continues as the cat licks Seline's hand, but when it mrows next you understand it, and it has a surprisingly cultured-sounding cat voice: "These are such pleasant guests, I shall put extra sugar in their tea."
(that's sort of obviously not true, can we assume Hopford doesn't have to play dumb but just doesn't know what flavour of 'seems normal but isn't' the cat is?)
"Well, I certainly do," she says, as the cat finishes the tea and gently pushes over the teacups with its paws towards you. "I suppose we should start with what you know. Did your superiors send you here, or did you come of your accord?"
She nods in approval. "I'm impressed, then. Truth be told, I haven't gotten along with the current SECO leadership in a few of your years now. I find them... overly slow and bureaucratic. Things like this come up, it takes them five committees to take action. If you've taken this upon yourself, your courage is to be commended."
"The Baba Yaga always asks, do you come of your free will or by compulsion, neither is the right answer, the correct answer is I come 75% of my own free will and 65% by compulsion."
"Oh, I wouldn't want to wish that fate on one of your books, but you're very kind." She adjusts her glasses. "But we really should discuss the matter at hand. Have you spoken to that elemental you have there?"
@AncientSwordRage She hastily shoos it away without touching it. "Oh, no, no, please. You'll want to put that back. If it's here after your allotted appointment time, it's here forever."
The cat wanders over to the elemental bucket and bats at it experimentally.
"Mmm." She adjusts her spectacles and peers at the bucket, noticing the cat is trying to play with it. "Sir Ghellert, you get away from that at once!" The cat slinks grudgingly away.
"I'm quite surprised it hasn't disintegrated yet. You must be caring for it, I assume?"
She stands up from her chair and moves over to gaze thoughtfully into the bucket. "It must be able to tell us more. Will you speak to it for me and ask it a few questions?"
"We did get some information out of it earlier. We heard that they're turning creatures into fish people somewhere on the elemental plane of water. One of those fish-dudes summoned this elemental, in fact."
"That's precisely what I believe we should question it further about. Will you ask it its name first?" She moves back to her desk and begins rummaging in one of the drawers. "I hate to be impolite."
The elemental is quiet for a moment, then blooghs back. "Bllooorogooogogh." It's hard to translate back to Common, but a rough idea would be "Glides-Over-Strong-Wave."
"Excellent." She pulls out a very, very old-looking scroll and starts spreading it out on her desk. "Would you please ask it if it remembers the words that were spoken to bring it here?"
The elemental seems to rack its watery brain for a long moment. "Not remember," it blorps at length. "But remember something - not sure if can say. Scary noises."
Its essence seems to draw together and turn a darker color, and it emanates a very loud gurgling sound that sounds different from its other gurgling sounds. It's definitely not Aquan.
Nat shivers and looks very unnerved. "No, that ain't Infernal. That's... something very old. I don't seem to be able to remember..." She looks pensively at the scroll. "Which means..."
"No, that ain't what this is. I think I know what this is, but it's..." She pushes the scroll forwards. "Well, let's put it this way. You study ancient history? Really ancient?"
"Oh, I think this is real old. Real, real old. Before a lot of things got made. Before the kingdoms of men." She taps the scroll. "This world, it has things in it that are before even me. If my theory about what's happening right now in your world is right, this is something from before there was an Otherside or an Upside. You know about those books everyone's making a fuss about, I assume?"
You heard a vague rumor once in the break room - probably from the interns - that Agent Hanako and Agent Laurent were hunting for some kind of magic book that got loose but that it's very confidential and hush-hush.
The cat, having been quietly observing the conversation in the background, suddenly mrows, audible to Adrian. "There was this one lovely intern that brought us the coffee machine, though."
"Oh, I don't know if the Duke is truly the one pulling these strings." Nat seems to have figured something out. She grimly pushes the scroll towards you. "If my suspicions are right, I think you ought to copy this down. And make some preparations. There's something very old and very dangerous coming, and I don't have any power here beyond the bestowing of knowledge. I hope this knowledge is useful."
"Well, if you're one who makes frequent visits to a place that's completely underwater or a place that is filled with dangerous vapors, you'd find it real useful, wouldn't you?" She gestures to the cat, who pads up and sniffs the necklace and then mrows. "I think you might want to keep it with you."
"Properties, eh? That shouldn't be too tricky..." She adjusts her glasses again and peers at it, then takes out a small pearl and rolls it between her fingers for a moment while concentrating. After a moment she nods. "If you're bonded with it, that sword will always return to your hand no matter how far away it is. Looks like it could even move and attack on its own if you say the right command word."
I spin the sword around in my hand (safely) for a moment like a cowboy spinning a pistol, I hold it out to Hoppford. "If we're going to continue working together, I think you'll need a real professional's weapon."
"You made an appointment, and I ain't going to not help anyone who makes an appointment." She scoops up the cat gently into her lap. "You're gonna need all the help you can get, but I can't interfere much more than I already have. I'm afraid I'm here as an Archivist and a Keeper of Knowledge, not as the likes of Iolatos."
"Oh, it was no trouble at all. You've all been wonderful to talk to." She takes Hopford's business card and arranges it on her desk. "I really hope to see you again. You three seem like you're going to do very important things soon." She smiles warmly. "If you come back here, I'll see what I can do about better coffee."
