"Missing, you say?" Hunter called back, his head perking up from the volume he had been browsing through without much success.

He snapped his book shut and replaced it in a shelf, hurrying on over to Kyralie's side as the clanking of his greaves echoed throughout the quiet old room. As he came to stand at her shoulder, he could see the torn remnants of a number of pages that had been ripped straight from the binding of the book she held; before these fifty or so pages was an elaborate depiction of a human following behind a spirit, just as his student had described. The idea wasn't in keeping with the little he had chanced to ask his friend Cadenza about before, but it didn't seem entirely impossible; many strange creatures of unknown natures roamed these halls, and were capable of things he could scarcely imagine. Why could there not be a spiritual being who guided people here?

The prince glanced back up from the page, and gave a terrible start--standing before him, staring out from under bushy gray brows and behind inch-thick spectacles was an elderly human man, his face a withered patchwork of liver spots and wrinkles turned ashen and rough by age. Despite the frailty of his frame, there was a fierceness about him in the firm jaw and sharp eyes that bespoke a keen, tenacious mind.

The little man had appeared so suddenly and so quietly that neithed Kyralie nor Hunter could summon words for quite some time. They just stood there, enduring the hard gaze of the old man until finally, he spoke.

"What are you doing in my archives, tampering with my collection!?" he demanded.

"O-oh, so these are your books, Sir?" Hunter spoke up, bowing slightly in apology, and shooting Kyralie a sidelong, embarrassed glance as he did so. "I am truly, truly sorry for intruding upon your rooms--the lady has come here on my prompting, however, so please do not begrudge her for my mistake. We will leave at once if you so desire."

There was a subtle twinkle in the man's harsh eyes as they fell upon the volume Kyralie was holding; in that instant, his stiff posture softened, and he fixed Hunter with a look that was difficult to read.

"Perhaps...I was a little hasty in yelling at you, my friends. You have chosen quite an interesting book from my collection there. I had thought the younger ones would have forgotten all about our history and legends, but it seems I was wrong...

"Anyway, I can help you with anything that is within that book--but sadly, those middle pages you are looking at now have been gone before the volume even came into my possession, and...I apologize, but I have yet to find them."

The little old man seemed embarrassed at this admittance of an imperfection in his collection, and he scuttled off a little ways from the pair to look through the shelves for something, as if to redeem himself. After some time, he came back to them, wrinkled lips set in a proud grin as he presented Hunter with a large, green-backed tome.

"This one is the other book that I acquired along with the one you hold now. Perhaps it may hold some answers..."

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[BA Characters][R. I. P. Duke of Clubs (11/15/92 - 1/5/08)][DA Account]

[A timid shapeshifter with an unexpected, inner wolf "side".]
[Mahalia's Profile]-[Myth on the Moors]