A Scholarly Week (8)

"That was unnerving to say the least" thought Cyrus as he walked through the halls of the Academy towards the usual café.

"It seems that Caligo is not so bad after all, just that his speech is quite abrasive and he has an odd hobby of ordering around people for every little thing. Not only that but I have stumbled onto something very interesting…I must stock up the lab at once and get to work on fleshing out my hypothesis. Conveniently, tomorrow is a rest day which is the perfect time to test out my theories."

Optimistic in his thinking, he happily made his way down the long halls before suddenly dropping to the ground in one quick motion.

A few of his hairs slowly drifted towards the ground from where he had been standing, having been sliced off by a thrown knife.

All of his senses attuned, Cyrus quickly pushed himself off the ground and dodged another series of projectiles.

"Slow and clumsy, but no discernable source…"

Activating a pulse of life magic, several signatures were directed back to him from the far end of the hall. With a flick of his wrists a hail of knives was about to be delivered to the location of his ambushers, but as he did so his heightened sense picked up a change in the Aero essence near his head.

Not wanting to find out what the result of such an occurrence was, he stopped his counterattack and jumped forward in a roll to avoid the result of the essence manipulation.

His actions proved to be correct as a loud crack rang out from behind him, a testament to the amount of pressure that was instantaneously created.

"That would have robbed me of my hearing, or at worst knocked me out in one go…" thought Cyrus uneasily as he stood up once more, drawing his blade at his side and taking a stance in one fluid motion.

He focused himself, controlling his rapid breathing and beating of the heart to a still so that nothing got in the way of detecting the next attack.

From start to finish of the initial exchange he had begun casting one of his latest and greatest spells, the Vita Coil, which was now fully completed.

Yet, a follow up attack never came and a quick sensory spell revealed that those lurking in the shadows had successfully escaped.

"It appears my deterrence did not last as long as I would have liked. Now those who have a grudge against me are starting to work up the courage to bring me down. Though when did I offend a student in the Aero Department?"

Sheathing his blade and putting away the flying knives that he had failed to throw, Cyrus gave one last sweep of his surroundings before resuming his journey to get some food.

Unbeknownst to him, however, were the two figures hidden in the rafters above that revealed themselves after making sure that Cyrus had left. Their figures concealed, one could not glean any information from them other than the fact that one was a young man and one a young woman. Checking if the coast was clear once more, they quickly disappeared into one of the many empty rooms of the Academy.

….….

Aside from one small bump in the road, the rest of the walk to the café was completely uneventful. Arriving at the quaint establishment, Cyrus took a small jug of wine from the refreshment stand and sat down in his usual seat.

The establishment was completely empty this time, allowing food to be ordered in peace, until a man with a confident smile walked in and sat down in front of Cyrus who was in the midst of thinking of countermeasures to take against further attacks.

"Hey there partner, nice to see you here so early. I suppose there was no extra lesson today, eh?" said an excited Imran as he placed a few medium sized jugs on the table in front of him.

"Indeed there was nothing added on to today's lesson, I even left immediately after due to coming up with some good ideas that require testing in the lab" explained Cyrus.

"Well good for you then, especially considering the fact that tomorrow is a day off. Honestly when I read that in the schedule, I had to double and triple check it. My imagined version of what the Academy would be like was not quite like this, with just two lectures a day then immediately an entire day of rest afterwards. I had thought that we would be cooped up in a stuffy room all day, being lectured to by old men until I died of boredom. Luckily the structure here is quite…free" said Imran.

"True, the structure is quite liberating. I imagine that it is set up this way so that students have to take initiative to truly excel on their own rather than being spoon fed information day in and day out. For those who are not so adept with their self-discipline, there are plenty of external motivators to cause these people to want to move up in the ranks and improve themselves all the while" analyzed Cyrus.

"That aside, what's with the jugs?" asked Cyrus.

"It's that Auster wine I was telling you about, the best wine I have ever had I tell you. A gift from me, as well as a slight bribe so when you put a good word in for me with that Venator friend of yours you sweeten the deal a bit" said Imran with a well-practiced business smile, pushing the jugs towards Cyrus.

Not willing to look a gift horse in the mouth, Cyrus stored each off the wine jugs in his jeweled pouch.

"I had just run out of it too, how nice" thought Cyrus as he began to write a letter of recommendation for Imran.

"So, how much information can you give me access to for this letter?" asked Cyrus.

"I can send out notice of your query to all the merchant circles I have access to, as well as a few friends in the Administratum that my family has gotten to know over the years. I would say that the letter of recommendation is worth two queries, as well as the promise of me introducing you to a merchant group of your choice if you ever decide to go into business" calculated Imran.

"It doesn't sound like a bad deal, not that I would know the difference between a good and bad one with what little information I know. I will have to trust that Imran wouldn���t pursue short term profits over long term in regards to our relationship. Yet I would prefer to get a third query if possible…what can I offer to make the letter seem more attractive?" pondered Cyrus.

"How about I sweeten the deal for you, the price being an added probe for information" said Cyrus, trying his best to sound enticing.

"I am interested go on" prompted Imran.

"I know of a method that could perhaps earn you more good favor on top of being introduced by me, it's a bit of a gamble but are you willing to test your luck?" said Cyrus mysteriously.

Imran thought for a moment, tapping the table as he considered his odds in this bet. Perhaps weighing his relationship with Cyrus against the possibility of it being a ruse to gain free returns for no cost.

Coming to a decision, Imran said "All right, I accept."

Pleased with his successful negotiation, Cyrus wrote down the method and information onto a separate sheet of paper. Upon completion, he handed both of them to Imran easily.

"Giving me everything upfront, how trusting you are" remarked Imran as he received the two easily, not hesitant whatsoever.

Reading both letters, he raised an eyebrow upon reading the extra information that Cyrus had provided.

"Really, he has such a personality…and will this method really work in gaining his favor?" asked Imran, as the method on the paper was extremely simple so much so that anyone could do it.

"I am completely sure that it will work, just takes some time and effort on your part and, tada, you will have a high-level contact in the Venator's Guild" said Cyrus will full confidence.

"All right then, I will trust you on this. So, do you have anything you want to know ready to go?"

Cyrus thought for a moment, going through all the many things he wanted to ask. Ordering them by importance and accessibility via other means than this, he decided to go with…

"I want to know all about the Asinus family, specifically the branch that Professor Asinus is attached to."

"Looking up into the circumstances of a professor, interesting but to be expected I suppose. Especially considering that he is a member of *that* family after all. While they do their best to control information leaving their territories, there is a reason that their authority was being weakened so much by the Empire even before the War of Nobilis" said Imran.

"You know about the war? Could you perhaps elaborate on that, such as the major factions that were involved?"

"I could, if you just want the information that I have picked up on it you can have it for free since its no effort on my part other than a quick recollection. If you want something more detailed and expansive, perhaps something you would not find in public records, then I will use up one of your three inquiries."

Since the war was one of the first things he was interested about, and one that he had no method of learning about on his own, Cyrus agreed to this easily.

"All right then, I will send out some letters for you asking around about these two topics and have an intelligence report ready for you in a week or so."

The negotiation now over, both of them fell into more casual conversation over the food that had been served and the drink they had grabbed.