Vanity's Perspective
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This isn't the first time I've had to track down my court mage, and it likely won't be the last. I still remember the time when I was still a princess. I would scour every inch of the castle in an effort to play with him, if even for an hour.
He always avoided his tower unless whatever spell he was working on required everything in there. The two next best places would be the garden or library. In the gardens he's practice his green magic, sniff the new flowers that got put in, or hideaway in a secluded part of the rose bushes where he'd nap in the sun.
But the library is where I would find him the most, as he'd check every shelf to see if something new got added. Then he'd get lost in it, whether it be some fantasy novel or a historical textbook.
Even here his escapist mannerisms are prevalent. He's been researching the world's history to pinpoint where on the timeline are we, or even if we are on the same timeline and instead in parallel. All while locked away in the palace's library.
"Mordeki?" I ask softly as I approach him at his table. He's got several foreign history textbooks infront of him. He doesn't respond, but I can tell he's noticed me by the subtle twitch of his frills. He's focused.
I sit for a few minutes to let him finish. I've known him for a good part of my life; I know his process. If I interrupt then he's going to have to reread the whole chapter. Oh, looks like he's done.
"Yes, my queen?" He replies in his usual soft tone.
"Mordeki, you know I asked you to just address me as Vanity while we're here." I scold playfully.
"My apologies my - I mean, Vanity." He stammers. I give him a reaffirming scratch on the chin.
"It's okay. Now grab what you need, because we're leaving. Our presence is unwanted in the palace today, but luckily I got word on a library in town that has many old tomes that even the royal family doesn't own."
"Very well. I will prepare post haste." He stands from the table grabbing the books. I gently grab his hand to stop him.
"I have some other things I need to attend to while we're out, so I got you an assistant. Please treat her well." I say in a soft tone to help easy his worries, but a strong face of apprehension still befalls him.
"Her?"
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"I know you two had some bad first impressions, (I mean, we all had bad first impressions.) but she wants to make it up to you, and show you that you have no reason to be afraid." I put on my royal charm to do my best to convince Mordeki. I can tell his armor is breaking, I just need to find the weak points.
"You know I have trouble dealing with her 'kind'." There's annoyance and reluctance in his voice, and his frills are slightly puffed into an offensive stance.
"By her kind, you mean women right? You've lived over 50 years with this trauma. Doesn't you think it's time to finally bury it? You need to get to know and interact with more women than just me." I move in to give him a comforting hug. I know he needs it, even now.
He takes a few moments to think. "I don't know..." His frills are falling. He's about to cave.
"I mean, just look how cute and adorable she is. How can you be afraid of this?" I move my hands up to pet Yoona's arm. She had been standing there this whole time; quiet, as I had previously instructed.
"...Eeeehhhhhh, fine." He sighs as his frills droop down in defeat.
"Now, Yoona, you had some things to say to Mordeki?"
She gave an affirmative hum as she did a quick nod. She opened up that old tattered book she's had with her since the beginning. I have to stand up on the tips of my hooves to get an angle on what she's written down, and... it's just chicken scratch and ink spots? I've seen the written gnoll language and this is absolutely not it.
"Yoona would like to apologize..." She reads out loud, slow and methodically. "Yoona mistook our summoning for something else, and it caused Mordeki problems."
"Yoona, you don't have too --" Mordeki attempts to stop her but here's cut off by her reading again.
"Yoona is aware that Mordeki has fears, and so does Yoona, and she hopes we can work together on them." Yoona gets a big smile on her face as she looks up from her book at Mordeki and me. She goes back to reading.
"Yoona hopes we can have a fresh start, and hope to learn how well Mordeki does in..." Yoona quickly slams the book shut and hastily tosses it across the room; knocking over an expensive flower pot. She stands straight and looks at us nonchalantly.
"Yoona... what's wrong?" I ask cautiously.
"Yoona doesn't know what Vanity's talking about." She said simply, smiling, acting like we didn't just see the blatant disrespect of her book, and that plant.
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Yoona
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Idiot master! Master helps Yoona with friendship speech then puts a dirty joke in it! Ah! He's been like that since Yoona told him she helped Gala with her nightmare. What is wrong with him?
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Later, Mordeki
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Vanity has prepared us a carriage outside the palace. She seems to think having me in an enclosed space with Yoona will help. Honestly, it makes me feel more on edge. I could stand the ride with Dian as I had Reggie and Ag to occupy me. Maybe the driver is a conversationalist.
"Excuse me, driver. You know the way to the library Vanity mentioned, yes?" I ask up to the balding man. He looks like he's certainly seen better days, as there's layers to the bags under his eyes. I can see crooked yellow teeth as he grins at me.
"Name's Bucky, not Driver." He speak with a low, gravelly drawl. "And I wouldn't be one of the royal carriage drivers if I didn't."
"Right, sorry to assume." I hop into the carriage behind Yoona. She can barely fit, and the entire weight of the carriage gets shifted as she takes her seat. What else am I too expect from the almost 8 foot tall gnoll?
I knock to inform the driver, I mean Bucky, that we're ready to leave. With a crack of the reins we're off. I can already feel the anxious fear set in, however, but I calm slightly as it seems she's adamantly avoiding looking at me, and looking off into the passing street.
I know she means no harm, and she's genuinely trying to help me, but everything about her from the subtle feminine hums, to her constant pensive smile, to her large... breasts... It all gives me flashbacks to a much more woeful time.
We finally stop and get out. Bucky informs me that he's been bought out for the whole day, so he'll be waiting for us.
We enter, to much of the dismay of the other patrons and librarians, as I don't think they were expecting a Lizardfolk and a Gnoll to walk into a library together. Honestly, sounds like the set up of a bad joke.
There wasn't much of a struggle to find the old history books I was looking for, Yoona had a rougher time trying to fit in the aisles, so I got some more for her.
As we sit I offer her a history book that covers the creation of Arkheim. I figured it would be a good starting point for her. I myself got a copy of "The Mourningstar Ordeals". It depicts several court trials of a noble house that was at one time very influential in Arkheim, but now fallen into ruin.
As I'm attempting to read; I get constantly interrupted by the sound of flipping pages. I look up to see Yoona taking 10 seconds at most for each page, before flipping it.
"Y-yoona. I want you to read everything, not just skim it." I say cautiously.
"Yoona is reading." She says with an annoyed tone.
What? She can't seriously think I believe that.
"Yoona, it takes aged scholars hours, or even days to get through --"
"Done." She says as she closes the book with a slight thump.
Not... possible...
"It was very well written, Yoona learned a lot." She said seriously.
"Then what's the names of the first 4 Kings and their Queens?" I ask. There's no way she can get all of this in just a matter of minutes.
"The first was Bralden Arkheim and his wife Natalia, the next was their first son Bralden junior. He died early in his rule so the next was his brother Carden. Carden couldn't bare children so he took in a commoner and her son; Vina and Aro Derdosk. Aro was much more of a fecund adulterer then his step-father. This caused a secession war --"
"Wait, you forgot to mention Aro's queen." I try to counter.
"Trick question, Aro didn't have a queen. He had several concubines, and over 20 lovers. This producing almost 100 bastard children during his rule."
"You... You can stop." I say exasperated.
That information spans over half of the book. Over 400 handwritten pages. How? HOW?
Preposterous!
Ludicrous!
What is this farcical nonsense!?
There's no way a creature of her caliber is able to perform such a feat!
She must just be taking me for a fool.
I pass to her a seven part series of foreign historical events. All of which she simply skims over, taking about half and hour to look over every page. Once she was done I quizzed her on as many tiny details I could remember, even randomly jumping to random places in the series.
Yet every time... She answers back in perfect paraphrased detail. My irritation has turned to awe.
"Yoona... How are you able to do this?" I ask seriously. I need to know her secret.
"Oh... Hmmm..." She gets a pensive look as she taps a finger to her snout. "Yoona's just always been good at remembering everything she's read."
"What?"
"Yeah, Yoona didn't fit in with her family because she was too smart, or something. Then Yoona found her master. A book she couldn't read because the words are always changing!" She gets really excited as she pulls out the old leather bound tome she always has on her. The same one she threw at a potted plant an hour ago. It still has some soil on it.
"May I see it?" I ask cautiously. This book must be powerful if it's contents always change. She gently places it into my hand, but I guess my impatience shows through as I quickly flip through it's pages.
No...
No. No. No. No! No! No! NO!
There isn't a single actual letter in this thing!
Just ink marks and chicken scratch!
This isn't even the gnoll written language!
What is going on!?