I awoke from my bed, finding out Ari was already up and in the bathroom and I just went in and ran the tap on the sink and Ari had her body covered under bubbles "Morning Jay, get just a simple sink clean up?"
"Prefer them, baths require a hell of a lot of waiting, and I don't have that patience,"
"That because you don't want to get in a bath with your blood sister because you think it's weird now?" She teased with that sly smirk of hers.
"Sort of that also, I mean the last time we did that was when we were 16 and the hot water pipe in our street broke, and you had to manually heat the water with magic."
The snow elf nods and laughs at that "yeah, that bastard, Richardson was the idiot who broke the pipe trying to make his shite front garden look good."
"Moron, that bloke... bloody Moron," I replied.
"Alright Joe, stop being a massive wimp and get in the bath with me. You're acting all paranoid like we're going to shag in the tub," She sighed while I nodded.
"Yeah, exactly, so I'll stay with the sink," I replied.
"Joe, stop being so jumpy. Ever since you have had that nightmare, you're all paranoid of things. Just get in the bloody bath will you and behave yourself. Answer this truthfully, have you ever seen me as an object of your desire?" Ari asked with a furrowed brow and a look of concern.
"Nah, never really did, once or twice in my early teens, but that was it, and those thoughts were mostly hormonal,"
"Yeah, precisely! Now just get in the bloody bath!" She muttered quietly.
"Fine, fine..." I said before getting into the sudsy water and sinking down with Ari as she nods and then says "You did need a bath though, the sink won't be able to clean everything off you."
"Yeah, but I just wanted to find these artifacts and be fast about it," I answered.
"This is an adventure, Joe, not a race."
"I know but... this country is going to war and I want us to find the artifacts before the Greenies can."
"You concern yourself too much, Joe. You overthink things, we're here to get artifacts and give them to our museums, and we can also make money off the ancient gold."
I just nod and clean up, getting out with Ari, we dried off and got ready for hopefully getting a chance to slip in to the Mage's College and hopefully find out this hidden ancient tomb. The issue is, one of us will have to somehow weave the college into thinking we are there to learn temporarily.
We headed out the door and then made our way to the college, of course having breakfast in the dining hall. Once we were out, we took in the sights and sounds of the city. Looking up to the towering heights and the bustle of the streets and checking the map for directions before Ari smiles and mentions "I just realised that the maps are magic based."
"What do you mean?"
"They use location magic."
"And shouldn't we wait for Auntie Irene and Harry?"
The snow elf shakes her head to me and then says "Nah, let them get some further rest, besides, our disguise would get screwed if we had a forty odd year old lady with an eye patch and a few war scars and a shady dwarf following us around."
"Yeah, but isn't temporary learning at the college free for all and such?"
"But I'm thinking on terms of appearances might make us questionable to say the least, if the front desk sees a slightly shady conman archaeologist, a war hardened human woman who can slice the gullets of a thick skinned orc and two former soldiers won't be great, particularly if we were going to ask where the armour of Aeryhn Iceborn."
"Alright, you make a point really, they'd think we're some soldiers of fortune or agents," I nod in agreement.
We then head to the college, through the bending roads and civilian filled streets and heading for the spire of the central mage college and thusly made our way there. Of course, it took at least a good hour before we arrived at the crystal steps that sang as we made our way up and into the college itself and went through the door.
Here we were, the college which was going through what seemed to be a decorative change, as there was new paint being added to the frescos of mages of times passed and gone and gold leaf being added to the columns and entablature of the building within.
The front desk is made of Elggarin mahogany, its swirling rings made of many shades of brown and sat behind it was a team of secretaries signing papers and tapping on their typewriters and then Ari and I stepped up and then came to seeing an elderly forest elf mage who had a smile "Ah, hello, my friends. I guess you are both aspiring mages."
We nod quietly "We're also trying to find out things on Aerhyn Iceborn, maybe look at her armour and discover things on her. My best friend here, is also curious about getting more spells and learning them."
"Of course, may we have both your details, just in case you come to the college again or might get curious to return?" The secretary mentions.
We nod and fill out the forms the secretary handed to us and handed the details over and he checked over them "You came very far to come and find out the legend of Aerhyn Iceborn and learn magic."
We just smile and I mention "Yeah, because we wanted to see the armour of Aerhyn itself."
The secretary nods and hands us our ID cards for certain sectors of the college since we weren't full students here, but there was a feeling that would change if we showed someone the note we gained from the barrow of the Iceborn.