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Keia followed down the hallway once she was satisfied that it was the best course of action, and she seemed to be falling behind the rest of the group. The stair mechanism was interesting enough to make her hurry her pace however, stopping to examine the lion with a scroll. "It's a riddle." She muttered the obvious for anyone who would listen, picking up the statue and taking it over to the stairs. "The Taldor sure have a thing about lions..."
Keia is careful and meticulous about putting the swarm back where it's supposed to be, going carefully through the pages.
Once it's all put neatly away she turns back to the group and follows them off towards the office down the hall. "An odd place for a lever indeed." Keia agreed, shaking her head at the thing before looking the desk over for any drawers or papers it might have.
Keia stared at the swarm, unwilling to do anything that might damage the pages. It just wasn't in her nature, it wasn't the kind of thing that she was capable of. They were books! She'd spent her childhood making and copying and tending books! In a flash of hopeful ingenuity she dropped her pack, shoving a hand in and whipping out her bedroll and flinging the thing open as wide as she could to try and capture the pages in the falling fabric.
"Huh?" Keia turns slightly at the movement in the corner of her eye to find the strange swarm. "Oh." She frowns at the books for a moment as the book in her hand drops to the floor and her other hand reaches for the rapier hanging from her hip.
Her automatic instinct was to try and cast Spark on it, but of course that had the possibility of damaging valuable books and, for all she knew, the swarm was made of the exact book they needed. Perhaps it was best to hold off for now.
Keia paused her browsing at a noise behind her, brow wrinkled as she turned to glance around the room, where she caught Feona fiddling with one of the cases. The little historian couldn't entirely suppress a gasp at what she saw, crossing quickly to Feona to hiss quietly at her. "Hey, stop that! This is a library! You can't just-" She cut herself off to wave a hand at Feona's work. Ilyana was blind but she wasn't deaf, Keia didn't want to jeopardize things now that the woman seemed to trust them.
"Thank you!" Keia chirped happily at Ilyana, staring in awe at the room and all the books within. A single glance could tell her this was nothing like she had ever seen in any other library, this was something particularly special indeed. "So beautiful..." She murmured to herself, stepping into the room and and running her fingers delicately over the books in total fascination.
Keia grinned at the woman, even if that didn't mean anything because she was blind and all, but still. It was just kind of habit for the little woman. "Well, I know the author and his mentor but I don't actually know much about her and where her information came from, where could I find books on that timeline?" She inquired, nails tapping against her front teeth as she considered the exact information that they had been sent to recover.
As she spoke Keia's confidence grew slightly, going over the bits of history that she knew, and even more importantly giving details on the known historians of the time and where their own knowledge had originated. She may not be Taldan herself but she had a respect for history of all kinds. It didn't hurt any that the Caretaker seemed a little bit impressed by her knowledge, it was probably good that the woman was blind because Keia was blushing a little bit.
For the most part Keia hung in the back looking as small and inconspicuous as possible. As a child born and raised in Tephu until the day she decided to join the Pathfinder Society, and being fairly new to the society in general, she really didn't have anything to offer to the conversation. Everyone else did, everyone had something useful to say, Keia didn't have anything. She wanted to, that was why she was here, but it didn't help that on her very first mission she was immediately confronted with how little that she had accomplished. Even as they moved forward she felt generally useless, Feona seemed skilled in traps and finding, and the strange Arvyx man was definitely very good at something, though she hadn't entirely put her finger on what it was, and what did Keia know? Stuff, history mostly, just stuff. Not the kind of stuff that they needed to complete this particular mission. "Well I need a book abouuuut-" She hesitated briefly, rattling her brain for an obscure bit of Taldan history that might be in the ancient book section.
"I'm- uh- Just a Historian your Felineness, I just- uh- know things." Keia stumbled over herself a bit as spoke, squirming a little uncomfortable in front of the statue. It was very strange you know, speaking to statues, particularly statues that she would assume were also guardians of a library that she wasn't legally supposed to be in. Of course it could also be argued that a library, any library, was exactly where a historian belonged, but that was a different matter entirely and she wasn't the kind of person to go around arguing semantics with statues of lions.
Looking up from the book she had pulled off the shelf Keia gave Piper a quizzical look, not quite sure what had brought the question up. Well whatever it was she scrunched her face in thought "Obeisance...Obeisance..." A stray nail tapping against her teeth as she thought on it.
Whether the thought came to her or not, the sudden presence of a talking lion, a statue lion at that, was rather startling. "Oh, err.. hello there sir...ma'am?...Your Felineness." What was the proper address for a stone lion? No one taught you these things in school. "Don't mind us, just some curios scholars searching for knowledge in these great halls." What? It might work, maybe he/she/cat was a friendly lion?
Keia flipped eagerly through the books, leaving the ciphers to Feona and Tugo since they seemed a little bit more in tune with that sort of thing, Keia was embarrassingly enough often quite blind to them. She was a historian, not a linguist, but still it wasn't something that she was particularly proud about. The more she let them handle it the less that she had to reveal about her own blindness to shuffling letters about. She was instead looking over one of the other books and frowning, "This isn't complete…" There was some other text being referenced here, that she was certain of. "I'll be right back." She nodded to the rest of the party still lurking at the table, taking the book with her to sort through the shelves.
Embarrassingly enough, Keia failed to notice any of the commotion, while she may have a sword at her hip her one true love lay in books and ancient scrolls. A true sucker for history of all kinds she had been deaf to Piper's plight. It was nothing personal, she was just- Oh my god she had never known that the general had a son, she had always assumed he was the last of his line. That was amazing, she couldn't help but wonder if any other family had gone on to do anything as important... perhaps if she read one more chapter she would find out!
As the human man spoke up Keia turned to him with a smile, "Well! I'm glad you asked!" She wasn't able to completely restrain a light clap of her hands, letting out her bubbling excitement in little sounds. "History is a strong suit of mine, I'm more than happy to help out, I thiiiiink-" She does a quick spin of the room, squinting at titles on the shelves.
"-over here would be a good place to start!"
Keia could barely contain the squeal in her throat as she caught sight of all the books. So many amazingly unedited books, if their benefactor was to be believed. There was so terribly much that she could learn in this room alone, how could she ever get all the notes that she wanted in the limited amount of time that they had available? What was a historian to do? With an affectionate sigh she ran her hands over the books, putting some distance between her and the rest of the party so her search wouldn't overlap with anyone else and began her search. Though she was certainly keeping her eye out for anything that might be useful for Osirion history as well, important loyalties and all that.
Keia could hardly contain herself, taking all her effort not to hop down the steps after Feona. Though, unlike the other halfling woman she wasn't looking for traps, she was examining the doors themselves, looking for any hints or tips about what might lay beyond them.
She wasn't dumb enough to go opening them yet, no matter how excited that she was, until she had a better feel for what kind of defenses they had down here.
At the sound of the moving bookcase Keia pulled her head out of the fireplace and look around, soot puffing off of her hair in the process. Oh. Well. That too I suppose. She muttered to herself as everyone got situated and prepared to delve into the secrest of the library. The halfling did her best to puff the soot out of her hair with one hand while the other was reaching for the magical card that she had been given. Cheerfully she tucked it under a couch cushion and, sure enough, there she was. It even got a bit of her personality right, considering the image was leaning back against the arm of the couch with her legs stretched out and her boots on the floor. Not a terrible re-creation. Gawsh wasn't illusion magic just fascinating? Satisfied with the image she turned to her companiosn by the secret door, giving a nod and stepping carefully into the hallway far enough that she could try to look down the stairs.
It was so terribly difficult to keep her mouth shut while the poor library attendant blink in confusion at Arvyx and his little speech about proper Taldorian law, but she managed well enough. Particularly as he was leading them through the library proper. ”Fascinating things, library books, they end up with so many little signs of love.” She babbled, before launching into a story about a rare edition of Osirion’s Sands that had been signed by the author herself and had a thumbprint in it she swore up and down belonged to one of the Sages. Really libraries were just fascinating things, weren’t they? When they did make it to the little room Keia was immediately gone, whatever Tobias might have to say completely lost on her as she browed the shelves with interest. Rare books. Rare books. She was so excited she was hoping from one leg to another even when she was standing still. Of course that didn’t stop her from glancing over her shoulder at Arvyx once she heard Tobias leave and close the door behind. ”Where did you say you got your Taldorian Law Degree?” She asked with a sly smile, winking at him. And then Tugo spoke up and reminded her that they were on an actual mission and she should probably help in searching the room. With a vague sigh and the fact that she wouldn’t get to read every book in the room she turned her attention to the fireplace instead. Fireplaces were always suspicious. Search Fireplace:
Keia stood patiently as the invitation was presented and the feline was dealt with. Although her patience was almost entirely because she was too distracted by the books she could see just beyond, so many fascinating books with so much potential information. If this was what she could see just beyond the door then she could only imagine what might be lurking in the hidden sections of the library. If this was the kind of jobs the Society was going to send her on then she couldn't complain a whole lot. However she couldn't entirely surpress a giggle from watching the cat sit and look at the librarian attendant with boredom. "A most noble feline." It was said entirely with respect, mind you, he was very clearly a well behaved feline without a doubt, she had to respect that. But it was a touch silly watching a lion boredly tolerate being told to sit by an academy librarian.
If they were supposed to dress the part, no one told Keia. She had dressed for an afternoon in the library, in deerskin slacks and comfortable boots and her typical leather vest. Her hair was pulled back into a bun, and her ever-present rapier hung from her hip where it belonged. She stared up at the Kith with awe, fascinated by all the people and the grand setting. She followed inside in silence, her mind too busy running around trying to remember everything she knew.
Since Arvyx seemed to know the way, and Keia rather liked and trusted the eccentric man once she had forgiven the slip up with the mercenary bit, she followed him along. Her ears, however, were focused on the music, automatically trying to decide if she recognized it and where it was from. Identify Music:
"Quite the event it would seem," Keia chimed in, "Perhaps we might even find ourselves with more than just two hours to search, wouldn't that be lovely. Lingering to look over literary logs of long forgotten lore?" She glanced at Arvyx and the rest of the group furtively. Probably best not to ask how long she had been thinking about that one.
"I am a historian not some vagabond sellsword, thank you!" The little magus protested Arvyx's comment, the joke of it apparently going right over her head. Not that going over her head was a difficult thing to do at a scrawny three feet in height, but we digress. "Right, I suppose that was a bit much to hope for." She turned back to Muesello with a light shrug, reaching out and taking the card to tuck it safely into the breast pocket of her vest. "Here's hoping for a quiet day at the library, yes?" She offered her companions a friendly smile, despite knowing that if this were a quiet job they wouldn't need the Pathfinder Society to be able to complete it. She could always hope.
"Oh! Oh yes certainly." Keia snapped out of her reverie when the other Halfling woman called her by name. She had been very, very lost in her own thoughts about the potentials of a hidden library. An unaltered library, even. Keia may not have been so open with her allegiances as some of those present, but the possibility of maps and details and lost histories of the Osirian Pharoahs. Oh there was so much possibility, so much lost history, Keia couldn't help but be mesmerized by the potential. She was not so foolish as the gnome to openly admit any ulterior motives she might have as they ventured into the depths of the secret vaults. "A single secret volume in a great vault of secret volumes is something like a single sand in the desert no?" She couldn't imagine a secret and forbidden vault would be quite as neatly kept as the rest of the public sections of the library would be. There would be no point to neatly keep books that weren't supposed to be seen. "Does this mystery patron have any idea where to look?"
Not a word the woman said really made it through to Keia as she made her way down the hall, the little woman was completely oblivious to anything but the tapestries themselves. Tapestries were a fascinating way to make history and decorate palaces in one fell swoop, and many of them recorded long forgotten details of important events. It was just a pity that the woman was moving so quickly that the Halfling historian couldn't examine them closer. "Was that the Treaty of the Wildwood?" the words were out before she could stop them, her head turned back over her shoulder at one of the tapestries that they had passed. Oh how she would love to pause and get a better look at it, (Had that been a map in the background? Oh to compare it to modern day borders!) but it was already a touch difficult to keep up when you were generally on the short side, catching up was entirely too bothersome. She was on a job after all; she had to keep some amount of professionalism. |
