Research

Great Library of Orb

Six months before landfall in Arcadia

Sir Zane nodded his thanks to the librarian who deposited another handful of dusty old tomes and charts in the table in front of him. He decided to ignore the rolling of her eyes as she wiped her dirty hands on her brown robes that marked her as a follower of Orestes ans and acolyte of the Great Library of Orb.

The woman turned and walked away leaving the Knight to whatever foolish research he was doing, hoping that he did not call on her again, for books, long forgotten buried in the oldest, dustier parts of the building.

The broad daylight did not reach the room he was in. Instead, it was the hanging lights above his table that lit it and the books scattered around. The large room was filled with murmurs and whispers that floated, above the heads of other patrons, mostly students and professors, to the large domed roof.

Nothing was ever truly silent in a large library. There was the constant low footsteps, the constant scratch of quill on paper, the constant flicker of pages. Silence was never attained, not while restless souls, thirsty for knowledge, walked and sat among the secrets and ideas long unuttered. For what silence there was in the library, as everything and everyone was restless, it was almost suffocating in the atmosphere.

Sie Zane looked down at some of the tomes that made mention of the things he wanted to learn about the mythical land of Arcadia. Books like 'The Shipbuilders' by Tristaine An'me, 'Lloth Mystra's Teachings' by mistress Elimini, 'The Skullbound Climb' by Grindar Vivetik. Half blind theories, rambling myths, crazy history from primordial times, all claimed a great continent existed across the Sea of Storms.

The old Knight ran his fingers across his tiring eyes and sighed. Maybe this had been a bad idea. Maybe he should concentrate on what he knew to be real. Like the others selected for this suicide journey...