>>5814689Zith-Zi whistled appreciatively as you passed the complicated gate.
“They don’t want anyone getting in or outta’ this place, huh?” she noted. “Must be some good shit to steal here…”
The goblinness grinned as the two black-clad escorts glowered at her.
“…You know, if you’re inta’ that kidna’ thing.”
You sighed, but couldn’t deny a certain thrill as you were led deeper and deeper into the hidden depths of the Twoer, where you had never before been. Here was the true hart and soul of Hawksong’s magecraft—the place where knowledge beyond the public and scholastic was housed, where secrets were shaped and given form. The aspect of you which hungered for the forbidden and hidden slavered at every peek into the rooms which you passed: rooms housing all manners of strange utensils, rooms in which you heard the whines and cries of unusual animals of mystical and chimerical natures yet unknown.
At the end of this descent lay one room in particular, a round room like an operating theatre in miniature. The walls were not filled with spectators but—being closer and more intimate, were stacked with all manner of implements to cut, pry open, sew or staple shut. They were pristine and silver, and the silvery magelight they reflected cast starlike sparkles down upon the faintly bloodstained table at the centre of the room. This was itself a combination of wood and metal, of leather straps and silvery buckles, atop an adjustable structure of gears and levers which seemed designed to raise and lower the surface, and to tilt it this way and that…
And there stood the Archmage, looking much as she ever did, waiting in silence and stillness.
“Good,” she said simply, looking between you and the Goblin, and sparing a lingering look of some interest for each of your animal companions. “Welcome to your new home.”
“Yeah,” Zith-Zi mused with a toothy grimace, “real homey.”
“Never fear,” she said. “We have produced amenities you should find amenable enough… Save perhaps for a lack of sunlight.”
“Don’t bother me none either way,” Zith-Zi said brazenly, taking one of her eyes and spreading the lids wide. “Nocturnal, ya’ know?”
“Quite,” the Archmage said dryly, and looked to you—almost testingly, you realized, as if gauging your reaction.
“I have a spell for that,” you replied.
She nodded approvingly at that, and gestured to your escorts, who in turn led the pair of you to where you would be staying.
“Oh,” the male mage asked you belatedly, exchanging a look with his female counterpart. “Are you…”
“One room,” the woman asked bluntly, “or two?”
Zith-Zi openly sniggered, nudging you in the ribs as you felt yourself flush.
>You will share a room with Zith-Zi[Will lead to some level of intimacy with Zith-Zi]
>You will each keep your own adjoining room[Your relationship with Zith-Zi will remain platonic]
