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<span class="mu-i">“Well the ‘Night of Three Sisters’ is an awfully dramatic title for a freak celestial event that occurred some three-hundred years ago, wouldn’t you say?”</span> Antoninus chuckles loftily before you can respond. This is a man who has, for all his knowledge, remained nestled in the crib of civilization his entire life. Antoninus has not since the horror that was awakened that calamitous night three centuries ago, he has only read of it in his scrolls. Perhaps he does not entirely believe the reports himself, the Cathagi would probably also consider the Fae to be just another Cantonion folklore myth if they did not have the Deepwood to their east perched on top on of their most profitable territories in the Everwarm waters. <span class="mu-i">“We will have first-hand accounts from the event itself, but as to the science behind it and your request for anything concerning Ardenne in the modern era and more recent centuries, well it would only be prudent of me to manage your expectations there. I must warn you that even during the height of my popularity amongst the scholarly circles, there were halls where one such I was still unwelcome. Your post in the Crescent Palace will open many doors for me in the Athenaeum, but not all.”</span>
It is with no small amount of curiosity that you listen to Antoninus’ account of the plate-armoured sentries cloaked in midnight-blue that patrol the secret upper levels of the Great Library. ‘Prowl’ was the word the scholar used, not patrol. Unlike the Dragon Guard detachment that is posted in the more common areas of the Athenaeum open to the public, these secret halls are patrolled by the faceless soldiers of a separate order with a ruthless and lethal absence of discrimination against unauthorised entry. More than one Athenaeum scholar has met an untimely end regardless of rank thanks to their careless, or daring, venture into the domain of the blue-adorned sentinels.
Without seeing them firsthand it is hard to speculate, but merely from his description you hold some suspicion that these blue-cloaked sentinels are a similar but altogether more formidable version of the animated sentinels utilised by the banished Medusae sorceress you encountered in the Old City. That would suggest that the Medusae Caste commands direct access to those records considered sensitive to the state, or perhaps too controversial for the public or private to read. Any and all knowledge of Ardenne will be of some assistance but if you are seeking something more, vital strategic intelligence or perhaps even a secret weapon to wield against the Deadmen and their masters, gaining access to those guarded repositories sounds anything but straightforward.
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