"How in the black night did I get stuck with researching duty?" Adam grumbled to himself as he tossed another useless book about lost treasure theory aside. He would never have guessed how many books were written that just spewed baseless theory and unconnected thoughts across five-hundred plus pages.
He was always tutored with practical books in his youth. Etiquette, Law, Horsemanship, Survival, his books were full of things that a warrior and King would actually need to know to rule his people well. "Ill-used knowledge is wasted knowledge" as his father would always say. If he didn't plan on becoming a Scholar at the University what use would he have for the Hypothetical Theory of Artificer Study? His eyes hurt as he stared at the still dreadfully tall stack of books on the table besides him. How anyone could enjoy doing this all day was lost on the one-eyed man.
Inside the library there's no real way to tell the passing of time. The windows were all in the front of the large building so once you got away from their halo of light it was all orange flame candles and weird magic orbs that changed color at random along the red light spectrum. Could've anywhere from a half-hour to several hours since Adam and his fellow researchers walked into this dreary place to chase ghost stories and faery tales. His tutors would've kicked his ass had they caught him wasting his time with lost treasure like the Tears of the Ice Queen.
Rubbing his scruffy bearded face he leaned back in his chair, his newly golden eye burned in the presence of magic he now learned, and the fact the Great Library was built of magic sure wasn't helping his focus. He needed some air, getting up he picked his coat up off the chair and began walking, but as he moved the coat something fell out of his pocket. It landed with a soft thud sending up dust motes as it impacted the heavily worn rug. Turning and looking down he remembered the small red book Vel had given him not too long ago. She showed him a passage talking about Tears before she wandered off to do some more research. He had honestly not been paying attention since he couldn't read her note very well in the dark of the library. Picking it up and flipping to the marked pages he scanned it quickly. It talked about an expedition undertaken by an ancient member of the Mountain Father Religion. An Archbishop Ramiel or something as he recalled, as he read the notes over a second time lightning struck his brain. Putting the red book back in his pocket he jumped back towards his pile of unread books tossing them aside frantically as he searched for something.
When the Senior Scribe had been gathering the books he dropped an old leather bound book that looked to be a journal of some kind on the front was a name that started with R it was placed on the table and forgotten about by both Adam and the Scribe. Half a minute later of searching and Adam found the journal. Opening it he followed Vel's notes and found the answer he was looking for. "In the South four Tears have found their final cradles. One found in unification, one in division, one in forgiveness, and the last in submission. Aside from the direction of South which obviously meant around the Dominion the rest was gibberish to the warrior, but it gave them a direction at least. Grabbing the journal and the little red book Vel found Adam moved quickly from the library looking to spread the good news.
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