The Vagrant's Tale - Ch. 30

"And once in Dulsnik,
This land's capital,
All that was now left
Was a book to pull.

Yet that library's
Secret most foul,
Was such to even
Make the saints scowl!"

- Excerpt from the "The Ballad of Jysalef" as Written by Gulosc the Bard

Chapter 30: "Truth Like a Brick"

It had only been the passage of a few hours time, after they had departed the site of the most recent skirmish between Jysalef Soresh and those whom - in the name of Draezooh'nyawc, wished to extract revenge upon him - before the travelling quartet at long last reached the capital city of Dulsnik. It was within the walls of this once mighty city where could be found the Grand Library of Corsinthia, wherein the former soldier intended to finally take the stupid book and at last rid himself of the foolish scholar's errand. Whatever Tallus Osmaard intended to do with the accursed tome after that was none of his concern; after all, he was simply the errand boy that could ill afford to take the chance the idiot was only half mistaken in regards to God's oracular message.

Actually, even though he greatly despised that cowardly little sot - whom had burdened him this particular errand of parcel retrieval – he was presently relieved to have some sort of meaningful interaction to undertake. His recent effort to engage in polite discourse with the priestess from Skrande had - much to his befuddlement and chagrin – quickly terminated when the woman inexplicably burst out into tears. As for Terus Kyreon - the ward Jysalef had long now been instructing, at the behest of a fallen friend - the young lad was at the time too preoccupied in conversation, containing a seemingly nigh on equal dearth of luck, with the curiously fey pink-haired Latte.

As he strode forth into his nation's Grand Library, an impressive and massive structure erected during a glorious former age, Jysalef could not help but to take notice of the sentries standing guard outside the famous building with trained attack feldwops held in check by chain-leashes; even if the bulk of the kingdom's army had all but dissolved away at the end of the aborted campaign to educate the Skrandonese people, royally funded security inside the city of Dulsnik itself was still very much a reality. It was for this reason that Jysalef breathed a sigh of relief at the foresight, especially in light of recent events back in Kyosem, that had inspired him to insist to Reoisce'aihr that she would simply have to wait until well after he had absconded with the Arcanum of Jasmodeus ere she completed her suicidal notion of entering into the capital's walls. For his own assurance that she would not jump the runner's mark whilst he was within conducting the scholar's foolish business, his ward had been left behind to both protect and detain the cyan-haired priestess until his return.
Although Jysalef Soresh had always known of the possibility that trying to remove a book such as the Arcanum of Jasmodeus from his country's capital might be met with some sort of malevolent resistance, the impasse that he confronted inside the Grand Library was most certainly not one that he ever imagined would possibly transpire.

"I have made a greatly magnanimous effort to be patient with you – both telling and showing every last possible proof of my claim's validity, all the way down to the very signet ring of the great sage Miran Via himself – and yet still ye do naught but waste my time with evasive claims that it would be utterly impossible to tell me where I might find the tome!" proclaimed a most profusely irked Jysalef as he – with a wildly twitching rage filled eye – held the cowering librarian against a stone column with the tip of his sword. "I assure you, I have recently had to bear witness to a bevy of ordeals which have utterly sapped any last ounce of patience I might ever have possibly once had; so you would do well to think wisely before you proceed to test it anymore, at least unless you happen to find yourself in a hurry to meet his great divineness upon this day!"

The auburn-haired librarian – of whom the ex-soldier was currently attempting to shake down with the full force of his impatient fury – sweated profusely as she eked out her stuttered response, "I… I'm s-so sorry, sir, b-but I c-couldn't show you w-where that book w-was even if K-King Thaeyul himself p-personally ordered me t-to do so."

"And why, pray tell, in the name of all that is holy upon the lord's great creation of Theria wouldst that happen to be!" screamed out Jysalef vehemently into the face of the terrified Corsinthian woman, no longer caring that such loudness would surely attract the attention of the feldwop wielding guards stationed outside.

"Because," squeaked out the nearly petrified caretaker of the library's books, "e-even if your c-claims, and that r-ring on you s-seem to be legit, s-sir, the f-fact of the m-matter is that the b-book was never y-yet returned since it w-was loaned out to M-Miran Via from the c-controlled collection!"

As a sudden awareness swept horrifyingly across the vagrant swordsman's countenance, thanks to his being metaphorically slammed in the gut with a new piece of truth like a brick sailing straight through a closed window, Jysalef Soresh allowed the nearly hysterical women to drop unceremoniously to the ground as he immediately turned to find a window for himself to hopefully sail through as well. Already in the background he could hear the heavy panting of the excited attack feldwops as their masters lead them into the library to investigate the source of all that commotion, and he most certainly did not want to hang around long enough to have one of them set tearingly upon his personage. After all, the horrid facts that he now grasped were already doing more than well enough a job of viciously disemboweling himself without the faintest tinge of mercy; metaphorically speaking, anyways.