XII. In Which Odyleon Does It Himself [GM Tisiphone]

[Odyleon]

OOC: I timestamped this in Early Summer because this event is referenced in several other threads as happening now and there would be no logical reason for it not to happen. Unfortunately RL held me back, but I've been meaning to do this for a long time. Please tell me if I need to edit, though.

The Enchanted Wood was acquired here

Early Summer, Era XI in the Age of the Darkening
Villa Meiers

The very word 'villa' had little to do with this particular house, though. Villa Meiers had cost as little as 3,750 Crowns, less than even Ody's three-room hovel in the Domicilium (would he ever be able to step into that hovel once more? A question best left for higher beings to ponder over). And a very peculiar house at that, which explained the relatively low cost, a building consisting of three rooms and lined up against the very walls of Vers. Upon entering, one would see a modestly furnished sitting room. From there, a visitor would be able to access a common room with a kitchen on either side, and a small bed-chamber where the Human would sometimes spend the darkening when he was not involved in some weird adventure.

There was a cellar underneath the house, which could be accessed through a trapdoor near the front (and only) entrance; the cellar itself being what Ody had bought the house for. About as spacious as the building itself, it was meant to be an Alchemical laboratory, though at the present time, it was merely a sad, empty, lonely cellar – with the exorbitant cost of Alchemical equipment these brightenings, the dilemma was pretty much a 'lab versus food' one.

A patch of land, measuring about fifty feet in either direction with the house in the very middle, completed Ody's real estate. Well, at least it was real. Hardly a king's abode, but the quirky Problem Solver had yet to welcome a guest into his house, with the exception of a messenger from Demios Island, carrying bad news of course. Like any self-respecting Alchemist, he knew better than to judge his property by its looks – Villa Meiers' true worth lay not in what it looked like, but in what could be done with it.

And Odyleon Q. Meiers stepped into his house one fateful brightening, returning from an exhausting, excruciating and exasperating expedition in Medonia, but extolling the results of his experience! Excuse the allitteration.

Dark eye bags highlighting his spirited pitch black eyes, the widest grin a Human face was capable of producing, numb legs from the long brightenings spent sitting, in total stillness, within the Enchanted Glade near Medonia; such was the person who pushed the unadorned oaken door open, wielding a precious rod of Enchanted wood with delicate fingers, obsessed with the prospect of damaging the unique item.

"Home, open thyself to me, for I am back, victorious!" he announced in pure euphoria after having secured the item in a drawer "I have been waiting for this... for so long..." The loyal mount, Mr. Galloper, witnessed his master's little show through the window, tilting his head every now and then. "Rejoice, chair! And you too, old table, creak out loud in jubilation! Make my deeds immortal through epic verses, you forks and knives and spoons, let your metallic tinging reach out to the Outer Planes!"

And then he dropped himself on the bed and slept for twenty candlemarks straight.

***

Well, the real challenge began here and now. Ody read and re-read and read again the notes he had taken at the Balet'hos library before setting out to Medonia – this was just too crucial to allow himself to fail because of some silly detail buried somewhere between the lines.

"How would you go about constructing an Arcane Pentacle, Mr. Galloper?" the Human asked casually, not really expecting an answer. Mr. Galloper would not help him, for he didn't have a Staff of Arcana himself. "It's essentially a circle on the floor, which I have to divide into five and eight sections. It won't be hard to draw the circle – I reckon even a piece of chalk or charcoal and some thread would do the trick – a visit to Ludwig's trade post and I'd be all set. Which brings me to the question – how do I find out where North is? Or Majora and Melora's alignment for that matter?"

Frustration crept through Ody's usually gentle features, the Journeyman pacing back and forth across the near-empty room. "Why does everything have to be so complicated? Why, oh why?" Eventually, he realized that not only was his complaning a breach of the spiritual tenets of Alchemy; it was a total waste of time, as well. No matter how hard he looked for an answer within his own house, he wouldn't find it there. 'Good things come to those who seek' rang Master Alchemist Vagrid's voice in his mind, and Ody decided that seek he would, indeed.

"Look after the house while I'm away, Mr. Galloper" he ordered to the Friesian horse, bundling the instruction with a smile to make it less of a command and more of a favor. The horse could do little besides standing before the closed door, though. Ody was ever reluctant to leave the Staff even for a moment, and before leaving Villa Meiers, he planted a Sentinel spell there to be able to keep a watchful eye over the precious rod.

Where was he going? To the Imaden School of Higher Learning, of course. He needed someone knowledgeable about the motion of the heavenly bodies and their eternal swinging around. The world called these people, Astronomers. And luckily, Ody knew for sure, being a Facultie Scientia student himself, that the Imaden had a staff member who taught exactly that subject – an Astronomer, that is.

Hurrying himself down the long corridors and halls that by this time he knew all too well, the Problem Solver did not require the receptionist's assistance. He merely looked for the right plaque on the right door, and this was none other than one Master Arin, Astronomer. It was beyond this door that the aspiring Staff-owner would find an answer, and such an answer he elicited with a loud knock on the door, crossing his fingers and hoping the scholar was not attending to some student at that particular time.

[Nimh]

ooc: sorry I took so long I had no intentions of leaving you high and dry for this length of time

ic:
Around Odyleon, the halls were in full swing. A few students bustled by, either on their way to classes or off to take a break and relax for the day. One teacher, his arms loaded up with books and papers, graced Odyleon with a quick smile and a nod as Odyleon waited for a response to his knock.

"Come in! Come in!" a voice finally beckoned from within, the heavy door muffling it slightly, but even still it was obvious through the tone that whoever had uttered the words were more than likely distracted or busy with something. It was more than enough of an invitation to bring the self-proclaimed Problem Solver into the den of the astronomer.

Young Master Arin hovered over his desk at the time, his body bent over a scroll that was weighted down at either side with the aid of two pieces off of his desk: a paper weight shaped to look like the two moons side-by-side and the glass ink-well from which his feathered quill pen protruded. Even with the light pouring in through the open windows--a slight, summer breeze wafting in and stirring the edges of the scroll--Arin had lit a candle and set it to left corner of his desk, the little bud of light softly flickering from side to side with each gentle shift of the air. The young man had not deigned to look up as the door was pushed open and merely dragged a finger down the length of the article in front of him as if searching for something. "They swear it's there, but I don't see it," Arin announced, a red glow of disappointment coloring his face as he leaned away from the scroll, his hands planted firmly on his narrow waist. "What good does it do me if I can't see it?"

Shaking his head, he glanced over at Odyleon. "Can you see a hummingbird in these stars anywhere? Nevermind, I think they're just pulling my leg," he muttered, snatching the ink well and quill off one side of the scroll. The document immediately rolled over to meet it's other half and Arin proceeded to lift the paper weight, allowing both rolled sides to connect. Rolling the document back up, his blue-tinged eyes peered over the tallish young man that had come into his office. "So, what can I do for you today, hmm?" Brown brows lifted and his mouth pursed together slightly as he struggled with the scroll. Finally he had the thing rolled up tightly. He grabbed the tube that belonged to the paper and shoved the map of the stars into i. Bottling it up, he plunked it on his desk without much ceremony.

[Odyleon]

OOC: No worries, I know how hard it is to be a GM. Take your time!

Seeing young Master Arin in action, ruling over a room that looked more like a battlefield, researching obscure notions on some parchment and indulging in all kinds of ruminations while doing so – this was all very familiar to Odyleon Q. Meiers; indeed, one could replace Astronomy with Alchemy, the room with a lab, and the net result would be strikingly similar to his Alchemy classes with Vagrid Haldir. It was a wonder that the Cether Alchemist's hair had not turned white after those lessons; or perhaps the Master just dyed it black.

Then, Arin parted from his fruitless studies, looking for a bird among the stars... while the meaning of his words may have been crystal clear to the average Allerian, it was not so to this Problem Solver, who knew nothing about constellations except that they existed. That and it took a great deal of fantasy to connect a join-the-dots figure to the names given to them. To Ody, a hummingbird was a hummingbird and the chances of spotting one on a starmap were slim to say the least, what with their tendency to be three-dimensional. The Human had no time to indulge in such philosophy, though, for when he realized he had not prepared even a simple speech to win the Astronomer to his cause, it was already too late. He would have to improvise something.

"Um, err, Serale, Master Arin" Ody began – so far so good. No mistakes yet. Arin was indeed his name, he had double-checked it. "I am truly sorry to disturb you and let me assure you, I will only take a few minutes of your time." He wanted to add something along the lines of 'I never thought Ornithology was a branch of Astronomy', but thankfully the line didn't make it to his tongue.

"My name is Odyleon Q. Meiers, and I'm a Mage. A Journeyman Mystic – and no, before you ask, I'm not looking for directions. Well, actually I am, but not directions to the Facultie Arcana or some other building. It's more like... directions to the stars and moons of Telath that I need, and I was hoping I could get some assistance from an expert Astronomer such as yourself." A terrible sense of direction was one of Ody's trademark weaknesses; one could argue that when travelling, it was Mr. Galloper leading his master and not the other way around.

"As you may know" he continued, his speech getting less clumsy as he regained his self-confidence "there is a ritual that Magi of my level can perform to craft an item known simply as Staff of Arcana. In most cases, trying to apply for Master status without one is frowned upon". His eyes shone of a special light as he mentioned the Staff, and not only because of its undeniable power. Mostly, it was because, for the first time in his life, Ody felt he was striving for something tangible, within his reach; building the very foundations to his dream.

"However, the ritual relies heavily on symbolism, and especially on notions of Astronomy that most Magi, myself included, cannot grasp at all." he confessed, feeling a little uncomfortable under the Master's inquisitive gaze. "Things like proper lunar alignment and cardinal points, to be calculated with sufficient accuracy. Needless to say, the chances of getting these alignments and coordinates right without assistance are next to none. So I was hoping that an Astronomer of reknown such as yourself, Master Arin, could perhaps provide me with the required tools and the knowledge to utilize them – of course, I'd just be borrowing them for the duration of the rituals..."

Ody remembered that such tools did exist, for he had come across one a few eras earlier in Port Constantine, during his first adventure worth mentioning. That Stone, a relic, the object of his quest, would always point at the same star, up there in the sky. He had spent a whole darkening looking at the stone, stranded on a little island called Lago. Certainly items like that one had to be part of Arin's inventory. "I'm not expecting you to help me out of philantropic goodness, Master Arin, though I won't complain if you do" he smiled to seal his speech "I can pay for your services, or provide my own services to you in return, if there's anything you need."

And with that, the Problem Solver had covered it all. He drew a deeper breath and let his arms fall to his sides rigidly as he awaited a reply from the man.

[Nimh]

Arin smiled politely as Odyleon introduced himself, his mouth opening and closing several times throughout the young man's speech, as if he wished to impart some wisdom and then thought better on it. The fact that Ody just might be lost had actually crossed his mind, just as a smart-mouthed, if moderately scholarly, response to Odyleon's question about directions to the stars and the moons flashed through his mind before he thought better on it. He did not, after all, want to scare potential students away no matter how much they left themselves open for some sort of sarcastic remark.

Finally, when it seemed Odyleon had finished with his rather sloppy attempts to explain precisely why he needed the help of the young astronomer, Arin released a long breath and chuckled softly. "Well, what would you mage-folk do if we weren't around? I think you'd keel over and have a heart attack, that's what I think. But, of course, who am I to make judgments around here?" He pressed his lips together and smiled, leaving the statement open for the mystic to figure out himself. "Well, I'm certainly not going to waste your time, and mine, hopping around unimportant matters, so let's just get right down to business, shall we?"

The smile washed away and he regarded the tall man in front of him with the blandness of a teacher in the middle of an exam. "I know exactly the sort of things you're looking for, so let's get to it." Arin popped open a drawer to his desk and rummaged through the disarrayed objects, teetering as he leaned sideways to peer into the small cavity. The tip of his tongue poked through clamped lips as his hand reached into the very depths of his drawer. "Ah!" he announced, as if coming upon some new philosophy previously undiscovered, and pulled out a round device with an arrow and a spinning disc just beneath the arrow. "A compass. You want a compass, Mister...what was it again? Mayflower? Anyway... I hope you know what a compass is. It's relatively simple, if you don't." He stepped around his desk, the disc held slightly away from him so Odyleon could get a good look at it. "You see that arrow? No matter what, it'll always show you which direction north is. You see the red line marked on the disc? That's north. The way you're facing is indicated by the arrow. Whichever way the red line is on the disc, that's where north is. Understand?"

He held the compass out to Odyleon. "It's one of my old ones. You can borrow it...or keep it. I can get more from the school." He shrugged. Once he had handed over the implement, he turned to a set of shelves and began rifling through the rolled up sections of parchments. "Now, your second question is a little trickier. The moons are always changing and are rarely ever in the same spot. As the seasons go by, Aeternia, even as the days go by, they're moving. It depends entirely on the month and the season where the fething things are... Now...if I could only find that chart..."

[Odyleon]

It was a good thing that Arin had refrained from making fun of Ody's total ignorance when it came to stars and moons and hummingbirds, for the Problem Solver, while benevolent of character and so much unlike most of his Sphere colleagues – in fact, unlike most power-hungry, scheming Magi in general... he still possessed a tendency to play innocent but memorable practical jokes if provoked. One Miss Efireni, waitress at the Demiosian Leap of Faith Inn, had had it coming, her snobbish ways and general lack of professionalism earning her not tips, but a well-placed Suggestion that had made her drop everything she had been holding. It had been a unique darkening to say the least, and the Human had, among the other things, drunk far more than he should have, Illusion-ified himself into a well-endowed version of Miss Jaali Desseren, chased runaway Cabbits, not to mention riding Mr. Galloper with both of them blind-folded.

"Thanks, Master Arin, I really appreciate it!" he just said as soon as it dawned on him that not only was the scholar helping him right away, he was doing so without even a mention of dinero. Well, maybe he was being a little too hasty about the latter, as Arin could be adding a 'This is, of course, just a sample, if you'd be so kind as to sign this here check please, thank you very much' any time. Anyway, quick help was exactly what the Mage in grey needed above anything else.

And the Astronomer even showed him his compassion... compass. 'What a funny widget' he thought as he accepted it from the young man's hands, weighing it and wondering how it worked, and whether there was some mechanism behind or within it. "I see, Master, it looks like a wonderful invention" he commented, shaking it slightly and tilting it in his long-fingered hands as his ebony eyes explored its details. "A most stubborn arrow, no matter where or when, it only loves North and North alone. This means, I can turn the compass till the red line points the same way as the arrow, and this way I will know where everything is." Poor Ody really needed this additional layer of simplification as he had not yet fully grasped the whole North-South and East-West deal. His geography, at least that of the Telathian kind, was that bad, as he knew the Outer Planes of existance in far greater detail.

"Thank you, never was a gift more appreciated or needed... you see, roads tend to get me to the wrong places, Master Arin." he smiled warmly, revealing his twenty-eight teeth; not really surprisingly, he would never grow wisdom teeth. He pocketed the device and patted the pocket thereafter so as to ensure it was there and safe. Who knew if Arin was mistaking Ody's eccentric demeanor for utter and total stupidity – others had, but the Problem Solver actually enjoyed being underestimated, it was his favorite weapon in a way, his lifestyle.

The moons had to be trickier. Like, for example, some people were not even sure whether Majora was a sun or a moon, and prior to researching the Staff of Arcana Ody himself thought Majora was a decent name for a girl, or a food. Whimsical beings, them moons; and by this point, it had surely become apparent how he tended to label everything with human traits. He was born a Human, and as such he would measure the world through Human spectacles, a notion further reinforced by the Concordance to Alchemy and the many symbols connecting the world and the self.

'Maybe I should help him find the chart' he pondered, stroking his beardless chin with one hand. Now this was a task where he could redeem himself after such gigantic displays of ignorance. If the Astronomer was to browse through his entire collection of scrolls and open them all, one by one, the search would be a long one, and seeing as Arin was, truth be told, working for free, it might even stifle his motivation. Ody would not allow that!

"Please, leave this to me, Master" he announced brightly "But don't believe what you see – nothing is going to happen to your papers." This time around, the Adept actually had a plan. It had been a long time since he had seen this particular trick in action, performed by Mistress Risa Galilie as an example of the Reshape Mana technique, and Ody had wondered if it would eventually come in handy at all, but now seemed just the perfect opportunity for it.

Entering Clara as he did regularly, the Mystic gathered his Vis and the Ara and with them drew from the Essence of Psionics, then Channeling it back to the Material Plane as Mana. Then, he went about shaping it as he would have shaped one of the most basic spells of the Initiate, Invisibility, but with several Reshaping twists that an Initiate would not have been able to pull off. For one, it was meant to target objects instead of people, but that was merely the way the spell was taught, the textbook way. A person was made of Ara, and so was a scroll – no difference at all. More importantly, the Altered Mana was diluted and spread over all the scrolls in such a way as to make them partially see-through rather than totally invisible.

He carefully dropped several layers of Mana coating at different distances from the objects, so that the Master would be able to discern the drawings better if he brought his eyes closer to the scroll. No need to open the tubes then, and even if covered by some other parchment, Arin would spot the moon chart with far greater ease. "... and it's Meiers, by the way." he murmured as he released the spell of Transparency, ready to Dispel the whole thing as soon as the scholar was done with the scrolls. He would keep Mayflower in mind, though. If he ever needed to make up yet another last name, that is.

[Nimh]

The look on Arin's face was a mix between amusement and "hmm..ookay" as he listened to Odyleon's various ramblings about his own deductions and simplifications concerning the instrument that Arin had just handed over. It wasn't that the astronomer wasn't used to odd persons. There were plenty of those around the Imaden (it seemed as if learning did that to any given individual). But Odyleon seemed...well...odder than most. But then he had also described himself as a mystic and mystics were very...different...from other people. Perhaps it was all that time that spent mucking around with others' minds. Maybe making them a little off was the Gods' way of turning the tables. But, regardless, here he was, stuck with a man that needed to reiterate Arin's instructions.

He smiled politely as Odyleon thanked him and continued to rifle through his various scrolls in search of the one that was needed. Blasted thing had to be here somewhere. Scrolls didn't just up and walk away, after all. Maybe someone had taken it... He was vaguely aware that Odyleon was speaking to him. He merely thought the poor, vague mystic was talking to himself or rambling on about the compass he now possessed. Odd man, truly. Then...rather unexpectedly...he found himself staring at a collection of just-barely-there scrolls. He froze first, then jerked back and narrowed his eyes on Odyleon. "Did you just do that?" His voice squeaked, his eyes wide, his cheeks a little flushed...with shock or irritation? What in Ioannes' name happened to his scrolls?

Clearing his throat, he pulled on the edges of his tunic and mumbled something about blasted mages and their unnecessary pranks. Someone needed to discipline those buggers and tell them they didn't run the place. Well...they did. Here, anyway.

Arin sighed and redirected his attention to the scrolls, deciding that since they were still visible, however faintly, that he could still go on with his task. A slightly more pleasant look dawned over his face as he realized the insides of the scrolls were easier to read this way. "Ah... Will you look at that," he murmured, picking up a scroll and squinting at the vague print. Too many words. Not it.

After lifting up several scrolls and examining them, he finally found the one he wanted. The inside contained more pictures than words. Circles, half circles, barely there circles, and a variety of different lines that probably didn't mean much to anyone but an astronomer. "Here we are, here we are!" he announced, waving the thing around. He blinked and smiled as the scroll slowly came back into full-visibility. "Very nice," he murmured, seeming to have gotten over his initial frustration. "Shall we continue?" He glanced at the mage and gestured for him to get a look at the scroll as Arin unrolled it and spread it across his cluttered desk. Several items kept the map upraised in places, but he didn't bother to readjust it. He clamped the edges of the scroll down with two paper weights and straightened as he examined the sheet in front of him.

"As you'll see, here are two of the moons: Majora and Menora." They were both clearly marked throughout their designated orbits as they grew from large orbs into small crescents and then their "non-existant" phases. Three of these orbs surrounded a smaller dot, which was labeled Telath, made smaller as to emphasize the shapes of the moons and not Telath. "Majora is, of course, the larger one...and the brighter one, too. Menora is, well, obviously smaller." The professor was clearly falling into teacher mode very quickly. "You've probably noticed them. There's one other moon others rarely notice. That one is known as Chaendar." He tapped his finger on a third marked circle. "Also important, I'll assume, in taking note of the alignment of the moons...although, I never understood any of that arcanic mumbo-jumbo." He gestured vaguely, cleared his throat. "Anyway. This is Majora in its current state." He pointed to one of the orbs and made a note next to it. "You'll see that the drawings of Menora vary from that of Majora's current state. This is Menora in its current mode. And...this Chaendar." He pointed out each moon in their current state. Each varied slightly from the other, as made since given that both were in different places in the sky. "Does that answer your question?"

ooc: I'm hesitant to assign a given shape to each moon considering...there's really no info about astronomoy anywhere.

[Odyleon]

The Problem Solver frowned ever so slightly at Arin's initial ungratefulness – how could people not appreciate a quick, Arcanic solution to a slow, mundane problem was totally beyond him. But the Astronomer's argument was flawed in more ways than one, mostly because Ody's oddity dated well before his learning Mysticism or even his learning what Arcana was. He had always been the odd baby, then the odd toddler, the odd teenager, and then the odd young adult. Needless to say, though, it had only grown more extreme over time, and especially ever since he had left his family's house in the countryside. Free to express his personality as best he wished, he had become quite... unique, at least when he could afford to be himself, his true self. He knew how to be terribly serious when he needed to. It's just that being serious bored him.

The way Arin tried to shake the Mana off the chart was rather brutal. Thankfully the crafty Human was there to Dispel the thing, for no matter how hard the Master tried, a hand could only do so much against an Arcana weave. As promised, there was no lasting consequence on the charts – it would have been very bad karma otherwise. Ody watched intently as the man pinned the thing down, a jungle of symbols on it, most of them making little sense to him until the Master deigned to provide an explanation.

"Ohh, I see now. When Majora and Melora occupy the same place in the sky, that's what alignment is!" It was as if an anvil had been taken off of Ody's back, the revelation striking his mind as he saw the light. So far he had been relaying the word he had read on the treatise without actually grasping its meaning. He definitely needed to sign up for some Astronomy classes in the future – at the present time, he was a walking, talking bag of pure shame. 'But wouldn't they crash or something if they are in the same place? Oh no, no no, different distances. Right. Makes sense.'

The notion of the third moon, Chaendar, entered his left ear and went out of the right. He simply did not need it, the instructions did not mention anything about it, and they were already complex enough as it was... but the Problem Solver could see some progress being made now, and it stirred him onwards. He actually required but a tiny fraction of the knowledge he was being given, and time was of the essence – who knew, perhaps the earliest time window for a ritual may be coming up in a few brightenings. They occurred monthly, after all.

"This, like, opens up a whole new world to me" he confessed. While reasonably proud, Ody never pretended expertise when it just was not there, most of the time anyways. "But from what I've picked up, it seems that this chart can tell when and how long the moons occupy a given position in the sky. In fact, I just need a few names and numbers. The dates when Majora and Melora's positions are fully... aligned... so that they appear as one. If what my sources state is correct, this should happen once a month."

Pale hands clad in fingerless gloves reached into a recess of his vest and pulled out a piece of parchment. The front side of it, written in his barely readable characters, contained Ody's own notes about the rituals, such as the Ikos runes he would be carving on his own hands to bind the Staff to himself; the back was still blank, though, and the Mystic borrowed a quill that would surely be a part of a scholar's workplace.

"I swear by the Oroboros, the Snake that Bites its own Tail, Master Arin, you will have me as your student if I can complete the ritual successfully" he reassured the Astronomer; the man was not working in vain, though Ody's vows naturally had to reflect his eccentric disposition. "But I need accurate dates for the next five alignment periods at the very least... let's make it seven or eight, though, as I might be delayed. Once I have those dates, I can deal with the rest as it's mostly Arcanic... my own field, you see. Oh, and the compass directions where the alignment will take place" he quickly added. This one was more important than it might appear, for the Altar had to be properly illuminated.

The man held the quill in his left, dominant hand, waiting for Master Arin to share his wisdom, an expectant and rather excited look upon his face.

OOC: No problem, it's not very consistent. Other Compendium sources state that Majora is a Sun, for example. The Staff of Arcana writeup says Majora and Melora are twin moons, though, hence same size.

EDIT: My timestamp should have been more accurate. Can it be the very first day of Summer? So you don't have to worry about giving dates that are actually back in time!

[Nell du'Galle]

Arin was listening to Odyleon as he explained the nature of the dates that he required and the position of the aligned moons in the skies on those dates, although there was a definite air of his thoughts being elsewhere as he leaned over the outstretched charts where the movements of the moons were delineated. His finger was tracing the outlines of each lunar pathway in turn, a smile of pleasure tripping the corners of his mouth as he occasionally tapped a pertinent symbol. The swearing an oath to become a student of cosmology, pulled the lips into a momentarily wider smile, but as Odyleon waited with quill grasped in hand, Arin straightened up and cleared his throat, ready to bestow the wisdom that had been sought.

"You are correct in the fact that the alignment of the moons occurs once a month, and for this month and the following eight periods the dates for the alignment are as follows," he answered, with the air of one who revelled in the certainty that the information about to be given was accurate. "The twenty second darkening of Cryxatum; the twenty fourth darkening of Aperitus; the twenty fifth darkening of Optia, the twenty second darkening of Ioannes; the twenty fifth darkening of Imperos; the twenty third darkening of Junctior; the twenty sixth darkening of Kalendryas; the twenty first darkening of Immanis; and the twenty second darkening of Ponutis." The dates were intoned with gravity and at a pace that allowed sufficient time for Odyleon to make notes, a gentle pause after each date being filled with the scratch of quill on parchment.

"As for the compass direction of the alignment, that is a more tricky thing to predict with accuracy, for despite studies into the paths of the moons, they are whimsical bodies who dislike adhering to our maps," Arin continued, with an affectionate sigh. "However do not despair, for with a little preparation before each significant date, you will be able to predict the position of the alignment from wherever you may be in the Empire. It is a simple process, that only requires a sheet of parchment and some ink. Four or five darkenings beforehand, in the early evening when the moons begin to rise, choose an observation point and look towards Majora, the larger and brighter of the two moons. You will probably want to choose the candlemark that this ritual will begin, I suppose. Any how, check the compass point of Majora at this time and note it down. Next, you need to sketch the skyline that lies under the moon, including any tall trees or significant landmarks. To measure how high Majora is in the sky, choose a landmark underneath the moon, and stretch out a steady arm with a clenched fist. Place one fist on top of the other to measure how many fists there are from the top of the landmark to the moon. Then note on your sketch the position of the moon, making a note of your measurements. If you do this each evening before the date of alignment, you will be able to plot the course of Majora and so attain an accurate prediction of where the aligned moons will be in the sky on the darkening of your ritual."

Arin cocked his head to one side to check Odyleon's reaction to this basic but easy way to predict the position of the moons. Requiring no fancy instruments, or special apparatus, some new scholars were disappointed to be told to use their fists to measure the height of the moons in the skies, although of course for more advanced students, more complicated calculations were undertaken that didn't use this method. However, Odyleon was not such a student. "Of course the only drawback to this method is if the skies are cloudy, yet the climate in Vers is most often favourable, so I think you will have little trouble."

[Odyleon]

To say the Problem Solver's handwriting was irregular would not do it justice. In the far distant future, archeologists would have trouble even identifying the jumble of almost random strokes, each letter in the alphabet looking different virtually every time he used it, as the product of a human mind. To glance at Ody's written words was to to experience the true essence of chaos.

Cryx 22; 24 Aper, Optia 25, Io twenty-2. 25 Imp [hope done by now]; Junc 23, XXVI Kalen... 21 Immanis, Ponutis 22, as for the compass'

At this point the Mage realized that Arin was no longer reciting months and dates, and his peculiar note-taking came to an abrupt end. The Astronomer had in fact given him nine dates instead of the eight he had promised, so that Ody could now enjoy the luxury of skipping a few months in the event of harsh weather. The problem of clouds blocking moonlight from properly illuminating the pentacle had actually crossed his mind before, and he felt confident he would be able to render them invisible, at the cost of a large part of his Vis. But Ody was a strangely lazy person – more exactly, his character followed the laws of inertia and least effort; he was difficult to set into motion but even more difficult to stop.

"Splendid" he voiced his satisfaction as he pocketed the parchment and returned the quill to its proper place. "I'm not too worried about the alignment coordinates, Master Arin; I don't think they are essential to the ritual. It's just that they come in handy if one is to perform it indoors. You know, even walls have ears these brightenings." No-one had even visited the Problem Solver since his buying the house, let alone spied on him; but such were the wonders of Ody-logic. His reason for caution was his plotting as a conspirator against the Thane, but his conspiracy had never come to fruition so far. He had almost forgotten why he wanted to overthrow Sidh and put a far more worthy candidate on his seat (namely, himself). What he remembered was the oath, and a painfully one at that: Never eat cookies again so long as Sidh is His Grace. The oath to Arin was only the latest specimen of a long series.

To become the greatest Mage ever.
To become the greatest Alchemist ever.
To become the greatest Problem Solver ever.
To travel across the planes.

The fact he could not eat his beloved cookies was irrelevant at the moment, having been tricked into swearing yet another oath by the Pondertree in Medonia, which resulted in abstinence from any and all sweets for a full era. Ody was quite liberal with his oaths.

"You have been so much help to me, Master Arin, I'm almost feeling guilty for not taking my Astronomy lessons right now." he beamed cheerfully. Eh, almost. "But I'll let you know how it turned out and then I'll be back for my classes." Ody was a curious person, and so many questions he wanted to ask which had been teasing him since his childhood. Uncle Ilfner had said the moons were made of gold and cheese. But Uncle Ilfner had said many things, including that the Xet had abducted his favorite hen, so Ody had always taken his wisdom with a grain of salt, even when he was only six.

"Have a good brightening, Master, and thanks again" he waved one hand as a parting gesture, nearly knocking one of Arin's precious astrolabes off its shelf as he did so. After Master Vagrid Haldir, the Alchemist, Arin was now the second Facultie Scientia professor to make acquaintance with this unbridled force of nature.

"I'd better buy the material for the Altar now." he mumbled to himself. Knowing himself, it would take several attempts to create a pentacle that did not look like the work of a five years old. His next stop was a little, but well-known shoppe, the Artist's Nook. Ody probably possessed as much artistic inclination as an ostrich, not being able to draw anything better than rigid stick figures. Hopefully a star and a circle would turn out to be within his reach, this time around.

[Nell du'Galle]

The Artist's Nook had not, before occupation, been a particularly prominent building, being a two-story building of indistinguishable gray stone blocks and sandwiched between a pair of two-story buildings of gray stone blocks. This had decidedly changed since newlyweds Gavriella and Nevyn Murasys had purchased the place. A painter, Nevyn had commissioned his Colette Silverleaf school friends to help paint a mural on the outer wall of the first floor level. A flowing, brilliantly shaded scene of musicians playing on upraised stage while painters and poets worked diligently near-by decorated the once plain gray walls. But that was not all that they had painted.

Walking into the shop, if the impending customers were not snagged immediately by the variety of instruments hung and set-up along the wall to their right or by the neat rows of shelves along the left wall containing various supplies for painters, poets, and other such writers, their attention was drawn to the large mural painted behind the polished oak counter that wrapped along the back wall. This mural had only two people, a lutist and a painter. The lutist was a woman with long, bright-blonde hair and pale skin, her eyes shut as she strummed the lute in her hands. She stood beside a dark-haired young man painting at his easel, serenading him as his brush swept over the canvas. The individuals in the painting were particularly carbon copies of the two that alternated between standing behind the counter and walking the floor conversing with their customers, for their friends had done the lovebirds a special privilege by depicting them on their own wall.

It was a quiet moment of the brightening. Nevyn was sat at the counter, his eyes scanning the pages of a leather bound book which contained a list of the various sales that cycle, a small frown creasing a small line between his eyebrowns. The Artists Nook had not been in operation for long and as with all new businesses it was still establishing its niche within the community. A worrying time for entrepreneurs, but the young couple who had begun this venture had youth and optimism on their side. After all, it was the start of the summer, a time of creativity and who knew what artists or musicians might step over the threshold. Gavriella was tidying the display of instruments, humming a ditty under her breath as she worked to create a harmonious presentation, but with one eye on the door to their store for those who might be enticed in to make a purchase.

[Odyleon]

So it was that our man – a man of science, not art (albeit his own science, moving through odd angles) – found himself in a new predicament. His brain had no difficulty grasping the quasi-heretic discipline of mathematics, and had quickly figured that, thanks to the compass, he would be able to divide a circle into five equal sections with relative ease. Unfortunately, rarely could his hand keep up with his brain. Ody possessed a certain clumsiness, partly stemming from his own built, quite on the lithe side, and bones slightly too long and slender, and mostly from a lack of experience. He hated labor of any kind and took subconscious pride in the perfect integrity of his fingers. Ironically, his fingers were among the best parts of him; he could have been a successful artisan, s