Thirteen: Lost day

I used my recall spell to come home to Pelagiad this evening. Ahnassi is still not here, but the comfort of our house is settling my spirits. I levitated to the uppermost battlements of the fort and watched the sunset. I am proud that I resisted the desire to conjure a bow and shoot something... anything.

This morning I returned to Vivec City. Malven has done well at establishing her position in the hall. I was greeted respectfully, but not as the direct authority to give orders, or be feared. I left the hall with my morale high. The crowds in the plazas of the foriegn quarter closed pleasantly around me.

Things continued to go well at Jobasha's Rare Books. I browsed the shelves after exchanging a friendly greeting with the learned Khajiit proprietor and the Ordinator assigned to his shop. The Ordinator is there because Jobasha is outspoken in his decrying of slavery, and his shop is reputedly a meeting place of the Twin Lamps. Jobasha considers it a convenience, having free security services. He has a great many valuable books in his inventory.

In due time the Ordinator gave us an opportunity to share a few words. Jobasha chuckled at my mention of Malven's questioning. "Yes good friend Arvil Bren, the Dunmer asked questions. I was glad the guard was here. She did not seem to wish me well."

I laughed myself. "Well, she did think you were keeping something from her. By the way my good friend I need to know if you were."

"I was, of course. You know we Khajiit love our secrets," he said.

"How well I know good friend, but this is a secret I need you to share," I said.

"Oh, this I will gladly share with Arvil Bren, this secret and another, a secret place." The twitching tail I recognized as friendship, and the excitement of secrets. "I do not have the book you seek, but I have heard of it. I can guess where it may be found. A very secret place indeed, a place I cannot guess how to go."

When I left Jobasha I thought I had made progress. When I reached the offices of the Ordinators in the Hall of Justice I was beginning to have doubts. It did not take long for me to conclude I was against an insurmountable obstacle. The Ordinators have a secret library beneath their offices. There are trapdoors, kept locked. I am well enough liked by the Ordinators that I could invent a pretext to visit their offices. To try opening those trapdoors would lead to death for someone. I could see no way around it.

I spent most of the afternoon in the guild hall. Malven spoke to me briefly, but could see that I was distracted. There was really nothing she needed from me. There was nothing I could think that she could do for me. I transported back to Sadrith Mora and told Skink the situation quickly, then had dinner with the mages there. After dinner I teleported home.

I could walk into the Office of the Watch, concealed in magecraft, and kill everyone in my path. Then I could teleport to safety and offer my services, and the services of the guild, in investigating the hideous crime. I could even, perhaps, justify this as some necessary act in the war on Dagoth Ur. I could be no better than my enemy.

This may be a long night.