Open | Do not fear difficulty.

[pactmarshal]

Who: Trahearne & you!
Which: Journal post/open log
Where: Tree of Stories
What: Now that the Story Eater is taken care of, it's time to look into the next order of business: staying in Songerein.
Warnings: N/A as of now

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> JOURNAL: A Query

Sender: Trahearne
To: All
Subject: Regarding Mirrors.

I am presently researching stories involving mirrors.

If there are any tales from your culture that prominently feature magical mirrors, I would be interested in hearing about them.

Thank you.

> ACTION: The Tree of Stories

[ If you are looking for Trahearne, you will...not find him at the archives, strangely enough.

For these past few days, he has holed himself up in the Tree of Stories, leaving only to get food and to feed his pets. He is scouring every inch of the multiple floors and countless shelves for stories involving magical mirrors, taking into account what others have told him, and what he has discovered on his own. Before long he's surrounded by stacks and stacks of books; he quickly skims through them, then places them in one of many of the other stacks, catergorizing them in a way only he understands. He seems totally lost in his work, oblivious to others talking or making noise.

Towards the latter half of his time spent researching here, he's starting to look...well. Wilted. There really is no better way to put it. His leaves seem to lack their particular shine, and the ones on his head seem to droop lower than they normally do. How long has it been since he went outside...?

Feel free to help him research, or perhaps test out a promising story with him, or even just tell him to take a break. Good luck with that last one, though. ]

Comments

[pactmarshal]

[ Hmm... Very interesting. He was ready to write them off as portals taking the form of mirrors, but that doesn't seem to be exactly the case. Trahearne's response doesn't come right away; he spends a moment or two tapping his pen to his cheek, thinking about dragon energy and such. His specialty, but also something he does not particularly like thinking about. ]

It's a pity you never learned the origins or mechanisms of these mirrors. There seem to be intricacies to their uses and purposes that seem disjointed at first, but I am certain are connected by a common thread once properly analyzed.

I may have to look into them - though they sound complicated, their stories, should they exist at the Tree of Stories, may help me in my research.

Purely out of curiosity - what happened with the mirrors later?

[ He may have missed that part in all his musing. ]

[noblegarnet]

The magic of that world was unique, to put it lightly.

[He hated it! He studied a few things for the sake of helping his chances of survival, but he ultimately was never drawn to learn about much there unless it directly affected him or someone he cared about.]

Just that: the mirrors revealing themselves, so to speak, and letting us choose to use any of them. If anything happened to them later, I wouldn't know. I kind of left as soon as I could.

[... He kind of frowns to himself at one of the ideas Trahearne has put down, though.]

Do you really think information about it might be in the tree?

[pactmarshal]

Ah, yes. I see. [ Reading back over the conversation, he kind of gets it better now. ] But what you don't know is what you don't know, and that you left was your own choice. I won't press you.

[ Because he's kind of banking on the Tree of Stories at this point... ]

There might be - the tree is vast, and its collection is extensive. It holds a number of stories from my own world of varying degrees of reliability, so I would think it safe to believe that there might be at least something on Geardagas that could prove useful. I won't know until I look.

[noblegarnet]

I see. I hadn't really thought of it as a source of information, I guess.

[Stories, sure—fiction, mythology... but he supposes history is kind of a story of its own, and he doesn't disbelieve Trahearne. It's probably just by chance that he hasn't come across anything he recognized as "real;" the Tree is kind of huge.]

I'll fully admit I didn't like the place, but I don't mind talking about what I do know if it might help. I hope you find what you're looking for, either way.

[pactmarshal]

[ And even if it isn't "real," Trahearne thinks any nugget of supplementary information valuable. It's what he's done for years--it's kind of a perfected art for him at this point. ]

Thank you, Ferran. It's much appreciated. I'll be sure to reach out should I need to know anything else.