The Wayreth Ghyreian saw before her now looked no different from the Wayreth she remembered in her time. The mystical forest still stretched, shadowy and forbidding, behind her. The towers still stabbed into the sky as though erected from the black bowels of the earth.

Yet it hung in the air. No... there were a few contrasts. The courtyard surrounding the foremost tower lacked something. She had but to close her eyes, feel the tingling in the air... or the lack of it. In the Wayreth she remembered, this courtyard had always been vibrant with teleport spells and the ephemeral portals of magic. That eldritch sensation was gone now.

Like the darkness fading before the Kingpriest's brilliance, the magic on Ansalon was dying.

"Nostalgia," she murmured, remembering the first time she'd journeyed here with a certain "pathetic human." Inwardly she smiled. As they entered the tower's cool confines, she suggested, "The library should hold some promise. Time journeying is not an obscure topic."

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Edwin nodded quietly, but there was clear uncertainty about it as he didn`t want to get his hopes up because there was no guarantee they could achieve anything in a short time. Yet at least here in Wayreth they would have time as the rest of the world would burn as they would remain safe inside the tower all tough it was not the same as it would be in their own time.

"Indeed it should and even some knowledge that might have moved from the library during the years perhaps, but we are just stabbing in the dark here for starters..."

Edwin said expressing his disbelief for a quick solution or an easy road trough time. He cut the babble right there as he set his horse on the move and entered the forest quietly hymning something. He kept a watchful eye because if the rest of the world would be after them then the mages must have suffered from paranoia during those days not to mention for a good reason. Seeing the one great tower in ruins was already an unwanted sight and should this one have fallen then the mages would have been wiped out of the face of Ansalon.

For starters their approach seemed unopposed and the forest around them remained quiet, but as they moved in deeper it seemed to awaken somehow and Edwin felt like someone was watching him. Such an annoying feeling, especially when he was not aware who was watching him and his best guess was `some mage`. Yet despite the feeling of eminent danger and surveillance they were allowed to enter the courtyard of the tower. Edwin swung himself down from his horse and gazed around expecting a grim welcoming committee, but instead saw no one on the couryard, it was grim enough welcome for Edwin as he wondered where the mages were. As they entered the tower Edwin remained calm and walked alongside Ghyreian, just minding his own business like always. After a while Edwin pushed open the twin door to the library and gazed around at the great stacks of books around them.

"We`d better start, if we are to get out of this mess soon enough..."

Edwin muttered as he walked down the shelf lines and searching for the proper books on the subject or at least some notes that one might have made about the research.

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Let him curse my name
On these blood stained pages of misery
Let him call me a tyrant so cruel
Let him curse my name, but remember the truth!

Generally speaking, most of the books on the subject of time travel were distinctly less dust-covered than the other tomes that had their homes on the shelves of this particular library. Lately, in fact, they'd all been in a slightly disheveled pile on one of the spacious oaken tables, being leafed through by an increasingly perplexed apprentice white-robe.

Adellis sneezed. Despite being less dusty than the others, every time she closed a book a puff of the stuff invariably rose. She shovd it across the table and propped her chin on her hand to doubtfully survey her meager notes. Dozens of vague references, the occasional clear direction followed by meaningless drivel, and nearly unreadable manuscripts as to this particular subject made study inordinately difficult. Helplessly she surveyed the pile, trying to judge which ones she hadn't leafed through yet - or rather, which ones she'd thrown aside in trying to puzzle out their meaning.

It was a start, in any case. She knew more than she had a week ago, though precious little for optimism that was. With difficutly Adellis heaved the next gigantic tome into her lap and set about trying to understand some modicum of it. Voices echoed faintly in one of the aisles and she didn't bother too look up - hopefully they wouldn't ask her where to find something or other. Last time that had happened she'd wasted near half a day.

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Two hours later found Ghyreian irritably perusing the pages of a tome larger than her head. A certain noble, nicknamed Lord Flopperbelly of Vingaard, claimed to have once floated upon the river of time in a wheelbarrow. A most useful piece of information indeed. Gritting her teeth in frustration, she heaved the massage volume back onto the shelf a foot taller than her - almost dropping it on her skull in the process.

Two hours of fruitless searching. She'd found vague references to an artifact of time journeying. (Refer to the Chronicles of the Graygem, Appendix B) Appendix A and D were sitting contentedly on the shelf. Every volume in between and after, all the way to Appendix L, were missing.

Who would want a library of information on time journeying anyway, she mentally muttered as she stalked back down the aisle. Besides her and Edwin, of course, but that was only because -

She stopped short, her eyebrows shooting alarmingly towards the center of her forehead. It was a White Robe - it was always a White Robe. All of Krynn's worries could be eradicated if White Robes ceased to exist. Young as well, robed in apprentice garb. But what claimed her attention was the monumental pile of books in front of her.

A pile that was beginning to look suspiciously familiar...

"Do you mind?" she said icily. Without waiting for a reply, she snatched The Chronicles: Appendix B and glared at the White Robe as though the hours of vain searching had been her fault. Which, in Ghyreian's fuming mind, it had.

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Edwin came to the same results as Ghyerian as most of the information about time travel seemed to be worthless scripts and stories, which seemed ridiculous to a clear headed mage. His attention was elsewhere as Ghyreian intruded upon the white robes privacy, but Ghyreians words made his gaze towards the two. It seemed amusing that the only three in the library were all representing different gods of magic yet that was the most irrelevant thing at the moment as Edwin walked up to them. He politely nodded to the white robe as greeting and then gazed at Ghyreian.

"Find anything useful that might just solve our problems?"

Edwin inquired and approached the table, gazing over the scripts and books covering the table. He felt like he hadn`t been reading enough books in a while, but the road rarely allowed such luxury and especially when he was on the road with Ghyreian. Yet he could guess that it had thought him more practical things that he could have ever learnt from the books.

_________________

Let him curse my name
On these blood stained pages of misery
Let him call me a tyrant so cruel
Let him curse my name, but remember the truth!

"I-It's not much of importance," said Adellis, rather perplexed by the Black Robe's sudden arrival and her greeting or lack thereof. "Appendix B deals with artifacts found primarily in legends, you'll want F - or maybe K - " She trailed off. The mage opposite didn't look especially inclined to thank her for interfering.

Elves, thought Adellis with a disgruntled air. Never met one I liked much. She directed a polite smile at the other mage and wondered if it would be considered rude to go back to her studies with them both standing there. She concluded that it would, and reached to gather the volumes strewn over the table into some semblance of order. "Ah - can I help you with something?"

The red robe seemed as though he might appreciate the offer more so she directed the question rather more in his direction. "It's - well - we're not very organized, I apologize."

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"We care not as long as we can find what we have been looking for"

Edwin answered politely and gazed at Ghyreian, but then gazed back at the white robe quietly and at her work. Edwin could only wonder what was her interest in time travel? Did she have a great goal or was this one curious experiment to satisfy her lust for knowledge? Edwin thought every mage had a lust for knowledge because otherwise they wouldn`t have become mages yet there was of course power, which didn`t interest Edwin at all.

Yet power came always with skill and knowledge, which came in handy for every mage so that they might handle themselves in the world. Edwin looked at the white robed mage.

"So what are you trying to achieve here?"

He inquired.

_________________

Let him curse my name
On these blood stained pages of misery
Let him call me a tyrant so cruel
Let him curse my name, but remember the truth!

Adellis's interference resulted in Ghyreian dropping the book back onto the table, inciting another dust cloud. Needless to say, the disheveled apprentice impressed her about as much as the mouse currently scurrying past her leg. Even Edwin had demanded more respect when she first encountered him.

She leveled the human woman a look of utter disdain before picking up Appendix F. A flip to the index instantly took her to... archmage... archways... artifacts of time journeying... page 857... Her gaze scanned the page. Her eyes widened.

"Take a look at this," she said, thrusting the tome into Edwin's hands. On it he would find a vague outline of a certain Device of Time Journeying. Not very descriptive, but it was a start. It occurred to her that the White Robe could provide additional knowledge - a last resort should they need it.

_________________

Having not quite learned in their brief interaction that Ghyreian was not the type to welcome her attempted assistance, Adellis half-stood to indicate a place halfway down the page of the book Edwin now held. "That's really the only proven fact there, because Zadien's Almanac states the exact opposite of almost everything in the Graygem Chronicles, but he's not the most reliable source you could perhaps find - I think I have a few fragments of the Yellowstone Archives here, they're vastly more informative - "

It really was no surprise that Adellis wasted half a day when asked for help, considering her enthusiasm in scattering dusty books left and right to hunt for those few scraps of parchment. It was a wonder her robes were still white what with the volumes of dust scattered by this activity. Perhaps this was only due to her inexperience in the area, considering how her waves of dark mahogany hair were cheerfully disordered, and she seemed not to mind in the least.

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[hey Curu we forgot to discuss which posts we'll be using for Edwin/Ghy for best romantic pairing. I was thinking the farmhouse argument or the first time he makes Ghy cry... but your choice ]

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( I think we should go with the time when ghy cries I guess )

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Let him curse my name
On these blood stained pages of misery
Let him call me a tyrant so cruel
Let him curse my name, but remember the truth!

Edwin gazed upon the page and his thoughts stopped for a moment as he realized that there was something familiar about the device, not to mention about it`s capabilities.

"Why do I have the feeling I have seen this thing before?"

He muttered quietly to himself, but gazed at Ghyreian just in case she had heard his muttering and was thinking about the same thing. Yet Edwin skipped it as he placed the book onto the table and gazed around at the other books.

"Now how to build or where to acquire one?"

He asked out loud from no one particular.

_________________

Let him curse my name
On these blood stained pages of misery
Let him call me a tyrant so cruel
Let him curse my name, but remember the truth!

Ghyreian caught the mutter and shot him an incisive look. The look shifted to the open book now laying innocently on the table. The intricate sketch depicted an odd contraption, full of gears and baubles and gems.... A kender's face came to mind. She couldn't for the life of her recall his name. Kender names all sounded the same anyway, but this kender...

It struck her then. Burrfoot. Dark Queen save me.

"I seem to recall an ill-fated incident in Qualinesti," she commented, not sounding very happy at all. Her gaze slid down the page again but found nothing else of significance. She shut the tome with a thump. Perhaps they did need their so-called last resort.

The smile she turned on the dark-haired apprentice was warm, even sympathizing. For most, that smile could incite alarm bells. When a Black Robe smiled with sympathy, it tended to augur an unfortunate incident in the near future. "You are studying time journeying, are you not?" she asked blandly. "What is your name, sister?"

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Adellis blinked at this abrupt about-face by the irritable Black Robe, finding it not a little disconcerting, but lacked the experience to know that this did not bode well for her. "Adellis Distantstar," she answered after a moment of looking slightly perplexed. "Er - aye, yes, what there is to study."

She indicated the untidy spread of books and loose parchment that decorated the table in front on her, and after another moment of indecision queried cautiously, "Do you come to study it as well?" Perhaps she would not have asked but for Ghyreian's more amicable mien. The thought had not yet occurred that they might want to use an artifact of time journeying. Another indication of innocence, the first one being that she was not familiar enough with Black Robes to know when one was trying to be manipulative.

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