After going to the Speakers' Guild to get a note to Tor'in, I thought it'd be good to look around. There was definitely some stuff going through Sendara's head. It was a little weird, even for her. She likes to say she's experimenting. I gave her the talk, even borrowed some eggs and a frying pan to help explain things. But she just nodded and said she was being careful for her research. Except for the last time. I don't know what she was thinking. It wasn't like her at all, acting on impulse. She's supposed to be the one keeping me from doing that.
After Amos and I took her back and I made sure Bisha was looking after her, I did some research of my own. I checked Sendara's research notes, and she hadn't taken anything new recently. But she did have those arc stone shards she found in Niman's room. Did she do something with them? I checked Bisha's notes (not my fault she left them lying around) and that tracked. "Bluish twinge" and "pupil dilations" and stuff sounded like arc stones to me. But what did she do, eat them?
I mean, she could have.
Would she?
Maybe.
Now that I'm here at the University, it's time to do my own research. This is supposed to be place of learning and knowledge, even if people don't know how to use any of it. I stuck by the labs, walking around the perimeter and inspecting the exits until nightfall. I checked in on Sendara one more time, then it was time to head to the library.
The library was obviously closed for the night. Which was exactly what I was hoping. The main entrance was too noticeable. Just big doors right in front and too well lit. Arclights... it's nice for folks that can have magical lights, but they sometimes just make life harder, especially when you're trying to sneak around. But any smart person knows that there's less obvious ways into a building. And maybe I wouldn't even have to climb in through a window. Fortunately, there was a service entrance around on one side. Some low bushes and no nearby lights made it in easy spot to sneak my way in.
Now I had to find where the right books were without talking to a librarian. Books are books, but they're put in strange places in libraries. I knew if I had the time, I could have dragged Zarin with me and he could probably explain what all the numbers mean. But this is a solo mission, I didn't have all night to figure it out. I needed to get back to Sendara. So if I wanted to find books about people putting arc stones in their mouth, where would I go? It was tempting to just find the most secure part of the library and start there—all the most interesting books are probably there. But I was looking for something pretty specific.
I won't bore you with the details. But involved reading the outside of various scroll cases and the spines of countless books before I narrowed down my location to a general category. There were three instances of people eating arc stone (again, why?). And in every case, they died. Straight up arc stone poisoning style death. Nothing about an illness lasting almost a day, nothing about weird dreams, and definitely nothing about talking to dead people.
So what's going on, and what can I do about it?