"Mentions of trolls in relation to the gods," Gaius said distractedly. "Standing stones, anything on direct communication between seers and gods that you can find. That ought to be somewhere in those volumes." He gestured to the six books.
"The Imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear. Remember that." -Karis Nemik
Ky nodded and cracked the book open, quickly scanning the pages for any of the topics he mentioned. It took too long to properly read each and every word. They were on a time crunch. But she was good at skimming through paragraphs to draw out useful information quickly.
"u and rina are systematically watering down the grammar of yws" - Atticus "From the fish mother to the fish death god." - lehmanf "A fish stole my identity. I blame shady" - Omni [they/he]
Ada yawned, then got up and went to one of the spiral staircases to join Pratik.
Gaius kept writing, glancing back at a page every now and then.
"The Imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear. Remember that." -Karis Nemik
(I do not know enough of your lore to summarize what Ky is finding)
Ky grabbed a sheet of the paper and started making little notes of anything that seemed relevant at all — including the page number of where she’d found it. The things she was finding only seemed distantly related for now, but sometimes they filled in cracks once you had the backbone of the story assembled, so they were worth jotting down.
Pratik had no idea what strategy he should be taking. So he decided to climb the ladder in the very corner and read the top shelf then the next then the next, in order. He was able to skim quickly, but not nearly as fast as Ky could, and was frustrated at the pace of his searching. He supposed this served him right for brushing reading aside in favor of fighting and language skills.
"u and rina are systematically watering down the grammar of yws" - Atticus "From the fish mother to the fish death god." - lehmanf "A fish stole my identity. I blame shady" - Omni [they/he]
(Oop sorry I don't have a lot of specifics. I'd say that trolls are known to react to shifts that humans wouldn't notice but something on this scale hasn't happened before so there isn't a lot about something like this. Trolls would react to earthquakes, pressure and temperature changes, stuff like that. And they have a sort of sixth sense about that. Shifts include supernatural shifts, so they'd act up when the gods are angry.)
"What letters am I looking for?" Ada asked him.
Gaius was silent as he worked, frowning every now and then and flipping back and forth between pages to compare things. At this point he had a few books open at once.
"The Imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear. Remember that." -Karis Nemik
(Okay awesome thanks!) (February 2021: Aleth and Ky are gonna go spy on Gaius for Tomhas May 2022: Ky is waking the gods xD)
“I have no bloody idea,” Pratik muttered, being sure his voice wouldn’t carry. “You spell Seer as s-e-e-r.” He gestured the correct shape with his finger.
Ky was growing progressively more alarmed with every new thing she was learning about trolls. It seems they only came out when something bad was happening. So the long night made sense — that was certainly terrible. But what was so bad that they were awake now? She wasn’t sure she wanted to know. And yet she kept reading.
"u and rina are systematically watering down the grammar of yws" - Atticus "From the fish mother to the fish death god." - lehmanf "A fish stole my identity. I blame shady" - Omni [they/he]
Ada squinted at him. "Alright..." She tried the shapes for herself, then started a few cases down from him.
(Gotta water some trees for 2 hours, then I'm having dinner with the family so I'll be off for awhile)
"The Imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear. Remember that." -Karis Nemik
(Thanks for the heads up! That is an intense amount of watering lol)
It took a painful amount of time, but eventually Pratik ended up with a stack of seven books and a burning desire to never read again again in his life. He hefted them up and walked over to Ada. “What’d you find?”
"u and rina are systematically watering down the grammar of yws" - Atticus "From the fish mother to the fish death god." - lehmanf "A fish stole my identity. I blame shady" - Omni [they/he]
"Um..." She held up a stack of five, only two of which were Seer-related. The other three had the letters combined with other words. "Is this good?"
"The Imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear. Remember that." -Karis Nemik
“These two are absolutely perfect.” He gave a little gesture and a smile, trying to think how to be gentlest. She was trying her best. And did remarkably well, all things considered. “Not sure about those others, but these two will definitely help… I think. Honestly I don’t even know if these ones help.” He shifted his stack.
"u and rina are systematically watering down the grammar of yws" - Atticus "From the fish mother to the fish death god." - lehmanf "A fish stole my identity. I blame shady" - Omni [they/he]
"Alright." She looked down at the other three. "Am I supposed to just put these somewhere?"
"The Imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear. Remember that." -Karis Nemik
"I, uh... guess so? I dunno where you got them from, so I assume just put them on that table or something and the librarians will take care of them?"
"u and rina are systematically watering down the grammar of yws" - Atticus "From the fish mother to the fish death god." - lehmanf "A fish stole my identity. I blame shady" - Omni [they/he]
She nodded and set down the books on a nearby table.
"The Imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear. Remember that." -Karis Nemik
At this point, Ky had also moved on to having multiple books open. She was sitting criss-cross on an overstuffed chair with the third volume cracked open in her lap, with the first and fourth opened on the left arm of the chair, and the increasingly-filled paper on the right arm.
Pratik smiled a bit as they approached, though still far enough away that Ky didn't notice. She seemed exactly in her element -- brow furrowed in determination and gaze flicking back and forth as she flipped through the different pages and made mental connections.
"Are there any climatic events due soon?" Ky asked, looking up at Gaius. "Or, like... like, those bugs that come every seventeen years. Is there anything like that -- weather, animal, anything -- that happens up here?"
"u and rina are systematically watering down the grammar of yws" - Atticus "From the fish mother to the fish death god." - lehmanf "A fish stole my identity. I blame shady" - Omni [they/he]
Gaius didn't react for a moment. Then he shuddered and looked up with wide eyes. "Hm?" "Are there climactic events due soon?" Ada repeated. "Oh." He looked back down at the book, then at his notes. "There's an eclipse due in three years. Solar. And there's a winter and summer solstice."
(Do you ever get so immersed in a book that you do that)
"The Imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear. Remember that." -Karis Nemik
