The Hand That Mocked Them

"And the college didn't provide you with accommodations?"

Lauren glared at him. "Royal scholar or not, that's none of your business. I can help you; do you want assistance or not?"

Kivvien took his journal and placed it back in his satchel. "I will take your assistance, but I would like an honest base to this working relationship. Is that something you are comfortable with?"

"So long as you are understanding that I do things my way."

"If your methods do not interfere with mine, we should not have a problem."

"Then we are at an agreement." He held out a grimy hand. "Laurean of Eagan at your service, sir. And you are?"

(cannot remember if i gave him a last name so he's getting a new one)

He took the offered hand lightly. "Kivvien Alaric."

(Also, how much does Eagan know about the significant people and their relationships in the castle? Like, would he know the names of the different scholars, their mentees, and patrons?)

(I don't think he would know very much, just the main stuff)

"That name is familiar to me," he mused. "What is your primary study area?"

(So, like, the head scholar and his mentees, but none of the other members of the royal college?)

"I have been made to focus my studies on the occult and the darkness from the time it first appeared."

(I think he would know all the main members of the college and a couple mentees' names but that's it)

"So your mentor must be..."

(His mentor is the lead scholar of the campus, basically the one of the highest renown. That makes his patron the queen)

"Sir Ezra Rolt," he said.

(Okay awesome!)

"Ezra Holt," he mused. "Interesting. I'm afraid I don't know him personally."

"Not many do. He is rather reclusive, especially in recent years."

"That makes two of us." He limped into the main room, studying his notes with bleary eyes. "Hm. So how would one go about finding what makes a demon sick when we have no demons?"

"We have the remains of one," Kivvien said. "I could cast an animate spell on a section of flesh and we could create a virus that could infect it."