Gatehouse of the Blades of the Red Heart

This is the Gatehouse for the Blades of the Red Heart. It is an ordinary wooden shack built into the side of the mountain here. The only thing that keeps people from entering are the big iron gates and the two guards keeping watch.

Treijan marches up the road confidently. Significantly more confidently than he has any right to be, considering his source of directions. Still, that /is/ the gatehouse, up there, and the Tower itself is quite hard to miss. Always one with a keen grasp of protocol, he draws to a halt a few steps before the gates, and salutes cheerily. "Hello, the Tower!"

Now, if only someone would take the time to read the description of the room, pardon the out of character expression, they'd notice that there are suppose to be two guards standing, well, standing guard at the gates of the tower. And there are. Two of them. In armor. One of them spots Treijan coming, and raises a hand. "Hail, who goes there?"

Treijan doesn't know what you're talking about, Razz. "Treijan Lorean, sir. This is the Blades of the Red Heart academy?"

Perhaps I asked for that. But anyways, the guard nods at Treijan. "Yes it is. What might your business here be?"

Treijan smiles, and holds up a much-creased, battered bit of a note, quite too briefly for the guard to see much of it. "I had met one of your students while she was travelling, and she invited me to stop by, so I decided to."

The guard peered at the note before Treijan had put it away, though he didn't have quite enough time to read it. "Which student might that be?"

Treijan grins. "One... ahh, Shiroi, I believe. I don't recall her surname."

The other guard's face seems to pale, though he kept his silence, all the same. The guard who Treijan is speaking to, though, did comment. "Oh. /That/ one." He shook his head. "What did she do to /you/?"

Treijan exchanges looks with the two sentries, and, briefly, the cheeryness drops away. "Well, between you two and me, she robbed me blind. 's not why I'm here, though. She really did invite me to visit, and it's not like I needed any of the stuff she took except that extra canteen."

Both guards chuckled slightly at that. Guard number one nodded again. "Well, I believe you. Come on in, behave yourself, and try not to be alone with her. Especially somewhere where no one can hear you scream."

Treijan trades a slightly nervous grin with #1, a salute with #2, and enters the Hall.

Headquarters of the Blades of the Red Heart

This is the foyer in the Tower of the Blades of the Red Heart. There is a desk in the middle of the room with a book on it, and a few paintings and tapestries on the walls. A staircase can been seen through the doorway to the east.

Treijan enters.

The foyer isn't empty, but it isn't crowded either. Several persons passes bThe foyer isn't empty, but it isn't crowded either. Several persons passes by now and then, only a few hangs around, for various reasons.

Treijan is impressed. Lovely place they got here, for just a plain ol' magic school. How to go about finding a specific student, now..? Perhaps ask the receptionist! "Uhm, excuse me..."

The receptionist sat up straight in his seat, after having suffered through one long period of absolute boredom. "Yes?" He asked eagerly.

Treijan blinks. "Heh. Fun job, innit?" He pauses only a moment. "I'm looking for a student, Shiroi. Could you by any chance tell me where she might be?"

The receptionist coughed, at the mention of that name. "Shiroi. Well. You might try her room. Or the dining hall."

Treijan nods, sagely. "And, ahh, you cold get me a map or something? I don't know my way around your tower that well, I fear."

The receptionist scratched his head. "A map? There's an idea...." And he devoted himself to a moment of rammaging through drawers. "Here we are," he pulls out a slightly wrinkled paper, and spreads it out on the desk.

Treijan squints down at the creased sheet. "Ahh. Dining Hall's hard to miss. But, uhm, her room? Which one of those hundreds..?"

The receptionist scratched his head again. "I don't believe I know... But! You might have some luck asking the other students."

Treijan nods, sagely again. "That...sounds like a plan. I'm sure someone around here knows." He regards the sparsely-populated lobby. "...actually, given the reactions I've gotten, I'm sure /everyone/ around here knows. Thank you for your help," he nods to the receptionist, before striking off in a random direction, looking for a likely student to question.

Luckily for Treijan, here comes Arkie down the stairs. She overheard some conversation between Treijan and the receptionist, and came over, giving Treijan a tap on his shoulder. "Are you looking for someone?" She asked.

Treijan turns, just slightly faster than is quite excuseable, and blinks down at her. "Uhm, yes, actually. You wouldn't happen to know where I could find, ahh, Shiroi, would you?" He scratches his head a bit. "'m Treijan, by the way."

Arkie gave Treijan a long, long look. From head to toe. "Shiroi... You might try looking around outside, or the dining hall, or her room. The dining hall's just over there, you can sort of see it from here. I can take you to her room... her new room." She gave Treijan another look. "Uhm, pardon me for asking, but are you a relation of hers?"

Treijan doesn't much like that look she's giving him, nope. "N...not last I checked, no. She just mentioned I should stop by here some time to visit." He remembers himself a moment late. "Oh! Thank you."

Arkie nods. "Well, we might as well go to the dining hall first. Come with me."

Clan Dining Room

You have entered the Clan's dining room. It is a very large and beautifully done room, with a grand long table sitting in the middle, set and decorated for a feast. A pair of chandeliers hang from the ceiling providing light, and a pair of doors in the north wall allow access to thekitchen and food.

Treijan is still more impressed by the Dining Hall. Very nice /indeed/. Crowded also. "...kinda hard to spot anyone in here."

Aah, the dining hall. And it is crowded, as Treijan had observed. Arkie stood on her tip-toes for a while, and spotted the gate crasher in question. "There she is... the one at the end of that table... with her chair back and her feet on the table... see?"

Treijan follows Arkie's pointing arm, and spots Shiroi quickly. "Aha! Thank you very much," he tells her again, and starts off across the hall, drawing suprisingly few glances from the assembled students. Counting on himself to formulate a suitable greeting in transit, he fails, and finds himself drawing up a seat next to her without comment.

Shiroi doth senseth the searching gazes that landed on her person, as far away as she is from the two. And she turned her head, and sees.... Oh, him. She sits forward, her feet landing on the floor again. "Hey, you're here!" She greeted, chewing on her loaf of bread.

If there wasn't many people looking at Treijan before, there are now. Arkie is to thank, partly. Then again, someone unrecognized talking to Shiroi can always draw some form of attention.

Treijan smiles sunnily at her. "Hey, I'm here! I hope that small sum was enough to keep you going until you got back." His tone is suprisingly unsarcastic.

Shiroi swallowed, and raised the bowl in front of her, taking another drink of the soup. Then she nodded. "Mmhmm. It was, indeed. Coming back seemed much easier after that. Ship fares, water, and such. I try not to steal or stowle away too much, never know what kinda touble you might get into." She nodded, and took another bite of the bread.

Treijan nods, solemnly. "Before you ask, yes, it is theoretically possible for me to care less about the money. I'll draw your attention to the great number of places around where I live that I'd be able to spend it. If you'd asked I could've just given it to you, you wouldn't have had to worry." The number of people watching them begins to impinge on Trei's consciousness, but not very much yet.

Shiroi turned and blinked blankly at Treijan. "I wasn't about to ask," she replied, then turned back to her food. "I knew you can give a fork less about it. And anyways, I'm in the habit of taking off while my companion's unaware and leaving nothing but a note." She finished her food and saw the people staring at them. "Whachall staring at?? What, don't have nothing better to do?? Back to your meals!" Most people turned and found something else to look at after that.

Treijan blinks back, just as blankly. "Hell of a way to treat people, y'know. Skilled as you might be, I'm sure there are things out there which would own even you. You might find yourself having an easier time of it if you quit vanishing like that. I mean, look how well you're doing here."

Shiroi returned a blank stare. "Lots of things own me. As a matter of fact, I believe my current schoolmaster is looking forward to owning me.... AHEM, that sounded horrible, but anyways. What's wrong with how I'm doing here? ... besides that bit with the evil schoolmaster, that is."

Treijan shakes his head. "Nothing's wrong with how you're doing here, that's what I'm saying. Stick around for a while and quit yer thieving and look at what it can get you! Uh, probably besides that bit with the evil schoolmaster, but I don't really know."

Shiroi lifted her legs onto her chair, and sat on them. Leaning forward with her hands on the chair, she staaaaared into Treijan's eyes. Creepy, almost.

Treijan matches her stare with admirable endurance. "I'm..." He sighs, looks away briefly, and forces himself to match her gaze again. "Why do I get the feeling I'm merely the latest in a long series of people to give you that speech?"

Shiroi leans closer yet, and she plants a firm kiss on Treijan's lips.

Treijan blinks, twice, and almost starts to wonder what's going on, but fortunately he's a bright enough lad to realize that it's probably not that important right at the moment, and he'd really be better off just going with the flow for now. Eheh. Shiroi will have to forgive him for being a trifle uninteresting, but, hey, he's inexperienced, cut him some slack.

This lasts for several seconds, much to the shock of the students who have been paying discreet attention. After a moment, Shiroi breaks it off, and stares into Treijan's eyes again. "There, isn't that much more interesting than what you were preaching about?"

Treijan resumes normal thought processes with admirable rapidity. "Quite so, quite so," he nods, slowly, struggling to keep his face from matching his hair. "You, ahh, you aren't seriously implying you did that just to shut me up? I'll admit you won't often beat it for effectiveness."

Shiroi seems to ponder for a while. "Well, yeah, to shut you up, and that you're cute." She winked at him, and got up, leaving the hall of students. Some stared, others went back to their business.

Treijan follows her, of course-- he can always plead idiocy later-- anyways, follows her about as far as the exit of the Dining Hall, before the sheer massive numbers of students that are even now watching him take leave of his senses penetrates his admittedly fogged mind. With a quiet sigh he wanders the other way at the hall crossing, headed for the receptionist to ask about temporary lodging.

Shiroi walks on, without slowing or looking back. Pointless for her to do so, anyways. She didn't have a destination in mind. Getting up and leaving seemed like the right thing to do. She'd eaten her fill anyways.

Treijan concludes the transaction frictionlessly enough. Seems they have a lot of dorm-space free since rebuilding. The student body is still only at about a third of capacity. Pausing, now, to contemplate his next move, he is. No rush to go find his room; it's not like he has any things to move into it. Maybe that's what he ought to do, go buy some actual clothes. People are gonna look at him real funny if he doesn't change his armor for a week.