Kay's arrival

[Ian Tibbit]

It had taken awhile for Ian to re-gain consciousness of reality and of where he stood after his meeting with Az. For the last couple of hours, Ian spent his time rummaging through his thoughts, recollecting all the information on the prize, Dark Artes. He had thought of the location he had dreamed about when Nessarose initially came into the picture. Soon after the replaying of the dream, his thoughts were blurred by a loud voice, coming from the east wing of the kingdom. Ian hears loud footsteps coming his way, he quickly recognizes them at once as Trism.

"What's going on?"

[Kay]

Kay sturred slightly when Ian spoke, but she was still to weak to do more than let out a soft moan.

[Trism bon Cavalish]

Trism turned the knob on the door to Ian's study, letting himself into the spacious room. The sight of his beloved was a relief after everything that was going on. He gave Ian a quick kiss, then looked at him seriously.

"Gayelette has brought visitors," he said plainly. "Apparently she's kidnapped Glinda the Good's daughter, Kay Upland... with help from some kid at Shiz named Skylar." He shook his head before Ian could say something about the boy's presence. "At first I thought she was mad for bringing him, but he claims to know something about the book you're looking for. I think he wants to work out a deal of some sort... he requested your presence."

[Kay]

Suddenly a horrible cry was heard. Kay was in pain - starting to wake at the presence of the warlock the immense pain caused by her transformation was taking hold.

[Ian Tibbit]

Ian kissed Trism warmly then proceeded to walk out of the meeting room and confront the situation. "Riarti", Ian called out to his joint-at-the-soul companion, "Let the housekeeping know we have guests, make accomidations for five.

Ian heard the moans and crys from a little girl get louder as he approached the front of the kingdom. Could it be true? Could Glinda's daughter be here, with us? Who would even give Glinda a daughter in the first place? None the less, the girl caught the least of his attention, it was the boy Ian was interested in. How could someone else, a mere student from Shiz, have learned about the defamed book Ian had searched so hard for. The magic was.. horrible, disgusting, and the mage to use it, would carry on with the heaviest of negative stigmas. Was this boy prepared for it? What did he want with it?

Ian turned the last corner of the kingdom halls and c aught a glimpse of the visitors. He caught eyesight of the boy, but proceeded to tend to the girl in screeching pain. Dark Artes was his prized goal, but the boy wouldn't be going anywhere, the girl would need to stop her whining first.

Ian placed his hand on the girl an began to mumble, a small bubble of dark green and blue light began to emerge from his palm and continued to spread through the body of the little girl. Kay fell asleep, silent.

"I cannot m end her wounds at an instant, but she is sedated and sleeping well. She feels no pain" he announced.

He then looked at Gayelette and spoke seriously, "Gayelette, what is the meaning of this? What is going on?"

It had been several days since anyone had seen Ian outside of his quarters, he could tell Gayelette was nervous to answer.

[Gayelette Keats]

She looked at him weakly, still sitting on the floor beside Kay. "I'm...i'm sorry..." she replied weekly. "I didn't...I don't think I actually did this..." she looked at the transformed Kay, then back to Ian. "I wanted to prove my loyalty to you...and I knew Glinda was evil...and so I was going to bring Kay here. I thought if I took what Glinda loved most, just like she tried to take back your powers from you, it would be a life for a life, of sorts..." she looked so lifeless, no spark in her eyes, "but there was something else controlling me. They say it's Nessarose Thropp...and everything went wrong. And now Kay is different, and she's screaming and dying....and she was changed into this..." she motioned to the dark-haired girl. "I just wanted Glinda to feel the pain she'd caused to you and I...and save Kay from turning out like her mother...but instead I made her think her mother was Nessarose...or Nessarose did inside me.."

[Ian Tibbit]

"That's enough. Just rest." Ian said coldly. What was she thinking? Inviting some random people into this hidden kingdom without Ian's consent? Regardless of the usefulness each one served, he thought of it as rude and an action that was undeserving to a gracious host. "Focus!" Ian thought to himself.

As he looked at the situation in the big picture, Gayelette contained Nessa, the witch that had visited Ian, promising alliance an usefulness. In addition, Gayelette brought the young man who has important information over Dark Artes, and lastly, the daughter of that fake "Goody-two-shoes" was now in the Kingdom, under the impression that Nessa, or in this case, Gayelette was her mother. Interesting..

The key was to think about how Ian could in fact use this to his advantage. With Glinda distracted by the disappearance of her daughter, the coast would be clearer than ever to obtain the book in question. It was time that Ian talked to the boy to find out all that he knew about the book; once rested, he would use Gayelette to communicate to Nessarose.

"Trism," Ian said softly, holding out his hand, "The guards should have prepared each individual's dormitories to be used immediately, please escort them to get some rest, will you please?"

"For now, I need the boy." Ian said intimidatingly, looking directly toward Skylar. "Follow me to the meeting room."

((Skylar and Ian's meeting in "Meeting of Artes"))

[Azarine Kates]

Azarine had stayed silent this entire time. She was on her way back to Shiz to wait until she was needed; she really hadn't expected this. It was a shock that she wasn't prepared for at all. Since she was at a loss for words, Az simply stood by Skylar and took everything in. She wanted to remember everything; it would be necessary to know everything when she reported back.