IFRIT The office space was comfortable, in a very “controlled chaos” sense. The spacious office looked like a room you’d find in Howl’s Moving Castle. Any and all wallspace was occupied by shelves filled with random trinkets, artifacts, and doodad’s. A small array of bookshelves filled one of the corners, alongside a comfortable sofa and nightstand. Tomes, scrolls, maps, and everything in between filled the bookshelves. There were two desks in this secluded office. One was more neat and organized than the other. The former had a small stack of books piled on the left hand side. Minus an unopened letter and a couple photos, nothing else of note was on that desk.
The other desk was completely different. Almost all of the deskspace was occupied. A pile of unopened letters bearing seals and crests from foreign dignitaries. A series of unfinished letters intended for a plethora of organizations and groups across Pengarde lay lazily scattered. And most noticeable of all, a stack of papers so high it reaches the height of a standing person. It’s on this desk that Ifrit had his head in his hands, groaning in frustration.
“Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck Zeire… WhyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!” He draws his words out. On the main portion of his desk was a formal complaint from one of the local businesses. Something about one of Zeire’s “pranks” getting this business involuntarily involved. And, of course, any and all actions done by the guild members always finds its way back to Ifrit. To that gargantuan pile. The pile of paperwork that he can never seem to put a dent in.
“How many of these fuhyuckin papers are gonna be about you?!? I swear, if I ever see you so much as check out a book you’re not supposed to have YOUR ASS IS GRASS!!” He yells out. He knows no one will hear him. His office is tucked deep away in the Rosetta Library. With how expansive and moving the library is, finding it would be difficult. Luckily for Ifrit, its nothing a two-way linkstone doesn’t fix.
He finishes up a few more pieces of paperwork before calling it a day. He really doesn’t want to call it quits, but he remembers something Azu told him once. Something along the lines of “keep working that hard and you’ll go bald.” “Yeah… and I’ll bet you’re the reason I lose my hair.” He chuckles to himself. Leaning back on his chair, he can’t help but frown in worry.
Admittedly, he’s been on edge these past few days. Not like he usually is, no. This was different. He’s found his body tense, like he’s anticipating an attack. Whenever he enters a room, he almost instinctively looks around to plan an escape route. He’s even been using his *Temporal Eyes* to examine the flow of time around certain people. These are things he never used to do, but after those damn nightmares… Well, he can’t help it.
After lamenting on his pitiful state, he stands from his desk and moves to his book corner. There, a few things lay on the sofa. A satchel, a motley of magical items, maps, spare books, anything he’d need for an ‘extended excursion’. In official guild bookkeeping terms, Ifrit uses these words to denote he’s gonna be gone for “an extended amount of time”. Unofficially, this is whenever he needs to go on a more under-the-wraps kind of mission.
Once he’s done packing everything, he goes to his bookshelf and grabs a few items. A map of Iceberg, a few tomes on the region’s history and customs, and a grimoire of local fauna and flora. His mind wanders to a few days ago, back to when he was assigned this mission…
**AFTER THE COUNCIL MEETING** (Segment done with
@Urizen)
With the end of the Joint Council Meeting, Ifrit was groaning out of annoyance. Of course, the meeting itself was important. With such important figures and representatives coming together to discuss the future of Pengarde, it’s no doubt that a delegation from Fénix Tear would be in attendance. The reason Ifrit was groaning was twofold.
1: These meeting usually meant more paperwork, as if he didn’t have enough to do already
2: Azuria was sleeping through the entire thing.
“Fucking hell, Azu. When’re you gonna start at least pretending to be interested in these meetings?” He asked Azu. They were both leaving the main hall right now
Azuria sighed at the sight of Ifrit's obliviousness. Like a father like a child, they just share such overlooking archetypes being two sides of the same coin. She digressed. "I didn't ask you to lodge paperworks on the Lacrismart yet but who am I to stop you." Azuria reunited with her Thought Projection, who was listening through the meeting discreetly in a remote room. The whole room's landscape changed at its spatial course, uniting both rooms as Ifrit was in a separate room with the sleeping Azu while Reuel and Eris were with the thought projection. "While you're at it, I was having another meeting, a quick one."
He has a long, drawn out sigh. “So lazy, yet so resourceful…” he chuckles a bit. “Care filling me in?”
Azuria knew that while she can summon thought projections, its realistic frame per response wasn't consistent. Maintaining a Thought Projection as it's an advanced spell was already taxing to begin with. How much more two, for one the original Azuria was asleep and woken in the presence of Reuel and Eris. Secondly, the other was in a remote room, doing something about the Phoenix Stone and the other in another remote room, listening to the meeting.
"Alright, I will. Reuel and Eris have KKK matters to attend to in due time. Our goodman right here will be their executioner while our fair lady here will be their judge of Chancellor Elektra's dealings as treacherous as it sounds."
“Sounds like some high profile missions. Think they can handle it?” Ifrit asked. It’s more of a rhetorical question. Of course they could handle it. But after those nightmares… let’s just say Ifrit’s been on guard more than normal. He even swears he can feel his eye twitch every now and then. His mind wandered back to the home guild for a moment. “By the way, Azu. Were we expecting any official correspondence from the White Creed?” He recently received a letter from them… which is weird, because he never gets as much as an advert from them.
"And you say I don't pay attention, not high profile, these are espionage and assassination matters." Azu responded. She was puzzled, as both her and Ifrit were former White Creed members in the past, how come she didn't get any. "Slow down a little, we don't wanna be talking over Eris and Reuel, given their expressions now, I suppose they'll listen. What's the letter about?"
“Oh potato, tomato.” At least she was attentive enough to catch the mistake. Ifrit continued on about the letter “Dunno yet, haven’t opened it. It’s addressed specifically to me, though. The ink looks hand-written. Something’s giving me a bad feeling about this letter… can’t be Elektra, right?”
"Open it for another time, we have pressing matters to attend to, Demonic Fog is a week from now. We'll open that as soon as I send Eris to Iceberg, hoping she finishes soon and Reuel, Port Camlann is too far from here, I'll just have him send a thought projection for Shinra and Jaina, who will rendezvous with Weisz." Azuria responded.
“You’re right, Azu… I’ll leave it for later.” He pushes the letter to the back of his mind. He thinks back to his mountain of paperwork he still has to fill out… no, there are more pressing matters. His office will have to wait for a bit. “Want me to hit the field?”
"I will handle your paperwork with you, use a thought projection for here or the field...wait what field." She talked up too fast but muscle memory wise, she knew what he meant. She just needed clarification.
“Sounds like these missions are gonna get a bit hairy. A lot of our S-Class mages are still… greenhorn. And the A and B class mages are gonna be sent out alongside them. Want me to tag along to one of those ‘espionage missions’?”
"You're too on the nose,” Azu said. “why don't you use your diplomatic skills on a potential ally like Iceberg, my homeland with Zeire and Gwen. My sister and I didn't grow up there, due to Hellgate Deliora 15 years ago, so I can't relate but with Gwen, having been born and raised there would have enough experience."
"Iceberg makes no distinction, ally or foe, they will kill anyone who sets foot in their turf due to the demonic fog, hence their hostility. This S-Class Quest to fix the bridge is risky, we're heading in uncharted territories that needed a nobility pass, that's why I picked Gwen, she'll tell you more anyway. After all, she could've been an S-Class, six years ago, Eris happened to have eclipsed her yet it's kinda silly if one is already an S-Class." Azu giggled a bit of the thought regarding Gwen and Eris. "One last thing, please try to get Lucas and Gwen to get along, they just hate each other."
‘Of course Eris eclipsed Gwen, she’s my student.’ Ifrit thought to himself. He continued on. “Shouldn’t we let Eris take charge of this mission? It’ll be a learning experience for her. I’ll stay out of sight, just in case hell is needed.”
"Eris is already in charge of this mission, Gwen is second in command for being a local and not many A Classes have her tenacity. Watch over as you please."
“Perfect.” Ifrit activated his Temporal Eyes and looked around for a bit. “Not seeing anything out of the ordinary, at least nothing we don’t know about.” He sighs and starts picking up his pace, now walking out of the building and back towards the guildhall. “You got anything else for me, Azu?”
**BACK TO THE CURRENT TIME** “Sorry, office. But I’ll be gone for some time. Think you can manage without me?” Ifrit called out to his workspace, only to be met with a resounding silence. “Damn… You know, if you had an enchantment that let you speak, I wonder what you’d say…” He went on with that train of thought before shivering. “Nevermind, you’d probably end up chewing me out.”
He moves towards his office door. Before he leaves, he looks back to that unopened letter on his desk. It was pristine, bearing the wax seal of the White Creed. Unlike many other letters written by the group, its address was written in hand instead of an automatic magical engraving (Ifrit would know, he’s gotten a plethora of letters from them). It was addressed too “Ifrit, the Timeless Knight”. Everytime he looked at that letter he chuckled. He hasn’t gone by that name since he served under the king. Easier times, those were.
The letter remained unopened. He thought about opening it. It could be important, after all.
“Eh, fuck it. Better leave it for later.”
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