Flashback Quid pro quo (Theo, closed)

[Valanir]

3rd, Fall 508 AV, Dead of night, Library

Valanir could still remember the screeching sound of the stranger’s voice. While the face remained muffled by some toned lack of interest in it, the book under his hand seemed to be a much bigger thing. The book was about his kind after all, and therefore its appearance was of bigger significance. And of course he could remember everything from running his fingers along the cracked spine to the number of its pages… down to the very last one. The name Fineas Bead carefully engraved into the bind – if there ever was a mortal more pleasing to the moon god, then this name has long since been lost before that of Bead.

Even Valanir could easily spot the pleasing factors of his “A collection of ethaefal accounts”, after all Bead somehow managed going to great lengths with his depictions while remembering how much lesser he was then his god’s children. That was, in Valanir’s mind, as far as any mortal could go in helping the race.
The downside to his work was its outdated content, and therefore any and all pursuits that stemmed from the book itself ended in great disappointment. Tonight all of that would change of course.

He was parented by patience for these things, maybe even more so than by Leth. This was to be his purpose in falling. And he would make the most of it, by his lord Father, he would. The small markings of some sort etched with ink into the lower end of page 31. The book itself was rather unexemplar, but the subtle markings that the stranger showed him were there as if they were meant to be a direct message to the driven ethaefal. When Valanir offered to buy the book from the young man right then and there, the stranger agreed rather abruptly. As if watching over him, the librarian would soon show up and take the book away from the evil human who would soon make himself scarce. He was trying to sell Valanir a tome that belonged to the library after all. Even this irritation was taken as a subtle test of wit from his god. It was a quest he failed to accomplish. And there was sadness in this fact.

He had read the damned script from cover to cover ten times in the time he could recall from the top of his head. He wouldn’t have missed something like those markings. Unless they were present only in that book… that would’ve made for an epic discovery.

Now waiting in silence somewhere behind the rows of books, Valanir was certain stealing the book was the right thing to do. However he was man enough to understand that sneaking into the library at wee hours would be stupid on his part. Waiting somewhere in the back while the front emptied was a much better cause, and one he was ready to invest in. It had been hours now, and he was certain he was as alone as he was ever going to get. Now he only needed to find the section where the book rested. A better planner would’ve scoped the situation first, learning all he could before he progressed. But Valanir was not a planner, he was desperate. The lack of moonshine getting to him at this point, he was certain it was almost time to take on this adventure. With any luck, the book he needs will be stacked onto the recently returned pile. Without it, the proactive bastard of a librarian would’ve already be away with the book; losing this gem in a sea of books. All he needed was time.