Studying in Secret (Thimb, Sithani)

Eleint 8th, afternoon.

The main library in the Feytower is crowded this afternoon, full of students working on projects or studying for their classes. There is a pleasant quiet roar of white noise: the turning of pages, the subdued chatter of students, the occasional shushes of librarians as they make their rounds.

[OOC: I will place the actual diary results in the established Downtime thread (The Princess' Diary) so that everything is neat and tidy, but you two can dialogue here about what you find if you so choose. Feel free to set up and chat while I post -- it'll be a bit since I'm juggling several threads.]

Sithani has found the two of them a desk in a conveniently obscure niche of shelves, and has made sure that Erdan is nowhere to be seen; she's still not sure the Redfangs don't have someone on the inside and also she doesn't really want to talk to him again. Besides, if Thimb is going to be corrupted by anyone it'll be by me and maybe Ka'Ri if she can get beyond blushes.

"So how far do you think we need to go back in this?"

Thimb had changed into her apprentice uniform, not that she had met the woman she was supposedly apprenticing under. She'd like to, and Luther said she had heard of her work! That was enough to make her giddy, but at the moment she wasn't thinking about that. She was thinking about the work they were doing. She had dug out her notes on how the cipher worked, and had been explaining it to Sithani.

At the question she blinked, once, twice. Hamish, while she was distracted, tried to steal a pencil to chew on but was brushed off. "I'm not sure. Hopefully not all the way to the start, but, given the size of it I wouldn't be surprised if she started writing this because of what we're investigating" Being courted by a dashing pirate was enough to make many girls take up a diary, she was certain. Not that she was to use those words aloud where they could be over heard so easily.

"Wonderful." Sithani flips back to read the date on the first entry. "It's a very simple system, easy to brute force, so I'd guess it was her own idea to use it; she wasn't expecting anyone to seriously try and read this thing."

"Easy to brute force once you realize the trick with the dates," Thimb agreed as Hamish crawled into her lap, curling up into a surly, pencil-less ball. "I feel kind of guilty about this. We're translating this and going to be sharing the contents with the last two people in the world she'd want to see it. I'm kind of hoping we can get away with only sharing our... research with Luther, but..." she sighed, "these are... unconventional circumstances I suppose..."

"Who says we have to share it with them? Ultimately it's results we're after - none of this has to go further than our merry band of nosy people."

Thimb fidgeted, "Well, I was just thinking, at least when she talks about her own... research..." her voice dropped to a slightly dramatic whisper, "that Luther would likely be able to offer more insight while remaining.... stable," she shifted uncomfortably, thinking about the comments about the over bearing Mother. On one hand, she had seen how Mothers of all species could react when their young were in danger, on the other, she had read enough over the top stories to know the trope of the well meaning but blinded by her own love Mother. And in this case that also meant one of the most powerful wizards in Brilight.

"Do you want to pick up from the start and we both work towards the middle, or should we both keep working backwards?"

<Do you mean hot pirate research - which we shall call 'nautical' - or mysterious conspiracy research, which we shall call 'riddles'? The former might be safe to take to Luther, unless he's our hypothetical person on the inside, the latter is more likely to involve high-up people here.>

Sithani dramatically snatches a pencil from where Hamish is subtly inching his head towards. "I'll go from the start - it'll test your hypothesis about why she started."

Thimb fumbled to pull our the translation where Gwyn writes about sneaking into the library and Sithani had suspected was something to do with the aboleth and pointed, unsure if this counted as a riddle or a sexy pirate. Her instinct was neither, not both, for the record.

"I think this part is crucial, but the fact that it isn't mentioned again after this point makes me think there might be some further riddles that he might have some insight into..."

"Insight into solving them or insight into writing the riddles in the first place? That's the problem, isn't it?" She frowns for a moment, then starts making sense of the first entry. "I doubt Luther is the mysterious 'she', but when rich people want to play at riddles, they do like to get government officials on their team."

Thimb chewed her bottom lip, "I think something went awry in the transition between the riddle entries and the nautical ones at the end, and from the way L is written about," she said hoping the implication that L was Luther would be obvious, "they at least weren't in on what ever happened in that time, and... I think that's important. You don't go from hiding under desks to contemplating sailing like that without something nudging it, you know? And he might have a better guess as to who She is... but I want to know more about what I'm asking about before I try to talk to him least I have a repeat of... well, you were there," she said, a sudden blush creeping up her neck and to the delicate point of her ears.

Hamish had jumped on the table and occasionally tried to bite at one of the pencils mid movement, blissfully oblivious to what was going on.

Sithani nods. "That's true. I suppose it would be safer, though less interesting, to wait until we have the full context of the diary before we act." She wags her finger at Hamish. "No. Bad adorable thing."

Sithani passes her transcription of the first entry to Thimb. Thimb may notice Sithani has added little hearts and smiley faces around Gwynnestri's torrent of abuse.

"So much for the theory she got this to gush about cute pirates. A shame, really; it can be quite fun to read extravagant descriptions of dashing nautical thieves." In her mind, Thimb will 'hear': <Keep talking about the merits of pirates, but consider this nasty thought I've just had. If everyone here loves Gwynnestri so much, and if we manage to locate Thorn, isn't it possible someone might try and trade Thorn and his children to the Redfangs in exchange for Gwynnestri?>

"Well, if you want extravagant descriptions of pirates..." said Thimb trying her best not to let her voice betray the way Sithani's idea horrified her, she scribbled out a response to the thought implanted in her mind.

"At this point, it doesn't matter. They have no reason to expect us or our employer to know where he is, right? All this points to either a carefully orchestrated scheme, or the kidnappers monopolizing on an opening." She was careful to use no names, though she nearly did twice.

Thimb looked exhausted as she slid the entry she had just finished transcribing herself over and began to scribble another note. She hadn't slept the night before because she had been working on these entries, and the one Sithani passed her made her feel even more guilty for transcribing these, but surely Gwyn could forgive her when she thought it was life or death? She hoped so. She'd apologize when they met. And maybe offer to introduce her to some career options that could take her away from her Mother a bit more.

"I think we need to figure out who this Father is. If we go with conspiracy, it could be that man from Olidammara and they could have been feeding our romantic hero information on how to woo the princess in her tower. If it's opportunity he may have just known her leanings and decided to take advantage of it. We should also burn these notes after." she slid that note over as Sithani would have had a chance to read the entry and said "Could you check my numbers on that one for me?"

"Hmm. Didn't our direct employer allude to Rik being the stud for her daughter?"

Sithani takes Thimb's transcription and looks through it. "Oh that's just sad. Who has to take pride in making their own dinners? Is that all she's allowed to do? And, gods, she may know magic but does she have the first clue how to sail? I worship Umberlee and all I know is it involves much less fun things with ropes than I normally do!" She shudders. "Lady of Storms, grant her the burning passion to get out of that frilly cell."

Sithani passes over her latest transcript to Thimb. "The Nerullites do say that life is the ultimate sunk-cost fallacy. Still, we can say from experience that the afterlife doesn't solve any of life's fundamental issues. If she'd been allowed to get high once in a while I guarantee she wouldn't have been this angsty."

"Good point about Rik," Thimb mumbled, blindly pulling the box of chocolates she had bought on her excursion with Ka'Ri out and setting it between herself and her study partner, "help yourself," she said taking the lid off, pausing to fix Hamish who had unfurled from a sleepy ball with a look, "one. You get one. You don't even need to eat."

Hamish deflated a little but claimed a single chocolate, and while making a show of taking just one chocolate snagged a half used up pencil to take back to the small nest in Thimb's sweater they had made. By the time Thimb noticed they had it, a healthy dent had already been chewed into it and so she sighed in defeat.

She read over the next entry that Sithani passed to her, "She wrote it, ciphered it, wrote it again, and now we're writing it again to uncipher it. This all feels like so much work just for some semblance of privacy, and here we are ripping it all up..." Thimb sighed and rubbed her face, "I want to get her safe, I... I don't know if I want to get her back though... Not if it's just back to this," she said, gesturing at the diary. She made a note to herself to buy her a lovely new blank book to use as a journal, one that had no trace of pink or frills. Maybe a battered black leather bound one like some of her sailor uncles used, or one wrapped in waxed canvas to make it easier to clean. The implicit implication that she would not lead such a dainty sheltered life if she didn't want to again.

"Or maybe we take her out to get her high I don't know..." Thimb added on considering Sithani's words.

Sithani nods. "Maybe this actually is an elopement, and Betreygis simply took advantage? We can but hope." She frowns. "Honestly, though, I've never understood the appeal of a diary. Making notes of appointments, yes, making notes to remind yourself to do things, yes, annotating books in horror at the writers' mistakes, yes, but what happened to memory?" She gasps and clasps her hands to her mouth. "I'm sounding like a Danaic philosopher. Please shut me up before I embarrass myself further."

Thimb laughed at this, "Some of us are too busy trying to remember where we put our powdered wariwort to remember who we were making eyes at. Not that they usually notice since I'm below their eye line," she said with a half joking dramatic sigh, "I'm also told it helps process feelings?" she shrugged, looking at the entry Sithani had passed her again, and remembering the end of her request mused, "I wonder what the chef was putting in the food?"

Hamish looked up from their chocolate in that moment, curling around it protectively like a tiny avian dragon.

"Ha. Well, if they're not looking down when they're talking to a gnome they're not worth it."

She looks down at Hamish. "You were surely with Thimb when she got that chocolate; you must know it didn't come from the kitchens here." Looking back at Thimb she adds, "Or did it?"

[OOC: I think I need some kind of time on how long you two plan to be at this. You arrived in the afternoon and the library will chase you out at, say, 10 bells. (Fantasy 10 pm.) Do you plan to be at this the entire time, or have you other things to go do?]

[OOC: Sithani has an appointment to be Ka'Ri's muscle at some point in the evening.]

[OOC: Good point. So, say, you'll need to leave around 6 pm to get ready?

Thimb, will you leave then too?]

[I feel like Thimb was supposed to go Do Something Else but have no idea what it was, so until I remember I'll say she sticks around until Hamish makes her go home and go to bed working on this, assuming no Mysterious Strangers turn up to give cryptic but sexy hints]

Thimb nodded, "I got them at the book seller. I have some candy drops in my bag somewhere, if you prefer those?" offered Thimb, starting to dig around before the other woman could answer. "Neither should be subject to the same danger as this," she said pointed to the entry that mentioned the runs. She made a mental note to ask Ka'Ri to investigate that. Probably nothing but if she was in the kitchens anyways might be something to keep an ear open for.

[OOC: Erdan probably will flit by to say 'hi' if she stays late. I can't promise cryptic hints, but he flirts incorrigibly.]