An Owl's Rise

Down near the bottom of the record hall between the stone floor and the first raised platform Evelyn found the carrel she had rented.

It was a fairly large space for one, being much larger than any she had seen back on earth for the use of people.

\'I suppose when some owls are twenty plus feet tall, they need to be at least this big.

Landing down on it, Evelyn felt a sort of barrier wash over her, and when she looked down at her identification cuff a timer showing eight hours had appeared on it.

\'Looks like my time has started now. I was afraid it would have been going since I paid the rental fee, but it is good that it only active once I arrived.\'

Heading over to the desk, Evelyn set down the guidebook she had bought and began leafing through it.

\'Seems that the place is at least fairly well organized. Hm, looks like section 4-E is where the majority of the resources I need will be. And of course. It is closer to the top, about two-thirds of the way up.\'

Letting out a long sigh, Evelyn packed up the guidebook and began flying back up the massive archive.

She needed information on the location of dozens of different beasts, plants, and minerals if she was to gather ingredients necessary for alchemy. And she was going to have to do it the hard way.

When she arrived at the section that had the resources she wanted, she found that it was fairly crowded.

Many other awakened rank owls were doing research here. Trying to pick up on the locations of valuable materials they could acquire for credits or personal use.

\'No, no, no… Ah! Perhaps this one.\'

While scouring the shelves Evelyn finally came across something she was looking for. A record on beast sightings that contained some of the species she was interested in.

Immediately she moved to take it, but some sort of field blocked her.

She then watched words written in light appear on the shelving above the book that read,

\'This item costs twenty thousand credits to use. Please do not store it or attempt to leave the hall with it. Make sure to return it when finished.\'

Seeing this Evelyn now understood another way this place made its money. Valuable information could not be checked out for free.

With a despondent expression she held out her identification cuff and transferred the twenty thousand credits.

The barrier magic preventing her from taking the book then disappeared and she easily grabbed ahold of it.

\'Not being able to put it in my storage cuff is quite the inconvenience. I will only be able to gather a few things at a time before needing to return to my carrel. At the very least there is no time limit for how long I can borrow these resources.\'

The first book she needed in her claws Evelyn went searching for another one, and when she found it had to pay eighteen thousand credits for it.

A quick trip back to her carrel and she began reading through the books in search of the knowledge she wanted.

Soon the eight hours she had rented the carrel for was down to only three minutes left and received a warning that her time was running out from some automated magic.

\'Guess I should wrap this up for today. I used more than half my credits, but I managed to find out the usual locations of some of the items I need, as well as dangers I need to look out for. There are stills some things I want to go through before I head back out into the world, but I can do that tomorrow.\'

Picking up all the resources she had been using, Evelyn flew to the nearest platform to return everything, before leaving with the notes she had compiled.

The next day she returned and went through the process of collecting information again, and by the end of it was back down to only a few thousand credits.

Nevertheless, she had gotten credible information on around sixty percent of the items she was going to need for the advanced brews Melamine had taught her and was ready to go out an gather them.

\'I will need some more credits before learning where everything else is, but I think a break out in the open world to just explore on my own again will be good for me.\' Evelyn thought as she waited in line to return her materials.

Once she was fished giving everything back, she left the records hall that would be closing soon and made her way back to Melisandre\'s estate.

Along the way she mapped out her plans for the next day in her head and deiced to go to the mission hall and pick of requests for items she would already need to gather. Just like she had on her first foray out of the Roost.

"Oh, back late again. Did you spend all day gathering information today as well?" Melisandre said when Evelyn arrived in the kitchen.

She along with Anneli and Katrina had already sat down to eat, and it appeared they were nearly finished.

"Yeah, I wanted to get it all done at once. No point in checking out the same resource twice when they cost so much to use." Evelyn responded.

Both Anneli and Katrina shook their heads in agreement at this. Remembering all the times they had used their hard-earned credits to access information they needed.

"Well, looks like you learned one of the lessons I wanted to teach you. Everything has its costs, and sometimes you need to pay up to learn things."

"Yes, I certainly learned that." Evelyn said with a slightly dejected tone.

At this point she was practically destitute, with barely any credits to her name. Still, it was not all bad. She had learned plenty, and Melisandre\'s aid was keeping her from having to pay for daily necessities.

"So where did you decide to go first? You must have put together at least a basic plan by now."

"I think I will try out the Elmot Gorge and the nearby Velinis Desert. A good number of the resource I need will be there."

Hearing this, Melisandre, Anneli, and Katrina all stopped eating and looked at Evelyn with concern.

"You know that the Elmot Gorge is particular dangerous. Plenty of powerful beasts make their home there, and it is not like the glowing woods which the Roost has laid claim to. A number of powers use it for resources. Humans included." Melisandre warned.

"I know. But it has a great variety of the items I will need, and I feel like if I play it safe my progress will stagnate. I will make sure to do my best not to get in over my head and stay safe."

Seeing the determined look in Evelyn\'s eyes Melisandre back off and decided to let her do as she wanted.

"Very well, but make sure to come see me before you go. I will at least give you another defensive talisman to protect yourself with."

Nodding her head, Evelyn thanked Melisandre for her help. Before sitting down to eat with the rest of them.