Theo tapped his fingers along the top of his tiles, pretending to look over them. In actuality, his combination was worthless, which he'd known from the beginning, and his only goal was to bluff through the round. Around the table, the young nobles whose names he couldn't remember watched him, uncertain how the match will go.

"I'll take the odds." He didn't put any confidence into his voice that could have sounded like bluster, it was just a simple statement. Theo reached out and dropped more Silver Crowns into the pile, then watched his opponent without any expression.

Across the table, the noble of the Evigne family tried to look confident, but his facade was obvious. Theo bided his time by wondering if he had been that obvious when he was young. Most likely he had - on the few occasions when he'd gambled for sublime materials, he'd been fixated on having unbeatable combinations, which made for dramatic finishes, but it was a mathematically unwise strategy overall. Not that bluffing and failing would be good for him, in a Deuxan court.

"Do you really gamble for blood on Fithe?" The noble stared at him a moment longer, then suddenly grinned and knocked his tiles over. "I'm out. You've got to be cheating, Bartolo."

Here, that was essentially a compliment. Theo carelessly turned his tiles face down and placed them with the others, hiding the fact that he'd had absolutely nothing. He was glad to sweep the pile of winnings over to his side, but didn't feel particularly satisfied about it: playing against children might as well be rigged odds.

But he had no interest in games, just in the benefits. The money he'd earned gambling was a pittance compared to the information he'd learned about the upcoming hunt, notably common strategies and the limits of the rainhorn region. Perhaps more importantly, he'd learned that a few lesser noble houses without good hunters were desperate to buy antlers to improve their standing, which could be exploited when the contest began.

He needed to relocate throughout the city, though, or he'd attract too much attention. So long as he didn't win too much or make a name for himself, he could increase their earnings in the evenings and pick up a few more sublime emblems. Better than nothing, and since Nauda and Fiyu were deep in their own soulcrafting, he had nothing better to do.

It worked out well, so long as Senka didn't manage to tag along. The one time she had done so, she'd gone out of her way to make the night a living hell.

They tried to get him to stay and play a while longer, but Theo made excuses and bowed out. He wasn't only planning to gamble, he also intended to visit the court library. A heavy pack of family emblems hung in one coat pocket, which he hoped would be enough. It would have been nice if he'd managed to get someone to bet a major sublime material or armament, but this would do.

After moving through one of the upper markets to shake potential tails, Theo headed to the court library. Deuxan might not value learning, at least not compared to Arbai or Siata, but he'd learned that they did have a library not controlled by any single house. It was a modest building, befitting its place in society, so he missed it the first time before turning back and buying his way in with the emblems.

Perhaps that would be wasted, but Theo had decided that missing a chance to potentially learn more was a greater risk than giving up a small amount of money and sublime materials. As desperately as he needed power, he had a feeling that he wouldn't be able to win any conflict against his mysterious opponents with strength alone.

"What?" The librarian, a lean man with a soulhome that seemed purely functional, regarded him over finely crafted spectacles. "A foreigner? What is it you want to look up?"

"I don't suppose you use an organizational system either."

"This is the Anguedan court library, not some trivial bookstore. If I don't know the location of what you want to know, then it doesn't exist here."

He hadn't really expected better, but Theo still sighed and accepted it. "I need to know any information you have about a noble family from another court, possibly another continent. They were the ai Teraeves family... a small family, but known for their powerful soulcrafters about 110 years ago."

"That name sounds more mythological to me than anything. We certainly don't have anything current that mentions such a name, but let me look into the older books." With that, the librarian retreated into the shelves.

Alone, Theo noted that the opening chamber of this library was set up even more hostilely than the one in Nlukoko. He could easily have vaulted the fence of desks, but on the other side he could see that the shelves were a mess, probably ordered by date of acquisition instead of anything sensible. At least relying on the librarian would get him a result faster than searching himself.

The fact that the name sounded mythological didn't really surprise him. Brigana ai Teraeves had said her family was ancient and simply down on its luck in recent times. If she had lived... Theo took a deep breath, still trying to come to grips with the fact that Brigana was almost certainly dead. If she had lived, she might have turned her family's fortunes around, but it seemed that they had passed from history altogether.

"I didn't expect to see you here." Esaire's voice came from the door and he turned to see the Armeau family noble step into the library with a grin. "Imagine my shock, finding you in the location where I tracked you."

"No entourage of supporters this time?" Theo didn't think the noble would attack in the court library, so he adopted a different sort of bluff. "Either you're feeling much more confident or you aren't here for a duel today."

"I'm just curious why you're here. What exactly are you looking for, and what use would an outsider have for obscure Deuxan knowledge?"

"I have some outdated texts about Deuxan. If I can figure them out, I might be able to uncover an ancient cache of sublime materials." That was actually partially truth, given that he'd left some things near Brigana's family home, and Esaire seemed to hear the honesty. After a moment's hesitation, he only shrugged.

"Are you sure you wouldn't accept an alliance with us? The Anguedan court has some influence with much larger courts, you know, so if you did our family a substantial enough favor, we could track down... whatever it is you seek."

"Perhaps another time." There was no safe way to refuse, so Theo just approached it directly.

He saw a frown flicker across the young noble's face, but before he could find something to say, the librarian emerged. "No record of the Teraeves family, but-" He cut off as he saw Esaire, who promptly waved him on.

"Oh, don't mind me," Esaire said. "What invaluable information have you discovered for our friend?"

"Well... there's absolutely nothing about them in any of the court documents we have here, which include a great many international agreements. One reference to a similar name, but it was over a thousand years old and a different form. Is it possible that you misread the family name?"

"Not likely." Though he could have pushed, on some level Theo believed it. He was far from where he'd last been on Deuxan and over a century had passed, so he didn't really expect to find valuable information. That didn't mean he couldn't try. "Thank you for your time."

The librarian promptly turned away, perhaps to return to his work or perhaps getting out of the way of a potential conflict between combat soulcrafters. Esaire started to follow Theo as they left the library, but stopped on the walkway outside and folded his arms.

"That's all? I was expecting something more scandalous, I have to admit."

"I'm not an interesting man." Theo regarded him with the neutral expression he'd used not so long ago. "If you'll excuse me, I have some mundane tasks to perform."

As he left, Esaire actually did seem disappointed, and Theo almost hoped that the young noble had grown bored with him. Theo didn't see any advantage in pursing that conflict, so he'd hope so. At the very least, he got away from the court without any trouble that day.

That had been the best he could do. If he really wanted to track down his old memories, he needed to find a Deuxan weirkey, and using one of those meant becoming at least an Authority. That was so far beyond him that Theo set it out of mind: the goal he needed to focus on in the short term was reaching this hub city Nauda had mentioned, which meant a thousand lesser goals along the way.

Still, part of him felt as though those old experiences from his past life were slipping further away...