It didn’t take much effort to find the notes the two had left. It was a mess of scribbles that weaved between complete nonsense and handwriting that would make a doctor proud. It was a mix of languages, between the common tongue, English, Spanish, and a few languages Lukas couldn’t identify.

Lady Sar… er… Lady Kax let out a dry laugh, a mix of amusement and frustration. That turned into full-on irritation, however, as Lukas pointed out a poorly labeled jar of liquid. “Unique Aspect” it read, and the liquid inside looked like a mix between orange metal and mud.

He hopped down on the counter when she went to grab it. She muttered, “Appraise,” and her eyes went wide. Then she laughed again, pained and full of anger, “You’re kidding me. I’m going to spend weeks trying to make sense of our stupid notes. I can’t… just… we made something that should have been impossible. Somehow!” She looked like she wanted to crush the jar in her hands, but set it back down with a loud huff. "Maybe we can put out a commission for someone with the skills… Even though that would be incredibly rare… Plus they would have to actually be able to make sense of the literal translation, so they'd have to know…" The Elven beauty's words trailed off into a groan of frustration.

“I’m getting clothes on,” Lady Kax grumbled, “Wait for me in the sitting room outside.”

Lukas watched her walk away into another room before he started to move. He spent a long moment staring at the jar, though. He was curious about it, but he had no intense feelings about it. He’d probably try to help translate the notes, for her sake, but it wasn’t nearly as fascinating now that he wasn’t full of drunken wonder.

He hopped down off the counter and headed out to the sitting room like she said, choosing to walk on his tiny clawed feet instead of fly or change his form back. He still didn’t have his clothes. Where’d those end up, anyway…?

…Oh well.

His claws tapped with a soft takka-takka as he hurried along. He really needed to trim his nails again… but ugh. It was such a pain. Plus the sound was kinda cute.

It took a few minutes, but Lady Kax reappeared in her purple and gold cloak. She had the same look of annoyance on her face but had masked it with professionalism. Kax looked at the chrome dragon, as small as a kitten, perched on one of the couches, and her expression relaxed a touch. “You’re too adorable like that, positively distracting,” she muttered softly.

She sat on the arm of the couch Lukas was on, “I don’t think I talked to you about the important business yesterday. The main reason I invited you out really, before we got thoroughly distracted. We’ve received news from the Capital.”

Oh. Well, Lukas kind of suspected that they didn’t exactly go out to talk about research and make strange new concoctions. But news from the capital…? And to go to such a setting for the purpose? “I… see. What kind of news exactly? Is there a delegation or something that wants to meet me?”

This made Lady Kax chuckle to herself for a moment. “Well… of sorts. It’s more like you are going to be part of the delegation, and the person that wants to meet you is the royalty.”

“Wh- Wait, but-”

Seeing the little dragon panic, she gently patted his head. “Don’t worry. It’s going to be at least five years or so until then, so it’ll be some time before this becomes a concern. Your classes will be accounting for that, and for the more specific details important for royalty you will be having a royal tutor. It’s unfair to you, and I told them so I assure you, but they have certain… mm. Interests they’d like you to assist them with. As such, they will be instructing you on how to properly lobby the royalty for school affairs and other things.”

The elf rolled her eyes and stood, beginning to gather up her hair in a ponytail. “The school is trying to take advantage of your presence and influence as much as possible until you go your own way. They, and the royalty, will no doubt try to sway your course to stay and work with them. Do be careful, especially of the school’s efforts. The Fae Lord himself may decide to play a role in this since he seems to be taking a keen interest in you all.”

This just got a grumble from Lukas. “Well, unfortunately, it’s only partly up to me. I’m going basically wherever Aeva does.” Lady Kax nodded understandingly in return.

“I do understand that. I have a sibling that works here as well, and for the longest time, I stayed for her benefit. We planned on becoming adventurers, you see. Escape the nobility trap, as it were. But while I took well to my classes on fae conduct, my sister paid… less attention. So she was kept here like a finger trap. Every time we planned to leave, something happened to keep her here. We’re both here for our own reasons now, but they will very gladly do many things to convince you to stay, as long as you feel like it’s your own idea. Or at least that you have a vested interest in giving them your best. This school is a wonderful place… but it is very much run by the fae, and those influenced by them.” She reached out to pat his head again. “I want to see you stay, as well. But on your terms. I don’t want to see you get caught in some kind of bargain, as many staff here have.”

“Ah… thanks for the warning. I’m less concerned about it, and you’ll get that once you meet my sister, but I’m glad you told me. I’ll be sure to keep an eye out,” Lukas said, uncomfortable with the idea that the school would work in such a way. But he wasn’t really surprised at all. This whole nation was full of fae; their way of thinking would go all the way to the top, certainly.

With a nod and turn, Lady Kax opened the door. “We need to get going. I have to fill out some paperwork to commission the assistance of someone who can translate those damn notes. It’s tricky. The combined power of intellectual complexity and drunken stupidity makes them a truly difficult cipher,” she said as they walked through the wooden halls, the orbs of light on the walls slowly rotating colors. “Oh. By the way, as I’m sure you realized, they’re going through substantial efforts to gather the other Outsiders here, not just Aeva. One of those Outsiders appears to be some form of Fae themselves, and according to the sprites from the forest he lives in, he has a few strange abilities. We don’t know much about the other two as of yet.”

Lukas was silent save for the tapping of his claws on the floor, unsure how to process any of what just happened. He had woken up naked in a noble’s lab, having gotten drunk with her and having made a mysterious concoction, and now he was told five years from now he’d have to go meet the king and queen. Five years to work his ass off learning as much as he could about society and royalty and politics of the world. Great.

On the other hand, it would be very nice to have the other Outsiders here… as much as he’s enjoyed the environment and company, he’d certainly like to have others present from Earth. It might help bridge that undeniable disconnect he felt from those around him. Supposedly there were all from the same area, so it was possible that he might have known some of them. The only famous person around there was an Olympic-level athlete, so it’s possible that they’d be one of the people who got grabbed. Other than that… well, they grabbed him of all people. Sure, he was good at what he did, but they made it out that Outsiders are all some kind of savant paragons of skill. No way was he near that.

Shaking out of the thoughts, he tried to focus on the wooden walls with periodic simple wooden three-dot faces and circular disc doors that were his present surroundings. He had five years, and for now, it didn’t matter who else came. What mattered was keeping up with that suggestion from Rasdogir vas-Gromin Wratu about studying stuff relating to energy control skills. On top of that, what he said about the other way of using magic sounded worth investigating too. Free-form energy control instead of just using skills for it… as a chemist it made more sense to him to have more precise control over exactly what happened during a spell.

The elven woman stopped outside of a door suddenly, having stopped making small-talk whenever she saw he had drifted off in thought. “This is my stop for now. Do you have off of classes today?” This got a nod from the little dragon, who looked back a bit disappointed. He found he enjoyed her company.

“Yes, I have today off, generally. I was going to practice some things with Atel and Atsix and try and practice the energy manipulation skills since I got them not very long ago, but I don’t have any obligations exactly,” Lukas elaborated as he sat on the floor, still in his tiny quadrupedal form. “Why?”

She gave him a smile as she vanished through the door. “Oh good. Well then, if you can find the time, please do try to stop by a little shop close to where we ate called A Touch of Talent. It has a blue banner with a system screen with a quill writing on it.” Before he could ask any questions, she disappeared into the door, leaving him sitting in the hall.

Great. Now he’d be thinking about it until he went and took care of it. Crafty woman, that Lady Kax. Well… he could read the books from the library on the way he supposed.