Isaiah set down the book that he was reading that contained Gabrielle’s background. He was seated in the Shadow City Public Library. It was a large building with a glass dome of a roof. It had several floors with stone shelves filled with books and scrolls. There were ladders about to reach the higher levels and candles all around on tables with chairs. An NPC elf was standing in the room not doing anything. Her name was Armise and her description told that she helped people by keeping track of the backgrounds of players.

Apparently ‘background’ was also a command. Isaiah’s player tried typing background just to see what it would do. It popped into a text editor and he typed a couple weird things before he figured out how to exit the edit state. The weird stuff he typed interlaced with commands like ‘who’ just got plopped into the text editor instead of being used at command. He then needed to look at the help file to figure out ‘background remove’ was how someone deleted their background. It wasn’t likely that anyone was going to research Isaiah but having nothing was better than gibberish.

What would he write as a background anyway? ‘An elf steps out of the woods. He kills some goblins and gets killed by goblins. Kills more goblins. He walks down a street in shadow and gets stabbed down by a hidden Nightfall for no reason at all. Well maybe something racial. Nightfall might just kill all elves on sight. Killing all elves on sight sounds like something an evil half-elf might do.’ No, Isaiah needed a better background than that. He put it to the back of his mind promising to give it more though later.

Now it was time to focus on shopping for components. There was this fancy magical bone dagger he wanted to identify. So he headed to the wizard’s tower and looked at the components they had for sale.

Bat guano 10 gold 4 stored

Blessed leather 48 gold 67 stored

Dragon scale 480 gold 70 stored

Eyelash 3 gold 11 stored

Fur 96 gold 82 stored

Pearl 96 gold 41 stored

Powdered amber 96 gold 19 stored

Sulfur 24 gold 31 stored

Tiny hearing trumpet 96 gold 32 stored

Wing feather 20 gold 79 stored

Isaiah’s player blanked a bit at the list of components. What was he looking for again? Oh right, the identify spell he just transcribed. He checked the help file for ‘identify’ to try to jog his memory on what the components were. They were a Pearl and an owl feather. He spent 960 gold for 10 pearls and placed them in his components pouch. Well he tried to. It turned out he didn’t have a component pouch. Where did it go? He was sure he got one a while back. Well another one costs 10 gold. He just paid for another one and placed the pearls in it. Hopefully this one won’t go walking off like the last one. He only had a couple thousand gold on him and buying those pearls put a big dent in his funds.

Isaiah was 50% equipped to cast identify. He had acquired pearls but lacked owl feathers. In in other words, he still couldn’t cast identify. He would have to find another alchemist who had the component he needed in stock. He thought of another darker way. If the goblins died and respawned every 15 minutes could he kill the NPC and wait for her to respawn. Would that even work? She could be a deadly fighter and attacking could be his next death. Would the alchemist even respawn? The rates might be different for NPCs than monsters. Isaiah’s player imagined the first round involving a squad of guards appearing from nowhere and his not even lasting a round after that. Maybe it was a good time to run away from this identify spell problem.

The ‘wholist’ showed Light as online so Isaiah would go find her and ask for advice. He headed back out the west road of shadow. Light wasn’t in the newbie areas helping out the low level players when he checked so he headed further west along the quiet forest road to where the temple of Lathander was. Light was in the temple alone.

Isaiah says: “Hello Light.”

Light says : “Isaiah, well met.”

Isaiah smiles and bows.

Light curtseys.

Isaiah says: “How are you Lady Light?”

Light says: “I’m no Lady, just a simple priestess Isaiah. It is good to see you and I am doing well.”

Isaiah smiles at Light.

Isaiah says: “If you are not busy could I ask you about the surrounding cities?”

Light nods.

Light says: “I will try to answer your questions.”

Isaiah says: “Well, I am in need of Owl Feathers. I looked in shadow but could not find any at the alchemist in the wizard’s tower. Do you know of other places to look?”

Light hmms.

Light says: “Well Isaiah, Daggerdale has one. That city is north of shadow by quite a bit. Tonovi is near there too but you should stay away from that place. Elves are not welcome there. The city of Tharis is south of shadow but elves are treated poorly there. They get rounded up in the elven quarter of town and ruffians attack any elves they come across. Across the sea there is a town on deku isle called verrobone that has several shops that might have your owl feathers. West of Tharis there is a town called Azha you might check there as well.”

Isaiah frowns.

Isaiah says: “It sounds like there is a lot of hate for elves in these lands.”

Light sighs and nods.

Light says: “It is true. The cities with evil ruling them do not like the good aligned race of elves.”

Isaiah says: “It bothers me. Is there nothing to be done to free my cousins?”

Light says: “The towns are set in their own ways. If you enter them expect poor treatment and be ready to defend yourself in some cases. Some of the ruffians in Tharis can even cast magic.”

Isaiah says: “Still I would like to go and defend the elves of Tharis someday maybe when I am stronger.”

Light says: “You don’t need to be in a rush to get stronger. Focus on finding these feathers you seek before running into something too dangerous for yourself.”

Isaiah says: “Gabrielle says that we are cousins… even though.”

Light looks frustrated and frowns.

Light says: “Isaiah, I told you before to be careful around that Lovite Priestess. I don’t even talk to her and I suggest you do the same. Her attention is dangerous.”

Isaiah sighs wistfully.

Isaiah says: “I know I know… it is just… I was researching her and found that Gabrielle isn’t even her real name. Her family served Eldath before she fell in lot with Lovaitar. If she is my cousin then I would seek her redemption.”

Light smiles.

Light says: “Lathander seeks everyone’s redemption; it is like the new dawn banishing the darkness. But she is her own person Isaiah and you cannot make her forsake Lovaitar.”