A helpful, mysterious professor
For tobegii on Discord! An interaction between my Uzair and his Moussa!
Uzair had been missing his brother for so long, he wasn't sure he'd even recognize him if he saw him. He'd wanted his code name to be Uther, and he'd shown Tiana the book of Elibe history. She'd told him no, he doesn't look like an Uther at all. She was right. So Ulysses he was, a true thinking man's name.
He was placed in charge of making sure Aunt “Faline” and Uncle “Castor” didn't start any fights. Farah, under the code name Faline, was following Nader, “Nardel” around like a duckling, or a lost dog, one of the two. She'd had to give a few unwanted suitors the death glare already so he could see why she wanted to stick by Nader. Apparently they had dated before he was born?
Cassim had found a duo of fishermen to talk to. Uzair sat with him.
One fisherman had red hair, the other had a dusty purple. The redheaded fisherman was talking about a scary encounter with a shark.
“Nasty creature!” The redheaded fisherman recalled. “Had to fight him off, I did...almost got away with scars.”
“Scars wouldn't be the end of the world.” Cassim began, about to say in his country they were badges of honor before remembering the mission and redirecting himself. “I had a harpoon accident when I was fifteen and now my armpit is scarred. I was lucky there.” He wasn't lying.
“The shark wanted my haul of salmon.” The fisherman said. “So, Castor, help settle an argument between me and Jeremy here.” He elbowed the purple haired fisherman. “Salmon or tuna? Which is best?”
“Personally I'm a swordfish fan.” Cassim said. “Tawny spotted swordfish in particular.”
The fishermen stared.
“Uncle!” Uzair redirected. “The tawny spotted swordfish is only found in far Eastern waters!”
“Do you mean the blue swordfish?” Jeremy asked.
Cassim swore at himself mentally. “Yes, I knew that! Good heavens this champagne is getting to me.”
The redheaded fisherman chuckled. “When I have rum, I think of fish I haven't tasted that would be nice to import too. If those Almyrans will allow it, of course.”
“Ulysses. Be a good young man and bring your uncle back more cheese.” Cassim requested.
And that wasn't the first time he'd seen the teenager eye roll, and probably wouldn't be the last.
“Ulysses” meandered out of the dining hall and went to the library. Maybe “Claude” was here. He settled himself on a beanbag chair in the history and legends section with a book on ancient history and the origin of crests.
The book described an ancient warrior king known as Nemesis and his band known as the Elites, but it stopped there. Pages were ripped out. How odd...who would do this?
He took the book to the counter and to the librarian. “Excuse me, somebody is ripping pages out of your books.”
The librarian looked shocked. “Thank you, young man. I'll get to the bottom of this.” Uzair gave the book to the librarian and retreated back to the same section to look for more books.
A hand clamped his shoulder, and he jolted and assumed combat stance. He should have brought his sword. But the tall man only smiled and chuckled. “Sorry, young man. Didn't mean to startle you.” His voice was melodic and soft, and he lowered it into a whisper to speak again. “I know where those ripped pages are. I recovered them. Would you like to see them?”
Uzair looked at the man. He was tan, wearing a Garreg Mach staff uniform, and had wavy dark red hair and gold earrings.
“My name is Moussa. I teach mounted combat, but I can't stand to see a bright young lad looking for information and coming up hands empty. What's your name, lad?”
“U-lysses.” Uzair barely remembered his code name.
Moussa stared him down for a second. Almost like he knew...but he just nodded. “Ulysses, follow me.”
Moussa led Uzair to his office. He opened a drawer and took out some papers. “It's important that these pages stay here and you don't tell anybody about them. I suspect the archbishop is trying to erase some aspects of history. Do you understand? You won't speak of what you read here?”
Uzair nodded.
“Then read.” Moussa handed the papers over.
The removed pages told of Nemesis and his Elites going to war against “a race of dragon men”, and each crest today was from dragon's blood, ingested by these warriors after the dragon's death. The idea made Uzair woozy. He found that his brother's crest came from a Star Dragon, whatever that meant. And that Claude's ancestor, Riegan, was a horseback archer. Like stepmom Tiana...also, the Elites had empty graves in their territories, because their bones could not be found...
He looked at Moussa and raised an eyebrow at him. “How did you find this? Where did you find this?”
“Boy, you know I can't betray my methods. But who knows. There may just be a trove of information in the sewers!” Moussa laughed, his voice like trilling bells.
Brief silence.
“You can't stay here for long.” Moussa said. “Get back to your classmates before anyone suspects a thing.”
Uzair understood. “Thank you, sir.”
“If you need any more hidden information you know where to find me. But be subtle about it.”
“Of course.”
