Session 7.5 - Behind Jidoor Number One

The charity auction has ended, and Yves is currently appraising a piece of artwork, perhaps not entirely sure why he bought it. Bast, Ingrid, and Isa are all offering their own input, leaving Orrey and Linnet to go speak to a losing bettor from the auction, a viera who immediately excused herself outside after losing the bet. You are left to prepare for a moment before engaging.
"Orrey, do me a favor and don't let me actually hand off this book. I'm easily swayed by a sob story," Linnet says.
“No way that’s going to happen. I swear it by all that’s been Forgotten.”
"Right." Taking a deep breath and glancing down to make sure her feet are actually touching the ground, Linnet adjusts her messenger bag and sets off.
Orrey wonders if he’s in over his head going to talk to someone who may or may not be involved with his nemesis Avenger group.
He probably is. That's why this is a team errand!
As Linnet and Orrey head outside to head to the Velvet Sundown, they see the viera who lost. Sitting on a bench by the lightly trampled flower bushes, her head down in her hands, ears drooped, maybe shaking.
Linnet takes a seat beside her on the bench. "Hey."
She peers out between her fingers at Linnet, and then turns, eyes wide, agony written plainly on her face. "I need that book. I promise you, I need that book. THAT book. PLEASE."
Orrey stands nearby awkwardly, holding his sketchbook almost like a talisman to his chest.
"As do I, so let's talk. Where's it going? And do you have any idea who the asshole in the feathers was who jumped in just to bump the price up? Because the only way he's getting this book is smacked over his fool head."
"I don't know who he is. I don't care who he is. I need that book." She grips her left ear, pulling on it anxiously. "If I don't get that book, my best friend is going to die."
Orrey closes his eyes tightly, seemingly in pain as he hears her.
"This sounds less like a hand-over-the-book situation and more like either a 'get your best friend the hell out of there' or a 'kill whoever's holding them hostage' situation. Orrey, I recognize that headaching look. You've got something to say. Let it out."
He lets out the breath he was holding. “They’ve got my father, too.”
She looks at Orrey, uncomprehending.
“I was sent for the books, too. If I didn’t get to them in time, my father is in the same position as your friend. I know exactly what you’re feeling because I was there yesterday, before some friends helped me out of a jam.”
"I... I don't think we're in the same situation. I'm sorry about your father," she adds hastily, "but that has nothing to do with me or my situation." She takes a deep breath. "Let me explain."
"Please." Linnet still rests her hands on her messenger bag, but her posture is all compassion and attention.
Orrey is severely confused and starting to doubt his ability to logic.
"His name is Natron Rensa. We have been friends all our lives. I don't know how to live without him. I'm supposed to--" she chokes up, but powers through. "I'm supposed to be his best woman at his wedding in a month. And now he's going to die, unless we get this book.
"He's a Geomancer. A Geomancer, and an earth sylph. I don't know what happened. I don't know which of those is most important. He... came down with something, two months ago. It started small. He said he had some stiffness in his fingers.
"He figured it was nothing. I told him to go to a doctor, but he said he'd be fine. He wasn't fine. It wasn't fine." She takes a few deep breaths, staring at a spot on the ground ahead of her. "The stiffness turned into stoniness, in that his body was honestly hardening. He went to a doctor, they didn't understand. They couldn't explain it. It wasn't until a Scholar came through and met with us that we had a name for his affliction.
"Azjol-Ruvan Syndrome. It's unique to sylphs, she said. The element to which they are aspected starts to lose its balance. She said that wind sylphs just... disintegrate, blowing away in a breeze. Fire sylphs burn themselves out in a matter of weeks. Earth sylphs, it goes slower, but... but they just turn to stone. He can barely move."
Linnet glances down at herself, again, to make sure she's touching the ground and the bench. She seems pretty solid. "And this book has the cure?"
"That book is supposed to tell of a way to... suppress the effects Job Crystals give. He's a Geomancer. He already has control of earth through that. If we can seal that, if we can cut off his access to earth, then maybe this stops. Maybe it resonates with him differently. Maybe it does nothing. But I can't just let him die."
"You don't happen to know what part of the book that's buried in, do you? Orrey's good with art, we could probably whip up a quick copy..." She glances guiltily at Orrey for volunteering him. (But she doesn't take it back.)
“Uh, yeah, I could do that. I have another empty notebook in here,” Orrey says.
"I don't. I have a six-day train ride to figure that out. I came with my savings and the money he saved for his wedding. I don't have any more money. He doesn't either." She sags down into the bench. "I don't know what to do."
"I'm going to mull this over for a second...please don't think me a heartless monster, I'm just processing. What's your name, by the way? I'm Linnet. Linnet Leveche."
"Ryna Jidoor."
"Ryna, I promise, we are not going to let your friend die just so I can get my life back and Orrey can save his father. There has to be a way we can solve all three. When does your train leave?"
"Tomorrow at 10 AM."
“That might be enough to find and copy the relevant section.” Orrey takes a breath at the workload ahead of him. “If we have a giant pot of coffee.”
"Ryna, would it work for you if we sent you home with the relevant section of the book? Honestly, between Orrey and myself, we should be able to speed-read this thing for any mention of Azjol-Ruvan syndrome and copy it out for you."
“Or geomancy, or suppressing job crystals.”
"Unfortunately, that last one I think is pretty much the whole book. Judging from the one page of it I've read. Damn it." She pauses.  "...six days? Where are you going that takes six days on the train?"
“We could also get some train tickets,” Orrey offers.
"Northwest Cardia, the village of Uhja. Three days on the train, three days by chocobo from Cardia."
“If we’re going to do this, we should go somewhere without many distractions and with plenty of coffee. And wasn’t Yves talking to that guy on the train about this kind of stuff?”
"This does sound like Yves' sort of challenge. Does the Velvet Sundown do all-night coffee?"
“Considering the rest of the town, it might be our best bet. Maybe we can find a nook or they might have a private room we could borrow.”
Linnet jogs off in search of the rest of the group and returns a few minutes later with a still heavily cloaked gloombunny. "You can probably take off the hat now, Yves."
"You don't want to know what my ears look like after being stuffed in there all day. So where's the book I'm supposed to look at?"
Linnet pats her satchel. "The one you saw me crying over at the auction. We need to see if we can comb through it for SCIENCE and copy out the relevant sections for Ryna here. By ten a.m. tomorrow."
"Huh. It'll be like soph year all over again. Sure, I'm in, if someone else brings the coffee."
Linnet turns back to the other viera. "So we've got a plan and three brains on it to start with. I'm not sure how exactly this is going to go, but...will you trust us to give this a solid shot and not send you home empty-handed? We'll most likely be at the Velvet Sundown all night, given that someone got us kicked out of the guest quarters we were supposed to bunk in, but that's close enough to the train station that we should be able to meet you before your train leaves with at least an hour to spare."
Ryna mulls this over. "...sure. Worst case, we're just as lost as before."
"Truly worst case, I blew a substantial chunk of my boss's budget on a completely unhelpful tome with a stupid title. But let's be optimistic." Tentatively, Linnet puts an arm around Ryna's shoulders. "I know you've got no particular reason to trust a bunch of strangers, but I'm not about to leave an innocent hanging. If there's anything useful in that stupid book, we'll find it and we'll use it to save your friend."
She does not respond at all to the arm around her shoulders, and after a moment, stands up. "Thank you. I'm going to my room. I will meet you at the station tomorrow. I hope I see you there."
"Fair winds be with you." Slightly ashamed, Linnet glances first at Orrey, then at Yves. "Sorry I kinda volunteered you guys for an all-nighter here, but...I couldn't just walk away."
Orrey shrugs. “It’s for a good cause. I hope. “
"Particularly now that I know sylphs can just friggin' disintegrate, thanks a LOT, universe," Linnet grouses.
"But if we stop that from happening to one, that's really...virtuous. And stuff." Yves lifts both eyebrows hoepfully. "Because we're... good people?"
"We try, anyway." Linnet scritches the hat.
The hat looks a little dubious, but bobs in agreement.
"Well. Let's get our thinking caps and try to scope out the Sundown's quietest table. Yves, maybe you can put the painting over the front for a bit of a sound barrier or something."
"Yes, the king and the well-traveled tonberry can protect us from spies."
“You don’t think there’s actually spies around...do you?” Orrey starts looking around for suspicious types.
"Spies are the least of my concerns right now. Let's just not read out loud."
And with that...
End side session.