On his way to find Sereph, he ran into Anoroth, moving the other way. Mentally checking that his magical defenses were in place and the words to a quick stun spell ready to fly from his lips if needed, Trium stopped the other mage. "Is there anything to report?" He waved to have Anoroth Turn and follow the older mage, more as an annoyance than a necessity.

Anoroth turned and followed, after bowing to his direct superior. "Yes. Sereph is gifted in the ways of the mageand could have easily been quite a gifted magic user. His prior knowledge of the—" he said until he was cut off by Trium.

"Do not think me so stupid I do not already know about our Elderboys history in the arts!" Trium said sharply, turning to face the other mage in the deserted hallway. He reached over to the wall and traced a glyph that was carved in the stone. Magic washed over the pair, familiar to any drow. They were now magically silenced and invisible to everyone except each other. Trium continued, using the complicated hand signs of the drow. "Now tell me about his present, and his future," he signed to Anoroth.

Raising his hands to chest level, Anoroth replied, "He is interested more in theory than actual spells. The lesson was, for the most part, me answering questions he had about shaping the Weave, and the different schools of magic. He was quite keen on getting good explanations about how those two subjects rlated as well. He was quite intuitive and seemed already to know the answers I gave, but wanted confirmation that he was correct. As examples about shaping the weave, I taught him a drain spell as well as magic missle, and he specifically requested to learn physical harmony in tomorrows lesson."

"Physical harmony is a religious spell, Anoroth."

"Yes, I informed him of that. He told me to learn to cast it, find a priestess to teach him it, or learn how to cast spells with one less finger."

"Ah, so he is serious then. Very well, let us go to the library and see if we can't find a way to use that spell," Trium did well to hide his smile as he thought of how alike the only other powerful male in the family was to himself.For years he had been trying to convert religious spells into arcane ones, or develop equivalent spells, but dared not talk of it to anyone. Of course, his Clarissa had helped quite a bit, but to find two other research partners in one day was amazing. Though, the thought of his now chief rival with a finger or two less was no less amusing.

The pair continued the way they had been going, not bothering to dispel the enchantments. Going down two flights of stairs and then into a downward sloping tunnel, the two ended up in what was called the hall of magi. All the houses various magic oriented rooms were located along this hallway, with the exception of the scrying chamber and chapel, located at the top of the tower. They entered the library room, one of the doors on the right.

It was what you would expect from a library, solitary candles at reading stations, scrolls and tomes of all kinds of parchment scattered on half organized shelves. In this room was public knowledge of the arcane and the divine magics, such as Tallil allowed in the house. Anoroth set out to find a description of the physical harmony spell, while Trium pulled his collection of relevant scrolls out of his personal storage. They sat across from each other, changing their sight into the light spectrum, and starting to converse on possibilities.

0000

While the mages were researching, Sereph was off doing his own research. Besides being the weapons master of the first house, he was also the head assassin. It was for this highly enjoyable duty that he had cut his first lesson with Anoroth short. He had already left the house through one of the underground passages that led out to the middle class houses of the cavern city. He was wearing his assassination cloak, both a disguise and a marker. To most drow, it made him appear as a common male from a low house, above only slaves. But to those who watched the first house's activities, it marked him clearly as the elderboy gone out for some fun, for he wore the same cloak for every assassination he had ever been a part of.

As he walked down the road, keeping in character by bowing to passing nobles that would normally have to bow to him, he gathered his thoughts about Anoroth. The newest De'Faeror arcanist was far from inexperienced and had been quite the accomplished battle mage, focusing his studies on evocation, summoning, and related necromancy. He was not young, coming up on his third century. He was also not stupid. Sereph had prepared both textbook and philosophical questions for his would be tutor, and they had been, respectively, correct and profound, and his talk of the Weave very easy for Sereph to grasp as it was not technical, but thoughtful. He had been able to teach Sereph spells, not to learn them so much as to better understand the proper way to control the Weave. Quickly Sereph realized that he would come to like Anoroth quickly.

The thought was a it odd, and he decided to set it aside until he had time to decide what he wanted to do about it. In the mean time, he was coming up on his target. The house of a teacher at the fighters school, who proclaimed himself to be a stronger fighter than even the De'Faeror weapon's master. Sereph never let a chance to have some fun get away. The house was the thirty second in the city of hundreds, so the occupants were assumed to be higher ranked scum. Sereph had not bothered to investigate the house or his would be superior other than finding out when he would be in the house. He was underestimating his opponent, often a fatal mistake. A wicked grin spread across his scarf covered face.

Sereph wanted his opponent to have every advantage.