Rheuben detested him on sight. The man laced his long fingers together on the desk between them, and Rheuben thought he still managed the ashy complexion of academics, even though his skin was tinted light brown, like the far western men.
"Professor Eurice," began Loren in greeting, but behind him Rheuben could not help but lift his chin in revulsion. He did not know how Loren endured the sneers they universally encountered in places like this, and still greeted the sneers' owners with a polite smile and an honorific. "We're told that you're a mapping expert, as well as a linguist."
The intellectual nodded, barely a dip of the chin, and waited. Loren opened his mouth, paused for a second as if holding back, and then responded. "We got a map that we think's in one of the Elder elven languages. We were-"
The man cut him off, leaning forward slowly as he spoke. "Haven't you lot always 'got' a map or some such for us to translate for you?" Rheuben winced, recognizing his friend's Freeport brogue, affected in the unaccented acedemic's speech. He could feel himself getting angrier, and he knew Kiera could see where his fists were clenched behind his back. "Well, let's have it," he said, lifting his eyebrows in mock excitement.
Loren said nothing, but Rheuben could see that his jaw was set as he handed over the map. Rheuben's own jaw felt as though it were bordering on cracking. Eurice let him hold the parchment outstretched for a few minutes before, slowly, lazily, reaching for it. Just before he touched it, he frowned and withdrew his hand. Loren's gaze flickered to Rheuben, who returned it with a narrow-eyed glare. Loren shifted from one leg to another uncomfortably.
The man opened a drawer and withdrew gloves. Rheuben took a deep breath and began mentally reciting catechisms. At last, Eurice took the parchment in gloved hands and flattened it on the desk. "This is rather crude," he remarked, slowly smoothing it across his desk, and wincing as he brushed dirt off to the floor. "Surely your female companion managed to pick up some of her ancestors' tongue when she wasn't cavorting about the woods."
Rheuben barely heard Loren draw in a sharp breath and Kiera gasp. He flew at the professor, incensed beyond coherency, and slammed his hands onto the desk, disturbing quite a few pens and some less recognizable instruments. "You have no right—" he sputtered. His voice rumbled over the soft-spoken man's protests. "You have no rank over me whatsoever. I probably even come from a richer family." He spun on his heel, facing a shocked Loren and Kiera. "We do not have to listen to this," he delivered, glaring at them, too, for good measure.
"First, I care not a wit about your family's money," began Eurice, who had no moved since the exchange began. "We who work at the Order of Three care only for ability. Second, ah... you do, in fact, have to listen to me," the professer interjected rapidly while Rheuben took a breath. It was perhaps the fastest thing the academic had done in the entire meeting.
"What the hell are you talking about?" asked the infuriated paladin, spinning around again.
"The runes indicate that the parchment is... enchanted. I would call it cursed. Until all who look at it do as it says, I'm afraid we won't be getting very far away from each other at all." At Rheuben's dumbfounded look, Eurice sighed. "I assure you that as unhappy about this arrangement as you are, I am even more upset. I have no desire to go gallivanting about for the gods-know-what in…" he paused, considering. "Why didn't you tell me where you found the map?"
"I tried," said Loren slowly, eyeing Rheuban, who had thrown his hands in the air and was now pacing silently across the room. "You cut me off with a comment about all the maps we've brought you to translate for us—all one of them."
At last, both Eurice and Rheuben were silent. Kiera sighed and wished she were outside.