Ray appeared confounded by what she had said, not quite understanding, though he thought it sounded much like what the old woman in Ardougne had told him. Or perhaps he was overthinking it. Maybe she only meant the reason why he was here which would make just as much sense to him.
"Why am I here, ma'am?" He replied awkwardly. "I don't know anyone that would recommend me, nor do I have any research that I seek to expand upon. Are there any other reasons for me to be here?"
"The things that brought you to come here aren't important," she responded. "It's what things you're meant to be here for that are important. Whether or not you know the reason you arrived doesn't weigh much compared to the fact that you're actually here."
"Did you end up here because you were meant to be here, or that because you're here something is meant to happen?" the old man, Reffalk according to the young one, said. "Are you a catalyst we should be wary of, or a warning sign of something that cant be prevented?"
"I think he's a clever little one," the young man laughed gleefully. "I think he's a funny little toy for beings bigger than us all. A cruel writer brought him here, and surely they regret what they've done to such a small vessel. Doesn't quite live up to the name, does he?"
"Ray?" The old woman said.
"Faewulf?" The old man said.
"De-Delarn," the young man said, chittering. "De-De-De-De-larn!"
The two others appeared troubled, or as troubled as their wrinkly faces could manage. Finally, Reffalk coughed irritably, "well, he better. He better live up to what the fates have brought to him when he's been brought to our guild and our magic."
"The magic isn't ours alone," the old woman answered. "We are merely its heralds. We are merely containers and conduits for the magic."
"Speak for yourselves," the young man giggled. "I think this young man knows a hair more about what it means to be a conduit than he lets on. Tell me, was there a time when your emotions exceeded your runes? Do you regret it?"
"Terribly," Ray found himself saying, appearing a bit shaky, unsure if he was even supposed to still be standing there when they were talking about him like this.
"You weren't meant to live this long, so it's okay," he told him with a pleased smile. "The fact that you did is simply a sign of how resilient someone like you can be. Someone who was chosen to drive all this along like this, and yet here you are. The talking could go on forever, and you could do nothing to stop it. Not a single thing. Not with wit and not with that red fang."
"What are you prattling on about, Ronvile?" The old man exploded, and this only made the young one's laughter worst.
"Are you saying that this person doesn't have any direction because he's not meant to be alive?" The old woman murmured.
"Oh no," he answered. "He's definitely, definitely supposed to live now. He's always been expected to live simply from his role alone, isn't he? Whenever something happens in which he could very much have died it's felt wrong, hasn't it? What would you say, Ray? Tell Hallana that you're glad to be alive so that we can settle that."
"Well," Ray answered softly, "I don't really know. I think all my efforts have come to show that I'm more a hindrance than anything else. I don't feel as if I've done anything worth living for. If anything I'm alive because I'm afraid to die."
"That's the curse of having a fate," Reffalk reflected, "but there must be a reason that you're here. Did you expect to simply wander the halls forever?"
"I didn't really think about it. I didn't really consider that I was supposed to be here at all, but I also don't feel as if there's anywhere else in the world that I should be more," he answered quietly.
"Then I think the first thing you should do is to study what you love. You should figure out what it is that really interests you, and expand from there," The old woman, Hallana answered.
"I think you should find the reason that you were brought to us. I think you should find the great evil to vanquish that you obviously came here for and vanquish it. Are you a warning or a catalyst, boy?" Reffalk decided.
"I think you should find out what you're really made of," Ronvi, the young one, told him. "I think you should give in to the demons that consume you and face them. You're not human or wolf, are you? You're the best of both, and both can help you if you can just figure it out. Are you a smart boy? A clever girl?" His tone was teasing, his eyes looking at him as if he could see it all. Hallana didn't seem capable of turning her head, so Raffalk seemed to turn his head to regard Ronvi with extra vigor and exaggeration for the both of them. The young man merely laughed and continued, "Shall we make our new scholar a member of the guild then?"
The old man grumbled, his eyebrows knitting together and the old woman didn't seem to say anything for an uncomfortably long time before finally, Raffalk answered, "Yes, it should be done."
For a moment Ray seemed to be held in place as they began to chant, and though it felt like he should be scared or nervous when he didn't know what they were doing or what they intended with him, it merely made him curious, so he stood still and allowed it to happen. By the time they were finished a visible beam had converged between the three of them to cross where he was standing, seeming to go through him. Ronvi seemed to giggle in delight as he was aware that the curiosity that allowed him to stand his ground before them was also a significant weakness of his, and it was a terrible irony indeed.
After they were done, he swayed and blinked strangely at them. He mainly paid attention to Ronvi who was plain in his sight, though his near-sightedness made everything else there blurry. Hallana told him plainly, "this was to allow you to move through the guild freely, though any studying wizards will be able to prevent you from entering their quarters, as is their right-as well as yours if you wish for privacy. If you should act in a way that should challenge the guild and make it clear that you intend to be a threat to us, it is just as easy to make the effects of the premises return and confuse your senses once more."
"And often," Raffalk added, "this spell will have the side effect of causing the person it was used on to suffer from or benefit from intense visions and dreams the first night or so, which I'm sure will assist in your glorious adventure to stop whatever dark being that brought you here."
"Or find the subject that you're meant to study," Hallana cut in, her voice almost sharp as if to reprove Raffalk.
By this point, Ray expected the third to add his bit as well, but the young man was mysteriously quiet now despite how Ray was looking directly at him. Maybe it was the amount of attention he was giving him—he did seem somewhat shy now—but even as Ray looked away toward the other two, he still didn't speak. He felt confused, and Hallana cut in as if she was now annoyed with Ray, telling him, "That's all you need to know for now. If you're required, we'll call on you to check on your progress. Go on now."
Ray gave Ronvile one last look, almost feeling disappointed, but he studiously seemed uninterested in him now and so Ray, not wanting to bother the other two further as Raffalk was starting to bristle again, turned on his heels and went to leave. The moment he stepped out, he felt strangely familiar with the guild, or at least with the places he had already been, and even felt as if he could find his way back to his room himself, though Glen was still waiting outside the room for him.
"So what did they tell you? Which one of them talked to you? The man or the woman?" Glen asked, his eyes wide and curious. "Did you find out why you're here?"
The wizard quelled for a moment, taking Ray's confused expression to be one of his previous agitations, and only grew more confused as Ray answered, "There were three, and they all talked to me. Did the young one join recently?"
"Young one?" Glen answered, appearing immediately flummoxed. "You have to be practically eighty to even think about being their peer, let alone actually having the skill to be allowed in the same room as them during the integration spell—besides being the member integrated, of course—and you're saying there was a young man in there?"
Ray shrugged sulkily and replied, "I don't know, but he was definitely in there. They interacted with him and everything and treated him like an equal. Maybe even a better."
Glen stared a bit longer before he replied, "This is your way of trying to prove that you have a sense of humor after all, isn't it? Or are you trying to cover for yourself or something like that? Is it because you know most of the wizards that the old man chooses tends to be misfits of some sort? Are you trying to hide that he's your master in the house?"
"What?" Ray answered, appearing agitated that he was implying that he was lying to prove that he wasn't weird. "You know more about this than I do, and I definitely didn't only speak with one of them. If anything the young one talked to me the most."
"Look, stop trying to be some inflated character or something," Glen answered, though he was a bit wary again as he could see that dark cloud of anger rising on Ray's face again. "People often are confused and dizzy when they first come out of the integration spell, and you seem particularly pale. Why don't we just get you back to your room, and you can take a nap and tell me all about your very important dreams when you wake up, alright?"
"Definitely nothing as important as water moving from one container to the other or ocean waves crashing over a waterfall," Ray muttered bitterly, not appreciating being treated like a liar or a madman that needed to be tucked in. Glen flushed, and it was clear that he was caught between being flattered that Ray seemed to remember what he said about his research and being mocked for what he specialized in when Ray was trying to make himself appear more important.
"I was hoping for a quiet life here," Ray added in annoyance, going to walk past him towards his room. Glen stared at him before shuffling after him, not wanting to be responsible if he got into something he shouldn't, especially since he seemed to behave like someone that would.
"Oh, good, your room," Glen commented once they arrived a moment later, his arms folded.
"Yes, mine. I feel too tired right now to see what you're working on, but I'll be sure to come by," Ray snorted, imagining that Glen would never want to see him again, "if you still want to show me."
"What do you think you're going to gain from looking at my research," Glen retorted, suddenly feeling paranoid about what Ray expected from him, and vaguely wondering if he meant to steal his work.
"I don't know, really. I thought it would be interesting, but I guess I can leave you alone also," he answered, slamming the door on him. Both men proved to be confused about how they felt about the other once the door was closed between them.