Ray, at first, didn't do too much. More often than not there would be food brought to him, though he would never see the server. It was usually something simple, but something he would enjoy eating, such as stew, bread and fruit juice or lemon water. It wasn't a great stretch for him to guess that it was magic rather than an actual person bringing him his food. He also found that he enjoyed sleeping more than anything else as of late. It was simpler for him to indulge in these complicated dreams or else the simple, thoughtless blackness. He found that the nightmares weren't as constant as when he was elsewhere. It wasn't that there weren't disturbing and complicated dreams like with the hunter, but they often didn't feel as if they pertained to him personally. It wasn't like he was dreaming of Beraliska tearing out his guts or fighting urchins for food or fighting against guards that cared more for the Zamorakian symbols stitched to his clothes than the way the clothes were slack and ribs were showing beneath.

He enjoyed the dreams where even in violence it was simple and straightforward and didn't leave him guilty upon waking.

Though no one here bothered to stir him from this hiatus, he nonetheless started to feel the pull to study and explore tugging at him little by little. It started slowly, as wandering about the tower and listening to the other wizards talking amongst themselves—there was always someone talking freely and openly in the tower—to searching for things such as the dining hall. There was an actual place to gather socially, or at the very least out of the room. It requires a little more asking than he was comfortable with so initially he just sat amongst them or rather alongside them. He would often keep his gaze down so he wouldn't accidentally meet anyone's eyes.

He also looked for the libraries, recalling being promised that there would be something like that here. He was relieved to find that this too was easy to find once he started looking for it, and was relieved to see so many books. He didn't know where to begin, so he just started looking through the shelves. Some of it was simple and straightforward, or at the very least they were the types of things that he learned to read and recognize from Telago's library, or at least they were along the same lines. Others were strangely encoded or extraordinarily vague or didn't make any sense even though he could read them. He guessed that some of those that didn't make sense, like the recipe books or the discordant ramblings were encoded as well, and once he was a bit more familiar with magic as a whole he would be able to sort it out.

He was so intent on reading the books that he didn't notice that Glen had walked in. The man was watching him like he had been a mere hallucination that he didn't really believe was actually sitting in front of him, especially when Ray got up and started looking for more books like he was the only existing being in the world, let alone the library. Glen felt almost sentimental watching him, especially since he didn't seem to carry the weight that he showed when he first met him.

"Hey," Glen finally said, "I thought you said that you were going to come to see my research. Were you lying when you said you were interested in it?"

Ray jumped and looked at him with a mixture of annoyance and unease and Glen almost regretted asking until Ray said, "I didn't think you actually wanted me around you, honestly. Would you want to now?" Glen felt further annoyed because he apparently didn't register that he was joking, and seemed to be asking just so he wouldn't sound rude.

"Look, it's not a big deal if you really don't want to," he answered.

"It's not that I don't want to," Ray answered, his voice taking on a sharp edge. "It's just that you surprised me. Do you want to show me or not?"

"Maybe another time," he replied, clearly still bothered. "I'm busy right now. I just came by to pick up a book." He took the nearest book on the nearest shelf and walked away. Ray huffed, not knowing what to make of it and not knowing what to say to that even if he had a chance to.

He kept trying to read, but now the exchange was the only thing on his mind and nothing he was reading made any sense, though he was sure it was before Glen had come along. He grumbled angrily and replaced everything he found on the shelves in neat order, knowing that if he didn't he would feel even more anxious and bothered by the encounter.

He then marched out into the hall, and though he felt like going back to his room, he continued wandering the halls instead. He thought that just locking himself in his room would be childish, even as he hoped he would run into Glen again so they could talk or argue some more. He kept thinking of comebacks and muttering them to himself under his breath.

"I didn't want to see your research anyway."

"I want to see your research, but how good could it be when you have such a terrible attitude."

"Look, I know you were probably just having a bad day. I'm having a bad week. Leave me alone, alright?"

"Well, don't leave me alone. I think we can work this out later when I'm more familiar with everything."

"No, I don't need help. I can find everything on my own, thanks."

"Well, if you're going to be like that then I don't want to even see your research, let alone anything else in this tower."

"Not that I don't want to see it. I just don't think you're being very nice about all this."

"Okay, fine. I'm the jerk too. Happy?"

He was so busy murmuring to himself that he didn't notice that he was also crossing the paths of a woman in long, grey robes consistently. She seemed as absorbed in what she was doing as much as he was, so it wasn't imperative to him at first. Even so, he wasn't nearly as distracted, so it was starting to become obvious that he kept walking past her. It wasn't that she was the only one that he passed, but she was the only one that he kept seeing. Everyone else that passed him seemed to know exactly where they were going.

After so many times of seeing her, and with his mood growing worse and worse by the minute, he was starting to feel paranoid about it. He practically exploded, screaming, "What do you think you're doing?"

His voice boomed louder than he intended, and it even scared him a little. She looked like a pale mouse that he had pinned in his claws as she faced him. He felt hot with embarrassment as he realized that she could have been doing the exact same thing he was for all he knew, and he had only been here a week. She could have been here for a solid decade as far as he knew, though she also looked too young to have been. So had the young man amongst the elders, however.

Before he could figure out a way to apologize or extract himself from the situation, she seemed to step closer to him and whisper, "What do you know about me? Why have you been following me? Is it that obvious?"

"Is...what?" He replied, and she studied his face, the way that his eyes seemed wide and confused now.

"Oh, good," she sighed, and Ray's apparent confusion only grew. "Well, never mind. It's good to see one of the younger students so interested in exploring the place. Most of the others only stay in one place at a time. What's your name, young man?"

"Ray," he answered, the name felt a bit too short to tell—whoever this was. It didn't feel quite right to add anything else to it either.

"Well, Ray, my name is Reeva Swane, and I'm a tutor here. A wandering body is indicative of a wandering mind, and I find that quite impressive. Why don't you and I do some research together? I don't want to make you feel too special, but most days I have students with me, so I don't normally get this sort of one on one time, but today is my day off. I find that I can't concentrate on any sort of relaxation, however, but working helps set me at ease," she told him genially.

"Oh, right," he replied slowly, trying to think of an excuse to excuse himself from the situation, but the more he thought about the rarity of it the more appealing it seemed. He figured that she might help him figure out a goal for himself.

"Right, then lead the way. We should head to the library. Do you know where the library is?" She asked.

"I was just there," he replied awkwardly, knowing that had to be at least an hour ago. He waited a moment, expecting her to lead him to the library, but she just stared at him. He guessed that maybe he should be the one leading. The idea of doing that made his skin crawl, but even now she was staring into his soul, and that was twice as disconcerting. Wizards seemed to have a good grasp on that.

He went ahead, and before long they were in the library. He had walked particularly fast, feeling uncomfortable with the way she practically clung to him.

She looked amazed and pleased once they arrived, and after a moment walked past him and started gathering books and stacking them on a table. She sat down and started reading them voraciously as if the slightest amount of knowledge from these books fascinated her. He thought she had brought him along to teach him, but she seemed to just be doing research. She thought that maybe she changed her mind, but he felt too awkward to just leave, so he stayed there and waited patiently.

He wasn't sure how long this went on, but after a while, he murmured softly, "Miss Swane?"

When she looked up, he expected her to be angry, but she just looked confused as if she had forgotten his existence. She then seemed to remember why he was there to begin with. "Oh, right," she said, motioning to the spot beside her, smoothing down her long, straight blonde hair as she added, "It'll be easier for you to see it from here."

"Oh, alright," he replied, awkwardly clambering out of his seat and going to sit beside her. He left a good amount of space between them, and she didn't seem bothered by it.

"What kind of magic do you specialize in?" She inquired, scanning the pages again.

"Well, I've had particular luck or lack of with fire," he replied haltingly, itching at the side of his nose, trying to discern if he should change his story altogether, or be entirely honest.

"Fire is known for purging things, though people tend to not like it when it's happening. Fire...fire." She started to trail off as she began reading again, and it was quite some time before she acknowledged him once more.

"Right, well anyway," she said as he was starting to doze off, "I think you're good with transformations. I think you would be perfect for that sort of thing."

"Thanks?" He replied slowly.

She nodded and closed the books, tucking them away in her bag. "Take me to the cafeteria."

"Oh? What?" He replied. "I thought you were going to teach me."

"Food is an important part of any research," she replied gravely. "You should get something to eat too."

"Are we going to meet after this?" He replied.

"Let's get something to eat," she replied, getting up and going to the door, and then looking back at him impatiently.

He didn't know what to say to that, so he got up and went to stand beside her. She started staring at him again until he took the lead. He was surprised to see it empty when they got there. There wasn't anyone there at all, but that didn't seem to stop the food from being distributed. She finally took the lead herself and got two think sandwiches. He followed her and sat down across from her again.

She started to eat one of them, the other on a plate beside her elbow. She seemed to notice that he was staring at her now and finally passed the other sandwich over to him. "Oh, here."

He raised her eyebrows at her, and she mentioned off-handedly, "It's about 11:24 at night, I would say. That's after the normal crowd leaves, and a bit before those really late night stragglers get here. A perfect time, really."

He nodded and started eating. While he was in the middle of eating, she stood up and started getting her bag, and it was clear she was leaving. He swallowed a few times, and she was just about to walk away when he said, "Miss Swane, or Reeva, whichever, what are you doing here?"

"Same as you," she replied. "I'm a tutor. I hope you have better retention than that or I won't be able to use you."

"You're not though. A tutor. At least you're not supposed to be here, are you? That's why you—"

"Yes, hush," she replied. "Hush, hush."

"Are you at least a good person?" He asked, his voice low.

"Define good people," she replied, looking all around in case someone might be listening.

"Are you planning to use me to kill people? Do you want to harm people? Do you or do you not care if people die?" He answered, his tone low.

She looked at him for a long time, his first question catching her off guard as if it didn't occur to her that he could be used like that, especially for her. The second one seemed to stump her as well. After a moment she answered plainly, "No."

"Are you lying?" He asked her.

"No," she replied, turning her back to him and standing there for a long while before walking away. He considered that for a moment, especially his third question, and went back to eating his sandwich, not sure if he liked it or if he should have got his own. He had never tried pastrami before.