Authors Note I: Khajiit owns only her own original thoughts and ideas. Nothing more.

Chapter 2

The Collage of Whispers

A women of Imperial heritage sat in the main hall of the Collage of Whispers with a book in hand. She was adorned in red mages robes that complemented her image nicely. The women was older, but not terrible so. The signs of age were only just beginning to show upon her kindly features. She reached down a hand to turn a page, creating the pleasant rustling sound that paper often makes.

Sunlight poured into the main hall of the Collage as the main door was opened, causing dust moats to dance under the light's glare. The stream of sunlight was soon obscured by the shadow of a very ethnic looking Khajiit. Her many dreads were pulled away from her face by a vibrant, embroidered cloth. A fly buzzed by her ear, causing it to flick and jingle her many golden adornments. Her feline-like eyes caught the light, making it appear as if her eyes were glowing amber orbs.

The quaint women startled at the sudden appearance of her strange guest, which in turn temporarily caused her to lose her place in her book. Finding her place again, the Imperial women marked the passage she had been reading, then closed the book with a pleasing thud.

Setting the well worn book down, the middle-aged women met the Khajiits amber eyes with her own auburn ones.

"This is the Collage of Whispers, yes?" asked the Khajiit. Her voice had a certain raspy, but musical note to it. It was the thick accent found exclusively in the land of the Khajiit. The kindly women stood and brushed out the wrinkles of her crimson gown.

"That it is, Khajiit. Is there something I can do for you? My names Caecilia by the way." The women reached out a hand in greeting. The tawny Khajiit glanced at her hand, but made no attempts to shake it.

"Khajiit is named M'azabi, and she welcomes you," the cat-women inclined her head in the Khajiit manner of greetings and partings. Caecilia's outreached hand dropped to her side. Noticing this, M'azabi indicated to her hand.

"Khajiit is confused. Did Caecilia want this one to hold something perhaps?" A look of recognition passed across the female mage's face.

"Oh, you don't know what that means!"

"Khajiit does not understand…" A small smile appeared on Caecilia's lips.

"I'm sorry. It's just, I thought you were being rude." M'azabi's ears drew back slightly, not in an agitated or angry way, but in a more bewildered sort of way.

"Khajiit is terribly confused."

"Whenever someone does this," the women presented her palm once more to the feline women with an amused grin. M'azabi eyed it warily.

"It's their way of saying hello." The Khajiit's ears perked up.

"Like this?" inquired M'azabi. She extended her own palm, but made no attempt to shake.

"Not quite. You'll need to actually shake hands. See?" Caecilia smaller hand grasped the Khajiit's larger, clawed one. She then proceeded to force the cat-ladies hand in a vigorous up and down motion.

"Khajiit thinks this is a very strange way to greet someone…" she stated when they had finished shaking hands. The Khajiit then grinned toothily.

"But she likes it! For now on, this one will 'shake hands', as you called it." The Imperial's auburn eyes seemed to glimmer in amusement.

"Yes, you de-," BAM! Both women flinched at the noise, the one with fur more so than the other. Many irate shouts and heavy foot falls followed the explosion above their heads.

"That noise!" exclaimed M'azabi. Her fur along her tail and nape had become unsettled by the sudden outburst. Caecilia groaned exasperatedly. Her expression morphed from one of amusement to one of sourness.

"It's the students..." she explained hurriedly before hoisting up her skirts and rushing up the nearest stairs. Curiosity urged M'azabi to follow. As the two ladies ascended the stairs rather hurriedly, M'azabi's nose wrinkled at a rather unpleasant smell similar to that of burning garbage and something else more… exotic.

They had neared the top of the stairs when two younger humans dressed in mage's robes wildly stumbled down the stairs, their sleeves lifted to cover their faces from the stench. M'azabi pressed against the wall to let them pass as it looked like they might accidently take her out were she to get in their way.

Both Imperial and Khajiit reached the top only to be greeted by a wave of thick, purple smoke. M'azabi gagged, this had to be the worst thing she had ever inhaled in her life! Seeking Caecilia for guidance, she witnessed the women stomp down the left hallway in a blaze of furry, shoving an assortment of fleeing, wheezing, and gagging mages left and right. M'azabi gingerly tailed her, her hands covering her muzzle.

"Domitius! If that's another one of your blasted experiments I swear I'll wring your neck!" screeched the once cheery Imperial women. M'azabi's eyes widened at the death threat, but she soon regretted it when her eyes began to water.

Caecilia reached one of the many doors and attempted to pry it off it's hinges. In her failed effort, the women made and angry noise the proceeded to bang on the poor door with her fists.

"Open up this instant you twit!"

"N- NO! Don't come in!" came a panicked, masculine voice from the far side of the door. A series of crashes and grunts emitted from the other side of the door.

Apparently, Caecilia didn't care what the panicked man wanted or didn't want, because her hands started forming an eerie neon bluish-green orb that made her look very frightening to the already very disturbed Khajiit.

The glowing magic-ball (or that's what the Khajiit thought it was anyways) suddenly shot from her hands, then collided with the door like a bat out of Oblivion. The door must've decided it wanted to be a bluish-green magic-ball too, for it started glowing just like the other thing.

The next thing M'azabi knew, there was the sound of wood being ripped apart and the magic-door was sailing into the next room like it just knew it could fly if it tried hard enough.

There was an unpleasant noise of many things breaking, then it was silent. M'azabi guessed the door hadn't tried hard enough at flying, so it crash landed somewhere in the room. She hoped so anyways, sometimes silence meant there were worse things to come.

The scary Imperial women had already stomped off into the mysterious magic-room. She decided to follow. She had already survived this far, so M'azabi supposed she could live through whatever came next too.

The mauve colored smoke still hung thick in the air, making things hazy and difficult to see. Even with the hindrance, the Khajiit could tell the room was totaled. In one corner it looked like there used to be a pretty nice alchemy lab. It didn't look so nice anymore, one of the legs appeared to be broken in half and the alembic looked to be scattered in pieces all over the floor.

In another corner it looked like there used to be a really nice oak book case. Instead of standing proud and regal looking like those kinds of book cases seem to do, it now stretched out on the ground with books scattered every which way around it. M'azabi would bet her tail that those were some very nice books. It was a really nice book case. She had managed to inch her way over there to see if there were any books she could, well, borrow.

Her cat like eyes searched behind her so she could eyeball Caecilia and the guy (he looked like another human) she guessed started the whole thing. Caecilia seemed to be telling the other guy off and gesturing to something under the (almost) flying door. She couldn't actually see them all that well, so she assumed it would be the same for her. That they wouldn't be able to see her, that is.

M'azabi turned her amber gaze back to the task at hand. Most of the tomes were still trapped under the once regal looking book case, but there were still quite a few that could be easily reached. M'azabi reached for one. She hastily rubbed the soot and other nastiness's off it, it read The Doors of Oblivion.

The Khajiit's whiskers twitched excitedly. She would defiantly keep this one! The cat-like woman slung off her leather pack as quickly and discreetly as possible. The two behind her still appeared to be arguing.

Good. The longer they fight, the better for this one. M'azabi stuffed the book in her pack, then reached for another one. This one was a bit torn in places and had a broken spine, but the Khajiit didn't mind so long as she could read it.

M'azabi clumsily turned the book in her palms until she could read the words inscripted on the spine. Upon reading it, her whiskers twitched furiously and her amber eyes grew wide despite the acrid air.

A spell tome! Khajiit found a spell tome! She is most lucky! M'azabi had never been able to afford a spell tome before. The caravan her Clan traded with occasionally carried them, but they always cost an arm and a leg. A few times she had contemplated just taking some, but ruled against it as that was her Clan's only trade source. Wouldn't want them to stop trading with her Clan, she knew quite a few Khajiit who would be less than pleased with her.

M'azabi's cat-like ears twitched to listen behind her, the other's heated argument had died down. They were starting to move around.

Not yet! In a panic, the Khajiit shoved the tome in her pack, snatched three more books and stuffed them on top of her first find. Her paw-like hands yanked the drawstring tight on her pack and proceeded to fling her over her shoulders. M'azabi then turned to hopefully make a sneaky break for it.

"-believe this Domitius! What in Oblivion possessed you to summon an Imp in town! Do you even care what could happen if the towns folk find out?"

"I didn't-"

"They'll ruin us Domitius!"

"I-"

" Ruin!" M'azabi neared the door, um, doorway warily. She could just make out Caecilia's little hands flapping in the air like little frantic bird wings. The Khajiit thought it was probably her futile attempt at dissipating the magic-smoke. It wasn't really working. If anything, it caused the hazy air to make pretty little smoke swirls. She wondered why they didn't just open a window. Perhaps ranting was more important to them

The doorway was just a step further, M'azabi just had to make her way through a pile of clutter and she would be home free.

"Who's that?"

Unless, that is, she was spotted first.