After Caira's Announcement, cont.

[D'rorah Philosophy]

(ooc: We're coming from here
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D'rorah listened, her expression hardening and jaw clenching as Dylan mentioned basically being attacked by Keaira. Who was Keaira to question her own motives? As though she would give information to just anyone... but then, she supposed she had told Dylan rather a lot, but only about the history of the Shadow Wars and such in the past, nothing at first that could be directly related to their present-day situation. And to think that now Keaira had been privy to her private moments with Dylan, had attacked him telepathically. Her face remained set in stone, though the muscles in her hands tensed a bit.

She muttered a quick muffliato before continuing, not trusting the door to guard against eavesdroppers.

D'rorah finished his last statement. "Yes, she defended me when Mister Soldier attempted to abduct me from the infirmary. As I said, he betrayed me. Luckily, I was able to get away... and luckily my hiding place was found by Miss Edwin before I managed to die." She thought back, realizing only at that moment just how close she had truly been to death, and remembering how she had wished for it many times throughout her torture.

Having noticed a strange play of emotions on his face as he trailed off at the last, she had to address the emotion she felt from him. "Dylan... by associating with me, you are putting yourself into great danger. You will already be sought by the Mage if she learns of your identity as an Elemental Master. I was captured during the incursion in the Forbidden Forest, when we all gathered to rid the forest of dementors and shadows. Our plans were betrayed and the Mage herself arrived and abducted me. Having been trained as a scribe of the Order, I have information she would very much like to have." She smiled regretfully. "I apologize for pulling you into all of this, but you must reconcile yourself to the fact that there is a very real possibility that I may die in the course of this war... of course, we are all in danger... but I do not wish to see you hurt. We must move very carefully, very methodically."

[Dylan Cooper]

Noticing her expression as he faltered, he wondered how much trouble Keaira might be in. Dylan’s eyes widened slightly as she finished off his own sentence. While he'd known... even seen how extensive her injuries had been, he had never once considered that she might have actually died. Suddenly terribly afraid, his eyes were downcast as she continued to speak, wanting to hide any of the feelings that might be betrayed by them.

His expression hardened somewhat as she continued, his jaw clenching and his eyes gaining strength. It dawned on him that any one of them could die, including D'rorah and himself, and if it got them that little bit closer to winning this war then that was the price that had to be paid. Hoping desperately for a moment that he would never have to say goodbye to the new woman in his life, he raised his head once more and met her eyes with his own. Taking her hand in his, he gave her a small kiss on the forehead. "You didn't pull me into anything, Dee. I'm here because I want to be, and I'll be with you through this," he said quietly. Giving her hand a slight squeeze, a small smile formed on his features.

[D'rorah Philosophy]

D'rorah watched the play of emotions across Dylan's face, ending with a kiss to her own forehead. She squeezed his hand in return and smiled back. "I am glad you are with us. I am particularly happy that you are with me, Dylan." She briefly considered showing him the experience she had endured, just so he would know exactly what had happened without leaving anything out... but she thought perhaps that might simply cause him more pain. Certainly, she did not wish to cause Dylan any pain, not if she could help it.

As thought her mind suddenly recalled something else, her face brightened a bit. "You say you are learning Hebrew?" she asked. "That is quite exciting, I may still have a Hebrew text or two that I have not translated. Are you learning modern or ancient Hebrew? They are similar, except that the grammar in ancient Hebrew tends to be far more complex than modern; though, the vocabulary is far more limited. I cannot believe you are actually learning a new language in order to assist with the translations." She leaned over and kissed his cheek thankfully. "Have you come across anything interesting or is there anything that has particularly stood out as you have worked with the other translations? I admit, one of the most difficult things in this research has been separating information from anecdote... all of the useful information is so mired in personal history."

[Dylan Cooper]

"I think I've almost got it down, yeah," he said happily, glad at her reaction. "Ancient, but I figure modern shouldn't be too hard after that," he elaborated in a quiet voice. "I should be thanking you, you know. I've always wanted to learn more languages, but I haven't since my d- ... since my father died." His voice had faltered slightly before the word 'dad', and he'd reverted back to his usual, more formal allusion to his paternal father as quickly as possible, hoping D'rorah hadn't noticed. His brief optimism, however, quickly faded. He knew how pereptive she was.

"The French was mostly recurring with your notes, but the German was interesting from an earthly perspective," he said brightly, glad that he'd been able to help her somehow. The German text had indeed had a lot of references to his own element, giving him a broader understanding of what his powers might help him achieve. "All up, though, it didn't do much more than help me understand a few things," he clarified quietly.

[D'rorah Philosophy]

D'rorah nodded at Dylan's reference to his father. She understood how difficult it was to move on from such a thing. Though, her perspective was quite different, as she had lost her own parents at an older age. "My father... abba," she corrected, showing that she understood his pause and correction. "He structured my day very rigidly. Hardly a moment that was free time passed by in my younger days. After his death, I did find it was rather difficult to continue with the work we had begun together. I realized, however, that working on the things he taught me or the things we researched together was a way of connecting with his memory." She sighed a bit.

As he continued on to speaking about the French and German translations, she nodded in understand. "Nearly all of them are written as those two are... more of a journal presentation. The few books which actually break down information and present it in a reference manner have already been thoroughly examined. The information from those texts is what was used by Master Xiu and the other monks in my training. Before it was discovered that I was a Shadow Warrior, I was trained as a scribe of the Order of Light." Her expression hardened slightly. "Though, now that I have been... tainted by Shadows, I am considered unfit to live at the temple and fill that role in an official capacity. Unbeknownst to me until after his death, my father was a Master of that same order, much like Master Xiu, who trained me. The work of translation was passed to me after his death... suddenly, seeing how very much there is to be done, I began to understand the drive he had for my training when I first began all of those years ago. So many books..." she trailed off quietly. She looked up at him then. "I truly do apologize for cutting myself off from the world, Dylan. I had not intended to separate myself from you... there were merely so many things to do..."

[Dylan Cooper]

Nodding a little bit as she spoke of her father and began about the texts, Dylan thought he noticed a slight change in tone. He looked up to find a slightly angry looking D'rorah and he shuffled closer to her slightly. 'Tainted' was never used in pleasant descriptions, afterall. Finally gathering a faint idea of who this Master Xiu was, he saw her raise her eyes to his.

Smiling softly, he ran his hand over her cheek as gently as was possible with such weather worn hands. "Dee, I'm here to help. The more things there are to do, the more you need to confide in me," he said quietly, hoping to reassure her. He gave her a soft kiss to the lips. "Please don't try to do everything yourself," he added thoughtfully, his eyes becoming lost in hers as they lingered a bit too long. D'rorah's current state of turmoil had resulted in her looking absolutely drained, though still beautiful, somehow. How did she manage to do that?

Smiling encouragingly, he raised his voice only slightly as he offered to help. "Now, give me some of these Hebrew texts, ancient and modern. I'm sure I'll cope," he said happily, wanting to take as much of this current encumbrance off her as possible. "And anything else I can help with, just let me know." He gave her yet another tender kiss and withdrew, hoping she would let him shoulder some of the burden.

[D'rorah Philosophy]

D'rorah smiled as he pulled back from the kiss but paused at his request for the Hebrew texts. She knew he was intelligent and studious... but she also knew the mistakes that occurred in translation whenever one was just learning a language. Finally, deciding that she would simply have to trust that studious streak she knew he possessed, she nodded. "I will have them for your tomorrow," she replied quietly. "Thank you again. It means a great deal to me that you are willing to help... so few are, you know."

She touched her hand to her forehead, feeling an almost tangible sense of relief at having given up some of the work. Perhaps, with the two of them working together, there was a chance they would find the answers they sought in time for them to do some good. As though her body was suddenly aware that she was seated on a bed, she felt a nearly overwhelming wave of exhaustion sweep over her. Wanting nothing more than to curl up right where she was and immediately fall asleep, she resisted the temptation.

Startled from that longing, she sat up a bit straighter, suddenly realizing that the aura of the room in general was different than it had been last time she had been here... and not solely because of her own shift in emotions since then. "That lying..." she trailed off. Alessandro had had the book here. She could sense it now; or rather, she could sense that it was no longer here... the book she had sought. It was very troublesome to her that the Elemental Master of Fire would blatantly lie and refuse to give her a text of that nature... she wondered if the text itself were to blame for it. "Dylan, have you noticed in the past several days a change in the emotional atmosphere of this room?"

[Dylan Cooper]

Nodding simply at her assurance of the texts, he set aside a solid block of time to begin on the translations. Considering he was only new to the language, he would need to be more careful than with his previous two texts. Knowing exactly how precise he had to be, not only because of the importance of the information, but because Dylan was simply built that way, he knew it would take a lot longer than a few days. The texts themselves were probably as big as the European ones he'd already translated, if not bigger, and there was no room for error. He was in for the long haul.

Slightly confused about her comments, the small smile that had been forming on his lips ceased, and turned upside down. Wondering what had possessed her to ask such a question, he could tell that his answer would be fairly important. Wondering how to phrase his feelings on the matter, he took a stab at it. "Well... I feel a lot less tense in here lately. I assumed it was just because of being with you... though now that you mention it, it's only been since Alessandro left so hurriedly the other night. What he was doing, by the way, I've no idea. You spooked him pretty good, Dee, what did you say?" he said, recalling the rushed packing of the strange items.

[D'rorah Philosophy]

D'rorah re-cast her muffliato spell and stretched out a mental barrier around the room to prevent any eavesdropping or mental listening. Thinking for a moment, glanced at the door to make certain once again that no one was nearby. "You have not met the others yet, but you will. You see, Mister Darko is the Elemental Master of Fire," she began, her voice lowered despite the precautions she had taken. "He came across a text known as the Maleficus Obscurum... I am familiar with it, though I have not actually seen his copy, which is suspect to be an original. The book itself is a very powerful dark magic item... not just that it contains information about dark magic; it actually has its own power. He assured me that the text was somewhere safe..." she trailed off, concern in her eyes. "It has begun to affect his sleep... and perhaps it has even begun to take hold of him. I assigned him detention on Monday with the intent of at least helping him to meditate, thinking I might perhaps be able to help stop whatever is causing his lack of sleep." She took a deep breath. "He assured me that he no longer had the text, that it was safely away somewhere... but it was here the entire time." Suddenly, her own terse response to him made a bit more sense. She was typically more cold and formal than outright snappish... and she supposed she had been rather snappish in speaking to him.

[Dylan Cooper]

Nodding slowly, he took in what she was saying. He now knew the identities of three Shadow Warriors; wind, metal and earth, as well as three Elemental Masters; fire and earth, of course, and wind was a toss up between two people. Remembering what Susan had described in the Room of Requirement, he knew that Wysteria was also involved, as well as Professor Serlean, though he didn't know how quite yet. Storing the information away to be recalled at a more important time, he listened as she explained about the Maleficus Obscurum. D'rorah mentioned that it had been affecting Darko's sleep; now that he thought about it, he hadn't been able to sleep well until the last few nights, either. Not having had another chance to talk to Alessandro since his hasty departure, he'd simply forgotten the strange incident with everything he'd been doing.

"Well, he doesn't appear to have the text any longer, though he could tell us where it is quite easily I imagine," he commented wryly. "I was going to follow him but I didn't particularly fancy getting a years worth of detentions for being found outside during curfew." Taking her hand into his, he kissed it lightly.

[D'rorah Philosophy]

D'rorah smiled slightly as her hand was kissed. "I will speak with him at the next opportunity... perhaps I can reason with him, offer him help with the nightmares and visions the book is causing."

Then she figured, as long as she had all the proper precautions in place, she may as well fill him in on who the others were. They had already found out about one another during the excursion into the forest. "I should have you meet everyone... but we tend not to socialize, so as not to draw attention to ourselves. Professor Serlaen is the Master of Metal, Miss Edwin the Warrior of Fire, Professor Kade the Master of Wind," at this her jaw tightened slightly. "Professor Spade was the Master of Water... though, he has since turned to darkness... so I am no longer certain if he retains the title of Elemental Master or not."

Her eyes shut for a moment as though she were trying to remember something and opened again. "I suppose I should return to my translations," she remarked absently. "If you like, I can meet you in the Common Room with the Hebrew texts... or, if you prefer to wait until after you are finished with the German, that is fine as well." She leaned over and wearily kissed his cheek.

[Dylan Cooper]

Filling in the gaps in his mind, Dylan found that he was slightly angry to discover Professor Spade's allegiance. D'rorah spoke of the translations still waiting for them and he frowned slightly, concerned for her wellbeing. "If you want to bring down the Hebrew, I'll get started on that a bit later when I've finished the German," he said.

Looking closely at her features, he saw very clearly now just how exhausted she looked. "You should go to bed, Dee," he added quietly, kissing her softly on the forehead and stroking his fingers across her palm. "You look absolutely spent," he continued, looking worried and finding her eyes with his own.

He would stay up as long as possible to get a good start on the Hebrew texts. Knowing that already his second, rather large text was nearly finished, he felt slightly pleased with himself, even though he assumed D'rorah's own accomplishments would cause his to pale in comparison.

[D'rorah Philosophy]

D'rorah gazed back and smiled, trying not to be annoyed by his concern. She understood where it was coming from. "I believe I still have some miles in me," she replied. "I appreciate your concern. I will try to make it to bed at a reasonable hour this evening after dinner." As she spoke, she was figuring in her head how many hours that would leave her... two... three and a half if she did not join the others in the Great Hall for dinner.

She leaned forward and kissed his cheek. "Do not worry. I shall not work myself to death," she reassured him. "I will gather the Hebrew texts now and meet you in the common room." She paused, offering him a smile. "That is, if you wish to study with me, Mister Cooper."

[Dylan Cooper]

Raising an eyebrow slightly and smirking, he accepted her answer without another word about it. Grinning at her last comment, he replied in a teasing voice. "Why Miss Philosophy, how could you ever believe that I wouldn't wish to?"

Watching her leave to retrieve the texts, he lifted his legs onto the bed and lay there for a moment, smiling. His eyes sparkled as he thought about his day with her. It had been rather eventful, thus far, and there were still hours to go, spent entirely in her company. Smiling brightly, he got back off of his bed and rummaged through his trunk, eventually finding the European texts and all of his notes, as well as D'rorah's cross-referencing book that had been so useful. Taking up sheets of fresh parchment and writing implements, he made his way down into the common room.

(ooc: we've moved here
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