A Search Through Runeterra (Arcane)

"I wonder what the ducks are plotting today." ~Ivern, The Green Father

Hope Gregori's acting and lying feels realistic.

With the hope that you guys understand Gregori by now, I'm not going to mention when he would act and lie and cheat his way through situations.

You can figure that out yourselves.

Leave some comments sirs. A crumb of comment. 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gregori walked through the close streets. Observing everything around him. The walk was nostalgic, straight out of his memories.

He even recognized some of the people around him. Not that he tried to initiate any conversations with them.

His thoughts were already trying to digest his earlier conversation with Harris.

Even though the place was empty, the two had still resorted to coded conversations. 

Him asking for the new menu was in order to see if any new players had entered Noxus Prime. And the answer was that there were.

New players of various kinds not originally from Noxus had taken up residence here. With very dangerous motives.

Bolbo was a kind of fish not common in these areas. They were also quite difficult to catch, even then, unless they were prepared a specific way, they were too poisonous to eat. Bolbo heads were often used in soups. Though it was a bit vile due to the shape of the head. Very vaguely human like. Towing the line between uncanny and acceptable. It also meant that important people had made their ways here.

The sides?

They represented the Trifarix.

Bread. Two pieces. Might. Darius and his brother Draven.

Draven was a character. A character who was embellished to comedic standards. The real Draven was smarter. He had made a name for himself in war. Just like his brother. Where his brother excelled in combat he did so in strategy. Might was Darius but the Mind behind it was all Draven.

Him staying put in the fighting pits of Basilich was a ruse. He received daily updates regarding situations his brother faced as well as enemy movements. He then sent reports back indicating the best course of action.

That did not mean that he was weak, his capabilities in battle was seen quite often in the pits.

The single serving of cheese. Vision. Jericho Swain.

The man had ambition beyond all else. He also had the want to control everything around him. And he did. Somehow, he had providers of information everywhere while staying in the same place.

Finally, the endless amount of vegetables. Guile. The Faceless.

Always there and ever present. The reason why they had resorted to code in the first place. Even your family couldn't be trusted. Either they were willingly under their control or not, no one could be trusted.

Even Harris.

Bloody Book. Recent killing sprees.

Anything dangerous to look out for. And there was. There were probably a few high level murders to equate to a Bloody Book.

The drink itself was atrocious.

Cherry vodka with orange and a little bit of wine.

Who in their right mind would drink that?

But code was code and he had to get it if he said it. Sometimes random people asked for the drink after seeing these kinds of conversations and after a sip wonder if everyone was in their right mind. The drink was in fact that bad.

This meant that there would be issues. Great big ones.

If there was an active search for people, there was a chance that he could fall under scrutiny. That could jeopardize his whole quest.

As he kept thinking about all of this while enjoying the sights, he made it to the library. The same place he would be meeting Talon in two more days.

The man would give him the information he needed, it wouldn't matter if he had to give up the reason he had come here, if it meant his daughter would be in his arms again.

An exchange. One where he would always come out on top.

He climbed the large stairs to the sprawling library.

Walking inside, he eyes landed on the librarian and the guards surrounding her. With a brisk walk, he made his way to her. She was middle aged. Somewhere in her forties. Her hair had begun to gray in certain areas.

Flashing her his best smile, he asked, "Hello miss. Can you point me in the direction of the book of family records?"

She squinted at him from under her half rimmed reading glasses. "Why do you ask?" 

"My sister married into a family here. But I can't seem to find anyone who knows of the family. If this is a dead end, then I can only imagine that she had lied to up and eloped with someone with no standing." He answered immediately.

With her eyes still squinted and suspicious, she pointed a certain direction. "Fourth row and second column. The entire shelf has a record of all families to have lived in Noxus Prime."

He smiled while looking at her aged eyes, gave her a bow and started to make his way to the shelf.

"Wait."

Gregori turned around.

"You have to pay by the hour."

"Ah. I see. How much is it?" Gregori asked. Clearly not remembering having to pay previously but speaking up regarding that now would alert them to something.

"Fifty silvers an hour." She quoted.

His face crumpled. "T..... That's quite pricey. Is there any chance you could give me a discount? I only need half an hour. So can you give me an option to pay twenty five silver?" He asked acting like he was extremely strapped for cash.

Her suspicion fell a little but she still had her examining squint. "Fine. Twenty five. Pay now."

With a relived expression, "Thank you my lady. I will pay you right now." After he finished speaking, he grabbed the bag of coins in his pocket and slid her a gold coin from it. "I'm afraid I don't possess any change at this moment."

She looked at his with a deadpan expression and slowly counted his seventy five silver. Taking a few minutes of his time out of spite.

In the meanwhile Gregori looked around the library acting surprised at the vast collection of books while also nervously examining the guards.

He had seen libraries before. In Noxus, Demacia and Shurima. Piltover was the only place where knowledge was that tightly guarded.

"Here." She said in a very condescending manner.

Gregori grimaced at that, and replied "Thank you." And scurried along to the shelf.

He searched for the books that contained family names starting with the letter K. Of which there were four. New names were added to newer books. Which was why there were four.

Grabbing the four books, he searched through all of them for the name Kiosar. And found it in the third book.

Kiosar.

Two generations recorded. Lived in the east end of the Bastion. Manor on Freot Lane. Declared extinct fifteen years ago.

Amoline was not some random girl.

He had known that.

But she was nearly nobility. Two more generations and they would have been classified as Noxian nobles. 

But the family being wiped out fifteen years ago didn't make sense. Not when Amoline was walking around then.

Families weren't declared extinct that easily.

He searched through all the other books for any sort of similar situations.

There was one.

Marron.

The family was declared extinct in a similar period of time.

Two generations.

He noted their manor as well. Metol. A fine area. Experienced great development over the past few decades.

Contained a lot of up and coming families.

He had to go make a visit to both these locations. Instead of getting up and walking out, Gregori sat there and kept looking through the books. He then got some of the other books and went through them.

Until all the thirty minutes he had paid for was complete.

He kept going further, when he heard a thud in front of him. Looking up, he made eye contact with a guard.

"Time's up. Leave." A gruff voice sounded from under his mask.

Standing up instantly, he replied, "O....Oh.. I... I'm sorry. I didn't look at the time." He turned to look back at the looks with a sad expression. "I suppose I will never find my sister at this rate."

A minute later, Gregori was out of the library and making his way to Freot Lane for some snooping and solo investigation.

CAWWWWWWW

Another crow.

That was odd.

Why were there so many crows? Gregori wondered. There were barely any before. they used to stay near battlefields to scavenge on the remains of the battle. Bodies and the like that were left to rot were their main source of food.

Nothing here would be able to sustain them for long.

Maybe it was seasonal?

They might have moved here due to higher temperatures.

A couple hours later, Gregori arrived at Freot Lane. It took his a couple hours because he had taken numerous detours. It was always better to be safe than sorry. Taking different routes could either make him seem like a random person or throw off any followers. He looked around the lane trying to spot old and abandoned houses.

Properties from extinct families were usually embroiled in some kind of war. Families of relatives would try every dirty trick to claim the property. 

Assassinations.

Bribery.

Threats. (Though threats were rare when it was quite easy to assassinate the opposition.)

But if they were left unclaimed for long periods of time, Noxus gets a hold of the property. Then it was either used by them or sold off to the highest bidder.

The money earned was spent for war efforts.

Freot Lane held three abandoned places. And only one was a manor.

Gregori walked up to the manor and examined it from the gates. From first view, it was dilapidated. Having been unoccupied for many years, it was covered in overgrowth.

He walked around the property. 

Looking through every single one of the walls for potential ways to slip inside unnoticed, he found a vine going over the wall. Despite the walls being quite high, high enough for no one to look over them and some more, the vine went half way down the length of the wall.

It was perfect.

No one could witness him hop the wall at night. There were no braziers there. That meant no light in that area. And with how the moon would be positioned at night, the side of the wall would be pitch black.

An easy entrance.

And an equally easy escape.

He contemplated talking to a neighbor about the manor and its owners but decided to do it as a last resort.

Or at least after he had completely investigated it.

After a look around, Gregori made his way back to Livery Inn. 

As the night rolled around, he would return.