The group slept through the rest of the night undisturbed.  The next morning they discussed the nights' events with Olin and Tovi over breakfast.  The tavern owners seemed very concerned at the existance of such a creature in their part of town.

Tisroc had heard about a place in the city called the Sandstone Tower.  It was reputed to be home to a group of wizards, and Tisroc was interested in what he might be able to learn from them.  After they finisehd their morning meal, they decided to head that direction.

The tower itself was a large, cliff-side structure.  It was so massive, in fact, that the group wondered how its foundation supported it.  They were greeted at the iron gates by an elderly caretaker called Honsh.  He asked them why they had come and directed them inside.

The large entry hall was full of books and objects which could only be described as "wizard-y".  They were, in fact, a little over-the-top and played to every myth or superstition about magic one might hear among the common people.  Tisroc had even begun leafing through a book about "dangerous magical creatures" when Rynbel descended to meet them.

Rynbel was a young woman, perhaps in her early thirties, with dark features.  She asked Tisroc what he thought of their wondrous hall and the artifacts in contained.  Tisroc attempted to be diplomatic, but couldn't in good conscience endorse what he had found fully.  He instead suggested that perhaps some of her materials weren't completely accurate.  She frowned at this and asked him if he might elaborate on his criticisms.  He did so.  It wasn't until after 10 of 15 minutes of needling him that her expression softened, and she welcomed them into the tower.  She explained to him that this room was a kind of competence test for would-be associates, and she looked around the room with some satisfaction at its tackiness.  Anyone who embraced anything they found here was most likely not worth their time.

Rynbel and her colleagues Nalves and Oldesule explained their scholarly nature and their pursuit of knowledge - particularly knowledge of the arcane - and they showed him their massive libraries dedicated to all of these things.  Tisroc realized the vast depth of what he could learn in a place like this, and they offered him access to everything they had if he would be willing to do something for them.  What they wanted was for him to take some time to write down his experiences, adventures and observations.  They explained that much of what they had learned had involved building and combining the experiences and observations of wizards who had come before them.

Tisroc agreed to write his experiences down for them, and he was directed to a small room with a single chair and a desk with a nice leather and iron bound book and a quill and ink well.  The walls of the room were lined with bookshelves closed and locked behind glass doors.  Tisroc sat down, picked up the quill and set it to the first blank page of the book and began to write - and he wrote uninterrupted for 8 hours.  As he closed the back binding of the book after completing the last page, he felt as though he came out of a daze.  Tisroc had no recollection of exactly what he wrote, only that it was the truth of his life and experiences - not down to the smallest detail, but surely everything that would be relevant from a scholarly perspective.  Tisroc turned the book over and went to open it, only to discover that it would not open.

Rynbel then entered the room and thanked him for his contribution.  He asked her about the book and its unwillingness to open, and she explained that the books would not open for just anyone, and that they were only used in certain circumstances.  She explained that knowledge of the life and thoughts of a person should be private and not accessible to just anyone.  She placed his book on one of the shelves and locked it.

The group spent what remained of the day at the tower.  Tisroc began studying some magic that might make their travels easier.  Alina, however, was worried about something else.  She'd never had a chance to tell Tisroc about what Melna had told her back at the Crag.  She hadn't figured out how to say it, but now was the time.  She went to him and said he should send time in this vast repository of knowlegde looking for information about demons and the pact he'd made - specifically how the pact might be broken and, most importantly, what might happen if it was.  Melna, she told him, seemed to think that if he undid the oath, it might effectively end his life.

That revelation made a terrible kind of sense to Tisroc.  Of course Alina was right - he needed to concentrate on this.  He needed to know all he could.  Tisroc told the wizards of the Sandstone Tower about his problem, and asked where they might look.  The wizards admitted they hadn't heard of a story such as his before, but they pointed him in the direction of similar things.  

The reference they found the most closely tied however, wasn't where they were looking at all.  It was in a historical reference from the world before it began to dry out.  In the ancient forests of Kethir were said to dwell beings called Verdant Princes - fey creatures known for capriciousness and trickery would had some ability to bind fate into powerful oaths, holding both sides to the bargain.  Assuming they did once exist, however, they had long since died out with the lush forests in which they dwelt...