Hunter wasn't unfamiliar with the library per se. He'd been here to do assigned reading and pick up a few books over the course of term. In fact, it was one of the few buildings on campus where he felt comfortable. However, he usually had a specific book in mind rather than a more complicated subject search. As such, he wasn't sure where to begin. He strode up to the information desk.
"Ahem. Good eve. I wonder if you might be able to help me with a subject search. Specifically Brunnhold's East Garden."

He hoped there would be something in the manner of a history that might explain the nature of his... feelings for the place. Perhaps there was some type of Wild Magic or something left over from ancient times...

Rosie looked up at Hunter with a look that spoke tones. Tones of wanting to be somewhere much more exciting. Sighing heavily, she dropped her quill on the table, she leaned over the scrying bowl. The water turned smokey and Hunter would be able to see books flying past the surface. Finally it stilled.

"Third row to your left, sixth row up. You'll have to use the ladder." She said boredly, flopping back into the chair.

"Thanks, Rosie - isn't it? I'll try not to fall off."
Although I suppose it would give you something to do...

Nothing was going to ruin his good mood. He had finally caught up on both his rest and his classes. He had a small excursion planned for the weekend. One that didn't involve posing as a Seventen groupie, thankyouverymuch...

He glanced around at the books on the sheves in the section surrounding his target to get some idea of where the subject fit in the scheme of library topics. He tried not to make too much noise with the ladder, for some reason he liked to preserve quiet wherever he found it.

"Are you done up there yet?" A small voice sounded from below him. It was Susan, the girl from the dinner. She stood with her arms crossed, tapping her foot.

"I need to use the ladde..oh! Hey, I remember you!" The redhead brightened and waved at him.

Hunter flipped through the selection, looking for anything suitably old or that mentioned the particulars of the Gardens' founding. Anything referencing wild magic or old/mythic magic was automatically selected.

"I'll be right- Oh hello Susan, I'm just about done up here. Did you get the specimens? I couldn't find you so I tagged them and left them in the botany lab for you."

He'd been too busy playing catch-up to follow up with her. Now he hoped he wasn't going to have to backtrack all those coordinates for goosegrass. Not at the expense of his renewed interest in magic and history.

"Grow anything interesting lately?"

"Oh yes, I got them, rather curious to say the least. It seems I was right, there is some mutation going on. Hard to decipher why though, I'm still looking. But in the meanwhile, it is fascinating. The way they can just adapt around their environment like that. I mean, if we could..." She stopped herself with a breath.

"Anyway, enough of that. What are you doing up there anyway? I didn't peg you as the booky type."

He descended the ladder deftly balancing a small stack of books.
"Well... I have been known to read a little thing here and there."

"Seriously? I'm trying to find out why the magic is so different between the two gardens here. I'm sure you've noticed it? One has a sort of definite galdori touch but the other... there's some other presence at work. So I start with the texts - both on the Brunnhold gardens and on odd types of magic - and then figure out where to go from there. That's as much of a plan as I have at the moment."

Susan nodded with a little snort.

"Tell me about it! The plants there are so different too. One is magically supported I am sure of that, keeps the plants healthy and viable, with some possible side effects. The other one...I don't know. I have heard rumors about ghosts and old protective spells." Her eyes grew a little excited.

"Maybe there is something hidden there, something from a long time ago that wasn't meant to be found."

"Do you really think so? Something hidden? Who would hide something in the gardens of Brunnhold? I mean... how many students and faculty and visitors come through every year?"

Still, the though was an entertaining one. It offered the promise of a Project. Something to pursue other than academic perfection or the frustrations of governmental injustice.

"Have you explored that idea. Maybe we could take a look later tonight."

With incredibly appropriate timing, complete with a particularly punishment-induced foul mood, Naul wandered by Rosie and Frederick, leaning dourly on his cart of books. With a lopsided, half-bored sneer, he eyed the stack of texts on the counter. Unable to help himself, the dark-eyed boy stopped and spoke up, voice almost deadpan,

"Oh Fred, you will need more books than those." He let his sneer slowly fade into a self-depreciating sort of grin, "That's definitely not enough study materials for a first year ... especially if you ever want to compete with someone even as incompetent as me."

Hunter thought of Tristaan, and even the Brunnhold passives and how much worse they had to put up with than a trivial insult here and there.
Perspective...

He let Nauleth's comments slide harmlessly off him. Like raindrops on a window. They might make a noise, but they couldn't touch him. Not today.

His field stretched out in a lazily relaxed manner, like a bander shaking off a little burr.

"Hi, Naul. I hope you and the other girls didn't get in too much trouble the other night."

Nauleth's sneer darkened considerably at the other student's mention of trouble. His foot found the break to the cart of books so he could lean on it more firmly, bony knuckles whitening on the handle. He felt the familiar hum of his own frustration buzz at the edges of his field like so much collected static, but the dark-eyed boy was honestly not in the mood to be dismissed so easily by Hunter.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, the brooding boy had told himself that if this new kid would really be his last hurrah of real cruelty, he would have to savor every moment of it.

He exhaled slowly through his nose, letting his gaze flick briefly to Rosie before resting on Hunter with a renewed calmness. His sneer softened. Naul knew that every minute of discipline he had to endure was still not enough to tarnish the worth of the entire evening. There wasn't a single disapproving voice that could erase the awkward, healing words exchanged between himself and his father. There wasn't any possible boring, menial task that could fade the unexpected excitement of kissing Athrym under the stars in his own garden. Not at all.

Bring what you've got, wild boy. Just don't wuss out now.

"Oh, and how much would you know of trouble?" He arched his right eyebrow, dark eyes narrowing, "Tell me, Hunter, did you find a professor to rat us out to as soon as your returned to Brunnhold or did you at least keep it to yourself all night, dreaming peacefully, and wait until after breakfast the next day?"

Hunter was genuinely puzzled at the accusation.

"Even if I cared enough about your indiscretions, why would I have wanted to get those others in trouble? You ratted yourself out with inept planning and use of magic for base purposes, rushing off like a bunch of children and botching the job besides. Did you really think six missing students would go unnoticed? Especially with your and Athrym's notoriety."

"Look, first year, I hardly expect you to know anything about my notoriety, let alone Athrym's. Listening to hearsay will only get you so far, and most of the rumors are far from accurate. Most of them are, if you really must know, quite lacking in detail."

Naul's dark countenance had entirely faded, slowly becoming a bit more bright and, well, haughty, one side at a time. He nearly grinned through his white-streaked bangs at Hunter, speaking with obvious challenge, "If you're going to continue to compliment me, you should at least do so from experience."

"Look, shaggy, I don't care if the two of you like to stick candied hingles in each others orifices. I was just pointing out the lack of forethought that went into your petty accusation. I hope you figure out what to do with your life, but honestly, I'm not interested. Good eve."

Hunter paused for a moment to shrug and grin at Susan before heading off to glean what he could from the texts he'd chosen.

((zomg. whut?))

He must not be worth the trouble.

It was like staring at a delicious banana gateau with lemon frosting, but not being able to eat a single bite ... so frustrating was Hunter's pointed evasion of Naul's admittedly skillful baiting. It was all the boy could do to keep his jaw from hanging open awkwardly.

Sure. Keep telling yourself that and you'll let him get away with calling you clocking incompetent. Godsdamnit. What a waste.

The boy resisted the urge to walk away from his begrudged cart of books while simultaneously swallowing down the sudden desire to just set them all on fire. It was a difficult struggle; it left his field frazzled and angry. Without looking at Rosie, Naul released the brake and shoved his way back to the stacks to re-shelve them, not even remotely interested in watching Hunter leave.

Susan watched the interaction uncomfortably. She hadn't much liked Naul the other night at dinner, and now he was just really awful and then some. What did poor Fred to do deserve that sort of talk. The red head scowled at him and scooted after the deserting boy.

"Fred, I have something to tell you." She caught up to him and looked around conspiratorially.

"Come with me." She whispered, grabbing his arm and pulling him down one of the aisles between shelves of books. Turning to face him, she whispered again.

"I have a confession. Those plants in the East Garden...they're mine. And they contain toxins. Rare ones, rather lethal."

Huh? What plants?... Poisons, right here on campus?
It was like puzzle pieces falling into place when one hadn't even known the puzzle was there. The conversation at dinner, her reaction and her odd denial of having even been in the East garden after admitting she preferred wild plants...

"Why would you plant something so dangerous in the gardens, where even a kid might wander into them? Why not keep them in the laboratory?"

She thinks I knew about them. Curious...

"And what else have you found in the gardens?"

Susan looked around again and scoffed.

"It was an accident, really. I was growing them in the lab, and they were just more of a sedative. Nothing terrible. So I figured, with the mutations of some of the other plants in the East Garden, what if I put those in there? I sort of planned that they might have medicinal values. But it didn't go quite the way I thought." Looking at him with suddenly suspicious eyes, she crossed her arms.

"Do you know just how much flora of Anaxas is actually poisonous? Why even things we eat are deadly, if you eat the wrong part. Sometimes the root are edible, but the leaves will kill you. My experiment is no more dangerous to students than the rest of our gardens. And besides, how often do you go out and eat the vegetation?" Her lips pouted defensively.

Hunter let out a rather indiscreet laugh.

"Ha! Sorry. I just had a vivid image of a bunch of first years crawling around grazing on the lawn. And it was you who said the toxins were lethal. I don't know what you planted but I took your tone to suggest something lethal on contact."

"So other than your secret experimental garden, have you found anything else of interest? I really am curious about the source of the monic interference or whatever it is."
Resonance... it resonates to me.

Susan pouted some more and looked bored.

"No, nothing of interest. Just the same things as before. I need more time and less interruptions from giddy first years." Sighing hard, she nodded to him.

"I have to go Fredrick, good seeing you again." With that she walked briskly back to the ladder, climbing to find whatever text it was she'd required in the first place.

Rather bemused by the unwarranted "confession", Hunter wasn't sure what he should do with the knowledge. He wandered off, slightly less certain of his new acquaintance than he had been.

I could turn her in... but there would be no denying that it was I who tattled... Why did she tell me about it at all?

She thought I'd already found it and suspected her. The confession was merely a ploy to keep me from going to the faculty. Maybe.

I could still turn her in... but she's clearly more aware of the ins and outs of this place. Socially it might be the end of me, which wouldn't be so bad; but, there could be more subtle consequences. Do I really want to have two of my peers targeting me for... whatever?

Still, despite her denials, it is a danger to others. Those who don't know any better might be hurt. Others might be tempted to abuse the discovery... Should I simply destroy her work. That seems right but it's damned rude and she might be just as upset...

...girls! Argh!