Just assume the almost-encounter is at the moment when everyone is dispersing to wherever they go to. (Speaking of which, where is Lucas going?) It's ships passing in the night, so it can be sculpted however is necessary. /OOC...]AdamZero wrote:(ooc: I thought it was just Nera, Marcus, and and Jamie, ah well, I can adapt.)
A short, skinny man was waiting at the laboratory as Layla, Faye and Joe walked up. "Welcome to my laboratory," he said. "My name is Dasuke Kinabalu. It is an unexpected pleasure to meet a Farrelite with magical talent. I hope that we can be of service to you." He bowed deeply.
Layla couldn't return the gesture because of the backpack with Zachary in it, but she dipped her head, extended a hand, introduced herself with a smile, hoping that she hadn't committed some incomprehensible breach of etiquette. Kinabalu didn't seem to mind, anyway. "Let me show you our teaching laboratory," he said. "Please follow me." He turned and went into the building.
I'm disappointed -- I was expecting a little more eye of newt, incense, smoke and mirrors, that kind of thing, Layla thought as she entered the first room. Actually, most everything she saw here had also been in Plato's lab in Kugelheim. The only real difference was that Kinabalu had about five of everything that Plato had had one of -- the instrument she'd used to see the troll trace, the box for concentrating mana for her first spell, and so on. Apparently at least some of the teaching here was going to be done in a small class, rather than individually. "How many students do you have here?" she asked.
"As yet, you are our first," Kinabalu replied. "But there will be more. You have probably heard that Rinkaiel is going to have a warp gate. We wish to train some of the locals in the basics of thaumaturgy so they can help with the operation of the gate. You are our, how do you say, guinea pig for the teaching yet to be done."
Something about that phrase didn't sit well with Layla, but she put it aside and followed the strange little man deeper into the laboratory.