[IC] Out the door we'll dance and sing

Brindell Po, a thick set man of some intensity, rubs his knee. Climbing through the cellar window was not dignified, especially when he banged into the rusty metal scrap.

He jiggles the lock, his pointed, curved dagger set into the apparature, but it doesn't quite fit. "I can't pop this lock. Either of you good with getting these open?" He knows they'll have to switch pairings, which is tricky in the cramped confine.

Merith's parents stood between her and life and thus she had to overcome the parent obstacle. This was no easy task considering the guilt she would carry for the rest of her life, therefore leaving was a big decision. Her parents had been good to her and loved her dearly. But she was terribly bored with her mundane life. A lover of the written word she would devour anything in print that she could get her hands on no matter the subject and therefore was vastly smarter than anyone else in the village, including her parents. This produced an air of arrogance in the young woman which everyone grew tired of. It also didn't help that she loved the forests and preferred trees to people. So one day she packed a sac and left without a word to anyone.

During one of her random wanderings, she learned about a vast and magical library. Now she had a distinct destination and she was determined to find it, and find it she did.

Climbing through the cellar window was easy for her. Unlike Brindell, she was slim and lithe. Her heart was bouncing within her chest though at the thought of so many tomes just waiting for their pages to be lovingly turned.

"Honestly, you are so awkward, Brindell Po. Be careful you don't cut yourself. Here, let me have a go."

Merith attempts to squeeze around Brindell and examine the lock, her fingers tapping her lips as she ponders the situation.

"Hmmm, let me have a think about it. Meanwhile, I want to see these books but I think I have to align this catwalk first without getting dizzy and plummeting into nowhere. Both of you hang tight."

She plays with the dial and tries to equate the movement of the joystick with the changes on the dial as she crouches awkwardly gripping the handrail with her other hand to steady herself.

"By the Glowing Saints!"

Brindell Po evokes his pantheon, a quartet of saints known only as glowing entities, too bright to look at. They respectively judge souls, guide the lost, inspire creativity, and avenge atrocities, although the last one has been a bit of a slacker.

"Whoops! Guess I miscalculated," she says in a rising pitch as she gets flung into the others, the wind getting knocked out of her. She didn't like being wrong and managed a frown despite the possibility of plunging to her death.

Ernesto the Sly, quick of wit and glib of tongue, is last to enter the grand library through that well-used window. He'd been late to the meeting, having to throw the White Widow's agents off his tail. Tonight it had been Jhena, and the limber-limbed assassin seemed to have forgotten their last tryst. Or, perhaps she remembered it. And the fat pouch of coins Ernesto had left with in the middle of the night.

Either way, the handsome, bearded man now hangs one-handed from the gantry, and as he looks up at Merith and Po he smiles. "You look quite fetching in this light m'lady," he offers as he sways, seemingly unconcerned by his precarious position. The light he refers to is magical in nature, a small, glowing crystal that orbits the trio as it baths the area in luminous golden light. Ernesto hates to use the arcane trinket, but he wanted both hands free once inside the library. The better to carry expensive books to buyers at the night markets -- some of these tomes will be worth a fortune!

After the platform is righted, Ernesto is suddenly right there, next to Quilana. His eyebrows are raised as he spies the lock.

"May I?" he asks, cracking and limbering up his fingers.

Since Merith had only recently struck out into the world on her own she hadn't met many men the likes of Ernesto, or truth be told many men at all that she had any dealings with other than a hurried greeting. Pleasing to the eye she found the dangling man's compliment had put her in a bit of a tizzy and that confounded her. But this would be food for thought for another time. Right now she felt overwhelming relief at not dropping into the abyss below.

Cringing at both his knuckle crackling and his proximity as he managed to climb up onto the platform she replied, "Feel free." The words came out more like a squeak though than the sarcastic quip she had intended.

"Give the man some room Po," she said nudging the serious warrior priest as she watched Ernesto, marveling at his magical light and silently willing the man to succeed at breaking the lock.

"Where am I going to go? Here, let me, just, ugh -- okay, try from there!" He clings to the side of the ladder which creaks ominously as he leans away. His foot and knee locked under the far rung are supporting most of his weight.

"It's fine, it's fine," Ernesto says smoothly, sliding in-between his companions. "I have all the room I need, my friends. Now let me look at this... ah! This lock is no trivial thing. A delicate mechanism... and a magickal ward as well! They took great pains to secure this place!"

The man suddenly has lockpicks in his hands, and he busily begins to work on the impressive lock...

...and he busily begins to work on the impressive lock -- which he opens in short order with a click of his tongue and a wink towards Merith!

"Is that the tome we came for? What did I tell you. Good planning and the bravado to dare gets us more than half way."