After the Athamanas had parted ways for the evening, Suk and Teveli continued walking together through the streets of Floating Barracks for a while, leaving the others behind.
"What do you want to do, Tev?" Suk asked his friend with a grin.
"I really don't know." The boy admitted, then looked up at the sky, where the moon was shining blue. "Although we have a pretty nice evening. Maybe I'll take a walk around the edge of town, then go up to Floating Air and have a stargazing evening somewhere." He thought about it. "At least until I get sleepy." He finally shrugged. "What do you want to do?"' He turned to his friend, who just grinned broadly.
"I'm trying to sneak into Biaskoncy's office." He announced enthusiastically.
"For what?" Teveli grimaced.
"Because that's where he keeps his medicine cauldron. I have a new idea that I want to try out and your crazy relative stopped me and my crazy relative from experimenting last time." The boy rubbed his hands together, successfully making Teveli laugh.
"Okay, you poison-mixing genius. Then I'll let you play burglar." He shook his head finally, when he managed to pull himself together. "If anyone asks, I saw you two minutes ago and you were heading back to our accommodation." He winked at the boy.
"You're the best Tev. I'll come get you one." The Zovárd boy got excited. "See you later." He waved to the youngest Tele boy.
"See you later." He heard the voice behind him before he turned into a street. However, contrary to what he told Teveli, the boy did not rush up to Floating Air Barracks, but slowed down his steps and changed direction to visit the house under which the center of the Immortal Mist was hidden.
As a member of the assassin organization, Suk was able to easily get to the right house, where he walked down the long staircase to the iron door without any further disturbance. He placed his hand on the metal and at the same time the door opened, the boy's clothes changed. Suk blinked and realized that his yellow clothes that Marianne had made for him had completely turned black and only the edges showed that he was a Zovárd under the hood.
Smiling at this, the poison-mixer stretched out and aimed for the Immortal Mist archives. No one even glanced at him on his way. It seemed that the Mist assassins already considered him one of their own, which Suk was not really happy about. However, heeding his relative's words, he decided to make the best of his situation and take advantage of the opportunities that the Immortal Mist could give him. So when he entered the archive, he immediately began his search.
The archive of the Immortal Mist is the largest that anyone can find in the world. Although it would be more accurate to call it a system of document caves, since the documents are stored on shelves carved into the walls, and there are long passages on several levels under the seabed. Almost a thousand years of accumulated knowledge is stored in that huge room.
A multitude of chests from ceiling to floor greet the one who enters and dim light, mostly illuminated by a pale blue light similar to the light of eternal lamps. The corridors of each floor are about two people high. Along the outer walls, there are stairs carved into the wall, which can be used to reach the higher levels.
Each chest has a description of what the documents inside are about. As Kamu explained to Suk when he first showed him the place, the older a document is, the further inside and higher you have to look. For example, if you are interested in something from Athira's time, you have to go to the very end of the room and climb all the stairs to the top floor and take the box from the top row.
However, Suk was not looking for information that went back that far. So he had to search the corridors of the first floor. Most of the corridors were divided by region, with the appropriate name written on a small board above each one. As the Zovárd boy searched for the column that was important to him, he came across several inscriptions that he had never heard of before. Logically, these had to be countries or large regions, but there were only a few that Suk knew what they meant.
Finally, the boy found the corridor of chests labeled Karrabata Valley. A broad smile spread across his lips and he immediately turned into the small corridor to conduct a deeper search. When someone entered such a part of the archive, the information was already organized according to the given region. If there was a kingdom somewhere, the documents were according to the state organs, if there were only small tribes somewhere, then according to tribes.
In the corridor labeled Karrabata Valley, the chests were divided according to the tribes. So Suk didn't have to search much to find the chests he was looking for. The chests labeled "Szotradoki" were placed about halfway down the corridor. And when the hegin found them, he immediately pulled out the lowest one and, taking it under his arm, headed for the reading room dug into the ground on the left side of the archive.
This room is a smaller one, where it was much brighter than in the archive itself and where there were several tables with chairs. Each one had writing instruments and papers. So Suk chose a table and, placing the acquired treasure on it, took a seat. Finally, with a grin on his face, he opened the chest and began to look through the papers. He wanted to know everything, every little piece of information that the Immortal Mist had gathered.
As he read the papers, he sometimes even made notes about things he found important. Thanks to this, he quickly became completely lost in his work. So much so that he didn't even notice that someone had entered the room, until the stranger had already sat down opposite him and, resting his chin in his palm, grinning and not speaking.
"Are we researching, are we researching?" Came the voice that made Suk raise his head and immediately turn over his notes.
"Ka..." He started, but grimaced. "Can I still call you by your name, or do I have to call you Ishán and Vietryk like the others?" He asked the question, and the person sitting opposite him chuckled.
"Feel free to call me Kamu. You are the successor to my best friend." The man shrugged.
"Have I become your best friend?" Ajtony appeared out of nowhere.
"You are even when you are killing me." He rolled his eyes. "So what are you looking for about your tribe?" Kamu asked, pointing at the box, and Suk let out a loud sigh and folded his arms in front of him.
"I just wanted to know how many people you have inside Karrabata." He shrugged. "I didn't find out, but you have pretty accurate information." He also looked at the box.
"Ah, you wanna play a game with the jegins? Because if you do, I'll give you my Karrabata man." He pulled a simple bronze coin from his pocket.
"Are you really giving me access to them this easily?" Suk grimaced.
"You're a Zovárd, I've learned that you only work together with me if you can use the Mist for what you want." The Ishán nodded at Ajtony.
"Did I tell you that I love you, Kamu?" Ajtony asked with a grin.
"And you're surprised that our people have stupid rumors." Kamu sighed, then put the bronze coin in front of Suk. "Here. You hold it and say 'The Mist covers.' and my spy will appear." He explained, to which Suk looked at me questioningly. "If you don't believe me, you can try it." The Ishán grinned, and so the Zovárd boy carefully took the coin in his hand and spoke.
"The Mist covers." As soon as the word left his lips, a masked figure dressed in black appeared next to the table. At the same moment, Biaskoncy entered the room with a sheaf of papers in his hand. And so, two blinking Zovárds stared at the masked figure.