Library of the Ancients

Achilles sat in one of the large, open windows to the library, leaning against the windowframe with his feet perched on the windowsill. Freshly changed for his duties from the hunt earlier, he now wore mint green undergarments consisting of a collared shirt with white cuff links and pants of a light, yet tough material that fit his legs well. Fastening his shirt to his chest was a vest of white with mint green accents that looked to be adorned with a type of mithril chainmail interwoven into the material. Bracers of the same were fastened over his forearms and shins, though the black leather boots that he wore seemed the most plain. They looked worn, as if they had been used for decades. His white cloak hung from his shoulders, attached to his vest, giving him the look of his station.

Achilles cared little for all of the uniform requirements. He was good enough to keep out of harm's way without needing armor designed to allow for taking hits. His personal goal was to avoid as many of the opponent's blows as possible, so the concept of all of this "necessary garb" was rather trivial to him. Nonetheless, he wore what he must to keep this castle and his queen as safe as possible.

The sandy-haired captain had left his hair loosely tied back and falling about his face, which left his golden piercing gaze slightly less direct, which was what he turned on the guest whose arrival had been easily predicted. This was no restricted area, but still, a solitary guest wandering so far from the area of the festivities was suspect enough to take a walk, as little as he liked this particular room. He loved libraries, just not this one. This one held a migraine waiting to happen in the form of another soul's memories.

Hopping down from the window, Achilles approached the guest, keeping his distance to give her personal space. "You're awfully far from the festivities, aren't you?" he asked, masking any suspicion in his tone with pure curiosity. "Though you're right. This room is quite the find." he said with a ghost of a smile.

Her displeasure was dripping from her tone, and it unfortunately was cute enough to make him chuckle a little. Noting her transition in forward motion, Achilles kept his distance, shifting his own path to parallel hers and remain out of range of the length of her weapon and her arm combined. The instincts he had were quite useful in situations like this, and he had to rely on them a small amount to find her here.

The captain found a bookcase in his path with the appropriate distance and leaned against it lightly, his own weapon plainly visible now. The curved bladerang hung at the back of his right hip and was previously not visible due to the angle at which he sat on the window. Previously, however, she was an escapee from the festivities. Now, it seemed she was more like himself and the queen. Either she was overloading her sensory abilities with so many people that it was a little painful to be around, or she hated large crowds. Either would be a trait she shared with both of them.

Crossing his arms, he felt a response weighing on him. "There is very little that is secret to me in the castle, or indeed, this forest. I doubt many others would be able to find this place, so you needn't worry." he said in an attempt to assuage her worry about the secrecy.

"You won't be shaking me very easily if you plan on wandering around though. It's my job to keep this place safe, and it wouldn't do to have someone running around in our Library of the Ancients unchecked, hmm?" he half-asked.

In an effort to avoid arrogance, he looked her over once more before posing his question. "You look to be running from the crowd. Overloading your sensory ability? Perhaps too many people make it difficult to focus." he mused, pretending to mull it over. "You and I share that, if that's the case." Achilles offered as recompense for following her out.

"How rude of me." he thought aloud, pushing off of the bookshelf and taking two steps forward to extend his hand. "I am Achilles, the captain of the guard here. And yourself?" he asked politely.

Standoffish was an understatement with this child, it seemed. Achilles wasn't taken aback by it, but it did provide another mental note for him as he dropped his hand, stepping back to the bookcase he had grown fond of. The extension of a handshake was as much a test as it was a courtesy to the now elder huntsman. Much could be gauged by its acceptance, or lack thereof. Analysis of this one was easy, he thought to himself. She's bothered, confidence edging on arrogance, and simply not sociable. Fun. he thought further, his ghostly half smile making a reappearance.

"I assume little and assess much from simple things. Comes with the line of work." he retorted instantly, almost coolly. "As for the thousands of other people being here, you'd do well to notice that not a single other soul has wandered this far. You have, and we are shy no amount of guards to track down people that haven't gone elsewhere." came his even more icy response.

"That said, it's a pleasure to meet you, Velka." the captain said as cordially as he could given the circumstance. "I, too loathe touching others when they're following me. Though I can't say I often allow myself to be caught." he said in a very pointed manner, pushing off of the bookcase once more to walk in a carefully decided perimeter, keeping his distance precisely. The man walked confidently, as if each step was planned, yet careless as to whether it would cause him harm or not. If she were a threat to me, she'd easily....be a different shade, he thought privately, his eyes glazing for only a moment to ensure he was correct.

"Since you haven't answered much, may I ask what drew you here? Curiosity is fine, as it's not off-limits, but if you've come with a mind to ransack either the knowledge or property here, then you'd best be off before someone a little less understanding than myself makes an appearance." he informed her, the underlying warning made clearly evident.

Smirking, he shook his head lightly. This one was intelligent; he'd have to give her that. "I suppose that depends on what you'd mean by caught. If your intentions were indeed to ransack this place, then regardless of whether you came here by design or accident would mean little." he replied logically, halting his perimeter pace and spinning on his heels towards her before halting instantly.

"It's good that you're being honest. If you were telling it falsely, I may have caught onto that, and I hope you're the type of person that would tell me something regardless of whether I'd like it or not. That's nice to have." he let on, letting his fingers trail to his unique weaponry and playing with a small strap of leather hanging from the blade's hilt that had fallen off from years of use.

Utilizing his hand to brush his hair from his face to watch her more carefully, he glanced at her finger sliding down the spine of the book. "Little knowledge of parents typically give me pause for sympathy.I haven't decided whether this time will be typical or not, however. Do you have any idea what section you should be looking in? I may be able to assist you instead of cause you any more verbal offense." he explained, letting his hand off of his blade and taking her previous position, awaiting her response.

A chuckle was brought to the captain's lips along witha twinkle of his eyes that adorned his next response. "As far as your assumption goes, I suppose it's something like that." he answered quizzically. Pushing forward to regain his feet, Achilles walked slowly down one shelf as if he were looking one by one. In allowing his eyes to glaze over for a moment, he'd found what she was looking for already, and it would be even easier to simply search The Catalog. He'd come to discover that the castle's previous ruler was not disorganized. As a matter of fact, they'd perhaps been the most disgustingly organized person he could think of.

Allowing a shrug as his thoughts wandered off, he figured it was probably much easier to have that level of control over one's organization when things could be moved by a thought. Such is life.. he thought to himself with a sigh as he turned a corner back towards his surprise occupant.

"Are you looking for anything in particular? Or shall I come up with a list of things that you should begin reading through just now?" he asked her, almost lazily.