Seeking the key of the Lock family history

Maudre smiled at Amy, impressed that she knew what her name translated to. "Indeed," she said nodding, "that's actually a name I use somethimes, when for whatever reason I do not feel like using my real name - for instance because people won't be likely to remember it: Maudre of Lock."
She paused for a moment, then added; "and I do believe it's possible other relatives of mine have come to the same conclusion. Perhaps it's wise to look for the name 'of Lock' as well as 'Declausura'?"

Then she paused for a moment again, he thoughts returning to the subject of finding Amy's (and her) relatives. They had a name now - two actually! - but that still left them with the place to start looking.
"I think I'll be returning to my home town soon," he decided out loud, "first see what they have of information."

Her eyes met Amy, she smiled; "would you like to join me?" she asked in a friendly tone.

Amy nodded thoughtfully, doing her very best to remember both 'of Lock' as well as 'Declausura' so that she could use them when she was going to dive into the books again. She looked up from her thoughts a little surprised when Maudre asked her if she wanted to come with her when visiting her hometown. Her initial reaction was a smile and almost an instant yes. But then she remembered that it was uncertain when Raghnall would leave again and her smile faded.
"I... I don't know..." she answered truthfully, "How far away is it? And how long where you planning on going?"

Maudre smiled assuringly; "don't worry, we'll be there in a snap. It's not really close, mind you, but I happen to have some magic up my sleeve that can get us there faster. We should be able to get there in a day, I think."

She pondered for a moment when she was asked how long she was planning to stay. "I'm not sure," she replied, "that depends on what we - or I - find once there. At the least I was planning to check the family register, then maybe ask around a little more."

She thought about it for a moment, then asked; "perhaps you should first just see if you can find some useful information here. I'll head on over there on my own, and see if I can find any leads. And if I do come across something, I'll contact you. Then you can see for yourself if you want to come over or not?"

A part of Amy still wanted to go along with Maudre, curious to where she had grown up. But perhaps it would be better if she stayed here looking through the books for any clues.
It was a good idea, she would have some more time to think about things and she could spend more time with Raghnall. And who knew what she could find now that she had two very likely names to research in the books.
"I think that'll work..." she answered after having thought for a long moment.

Maudre nodded in agreement; "we'll do that then."
She fell silent for another moment, then thought out loud: "I couldn't possibly go this today... with the rebels here, and everyone up in arms about whether or not they'll be joining them in the war, I don't think it's the right time for the head of the school to leave."

She turned towards an object standing on her desk, which vaguely resembled a globe. It opened up at the centre, where the equator would be, which Maudre did. When it was opened all sorts of holographic images appeared, floating mid-air throughout the entire room. To an untrained eye it looked like random symbols and images that held no appearant meaning relative to each other*. Maudre seemed to know her way around them perfectly, as she walked over to some symbols that were afloat just behind Amy. She looked at them for a moment, nodding and making understanding 'hmm' sounds. Then she smiled, walked over to the globe-like object and closed it, and the floating holograms disappeared.

Then she turned at Amy and informed her; "I think I'll be heading there upcoming monday. If you find anything interesting in the mean time, you'll let me know?"

* Amy might recognize some of the images individually though, like for example the names of towns or other places, times and dates, faces or shapes of familair objects (just to name a few of the random-seeming things she could see if she paid attention).

Amy couldn't help herself from looking down, feeling a litle uncomfortable, when Maudre mentioned people deciding whether or not to join the rebels. She still wasn't sure herself about it. She did look up in time to see Maudre opening a globelike object in the middle. As soon as the holographics started her eyes grew huge as she tried to make sense of what she was seeing. She recognised a few things, but they didn't really seemed to mean anything specifyck to her.
When Maudre walked over to something behind her she turned around and tilted her head, wondering what was so special about that section. She was glad when the globe was closed again and the holographics dissappeard.
"What was that?" she asked rubbing her head, having gotten a slight headache.

Maudre chuckled when Amy asked about the globe-like thing. "It's called an 'Exterior'. It's a sort of agenda," she explained, "a bit of a combination between a diary, an encyclopedia, a clock, a calender... well, it's very versatile."

She stroked the Exterior and eyed it as if it was very precious to her. "I suppose that when you're as old as I am, you need a little bit of an... external memory."

((oke, dus... hoe gaat dit nu verder? XD))

Amy tilted her head a little when Maudre explained what the globelike thing was and did. The Exterior was a strange thing to her, it had so many functions... The thought of needing or even just having an external memory was also very strange to her. She didn't really knew what to think of it so she just nodded a little.
"Okay... I'll just go and check the books in the library again..." she said, a little distracted by the Exterior, "I'll let you know when I find something."
She smiled a little again and gave her a wave before leaving the room and heading back to the library.

Maudre smiled at Amy as she left; "that's alright dear. And I'll let you know when exactly I'll be leaving, okay?" Then she turned around to get back at her own business.

Days passed, then eventually the week did too. It was early in the morning, one might still consider it night. Maudre looked out of her window up at the dark, star-filled night sky with a smile. She had an envelope in her hand, that contained both a note and a small object. She checked its contents one more time before whispering a spell to it. It slowly disappeared, in the same manner at which it would reappear at Amy's night stand. Surely she would see it if she'd wake up.

Then Maudre took in a deep breath, summoned the little robin that was one of her many pets, and offered it a place to sit on her extended finger. Finally she put the hood of her dark cloak on and went on her way.

Time to see what secrets the family still holds...

As time passed Amy's main focus had returned to her schoolwork. She still searched through the library books for information about her family, but now only after she was done with her homework. Which meant on occasion she didn't get a change for it. It also meant that she hadn't been given the fact that Maudre was going to visit her old hometown much thought either. Let alone the idea of perhaps joining her in a later stage of her visit. That was until she woke up to the light of the rising sun one morning and found an envelop on her nightstand.
She had had too many notes appear in the middle of the night when Raghnall had been captured to be frightened or even worried by the envelop's presence. Instead she just sat up, picked it up and opened it quietly, Justine was still vast asleep.

The letters read:

"Amy,

I have gone to my home town. I left early this morning, before dawn and expect to be back the day after tomorrow, sometime in the evening. If I return sooner I will let you know. Also, keep the other content of this envelope close at heart. It is a way for me to contact you, even though I'm not near. You'll notice when I'm trying to reach you, surely.

Greetings and goodluck with your research,

Maudre (and all those other names too)."

The envelope also contained a necklace, with a small stone hanging from it. The stone was deep and dark blue, and in size somwhere in between in a dice and a chicken's egg. There was nothing extraordinary to see about it now.

Using the limited light of the rising sun that spilled in through a crack in the curtains Amy read the letter. After that she silently got out of bed and walked over to the window. Holding the stone directly in the ray of light to better examine it. It had a beautifull colour, but other then that she didn't found anything unusual about it. Neither could she place it, her earth magic lessons still hadn't reached magical gems. But she about Maudre's wish nontheless and put the necklace on. Deciding to wear the gem underneath her clothes so that she wouldn't draw unnecessarry attention to herself before getting ready for the day of school ahead of her.

The rest of the day would go on without any sign of Maudre, or without the gem on her necklace showing any kind of change. It just maintained its ordinairy, unnotable appearance as it hang innocently and unnoticed from Amy's neck.

The evening and night after that were pretty much the same, as was the day after that actually. Not a word, not a sound.
It wasn't until early in the evening, around dusk, the day after Amy had foudn the envelope with the letter and the gem, that something started to happen.

Suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, the gem started to glow (not in light, just in heat). It didn't get really hot, simply a little warmer so someone who'd be wearing the necklace would notice. Moments later it repeated this, and afterwards again, until Amy would notice.

By the time the stone started to warm Amy had all but forgotten she was wearing it. Of course she was reminded every time the stone hit her skin from when she had tilted forward a little, but that was all.
So when the stone started warming it gave her a slight scare. She was in alone in her room when it happened, doing her homework. She immediately pulled the necklace out from under her clothes and held the stone in the palm of her hand uncertain of what to do now.

The stone lay in Amy's hand for a couple more moments, glowing up once in a while with pauzes in between. Then suddenly a voice came; "Amy? Amy, are you there?"

The voice was unclear, switching between high or low volume and tone, and also with a lot of white noise and interference in between*. Still, despite all the disturbances, surely it would sound familiar to Amy. If she tried, she might recognize it to be Maudre's voice (though I'm guessing she would figure it was Maudre either way, even if she didn't hear it correctly).

* You could compare it to making a phone call while having bad reception.

Amy looked a little uncertain as the stone just kept on glowing up like a little firefly. When a voice came through it though she was a little freaked and nearly dropped the stone. Never had she heard a persons voice coming through an object before.
"Maudre?" she guessed and assumed, the voice was too unclear to be certain but she didn't really knew who else it would or even could be, "Yes I'm here... What is this?"

"Ah great," Maudre's voice said, "thank goodness. I've been trying to contact you for half an hour now, but it wouldn't work. Can you hear me alright? There's a lot of interference from my point of view..."

Amy stared a little freaked out at the gem in her hand, uncertain still of what was going on. She held the stone a little closer to her mouth when Maudre said that she couldn't hear her all that well.
"Uhm... I can hear you..." she said a little hessitant, not sure if all noise she was hearing in the background was normal or not, "though there is some background noise..."

"Ah yes," Maudre's voice replied in a sigh, "there's a lot of it here too. That's not suppose to be like that, but I'm guessing there's some kind of magic interfering. O well, nevermind it. All I wanted to say was that I will be back tomorrow in the afternoon. Will you come see me in my office?"

Amy was still uncertain about talking with Maudre through a stone. It was just very weird to her to be capable of talking with someone that far away by means of a stone. If it had involved them both being in some sort of meditative state she would have had an easier time with it all.
"Yeah sure..." she answered pretty fast though, not sure if the connection that allowed the conversation was timebound or not, "I'll come when my classes are over okay?"

Maudre nodded at first, then realized nods couldn't be heard over their magical connection and agreed verbally; "yes. That would be perfect. Until tomorrow then?"

And with that, just that, the stone returned to its old self. No voice, no glow, just a necklace.


The next day Maudre was back into her office. She looked tired, both in her expression as her way of moving. Still she was smiling.

It wasn't until the stone returned to it 'inactive' self that Amy really relaxed. After a few moments she returned back to her homework.

The next day when her classes where over Amy immediately went over to Maudre's office. Not knowing what to expect, but hoping to learn something new about her family history. She knocked on the door, but again entered without waiting for an answer.
"Hey... How are you?" she asked when she was inside, seeing almost immediately that Maudre was quite tired.

With the knocking on the door Maudre sat up a little straighter in her chair, having sat quite slouched until that point. She smiled when Amy came in, already expecting it to be her as she was about the only person who came in without waiting for a reply to her knocking.

"Hello dear," Maudre greeted her back, "I'm good. Well, a bit tired - as you can probably see..." She gestured for Amy to take a seat.

"So," she said when Amy's sat down, "how have things been here?" Then she jokingly added, winking at her: "did you miss me?"

Amy smiiled a little when Maudre said that she was fine though a bit tired, too which she had already guessed correctly that it showed. Not that she was planning on actually confirming that. She just walked over to the seat that Maudre had offered to her and sat down.
"Things have been quite normal," she answered, "as normal as possible with such a big group of rebels in the castle that is. I haven't really found anything new yet, though I have been really busy with homework. And yeah... kinda..."
She grinned a little sheepishly at the last part.

Maudre chuckled when Amy grinned sheepishly upon jokingly confirming she'd missed her. "Good thing too," she replied, switching from joking to a more serious manner of speaking. "I've not found out much, but what I have learned is quite interesting - at least, I'd like to think so."

She leaned back, looking at Amy curiously. She could just start telling, but she decided to wait for Amy to ask.

((read: I am just reintroducing us to this topic XD))