The Lake

Finally, we got an audience with Yussa! He was not very pleased with our treatment of his apprentice, but was willing enough to help us. Yussa didn't seem to believe that we were from The Library, as we didn't have our Library Cards on us, and apparently all of the people we mentioned to possibly vouch for us exploded and died 35 years ago! If we weren't certain before, we now know how much time has passed. Apparently he had personally investigated the site of the former Library and found nothing. I tried to tell Yussa about what had happened with us, but Avon kept kicking me! He obviously thought we shouldn't say much more, but surely a man of Yussa's standing can be trusted? Or at least be paid off? I'm certain we could have learned more if we had just talked.
 
Yussa also mentioned that there is a war currently raging (though we didn't ask more so we didn't look like complete idiots), and that the Zolarg word Ignatius kept muttering is actually a reference to a celestial butthole. He also agreed to drop the charges for the alleged boat theft.
 
Yussa agreed to teleport us to wherever we needed to go, which was a huge boon! As much as I was not looking forward to the logistics of making our way on horseback, I was looking forward to a bit of sight-seeing on the way to Deastok. Yussa sent us directly to where the Library previously was, but not before informing us that Deastok has become taken over by rebels and is now a somewhat lawless town. Sounds like great fun!
 
We were transported back to the mountains, where I had lived for so long, to find a lake where the Library (and then a giant crater) was! I was genuinely disappointed that the Library wasn't here. I was CERTAIN that they had just jumped into the future and hidden themselves away as usual, and that when we made our way back everything would be like normal.
 
As we investigated the area, we noticed that the lake had a strange shimmer to it. Aeldred conjured a snake familiar that he named Renouk to go and explore the water, but Renouk was absolute trash and couldn't see anything so in my impatience I jumped in myself. I saw what appeared to be an echo of the Library!!! Almost as if an ethereal fingerprint was left behind when it disappeared. I could see the outlines of everything that previously existed where the water now was (and later we found it was the same above water when we put fog there), but only the basic infrastructure. The only exception was an orb I found at the bottom, which turned out to be the communication rocks that Antwon and his security team used!
 
We rested for the night, and in the morning continued our investigations. I dreamed about finding the Library on the Ethereal Plane, and when I awoke I found I could cast the Blink spell! It worked on my first try (I'll have to tell Mother about that, assuming she's alive) and quickly realized that The Library is not on the Ethereal Plane either. With the clarity of day, Avon also had an idea! He realized he still had one of those locking key stone thingies, and there were now strange floating versions of them around! We found if you touched the actual stone to the spectral stone, it would spit back to you either a different stone or 2 stones! We did it for all six and...........nothing happened. BUT we were able to use the same concept on the spectral communication stone and now we have two of them! Aeldred noticed that the versions that were being spit out had an aura of planar magic and dunamancy to them, meaning they clearly traveled through time as well as planes (???)
 
We tried out the communicator, knowing that a 3rd one was still in the spectral outline of the Library, and we GOT A RESPONSE! THEY'RE ALIVE!!! We heard a chorus of voices saying very spooky things like, they are lost and drifting; there's only darkness; they don't know who they are; madness (repeated). I wonder if they are possibly in the Astral Sea?
 
We have decided to head into Deastok next to see what we can find, and if it's not fruitful then perhaps we will go to Amos's home in Zadash and see if his books on dunamancy can tell us anything (and perhaps we can stop by the Othalam estate as well, assuming it even still exists or belongs to us....).