21 - 06/16/25 : A Trio of Hearts

The Book Club returned to Soul's Pad from the Mage Cube, where they found Soul and Avron, the apprentice they had freed. Avron had taken a short rest before Soul teleported him back to his old home. The students gave Soul the scroll of secrets and, after confirming it was okay, sent cube to the Cloud Giant they had met on their way. As the party prepared to head home, they realized none of them had a Scroll of Recall, like they were usually given. Soul informed them that they had no use for them, as they were already back in Fortune's Crossing. Soul's tower had been transported back to town, as he revealed he was Everlight's new student councilor.   The next morning, the trio looked through Ezri's copy of Archfey: From Summer to Winter in search of info about the Court of Stars, but found no archfey leaders listed for the mysterious court. They decided that either Arwyn or Soul might be able to offer more suggestions. Visiting Arwyn's office first, the students provided their headmaster with the materials for the Legend Lore spell. Upon casting this spell, he was surprised to learn that the bracelet was quite old. It was made of solid gold by Gold Dragons in order to contain a weapon created by Gem Dragons in an ancient war. While details were scarce, Arwyn made an educated guess based on the necrotic energy of whatever was inside the bracelet that it was likely made by Topaz Dragons. While this didn't give much to immediate information, it was a new line of information to pursue. When asked about the Court of Stars, Arwyn admitted that his planar knowledge was limited and confirmed the student's idea that Soul would be the best source to ask. Arwyn also informed the Book Club that a few new students had enrolled. The first was the apprentice chef of Bon Bon Courage, Genevieve Dufour. The second was the granddaughter of Hastra Grandbeard, the dwarven cleric the party had assisted with Nadya. The last was a newcomer who had apparently left the Underdark to enroll.   Before leaving, Ezri mentioned the suggestions that Soul had made about his past, not liking to keep even theories about other people's secrets without their permission. At the mention of being from the past, Arwyn's terrible poker face gave away that Ezri had hit the nail on the head. While Arwyn didn't intend to hide his past, he didn't bring it up on his own, due to complications it might cause. He confirmed for the students that he was originally from the Hyperborean civilization of Tsen, and his mentor had cast a spell to fling him far into the future when the disaster that led to Tsen's fall had started. While Arwyn had originally intended to find a way to return to his time, he has since made peace with his new life and is happy to provide students of this age with the resources they need to pursue magic.   Saying their goodbyes to Arwyn, the party headed to Soul's next to see if they could learn more about the Court of Stars. However, in his typical fashion, instead of giving the students the information, Soul quizzed them to lead them to their own conclusion. Soul's questions guided them to look at other planes, as the fey lived in more than just the feywild, and eventually the party focused their search on Arborea.   With some questions answered and more brought up, the trio decided to rest for the day after the hard work they had put in. On a whim, the party decided to have the first meeting of the actual book club they had talked about starting, and had Hermes send out invitations to the other students. While waiting in their dorm for the guests, Ezri announced to her roommates that she was going to reveal Eo Nee to the other students. She felt like the secret would get out sooner than later, and she had hoped this would improve Eo Nee's mood, as she had noticed occasional somber moods in the usually annoyingly cheerful sprite. While she was on board with the idea, Adeline also suggested the novel idea of talking to Eo directly later that night about how she felt. While Ezri did take this suggestion into consideration, it also caused her a brief moment of panic, causing a wild magic surge in which she exploded in a burst of lightning, striking herself and both her companions.   Before the party could discuss more, Zana had arrived at their dorm room, eager for the book club. Next, Nadya and Xiuying arrived together, both likely coming from their shared dorm. Finally, Nox and Genevieve, who met along the way, joined as well, with Genevieve bringing some treats from the bakery with her. With the book club gathered, Ezri summoned Eo Nee and introduced her to her classmates. While some of the attendants were surprised, they all seemed to take the reveal well, and welcomed Eo Nee into the club. As th gathered students considered what book to read, Eo Nee brought out copies of a banned book detailing an early romance between Titania and the Queen of Air and Darkness. The books had been burned in the Fey Wild, but apparently things that get burned in the fey realm often wind up with the Lantern King.   As the club began reading through the illicit romance novels, Zana approached Ezri and asked for her assistance talking to Nadya. Ezri made an excuse to get both of them out of the room, but Nadya caught on once the three were alone together. When confronted, Zana apologized for previous warnings that Nadya's current mentality would make her suffer, having learned that there was more than suffering even in harsher paths. Nadya agreed not to hold it against Zana and start fresh again in getting to know each other.   As they returned to the rest of the club, the members discussed new students who had arrived, describing the dwarf student as pretty strict sounding, but not knowing much about the drow. As the group finished their reading for this meeting, the moved to the Queen's Glaive for some drinks. While there, Nox also mentioned a house party his group was planning to meet the new students and reveal Mary's true nature as a mimic to the other classmates. The gathered group of students celebrated the opportunity given to the bunch of outcasts by the school as they continued their revery.   As the party winded down, Ezri headed back to dorm, with Adeline reminding her to talk to Eo Nee. In the empty dorm, Ezri asked Eo Nee about the moments of sadness she had noticed in her familiar. Eo Nee revealed that she was concerned the Lantern Kings's property, not a servant like Ezri, as she had died while in a pact with the Lantern King. As her penance, she became a sprite trapped in one of his lanterns until he had some use for her. Not wanting to trap someone as she had been, Ezri decided that she wouldn't keep Eo Nee in her lantern any more and promised she was free to stay out of it forever. Stunned by this act, Eo Nee hugged Ezri, thankful for the kindness she was shown.