((OOC: Sorry it took me a few days to get this posted, Elwin, I'd forgotten it's official move-in week, and things became a bit hectic. Plus, I wasn't entirely sure when this was going to take place in terms of the whole "Lecture" and "Sonny Boy" threads, but we'll just give this a go anyway! I figure it'll take place some point after "Lecture", after Iffalna has been in Olencia for a few days.))

Iffalna wasn't quite sure how things were going with Penril, but due to a combination of circumstances, she did have a few spare hours on her hands. And Iffalna had not come to Olenica just to chat with Penril. No, she had a bone to pick with Master Elwin.

She and Elwin had never really gotten along. They were about the same age, with Elwin being a few years Iffalna's junior. Despite this obstacle (and two years is a considerable difference age difference when one is only seven), she and Elwin had been fighting ever since they were knee-high to a corn stalk in May, which, being corn, does not have knees. It had probably been best for all involved that Iffalna had locked herself in the greenhouse come age ten and that Elwin had gone into medicine and philosophy and all of that awfully dry stuff that Iffalna would rather die than study, but the two had managed to meet up occasionally, and a spat always resulted. Both had tempers, especially as children, both were opinionated, and both held grudges. It hadn't helped Elwin came into his magic earlier than Iffalna, and it hadn't helped that Iffalna was more famous as a plant breeder and expert than the scholarly Elwin.

As a result, they both detested each other.

The Slayer Order had encountered a piece of luck when Elwin chose to be a traveling doctor and Iffalna had decided to stay in the Keep. The two rarely interacted for more than the time it took for Iffalna to give Elwin staple food for a few months, and even two of the strongest personalities in the Slayer Order need more than a simple transaction to get in a fight, so she and Elwin hadn't disagreed for a while. But apparently that was about to change, since Elwin had snitched on Iffalna for not keeping an eye on three apprentices under her supervision.

Iffalna thought this patently unfair of him. Yes, the apprentices were under her supervision, as was every Slayer helping with the crops. But they weren't hers. Iffalna didn't have the patience to take an official apprentice, much less three, and she had dramatically punished the three apprentices in question to cleaning out the Keep by hand...After Elwin had gone to tell Penril of her failure.

Now, Iffalna was rather protective of Penril, and the recent incident with regards to the King and whatnot had hightened her protective instinct. She didn't feel Elwin should have troubled him with something as silly as apprentices breaking into the restricted section of the library. And Iffalna was standing right in front of his clinic to tell him so.

Barging in, as was her habit, Iffalna ignored the nurse (what help would she be? She wanted to see Elwin, not talk to some ninny!) and called out, "MASTER ELWIN MARKIAL! IT'S MISTRESS IFFALNA BRIAROSE, AND I WANT A WORD WITH YOU IMMEDIATELY!"

OOC:I'll assume then that this takes place before "Sunny Boy"

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Life in the Hospital was always a drag. A few laughs around here and there was always common around the clinic ward especially when Elwin was in. But this day though, word may have already sprung out that there was a lunatic doctor practicing medicine which advertently lessened Elwin's patients - which totally sucked HARD.

Elwin decided to just take a cat nap, laying a cushion on his desk with the imprint: "B'olecnic T'hartium", a portmanteau and anagram of six different foul languages used against the state of Marlas when an evil duke was in power.

Elwin decided to reread the letter of summons for the King's next appointment with the congregations of doctors. He was always fond of these regular appointments. Doctors would come up with different diagnosis treating the king with god knows what medicine and herbs they could come up. Obvously just making the king either peace of mind or just for the money. Elwin was always after the money part, but always see to it to administer a special dose of one of his neutralization agents to cancel out the harmful effects of whatever they would give him. Since the king is just too gullible to follow whatever they would tell him to do.

There was a ruckus outside, just when the his eyes started to get heavy.. ow how he just wanted some peace and quiet instead of that noise. He was already urged to go outside and yell at them, but he just decided to let the guards handle it. A few stampers and yells, which are getting louder and louder - getting close as it may seem. The door just swung open with a familiar white haired woman, not much older than he is shouting, "MASTER ELWIN MARKIAL! IT'S MISTRESS IFFALNA BRIAROSE, AND I WANT A WORD WITH YOU IMMEDIATELY!" The lady, whom Elwin would rather not meet right now for her imprudence and lack of tack.

GOOD HEAVENS! WHAT IS THIS WOMAN THINKING!?

He immediately sat up looking flared and approached the glaring woman. Elwin got infront of the door, restraining the guards and shooed them away and swining the status card so wildly, that it fell on the floor.

And still not stopping, he grabbed the nuissance - a really big one at that - by the arm and led dragged her towards the examining bed, not even minding if he made the old hag bump into his desk.

"Do you care to explain what that scene you just made?" Elwin questioned Iffalna with such intensity that compelled Elwin to summon a dozen or so ghouls right here and now to attack the might-be-key to the Order's fall.

"Do you care to explain what that scene you just made?" Elwin demanded Iffalna.

That arrogant old...! Oh, he was going to get an earful, pretending he didn't know why she angry! Now that she had his attention, Iffalna was sure to keep her voice down, but it carried the same intensity it had when she was shouting.

"Don't you take that tone with ME, Master Elwin, you know exactly what I'm about! You and your arrogance, they just make my blood boil!" It was true; Iffalna could feel her face flushing red with blood. "What were you THINKING when you came down to Olencia for nothing more than to tell Penril about those three apprentices? Apprentices break into the library all the time, which, you idiot, you would know if you ever took your nose out of those useless books of yours," Iffalna punctuated this remark by knocking a few books off his inconvenienctly placed desk, "and observed what was going on outside them! No wonder you and your ilk can't cure the king, you never pay attention to what's really going on around you!" Then Iffalna reminded herself that she really wasn't here to argue his medicene with him, even if she did disagree with his methods. "Regardless, if you have a problem with ME or MY METHODS, you take it up with ME, do you hear? Don't go bothering Penril about it, he's got enough to deal with already! Do I make myself PERFECTLY clear?"

Good grief, she's getting all worked up because of that?

"If I may tell you, I came on behalf of all the other Masters with a signed letter, telling Penril that he should lock up Master Zruti's artifacts with a cycle eight seal instead of lock and key." He pointed his word to her.

Looking at her seemingly really angry mannerism, even knocking some books down... By the suns why in earth did he have a fellow Master with the means of a ten year old with the body of an ox. He sighed and tapped his forehead, trying to relieve some stress, the stress was already killing him; thus the cat nap.

"And look, I have no interest in your affairs, but what I'm more concerned with is the status of the Keep." He sat back at his chair and gesturing the hag to a nearby seat. "If you don't believe me, I can retell the contents of the joint letter by the others to you telling them about the flood. They made ME a courrier pigeon... I wouldn't have half the mind like you have to tell on your superiors for every mishaps you can do like some giddy know-it-all teacher's pet." He spat right back at her. "Of course I would've also tell if the obervatory was frenched, which luckily wasn't." He mumbled the last part, getting a small cups for tea and shoving it right infront of his fellow Master.

Iffalna was seething. First off, she didn't want his tea. It was common knowledge Iffalna and Elwin didn't like the same teas, and she didn't like that he was nettling her by offering his inferior tea to her. But she didn't want to clean up cracked pottery, so she resisted the urge to knock it off his desk.

Second off, he and other masters did NOT have to bother Penril. She was perfectly capable of sealing Zruti's things, and she lived at the Keep. She was most interested in plants and in doing magic with them, but she was very, very insulted they hadn't just asked her to do a variation on a simple warding spell. Iffalna hadn't gotten to be as old as she was by not doing warding spells. In fact, for a woman of her size and strength, warding spells were occasionally the only way one could protect oneself.

"Don't you take that superior tone with me, Master Elwin!" She snarled. "You know perfectly well I could have done that without Penril's approval! I am a capable Slayer, certainly as strong as you, and able to do useful things with my magic, besides! Now, don't go bothering Penril unless it's something I can't handle, you old goat!" Then she remembered the bit he'd muttered about the observatory...Granted, she hadn't quite heard it, but she took offense to it. "And if you'd stay around the Keep for long enough to contribute to the Order, you'd know there are MUCH more important things than your damned observatory! You care about nothing else, not the comfort or safety or peace of mind of other people, just your own selfish studies and your own damned observatory!"

Not accepting my tea? Elwin sighed as it wasn't a surprise that Mistress Iffalna wouldn't like his preferred tea; but still, it was in the act of courtesy! Elwin's mind was screaming how rude Iffalna is. And she's supposed to be well mannered!? At least HE had the manners to accept HER tea even though how much his stomach wanted to spit it out since it tastes like grass - WHO WOULD DRINK GRASS? Elwin sighed once again trying to vent out any other steam he had left - and it didn't quite lessen.

"Don't you take that superior tone with me, Master Elwin!" She snarled. "You know perfectly well I could have done that without Penril's approval! I am a capable Slayer, certainly as strong as you, and able to do useful things with my magic, besides! Now, don't go bothering Penril unless it's something I can't handle, you old goat!"

Elwin's brows started to twitch. The act of trying to muster as much patience as his old body could hold against this tactless old hag can do.

"By gods, they can hear your screechy voice you know." He mumbled, burrying his head beneath his colar and crossed arms.

"And if you'd stay around the Keep for long enough to contribute to the Order, you'd know there are MUCH more important things than your damned observatory! You care about nothing else, not the comfort or safety or peace of mind of other people, just your own selfish studies and your own damned observatory!" She continued.

Still with a vein bulging here and their, his face all flustered with frustration, eyes twitching and fingers tingling to summon a leviathan of a dragon and eat that green weed alive.

"I do my own things, you do your own, isn't that a pleasant life enough for you?" He was about to add 'even how much you grill my head with your spatters' but thoght otherwise. He'll just have to hold that thought in a private moment anywhere, just not here in a public place.

((OOC: Elwin, I am SO SORRY it took me so long to reply! My internet has not been liking me lately, but I think it's getting better...*crosses fingers*))

He did his things? Did he just have the AUDACITY to say he did his own things? He was interfering with how SHE handled the Keep!

"Did you or did you not go bother Penril with news of the latest apprentice hijinx?" Iffalna asked, trying very, very hard to keep her voice down. Inwardly she admitted she had been a little loud...But not because Elwin had said she was. She succeded in quieting down, mostly. At least she was using what the Slayers working in the nursery would call her "inside voice"; the intensity was Elwin's own fault.

Not bothering to hear Elwin's answer, Iffalna continued, "You telling Penril of the apprentices working under me is NOT 'doing your own things'. If you DID do your own things instead of undermining my authority, then yes, it WOULD be a happy enough existence for me! But you just have to go tattling on me, just like you did when you were a child, and putting more burden on Penril! Everyone knows he has enough on his mind right now, so don't go adding more to it! If you have a problem with me, you tell me, right now!"

He was closed his eys that whole time and when she finished, he took a peek if she wanted to add some more, well good, she was dne.

"Don't ask me, they only made me deliver a letter. A crow was sent to me when I was travelling here, a few weeks back. So what did you want me to do with the letter, burn it?" He replied with that inkling spice in his voice.

He took a sip of tea and made a log sigh before returning it to the table.

Loking out the window, he was getting sleepy with the scenario it was getting awfully irritating.

"It's getting slow here, you mind continueing this some other time?" He asked.

The point of discussing secret matters about the order here, isn't safe already. Together with the little scene her fellow slayer has done, there's no doubt that the risk of evesdropping was high. Of course he's also doing this just to escape arguements that could take on for hours, especially with HER.

That self-centered drama queen! Telling HER that THEY had "only asked him to deliver the letter"! He had CHOSEN to deliver it knowing full well what it meant...And who would have told him to deliver it? And now he was acting as though he had better things to do than discuss Slayer matters! He was supposed to be a Slayer first and doctor second!

"You listen here, you didn't have to deliver the letter! And who ELSE would have wanted to bother Penril with such trivia? Everyone else KNOWS I keep the apprentices under control!" Iffalna's volume was rising again, but she didn't much care. "I'll leave you alone on the condition you NEVER bother our Ablest, who is under ENOUGH STRESS ALREADY, with such trivia. Do you understand me clearly, Master Elwin Markial?" She ended with another snarl. She wanted to keep arguing, after all, he was dismissing her as though she were his junior, but all she really wanted was less stress on Penril. And to scold Elwin, too, but she'd scolded him already. All she needed now was to secure his word and she'd stomp her way out the door and back to the Prancing Pony.

Another sigh, yes, this could be Elwin's twentieth sigh now.

"Don't ask me, ask Penril. I believe he still has the letter." He made his final statement, true and resolute at that. "If you'll excuse me then, I still have a meeting to go to."

He was lying on the last part, although there really was a meeting requesting for his presence, but he decided to take a nap instead. Really, that was MUCH more realxing that hearing some quack drabble about his quack theories in medicine.

He picked up his hat and coat thinking that he should've went to the meeting if he only knew how to properly deal with oracle magic.

"Ladies first?" He gestured, opening the door wide open for her to exit. Surely enough people were indeed acting awkward and probably eavesdropping just now. "Hurry now, I know the both of us can't be stay here too long, we can 'talk' more on this later." He finished, giving emphasis to the word: "talk".

That old wurm! Trying to chastize her for being loud! Whispering intensely, Iffalna replied, "Don't you dare scold me for my volume, you provoked it! Yes, we will discuss this later, until you acknowledge that I am you superior at the Keep and all problems you have with security should be brought to me without bothering Penril! Now go to your meeting, see if I care! You won't be able to cure the King with all the medicene in the world! It's silly of you to waste your time when you could be contributing to the Order!" Iffalna was no medical professional, but the last time she'd seen the king, it seemed he was more depressed than sick. If someone took the time to put a little sunshine and joy in his life, Iffalna bet he'd perk right up and rule another five, ten, fifteen years, at least. But dour Elwin and his dour co-conspirators couldn't do that, could they?

With that, Iffalna stamped out the door and headed to the front of the clinic, mentally daring Elwin to retaliate.