<div class="floatright">(http://i.imgur.com/ywcOXPg.jpg)</div><br/>At first, Cinder began to feel like the paper trail might be another dead end.  Virella's desk was full of leather bound notebooks, but so much of it was both far too technical for Cinder, and also boring.  She tried to focus as she ran her finger along one line, "...thermic weave of dynamic arcane forces produce an expected result in the tests.  Illusionary matrixes hold stable even when boosted by the new  dynamic, but there is still a ways to go before full manifestation of an affected simulacrum that appropriately meets my expectations.  Suggesting tweaking by one dram the amount of..."<br/><br/>Cinder nodded her head as she re-read the line for the third time, what the hell did that even mean, was it even in common or some strange language?  "I'll bet Maeryll could understand this," she lamented, and moved onto the next book, dilligent even through boredom.  A few moments into reading, her lips curled back into a smile, now this was something she could understand!  This, this book, it was a personal journal.  Oh sure it said 'logbook' on the cover, but Cinder knew a journal when she read one.  Flipping to a random page in the middle she started scanning.<br/><br/><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: courier;">...the duke's ball.  Of course I wasn't invited because of my academic prowess, no.  All of the nobility and high ranking politicians just wanted as many women, good looking women I should say, there to fill out the ranks of all of the boring visiting dignitaries.  Though I have to admit, the Tinean sovereign, Queen Aelma, was quite intriguing.  She was there with all three of her wives and her husband, and I think between the five in the royal party they wore enough jewelry to fund my research for another three years.  Not to mention the gowns!  Queen Aelma's second wife was wearing a silk number that I absolutely must see if I can get a dressmaker to replicate!  It had woven strands of mithril...</span><br/><br/>Cinder grew impatient and flipped ahead a few pages.<br/><br/><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: courier;">...then I said to her, "Oh I don't think she's senile just yet, I just think she's a bitch."  Well, that got quite a laugh.  Of course later on the word got back and she wasn't very happy.  I ended up having to make pennance to her, play nice, of course I had to lick her pussy while kneeling under her desk for at least an hour.</span><br/><br/>"Ooooh," Cinder thought, "Getting good now!"  But as she kept reading she grew disappointed.<br/><br/><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: courier;">...I think she refused to wash or clean up just to punish me.  Also the only thing worse than a woman who doesn't groom herself down there, letting you get pubes in your teeth, is when it happens with grey pubes.</span><br/><br/>Cinder made a disgusted noise and flipped through the pages rapidly, trying to find the end of the writing.  She got to the last page with ink on it and saw her name and reference to the theft, so backed up a few pages and started scanning for any clues.  Then she spotted the name Lilly, the name Virella had mentioned, and she began scanning again, muttering softly to herself as she read, "Hmmm raven haired, pale skinned, beautiful."  She flipped the page and kept scanning, "Ah... asked me to meet her in the mercantile district, saying she had buisness there.  Saw her coming out of a leatherworker's shop by the name of Bulo's leather wear."<br/><br/>Cinder kept scanning around the pages, and found many sordid details of the various ways that Virella and Lilly had sex, including right on the desk that Cinder was leaning on at that moment.  But the only other part she got too that was a firm clue was that when Lilly used magic to grow a futacock, she did so without arcane words, simply seeming to sprout one at will.  Definitely the sign of a shape changer, not an absolute guarantee, but a good sign.  Odds were that the thief was probably quartered somewhere in that district, or at the very least maybe the leatherworker might know something.  This had taken some time, but it seemed like it had paid off at least.<br/><br/>Cinder stood up and felt a dampness between her thighs, oh right, reading about Virella's sex life had gotten her going.  Nothing new there.  But fingers never really did the trick for her, did she have time swing by a brothel?  Maybe pop over to Maeryll's for a late night booty call?  Virella's apartment would be easy enough for her to get back into if she wanted.  Then again there were a lot of taverns in the academic district with all sorts of young women and men, and even though it was the middle of the night, the really good ones would still have a few people in them.  Cinder sighed, of course, what she SHOULD do is keep focused on the task at hand, she did have a tendency to get carried away and lose track of time after all.