After the drinks had been delivered and the barkeeper paid, Crystal assumes a more relaxed stance, while Aiko's stature expresses a piqued curiosity, as Sebarius notes with a sense of satisfaction swelling up within him.

He returns the papers with the runes back into his pack and while he is at it, Aiko asks, "Hey, these writings..." causing Sebarius to look up mid-process, "Where did you learn to read them, if I may ask?"

Sebarius smiles a little and replies, "I'd be a bad scholar, if I didn't do my homework. To answer your question though, I can't. At least not completely. Nobody can. The writings are written in a tongue lost to time. There is only very limited understanding and most of our analysis is more guesswork and cross-referencing than actual 'reading'. Which is all the more reason why I want to speak to the princess. If there was even just one person who can actually read this script, we would suddenly be able to unravel the secrets the people of the past meant to share with us...this would save the scientific community decades if not even centuries of research."

Aiko straightens her posture as if to say something, but Crystal preempts her by saying, "Mister Sebarius, while this might be very interesting, it does very little to explain your cause. And if you are yet hoping to get us drunk enough to possibly share the bed with us, I must disappoint you. Once we've had our fill, we will be on our way, with or without the details you promised us. And if we are to leave without them, our agreement is void. I am sure you understand that our time is a little more precious than a few drinks can buy."

Sebarius smiles wrily and replies, "My apologies, you are of course correct. I got carried away. However if you are truly interested in my line of work, Miss Aiko, I'd be more than happy to tell you about it."

"Maybe another day, Mister Sebarius. For now, there is something else to talk about, isn't there?"

"There certainly is. Now, where was I...ah yes, how I picked up the trail of the Zeaphyr fox."

There are two ways to find places of interest.

One being pure luck, as in: An earthquake unearths a previously buried structure or a farmer finds remnants of a progenitor civilization while preparing his field and has the brains to inform someone who cares.

But luck is fickle and cannot be relied on.

The second one is 'investigation' and that involves asking questions like, 'Where would progenitors have settled?' and since they were people like us, the answers are most often very similar.

As you know, people require water to live, so most of the larger settlements of old will naturally be near rivers, just like most of the larger cities today. Which is why we often look for records of dried out or redirected rivers, because where there once was water, chances are that there has been life.

Other than that, we also look for strategically important or easy to defend locations, like hillsides or ore deposits.

Essentially, the entire archeaological investigation method boils down to: 'Where would people have settled down?' and that's where we try to find their traces.

Finding a specific person is actually very similar, even if they try to cover their tracks.

It all boils down to, 'Where would they go next?'

Unlike trying to find an archaeological site, there is naturally a time limit involved with people and by the time a 'sighting' is reported, you already know that this is only where the target person 'has been'. But still, just like examining the tools, buildings and writings of those who came before us tell us who they were and how they lived, the sighting reports give the attentive mind an idea on the 'where to next'.

"If that was so easy to track the Zeaphyr fox down, then why didn't he get arrested yet?"

"Multiple reasons. For one, the officials generally act far too slow. As I said, by the time a sighting is reported, the fox has likely already left the vincinity. What's more, their brightest minds, who try to predict the future behavior of their targets have a fundamental problem...they lack the information I have."

"Oh? And why would you have more information than the officials? Last I heard, you failed to steal the keys to the archive," Crystal taunts, but Sebarius merely smiles, pulls out a large scale wanted poster and spreads it on the table.

"Just how many papers are in that chair of yours?!" Crystal asks while examining the poster.

"One of the benefits of sitting in a wheelchair is the extra storage space. Plus, paper can be stored fairly easily. Anyway...you see how it asks people to 'refrain from telling tall tales of supposed sightings'?"

"Hard to miss. There's no use investigating leads that are clearly fake after all."

"And that's exactly the mistake the officials are making. Just because something seems fantastical and impossible, does not necessarily mean that it actually is impossible. Especially if a spirit princess with unknown capabilities is involved."

"...so..."

"The good thing about the officials is, that they record everything, including people being sent away for telling tall tales. So I did a little snooping and asked a few of the people who got branded as 'attention seekers' by the officials, assured them that I do believe them, put the information together and discovered the pattern I mentioned earlier."

"That the Zeaphyr Fox seems to be interested in the great reset, right?"

"That's right. The ruins of a rather specific era at that. This knowledge, combined with information about the known sites matching the correct area allowed me to make an educated guess as to where the Zeaphyr fox might strike next."

"So...did he?" Crystal asks, putting her arms on the table.

"It took me a good three months of traipsing all over the country, but eventually I obtained a solid enough lead. It was a rumor about a previously unknown ruin, which was unearthed by a recent earthquake. And that was, where I had my first actual encounter with the Zeaphyr Fox since that fateful day some two years ago."