Even with the tree on the shingle, Ianto wouldn't have noticed the shop if he weren't in the habit of noticing everything. He was headed back to his rented room, thoughts mainly centred around the book, and he intended to spend the next few hours going through it again, putting more of the pieces together. Shopping was not exactly on his mind, and he was already several paces past the entryway when his mind processed what it had just seen. The tree. The Rowan tree. The exact symbol that was in the corner of every page of the book.
No one was inside the shop when he entered. Rather than immediately call out for assistance, Ianto took advantage of this opportunity to look over the many, many items in the room.
Devoid of human life, but not for long. The door swung shut behind Ianto slowly, but when it closer it was with a sharp retort. Not more than a second later, Ianto was not alone.
"What brings you here, wanderer?" It was difficult to tell if the person before Ianto was a man or a woman. Pale, wrinkled skin hung on a thin frame obscured by a long, pale grey robe, and a halo of frizzy white hair sparsely covered the scalp. The only thing about the entire countenance that showed any youth at all were the eyes, sharp and piercing
So much for examining. An actual person might or might not turn out to be more helpful, but that was what he had now, so that was what he'd deal with. "The sign over your door. It's the rowan tree." No point in beating around the bush. And wanderer, interesting. Maybe he (she?) called everyone who came in off the streets that. Maybe not.
"Yes. It is the sign of the Worldwalker." A walking stick sliced through the air quickly and ended up with the tip hovering mere inches from the same symbol carved into a piece of what appeared to be glass suspended from the ceiling by all four corners. "I am Saleris. I am the caretaker of this shrine."
"Ianto Jones," Ianto returned, and offered his hand. He fully expected that Saleris would draw the same conclusion from the gesture that Holl had -- assuming he didn't already know. "Shrine to the tree?" It didn't look like any sort of shrine he'd ever seen. Rather low on religious content and high on research materials. No telling what the room that Saleris had come from looked like, though. Perhaps he had a perfect model of the tree in 24-carat gold.
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No one was inside the shop when he entered. Rather than immediately call out for assistance, Ianto took advantage of this opportunity to look over the many, many items in the room.
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"What brings you here, wanderer?" It was difficult to tell if the person before Ianto was a man or a woman. Pale, wrinkled skin hung on a thin frame obscured by a long, pale grey robe, and a halo of frizzy white hair sparsely covered the scalp. The only thing about the entire countenance that showed any youth at all were the eyes, sharp and piercing
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