The road to Gervasiel

[Porcelain Fish]

Maduin gracefully demurred. "I prefer not to drink in small moving vehicles, thank you." His gaze went to Rose's ghastly expression. She looked like she just realized she'd swallowed a snake.

[Graybeard]

Sister Rose's face cleared slightly as she realized that Drusia wasn't about to suddenly drop dead in her tracks. Whatever had been in the doctored bottle, at least it wasn't instantly fatal -- which was not to say that it couldn't have a very, very bad delayed reaction. The elf would bear some watching.

First, however, some reassurances were needed. "Argus got that incredibly fancy bottle as a present, of sorts, in Nautkia," she explained to Drusia and Brad (who hadn't been there, after all). "I thought there was evidence that it might have been tampered with. We hid it away until we could get it looked at, which we haven't been able to do yet. Brad, don't worry, it wasn't your fault. We'll need to --"

"AAACK!"

Rose turned away from her cousin at the sound Drusia had just made, noting that she was turning a most improbable color, makeup or no makeup. Maybe the bottle wasn't so benign after all...

[Drusia]

"I thought there was evidence that it might have been tampered with. We hid it away until we could get it looked at, which we haven't been able to do yet. Brad, don't worry, it wasn't your fault. We'll need to --"

Something clinks past my teeth and lodges in the back of my throat as I take a second swig. I pull the bottle away, holding it out to my side as I choke. I fight the instinct to clutch at my neck - a generally useless gesture - and instead wrap my arm just below my diaphram and bend over sharply. I foul it up, or maybe I need the other arm, and I'm starting to get light headed. It feels like my tongue is swelling, but that doesn't make any sense and I need to try again so I bring in both arms this time, still holding the stupid bottle and I try again.

The air in my lungs pushes the object forward. It hits my teeth again - it feels larger now - and I almost choke on it again before I manage to cough it out into my free hand.

I spend a few seconds gasping for breath. Well, that would have been humilating. After surviving the Errant War, a thousand plus years as a peregin, much of which I spent working behind the backs of my own people to foster a village full of half-elves, to get killed by choking on a bottle of wine.

"That was decidedly unpleasant," I say, my voice slightly raspier than usual. Doing my best to ignore the shocked expressions of pretty much everyone, I look down at the object I coughed up.

It's a glass bead, clear with a red swirl in the center. A swirl that moves, and glows slightly. Enchantment of some sort, but... I pause, looking at the bead, then at the bottle. I hold up the bottle and the bead, and set the bead neatly on top of the bottle - it is clearly too large to fit through the neck of the bottle. So it really did expand when I tried to swallow it. An interesting assassination technique, and an odd one since it relies on the target drinking directly from the bottle. And, why have it expand when it could have as easily exended blades and sliced my guts to ribbons from the inside?

Wait... there's something familiar about this bead. I've seen... oh. Huh.

I send a small pulse of magical energy through the bead, as any Tsuirakuan might with a magical tool. The bead buzzes gently in response.

"Argus," I ask, turning towards him, "Why did someone feel it necessary to put a Tsuirakuan vibrator into your bottle of wine?"

-- Drusia

[Sareth]

Watching the event play out, Lillith's eyes went from pained, to worried, to concerned, to outright alarmed, finally shifting to relieved as Drusia coughed the object up. As Drusia began her examination of the object, however, the girl's face slipped back into its less benign expression towards the elf. She seemed aware that Drusia had, in fact, not killed her when the opportunity to make Lillith an accomplice in her own death had presented. She also seemed inclined to not enjoy the thought of the woman dying in front of her. Actual liking, however, still had something to overcome, it seemed.

Lillith's mind was spinning, in spite of the pain. She had a terrible headache, and wanted to just hide from it (and anything else, really). However, she was unable to let herself avoid the subject. The elf woman had revealed herself. She had chosen to not take chances to kill Lillith. She had even helped come up with a way to possibly save Lillith's life. But Lillith couldn't get past the fact the woman was an elf. She knew it was wrong, but she just couldn't like the woman, couldn't stop watching her for any hint of treachery. The fact of it, in the face of the evidence, left her feeling... guilty. If only she could just forget the past and...

Lillith suddenly got a confused look on her face. She cocked her head as much as the pain would permit, and in a curious voice asked, "What's a vibrator?"

[Drusia]

Lillith suddenly got a confused look on her face. She cocked her head as much as the pain would permit, and in a curious voice asked, "What's a vibrator?"

I close my eyes for a brief, slightly pained moment as several less than kind responces cross my mind. Not that I'm annoyed, it's just that, seriously, I could have such fun messing with her innocent little mind. But, fun as they are, such activities are not generally helpful when building trust or seeking possible future in-laws.

"By Anilis," I say, shaking my head, "I understand not knowing what a ball gag is, as that's a rather eclectic item, but a simple bead vibrator? Someone's left some serious gaps in your education."

I move over and kneel beside her. "You have some magical talents, yes?" Without waiting for her answer, I put the bead in her hand, showing her how to hold it with two fingers and her thumb. "Now, all you need to do is give it a little bit of magical energy, and -" Before I can finish my sentence, the bead begins to vibrate. "There it goes."

Lillith looks perplexed. "You then hold it against something you'd like to stimulate," I add helpfully. "Try holding it against your wrist. It should help with the headache." She does so and, after a moment, looks slightly less miserable. Good.

"It can also be used to stimulate other things," I note, smiling naughtily as I turn to Argus. "Which brings us back to exactly why someone would shrink one down to the size of a pearl and drop it in your wine. It seems like a rather strange assassination method, and an even stranger method of hitting on you. I wonder which it was."

-- Drusia

OOC: The 'pearl' vibrator pun was not intentional, but once I realized I'd said it, it was too good to edit. ^^

[Graybeard]

Sister Rose blushed violently at Drusia's explanation of what she'd almost choked on, but the blush passed quickly as Rose got the point. "It seems like a rather strange assassination method, and an even stranger method of hitting on you. I wonder which it was." Well, she didn't see much doubt as to the "which it was" part, or at least the "who" part of it. The bottle had been given to Argus, after all, and all indications were that Argus had been hard-drinking enough during his sad gutter-mage days that he could reasonably have been expected to just chug the wine without thinking. Of course, he'd changed, a lot, since then. (And we of the church have had something to do with that, Rose thought with some pride.)

But why had he been given such a ... strange ... thing to kill him with? Surely anyone who had the wherewithal to insert the bead into the bottle (she was blushing again) could just as easily have introduced some untraceable poison. Might there be some other explanation for the strange artifact? This was going to take some thought.

First things first. She turned back to Lillith. "All's well that ends well," she said. "I think you can climb out of that box now. We're far enough from town that nobody is going to see you. Move carefully if your headache is still bad. We may be able to heal --" And she stopped in mid-sentence as another possibility for the bead crossed her mind.

"Argus? Suppose you'd swallowed that thing. What would it have done to your calcifying shoulder? Harmed it? Or healed it?"

[Sareth]

Lillith climbed out of the coffin, still holding the bead to her wrist. It was certainly helping her head, though Drusia's cryptic comment about what else it could be used for was keeping her head far more busy than the residual pain was happy with. She tried to shake that thought aside, only to notice Sister Rose' blush.

Oh.

An inadvertent giggle escaped her lips, and then Lillith forced the thought from her head. It wasn't respectful to be giggling at Sister Rose' discomfort that way. Still, it was a reminder to her just how bizarre Veracian's could be about some things. Being embarassed or shamed by a public discussion? Ridiculous, really. It made Lilith wish that Sister Rose could see one of Shamhat's Spring Blessings! She shook her head, then winced at the result of that motion.

"His shoulder?" Lillith cocked her head. Assuming it went there, rather than just settled in his stomach, the vibrations would be rather soothing, wouldn't they? Unless it vibrated so hard it set up some sort of resonance?" Lillith looked down at the bead, and just as she had before, attempted to touch it much as she would the spirit world. Instantly her hands both began to visibly shake as the air was filled with a buzz loud enough to be heard yards away.

[Drannin]

(OOC: Sorry, been busy lately. Incidentally, Argus actually went into the woods a ways to have a private talk with Harker. Should I just assume that the others were calling out to him?)

"I fucking hate her."

This from Harker, lips drawn back from his teeth in a feral snarl. Argus was shocked. He had no idea that Harker could look so enraged. And terrified. "Who do you hate?" he asked in astonishment.

"The elf," Harker growled, glancing around to make sure they were out of earshot. Back at the cart, Argus could hear some kind of commotion going on. He'd have to ask about it when they got back.

"Drusia? Why do you hate her?" Argus responded, trying to keep Harker talking. The familiar stared back in disbelief.

"Did you see those moves earlier?! They were inhuman!" Harker hissed all of this in a whisper, clearly frightened of Drusia overhearing him. "She slaughtered that poor sucker, crazy or not, like a pig! She's just like that other-" Harker stopped in midsentence, and quickly looked down at the carving in his hands. Argus looked, too... and finally realized what it was, despite its incomplete state. He saw the pointed wars, the armor, the sword. He saw stylized flames around the base, and a bloodthirsty smile on the face. It was the other elf Drusia had warned them about. "She moved the same way when she was killed those people," Harker whispered. "Elves... they're monsters, Boss. Your girl was right all along."

In the face of such fear and pure hatred, Argus could only stare open-mouthed at Harker.

[Graybeard]

[OOC:

(OOC: Sorry, been busy lately. Incidentally, Argus actually went into the woods a ways to have a private talk with Harker. Should I just assume that the others were calling out to him?)

I'd been proceeding as though the last couple of exchanges had occurred right after Argus got back in earshot following the private talk -- which I wasn't sure whether you were going to reproduce here. I'd say continue as though he's just made it back to the cart. To help with that:]

Bewilderment crossed Brad's face. "I don't understand, Rose."

Sister Rose made a face, not so much at her cousin's puzzlement -- nothing unusual about that -- but because Argus, too, couldn't be expected to understand what had transpired while he and Harker were off in the woods. (Speaking of which, what was bothering the familiar? Now Argus was the one who was hiding the carving, and not with his usual embarrassment when Harker made something obscene, rather with an expression much more worried than merely chagrined.) She paused to fill Argus in on what had happened in his absence (blushing only slightly now at the mention of the vibrator), then continued.

"So it occurred to me, Argus: if someone managed to get something into your body that could either worsen your degenerating shoulder, or possibly fix it, they'd probably have a pretty good hold on you if then they could control the thing -- wouldn't they?"

[Drannin]

Argus stared at the... object... silently. He and Harker had walked back from the woods in total silence, Harker having given Argus the carving; apparently happy to be rid of it. First those revelations... and now this.

Under normal conditions, Harker would have made crude references to Argus and Cirella's sex life. Currently, Harker was instead leaning against the cart wheel on the side opposite Drusia. His silence chilled Argus. For all that he groaned at Harker's crude banter, its absence was highly unwelcome.

"...In order to cure my flesh calcification, you'd need a mage who was highly skilled at both organic and inorganic manipulation," Argus explained slowly, staring at the bead. "Restored flesh to a... well, fleshy state is a complex procedure. This is the main reason I haven't had it donel finding someone with those skill sets is... challenging... at best. This bead could not cure me, no." A chill ran down his spine. "But if this were to be implanted inside of me, and a magical pulse run through it..." Argus paused, and looked Rose in the eye. "The vibrations could potentially be enough to pulverize rock. Imagine, then, the stone in my shoulder being fractured and driven at high speeds at whatever surrounded it. The lungs. The heart." Argus took another look at Tsuiraku's decadent toy and winced. "I'll leave you to envision the internal damage that would cause. I'd... rather not."

There was deep silence for a moment, as Argus absent-mindedly rubbed his shoulder.