Gervasiel

[Graybeard]

"So I don't know what stakes he's playing for, or how useful the information we got is. So, I need you to tell me - how much danger are we in right now? Is it worth the risk to put his mind at ease, or is it better that we just get back on the road and put some distance between us and him?"

Sister Rose pulled her attention away from the regular breathing still coming from Drusia's room -- some things simply were none of her business -- and considered the question. A very good question, actually, and truthfully, she didn't know as much about the situation as she wished she did. If only I knew what this Artifact of Absonial was... She decided to take the bull by the horns, and if the military mucky-mucks got on her case for divulging too much classified information, well, she had a job to do.

"First things first," she said. "I don't know what the bread-box thing is either, only that I'm supposed to get it safely to Lorenzel, on the way to Snamish. The people I work for are also friends, and I don't think they'd expose me -- us -- to too much danger from the -- bread-box thing." At least I hope not...

"As for Kurou, you'd probably know better than Argus or I would," she continued. "Argus seems to think he's capable of damn near anything. We should probably assume he'll make a grab for the 'breadbox' at some point. I think I'd almost rather he be a little insecure, a little defensive, when he does it. If I'm right, that probably argues for you staying with us, so that he knows he's under suspicion. Better that than having him surprised when he goes for it, and maybe going overboard with his reaction. But you're better informed than I am, so it's really your call." Sorry, Drusia, I know that's kind of a lame answer ... but you really are in a position to answer your own question, and besides, I'm a bit preoccupied with worrying about Brad at the moment.

[Drusia]

"First things first," she said. "I don't know what the bread-box thing is either, only that I'm supposed to get it safely to Lorenzel, on the way to Snamish. The people I work for are also friends, and I don't think they'd expose me -- us -- to too much danger from the -- bread-box thing."

Ah. Lovely. I always hated when I didn't "need to know" - it made carrying out the mission oh so fun. So, is it the church she's working for? Or a government? Here in Verasia, the two aren't exactly mutually exclusive.

"We should probably assume he'll make a grab for the 'breadbox' at some point. I think I'd almost rather he be a little insecure, a little defensive, when he does it. If I'm right, that probably argues for you staying with us, so that he knows he's under suspicion."

I nod. I didn't realize Rose and Argus intended to go up against him so directly. In that case, I think I agree - better he be overly cautious and not engage us than engage us and end up desperate. Of course, I've just made a very powerful enemy who knows my face. That doesn't sit well with me.

So, on to plan C.

"There is another option," I tell Rose quietly. "I head back to the castle. And then I kill him." A wise assassin never leaves an enemy alive to stab her in the back later.

- Drusia


OOC: I don't know how important Kurou is, or how necessary he is for other characters (like Argus). If murdering him is a bad idea, Rose can advise against it. Of course, she might do that anyway due to, you know, ethics n stuff.... ^^;;

[Graybeard]

"There is another option. I head back to the castle. And then I kill him."

Sister Rose had already started to shift her attention away from Drusia and toward the missing Brad, but that definitely got her focused again.

"I -- you -- well -- let me think about that for a minute," she stammered, mentally composing a quick prayer to Luminosita for wisdom -- not that a prayer like that usually accomplished much, but it surely couldn't hurt. Her eyes got the faraway look of someone digging into distant memories ... good and bad, and everything in between.

During her years in the special forces, including a number of small violent skirmishes and the one "incident" that could have been called a minor war if it hadn't been politically inexpedient, Major Rose Nuria-Lucas had never knowingly killed a soul. She wasn't even sure that she could have. On the other hand, she'd commanded a unit that had more than one Albigenish scalp on its collective belt by the end of the Incident -- she never knew exactly how many, because of the violence they'd unleashed on the house after they found out what happened to Brother Bartholomew and the others of their unit left there. She hadn't felt the least bit of guilt then. Sometimes, there were just people who needed to die.

But was Kurou one of them? The circumstances weren't the same. Veracia wasn't at war with Tsuiraku, thankfully. Arsoro Kurou had never done anything bad to her, or to any other Veracian that she knew of, or even to Argus, if she understood him correctly. Which was not to say that he wasn't fully capable of it, again according to Argus -- and she thought him a pretty good judge of character, if perhaps a tad -- harsher on Tsuirakuans than one might have expected. And if he was going after that Artifact of Absonial, he was certainly no friend of the Veracian Church. Luminosita alone knew what catastrophe might result from the Artifact falling into the wrong hands, and Argus certainly gave plenty of indications that Kurou's hands were about as wrong as they could get. Then again, the Artifact might be nothing more than a fascinating but harmless curiosity of past civilizations. No, that wasn't likely; they wouldn't be treating something like that as highly classified. But if ...

Her head spinning, Rose realized that Drusia had been staring at her for well longer than the "minute" she'd said she needed to think. It was time for a decision. She swallowed hard, took a deep breath, let it out again ...

"Do what you think best," she said softly. "And if all hell breaks loose as a result, blame me for it. Seriously."

[OOC: Don't worry about Kurou. If he really is "necessary" to what follows, but happens to meet an unfortunate end prematurely, another bad guy can always be raised to take his place, that's the nice thing about free-forms. ]

[Drusia]

Rose looks rather thrown for a minute. Or three.

"Do what you think best," she said softly. "And if all hell breaks loose as a result, blame me for it. Seriously."

"Blame you?" I ask, raising an eyebrow. "Probably not relevant. After all, if I screw this up, I probably won't survive it." She blinks at me. I shrug. "Don't worry. I don't plan on screwing up."

With that, I slip quietly back into my room. The robe comes off and my armor goes on. I'm used to getting dressed quietly. I grab my weapons, both human made and elven. Then, focusing on the edge of town, I warp myself there. I walk for a few minutes, getting back to the place I warped to last night. I just need to reverse the process, and put myself in the hygiene alcove. It's magical aura might shield my arrival, and it's close enough that even if my gate wakes him up, he shouldn't be more than bleary and confused. Once I'm sure of my destination, I warp again.

I arrive exactly as planned. Good. Drawing my steel dagger, I head quickly to the bedroll. And pause in surprise - Kurou is still sleeping soundly, curled up against my illusion. I kneel down and stab him in the back, angling up between his ribs to pierce his heart. I reach around to grab his jaw, to prevent him from speaking, perhaps casting, but he doesn't move - doesn't jerk and awaken. He doesn't even bleed.

Fuck. Me.

I leap away from the illusion of Kurou, a near copy to the one of me, covering my face an instant before the room explodes. The blast throws me through the canvas wall, setting the material on fire. My dagger goes flying, knocked from my hand by the blast. I hit the stone wall at an angle, bouncing painfully off, rolling, barely regaining my feet. Before I can open my eyes, I'm drawing my Durus blade. My left arm is numb; maybe broken, maybe burned, I don't have time to look.

Across the room, Kurou stands, electricity crackling up his arms. His eyes are a storm of emotion - anger and betrayal, and bitter disappointment. I wonder if he knew he had a heart that could break. He knows now. I wonder if anyone has ever hurt him this much. Go me.

"Nothing personal," I say, acting casual, which is a feat of true emotional skill in a situation like this. "I had fun last night. If things were different, I'd have been happy to leave it at that. But business is, well, business." I shrug. Good. My left arm still works, anyway, even if I can't feel it. Probably not broken then.

"So," I ask, smiling my sultry little smile, the one I seduced him with last night, "Ready to die?"

-- Drusia

[Drannin]

Arsoro Kurou was. FUCKING. PISSED. OFF.

Once the security system re-initialized, it had immediately alerted him that something had gone wrong. Upon being awoken, Kurou had immediately realized that the girl sleeping next to him was a fake. Some quick investigations had revealed the truth.

Someone had hacked his security system in several places, and been all through his castle.

The girl was just a ruse. The WOMAN had succeeded in penetrating his defenses, earning his trust, and even getting him in the sack while an accomplice investigated his castle, looking for who knows what.

She had SEDUCED him. And he had let it happen. For the first time in his life, Arsoro Kurou had lowered his defenses around a woman, and paid for it. For all that he regarded her as useful, Kurou had become quite found of his new ward, and had big plans for her. The humiliation, the shame of being so thoroughly used when he had KNOWN that something was wrong with her story, burned at him. Though he would not admit it to himself, Arsoro Kurou had been deeply wounded by her betrayal. It was somewhat irrelevant, though. There could only be one response to such an affront.

Kurou was damned well going to kill her.

His security had been fully mobilized, and he had been waiting off the main room. Waiting for his surveillance to detect her leaving the area. Or possibly, coming back to the castle to continue her ruse. Evidently, assassination had been her aim. Sadly for her, Kurou had been equally prepared for this eventuality as well.

Now he took her in. Armor. What appeared to be a Durus Flamma blade. HALF-elf be damned, he was looking at a full-blooded original! That made him feel slightly better. Who knew what secrets he could pull bleeding from her carcass?

"Ready to die?"

Kurou simply twitched his arm upward and sent a massive wave of crackling energy flying towards the elf who had call herself Aiko Sonada. He saw her eyes widen, her body dive for cover with surprising speed. The wave smashed into the behind where she once was, pulverizing it. The resultant shockwave sent the elf flying across the room and into another wall. As she groggily got to her feet, Kurou began activating the security measures he had embedded in the fortress. Glowing glyphs generated by his security orbs enveloped him, strengthening him. He smiled coldly, his expression glacial, his eyes dead and soulless like a shark's.

"Far from it," he finally answered Drusia. "I've never been skilled at the whole 'dying' thing. But if you'd care to give me a demonstration..." The glyphs around him crackled, as his smile became gentle, peaceful, and horribly contrasting with his eyes, "...I'd be truly grateful."

[Graybeard]

"After all, if I screw this up, I probably won't survive it."

Those words stuck in Sister Rose's mind for quite some time after Drusia vanished. I hope she's all right... Well, she should be; she wasn't just a master sneak and assassin, she was an elf. She could take care of herself.

I hope.

She tried to clear her mind as she set off looking for Brad. He definitely wasn't in his room, and there wasn't much place for him inside the inn other than the commons, where he quite clearly was not to be found. Might he be somewhere on the grounds? Not out of the question. The gazebo was in no shape for meditation or anything else, but there was a pleasant formal garden around it (if one overlooked that little matter of a board with vertebrae embedded in it...), with some benches and seats. If he'd got up early to do his prayers, he might be out there.

Rose moved quietly to the now-repaired window at the end of the hallway, still unable to get Drusia's situation out of her mind, but trying to focus as she looked out on the garden. Yes, there he was, on a bench. His body language didn't look good at all. She turned to go down the stairs and out to see her cousin ...

... Just in time to see Harker slip quietly out of Argus' room.

A sign from Luminosita, she thought, incongruously. The notion of turning to an intelligent, bipedal rodent for help seemed almost too ridiculous to contemplate, but here he was, so ...

"Harker, I'm worried about Drusia," Rose said. "Is there anything you can do to get back out to the castle in time to help her?"

[Drusia]

Shit. Those glyphs - some sort of Tsuirakian reworking of an elven combat technique. I hated it during the war, I hate it now. And I don't have a damn thing that can counter them either. Mucking up glyphs was always Luna's job.

"Far from it," he finally answered Aiko. "I've never been skilled at the whole 'dying' thing. But if you'd care to give me a demonstration..." The glyphs around him crackled, as his smile became gentle, peaceful, and horribly contrasting with his eyes, "...I'd be truly grateful."

Well, the bit where I piss him off so he acts irrationally worked. Now my only problem is the fact that this man is skilled, deadly, and just about insane. Still, I worked with the half-elven army during the war, and I've hunted the scary kind of Errant for years since. I'm very, very good at running away from very powerful, often insane evokers.

Speaking of which -

I sprint across the room, a pillar of fire exploding behind me. I dodge past two glyphs that would do something very nasty to me if I stepped within their radius, and dive through the doorway into the next room. Out of sight, I skid to a halt and change direction. The wall where I would have been a second later explodes, torn apart by a shockwave of pure force.

I need to close the distance - I'm no good from this far away. And I need to do something about those orbs. I glance around, looking for anything... huh. I scoop up a hand full, then double back into the lab. Another lighting bolt smashes into the wall above me as I duck into a roll. When I come up, my hands flash with silver, a dozen blades whipping through the air towards Kurou's head.

Kurou reacts on instinct, his orbs moving to protect him. A dozen butter knives and forks clatter harmlessly off of them. There may also be a spork in there, it's hard to tell. He blinks in surprise.

And I run directly at him. I slice through two of the spheres with my Durus, intent on removing Kurou's upper half from his lower, but he leaps back with no worse than a shallow cut on his chest. Shit shit shit! Entirely exposed, I throw myself to the side. Blades of force spin through the air, buzzing like wasps. Two catch me in the side; I hiss through my teeth and feel blood beneath my armor.

Kurou grins in satisfaction, summoning up something particularly nasty. A bitter, caustic smell fills the air - the psycho is going to try to melt me. I'm tired, really tired, but being about to die does have one advantage. It's great for an extra burst of energy. I concentrate. Reality bends.

I appear and Kurou is already spinning towards me, having sensed the burst of magical energy. I strike towards him with my Durus, but another orb takes the hit for him, delaying my blade long enough for Kurou to side-steps towards me.

So I stab him in the side with my the steel dagger I'm carrying in my left hand.

"Demonstrations are overrated," I tell him, wrenching the knife through his kidney. "I've always been a more hands-on sort of teacher." I turn my Durus to finish him off.

And am totally caught off guard my the point-blank blast of force that throws me across the room. Damn mages, always have another trick. It occurs to me now, as I spin through the air, that blood loss may have had an effect on my judgment. I should have seen that coming.

I hit the ground rolling, doing my best to cover my head. I lose both daggers in the process, but avoid cutting any of my own bits off. I skid to a halt, taking the skin off my shoulder, and lay there, unable to move for a moment. Ow.

I don't dare try him again in my current condition. So. Time for Plan B. Or are we on C by now?

I struggle and manage to get my arms moving. I crawl over to my Durus, grab the hilt, and concentrate. Up. Reality bends and I'm standing in the tower next to a very large crystal. Harker said this was the center of his operation.

I cut the fucking thing in half. Kiss your research, your surveillance, and your fancy security system goodbye, asshole.

Before the thing can explode or something worse, I gate myself outside. It's getting harder to do that... the adrenaline isn't keeping up with the blood loss anymore. Need to get the fuck out of here right fucking now. I concentrate again, get myself most of the way back to town. And again to get me into town. And again. And again. I collapse in Rose's room, the furnishings spinning around my head. I'm not even sure if anyone else is in here with me.

"Mission accomplished," I mutter, "Sorta."

I'm just going to lay here for a while. Hopefully I don't bleed to death. That would be bad.

-- Drusia

[Drannin]

"No."

This was Arsoro Kurou's muttered oath as he sank to his knees. He would not die here. He would not die yet. He would survive, no matter what.

Reaching into a pocket, he pulled out a small crystal engraved with magical symbols. The damned thing had cost him a fortune to set up. Saving his life now proved that it would all be worthwhile. There was nothing in the castle that he truly needed. The valuable stuff was safely secured in a trunk that would be pulled along with him. Everything else would burn. The valuable information was in his head, and damnation, that would stay intact!

"Initiate protocol: LODE-BERING-BOZ." At once, the castle pulsed with light as every orb Kurou had painstakingly placed on his very first day directed its energy into the crystal. A magical field enveloped Kurou, and a small trunk coated with silver runes. The magical energy interacted with an ancient warp portal Kurou had excavated years ago and- with painstaking effort- converted to his own use. That effort now paid off.

With a surge of magical energy, space folded, and Arsoro Kurou disappeared with a pop. The small chest followed a second later. Drained of their magic, The remaining crystals (and remains of the damaged crystal) exploded from a secondary magical charge placed within them. In seconds, they were nothing more than ash. Kurou's small campsite was incinerated, leaving nothing behind. In ten seconds, aside from some scorch marks, there was nothing to show that Arsoro Kuou had ever been there.

**********************************************************************************************************************

Light pulsed, and Kurou came down hard on the ancient platform, screaming in pain. The trunk hit the ground three feet from him, the shock of it shaking the ground some more, and causing him to hiss in pain. In a flash, a tall, silent figure stood over him. Kurou looked up at it blearily. "Emergency medical treatment..." he hissed through clenched teeth, but the emergency med-golem was already at work.

Ten minutes later, Arsoro Kuou was being rushed by the golem out the door of his fallback point to the nearby warpgate, much to the shock of the operators there. A half-hour after teleporting, he was in Tsuirakushiti itself receiving emergency medical treatment. Two hours after injury, he was in an induced coma, recovering from the surgery.

He was injured, body and pride battered, forced to retreat. But he was alive. And that was a very, very bad thing for the elven bitch that had dared to wound him.

Arsoro Kurou's sudden appearance was not missed, nor was the significance lost, on a certain individual...

[Graybeard]

Sister Rose wasn't quite sure how to interpret the look on Harker's face, but it was entirely clear that he had no interest in going back to the castle. Well, it was hard to blame him. Drusia would have to fend for herself ...

... While Rose felt guilty.

She'd sent troops to their deaths before, and not just at the farmhouse. That happened in war. But the situation wasn't the same. For one thing, Drusia wasn't one of her "troops" pressed into service through fear of Luminosita and the Church. She was very much her own woman, and she didn't have to follow anyone's orders, certainly not Rose's. For another, she was an elf. She could expect to live nigh unto forever, maybe literally forever, if she managed to avoid self-destructive errands like the one Rose had encouraged her to go on. And there is that little business of her being my many-times-great-grandmother-in-law...

Rose reached a decision. She couldn't ask any of the others in the party, most of them still sleeping, to go to Drusia's aid ... but dammit, Rose could go. It'd take her a while to get to the castle; hopefully Drusia could hold out that long. But what was she going to do when she got there? Aha! She still had Brad's pistol, carefully hidden away in her luggage. Surely a Tsuirakuan archmage wouldn't be expecting that kind of threat from someone wearing a nun's robes, would he? Yes, that offered both the advantages of surprise and unexpected lethality.

She turned back to her room to retrieve the gun and

"OH MY GOD!!"

All thought of the firearm abandoned, Rose was soon pouring every bit of energy she had into one Healing spell after another, hoping that they'd work on an elf, and that they'd be enough.

[Drusia]

"OH MY GOD!!"

Ugh, what's with all the yelling. I have the beginnings of a migraine going on here.

And suddenly, the pain eases. Oh, that's nice. Very nice. I open my eyes to see who's making me not hurt anymore. Oh, look, it's Rose. Hi Rose, I think, but not, like, in her head think cause that would be too much effort right now. She looks worried. I should probably say something so she doesn't feel so worried.

"Hi Rose," I say, waving with the fingers of one hand at her. My hand has a long pink scar on it that wasn't there before. It'll fade eventually - elves don't generally scar unless something really nasty happens. Oh, like that burn on my left arm. Still, it's healed over.

"I don't suppose you could have someone get me some breakfast while you finish up," I ask, flexing my arm to make sure it's fully functional. "I'm just dying for something to eat and drink." I probably shouldn't be acting this happy - it's giddyness from not being dead, and not being in searing pain. Both very good things.

-- Drusia