Rinkaiel: Temple of the Divine Dwarf

[Graybeard]

The glowing dog was gaining quickly -- and silently. No growling sound effects, no ominous footfalls, no nothing. Glowing jaws opened to seize the running woman.

----------

The door wasn't as Layla had been expecting. For one thing, the locking mechanism was almost perfunctory. A ten-year-old child in the Gewehr could pick it. (Indeed, as a ten-year-old, she'd picked things like it.) For another, she could clearly hear hysterical sobbing on the other side ... but nothing else. Somehow the place didn't seem as menacing as she'd thought it would. Well, appearances could be deceiving.

Opening the door, she saw a short hallway with office doors on either side, one of them ajar. The sobbing was coming from there. A few feet down the hall, a careful glance ...

"Oh, my god."

[Jack Rothwell]

Eve glanced over her shoulder and her heart sank. The creature was gaining much quicker than she'd anticipated. Desperate times called for desperate measures and, unfortunately, drawing move attention to herself than she was already getting from pounding through the back-alleys of Rinkaiel. She pivoted nimbly on her feet and fired twice at the approaching apparation, the first slug buzzed passed its ear, the second punched into its right forepaw.

..........

Leo found the unconscious woman in the kitchen moments later, the slack expression and shallow breathing she had told him immediately that there was no waking her up any time soon. The looked at the exit, drew a conclusion and started running again.

[Graybeard]

If the bullet affected the magical hound, it didn't show it. Instead, the beast opened its gaping maw, scooped up its cornered prey with a curiously gentle touch, and started back the way it had come, squeezing Eve just hard enough to discourage resistance, not hard enough to wound.

Yet.

----------

"What happened here?" Layla said from the office door, then realized that wasn't a particularly bright question. A woman in a jumpsuit was sobbing hysterically over the decapitated body of a man, the guillotine blade still embedded in the floor, and another blade pinning the body beneath it. What do I think happened here?

Sister Joli looked up, her face ravaged by her sobbing fit. "He's dead! He triggered a security system and he's dead and it's all my fault and --"

Layla had a certain -- professional experience with dead bodies, to be sure, but not like this. However, she'd been a mother long enough now to know that there were times when a calming touch was needed. She stepped carefully around the carnage to get at the hysterical woman -- and then she did something she wasn't totally sure she was capable of.

"There, there," she said softly, holding the girl, whom she had figured out by now must be the one who had come to the door of Galina's lab, and stroking her back gently ... and also investing a bit of pent-up magical energy in projecting a message. Be calm. Be still. I'm on your side.

She wasn't sure whether that last part was true, and for that matter, she wasn't at all convinced that her very rudimentary magic skills would accomplish anything here. However, it was worth a try.

[Jack Rothwell]

Eve stifled a yelp as she was taken off her feet. All the Gods damn it; she was captured. Simple lead hadn't been enough to save her and she certainly wasn't packing any convienient magic item to extricate herself from the situation. She could feel the unnnatural power of the dog's jaws as it carried her back towards the temple. It was clear she wasn't getting free without losing a leg. The young mercenary bit her tounge, holstered her gun and waited for the inevitable.

.....

Leo saw the approaching creature and his face fell. Even with her face mostly covered he knew the figure in its care was Eve, and since he was under cover he couldn't risk a shot without raising suspicion. The creature trotted towards him in a curious gait, seemingly unburdened by the bullet hole in its shoulder. Leo managed to keep his face neutral as they got close. He looked into Eve's eyes; she wasn't hurt but she was definately looking pissed off. The older merc made a play.

"Hey... uh.... boy. Is that the intruder there? Shall I take her inside for your master?" He stepped forward with trepidation and extended a hand.

[Graybeard]

"Hey... uh.... boy. Is that the intruder there? Shall I take her inside for your master?"

The thaumato-hound paused, and Leo would almost have sworn it was thinking.

Then it dropped Eve with a thump, and stood expectantly, wagging its tail.

-----------

Layla would never be sure whether her attempt at primitive mind magic had got through to Sister Joli; maybe she was just emerging from her hysterics naturally. Whatever the case, the "priestess" calmed down enough to communicate.

"He's dead ... Brother Roscoe ... what are we going to tell his father?"

Layla started to ask what had happened, but really, it was clear enough, at least in broad outline. She could see the false panel on the ceiling that had pulled away to drop the two blades. It looked like a deadfall trap of some kind had been triggered. A security measure? But why?

"I'm terribly sorry. Is his father also a priest?" she said, stalling for time.

Joli looked up at her. "No, but he's a very important figure in town, a very powerful man. And he'll be beside himself with anger... And it's all our --"

Layla interrupted; best to break the hysterics cycle before it got going again. Besides, something was nagging at the back of her mind. "What's his name?"

Joli calmed down again, said, "His father's name is Mr. Oshima. He's --"

The next word Layla spoke was one not normally heard in a temple or other house of worship and prayer.

[Jack Rothwell]

Leo blinked in surprise at the hound's behaviour, which was eeriely reminiscent of a real canine that had just dropped a stick at the foot of its owner, except in this case the stick was Eve who was taking pains to remain still. Leo kept his gun trained on his teammate for appearance's sake and gingerly reached over and stroked the fur on top of the conjuration's head.

"Who's a good boy? You're a good boy!" He said gently, feeling faintly ridiculous, finding himself wondering if magic dogs ate bacon and if the kitchen he'd run through had any in stock. He looked down at Eve, who'd kept her hands spread wide in the face of the weapon. He retrieved the girls revolver and blades she had concealed in her belt, lifted the woman to her feet and marched her back inside with his weapon pressed to her back.

"Got your lockpicks?" He said, barely moving his mouth.

Eve nodded once as they re-entered the kitchen.

[Graybeard]

At the stroking of its "fur" (which had a typically insubstantial, magical feel to it), the magical dog vanished with a soft pop.

----------

Down in the courtyard, a reverse surge of magic tweaked its summoner's senses. "What the hell was that?" He started to move in the direction the dog had gone.

----------

"Is -- something wrong?" Sister Joli asked, suddenly transformed from hysterical onlooker at a fatal accident to empathetic religious figure.

She has some talent for this kind of thing, Layla recognized. "Oh, that name just -- means something to me, in a different context." At least I hope it's a different context ... but I have my doubts. "Are the Oshima family regular worshipers here?"

Now Joli was starting to cloud up again; Layla winced inwardly, wishing she hadn't caused the girl pain ... but any Wraith knew that sometimes pain (and worse) was essential to getting the job done. "I -- don't think so," Joli managed to get out. "At least not the rest of them. But Mr. Oshima is a friend of my father and --"

Layla didn't even hear the rest.

[Jack Rothwell]

Eve and Leo wheeled as one at the magical (and somewhat wet) sounding pop behind them with mirror expressions of surprise on their faces. They looked at each other, Eve shrugged, and then ran full pelt back out the door. Leo breathed a sigh of relief.

"See you at the hideout, tomboy..." He said to himself, and set off in the direction he'd left the sobbing priestess.

[Graybeard]

Layla continued to comfort the sobbing "priestess," although she wasn't quite sure why. In Layla's game of life, this girl was a non-player character, and Layla had already learned from her what she wanted to know (or at least, what she needed to know -- what she "wanted" was something quite different). But dammit, I can't just let her sit here and suffer.

A few minutes passed, and then she heard footfalls in the hallway. She made sure her weapon was both well hidden and easily accessible; it probably wouldn't be needed here, but it never hurt to be sure. Moments later, a muscular man wearing the outfit of a priest of the Divine Dwarf poked his head through the door. "Sister Joli, ma'am? I thought I heard something. What --" Then he stopped as he took in the scene.

"Brother Cosimo," Joli breathed. "There's been a terrible accident. Look what happened to Brother Roscoe!"

Layla turned her attention to the newcomer for just long enough to notice two things, before hiding her face. One was that she'd seen him before, at the Tsuirakuan consulate in Rinkaiel. He'd been one of Kitaura's goons, unless she grossly misremembered things.

The other was that before he put up a mask of concern, there'd been a brief look of smug satisfaction on his face as he identified the dead man.

--------

Elsewhere in the building, the man who'd launched the dog swore vividly as a certain amulet glowed, revealing that the canine essence was back in it. Somehow the trespasser had managed to evade capture. That had never happened before, and it marked her as someone to watch ... and possibly dispose of.

He decided to take a chance and come out of hiding, head for the last place he'd seen the woman, and try to pick up a spoor of her passage. If he could, then as soon as its magical energy was recharged, the thaumatic dog would be given a different, but related, and rather more final mission.

[Jack Rothwell]

Leo returned to the scene a moment later, straining to look as though he hadn't just engaged in some underhanded schenanigans and fighting the urge to look for some indication of where the thaumo hound had come from. He recognised Layla, but waved no greeting, he didnt know what pretense the woman was here under after all.

"There's a passed out lady in the kitchen." He remarked. "She's uninjured. It looks like someone made a break for it out the service entrance. Any news here?"