Goriel and beyond, part 3

[Jack Rothwell]

OOC While you two are resolving I'll just leave a little spoileriffic clue about any evidence.

Spoiler: show

Eli's summoning of the Silka will have left a small circle of burnt earth in the undergrowth near the building. A magic investigator might know enough to recognize the foreign nature of the magic used and Tim would recognize it for exactly what it was, given his lesson with Eli in a previous thread.

/OOC

[Drusia]

the young stranger who'd brought them there had been sent away with a little retainer.

I hide a soft sigh of relief. Both the young man and Harker seem to have gotten through all this unharmed. As for the man who drew his blade... Eli. Is he getting worse? I mentioned the issue to Tim... what is he doing? Hasn't he talked to anyone yet? For that matter, hasn't Rose noticed yet? If Malyuta picked up on it, how is it that the others aren't seeing that something is amiss?

Next time we talk, I should tell Rose. I... I thought it might be my personal feelings blowing things out of proportion, but that doesn't seem to be the case. And anyway... I'm worried about him.

When it ended, Malyuta asked her to await him in his chambers - he might be a little while. How she would await him, that was up to her.

I bow and (after a brief word with Tatiana to get directions) make my way there.

-- Desiree

[Alberich]

[OOC: I edited my post, taking Jack's spoiler into account, to get the whole museum visit in. That way we can all be at the Sisterhood safe-house out of town and continue with the scene like that. I can always insert anything else that needs to be in the museum visit, but I think what I put there covers it.]

[Graybeard]

[OOC: OK, so to pick up the action at the farmhouse:]

Sister Rose nodded, once again impressed. If the forces behind this woman were anything like she perceived them to be, then Therese was extending an enormous amount of trust to her, Argus and the rest of the group by inviting them into the safe house. Oh, the concept of a safe house was hardly remarkable; every clandestine operation in existence needed one, whether it was the half-elf community of Snamish or a Special Ops deployment or whatever it was that went on here. But one didn't reveal a safe house except to others that one trusted, and grudgingly even to them.

In true Gorielian fashion (ironically enough), that meant it was time for a matching reveal of their own ... and Rose had an idea for how to do it. Furthermore, it would allow her to do something else, the urgency for which had been building in her mind. "Very nice," she told the red-headed woman. "If you don't mind, though, I'd feel better making a quick sweep of the grounds to make sure there aren't watchers we're unaware of." (She was fairly sure there weren't, but the statement was still true.) She smiled. "Please don't tell anybody about what I'm about to do..."

There was that shimmering, blurring of reality as her green eyes glowed ... and Therese gasped.

The "chieftain's wife" had been replaced by an older-looking woman, maybe in her mid-to-late forties, wearing the standard garb of a farm wife; that should be about the same in Goriel as elsewhere. Farmer Rose was thicker through the body than Sister Rose, and a lifetime of hard living showed in her face (although nothing could disguise those eyes). One arm bore a bracelet bearing the distinctive stone of a "dowager," a clanswoman whose (important) husband had died but who remained under the umbrella of the clan. The symbols on the bracelet corresponded to no clan's insignia that Rose had seen, but that shouldn't matter.

Therese gaped open-mouthed. "How did you do that?" she breathed, far more shocked by these developments than by anything that had happened to her among the Duravskys.

Rose's lined face crinkled in a surprisingly merry smile. "Just a knack I have," she said. "Nice for moving in disguise in strange places, which seems like something you and your friends could benefit from. I can't teach you how to shape the flesh for this kind of shape-shifting; the lifemages think I have some weird genetics that make it a lot easier for me than for most people." This wasn't the time to talk about the Nuria family, a "clan" of a nature to produce awe in Goriel, and apparently also the Sisterhood. "But if we get some time, I might be able to show you some tricks for shaping the clothing. That's easier. Now, Tim, why don't you come with me and we'll give the perimeter of this place a once-over ... my son."

Without waiting for an answer, she took the priest's arm and stepped off the porch, leaving Therese gaping in her wake. The red-haired woman turned to Argus as Tim and his "mother" disappeared around a corner. "Your wife is a -- remarkable woman," she managed to get out.

And Rose was having a quiet conversation as well. Out of earshot from the rest of the group, she moved closer to Tim. "Something's been bothering you ever since the museum, if not before," she whispered in his ear. "Give. And do it softly; this body may look older than I really am, but it still has very good hearing..."

[Jack Rothwell]

OOC Great explanation for the orb btw A./OOC

Eli had entered the farmhouse glancing around mistrustfully. The stop-over at the museum had done nothing to keep his nerves down, even the investigator's eagerness to pin the suspicion on a rival clan was only a minor positive point. Even so, the experience hammered the point home to the half-elf that in the instance he was discovered and had to make a break for it, he'd have to rely on his new acquaintances to pull his chestnuts out the fire.

The house WAS beautiful, he'd give the humans that much, and the concept of equal treatment, even in a small area such as this, in the city of Goriel was something to be applauded, but it was Rose's transformation magic that had held his attention more firmly than anything else he saw inside, even more than their hostess or the guards within.

Eli watched the, now older, Rose seized Tim and practically drag the priest outside. The paranoia in his mind started ringing an alarm bell. His hand went to the amulet Fucilious had given him.

'No! Idiot! You'll burn the house down!'

He forced the hand back down and tried to put a genial smile on his face for those present. He made himself sit down on a comfortable-looking armchair and feign an interest in the room which surrounded him while he tried to figure out what to do next.

[Alberich]

[OOC: Thanks, mate. I love the way your plan fit in with mine & gave everyone the wrong impression...whether it leads to the wrong conclusion is a separate matter.]

Out of earshot from the rest of the group, she moved closer to Tim. "Something's been bothering you ever since the museum, if not before," she whispered in his ear. "Give. And do it softly; this body may look older than I really am, but it still has very good hearing..."

Tim's first thought was no fair! - hadn't he done his best to conceal it? But as a boy he'd been beaten for saying "no fair" and nowadays he saw the sense in it - there was no use telling the world, or the Good Lord Luminosita, that life was "no fair." Besides, it's obvious, isn't it? She has the empathy spell. You can't hide your feelings from that. Sure as hell he couldn't.

Hard on the heels of that came too soon! but he was already answering that - the moment he'd been hoping for hadn't come, though it might've come close...and what he'd seen today told him that waiting was no good. Trusting Rose was no good either. He really wanted a good hour to think this out. But he didn't have it. And at the end of the day, he didn't believe in weighing every situation on the merits and making his own independent judgment. He believed in rules and strictures. And obeying your superior officer - in the Church and in the Army - well, that was a rule. At the crisis, that was what he could hold on to.

He kept moving around the perimeter as if they were checking it. He kept his teeth near together as he spoke, and he didn't let his face turn towards the house. This was it. Everything would be won or lost now. And in truth this might've been the best time - indeed, it might be ideal. Well, there was nothing for it. Time to talk.

"Yes, have to keep it soft. This is mortally serious. More than mortally. Listen.

"Eli has been using black magic. Summoning fiendish things. I'm not playing jokes" - unlike you - "I've seen them. He calls up cute little ones to spy. Large fierce ones to kill. The magic is centered in an amulet he wears around his neck, and a book he keeps..." -- Tim said where he kept it. He sensed Rose wanted to interrupt. His voice low and intense, he cut her off - "Listen! He hasn't memorized it all yet. He still needs the book. The amulet too I'm sure."

It was Desiree who'd told him about the amulet, and how his character as a man and lover had changed once he'd gotten it - Tim was no demonologist but this part seemed obvious.

"He showed me two nights ago. I tasted it myself. It's stronger than wine. You will not talk him out of it. No one anywhere will ever talk him out of it. Don't even try. And whatever he's trafficking with - it has a hold of his soul. That's why he's getting harder to control. Listen!

"What I saw this afternoon is that the same magic got used by the museum. Just the cute little spy demon, but if it's not Eli, it's the same magic. And I'm afraid it may be. It's too much. It's got to be stopped. Listen! This is the time for decisive action!" - and I'm worried you're better for pranks than decisive action. Prove me wrong, damn you. Or resign your commission and get us a man who can act!

"Use your mind speech. Tell Argus. Set it up. Attack without warning. Bind him, strike him down, whatever it takes. Get that amulet and that book away from him. I'll help if it kills me." And I half hope it does. "Destroy them. Search his things for other charms. Destroy those too. And above all don't let him die! He mustn't die while they have his soul.

"If you use stealth, he'll find out, and escape. If you wait, he'll escape. If you try to talk to him, he'll escape. Probably kill me. And he'll do more, and he'll die in bondage. Don't do it. It's got to be quick, decisive, overpowering. It's isolated here. This is the place. And this is the time. If he escapes, or dies in bondage" - your soul will answer it! - "our souls will answer it."

He feared her response. Not so much her anger at his not telling her before. He'd been punished before and he could take it again. This was a soul in peril, and that mattered above all. No, he had to admit it, part of his fear was that she was a woman, and so naturally inclined to dither instead of making up her mind. Worse yet, she was a Reformist. The Reformists seemed proud of their wit, their intellect, their scholarship - thus her snide little quips about the Orthodox. (As if the Good Lord's salvation were only for the bookish!) People like that...they could overestimate their power to talk their way out of trouble, to overcome with a display of their superior wit. Which would not work now.

[Jack Rothwell]

Eli couldn't sit still, the unease in his mind wouldn't stop clamoring at him with a thousand different scenario's that led to his downfall. The half-elf made his excuses and located the bathroom of the farmhouse after a murmured question to the owner.

He locked the door behind him with more force than was strictly necessary and made a conscious effort to calm himself. It did little good. Lilith's words and her implication under them would not go away, and the more he thought about Rose dragging Tim, the one person in the group who knew more about what he was doing than anyone else, away to 'give the perimeter a once-over' seemed more and more unlikely the more he thought about it. If the sister's true intentions had been that and just that then surely Eli himself, a guardsman of twenty years, would have been the obvious candidate for the task.

He sat down, breathing hard, trying to rationalize what he'd seen away.

'It could one of a million things... and even if they know, surely they wouldn't try anything here? Surrounded by 'allies' of an unknown quality?'

That was true, and combat inside the safehouse would surely be objected to by the owners... unless the whole thing was a set-up to get him to drop his guard.

"But that's ridiculous... right?"

'Don't be so sure, half-elf. I once knew a man who was married to a woman for ten years who buried a knife in his chest at the behest of the people she worked for.'

'Fucilious.' He managed to inject a sardonic tone to his thoughts despite the low terror he was feeling. He glanced down at the amulet, the communications device, which had started to glow again. 'You always pick the best times to make yourself known to me.'

'I've had much practice, excellent work on retrieving the orb by the way. The Ralkin have been after that trinket for decades.'

'Thank you. Is there a reason you're contacting me?'

'Indeed, but surely you must know by now I listen in frequently. You're an investment, Eli. I don't want you being taken out of commission after the time and effort I've spent on you.'

'So you know my worries then. Do you have a suggestion?'

'I offer both advice and aid. Gabriel has been alerted to your present circumstances and is available on a moment's notice. I trust you have confidence in him after seeing what he can do?'

Eli conceded that point without bothering to object. The man was a monster.

'He is, by far, the most excellent work I've done in twenty years.' Fucilious continued. 'If you need to escape your present commitments, there is no-one more suited to ensuring that will happen.'

'What do you mean 'excellent work'?'

'He was dying. I fixed him. In more ways than one.'

Eli shook his head, this wasn't the direction he was wanted the conversation to be going.

'So what should I do in the meantime?' He asked, giving up the last remnants of true defiance to the sorcerer without even being aware he was doing it.

'Take your pick!' The reply came with a high-pitched chuckle that the half-elf had come to despise. 'Draw a few symbols on the walls! Start a fire and burn the house down! Break a window and climb out! Or if you prefer, wait a while and see what your companions have to say... it could well be that your worries are entirely illusion... and you've wasted your time, my time and my associates' time with pointless mewling.'

'I knew these ideas already! Don't taunt me!'

'You ask for comfort, not advice. There was a reason I picked you, Eli, out of a group with so many magic users and other half-elves. You have a ruthlessness about you, a determination to get the job done no matter the cost. Well, your job should be clear to you now. Survive. Let not your last moments in this world be whimpering in a strange woman's bathroom in a foreign town you don't care for. Survive. That's your role. Contact me again if the worst happens, not before.'

The glow disappeared from the amulet and for a moment the half-elf was as lost and alone as he'd ever been, then words Fucilious had said sunk in and he understood. He understood the words that Gabriel had said to him about finding a purpose. He understood the pettiness of the situation he was caught in. There was a world waiting for him after the final act of this play ran out; the only point of concern now was who would be lying dead on the stage.

The half-elf pulled a piece of charcoal from his pocket, lifted the cloth of one of the wall-hangings which lined the bathroom, and began to draw.

[Graybeard]

Sister Rose was thunderstruck. "So you're trying to tell me that that carnage at the museum was caused by Eli."

Tim nodded.

"You're serious."

He nodded again.

Rose's head spun. "That's just ... wow. And an amulet, which I have seen, and an unholy book in the bargain ..." She let her voice trail off.

It made too much sense, really. Eli had been showing some behavior that was ... odd. She'd seen the way he reacted to anyone noticing that amulet. There was no doubt that he was more violent today than when he'd joined the party back in Snamish. And there'd been that circle of magic at the museum...

... But so? Rose was here for one reason, and one only: Blaise. Anything else was a distraction until that other, very disturbing man was dealt with. If Eli's bizarre actions began to affect that search, then something would have to be done. They hadn't yet. (Probably. Maybe.) And besides, Tim's own behavior had been ... unstable. The poor man, Rose thought. He's been exposed to more danger and scarier things that a young country priest has any business facing. And it's going to get worse before it gets better, I suspect. Might he be cracking under the strain? I don't think so, but ...

She became aware that Tim's eyes were on her; she'd been lost in thought longer than she probably should have. "Thank you for that information," she said slowly, wishing she'd chosen a more -- "commanding" shape for this outing. "I agree, there are some things going on that Eli may have to answer for. We'll need to keep an eye on him. But --" her eyes hardened -- "let me remind you that we have a mission to accomplish. The Patriarch has charged us to bring back Blaise or his body, and that is that. As heartless as it sounds, deaths at the museum, or at the Yurkashev compound, or anywhere else in this benighted country, aren't our problem, except to the extent that they affect our mission. The same is true of excursions of a non-member of our church into occult practices, as long as they don't affect our mission. The mission is our priority. Got that?"

She looked hard at the younger man, but didn't wait for an answer. "So we will execute that mission, Tim. You and I have a sacred responsibility to do so, one that isn't understood by anyone else in the group except Brad. We will do it. And then, once it is done, if something needs to be done involving Eli, we'll do that." Or if something needs to be done involving you. "But first things first."

Tim turned as though to go, but Rose stopped him. "One other thing. Are you sure that that's the only thing that's weighing on you here? Is there nothing else? Nothing involving ... say ... Desiree?" Forgive me, Tim, and if I'm mistaken, I'll apologize later ... but I don't think I am.

[Alberich]

Tim answered, his voice running rapidly to outpace his despair. Black magic and souls in peril, and she wanted to talk about that?

"Desiree talked straight to me herself" -- unlike you, you miserable excuse for a leader -- "and she was quite clear: we didn't do anything while I was innn..." - he stammered - "incapacitated" --

No thanks to you -- you wanted it to happen, didn't you, in your Reformist "sophistication?" Was it supposed to shake my faith? You won't even rescue a priest from pollution...so naturally you won't rescue a man's soul from damnation. And he is a man! And he knows more about loyalty than you. Why couldn't he be the leader and you the seductee that needed rescuing? You'd dither around about doing evil and give us plenty of time to save you, he'd act right away, and we'd come to a happy conclusion.

"Yes, I am worried about leaving her in the clutches of these vile heathens, but she seems to have done well so far, and I hope we'll have her out before they get tired of her, and break her like a spoiled child with a new toy. But I think we haven't long." If they stayed out here debating it it would rouse Eli's heightened suspicions -- he was sure Rose would get that -- but he had to try again on the other business.

"Eli hates this country as much as any of us - he was talking about wanting a crusade to overthrow their whole order. If he grabbed a holy symbol from one of their chief clans - on his second night here - what will he do his third night? Smash the Yurkashev idol? Unleash a monster in the Duravsky compound? A, what do you call it, a diplomatic incident? What would the Patriarch think of that?

"I know we have a mission, and Blaise is that mission. But the Patriarch doesn't know about this black magic. You know the Church's position on dealing with infernal powers - always and everywhere. It's got to be stamped out. This is a threat, a major threat, and it's going to get worse very fast." And you and your "Colonel Bogey" are always going on about how stupid the "pleasure dome" is with their priorities - how do yours measure up? "Officers are supposed to take initiative, aren't we? Use our heads and deal with problems on the spot, not send a runner back for orders every time?

"And there's something else too. I tell you -- and I'll be purged and punished for it I'm sure -- I ta...taaasted just a little of it, called up one of those little spy demons. It wasn't just strong...it was...ssss...seductive! Like a dozen Desirees. Every time he uses it, it'll...bind him harder...I don't dare try it again myself..." but I could be talked into it "...and what happens when he learns to draw the symbols from memory? Then burning the book won't save him and he'll be damned forever. What is the death of the living world, all together, to the loss of one soul?" - That was stupid, Tim. Argue theology with her and she's bound to have a sophistry from the commentaries of Uselysses Neverheardofhim to answer it. You're not a Church Advocate so don't play at it.

"If we wait 'til we're in town - it'll be too crowded, and jeopardize our mission. The opportunity has been laid in our hands. We've been brought to the right place. You brought it up at exactly the right time" -- he didn't explicitly suggest this was the Good Lord's doing; he suspected she didn't care for that kind of thinking -- "Let's seize the opportunity, save him, and then keep on with our mission!"

Their circuit of the grounds was nearly complete. He knew he would have no chance to exchange further arguments with her on the subject - if she said "no," then it was "no" and Eli was doomed. Or he would have to try something incredibly desperate. Little did Tim know that Eli was already taking the initiative inside, in ways that could render his most impassioned arguments moot.

[OOC: Changed "would render" to "could render" based on Jack's next post.]

[Jack Rothwell]

With the slightly staggering walk of a man who wasn't completely in control of his body, the half-elf made his way back to common room. The symbols were drawn and the trap had been set, all it would take now was for Eli to reach towards the source and pull.

As much as he wanted to, he held the desire to unleash the monstrosities in check. He hadn't entirely discounted the possibility that his paranoia was groundless and if it wasn't, well, better to feign ignorance and surprise them than to attack prematurely and lose that advantage.

He sat down on a chair facing the exit that led to the porch. He reached out, curled a mental fist around the tethers to his apparitions, and settled in to wait.