Kiyoka, Douaga and beyond

[Alberich]

As Therese was thinking crap! Anfisa was thinking yummy! She took her time between unpacking, setting up the room neatly, and flirting. "Maybe this town has some dancing, like that other one didn't?" she suggested. "It's so silly, having dressmakers like that, and then noplace to wear them. We could try it tonight." She whirled a figure or two she knew, not missing any chance to touch Desiree in the process. "And we can leave that silly boy behind to play with his whistle."

* * *

Tim, oblivious to the way he was being talked about, went where he was told, prepred to listen.

[Graybeard]

"Rose says you've been here before," Therese said to Argus. "Do you have any recommendations for a place to eat and have a beer? Maybe one where there might be some dancing?" She shook out her long red hair; no need to look male in this city (at last!), after all.

If she'd realized that Argus' most recent Kiyokan experience with things whirling and gyrating rhythmically in space had involved an exploding rat, she'd probably have skipped that last part.

----------

"This isn't good, not good at all," Brother Miguel said as Sister Rose, Father Redmond and Tim entered the library. A group of papers were spread on the table in front of them, all bearing a SECRET stamp.

"No, if it's all about what we've been doing for the last couple of weeks, including that debriefing in Saus, it's not good at all," Rose agreed. "I need to fill you--"

Miguel interrupted, astonishment on his face. "You're about to tell me you've been to Douaga?"

Now it was Rose's turn to be astonished, and then embarrassed, as she saw the name of the Southern Continent's largest known city on the paper in front of her. "No, sorry, I was jumping to conclusions," she said. "What are these about?"

Miguel gathered the papers up, leaving one out by itself. "Message from the Pl-- Emerylon. They just found out that a priest has been kidnapped from one of the few surviving missions out in the countryside down there. Details are in here." He waved the papers.

Rose facepalmed. "Don't tell me. They're figuring that since you're a native of the Southern Continent, you're supposed to lead an investigation down there, right? Which will completely play holy hell -- excuse me, Father -- with your wedding plans?" A silent moment hung in the air... "Now why are you looking at me like that?"

The look on Miguel's face would have frozen the air in the room if it had lasted any longer before he spoke.

"Oh, no, Rose. They don't want me going down there. They want you."

[Drusia]

"I've certainly stayed in worse," Therese said.

"Maybe this town has some dancing, like that other one didn't?" Anfisa suggested. "It's so silly, having dressmakers like that, and then noplace to wear them. We could try it tonight." She whirled a figure or two she knew, not missing any chance to touch Desiree in the process. "And we can leave that silly boy behind to play with his whistle."

"Rose says you've been here before," Therese said to Argus. "Do you have any recommendations for a place to eat and have a beer? Maybe one where there might be some dancing?" She shook out her long red hair; no need to look male in this city (at last!), after all.

"Yes," I agree excitedly, "Somewhere fun!" I smile absently at Anfisa's affectionate touches. This is the first time in ages I've felt comfortable in a place. I still want to see the floating city, but it's just such a relief to be able to openly express myself without fearing that someone is going to smite me, sell me into slavery, or execute me. Or torture me and then execute me.

I catch my breath a bit as Therese shakes out her hair. She's just... so beautiful. I don't even think she knows it, but... mmmm....

I shake my head a little to clear it and turn to Argus. "Will our Veracian dresses be okay, or should we get something in the local style?" I liked my dress from there well enough, but I'd also like to be properly fashionable.

-- Desiree

[Drannin]

Argus considered. He'd been drunk out of his mind when he was in Kiyoka, but...

"I think I remember some nice places," he said slowly. "Kiyoka's fairly liberal, so feel free to wear whatever you want. Within reason," he added with a smirk. "And yes, there is dancing here. I understand you had some trouble with that earlier."

[Alberich]

[OOC: From this I gather Desiree & Anfisa have been unpacking in their own room, which they don't share with anyone, and that suits Anfisa down to the ground.]

Asking Anfisa whether she'd like to go dress shopping was like asking Tim whether the Patriarch was Orthodox. Except that Tim's "yes" would'nt've been half so bouncy. Or touchy. Or kissy. Or ambushing-Desiree-from-behind-and-nibbling-her-eary. Come to that, it really wasn't like asking Tim whether the Patriarch was Orthodox.

[Graybeard]

[OOC: Is Argus joining the ladies on their shopping expedition? The answer doesn't matter for the following small encounter, or at least to the introduction, but it'll affect how things unfold, obviously. Anyway:]

Therese, Desiree and Anfisa might have been excused, as they walked and shopped, for not recognizing that one of the buildings along their path was not a boutique, or at least a rather oddly themed bar/bistro, but rather, a Temple of the Divine Dwarf. Argus really had no excuse, other than the possibility that he'd been bleary-eyed the last time he'd seen it.

"Good morning, The Dwarves Love You," the oddly-dressed priest [OOC: not the same guy as in the link -- he's in Volkanenborg, after all -- but same general idea] intoned as the group stepped through the door. "How may I be of assistance?"

-------------

Sister Rose groaned at Brother Miguel's words. "Since when did I inherit the role of the Church's general-purpose missing-persons specialist?" she asked, atypically acidly, then apologized. "Sorry, Miguel, I shouldn't shoot the messenger, you're just telling me what's in the papers. But still, why me? My Divination magic is nothing special, and besides, it's not like I've been all that successful with Egbert and Blaise, and -- what's that?"

Miguel was holding the detached sheet of paper as though it were a venomous snake, and now he placed it on the table. "This is why," he said ... and Rose gaped.

The image on the paper was that of another of the stone figurines that the group had seen altogether too frequently in the preceding days. "Oh, my," Rose said softly, her displeasure with the assignment entirely forgotten for the moment. "Let me guess ... found at the scene of the kidnapping, right?"

Miguel nodded grimly. "Yes, and there's more to it than that. The mission has -- had -- a Douagan security guard, to keep the place safe from break-ins and such. There had been some problems with that when it first opened. Apparently he stumbled across the kidnapping in progress. His body was found the next day, without a mark on it, as though --"

"As though he had just stopped," Rose completed the sentence. "And this was beside the body."

"It was," Miguel said. "No magic left on it, as far as anyone can tell."

Rose stood up. "Let me go get Argus and Therese," she said. "They need to know about this too." She left the room without another word.

"Who's Therese?" Miguel asked Tim in Rose's wake, not that it really mattered at the moment.

------------

None of those gathered in the room knew that, at that exact same time, in a place far away, a man was being tortured to death for having been so clumsy as to leave that figurine at the scene of the kidnapping. However, they would learn.

[Alberich]

Tim had made a promise not to reveal what he'd seen of Therese's little sanctuary in Goriel. The simplest way to keep that promise was not to admit he knew very much about her or her (admirable) work. Also, he still wasn't clear how much could or should be released about their late "deniable" mission. The best way to handle that was to admit very little knowledge and put the burden on Rose, who presumably did know.

"A companion Rose picked up on her travels," he said. "From the Northern Confederacy. She's got strong magic and fighting skills, but she's a heathen." He left out her habit of cross-dressing.

[Graybeard]

Father Red's eyes crinkled in a smile, although there was a point beyond them. "Don't say 'heathens,' say 'potential converts.' That's one of the things we're here for, after all, that and tending Luminosita's flock in the city." (And being official eyes and ears in Tsuiraku, but he didn't say that.) Tim had never been to this temple before, so he couldn't have noticed that Red had caused the sign over the door to be modified so that it no longer proclaimed the place to be a "Mission to the Faithless." It might have been coincidence that attendance at services had undergone an uptick immediately afterward. It might not.

He turned back to Brother Miguel. "Is there more?"

"Not much," Miguel said, riffling the papers. "The missing man is a young priest named Brother Dalton. There are a few details on him here. He seems to be your generic young Orthodox priest out trying to do Luminosita's Work, with maybe a little more sense of adventure than most." He eyed Tim. "Any chance you'd know him?"

------------

Therese looked around in puzzlement. This certainly didn't look like a dress shop on the inside. Maybe a weirdly-themed bar -- she'd been in enough of those -- or a museum, but a shop? It just couldn't be. However, she played along when the man (priest? sales clerk? who could tell?) with the humpbacked costume bustled over to her. "What do you have in the line of clothing?" she asked.

The man's face brightened. "Ah! This case over here! You must come see!" He took her arm, Therese resisting the urge to throw him over her shoulder and out into the street, and steered her to a display case. "Our most sacred possession, religious vestments from the Dwarves Themselves, imported at great expense from the Southern Continent!"

Therese cast a professional glance at the tattered outfit in the case. Religious vestments, my ass. This is armor. I'm not familiar with the design and origins, and the proportions certainly don't fit any human I've ever met ... but armor is armor. Might as well humor him for the moment, though. She gestured at a belt crossing the misshapen chest, culminating in what could only be a holster for a sidearm. "And this is a -- holder for a holy water dispenser, I reckon?"

Delight spread across the man's face. "Thank you, sister! We've wondered about the function of that holy device ever since we got these vestments, but now it's obvious, you nailed it! I would love to talk to you some more, when I'm done helping your colleagues." Without waiting for a reply, he bustled over to where Desiree and Anfisa were examining one of the other Dwarven Artifacts on display. [OOC: Over to you what this artifact is, and what happens from here...]

[Alberich]

"Dalton," said Tim, his forehead crinkling a bit..."Dalton...of course! Brother Dalton! We met when I was training in Emerylon...I came a little after him." Now that he thought of it, they'd actually gotten along together -- and now, at least, he could understand the (slightly) older Brother's fascination with airships, for now he'd ridden in the strange craft himself, and seen clouds from on top...

...Brother Dalton was kidnapped? "Monstrous!" said Tim. "He'd never hurt anyone in his life. A good healer, in fact, and I'm sure he was blessing to the...the...whatever the natives are near hiim! What sort of, ah, potential converts were living around him?" For he knew that not all the inhabitants of the Southern Continent were human, not after that strange furry beast he'd met with Jamie and Udo.

[Graybeard]

Father Red had no trouble picking up on the subtext. "The mission's ministry is to humans," he said. "As you probably know, there are other sentient beings in the south. However, the Church has not yet decided whether they have souls, and therefore are eligible to come into Luminosita's Presence." As the three in the room all knew, this was also true of trolls, and a sufficiently controversial subject that Red and Brother Miguel, at least, didn't want to get into it here and now.

Miguel, who after all had grown up on the Southern Continent, took over. "As for who those humans are, most of them will be animists, worshiping the spirits of nature." He didn't think it timely to point out that Lillith had worshiped nature spirits too, and had given anyone who'd traveled with her reason to wonder about that worship. "The capital city, Douaga, is poor, but basically civilized. It's supposed to be no rougher and more violent than some of the more -- primitive places in our own country. The outlying missions, now ... not so clear." He shook his head disapprovingly. "The Church pulled back from the really wild ones a few years ago, not long after a missionary party found me. I'll tell you that story some time before you go." He shuddered at the memory. "As for the specific mission where Dalton was, I don't know, but I'll do some poking around. There's time."

Red met Tim's puzzled expression and elaborated on that last comment. "They're sending a long-range airship to get you all down there, but it won't get to Kiyoka until tomorrow, and then they'll have to refuel and resupply. Departure for Douaga will be first thing morning after next."

"Any other questions?" Miguel asked, with a slightly lopsided smile. "I guess I'm the expert on the Southern Continent here ... whether I like it or not."