Kiyoka, part 2

[LordofNightmares]

"Kureji, when the time comes I need your help to fight Aluzard," Tsubasa said lathering up with soap "Since you can see Auras I need your eyes to find where Aluzard's spirit is in Keiichi, and if you have any friends or some one that owes you one in the life mages to heal the body."
"I also need help on a weapon that will destroy a ghost ." said while rinsing off then heading to the hot water to soak, her hair wraped up " and not the spirit of Kay (Keiichi)."
The locket lay snug between her C-cup bosom "So this is what hope feels like again." looking at Kureji "hurry up the water is nice, and I wont bite well not if you dont want to." she said jokingly.
"And while I told you a lot about my self, well do you have some one special in your life??"

[Drannin]

Argus was silent for a long moment. "Well... my family line is nothing special. I mean we're well-placed, respected... but not aristocracy or anything..." he trailed off. The others were looking at him with some sympathy, but were clearly waiting for him to honestly answer the question. Argus sighed, then started again.

"My... wife... was named Cirella Ansellus. Well, until she married me, I mean." This got a brief chuckle around the room. "She was, well, an artist. A sculptor, to be exact. I met her after I got out of the battlemages and started work in the industrial sector. Things were going well, and I was hoping to secure a position at the academy doing research. I met her there while receiving a tour of the premises. She was an art instructor, you see... and had some very nice work." Argus was silent for a moment. "I never really was an art fancier. I preferred larger scale construction to little sculptures. I mean, why make a pot when you can erect a cathedral?" He spread his arms wide to demonstrate his position. "Cirella really nailed me to the wall when I said that..." Argus chuckled at the memory. "But she made a good point. Even the grandest cathedral will be forgotten unless it is lovingly embellished by an artist. That's when I started to really appreciate the little details. Ultimately, that appreciation landed me the job at the academy."

Lost in his memories, Argus leaned back in his chair and talked, more to himself than anyone else. "She used magic to carefully shape her work. Really, what we did was the same thing, just with a different focus. Cirella and I discussed technique, and methods of shaping. Respect became friendship. Friendship became... love. Marriage followed. We supported each other. I... wouldn't be what I... was... without her. And, I suppose, Cirella wouldn't have become as well known as she became without me. We supported each other. Did well together. Were a team." The mage's voice dropped to a low murmur. "And then we had children. A daughter. Then a son. Life was so good. Everything was in order, secure..." A haunted look came over Argus' face.

"I still don't understand how..." he closed his eyes, unable to finish. "Just a moment, please," he whispered.

[Graybeard]

Sister Rose leaned forward, patted Argus' hand. "That won't be necessary," she said, mustering as much compassion in her voice as she could. "You've said enough; I'm sorry."

Looks were exchanged around the table as Sister Margaret spoke. "Again, we regret causing you pain, but it was necessary for us to understand some things about you before proceeding with our own plans. I think we understand them now, well enough to know that our original idea would have been outrageously ... insensitive. We'll find another way. Now, let's set to work figuring out what that other way might be."

Rose excused herself and left the conference (were those tears in her startling eyes?) as Margaret unrolled a large parchment, revealing a map of the world, or at least the part of the world that extended from Tsuiraku to Veracia. Circles were drawn around Kiyoka, Port Lorrel and Saus. "Here's our basic problem," she said, all business again. "The mysterious Mr. Ravanel was last seen here --" she pointed to Port Lorrel -- "and Father Egbert may, or may not, have disappeared here," pointing to Saus. "We think it would be wise to have feet on the ground in both places, to try to unravel what happened. However, there's only one of you -- if you are willing to go on a fact-finding expedition, which we would support as best we could. What do you think? Our resources for supporting you would be greater in Saus, and quite candidly, our interest in finding Father Egbert is greater than that in this Ravanel fellow. On the other hand, with the warp gates presumably down for a while, the logistics would work much more easily for a trip to Lorrel. Airships run between here and there twice a day, the flight isn't unacceptably long, and we could get you on one this afternoon if we hurry. What would you prefer? Or do you think you can accomplish more staying here?"

[Drannin]

Argus took a moment to compose himself, then considered the map, and the situation.

"Staying here is out," he said finally. "I've tapped all of the information sources I can think of. Between searching for Ravanel and Father Egbert... I think I should continue to search for the Father." There was a fair amount of relief on the assembled faces at this response. Argus smiled faintly. "It's a matter of practicality. Lucas Ravanel is long gone. There's no guarantee that I'll run into him at Port Lorrel, and as a tour guide, there are millions of places he could have gone. The trail is cold."

"Furthermore," Argus went on, "What would I ask the man once I caught up with him. Or if, rather. I need to know WHY this Ravanel is so important in order to properly question him, and for that, I will need to track down Father Egbert. I'd like to start, with your permission, by searching the Father's quarters. It's an intrusion I know, and I apologize, but it may hold some clues as to his disappearance. Otherwise... I'd better start planning for the journey to Saus, logistics notwithstanding."

He paused for a moment. "Father Egbert and I were approached by a woman calling herself shade. A stealth expert, possibly an asset... but I believe she was involved in the scuffle that occurred outside of Ravanel's shop. A potential psychopath. But a talented one. I'm not sure if I should contract her help or not."

[Graybeard]

"Under the circumstances, I think a look at Father Egbert's chambers might be warranted," Sister Margaret said. "I'll get one of the novices to --" She broke off, noting the look on Brother Miguel's face.

"SHADE!!" Miguel half-gasped, half-screamed. "No! It can't be!" And he started to mutter under his breath in a language no one at the table spoke, tracing the Sign of Luminosita in mid-air, as those around him watched in bewilderment.

[Drannin]

What... the... hell...?

Apparently the "psychopath" moniker fit Shade quite nicely.

"I take it you have heard of this woman?" Argus asked slowly.

[Graybeard]

[OOC: Don't take the use of Spanish too literally here; it's intended to convey a language other than the ones spoken in the "known" world. /OOC...]

"Brujería, it is called in my homeland south," Brother Miguel said through tight lips. "Is like, how you call it, a witch." His accent had intensified with his agitation, and he was losing his grasp of the Veracian language they were using inside the mission. "'Shade', it is a curse that she last through many generation. My ... how you say ... abuela tell me, when I am a little guy, about the castigo. I no want to be in a place that has this 'Shade.'" He shuddered theatrically, but without the slightest hint that it was an act.

"Brother Miguel, get control of yourself," Sister Margaret commanded. "Our Lord Luminosita gives us power that we might be free of these strange legends and myths. We --"

"Brujería, she is not a myth, Mother Margaret," Miguel said. "It is a terrible, terrible thing." He was regaining control of himself now, but still very upset. "I will listen, but I do not like this 'Shade.'"

Mother Margaret? Sister Margaret wondered about that, but Miguel's terror was suggesting a path forward. "Well, let us see if we can make it so that you don't have to be around this strange, evil thing. But do get a grip on yourself. Brother Farley, can you help your colleague get his emotions under control? And Dr. Cleiviein, if you come with me, we'll start on the course of action you recommend." Margaret stood up, and the conference was at an end.

[Drannin]

Argus followed Sister Margaret out of the room. He was quiet for a bit. "I will admit that Shade disturbed me when I encountered her, but to think that someone would practically have a panic attack..." He shook his head. "I wonder who that woman is, exactly...."

The two arrived at Father Egbert's room.

[Graybeard]

"You know, I'm thinking it might not be a bad idea if Brother Miguel accompanied you to Saus," Sister Margaret said. "He was born somewhere in the Southern Continent, and they have all manner of unpleasant folk superstitions down there. This 'Shade' seems to have triggered one of them from his childhood. After all, the child is the father of the man, and we all have that kind of baggage, don't we? So let's get him out of town for a while so he can both help you and settle down. Ah, here we go..."

As Margaret talked, she'd been rummaging around in a handbag, and now she produced a very ordinary, non-magical set of keys. "I think this one fits the door," she said, and lo and behold, the door to Father Egbert's chambers opened. "This will be new to me," she continued; "I've never been in here before..."

New, possibly, but dramatic, not; they'd entered a pedestrian-looking apartment, furnished in a spare, ascetic style. The main room featured a very simple shrine to Luminosita, with a mildly tacky, mildly bombastic (if there can be such a thing) painting of the synthetic deity above it. Argus was interested to note that in it, the bearded figure held a sword in one hand, a sheaf of wheat in the other. "Standard stuff," Margaret explained. "You can find pictures like this all over Emerylon, making the point that Luminosita sustains the good and smites the evil. Truthfully, I'd been expecting something a bit more, for lack of a better word, professional. You should see the ostentation that fills the Abbot's chambers; those, I have seen, and hoo boy..."

Argus refrained from asking how Margaret knew about the Abbot's digs, at least for the moment, and continued to scan the rooms before him. They'd entered a drawing room of sorts, and there was a small, personal kitchen off to one side, a bedroom to the other. The whole thing spoke of a life of simplicity and lack of pretense; Egbert's unimposing public demeanor seemed an accurate reflection of his private life. "Hm, that's interesting," Margaret said, pointing out the one mildly incongruous feature of the drawing room: a collection of swords and other weapons that hung on a wall. However, she wasn't finding the collection itself "interesting," but rather the fact that there was a dagger-sized vacancy in it, with a pair of brackets that no longer held whatever had hung there at one time. "Looks like he may have taken a weapon with him. Can you get anything off those brackets?"

[Drannin]

"I'll try," said Argus. "I'm no diviner, but recently, I've had to stretch myself in ways I've never had to before." He considered a moment. "I guess one would call that being alive." Deep concept for the day stated, Argus went to work.

Object reading was an extension of nonliving manipulation. By extending yourself to the inherent 'spirit' of an object, for lack of a better term, feeding some mana to partially awaken it, and then overlaying some divinatory spells, it was possible to get quite a lot of information. If you went about it correctly. Argus was an architect, but he'd do what he could.

After repeating more or less the same spell he'd used on the roof the other day to sense the presence of a troll, Argus went into his meditation and tried to pull... anything, really, from the brackets. "Well, I can feel some fear, right off the bat," he said thoughtfully. "Father Egbert must have really been bothered about this Lucas Ravanel. Or something, anyway. Hang on, I'm going to put a little more energy in, maybe I can get something... like the remaining vibrations of the words he was saying... or even an image..." Argus trailed off as he fell deep into concentration.