Homontel, and beyond

[Sareth]

"HARKER!!"

Lillith sighed and got up off her knees. Meditation had just come to a definite and distinct end. Even if she tried to get back into a quietly contemplative mood, she was pretty sure it'd be interupted again. Argus' voice sounded like he was only just starting.

Shrugging, she quickly threw on enough clothing for modesty, then walked out of the room she'd spent the night in. The bath the night before had gone well, as no one had come in and interupted her (she'd kept her ears covered to be safe anyway). The bed had been very welcome and restfull. The only thing left to really attend to was the desire of the stomach. She hoped the kitchen would be well stocked.

As she walked down the hall, she could hear thumping and bumping, swearing and yowling coming from Argus' room. For a moment, she paused by the door, hand raised ready to knock, but then she shook her head and decided against it. She didn't want to know. She wasn't certain what was going on in there, but she was pretty certain that finding out would rather undue the pleasant night's sleep.

[Templar771]

Cit had started the day by waking up sweating and panting. He looked down at his chest and touched his cheek. The scars weren't bleeding. That was good it meant the medicine was working.

He looked out of his window. It was still dark. He got up and pulled a small flask out of his bag. He took a sip of the foul smelling liquid the healer had given him. He gagged at the taste but knew it was necessary.

He could not sleep. He had been lying in bed for a while now but he could not rest. He then decided to go for a walk.

Running across the city's rooftops was one of the few ways to clear his mind of the past. After being unable to get to sleep he had decided to change into the dark hood cotton top and trousers along with a pair of black padded shoes. He put on his wrist blade, pulled up his hooded and descended out of his window.

He didnt really have any form of plan but he would just run around till the sun started to rise. He had now passed through the more afluent part of town and into the poorer districts(he could tell: the buildings got lower as you went further into the slums).

He sat on the roof one house that had a particually good view of the streets below. There was nothing happen- but then saw it. One lone figure was running down the street. Curious he turned towards it to see four more chasing after it. This should be intersting. He the followed them watching as the figure was running through all the shortcuts but the pursuers were always just behind.

But the chase came to an end when the fleeing figure hit a dead end.

The figure backed against a wall as the others closed in.

The one that appeared to be the leader advanced towards the figure and said. " Give us the package." The figure held it out a little towards him. As the leader stepped forward to take it the figure kicked him between the legs, spun around a elbowed him in the face. The was a crack as stream of blood from the leaders broken nose.

The others stepped back a little. The leader however managed still to speak "You'll pay for that errant bitch. Get her." Now that was interesting. As the other 3 closed in the girl didnt have a chance. She had used the element of suprise to her advantage and very well but he couldn't see what else she could do. It was at this point Cit decided to intervene.

He dropped onto the street surprising the group. He took a combat stance. "Now this isnt very gentelmanly is it? Leave her alone and i'll take her place." One said "How about we just kill both of you?" With that they attacked him.

The first one ran at him and tried to swing his fist at his head. Cit grabbed his arm in mid punch twisted it behind his back until there was a pop he then threw the man head first into the wall. The second pulled out a knife and slashed sideways at him. He twisted the knife out his hand and stabbed his wrist blade through the palm. The man stopped in mid howl as Cit punched him in the face. The third took a different tack however. He had grabbed the half-elf and now had a knife around her neck. "Now you put the knife down and back off or i kill the errant." Cit sighed and pointed his arm at the mans foot. There was a click and the blade flew out the holster and into his exposed foot. The man dropped the knife and let go of the half-elf and clutched at his foot howling. Cit strided towards him and kicked him in the face.

He now looked at the half-elf. "Why were those men chasing you?" she did not reply but instead pointed at her mouth. A mute. This would be difficult. "Can I see the parcel?" The half elf paused then gave it to him watching him intently. He felt through the brown paper. A book and a pencil. "Is the book blank?" he asked. She nodded. "you use this to talk to people." She nodded. "Do you have any friends or family in the city?" She shook her head. "Do you have a home or a room at a inn?" She shook her head again. He thought about this for a bit. "Follow me."

When they returned to the ground below his window he muttered a brief levitation spell and they were at his window. He made a short sharp whistle and Felix flew out the window with some rope. Cit then pulled them into his room. Felix looked at him. "No it's not what you think." Replied Cit. He let the girl rest in the bed while he sat out at the desk with a small book and began to write.

He woke up again. To the sound of "HARKER!!" he looked at the bed. The girl was still asleep and Felix was streching. He could here shouts coming from Argus's room. "What are you going to do with the girl?" Asked Felix. Cit paused. He hadnt really thought this through. "Stay here I'll get both of you some food." He got changed and left a note on the desk. He then went to have some breakfast.

(OOC: sorry if its long got a bit carried away.)

[Graybeard]

Sister Rose accepted her meal, a typical country breakfast of ham and eggs with fruit and bread, and joined Brother Miguel at the table where he was sitting, a bemused look on his face. "Before you start on that, can I see it for a minute?" he said. Puzzled, Rose complied.

They were among the few civilians in a dining hall filled with men in uniform -- young men in excellent physical condition, and with the same blond-haired, blue-eyed appearance as Brother/Lieutenant Elgin Bindiel and his "third wife" had displayed. In fact, they looked like they'd been stamped out with a machine. The tallest young man in sight couldn't have been as much as four inches taller than the shortest young man. The few members of an older generation (gads, Rose thought, at thirty-eight, am I a member of an "older generation"?) had a greater diversity of height and physique, but they were still a remarkably homogeneous lot.

"Look at these eggs," Miguel said. Both plates had two eggs cooked "sunny side up," with the perfectly round yolks exactly centered in identical whites. The pieces of ham looked like they'd been cut with a milling machine, maybe even the same one that turned out the soldiers; Rose suspected she'd have to use a micrometer to find any size differences between them. The bread and fruit were similarly well turned out, although one pat of butter (perfectly centered on Rose's bread, of course) had a minor dent on one corner that wasn't present on its opposite number on Miguel's plate. Rose wondered if a server was going to catch flak for that "error;" she quickly spread the butter on the bread to make sure it wouldn't be noticed.

"That's downright spooky," Rose said, getting a nod from Miguel. "Wonder how a vegetarian is going to fare in that breakfast line?" The question seemed topical, as Lillith picked that moment to walk through the door...

[Templar771]

Cit walked into the dining hall. "What the hell?" He muttered under his breath as he looked around the hall in a stunned daze. Every body pratically looked the same. He stopped staring and walked over to the table Miguel and Sister Rose were eating at. He looked at Miguel "Hi is it ok if i go into the city for a bit and maybe grab something to eat?"

[Graybeard]

Sister Rose and Brother Miguel looked at each other, shrugged. "Feel free," Rose told Cit. "We're going to need to go into town ourselves before we move on, so there's no rush, and besides, you're self contained, what with your horse." Not to mention the question of why we have any interest in you to begin with, or vice versa, she thought, but did not say.

Lillith seemed to be having a "conversation" with Wife Number Three in the now-almost-empty serving line, their facial expressions suggesting mutual lack of comprehension, as though they weren't even speaking the same language. Based on the decidedly omnivore-favoring contents of the breakfast plates, Rose could just about deduce what that was all about. She wanted to talk to the young woman about her roots in Ramanzel anyway, so she headed over toward the serving line to see if she needed to intervene.

However, she didn't get very far before the route there became crowded. Fully a third of the uniformed men eating breakfast rose from their seats at the same time. Rose and Miguel worried that Lillith (or Argus, who'd just appeared with a typical why-did-I-ever-get-a-familiar chagrined look on his face) might have said something that triggered trouble, but the soldiers didn't head for the line. They simply dropped off the dishes and trays at a window set up for the purpose, turned, and walked out of the room -- no, they didn't walk, they marched. Not even in basic training had Rose and Miguel seen people using a cafeteria in tight military formation. The soldiers here, however, were in lock step from the moment they hit the door until they were lost from sight.

"What in Luminosita's Name is going on with this place?" Rose muttered under her breath, as the crowd cleared and she resumed her path toward Lillith and the serving girl/woman/wife, who were still looking at each other with complete bafflement.

[Sareth]

"But what is so wrong about simply leaving it off?" Lillith was asking in a tone of voice that implied that it was probably the dozenth time she'd asked the question. So locked into the conversation was she that she likely hadn't even noticed all the men march out of the room like so many marionettes.

"Why ever would I?" 'Wife Number Three' responded, a dumbfounded look on her face.

"Because I wouldn't actually eat it?" Lillith replied.

"But it's a balanced part of the breakfast meal. Of course you would eat it."

"But I wouldn't. So it makes no sense for you to insist on giving me any."

"But then your plate wouldn't be balanced!"

"Well, what's so wrong with that?" Lillith asked, clearly attempting to not show temper, but clearly beginning to lose patience. Fortunately, at that moment, Sister Rose stepped up, and Lillith turned to her almost in appeal. "They won't let me take a plate without pig on it," she almost-whimpered.

[Graybeard]

Suppressing a chuckle, Sister Rose said, "Here. I'll take care of this." She took the plate out of the bewildered girl's hand and returned to where Brother Miguel was sitting. "Have some extra ham," she told Miguel. "Don't worry, it won't unbalance you too badly."

Miguel turned a quizzical look on the two women as Lillith joined them, but he didn't turn down the ham. "Are you okay with the rest of this?" he asked Lillith. Without waiting for a reply, he applied himself to the meat as Rose got up to return to chatting up Wife Number Three.

But where was Sasha?

[Sareth]

The look on Lillith's face implied that the answer to that question was "not really." However, aside from pulling her eggs away from the remaining ham juices on the plate like she was quarantining the section, she took no further efforts to disturb the perfect order of the place.

"Meat isn't actually forbidden to us," she commented as she began spreading butter on her perfect slice of bread. "It's just the spiritual connection to death makes it harder to commune with the spirits for someone in my position." Doubtless Miguel had no actual need to know this. In fact, Lillith guessed her probably didn't even care one whit about her beliefs, or even what she was. But still, somehow, she felt like she somehow had to explain herself to him. "I'm sorry if that caused an inconvenience."

[Graybeard]

The spiritual connection to death makes it harder to commune with the spirits. Brother Miguel searched his memory of his studies of heresies. Had he ever heard this exact formulation before? Not that he could remember, but it didn't really matter. He still wanted to get a better sense of where Lillith came from (as long as it wasn't that point of origin, as it almost certainly wasn't), but now wasn't the time.

"You might be interested in knowing that there is a vegetarian denomination within the Veracian Church," he said around a mouthful of ham. "They're the Followers of Saint Calfornicus, based mainly on the west coast of the country. Their reasons for not eating meat are probably different from yours, but you might have some things in common with them." Of course, the rest of the Veracian Church considered them "odd as teats on a boar shoat," to use a phrase he remembered his adoptive father using in his far-away youth ... but they were still considered not to be heretical, so it didn't really matter.

Meanwhile, Sister Rose was trying to reassure Mrs. Bindiel III, who looked completely flummoxed by her exchange with Lillith. "Thank you for your patience," Rose said gently. "We who do Luminosita's Work must sometimes remember that there is a wide, wide world out there, and there are people in it who don't always see the world exactly the way we do."

"There are?" the young woman asked, perplexity on her face and not a hint of irony in her voice. She started to say something else, but another group of soldiers rose as though in formation, deposited their dirty dishes, and marched off, keeping perfectly in step with each other. The two women watched them go, and by the time quiet had returned, Wife Number Three had another customer for balanced, orderly, and normal food.

[OOC: Literally years later, I had to go back and fix a continuity error here...]

[Sareth]

"I suppose," Lillith responded, her tone non-committal in it's sounds. She chewed a slice of egg, then shrugged. "I suppose there can be some common ground between people. You and Sister Rose have been... kinder than I expected." Her voice wasn't grudging, but certainly there was still caution and reserve to it.

The men rose, marching out in their orderly way, and Lillith blinked, clearly surprised. Her expression said that something was striking her as very odd about what she'd just seen, but she made no comment.