Homontel, and beyond

[Graybeard]

"I'd like to hear a little more of your time in Ramanzel," Sister Rose said, as soon as Wife Number Three had finished serving another perfect breakfast. "I should introduce myself. Some people call me Major Nuria-Lucas of the Veracian Army Reserve --" the girl's eyes widened at the presence of such a mighty officer -- "and others call me Sister Rose of the Church of Our Lord Luminosita, but I'd rather that you just called me Rose. We who do Our Lord's work shouldn't be too concerned with earthly titles, should we?" She smiled, meaning it; how could those prigs of the Orthodox Church be so taken with what they called themselves?

"I -- I guess not," the girl gaped. "People call me Sister Carleen, but I guess you can just call me Carly. But really, I don't know much about Ramanzel. They brought me here when I was young." She can't be more than seventeen or eighteen now, Rose observed, and she's apparently a mother. And what a strange turn of phrase. She listened as Carly/W3 continued, "I think it is a very little town. I thought it was big enough when I was there, but you know how the children's views are."

Rose's ovaries were hurting again, but she could honestly answer, "I do indeed." Many of her childhood friends in Saus, some of whom she even remained friendly with to this day despite the physical distance, were mothers of teenagers by now, after all ... "My friends and I are on a mission for our holy church, and perhaps you can help us with it. Do you remember, when you were in Ramanzel, anyone with the last name Kankaniel?"

The girl's eyes had widened again at the mention of a "mission," and her shy smile broadened at Rose's question. "Oh, yes, I do, Rose. When I was a little girl, before they brought me here, I had a babysitter named Lucy Kankaniel. I thought she was very nice. She had a big brother she called Bertie who'd gone off to serve Our Lord Luminosita, and a big sister named Milly, she was nice too. In fact, I've wondered sometimes what ever became of them."

So do we. "Tell me more," Rose said, noticing that another batch of soldiers was starting to look ready to move out. "Maybe we can bring you news of them when we complete our mission, if Luminosita is willing..."

[Drannin]

Argus sat down next to Lillith and Miguel, plate of food in front of him, and a very weary look on his face. "Never again will I leave that fuzzball unattended. NEVER."

Miguel glanced at Lillith. "What did he do? This time, I mean?"

Argus groaned. "Please don't ask. It took me most of the morning to erase the... details... and I had to talk the cleaning lady out of coming in until I was done. Finally wound up using Harker as a doorstop."

This was an unusual mental image. But Miguel had to know. "Um, when you say erase, wouldn't it have taken you a few seconds? With your abilities..."

Argus put a hand over his face. "Let's just say that Harker has a few tricks up is sleeve, presumably developed specifically for the task of aggravating me." Miguel noted that Harker was nowhere to be seen. He chose not to ask.

[Graybeard]

The girl didn't really have much more to say about Ramanzel; Sister Rose guessed that she'd been maybe seven or eight when "they" "brought" her from Ramanzel to here, and her view of the place was correspondingly limited. It sounded like a small town (which it was) dominated by the Millenarian church (which it was) with a populace generally unwilling to get very far away (which, given the reputation of nearby Lorenzel, made sense). Lucy Kankaniel might still be there; she might not. At least it was a possible contact.

Eventually Carly/W3 noticed that there were no more customers for breakfast, and said, "I've really enjoyed talking to you, Rose. But the breakfast line is closing, so it's time for me to go and tend our children."

Rose decided to risk a possibly sensitive question; the girl didn't look like she'd take umbrage at it, anyway. "How many of your husband's children are yours?"

Carly looked perplexed. "All of them."

I should have expected that. "Sorry, I asked the wrong question. How many of them did you yourself give birth to?"

"One," Carly answered with pride. "He's a year old now. My husband and I are ready to make another one."

"Well, I hope your ... efforts ... are blessed with success," Rose said half-heartedly. "I'll let you go, but my friends and I need to go into town for some errands. Once you've tended your children, would it be possible for you to come along and guide us?" She had a pretty good idea what was coming, but it had to be tried.

The girl's expression changed to one of surprise. "Oh, no, I can't do that," she said. "I'd need to get my husband's permission first, and he's off on a mission. Does your husband permit you to go into town ... like that?"

Yep, just what I was expecting ... kick in the memories included. "My husband died a few years ago."

The girl's expression changed again, to one of pure pity; she wasn't exactly hard to read. "Oh, you poor thing ... I'm so sorry. And he didn't even have a brother to take care of you, I bet. I feel so bad for you. I --"

She didn't get to finish her thought (such as it was), as another young woman swept into the room in the wake of the departing, marching diners. Actually, "swept" didn't exactly fit; "bounced" was more like it, because the girl, whom Rose judged to be Carly's own age, was in an advanced state of pregnancy. (With a blond, blue-eyed baby, Rose was confident.) "Oh, Carly!" the mother-to-be gushed. "The most amazing news! Rumor has it that the town is being visited by -- an elf!"

Carly gaped in astonished pleasure, while Rose's thoughts were quite different. I have to tell Lillith, Sasha and Cit about this...

[Sareth]

"Let's just say that Harker has a few tricks up is sleeve, presumably developed specifically for the task of aggravating me."

"I have never understood the Tsuirakuan fascination with creating those things," Lillith commented between nibbling on slices of apple. "They always sounded simply awful to me when I was growing up. Now, having met one, I have become even more convinced they really are a blight." She shrugged. "Why can't people just trust Nature to do well enough on her own? What will come next? Modifying people?"

[Graybeard]

"You do wonder," Brother Miguel said, eyeing the last group of soldiers as they marched out of the dining hall. "The Church has a strict prohibition against doing anything 'unnatural and permanent' with a human being. That phrasing is intended to allow the casting of Healing spells and such, but not changes to the basic way we are. By the way, that's one reason why Sister Rose has joined us on this mission. Our own Reformed church has no problems with her polymorph magic, but certain of the more conservative branches, including the one the Cardinal Inquisitor comes from, may not be as ... tolerant." He glanced over to where Rose was finishing up with Wife Number Three and a heavily gravid young woman who had that same blond, blue-eyed look as most everyone else around the castle.

As Rose rejoined them, Miguel continued, "The Farrelites don't have the resources for that kind of tampering with human beings. The Tsuirakuans might, but as far as we can tell, they draw the line at familiars. The Northern Confederacy, now ... one hears all sorts of strange stories, but I personally put them in the same category as underground, light-fearing races that have a communal intelligence. Hearing stories doesn't make them real."

Rose interrupted with uncharacteristic bluntness. "We need to talk. Has anyone seen Sasha or Cit recently? This concerns them too. Lillith, you may be in danger here..."

[Sareth]

"Well, of course I am," Lillith shot back. "I'm apostate, surrounded by..."

The look on Sister Rose's face sank in, and Lillith sputtered out. This wasn't about some minor religious disagreement, and the clear concern Sister Rose was showing made Lillith feel about six inches tall.

"Cit went into town. I don't know about Sasha."

[Graybeard]

The dining hall was almost empty now, and the voyagers moved to a quiet corner, where they could keep their voices low, for what promised to be a rather tense discussion.

"Lillith, I'm actually more worried about Sasha than you and Cit," Sister Rose said. She passed on what she'd overheard at the breakfast line. "I don't know whether there's anything to it, but it wouldn't be a good idea to take chances. You and Cit are used to keeping a low profile to deal with threats like this, but Sasha ..." She let her voice trail off.

"We can't wait to see whether the rumor is true. We have to find them, and fast," Brother Miguel said, grasping the gravity of the situation. "I think we have two choices once we do find them. Either we get out of town now, or try to stay within the castle walls as long as we can and wait this elf out. Surely he can't have shown up specifically to hunt down one of you three; we haven't been in town that long. So he's either got some other half elf on his mind or he's just passing through. Either way, if we just avoid calling attention to the half elves among us for long enough, the danger should pass -- at least to you and Sasha and Cit." He didn't want to think about the other half elf in town, if there was one.

"Do you see anyone watching us?" Rose asked. Getting negative answers from the others, she said, "Good. Excuse me for a minute." Her eyes glowed, and after the usual blurring, her nun's robe was replaced by the uniform of a major in the Veracian military reserve -- which, of course, she was. "I want to get a parrot off to Bernie and see if he can make arrangements for us to stay here. And while I'm at it, there's a question I want to ask him." The elf isn't the scariest thing about this place, frankly, although I'm not going to tell Miguel that. "This should at least give me credentials to get to the wagon. Back soon." Without waiting for a reply, she left the hall, leaving the others alone with their thoughts.

[Drannin]

Argus sat quietly, his hunger forgotten. For a time, he wondered how to deal with this situation. Unlikely that the elf was looking for them, indeed. But he didn`t like the thought of elves just randomly hunting down their own get and killing them. Argus still didn't know what that was about. All he knew was that the thought of killing one's own children filled him with such rage...

"Rose is right," he said quietly. "Our best bet is to hide out here for the time being, wait for this elf to leave. We take careful note of where he's going... and go somewhere else. No need to trouble what doesn't need to be troubles." His voice was a little tight. "Though I really don't envy whatever half-elf this one is looking for."

[Graybeard]

It was only about fifteen minutes later when Sister Rose returned, back in her usual nun's guise, but not looking very happy. "I launched the parrot," she said, "but I'm not optimistic. I stopped by the quartermaster's on the way back, to inquire about the possibility of staying at least another night or two, and the reception I got was ... not warm. At the very least, it'll take a direct order from someone above Bernie to find room for us, and even then I'm not sure he'll obey it. Let's go shopping."

"Huh?" all of the listeners said at once, jarred by the non sequitur. Rose explained, "It'll take a couple of hours for the bird to get to base and then get a message back here. During that time, we don't have much else to do, and we do need to get Argus his supplies for the improvised comm system, among other things. I think we should be ready to move out immediately if we can't stay here, so time's a-wasting. Plus, we need to find Sasha and Cit."

"I take your point," Brother Miguel said. "Let's go get packed up for a quick departure, then do our chores." A few minutes later, the travelers were in their rooms, getting ready to go. Sasha and Cit still weren't accounted for, so Miguel decided to try their rooms. Repeated knocks on Sasha's door got no response; where had the woman gone?

At Cit's door, however, the situation was different. He could hear movement inside, and when he knocked, there was a distinct scuffling of feet, but still no answer. He knocked again, called, "Cit! We need to get ready to move out. This is important! Get your bags --"

The door opened, interrupting him, and surprising him greatly in the bargain. The occupant of the room wasn't the tall man who'd been traveling with them since Dead Man's Hill, but rather an emaciated-looking woman -- with half elf's ears. She was pointing to her mouth, shaking her head vigorously, and making inarticulate sounds. Cit was nowhere to be seen.

Well, now I know what that ranger is in town for, Miguel thought...

[Sareth]

This is a nightmare. One of those bastards, here. And there's three of us. Three of us! What are the odds? Cit seems... off. Maybe he did something and was tracked coming this way. Or maybe it was Sasha. She's an errant. She's clearly gone off. Maybe she was lying when she was said that she'd never known... Maybe she was able to get around the truth spell.

Lillith carefully packed everything in her bag then stepped out into the hallway, the pack hanging off her shoulder. She looked up and down the hallway, then saw Sister Rose.

"Is this such a good idea?" she asked. "If we go out there, Sasha, Cit, and I... in public..." She shook her head. "Someone will make a mistake. Someone will reveal herself. And then..." She turned a pleading look of Sister Rose. "I can't fight an elf. I wouldn't even know how to start."