Lorenzel and Ramanzel

[Graybeard]

"This place is dangerous."

Sister Rose nodded. "I'd agree. On our side, Luminosita is concerned with what goes on in the minds and hearts of men and women. His, shall I say, sphere of influence in a setting like this is limited, although He does give us strength to draw on for our magic, whether in this setting or any other. All of which is a long way of saying that I'm not having much luck understanding what's going on here, but you're absolutely right: this place is dangerous."

They were cresting the low rise now, and a village lay before them, two or three miles in the distance, back down at the level of the plain. Bigger than I expected, Rose thought. Still not a city by any means, but there might be five hundred people there. If it really does change locations with the help of the forest, there's some serious effort involved.

"Does anybody want to do anything here before we head into town?" she asked, pausing the wagon.

[Porcelain Fish]

[OOC: To town! To town! /OOC]

[Sareth]

"Does anybody want to do anything here before we head into town?" she asked, pausing the wagon.

"I have a bad feeling about this," Lillith muttered. However, she spoke quietly enough it could have been politely ignored on the excuse it wasn't loud enough to be heard.

[Graybeard]

Looks normal enough, Sister Rose thought as she inched the wagon down the north side of the ridge. She was taking her own sweet time about it; on the south side, it had been a gentle rise, but the road over here was considerably steeper, and she didn't want the wagon to get out of control.

Remarkably, Ramanzel did look normal. The steepness of the road offered a good chance to look into the town from above, wherever the road turned in a switchback. (How had a sentient forest known to build switchbacks into a road? That was something to think about, on top of the question as to how it could move the town and all.) Houses lined a few streets radiating from a central square that probably held half a dozen shops along its sides. Two church steeples could be seen; one would be Orthodox and the other Millenarian, Rose guessed. She noticed that farms lay beyond the town, continuous with its northern edge. (Did the farms move with the town? Another thing to wonder about.) Smoke rising from a large structure on the eastern side of town suggested a sawmill, reasonably enough; there'd need to be one nearby for the logging operation.

All in all, the place didn't look as weird as its reputation, or as weird as what she'd been expecting given that it apparently could up and move around. Well, stories were exaggerated sometimes ... although not always. "Let's see if we can find Elric," she said to anyone who was listening, and continued driving the wagon gingerly down to the plain -- but then she noticed something, or more accurately the absence of something, among her listeners.

"Hey, has anybody seen Compassion lately?"

[Porcelain Fish]

Maduin glanced up from taking in the view. The place looked a little rustic, but at least it was the sort of rustic that might possibly have some quaint charm about it. He looked to Sister Rose, one eyebrow raised inquiringly, expression returned to its usual pleasant demeanor.

"I'm afraid we haven't been introduced. What does Compassion look like?"

[Drannin]

"A small fairy woman," Argus replied absently, ignoring Maduin's startled look. He looked around the town curiously. Admittedly, Argus was a little nonplussed. "Um... seems a little plain for an apparently motile town," he commented.

[Graybeard]

Brother Miguel, awake now, shrugged. "Well, I'm pretty sure she can take care of herself." Truthfully, he was just as happy not to have the inexplicable little sprite in sight. Something about her was ... uncomfortable.

They were coming into town now, and Miguel took a moment to put on his Truth spell before they linked up with Elric. He wouldn't be able to cast anything else while it was active, nor anything fancy for a while even if he dropped it, but it didn't seem like the kind of place where spellcasting was likely to be necessary. For all of its curious mobility, Ramanzel seemed like quite a normal sleepy, small town. A few people were outside doing their chores and watched the wagon rumbling along, but they all either ignored it or waved in a way that was polite but disinterested. Nobody seemed distressed that Sister Rose was at the reins. That was good; maybe these people would have fewer hangups than the rustics they'd encountered north of Lorenzel.

Elric was waiting in the central square. (Rose and Miguel noted that the two churches in town were Orthodox and Millenarian, as predicted; the Orthodox temple was the larger of the two, the Millenarian temple the better maintained and healthier looking.) "I see you found your way here without any trouble," he said. "Good; I'd worried about that."

I don't think "worried" is exactly what he means, Miguel thought, but he let it pass. "Yes, we met an odd fellow who told us how to get here," he said. "He seemed to be -- on good terms with the forest. Do you know him?"

"Abner," Elric confirmed. "He works at the sawmill. Kind of an odd occupation for someone who speaks to the trees, don't you think? But he says the forest, as a whole, doesn't mind logging. Keeps it healthy, he says. I wouldn't know. But he says that's what 'Woody' tells him. Strange; I always thought 'Woody' was a masculine name, but the forest is definitely a she."

And that's all that he finds "strange" about a living, empathizing forest? Rose thought, but she too let it pass. "Well, no need to prolong this too much," she said. "We should probably check in at one or both of the temples. We also should talk to your mother's people."

"You can do both of those at once," Elric interrupted. "My Uncle Absalon is the priest at the Millenarian temple." Rose wished she had her Empathy up, to try to see what was behind that neutral expression, but a sideways glance caught Miguel in a nod; at least Elric's statement was truthful. "We'd also like to go and see your father's ancestral grounds," she said.

There was a slight change in Elric's expression at this statement, and after a brief pause, he said, "Unfortunately, we won't be able to do that. The house burned to the ground several years ago. Not a trace remains."

Now Miguel's Truth spell didn't like that at all...

[OOC: incredibly delayed retcon to fix an inconsistency.]

[Porcelain Fish]

"A little fairy woman."

Maduin blinked. He didn't think Argus was joking. At least, not intentionally. He seemed to have a lot of similarities to his daughter, and Fayna's brand of humor tended to have . . . painful punch lines. Of course, in his experience the people who ended up being the butts of her "jokes" tended to really have it coming in the first place. Therefore, Argus had to be serious. Maduin shelved the thought for deeper contemplation at a later, less interesting time.

He enjoyed their gentle ride into town. Really, he thought, wagons were just such a nice way to get around. He gazed with interest at the gardens and the flowerbeds, smiled brightly and returned the waves of the townsfolk, and even spotted a few fabric patterns in some of the window curtains in the houses they passed that he thought were quite lovely. The whole place gave him a good feeling.

He tried to pay attention to what Elric and Rose and Miguel were saying, he really did, but his eyes caught on a tall, dark-haired, good-looking youg man around his own age across the way. The man gave him a slow smile that made his heart flutter, and his eyes were such an interesting shade of bright green . . .

[Graybeard]

Sister Rose caught the subtle signal from Brother Miguel, decided to press ahead. "Fire or no fire, we'd like to try," she told Elric. "The -- circumstance -- that ended your father's life was so unlike him that we are desperate for any clue as to why it happened. Seeing where he grew up could be very important."

"I just don't think you're going to find much there," Elric said stubbornly. "It's all overgrown now, probably not even safe to visit."

You know better than that, Miguel thought, but he decided to make one more attempt before playing the military card. "Don't worry, we can handle ourselves. We even have someone along who's expert at sensing the, shall I say, spirit of the undergrowth." He indicated Lillith. "Rose is right: it's very important. And we'll be okay, trust us."

Elric didn't look happy at all, but Rose decided there was an opening here. "If you're worried that we'll find something we shouldn't, don't worry about it," she said. "We're discreet in the way we poke around in things, and we respect the family, the town, you, too much to --" But suddenly she broke off as she noticed the man that Moduin was exchanging smiles with. The green eyes ... it can't be ... but it is! Her own eyes lit up with startled pleasure and her face filled to overflowing with a smile, as she turned to the newcomer. "Brad?"

"...Rose?"

[Drannin]

Argus' head whipped around at the sudden exchange. ...Ghuh? She knew that man? And why was Maduin looking at this 'Brad' that way?

....

Oh.

Well, so much for ONE theory about him and Fayna.