Lorenzel and Ramanzel

[Sareth]

Taking advantage of the distraction the green eyed man (Brad, she reminded herself) was providing, Lillith leaned over to Brother Miguel. "Are you sure that's a good idea?" she whispered to him. "You saw how the forest reacted to me. I mean, I could provoke just what you'd have me looking for, and I don't want to cause that to happen. Someone could get hurt because of me..." A ghost of her prior pain from the incident with the errant showed through.

[Porcelain Fish]

Maduin fought down the hot flash of jealousy that surged in him as those beautiful green eyes widened, turning away from him. It was an effort, but he kept his smile full and pleasant, his hazel eyes warm, his facial muscles relaxed, not giving away the slightest hint of what bubbled inside, swallowing down the shock bolt that wanted to erupt.

Aren't you glad you didn't settle for a lumberjack? whispered his sensible side triumphantly.
Lose the hat! Flash the hair! Bat the eyelashes! Give him the special smile! hissed his more excitable, less controlled side.
Shut up. His sensible side said flatly to his other side. Sit tight. Keep your cool. I can use this, it said confidently. He was eyeing me, not her. The next logical step is the introduction and then I really turn on the charm.

Maduin allowed his smile to warm just slightly, giving his chin just the right tilt to let the sunlight catch his curls at the best angle.

[Graybeard]

Squealing like a schoolgirl, Sister Rose ran straight for the green-eyed man. In a moment, they were locked in a hug that looked like it might last the rest of the day. In fact, however, it only lasted a few seconds before they pulled apart, and both said the same thing at the same time:

"So what is my favorite cousin doing in a place like this?"

Brother Miguel watched as the green-eyed pair hugged again and again, giggling like small children. And about time Rose got to feel that way, he thought; as far as friendships, not to mention other relationships, went, she'd had a pretty rough run of luck since ... well. He was grinning, Sasha was grinning, Argus was -- yes, you could call it grinning, even Elric, who'd been poker-faced at the start of the encounter (he should be, considering what the Truth spell is telling me, Miguel thought), had a big grin on his face.

But Lillith ... Miguel took the opportunity to move over to where she stood, still looking nervous. "Just smile and avoid Elric for a second," he whispered in her ear. "I'm pretty sure the business about the Kankaniel homestead isn't what he says it is." He let the grin return to his face (it was genuine enough; Rose and Brad seemed to have an inexhaustible reservoir of shared affection and stories to draw on), but his attention now was more drawn to Lillith, as he awaited her reply. And then he noticed Maduin...

[Porcelain Fish]

Maduin couldn't help it. At the word cousin, his smile had widened, turning satisfied, elation filling him at the realization that Sister Rose wasn't anything close to competition. He could bide his time and simply let things take their course.

He sat back, cool and collected as a chilled cucumber salad with a gourmet flower-patterned carrot garnish, utterly relaxed, glad he hadn't done anything flagrant to immediately get Brad's attention back. He would wait, bide his time, be charming and gracious and sunny and take things slowly. If the way Brad had been eyeing him before was any indication, the tall, handsome, dark-haired man would make the first move, and that was exactly the way Maduin liked it.

He caught Brother Miguel's gaze lingering on him and gave the good brother a wink and a warm grin. Not too warm with Brad standing right there of course.

[Sareth]

"I hope so," Lillith replied with a soft voice. "I think I've put people in enough danger."

She turned to watch the reunion of the two cousins. She smiled, but it was a shallow smile. She could tell everyone was happy to see it, and in truth, she was glad for Sister Rose. But it reminded her that she'd never had siblings or cousins. Just a mother, and children who always knew she was somewhat set apart. From the moment she first could hold a candle, she was a priestess in training.

How she wished she was home with the one person she'd always had.

Shaking it off, she tried to force the smile to be more genuine. Sister Rose was a kind, warm person. She deserved happiness, not envy.

[Graybeard]

"Seriously, what are you doing here?" Sister Rose asked her cousin. It had been enormous fun sharing recent adventures (to the extent that she could reveal them), catching up on family and friends, embarrassing each other with childhood stories, but she did have a job to do, after all.

Brad looked around, saw that nobody was watching except Rose's group. His voice dropped almost to a whisper. "Well, I'm really not supposed to tell anybody, but the Reformed church is thinking of opening a temple here. I'm supposed to be doing fact finding for that. I'm a little surprised you and your friends aren't in on the fact finding. Speaking of which, just what are you doing here?"

Rose's glow dimmed a minor notch as the business with Egbert came back to the surface, although she was still smiling. "Long story, but it's business of the mission. That's why we've picked up this set of curious characters. They're all good people even if they're not part of the Church." She gauged his reaction to this admission; even some Reformed priests didn't take well to foreigners. Brad didn't seem to have any problem with them, though; good, that was as expected -- and hoped. "Here, let me make some introductions."

[Drannin]

Rose gestured towards Argus first. "This is Dr. Cleiviein. He's been quite helpful to us." Argus gave a formal bow, at which Brad raised an eyebrow and nodded. Argus understood Rose's rather vague introduction. She wasn't too sure if she should mention 'Veracian Exile' yet, even to a family member. Fair enough. Let her test the waters until she was a bit more certain. It was nice to have a connection in town, though.

Actually, Argus couldn't help but feel a little jealous of Rose. He forced his eyes not to stray towards Lillith.

[Porcelain Fish]

"This is Maduin Lochlear, who has just recently joined us."

Maduin rose from his seat and stepped forward, deliberately taking his time, making it clear he wasn't in any kind of hurry. He let his expression bloom into a winning smile, looking down from the back of the wagon, exulting as he watched those beautiful green eyes drink in the sight of him, the heat that had sparked before in their depths rekindled once again. Maduin in turn, couldn't help but admire the broad shoulders, the chiseled cheekbones and strong jaw, the tall, muscular, trim lines of Brad's body not hidden at all beneath the simple yellow short-sleeved shirt and black trousers.

"It's a pleasure," he said simply, one eyebrow rising ever so slightly. He hadn't intended to step down from the wagon, but his foot caught on an uneven part of the bed and he tripped, losing his balance, almost doing a face plant off the wagon before a steadying arm caught him, helping to control his fall. The landing was still ungainly, but it was't nearly the disaster it could have been.

He smiled breathlessly up at Brad. "Thanks."

Brad nodded and released him. "No problem."

[Viking-Sensei]

Further back, they'd run too close to, and subsequently caught, one of the branches of the mysterious stinging trees in one of the wagon wheels. Sasha took advantage of the fact that the cart had finally stopped again to get out and see if she could remove it from the cart's wheels without stinging herself. Remembering that she still had one of the collapsable sets of legs from the time window, which could (in a pinch, be used as crude set of tongs), she opened her bag... and Compassion came flying out.

"You left me!" Compassion said, buzzing back and forth between Sasha and Lillith. "What about all the whole impending doom and destiny stuff I said? Did none of it sink in? You lot need me."

Sasha's device, unobserved back in the cart, momentarily flickered purple.

[Graybeard]

Brother Miguel had just introduced himself when a parrot appeared inbound from the northeast. Uh, oh, he thought; they had instructions to take MARIGOLD messages, related to this inexplicable mission they were about to be given, away from all of the foreigners, and there just wasn't a way to do that right now. Fortunately, the bird gave the (slightly) more pedestrian HENBANE code word, but Miguel still wasn't comfortable taking the message with Maduin close at hand. He excused himself and walked a short distance back up the road, and as soon as the parrot started to speak, he was glad for his caution.

(UNCLASSIFIED) There has been an important development that you should know about. Please treat the remainder of this message as NOFORN, for reasons that will be apparent shortly.

(LUMINOSITA'S SECRET) Reports reaching us from Farrel indicate that the archaic war golem that you saw at Centoriel has come ashore there. Worse, it passed close enough to centers of population that the Farrelites noticed it. (Admittedly, it's hard not to notice the damn thing.) An armed conflict ensued, during which the golem was destroyed before it did significant damage. Accounts of this conflict are so off-the-wall that we are as yet unable to determine what actually happened, but three key points are clear: the golem is now in the hands of the Farrelites, the Tsuirakuans helped in neutralizing it -- and it has been demonstrated that it came from Veracia.

(LUMINOSITA'S SECRET) Diplomatic efforts at damage control are under way. Patriarch Jeramel has dispatched a party to the scene to confer with Farrelian and Tsuirakuan emissaries. (Fortunately, the Cardinal Inquisitor pleaded "indisposition" and didn't join the party; who knows what further damage that bloody fool might have done.) The mission in Kiyoka is locked down and on alert for the moment. Sister Margaret says that a "carefully selected" group from the mission may travel to Farrel to support negotiations.

(SECRET) For the moment, no direct actions are required of you and Rose in response to this incident. However, it would be well to be cautious in your dealings with Tsuirakuans and Farrelites. In particular, we strongly recommend that you keep this Lochlear fellow at arm's length for now. You probably can't ditch him entirely, and in all likelihood, shouldn't, even if you can; doing so might be viewed as provocative, and the Patriarch wishes to avoid further international frictions. However, please do not give him this message, and be suitably vague about any questions he poses regarding events abroad, although you are free to describe the evangelical function of the Kiyokan mission at the Unclassified level. (Presumably the Tsuirakuans know all that stuff anyway.)

(SECRET) We are still attempting to authenticate the weird order mentioned in our previous message. Back to you as soon as we have something there. For the time being, keep a low profile, and please don't do anything to rile up the Tsuirakuans.

Bernie

Shaking his head, Miguel stashed the now-deceased parrot in a handy trash can (Ramanzel kept its streets clean, he had to admit) and headed back to the group, where Rose was looking at her cousin and Maduin, pure puzzlement etched into her face.