Lorenzel, Part 2

[Drusia]

"By the way, what do you think of curls, Drusia?"

I smile. "I think they'd look nice on Lillith," I reply. Curls don't conceal well, and they make it harder to change my hair color with an illusion.

"Curls?" Lillith asks, surprised and confused. She's so sweet. Innocent. Where the hell did she come from?

Rose returns from her parrot.

"<Did you get a chance to bring Argus into the picture while I was occupied?>"

I continue to admire Lillith's nails.

<"I haven't really had the chance,"> I reply. <"He isn't very talkative, and we really haven't been introduced. Besides, I'd rather not try contacting him with everyone else around. I'm not entirely sure how he'll react."> Then again, I wasn't sure how Rose would react either, but she seemed... stable. All that military training, although I didn't know that at the time.

"Your hair is very pretty," I say aloud to Lillith, "You should let Maudin show you how to take care of it properly. With or without curls."

-- Drusia

[Drannin]

Argus watched Lillith discreetly, despite himself. He was seeing the resemblance to Fayna, around the eyes... and around the hands, actually, which was maybe why Maduin was absessing over them. He vaguely wondered what the somewhat enigmatic young man made of all this. Come to think of it, he should talk with Maduin about how to break the news to Fayna...

Was he starting to trust Maduin? Huh... Though he had to admit, the charming young fellow certainly SEEMED trustworthy.

Argus shook it off, and looked over at Rose, who was acting rather secretive lately. Probably with good reason; Argus realized that he had been privy to a bit more secret information than she had probably been comfortable with. He also noticed that she was looking in his direction with a somewhat concerned expression. What was that all about?

(OOC: Sorry. Writer's block. This is mainly an 'I'm still here' post)

[Graybeard]

[OOC:

(OOC: Sorry. Writer's block. This is mainly an 'I'm still here' post)

I hear and obey. ]

<"He isn't very talkative, and we really haven't been introduced. Besides, I'd rather not try contacting him with everyone else around. I'm not entirely sure how he'll react.">

"<I think it's time to take the bull by the horns,>" Sister Rose thought back. She slowed the wagon momentarily to permit movement. "Argus, could you join Drusia and me up here for a moment? There's something we need to discuss..."

[Drannin]

Argus jumped and looked up at Rose. She seemed at ease around Drusia... was the elf not a threat...? With a shrug, he moved up to the front of the wagon, squeezing in between Rose and Drusia.

"So, what is it?"

I bet I could stab her with the wagon's wood before she had time to react...

[Drusia]

"So, what is it?"

"Just wanted to introduce myself properly," I reply. I turn to meet his gaze.

<"Try not to act startled,"> I think to Argus. <"Rose asked me to bring you in. I'm not entirely sure you'll be able to reply this way - Rose had a little previous experience with telepathy - but I can at least fill you in on the situation.">

"So, yeah, hi," I say, smiling at him. I hold out my hand to shake his.

<"Please do something to acknowledge that you 'heard' me alright and that you're willing to listen,"> I add. If he can respond mentally like Rose does, great. If not, I need to know he can hear me. And that he's not going to do anything we're all going to regret.

-- Drusia

[Graybeard]

Sister Rose watched the interaction out of the corner of her eye. The stop-and-go pace of Drusia's spoken speech made it clear that there was mind-speech going on as well, but Rose couldn't "hear" it. That was probably good. One would think that an elf would be able to control such things (unlike, say, Brother Bartholomew) so that the direct mind-to-mind communication would be private. That privacy would be necessary to avoid spooking Lillith, which would be almost as bad as letting that other elf know what was going on.

But how about Argus? Would he be able to hear the mind-talk at all? His face wasn't revealing much, but the high-powered Tsuirakuan mages (and he'd given plenty of indications that he was high-powered) surely knew how to do that little trick -- didn't they? If he was making it a two-way communication, Rose's inability to pick anything up from it meant that that was private too; also good. Momentarily she worried that her own mental reply to Drusia hadn't been as well guarded ... but on the other hand, if she'd "broadcast" that moment involving Bartholomew, the occupants of the wagon would all be fleeing in terror, so she must not have.

Well, things seem to be going about as well as they could, under the circumstances, she thought to herself as the wagon reached an intersection. The road to the left had a sign indicating that it ran to "Cartish," a village she remembered from the diversionary map session with Drusia. It had looked like a place they might visit to throw the elf off their trail. She turned the wagon onto the side road, but as she did, she again thought to herself: It seems like I've heard of that place somewhere before...

[Drannin]

Argus quickly suppressed a wince as the mental spike went into his head. Ouch.

With no sign of outward discomfort, Argus shook Drusia's hand. "Argus Cleiviein. The pleasure is all mine." He put on a warm smile, and made some mental adjustments.

<"One moment, please. I haven't done this in a long time.>" A few shifts in cognitive pattern... slide in the buffer field... no, not like that... there. <"Okay. I should be able to communicate with you comfortably. Can you hear me?">

Mind-speech was pretty rare on the great floating city, but the august and powerful (which Argus had once been) liked to be able to communicate with total privacy. Argus hadn't been an expert at it, but he could certainly send and receive messaged as long as there was a strong enough mana link. And the slight flicker in Drusia's expression told him he was being received.

[Graybeard]

Sister Rose listened with half an ear as Drusia and Argus "talked." She recognized the odd, jerky pace of the audible conversation as cover for something that was going on mind-to-mind. Good; that meant that Argus did have the ability to communicate with telepathy. (She'd certainly expected that he would, given the reputation that Tsuirakuan archmages had, but you could never be sure with magic.)

A village lay no more than two miles down the road, and Drusia and Argus were still "talking," and Maduin still doing Lillith's makeover (which had Brad's full attention as well), as the wagon reached its outskirts. It looked like quite a tidy, healthy little place, Rose thought. Many of these little wide spots in the road looked like they were about to disintegrate back into the dust they'd been built on, and in some cases, from. This one seemed to be doing considerably better than most. There was a small, clean, well-kept park on the edge of town, and on impulse, she steered the wagon toward it; it'd be a nice place for a quick lunch, and besides, it offered open vistas to keep an eye on possible pursuers, none of which seemed to be out there. There was a granite stele at the park's center, with some kind of inscription on it. Lacking much better to do until the conversation and makeover were complete, Rose got out and glanced at the inscription.

IN MEMORY OF BROTHER CARTER, PRIEST OF OUR LORD LUMINOSITA
A child of this village, he gave his life in Our Lord's service, bringing His Word to the heathens
Pause, traveler, and pray for his soul

Brother Carter... "Hey," Rose said to no one in particular, "wasn't Brother Carter one of the missionaries that Ranulph told us about? One of the ones who helped save Miguel?" And the one who died after babbling about a death god? she thought, but did not say.

[Drusia]

<"One moment, please. I haven't done this in a long time. Okay. I should be able to communicate with you comfortably. Can you hear me?">

Well that's a surprise. Rose adapted quickly enough, but I didn't expect someone with previous experience in telepathic communication.

<"Yes, I can. Good. This will make things simpler."> I reply.

"Argus. Pleased to meet you," I continue aloud. "So, Argus, what do you do to keep yourself busy. You're not a member of Luminosa's priesthood like Rose, are you?" Obviously not, but it'll give us something to talk about while we talk.

<"Long story short,"> I tell him, <"The other elf you spotted arrived in Lorenzel looking for an Errant and Lillith. After I stumbled onto Lillith, she ceeded her to me, but she expects me to kill her. However, since Lillith is not a mentally derranged cerial killer, I see no reason to do her harm. The other elf disagrees, and her disagreement is generally unpleasant in the extreme - she once burned a human town to the ground, slaughtering dozens of humans, to get to a half-elf. If she doesn't believe I've killed Lillith, then she'll come do the job herself, and probably kill all of you as well.">

Before he can react, I press on. <"I don't intend to let that happen. However, I'm not what you'd call a combat expert. And, besides, I have some moral issues with murdering one of my own people, even if we disagree on what constitutes mass-murder. So what I proposed to Rose was that we fake Lillith's death. If she thinks I've done the job, she won't have any reason to stick her nose in."> There. Suscinct and to the point.

-- Drusia

[Drannin]

Argus looked at Drusia levelly, keeping a pleasant expression fixed on his face. Well. There's Harker's story verified. Still, this elf was being quite forthright. If she had wanted to kill Lillith, she probably would have done so already and been gone. Furthermore, Rose's summons indicated that the two of them had been communicating telepathically for some time. So Rose trusted her, at least to a degree. Argus was inclined to trust Rose's opinion of people.

"I'm something of a wanderer," Argus said to Drusia's verbal question. "Traveling around, making ends meet as best I can." Yes, that sounded so much better than 'drunken hobo.' Mentally, Argus went on:

<"I thank you for your honesty, Miss Drusia. Allow me to be equally candid. Lillith is my daughter."> Argus blinked. It had come more easily this time. <"It is a recent discovery, but she is one of my own, and her safety is my top priority."> The words rang true to Argus, coming from deep within him. They may not have a real relationship... but dammit, he was going to be as good a father as he possibly could be, even if that only meant protecting her from elves! <"With this in mind, please tell me what you have in mind. Do you have a plan to convincingly fake her death so that this other elf learns of it?">