Salvus and homeward

[Drusia]

OOC: I'm still here - just been super busy. I spent the better part of this week putting the finishing touches on a project that's been going on for almost a year. It will hopefully end up being something of a big deal..

Anyway, I will reply here in the nearish future. Sorry for the delay.

[Graybeard]

[OOC: Sounds exciting! A book or something similar? Anyway, to give you a little more to work with when you're back able to think about this:]

"Banshee?" Therese echoed. "I thought they were --" She didn't finish the sentence, realizing that calling a wailing spirit "just a myth," as she'd been about to, might not go over well with someone who prayed to the spirits of rocks and trees. Besides, after all we've seen in the last few weeks, who am I to call anything a myth?

Shamhat didn't seem to notice the near-gaffe. "That's what we call it, anyway," she said. "We really don't know what kind of spirit it is. We just know that at night, it wails like its poor heart is about to break. Ever since it started, it has been upsetting the other spirits greatly." She paused to stroke a tree that had a sparkling blue ribbon tied around it, murmuring words that were in no language known to Therese but had an obvious consoling intent.

Therese waited until this bit of "comforting" was done, thinking I wonder if the townsfolk hear this wailing too, or whether it's just in the minds of these weird nature-priests -- no, that can't be it, Brad's still a Luminositan and he apparently hears it too. "How long has this been going on?" she asked once she had Shamhat's attention again.

"It started just after that strange Tsuirakuan girl came to town," Shamhat said. "The one doing what she called 'thaumatic research' or whatever that is. That was about three weeks ago."

"Hmmm ... that sounds like maybe the person we're looking for," Therese said neutrally. But she was thinking something else.

Not quite three weeks ago ... that was also just about the same time as we set off against the Convergence, and the same time as Amalric blew them, and himself, up. There couldn't be a connection... could there?

[Drusia]

"Banshee?" Therese echoed.
"That's what we call it, anyway," she said. "We really don't know what kind of spirit it is. We just know that at night, it wails like its poor heart is about to break. Ever since it started, it has been upsetting the other spirits greatly."
"How long has this been going on?" she asked once she had Shamhat's attention again.
"It started just after that strange Tsuirakuan girl came to town," Shamhat said. "The one doing what she called 'thaumatic research' or whatever that is. That was about three weeks ago."
"Hmmm ... that sounds like maybe the person we're looking for," Therese said neutrally.

I brighten at the mention of a female Tsuirakuan doing research - as Therese says, that sounds about right. I'm not sure what to make of this Banshee, however. I don't think Compassion would wail in the night like that.

"Something threatened us on the road on the way in," I say instead. "I didn't get much of a look at it -" an understatement - "but it was shouty and unhappy. Could that have been this Banshee?"

I should really ask about the Tsuirakuan girl, but I don't want to make it seem like we weren't out here to find Lillith since we already established that.

-- Desiree

[Graybeard]

Shamhat listened as Therese and Desiree described the encounter at the junction, puzzlement growing on her face. "Hmmm," she finally said. "That doesn't sound like any spirit I've talked with." (She "talks with" spirits, rather than just putting up baubles for them and mumbling prayers? Therese wondered, but she didn't press the point.) "And the spirits aren't shouty, and they don't threaten. They may tell you they're uncomfortable with something, or they wish somebody bad would go away, but threaten? No, that was no spirit of the land, although I'm sorry, I can't tell you what it was." She looked honestly apologetic about that last bit.

"So you don't think it was the banshee?" Therese asked.

"No. The wailing doesn't come from that direction."

Now we're getting somewhere, although I don't know why she didn't say that before. "Well then, where does it come from?"

Shamhat gestured off into the scraggly forest, where a rudimentary trail could be seen. "Somewhere over there, we think. Up above my daughter's grove. We haven't gone looking for it. It sounds ... disturbing." For the first time since Therese and Desiree had met her, the priestess frowned.

[Drusia]

"Well then, where does it come from?"
Shamhat gestured off into the scraggly forest, where a rudimentary trail could be seen. "Somewhere over there, we think. Up above my daughter's grove. We haven't gone looking for it. It sounds ... disturbing." For the first time since Therese and Desiree had met her, the priestess frowned.

"Does that trail lead to Lillith's grove?" I ask, nodding at the path she indicated. "We really would like to let her know we're here. And... well, I have no idea if we can help with this Banshee, or whatever the other thing we saw was, but we'll give whatever help we can."

Plus, I can ask Lillith about her opinion of this Tsuirakuan researcher and perhaps an introduction after dinner.

-- Desiree

[Graybeard]

"That way," Shamhat confirmed. "Take the right-hand fork at the tree with the columbine braid, and the spirits will guide you in after that. There's a cave-bear den beyond the left fork, with a singing stone to mark the hazard, but it shouldn't give you any trouble, being that it's not mainly a meat eater -- the bear, I mean." All of this was said as casually as though she was giving directions to an inn in town.

[Drusia]

"That way," Shamhat confirmed. "Take the right-hand fork at the tree with the columbine braid, and the spirits will guide you in after that. There's a cave-bear den beyond the left fork, with a singing stone to mark the hazard, but it shouldn't give you any trouble, being that it's not mainly a meat eater -- the bear, I mean." All of this was said as casually as though she was giving directions to an inn in town.

I nod. "Thank you. If you're in town later tonight, we'll see you again then." I give Shamhat a smile and a wave as Therese and I head off up the path.

I keep my eyes peeled for a columbine braid and try not to wonder too hard about the spirits guiding us in.

-- Desiree

[Graybeard]

Shamhat waved a cheery goodbye, and was already back at "work" decorating rocks and singing to trees by the time Therese and Desiree left the clearing,

They walked in silence for a few minutes, Therese trying to get a sense of the forest. Very different from home, she decided. It isn't just that it's much less dense, it's also much drier. If a fire ever started here, it could be very bad. I hope the "spirits" help keep the fire hazard down, whatever they are.

The path wasn't hard to follow, and although she had no idea what a "columbine braid" was, she reckoned she'd know it when she saw it. That, coupled with the isolation of the place and the emphasis on family goings-on, suggested to her that this might be a good time to raise a thing that Desiree had not been very forthcoming about when traveling with the group, and she thought she knew why.

"Can you tell me more about your family?" she said. "You said you had one human and one full elven parent, and I can see where you might have wanted to keep that all a little hidden from -- some of the others." She smiled. "But it's just the two of us now." The smile turned into a chuckle. "Two Against the Banshee. Sounds like a title for a bad play, or something."

[Drusia]

"Can you tell me more about your family?" she said. "You said you had one human and one full elven parent, and I can see where you might have wanted to keep that all a little hidden from -- some of the others." She smiled. "But it's just the two of us now." The smile turned into a chuckle. "Two Against the Banshee. Sounds like a title for a bad play, or something."

More like one against the Banshee. I doubt it will be distracted by festival tricks. Or maybe it could be two running away from the Banshee very fast.

Still, she's asked a fair question. I consider for a moment.

"I'm secretive about Snamish more than my family," I say at last. "It's just that, if you go back far enough, practically everyone in Snamish is my family. My extended family, anyway. As far as immediate family - well, you've met my mother. I also have a living brother. He's one of the oldest people in Snamish - he says he's a hundred, but either he's estimating or he's lost count cause he's been a hundred for at least ten years." I smile fondly, thinking about all the old stories he used to tell me when I was younger.

"... and that's it," I say, realizing I sort of trailed off there. "I've never met my father. My mother met him somewhere else, got knocked up, and then came home to have me. The same happened with almost all of my siblings before me - it's one of the ways my mother keeps Snamish from getting inbred. Which is important when everyone in town are cousins. Or, in my case, great great grand-nieces and nephews."

-- Desiree

OOC: I couldn't remember if I'd previously esablished Desiree's one living sibling. If so, I hope I kept that consistent.
Oh, and obviously Desiree has met her father, but I don't think she knows that (and if she does, I forgot).

[Graybeard]

Therese recoiled momentarily at Desiree's bluntness. "Knocked up." What a strange way to put one's own conception and birth, to a mother that one obviously loves... But I should know by now that family matters look -- different to those with some elven blood than to us humans. She had never considered, and would never consider, the possibility that her own unusual height and the sprig of silver hair in with the flowing flames of her scalp might imply that she, too, had a tiny bit of that elven blood.

"I guess I can understand that," she said as they passed a tree swathed in bands bearing brightly-colored pebbles. Wonder what kind of "spirit" lives in that one? I can actually sense a little magic there. But it's not the one we're looking for, and really none of our business. "Refuge-Nouveau has some -- similar issues. Women outnumber men there, but many are past their childbearing years, and many others have decided never to have children. I guess they all have different reasons." She shook her head. "Some don't think it would be consistent with doing what we do to save the women of Goriel, but that's mainly us in the Sisterhood, which isn't every woman in town. Others hate men." She shook her head again, and there was a wry smile on her face when she stopped. "In case there's any uncertainty, I don't hate men. I hate bad men, and men like Argus and Brad and even Tim aren't bad men. But some of the Sisterhood don't draw the distinction. And others... I don't know why. But anyway, fertility in town is low, and the newcomers from Goriel help with that."

The wry smile had disappeared by the time she opened her mouth again, and she squeezed Desiree's hand. "I, though ... I'd like to have children, I think. It's just that I don't know -- don't know how -- we --"

She didn't finish the sentence, however, as the trail was leading them to a tree bedecked by blue flowers; columbines, no doubt.

[OOC: Yes, Desiree has exactly one surviving half-sibling that we know of, grumpy old Marius back at Snamish.]