Stone Man Pass

[Graybeard]

"Of course," Sister Rose said. "What's the matter?"

[OOC: Sometimes brief is good ... ]

[Porcelain Fish]

Maduin thought for a moment as he sat across from her, composing his thoughts, trying to place them in some semblance of order. It was more difficult than it seemed. Thunder still rumbled in his memory, and he thought he might carry the sight of blood in the rain and those searing blue eyes until the day he died.

"Last night, one of the . . . the black-robed men. I'd met him before in Salticiel. His name was Thomas." Those gray eyes, filling up with death, appeared once more in his mind. He almost flinched. "Thomas was following us - I think he was in the same organization as Zeb, or at least a similar one. He moved exactly like Brad described. Like Kim does. He said he'd come to keep . . . us safe." Maduin stumbled over the last part of his sentence. "Apparently he'd discovered someone was tracking us. I have a feeling I might know who it was. And . . . I think he might be back."

I killed Thomas, was what he wanted to say. He's dead because of me, and I don't even have the courage to admit it.

He looked at Rose, watched for some change in her expression, something that might indicate what she was thinking.

[Graybeard]

There's something he's not telling me, Sister Rose deduced; she didn't need the Empathy spell for that. Well, there was no need for complete mind-to-mind openness here. Maduin was obviously distressed about something, and when he was ready to open up about it, he would. Besides, it's not as if I'm going to tell him everything right now either...

"That's important news," she said, stirring the last embers of the fire. "Drusia said there was another elf out there at one point last night. It wasn't the nasty half-elf hunter we ran into in Lorenzel, thank Luminosita, and she said it was no threat to us. I wonder how he or she -- Drusia didn't say -- relates to this person who you say was tracking us? This is all too complicated for me to figure out."

Maybe.

[OOC: Sorry for the break in posting, was out sick most of the weekend...]

[Porcelain Fish]

"And maybe I'm imagining things. It might be unrelated." But somehow I can't believe it is. "But if he's been following us since before Salticiel . . . to be honest, I think he followed us from Lorenzel. There was a . . . gentleman I briefly became acquainted with." Maduin shook his head. "I can't imagine that he'd go to such lengths as to hire an elf to pursue me over what was really a small disagreement."

Once again, he shaded the truth just a little bit. He could still feel strong arms embracing him, holding him close. He could still remember the delicious heat that had seared him, remember seeing it reflected in the eyes of John Wolf. He could hear the command in that deep voice, almost a growl.

He'd come so close to giving in.

He could just imagine that heat turning to something else altogether.

"His name was John Wolf, and he seemed to be a figure of significant financial stature. I don't think it's a stretch to say that however unlikely such a thing might be, that it's not beyond his means."

[Graybeard]

"John Wolf ..." Sister Rose echoed. "Have I heard that name before? I don't think so. Where did this -- 'disagreement' happen, and over what?"

Maduin didn't have time to answer, however, before Brad emerged from the tent; the campsite was beginning to wake up. Brad's open face bore a look of concern as he came over to the fire. "Rose, I don't like this place," he said. "For such a nice, peaceful little clearing, there has been a hell of a lot of death here -- excuse my language," he blushed. "Can we get packed up and get out of here?"

Rose cocked an eyebrow in Maduin's direction. "Sounds right to me ... unless you see a reason not to." There's something else bothering this man, and I wish I knew what it was ... but it's up to him to decide whether to reveal it.

[OOC: Sorry, a little weak, but I'm still a bit green. So have Argus, Lillith and Drusia been up to anything while this is going on? Haven't heard from you folks for a while.]

[Drannin]

(OOC: Sorry. Bit of writer's block here. Partially caused by manic work schedule of late...)

Argus stretched, groaning, still a little sore where Harker had decided to use him as a pillow. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Drusia starting to stir. Come to think of it, a head's up about Harker might be in order.

"Drusia, could I have a moment of your time in a bit?"

[Drusia]

"Drusia, could I have a moment of your time in a bit?"

"Of course," I reply.

-- Drusia

OOC: Crap! Sorry! I was out of town, but at a hotel that advertised its free Wifi. Well, when I got there, while I was able to connect to the Wifi, the Internet connection at the hotel was down or something, because I could only get a signal with "limited connectivity" that wouldn't even load the hotel's website. So, long story short, I haven't been able to get on the internet since Friday. Sorry for snafuing in the middle of a conversation (and without warning anyone) but I really expected to be able to carry on, business as usual, the whole time. **sigh**

[Porcelain Fish]

"Sounds right to me ... unless you see a reason not to."

Maduin shook his head. "I'd rather put this place behind us as quickly as possible," he said softly. "The sooner, the better."

[Sareth]

Lillith emerged from the tent. "Perhaps," she said, her eyes on Brad. "But if one must die, this isn't so bad a place for it. They've been watching over the dead for a very long time." Her eyes now shifted to Maduin. "They'll be able to watch over him and ease him into a place of peace until he is ready to return."

[OOC]Note to self. Next time I decide to do a 5 day long whirlwind tour of the Pacific Northwest that involves 2000 miles of driving in order to visit four cities, one conference, one shrine, one museum, and four relatives... take the easy way out and just purchase a .45. I'ma goin ta bed...[/OOC]

[Graybeard]

Interesting, Sister Rose thought as she listened to Lillith. Apparently the girl's belief system included reincarnation. That was the first she'd heard of that. If Miguel was here, he'd probably be able to draw some conclusions about where this particular cult had come from ...

... But really, would anybody be better off if he did? Rose had come to realize that not all of the religions that didn't recognize Luminosita were as nasty, as malevolent, as evil as the Albigensians or some of the other cults she'd been exposed to in the north -- not to mention the Malletarians, who did worship Luminosita ... but a very different Luminosita from the one that she and her fellow believers followed. No, perhaps there were some things just best left unexplored. Whatever the belief system was, it had produced at least one personally decent follower ... and she could work with that.

Well, this wasn't the time to worry about such things. She set to work breaking down the camp site, noting with surprise -- and more than a little gratification -- that the mysterious wild girl was doing her part to help. Kim still wasn't saying anything, but she was helping clean up the tent, roll up sleeping bags (Argus' and Drusia's in particular, as they seemed to have gone off to talk about something -- that too was good), clean the dishes from the sketchy breakfast. With her help, soon they'd be able to put this place behind them.

One unpleasant chore remained to be dealt with. Maduin had ordered the tall, robed man to take the body of "Thomas," whoever he was, away for burial. However, another body remained -- or at least most of one. "I hate to ask," Rose said to anyone who was listening, "but what are we going to do with the remains of the woman who was killed here?" She was expecting Lillith to make some similarly peaceful comment to what she'd said about Thomas' burial -- and was correspondingly unprepared when the first suggestion came from a very different direction.

"Burn it," Kim said, her expression a combination of revulsion and fear.