Gervasiel

[Caoimhe Faelan]

Suriah blinked. "I've lived here as long as I can remember, t'be truthful. Been passed around from family to family until they figured I was old enough to run out - didn't work too well." Unblinking, she watched the elf, awe plain on her child-like face. "I've always been uncanny good with animals, horses in particular. Since I grew up knowing how to handle just about any animal, as long as I could earn my keep, they let me stay." She shrugged. "Never known anything else."

[Drusia]

Suriah blinked. "I've lived here as long as I can remember, t'be truthful. Been passed around from family to family until they figured I was old enough to run out - didn't work too well." Unblinking, she watched the elf, awe plain on her child-like face. "I've always been uncanny good with animals, horses in particular. Since I grew up knowing how to handle just about any animal, as long as I could earn my keep, they let me stay." She shrugged. "Never known anything else."

I raise my eyebrows, surprised. "Really," I say, not doubting her so much as the universe. How incredibly unlikely is this? But, then again, the Errant sweeps aren't exactly foolproof. I change mind about my next question, transitioning smoothly into a simpler tactic. "So you don't know who your parents were? It's unusual to find a half-elf living among humans. Usually half-elves live in their own villages, or with a half-elven parent. It makes it easier, what with the different rates of aging and all. It must have been difficult for you."

I wonder if Suriah would be open to elocution lessons. Her speech is fetchingly rustic, but if she plans to live anywhere else (and I'm hoping to convince her to do just that) she'll want to sound a bit more refined.

-- Drusia

[Graybeard]

[OOC: OK, back, thanks for carrying on ... /OOC:]

Scurrying back into the inn, Sister Rose interrupted the conversation. "I'm worried about Kim. Argus, Drusia, could you come with me? We may need some spell power to open her door."

Lillith's initial reaction was nervous, of course, but as she thought about it, she wasn't really needed here. The spellcasters could surely handle whatever was going on upstairs. (Couldn't they?) The blast had happened on the opposite site of the building from Kim's room, and she surely couldn't have been hurt by it. (Could she?) And there were other things Lillith could help with instead. (Weren't there?) "I think I remember that poet's horse," she told Suriah. "I'm good with animals too. Can we go over to the stable and look at it?" And have a brief half-elf-to-half-elf conversation while we're at it...

[Caoimhe Faelan]

Suriah nodded. "Sure." She glanced at the retreating forms, worry creasing her brow. Then she shook her head to clear it, and headed for the stables, not looking to see if Lillith were following.

The stall next to the stallion held a raggedy animal, who's eyes glared hatred as the two women approached. "This is her. Don't try to touch her, she'll try to take your fingers off."

[OOC: I'm going to be gone until late Monday. >.< Sorry, guys./OCC]

[Porcelain Fish]

[OOC: Sorry for the lapse folks - I got back Monday, and then my internet died and I've only just gotten it back today. ANyway, before any more time is wasted- /OOC]

Maduin grimaced slightly as he unlocked the door, halfway expecting his room to be a shambles, his luggage and his bed aflame. To his private relief it wasn't.

That wasn't to say that it couldn't still happen however.

The disc was giving off steady jags of electricity now, curls of it buzzing across the gleaming surface. Maduin stepped inside, moved out of the way to let Argus enter, and closed the door behind them, shrouding the room in magic to prevent eavesdropping.

As though in reaction to his magic, the disk abruptly vibrated hard enough to make the nightstand shake, and then spun into the air with a sizzle.

Maduin watched with keen interest as the disk unfolded, expanding into a glimmering ring, sputtering arcs of electricity settling into a faint, steady azure glow. Light glimmered in the heart of that ring and then expanded, forming a second glistening band of feathery luminance that wavered around the young woman on the other side of it.

Outwardly, Fayna Cleiviein was the very model of self-possession, her large gray eyes keenly regarding her father and her childhood friend with an evenness that verged on dispassion. Her long, dark hair was a silky, shimmering waterfall down one shoulder, splashing across the gown of soft red and pale lavender that she wore, the breast embroidered with a stylized bird of paradise in golden thread. Two simple golden teardrops dangled from her ears, and her pale, glowing complexion was enhanced very simply and elegantly with the faintest hint of eyeshadow, her full lips glossy, and at the moment set in an even line.

To Maduin's eyes, that perfect composure indicated just how strongly this meeting was affecting her. He read the tension in the line of her neck, just a bit too perfectly straight for the young lady he knew, her posture carefully articulated with one leg crossed demurely over the other to indicate comfort, announcing instead to his knowing eyes that she was stiff as a board. He almost sighed as the moment stretched out in silence, neither father nor daughter speaking, both clearly at a loss for how to begin.

Maduin smiled, a subtle smile full of private laughter that told Fayna that he saw right through her. She blinked, and his smile widened ever so slightly as the corner of one eyebrow threatened to rise before she quickly mastered it, the flicker of irritation wiping away the uncertainty in her gaze as her pride rose to the occasion.

“Try not to look quite so smug, Maddy” she said dryly with a quirk of her lips before her gaze returned to her father's. “Papa, I'll get the most important things out of the way first. I'm marrying Jerecht in eighteen months. You will be here for the wedding, and for the birth of my first son, and our daughter two years after that, and the birth of every child afterward, and you will spend every other weekend with them at the least, more if necessary. This is not negotiable.”

She sat back in her chair, posture relaxing into a more comfortable one, fingers interlacing across her flat belly. “You'll be pleased to know that Professor Emeritus Mikago, who I'm sure you'll recall, has been indighted on charges of illegal smuggling and tax evasion, and has been dismissed from his position. Professor Siobhan Jensen has retired to her estate in the country for personal health reasons, and Ikanigi Rei has undergone a very thorough change of heart. Attitudes in Tsuiraku have begun to shift. I expect the calls for your return to Tsuiraku to begin around a month and a half before the wedding, which should give you plenty of time to get back here.”

[Graybeard]

[OOC: Oops, this and the previous crossed in posting. Minor retcon coming... and now accomplished. /OOC:]

"Oh, my," Lillith gasped as she looked at the horse. Its color looked exactly right to be the strange man's horse that they'd seen on the road, but that animal had been well-mannered, well-groomed, and generally, not what they were seeing now. What had happened to the poor thing?

"Let me see what I can do with her," she said, remembering the way she'd been able to calm the horses at Centoriel -- at least until that never-to-be-forgotten odor of burnt flesh wafted their way. (Well, it wasn't just the horses who'd reacted adversely to that.) Once again, she started by trying to compose her own thoughts and emotions, her own consciousness -- at least as tough a task here as it had been then, but there'd been plenty of violence in that encounter too.

Her calming manner seemed to work, remarkably enough. The wild-eyed mustang of moments before was settling down into a nervous, but no longer vicious, state. Lillith could almost see the transformation, and she could certainly sense it. And it wasn't just the horse. The spirits around the stable were becoming less agitated, more at ease again. Tranquility was slowly returning to this disordered place.

"Have you an apple, or a carrot?" she asked Suriah.

-----------

Sister Rose wished Argus had come with them on their quick upstairs errand, but Maduin had something on his mind. I bet I know what it is, too. Anyway, she and Drusia had managed to force Kim's door open ... and now they were looking at a room that very definitely was Kim-less.

At first Rose gaped at the emptiness of the room. Not only was the girl not there, nothing else that might have been associated with her was either -- but then, as she thought about it, she realized that the poor thing didn't have much of anything else to fill an inn room with. She'd moved into the room with literally the clothes on her back and nothing else. Well, except for one thing ...

A quick scan of the room revealed that she'd taken Harker's cat statue with her. Rose found that strangely gratifying.

It also revealed, on her bed, a piece of paper. Rose lifted it, looked it over, found a child-like scrawl, in large block letters, on one side.

I GOT TOO SCARED
I AM GOING HOME
I HOPE I SEE YOU ALL AGAIN
THANK YOU FOR BEING SO NICE TO ME
KIM

[Drannin]

Argus stood straight, the perfect model of courtly composure. Everything about him was perfectly put together, thanks to a last-second brushing-up by Maduin. But it wasn't just the look. It was the feel. Old modes of behavior came back to him, as though they had never left. His body stood proud and tall, his eyes intelligent and piercing, his shoulders broad and strong, ignoring all the aches that pained him as though insignificant. He was the very model of patrician prestige, the Argus Cleiviein that had compelled respect in so many, and crushed it into those in whom it was not forthcoming.

He saw through his sweet daughter in an instant. Just as she saw through him. The posture just too straight, the eyes too piercing, belying the tension and uncertainty beneath. Only those very close to them would ever be able to see past the sheer authority they wore like a robe.

And in that moment, Maduin truly understood just how much Fayna Cleiviein was her Father's daughter.

Argus nodded his approval. "All most welcome news, daughter," he intoned solemnly. "Allow me to respond to each statement in order. Firstly, congratulations on your engagement. I shall wish to meet this young man, but I have absolute confidence that if you selected him, he is eminently worthy of your hand. Of course, I shall be attending the wedding one way or the other, which goes without saying." The shared, and eerily similar, smirk and flash of the eyes showed just how determined both were to see that come to pass. "Likewise the births of your children. As is the duty of a grandfather, I shall be available at all times for them, barring unforeseeable circumstances." Fayna nodded her agreement, carrying on the show.

"Naturally, Papa," she said, some emotion just barely leaking beneath her composure. "I, of course, knew you would understand."

Argus scratched his chin thoughtfully. Is she pregnant right now? But questions could wait. This was a farce, but both of them were hell-bent on seeing it through to the end. "Concerning the annoyances... excellent. I never did trust Mikago, and Jensen was never... fit... for our society." Fayna snorted, showing her disdain for that cowardly bastard Jensen. "As for Rei... that is encouraging. Then you suspect that things will undergo a dramatic shift is less than a year and a half?"

"If that," Fayna asserted. "I have been very busy, Papa."

"So it would seem," Argus nodded, eyes locked with Fayna's. "I would expect no less. I am... very proud."

Fayna started to say something, but seemed to hesitate, suddenly at a loss for words. Sparing her the embarrassment, Argus plowed on. "I assume Maduin has been keeping you more or less abreast as to my own activities? Things have become... most intriguing around here, and ripe with possibilities."

Fayna nodded slowly. "So long as you are not unduly endangering yourself, Papa. I would be most upset if you were to... tamper with my long-term plans." The voice had the tiniest of quavers, her his shimmered with just the faintest uncertainty. The meaning spoke to Argus (and Maduin) louder than words ever could: Please be safe, Daddy!

And Argus had had enough of the show. Letting his true feelings show through to the beloved daughter he had thought forever lost to him, he spoke in a whisper full of emotion, love and sorrow:

"I've missed you so much."

[Graybeard]

[OOC: I wish I could just pull up a comfortable chair and a bag of popcorn and watch what's happening with Argus, Fayna and Maduin, because it's such fabulous stuff ... but there are things to be done while that all unfolds, so ...]

"It looks like she went right through the window," Sister Rose said with a bit of awe in her voice, not sure whether Drusia was listening or not. The glass had broken away cleanly, like one of those stage windows she'd seen in fanciful theatric productions. Things didn't usually work like that; running through a glass window or door was a great way to get enough lacerations to require medical attention right now.

As a matter of fact, there was something to worry about. As she looked at the broken glass, she could detect flecks of blood on two or three of the jagged pieces. Worse, as she peered out through the window, she could see more blood on the wall of the inn below the window, not a lot but enough to make it clear that Kim hadn't passed through the glass unscathed.

"I don't like this," Rose said to Drusia. "We'd better find her before she bleeds out." Her military time had ingrained the procedures for a Slow Fall spell into her reflexes, and after a quick move through the window (making sure not to contribute her own blood in the process), she stood at the ground level, following a thin trail of blood heading west.

[OOC: Paging Doctor Isaiah Hieronymus, stat! Got a patient inbound for you...]

[Drusia]

The lock isn't hard to pick; I have the room open in under a minute.

"It looks like she went right through the window," Sister Rose said with a bit of awe in her voice,

"I don't like this," Rose said to Drusia. "We'd better find her before she bleeds out."

I blink as Rose leaps out the window. I poke my head out, watching her drop, her fall magically slowed. Well. That's nifty. I get a good look at the ground and fold reality, appearing on the street below, just about the time Rose is landing. Really, it's too bad Rose isn't interested in a romantic relationship - we make a rather good team. Ah well.

I let Rose lead, as my skills are focused rather more on hiding blood trails than following them. The splatters have a remarkable distance between them, indicating that time magic is involved. I'm not exactly sure why Kim decided to pick a fight with a window, but maybe Rose has a better idea.

Were it not for the blood, I'd be wondering why we were bothering. Kim's note said she didn't want to be found. Personally, I'd rather be flirting with that pretty half-elf back at the stables. Although, since she was raised by humans, she might have some of their unfortunate, prudish tendencies. I suppose time will tell.

"Where do you think she's headed?" I ask Rose, refocusing on the search for Kim. Might as well get this over with.

-- Drusia

[OOC: I put a little retcon there at the beginning - Drusia isn't strong enough to force a door, but she's good at picking locks. ^^ ]

[Graybeard]

[OOC: No prob, I intended to allow for magical or other kinds of "forcing" ...]

"Where do you think she's headed?"

"Back over the mountains," Sister Rose said as she picked up her pace. "I'm worried that she's not going to make it there, though. The blood is getting heavier. The effort isn't letting it clot. This could be bad."

In fact, they only had to go a couple of blocks, not even to the edge of town, before finding Kim slumped against a wall, semi-conscious and still bleeding ... although from the color of her skin, there wasn't a lot of blood left in her to bleed out. Rose gasped and cast a quick Healing spell to try to stop the bleeding, but it might not be enough.

"We're going to need a healer or lifemage," she panted; she just didn't have the energy left for anything more comprehensive. "Have you seen any signs of ... Well, isn't that convenient!" She noticed the sign on the door next to where Kim had collapsed...

DR. ISAIAH HIERONYMUS, D.Thm.
GENERAL MEDICINE AND THAUMATIC HEALING
CLINIC OF THE MERCIFUL HANDS

The whole thing would have looked nearly ideal for the situation they'd just found themselves in ... if it hadn't been for the vulture that Rose noticed eyeing them from the window.