Gervasiel

[Drusia]

"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!"

Also noting the sign, I help Rose get Kim inside.

-- Drusia


OOC: Yeah, didn't really know what else to do with that. **shrug**

[Graybeard]

[OOC: Yeah, it's hard to move things along with so many people out for Memorial Day -- presumably. Thanks for edging forward, and to keep it happening:]

I hope we're not making a mistake here, Sister Rose thought as they brought Kim inside. She was pretty sure she'd heard of the "Merciful Hands" operation before, and they were definitely legitimate, if ... low-budget. The clinic looked about right for a healer as well, well-maintained, tidy, with various odd bits of both medical and magical gadgetry around, some of which she recognized.

But a vulture looking out the office window?! How much more menacing a sight could there possibly be in a medical office? She cringed at the possibilities. But then again, if this "Dr. Hieronymus" was really in the business of grave robbing (or ... worse ...), he surely wouldn't be leaving his "assistant" in plain sight like that, would he? Or maybe he didn't know the thing was there, but then, how could it have got into the office? Or ...

She was still sorting out the possibilities (more accurately, sorting out her fears) when a short , slender man emerged from a doorway, wearing a jacket with a red hand emblazoned on it (good; that was the emblem of the Merciful Hands, wasn't it?) ... and with the buzzard perched on his shoulder. Hell of a familiar for a lifemage, but everyone to their own tastes...

"Doctor Hieronymus? I'm Sister Rose of the Veracian Church, and we have an emergency here," Rose said, hoping she was doing the right thing.

[Graybeard]

[OOC: Folks, I'm not sure how to proceed here. We appear to have some people missing in action, maybe because of the long weekend, maybe not. One of them was going to be introducing the new "Dr. Hieronymus" character, which is what the bit with Kim was all about. Lacking him, and also with Maduin and Suriah apparently not back from the holiday, and with Sareth still out of contact so that Lillith is on "remote control," momentum is being lost. I'll try to move things without infringing too much on anyone else's prerogatives, but come on back, we need you! ]

Brad was getting restless. There'd been too much silence for too long ... and Lillith had been out of his sight for much too long, which is to say, perhaps as much as an hour. Maybe Maduin and Argus would know what was going on? He went upstairs and tapped gently on Maduin's door, not noticing for the moment that there was a whssh of magical privacy, nor the presence of Fayna's definitely non-Argus, non-Maduin voice.

"Argus? Maduin? It's Brad. I'm getting worried that I haven't heard from Lillith. Have you? And is everything okay in there with you?"

----------

Sister Rose permitted herself a distinct sigh of relief. The emergency medicine being applied to Kim seemed to be saving the day. [OOC: Kincaide, by all means expand on what this "emergency medicine" is, when you're back in touch. /OOC:] Color was returning to the girl's face, she was no longer trembling, her breathing was much more normal. She'll make it, Rose thought ... but then what?

"You're too weak to go back over the mountains now," she said. "Stay with us a little longer. Whatever happened with that explosion, it's done now." I hope. "You'll be safer with us." That, at least, is almost surely true ... which is not to say you'll be as safe as you wish you were. Well, you're not the only one in that situation.

Kim looked at the two women soundlessly, gulped, nodded ... and enveloped first Rose, then Drusia in feeble, tentative, yet heartfelt, hugs.

----------

Meanwhile, an unfamiliar man was approaching the stable, where Lillith and Suriah were still trying to calm the jittery horse that the late Porpington Bree had ridden into town.

[Drannin]

(OOC: Yeah, sorry about that... been waiting for Fish to further things along. If all else fails, I guess we could do it as a flashback...)

[Porcelain Fish]

[OOC: Alcohol, lake, beautiful weather, best friend since childhood and her husband and a pack of cute shirtless guys . . . yeah, I don't have an excuse, so I'll just say sorry. Anyway, ask (and wait a little bit longer than strictly should be necessary) and ye shall receive. /OOC]

Fayna's gray eyes turned dark, like stormclouds, and then the tears were gliding down her cheeks, glimmering in the light of the disk.

“I promised myself I wouldn't cry,” she said softly, glossy lips curving in a half-sad, half-rueful smile. “I swore I was going to see this through without shedding a single tear.” She sniffled, and with a flick of her fingers there was a soft pink handkerchief in one hand. She dabbed at her eyes, her makeup already starting to run. “Jerecht will laugh at me.”

She looked up, and though her smile remained, her lips trembled. “Oh Daddy, I've missed you too. More than I could ever say. More than I could ever . . . admit.” She cleared her throat, reclaiming her composure with an obvious effort. “Maddy, I assume you've heard about Haniko Goto?”

Maduin glanced up from his careful in-depth study of the tops of his shoes. Fayna had always hated for him to see her cry. “Shall I dispose of the Super Duper?”

Fayna shook her head. “It's going to come in handy. Keep it to hand and keep it closed. I've already hacked the line with a back door, but we'll leave it dormant for the time being. There's no sense letting her know we've got a handle on her until its too late for her to stop us from using it to throw her over a cliff.”

Maduin nodded, and raised an eyebrow. “Arsoro Kurou is in town. He could be useful.”

Fayna shook her head. “He could be useful, but he could also be dangerous. I'm not in a position to contend with him. Not . . . yet.” Abruptly she smiled, a touch of wicked humor in her expression, gray eyes dancing. “But if he happens to seek you out . . . Magpie.”

Maduin blinked, and then he let out a very slight sigh. “All right, Fayna,” he said after a moment.

It was her turn to let out a sigh, leg kicking out slightly. “You know, it's extremely inconvenient, not having you here. Jerecht says it's good for me, but . . .” She leaned forward, hair in one hand. “Maddy - just look at my hair. It's boring. Are you sure you won't reconsider? Arakani is so second-par when we go shopping. I haven't bought anything new since you left.”

“I'll hurry back,” Maduin promised, eyes dancing.

Fayna rolled her eyes and settled back into her seat, ladylike composure dissolving. “I've heard that before,” she muttered. She leaned forward again, resting her elbows on her knees, warmth lighting in her eyes once more as they settled on her father. “Daddy, take good care of my sweet Maddy please? I'd like him back in one piece.”

She closed her eyes, drew in a slow, deep breath, and locked gazes with Argus.

“I love you,” she said almost fiercely, throwing the words out, making them half a challenge.

[Drannin]

"I love you too, Fayie," Argus quietly said back, using the pet name for Fayna that had once driven her halfway up the wall. "The response was immediate. Fayna clamped her eyes closed and shook, countless emotions playing on her face. Finally she smiled and opened her eyes again, glistening with tears barely held back.

"You know," she said in a shaky voice, "I always hated you calling me that."

Argus grinned. "I know. That's the main reason I used it. Your reactions were nothing short of adorable." Little Fayna, eyes scrunched up and flapping her arms in dismay. 'Daddy, don't call me thaaaat!' "Your mother used to laugh her head off."

"Tell me about it," Fayna chuckled, shaking her head. "The worst part was when Addie heard you say it. All day long, it was, Fayie-this, and Fayie-that."

"Until you made him stop," Argus commented.

"He never said it again," Fayna agreed with a wicked smile. The two fell silent for a moment, remembering happier times. Their expressions grew sad as these memories inevitably led to the fact that two members of their family were gone forever. Unwilling to let the past drag her down, Fayna pressed on. "Daddy, what have you been doing since... that day?"

Argus closed his eyes. He didn't want to admit this. He didn't. But she had a right to know. She was his daughter. His heir. He opened his eyes. "I've been drunk, dear." He said simply.

Fayna just nodded, as though unsurprised. "Oh." She was silent for a moment. "I... guess I can't blame you."

Argus sighed, and let it all pour out. "When I was thrown out of the city, I hated almost everyone on it. I wanted more than anything to just yank it out of the sky and ram it into a mountain. I wish I could say that I've been working on a master plan for revenge since then. But..." Argus closed his eyes. "Your Mother... Addon... dead in a flash." Fayna made a sound almost like a whimper. "Everyone badgering me on to complete that damned TAP." Fayna not speaking to him, though he wouldn't bring that up. They had each grieved in their own way. "The project failing, and being dragged into a Kangaroo court for 'wasting resources.' All my former colleagues turning against me. Stripped of rank. Then the exile..."

"The things I said to you..." Fayna whispered.

Argus nodded, feeling an unfamiliar warmth trickle down his cheek. "I lost...everything. There was nothing left. Just a burning hate for Tsuirakushiti... but that wasn't enough to sustain me. I fell, Fayna. And I stayed in the gutter for years." He took a shuddering breath. "My family was lost to me. I just... didn't care about anything anymore. So I drank. And tried to forget." Tears. Those were tears on his face. He opened his eyes to see Fayna crying openly. "I got pulled out of it by some very good friends. And since then, I've been doing everything in my power to regain my self-respect." He smiled faintly. "I've made some progress."

The two fell silent again, minds churning. Argus wanted to apologize to his daughter for failing her, for failing even as a man when the going had gotten harsh, but unable to keep going without his family's love. Fayna wanted to apologize for denouncing him in her anguish, to tell him that she knew he had been drinking and just didn't care, it didn't matter, NONE of it was his fault. Who could be expected to keep standing after such horrible losses, one after another.

Both wanted to say all this to each other and didn't know how, or where to begin. So instead they spoke they words that lay deepest in their hearts, expressing all of their sorrow and regret and pain and desire for reconciliation in the purest way possible. It all boiled down to two words. And they spoke them as one, with all their souls:

"I'm sorry."

[Porcelain Fish]

Standing circumspectly to one side, Maduin quickly dabbed a tear from the corner of one eye.

He ached for Fayna. He always had. But it was strange now, to feel that ache greater than ever, in this moment that he knew had touched her so deeply, a moment that brought forth the tenderness that the outside world never saw past the charm (or the tough, ruthless fighter that lay beneath that charm) when he was so happy for her.

He'd never suffered the loss she had experienced, been raised in a happy home, never even lost a cousin or an uncle or even a grandparent. He bled inside for Fayna each time she was hurt, had been a shoulder for her to cry on more than once, had cried with her, had laughed with her, but he was only now realizing the true depths of her personal agony, an agony reflected in her father's eyes.

It was heartbreaking, and yet strangely beautiful, what was left of a broken family, come back together before all was lost, a love that had ebbed low but never truly died at last rekindled in a flame shared by these two terribly scarred, yet still fiercely loving people. Maduin felt almost ashamed to witness it, felt shallow and small in the shadow of their emotions, and yet, he was glad he'd seen it, had witnessed a love of this magnitude, a love that literally transcended the pain of death.

Argus and Fayna were still gathering themselves back together when there was a knock at the door.

Maduin's head came up. Fayna's gray eyes had narrowed, expression turned from tears to a terrible chill in a heartbeat. He didn't know what armaments the disk was equipped with, and didn't care to find out.

“This would probably be a good time to tell her about Lillith,” Maduin suggested quietly in Argus's ear, pausing as he headed past him for the door. “While she's still in a conciliatory mood.”

He knew that look. Right now, when she was emotionally vulnerable, was one of the worst possible times to interrupt. Argus would need to act fast if he wanted to catch her before her mood really did change.

Maduin opened the door just wide enough to let himself out, making sure that the visitor had no chance to look inside, and regarded Brad with an evaluating gaze.

“You,” he said with insincere joviality as he held index finger and thumb a hairsbreadth apart “came thiiis close to a very messy demise. Come along before the inn really does explode.”

Ordinarily he wouldn't have chanced leaving Fayna alone in that kind of state with a stranger, but if there was one thing that could handle an angry Cleiviein, he was sure it was another, (hopefully) wiser Cleiviein with a good head on his shoulders and powerful defensive magic.

[Graybeard]

“You came thiiis close to a very messy demise. Come along before the inn really does explode.”

"Wh-- what?" Brad sputtered, completely unaware of what he'd just interrupted. "I was just -- worried about Lillith. Is everything all right? What's going on? I don't understand." Well, the look on Maduin's face suggested that he wasn't going to understand any time soon, either ... but he let himself be led back downstairs, where it was safe.

----------

"Excuse me," the newcomer said politely to Suriah, as soon as she was able to turn her attention away from the skittish mare. "I would like to retrieve my horse." He indicated a stall in the middle of the stable that sheltered a rather nondescript riding animal.

Lillith turned away from Bree's horse as well, to look the man over. To be sure, he wasn't much to look at. He was shorter than average, quite unprepossessing, with a somewhat bland, squinty expression on his round face. He'd have passed unnoticed in a crowd, but for two things. First, there was something incongruous about his apparel. She couldn't put her finger on exactly what it was, but somehow, it didn't fit -- not that it was the wrong size or badly tailored or anything, but the combination of man, clothes and setting just wasn't right. Maybe the man was too citified for the work clothes he was wearing.

Second, he had an odd construct lodged behind his right ear. It wouldn't have been noticeable to the casual observer in a crowd, but he'd shown Lillith his profile while he was addressing Suriah, and she was observant enough to see it. It looked like some kind of jewelry, maybe an ornamental clip like she'd seen (and been amazed by -- they didn't do things like that back home...) on the proprietress of that jewelry shop back in Lorenzel where they'd met Drusia. However, the man definitely didn't look like the jewelry-wearing type. Besides, the gadget was lodged behind his ear. What was the point of wearing something ornamental in a place where it couldn't be seen? [OOC: Of course, it would never occur to Lillith to even imagine some of the usually hidden places where piercings might be applied in Tsuirakuan society... /OOC:]

She hadn't been paying close attention to what the rustic on the road down from Stone Man Pass had been saying about the stranger in town, being first too nervous about his bigotry, then too deeply amused when Maduin had laid it on thick. However, she remembered one phrase: "My mate be sayin' he got somethin' wrong with one of his ears, like there be magic to it or somethin'."

Could this be this Kurou man that my -- father didn't want to run into?

----------

"Are you feeling up to walking back to the inn?" Sister Rose asked Kim. "Please walk, don't run..."

[OOC: One more bit of temporizing in the hope that Dr. Hieronymus will appear, but we need to get on with this.]

[Drannin]

Argus sighed and turned back to Fayna.

"Who was that?" she asked, a note in her voice implying irritation and possibly extreme violence.

"Someone with a bad sense of timing," Argus said placatingly. "Never mind him."

Fayna muttered under her breath before dismissing the intruder from her mind. She turned back to her father. "So... um, what was it Maddy wanted you to tell me?" Argus winced at the question. He had wanted to wait until they had a face-to-face meeting to tell Hayna about Lillith, but the spirit of things indicated that he shouldn't keep anything from her. Hell, he didn't want to keep anything from her.

"Maduin suggested I tell you one thing, but I actually have three. I'll detail them in ascending order of shockingness." Fayna quirked an eyebrow, intrigued. "Firstly, Harker found me, and has been with me for a while now. He's taking good care of me."

Fayna's expression softened. "Is that so... I'm glad to hear that. Harker was always a perv, but I was never able to hate him. He always seemed to come through when it counted." Argus couldn't deny this. For all of his quirks, Harker was a steadfast, loyal friend. "I was relieved when he left to go look for you... I knew that if anyone could find you, it would be him." She looked away. "...Of course, at the time, I couldn't admit that to myself." Argus nodded sadly at this. No doubt it had taken Fayna some time to cool down and think things through. She truly was his daughter. "... Daddy, tell him I said hello, will you?"

Argus smiled softly. "Of course, dear." Then his smile faded. "Secondly, the failure of the TAP had a nasty side-effect you may not be aware of." Fayna looked up sharply at this. "I'm not sure how much you know about it, but when the animation runes overloaded and vented their magical energy, I was struggling to contain them with all of my will. Which, I fear, was insufficient. I received an extremely high dose of magical radiation, which I eventually discovered had triggered a progressive calcification effect in my shoulder."

Fayna's eyes bulged. "WHAT?!" Her vocal cords worked well, in any case. "That is completely unacceptable, Father! I just got you back, you're not turning into a statue on me! I want a father, not a lawn ornament." Technically, Argus was more worried about suffocating hen the calcification reached his lungs, but he decided not to bring that up.

"It will be difficult to treat, dear," Argus cautioned his daughter. "Treating calcification is tricky. You need someone, or a few someones, with extensive knowledge of biology, healing, and petrification-"

"Then I'll find them," Fayna said flatly. It was not a promise; it was a statement of intent. She started to say more, then stopped, looking at her father sharply. "Wait 'ascending order of shockingness.' 'Three things.' What could be worse than this?"

Argus took a deep breath. "When I was fourteen, dear, I got lost on a family vacation." Fayna stared blankly. "And I met a very nice girl who helped me get home... ah, after showing me some other things, let's say. Intimate things." Fayna turned bright red at his and shifted uncomfortably. Argus' fatherly side noted how adorable his strong daughter was when embarrassed. The rest of him was too mortified to really notice.

"Um... Daddy? I, uh, I realize that you had a few... relationships before mommy, and maybe in the last few years, you've, uh... I mean, I'm not sure how comfortable I am with the thought, but I realize that it may have happened, um... w-why exactly are you telling me this?" Poor Fayna was so flustered her face was practically growing red.

"Fayna, I'm telling you this because... a few weeks ago, for the first time in my life, I met your elder sister."

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Maduin and Brad were downstairs, when they heard a feminine yell from upstairs, somehow piercing magical shrouding through the sheer power of the shock of it's owner.

"I HAVE A WHAT?!?!"

[Porcelain Fish]

Maduin hesitated at the sound, waiting for the inn to turn into a swirling hell of destruction around them, shielding spell at the ready.

To his relief, the structure remained standing and undamaged, not so much as a single stray lightning bolt betraying itself. He let out a small sigh of relief and glanced at Brad, suddenly in a much better mood. "Lets go find your own- I mean, Lillith. I'm sure she's probably still out in the stables."

If Brad had had a tail, it would have wagged at the mention of Lillith, expression turning happy and calm as her name entered his ears, the idea of seeing her visibly settling him. Maduin didn't roll his eyes - it wouldn't be polite - but it was a near thing.