The road to Snamish

[Drannin]

Argus cocked an eyebrow as Rose finished her description. "I suppose one might call it overkill, but anything less would have been dangerous. I myself am inclined to tread carefully around people who can literally kill you with a dirty look."

He was trying very hard not to think about a small child with a similar power. Or the possibility that Wilbur Hamael had colleagues.

[Graybeard]

[OOC: Truthfully, I'm not sure what to do here until the half elves start interacting again out on the square. Where did everybody go? To keep things going at least slightly:]

Argus wasn't the only one worrying about whether Wilbur Hamael had friends. "I'm wondering whether it would be a good idea to temporarily add some forces to the gates and checkpoints," Sister Rose ventured. "I'm really not sure it would. That guy was so beat-up when we saw him that it would suggest his trip here wasn't planned. There wasn't a scrap of food in the balloon, quite the contrary, he'd at least tried to get at anything that might possibly have a little nutritional content to it." She described the cracked-open bones.

Benedict shuddered visibly, which gave Rose a certain shock herself; it took a lot to get that kind of reaction out of this man. Then he reached a decision. "I take your point. Well, I'd like Drusia to have the final word, when we find her, but I think you've convinced me that this was an outlier, an anomalous event rather than a planned incursion into our space. Let's just keep our eyes open but proceed with the routine. The townspeople would be upset if we pulled people away from the festival to deal with a threat that isn't there. I mean, another balloon seems unlikely under the circumstances, and our ground defenses are just as good as ever -- aren't they?"

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The scruffy man traveled on through the night. The mountains on the distant horizon to the east were looming larger, although he was still too far from them, and the moonlight not strong enough, for him to see any details.

Wouldn't it be just my luck, he thought, if the balloon crashed in those damn things? They're right downwind from where he was last seen, after all. Well, I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

[Jack Rothwell]

"The townspeople would be upset if we pulled people away from the festival to deal with a threat that isn't there. I mean, another balloon seems unlikely under the circumstances, and our ground defenses are just as good as ever -- aren't they?"

"As strong as they can be, sir." Eli interjected. "The assailant on Bishop's cap may have had power but he died easily enough. With enough eyes pointed in enough directions I doubt we'd be caught unawares."

[Graybeard]

Benedict nodded. "Good enough for me. Very well, let's all go enjoy the end of the festival. Our guests are welcome to spend the night here when you tire of the celebrating." He stood up, but before the room cleared, paused to corner one particular member of the dinner party.

"Alia, before you go, please remain behind for a brief word." The look on his face left very little doubt what that "brief word" was going to be about.

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

"I hope we're doing the right thing," Sister Rose mused as she joined Argus on the way to the square. "I didn't want to tell him about all of the other people we've dealt with in the last couple of weeks who've had the same kind of instant-death feel to them." She sighed. "Frankly, I'm getting tired of all the damn death that has been surrounding me for the last few weeks. I'd hoped never to have to deal with that again after I went off active duty. I mean, sure, comforting the bereaved is one of those things we do in the church. But it's not like those people are dropping dead just because I'm around them."

She paused to think about what she'd just said. "Argus, these people aren't dying, or killing, just because I'm around, are they? Please tell me I don't have anything to do with all the death we've been seeing ... because honestly, I'm beginning to wonder."

[Drannin]

Argus sighed. "Rose. Keep in mind my history. How experimentation went wrong effectively destroyed my life. I've been on this journey as long as you have. Are you going to blame me for being the death-magnet?" Rose looked shocked at the suggestion. "I hope not. Because...well... you're not the only one who's had that worry about themself."

He laughed suddenly. "Weave... maybe being surrounded by all this death has had an effect on us. In the middle of a joyous festival, and we're still gloomy as this?" He glanced over at some movement, then coughed. "Although... this festival is a tad... ah... TOO joyous for my comfort zone."

[Drusia]

Lillith, Brad, Desiree, Maduin and Bryce, and Claire and her beau went back out to the square, where the festival still seemed to be going strong,

Desiree brightened once they were away from the dinner party. That was tense - she preferred more relaxed situations.

Food and games were plentiful, as were couples and triples cuddling, necking, or murmuring in the shadows behind vender stalls and in dark alleys. Music floated up from the lakeside.

"So," Desiree asked, "What would you all like to do? Do you like games of skill or chance? Or would you rather dance or tryst? It sounds like the festival music has started up by the lake, and that's where most of the people our age are. I mean, our comparative age," she added, glancing at Brad, Maudin, and Bryce.

Claire scrunched up her nose. "The games are lame. Let's go dancing," she said, tugging on her lover's arm. She paused, smiling at Maudin and Bryce. "You guys look like you're up for some fun. The view by the lake is wonderful."

Desiree was about to suggest they all go when she remembered the time. "Oh," she said, looking abashed, "I need to get to the temple for the end of the ceremony." She glanced over at Lillith. "Did you want to see? Um..." her eyes flicked to Brad, and then back. "It might be a little... graphic for Veracian taste. See, since I opened the ceremony, I need to fulfill the spiritual joining with a priest of Senilis." In the square where she danced, before any onlookers who cared to watch.

"If you don't want to see the ceremony, then I'm sure Claire would be more than willing to take you down to the shore," I added politely, giving Claire a look. She got the message a nodded politely, waiting for Brad and Lillith to make their decision. Then again, maybe they'd prefer to stay here and play games. There were less romantic ways to spend an evening.

-- Desiree

[Graybeard]

[OOC: Just here briefly, I'll be mainly out of pocket until Monday noon, but I can't resist...]

"If you don't want to see the ceremony, then I'm sure Claire would be more than willing to take you down to the shore."

Whatever "treatment" Brad had received in the gallery, it still seemed to be in effect, because rather than fainting or even blushing red as a beet as usual, he simply smiled openly and politely.

"Well, thank you much for the invitation, Desiree! We'd be glad to learn more about the religious practices of Snamish -- sweetheart, is something wrong?"

[OOC: Sareth, over to you...]

[Sareth]

Lillith was, quite frankly, beyond words. Brad had quite surprised her. She had been about to ask Brad if he wanted to wander the village for a bit while she observed the ceremony. After all, he was Veracian, and a servant of Luminosita. While she was no longer inclined to call all Veracians xenophobic followers of lunacy, she still felt that it was a very conservative faith, and she didn't want to expose Brad to too much apostasy. But then Brad had responded eagerly to the invitation.

Forcing her brain to restart, Lillith smiled. "I think that would be a lovely idea."

[Drusia]

"Well, thank you much for the invitation, Desiree! We'd be glad to learn more about the religious practices of Snamish -- sweetheart, is something wrong?"
"I think that would be a lovely idea."

"Oh," Desiree replied brightly, "Good. This way." She led them back to the square. The crowd was thinner than it had been, and older - a few of the town elders were here, and most of the people her age were down by the lake, leaving a more sober group of onlookers. Both priesthoods were represented; they clustered in groups or in pairs. The high priest of Senilis and the high priestess of Anilis would likely be spending much of the evening together as well, both due to tradition and their own love bond. The other priests and priestesses might or might not end up in religiously significant assignations tonight.

The high priestess noted Desiree's arrival and looked less tense. Desiree bit her lips and slipped out of her vestment, handing it to Lillith. "I'm a little late," she explained quickly, before striding out into the square again. The priest of Senilis met her there, already disrobed, but for a mask made of deer antler. The points were arranged to curve back to avoid injury, but the mask was always a little intimidating. Kohl beneath his eyes and drawn on his chest made him even more difficult to recognize. Desiree might have been able to if she'd arrived earlier, if only by process of elimination, but her late arrival meant that she had no idea with whom she was consumating the ritual. Of course, that was what the ritual intended. Perhaps this was the goddess's way of blocking her curosity.

Desiree nodded to her partner, and then began to dance. This was different from her celebratory dance this morning - it was meant to arouse. She danced around him for several minutes, watching the progress whenever she passed in front of him. When everything looked ready, she ended her dance by embracing him.

His lips met hers and Desiree kissed him - whoever he was - with all her skill. She felt the goddess touch her, blessing her with desire, her namesake. Her kiss became more ardent, less studied. The kiss lengthened, and when she could stand it no more, Desiree lifted her leg with a dancer's flexability. After a brief moment of surprise, her partner took advantage of such a unique opportunity.

Desiree didn't hear the appreciative applause for her rather unconventional position. The goddess was upon her, she was a channel to the divine; Anilis made love through her, an experience more powerful than any she had ever known. She felt Anilis's love: her love for Senilis, her love for all life, and her love for Desiree. In that moment, Desiree loved Anilis and Senilis, she loved her mysterious partner, and she loved everyone who looked upon her with equal rapture.

The power of the goddess washed over her and Desiree gasped, crying out. Her partner gasped.

And, after a long, wonderful moment, the ritual was over. Desiree unkinked her leg, rather sore now, from her partner's shoulder, and regained her balance with grace. Her partner looked like he was about to fall over, and his mask was slightly askew, so Desiree gave him a supporting hand while she straightened it for him. She gave him, not Senilis, a light kiss on the mouth, then turned towards the high priestess of Anilis.

The high priest of Senilis was already in the process of removing her robe, but the priestess managed an approving nod none the less.

With that, Desiree walked back over to Lillith to collect her vestment again.

-- Deisree

[Graybeard]

Sister Rose smiled at Argus, gently patted his hand. "No, of course I don't think all this death has anything to do with you. And I take your point. You know, we're really a lot alike, aren't we?"

Argus looked puzzled at the question, so she expanded on it as they walked; an observer would have noticed that they were holding hands again, and Rose wasn't the least bit self-conscious about it now. "What I mean," she explained, "is that we both feel the need to be responsible for things -- you know, act like the grown-ups and all that. So when bad things happen, we worry that they were because of something we did wrong. But all of the things with that desk and the ruins at Centoriel, at least, can't have been our fault." Could they? "We weren't even there when they happened, after all. So you're right, let's just enjoy the evening, and solve our deep, dark mysteries of Wilbur Hamael by morning's light," she concluded with another smile.

They walked in silence for a few minutes, then resumed with small talk about the dinner, the unfamiliar ceremonies, and such, as they approached the square ... arriving just as the Anilis/Senilis ceremony reached its, well, climax, so to speak.

Rose dropped Argus' hand and pressed her own hand to her mouth. "Good lord," she gasped.