Rinkaiel: Temple of the Divine Dwarf

[Jack Rothwell]

OOC Sorry for the lull in posting bud. I'll try to get on more regulary/OOC

The Silver Hands sat on the top floor of the Barker Lane guild and listened to Eve as poured out her tale. No-one interrupted her, Rufus, Jade and Leo knew the girl well enough to let her get the rage out of her system before a coherant plan could be put together. She paced back and forth with an exaggerated limp born from the burn and the scalpel wound she'd suffered at the hands of the would-be assassin. Bert, naive as he was, was smart enough to follow the groups' example as the young merc's tirade continued.

"-tried to fucking kill me! From a surgery table!! I didn't even get the chance to put a bullet in his head! And that bloody auto-suicide thing killed him before I even got the name of the group he was working for!"

She drew a deep breath. The Captain raised a hand, incredibly, the girl stopped shouting.

"Alright, Ms Jerosa. I think we've got all the facts from your expedition. We'll do something about it."

"You said Tsuirakuan's, right?" Jade asked, looking at both of them. "Maybe the man we tracked down.."

"Stevo."

"Yeah, him... might know something about it."

"How'd you make that connection?" It was Rufus who asked the question.

"I didn't. It's a guess more than anything. But considering how many incidents there have been in the last few days..."

"Getting firebombed in the liquor store..." Leo said.

"Blue Golems teleporting into the vineyard and that bloody warp gate turning up..."

"That business with the Oshima group..."

"...and now one of Layla's people turning rogue seems like it has the reek of a larger plan. And now someone trying to bump you off as soon as we started to poke our noses in the Temple business... not just defending the place, but tracking you with the intent to kill? There's got to be some connections here, Stevo might be the end of a thread."

"Great! So lets go and get him!" The tomboy cracked her knuckles meaningfully.

"Not yet." Rufus cut through the discussion with his commanding tones.

"Why not? Why the fuck not?"

"Several reasons Eve, the main one being that you are in need of a healer." The old man stood up to signal the end of the meeting. "We will discuss this matter with our contractors tomorrow. In the meantime you're coming with me, Eve, and getting that leg seen to."

Eve gritted her teeth, but nodded. Rufus held out his walking stick with a craggy smile.

"Gee, thanks dad."

OOC Note here: Rufus isn't Eve's father (if that matters), its just a term of affection given the nature of their relationship./OOC

[Graybeard]

"Let's sum up what we've learned," Layla said, after she and Galina had put the kids to bed for the night. [OOC: Thoughtful of Layla to do this, so that we can all keep track of what's been going on for the last 15 pages or so, isn't it? /OOC:]

She started ticking things off on her fingers. "Item: there's still something going on in the back of the Temple of the Divine Dwarf. We don't know what it is, but somebody wants it hidden enough first to try to chase the Silver Hand people away, then to try to kill one of them. Then, when the goon they send out after Eve gets hurt and cornered, he suicides using the same magic that that guy who was watching us out in the arbors did." Faye raised an eyebrow at that.

"Item," Layla continued, "Whatever it is that's back there, that weird Sister Joli doesn't seem to know about it -- but her father does. Problem is, we can't ask him, because he's conveniently out of town." Another raised eyebrow from Faye.

"Item: we've discovered a viper in our own nest, one who's working for somebody else while he says he's working for us. We'll ... have to deal with that." Ace shuddered momentarily at the look that crossed his girlfriend's face...

"Item: Kitaura is so pissed at you getting into the investigation --" she nodded at Galina -- "that he leans on you ... but he doesn't lean on us. That's strange. He's the kind who keeps an eye on everybody. I don't think we can assume that --"

Whatever she was going to say, it was cut off by a chime from Galina's purse. She extracted a crystal ball, which was glowing. "Private call, from Hikari back at the lab," she said. "Excuse me just a minute." She stepped into the next room ...

... And returned a minute or two later, white as a sheet and shaking. "I -- I think you might be stuck with my daughter and me as house guests for a while," she managed to get out, before collapsing in tears.

[OOC: So with that transacted, fast forward to morning? JR, you want to do anything with getting Eve patched up at a clinic, or shall we just move on? I'm ready to.]

[Jack Rothwell]

OOC I'm good to go bud. /OOC

[Graybeard]

[OOC: OK, picking up the next morning...]

Layla was awake early, as usual, and slipped quietly out of bed so as not to disturb the snoring Ace. After feeding her son (Oxana, she noted, was still asleep; so was Galina, presumably), she did a quiet reconnaissance of the house. Faye too was still asleep, and the thunderous snores coming from Oskar's room left no doubt about the state of its occupant. Stevo, however, wasn't there -- just as expected. Yes, we're going to have to take care of that, she decided. This bit of information gathering done, she went for her morning run ... making sure to pack some concealed heat.

She hadn't gone very far, though, when she became aware that she was being watched, and not very surreptitiously.

A slender, robed figure was standing at the end of the lane connecting the house to the main road. His body language did not exactly radiate confidence, nor did he look very threatening. Of course, one couldn't be sure, but now he was waving her over to him, his movements showing the same insecurity as his posture. Layla made sure her pistol was in easy reach as she slowed to a halt.

Do I know this man? she asked herself, and then, recognition dawned. It was the young Tsuirakuan Homeland Security cop who'd seen her and Faye out of the Tsuirakuan consulate a few days earlier. However, he looked a great deal less secure in this unfamiliar setting than he had then, and he peered nervously around himself before speaking.

"Ms. Sorensen?" he said, his voice as tentative and uncertain as his posture. "We need to talk..."

[Jack Rothwell]

Eve sat on a chair on the ground floor of the Barker Lane Guild, leaning back with her eyes fixed squarely on the cieling. From behind her came the sounds of rattling pans and the smell of frying that announced that the old man was cooking breakfast. The young merc caught herself wondering for the upteenth time whether Rufus ever actually went to bed or he'd given up sleep as part of his military training.

She was an early riser herself, which often suited her purposes, but this morning there was nothing to do but wait for everyone to arrive and maybe do a 'buddy-buddy' info exchange with that vineyard group. All of this being a coma-inducing process that would delay Eve from inflicting extreme violence on the people responsible for her freshly-healed injuries as far as she was concerned.

"Eve? You want bacon?"

"Yeah."

"Want it on toast?"

"Only if the toast is more bacon."

The merc stood up and cracked her knuckles; she could wait. Not long. But she could wait.

[Graybeard]

For an incongruous moment, Layla wished she'd put on a bit of makeup before going out for the run. However, it was clear that she really didn't need it; this young man, really not much more than a boy, was giving her a bug-eyed look like an infatuated teenager. She stopped and flashed him what she hoped would be a dazzling smile. "Walk with me so I don't tighten up," she said, "and tell me more."

The boy was flustered, but managed to get out, "Well, I just thought you should know that my commanding officer, Captain Kitaura that is, thinks your house guest might -- be a bad person, I guess I'd say. I'm supposed to be keeping an eye on her. Is that all right?"

Kitaura. It figures. But how did they track Galina to here? She put on a puzzled expression, while maintaining the smile. "That seems very odd to me. I think she's a very nice person. I'm learning some magical first aid from her." Maybe I shouldn't have said that, but I'll need something to explain why I go to the lab, because they'll have it staked out too. Anyway... "What does Ki-- your commanding officer think is a problem?"

The boy was puffing as they walked; obviously he'd been neglecting his physical training. Layla slowed her pace to let him catch his breath. "I don't know, ma'am," he said. "The Captain just said she's involved in something that's government business, something she shouldn't be involved in. You helped the Captain out, and you're so nice --" he flushed slightly -- "I thought you should know, so you don't get involved in it too."

Too late for that, kid, but I'll play along. "Thank you," she smiled back. "Don't worry, I won't let her do anything she shouldn't while she's visiting us." I'll leave that to the Silver Hand people. "And I know it's hard to keep an eye on people you don't trust, I used to be a sheriff's deputy myself and had to do a lot of things like that. Here, wait for me for a minute." She jogged back to the house, pushing the pace a little, and returned with a bag she'd taken from the kitchen.

The boy's eyes widened again as he opened the bag: fruit. Layla pulled out the smile again. "I know you get hungry on a stakeout," she said. "I've done it myself. So here's something to eat while you're watching. Don't tell anyone I gave you this, okay?" She smiled again, and delivered a conspiratorial wink.

The boy could hardly have been blushing any brighter. "I -- I won't tell a soul," he breathed as he bit into an apricot.

"And neither will I," Layla smiled. "Just one favor, though. If you hear what the problem is with our house guest, could you let me know? I'd like to know what to be on the lookout for, to tell you about the next time I have some fruit." She winked again.

The boy stammered agreement, then applied himself to the apricot as Layla resumed her jog. (No, her run; she didn't "jog".) I'm not going to tell Mom about this, she thought, but she would be so proud of me ...

... I seem to have cultivated a source.

[Graybeard]

[OOC: Excuse the double, but Alessa just informed me that she will be unable to continue with Hikari, and also with the sketches and her own webcomic, owing to a life-changing event involving serious illness in her family. We'll miss you, thanks for everything, and go get 'em with the directions you're now pursuing! So to gracefully write Hikari out of the story in a way that helps push things forward:]

Layla's nose told her that breakfast was a-cooking when she got back from her run. So it was; Faye and Galina were busy in the kitchen while Ace, Joe and Oskar were tending to chores. (Stevo, unsurprisingly, was still absent, and she was pretty sure that his absence was going to become a permanent proposition ... for one reason or another.)

"How are the kids?" she asked Galina, already knowing what the answer would be; happy-baby noises were coming from the nursery. She wasn't quite prepared for the response, however.

"They're ... fine," Galina said, with a look on her face that made Layla uneasy. "But I heard from Hikari this morning. She says something happened at the lab overnight that scared her so much that she's quitting the lessons, and going back home."

Damn, Layla thought as she made sympathetic noises, but she was thinking tactics as much as she was commiserating with a friend. A house sitter is a good thing to have in circumstances like what Galina's facing. Hmmm ... wonder if we can get one of the Silver Hands people to help? That has ... possibilities ...

[Jack Rothwell]

OOC Well that's a bummer, but no worries. Hope everything works out Alessa, our thoughts'll be with you./OOC

"Gaaaaaaaahhhhhh...." Jade offered.

"How's the hangover, honey?" Leo reponded.

"I hate everything."

Leo smiled at the heaped bundle of sheets that contained his girlfriend.

"Big day ahead sweetheart. Rufus was arranging for builders to come to the guild and start constructing the forge, he'd really appreciate you being there to direct them."

"GAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH." She replied meaningfully.

"So I'll tell them you'll be along later?"

The bundle seemed to nod. Leo got out of bed and started getting ready for the new day.

[Graybeard]

"Did she say what?" Layla asked.

"No," came Galina's reply. "She said there'd been some -- magic used on Oxana's room." She shuddered at the memory of Hikari's description of the killing field, but that, at least, would be easy enough to deal with, as long as she knew it was there. But what else had been done to the place?

"We'll give it a good going-over after breakfast," Layla reassured her friend. "We both have some ... experience with security, after all. And I'm pretty good with defensive measures."

If Galina caught the glint in Layla's eye at that last part, she didn't say anything about it, but Layla was almost singing to herself as they went about preparations for the morning. Just like old times...

---------

Meanwhile, Sister Joli was receiving a most unexpected message from her distant father, the high priest at the Temple of the Divine Dwarf...

[Jack Rothwell]

"This isn't a good idea."

"Shut up, Bert. I've gotten sick of waiting for the couple. It's time to get things moving." Eve marched with the pace of the determined as the pair made their way to the vineyard on the edge of town that Jade had described. The young merc trailing a dust cloud in the early morning sun.

"There's people that need putting down and I'm not going to sit twiddling my thumbs while everyone gets their act together." She continued, now striding up to the entrance of the main house that marked Layla's base of operations.

"Rufus won't like this."

"Rufus understands me." She shot back. "He knows I wasn't going to let this go."

Bert didn't have a reply, he was sure the immediate future would hold trouble for both of them. He'd begun questioning why he chosen to follow the young mercenary almost as soon as they'd left the guild. He still wasn't sure whether he had an answer; maybe some half-baked idea of chivarly was his motivation.

"Watch for traps at the perimeter." She called to him. "The ginger bint said they'd had some unwanted visitors recently."

"Like us..." Bert muttered.

"What?"

"Nothing."

Eve picked her way to the front door, raised a confident hand and hammered noisily on the frame.