Rinkaiel: Temple of the Divine Dwarf

[Graybeard]

OOC:

Eve's legs had, mercifully, regained some semblance of feeling by the time the mercs had followed the tell-tale splashes of blood to an all-too-familiar building in the heart of the town. Eve winced as they approached the temple, she leaned on Bert and walked with legs that consisted entirely of pins and needles, hailing a member who was standing outside the front door and enjoying a smoke. She met the woman's eyes with what she hoped was the right level of panic.

A minor nit: The Sisters of Divine Mercy, the clinic where the guy from the temple is getting repaired, are "affiliated" with the Temple of the Divine Dwarf, but are not at/part of the temple itself. They're somewhere in the main part of Rinkaiel, not Tsuiraku-town. The clinic shouldn't be "familiar" to Bert and Eve at all.

[Alessa]

Hikari was surprised that Galina would trust her by herself, but was also flattered. "Um, sure, I don't mind. Are there any kind of rules or things I should know?" She was happy to get away from her house for a while.

[Graybeard]

"Um, sure, I don't mind. Are there any kind of rules or things I should know?"

"Oh, you know, just the usual," Galina said with a smile. "Don't touch anything in the labs, it'll all have wards when I lock up. The private quarters are outfitted with all the gadgets you'd find back in Tsuirakushiti or in most expats' homes here. Help yourself to the pantry, there's a pocket dimension keeping things fresh. There's a thaumatic dish washer for the used pots and pans."

She went on like this for a while, as Layla listened in amazement. I never saw anything like this in Kiyoka, Layla thought. Of course, we never got invited to many people's houses, either, and besides, the people from Tsuirakushiti tended to look down their noses at Kiyokans as country bumpkins. We could learn so much from these people ...

"So that's the routine," Galina concluded, still smiling as she showed Hikari into her personal quarters. "Make yourself at home and I'll lock up the lab until morning." A few minutes later, with the wards set, she and Layla stepped outside to where the carriage waited ... and her demeanor changed utterly.

"Oh, ghod, let's hurry out to the vineyard," Galina said, starting to shake, and almost in tears. "I'm so worried about my daughter..."

[OOC: Stuff will resume at the Sisters of Divine Mercy shortly, ran out of time to write anything on it before work...]

[Graybeard]

[OOC: OK, day off, so as promised, some stuff at the Sisters of Divine Mercy...]

"We had to run from them. Please! He was shot, we followed the blood here. Have you you seen him?"

The woman blinked at Eve, twice, and then her cigarette disappeared -- it wasn't that she put it out, it simply vanished. A detached observer might have noticed that there was no smell of smoke in the air from the thing. There also weren't any ashes on the ground. And the disappearance might have been accompanied by the tiniest poof of magic, or it might not.

"I -- not know," the woman stammered in a heavily accented voice. "I not speak your language so good, I just -- clean up here. Man bleeding, go inside, I not know what happened." She pointed to the door to the clinic and moved away, her body language projecting a "leave me alone" attitude that apparently lay beyond her verbal capacity in the language of Farrel and Veracia.

[Jack Rothwell]

Eve pushed herself awkwardly to her feet and grabbed onto Bert with a 'thank you' directed at the woman outside. The pair stumbled through the entrance without a backward glance. The young mercenaries hand fell to her hip as they entered the 'reception' area. She drew the pair to a halt, pointing upwards and breaking away from the man on legs now just about capable of holding her weight.

"Upstairs. Try to find him."

"What about you?"

"I'll stay down here and see what I can find."

She took a a few halting steps towards a hallway, wincing as she did. Bert stared with concern on his face.

"Are you gonna be ok?"

"Yes! Just get going!"

Rufus' latest recruit headed to the nearest staircase, sparing a backward glance for his teammate.

[Alessa]

Hikari made herself at home, as Galina had said. She found the magic using appliances similar to the ones her mother had in her house. The ones her grandfather was trying to make her mother get rid of. She frowned. She didn't want to think about that now. After taking a look in the fridge and cupboards, she decided that a batch of cookies was the best way to pass the time. She could share them with the others when they got back. Humming to herself, she got started. One of her electives for high school had been magical home ec. and she enjoyed using her skills.

[Graybeard]

Happy baby noises were coming from the nursery as Layla and Galina swept into the house at Bad Ass Wines. There were also, Layla was pleased and amused to note, happy grandmother noises coming from the same location. Motioning Galina to silence, Layla approached the nursery stealthily ... and before Faye noticed and tried to cover her demeanor up, her daughter could see that she'd been sitting by the crib, one baby on each knee, playing a silly little tummy-poke game with both children at once.

"I think they're in love," Faye said to cover up her embarrassment. The two young mothers took over the child-care duties, Galina with extremely obvious relief and concern on her face that caused Faye a brief double-take.

Layla noticed. "Mom, there's something we need to talk about..."

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As Hikari went about her cookie baking, there were also noises coming from the nominally unoccupied nursery at the laboratory ... but the noises she was hearing were definitely not happy, and not baby noises, not at all.

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Continuing on the theme, sounds of Healing spells, and a man in pain, were emanating from a back room at the Sisters of Divine Mercy.

And out front, an observer might have noticed that the cleaning woman had disappeared along with her cigarette.

[Alessa]

Hikari went pale as she heard strange sounds that were definitely coming from inside the building. Reflexively she turned the oven off, just in case, and made her way toward the source of the sounds cautiously.

[Jack Rothwell]

Eve listened to the sounds emanating from the door near the back of the building as she stumbled towards it. Planning was not her strong suit, she was the kind of woman who preferred to have a vague idea and improvise as she went along ('Leaves me more room to manouvere' she often told Rufus). There was certainly no clear plan in her mind as she approached the portal and drew her gun. She knew she meant to kill the bastard regardless of the consequences. Two attempts on her life were reason enough for that.

The young mercenary opened the door.

.........................

On the other side of Jade and Leo were leaving the brothel equipped with new information.

"You know, I was almost hoping for something to happen in there." The blacksmith remarked.

"That's the rum talking, dear heart."

"So what now? Back to the vineyard?"

"I reckon. We should jump a cart if we get the chance. Layla and the rest'll want to act on this quickly, I'm sure."

Jade took the merc's hand and another swig.

[Graybeard]

"Do one more quick magic check to make sure we're not bugged," Layla suggested to her friend. Galina complied. As soon as they were sure the coast was clear, Layla relaxed a little and fetched a bottle of the good wine she'd brought from the vineyard in Kiyoka; nursing or not, the women could tolerate a little of it, and Bad Ass Wines wasn't producing anything yet that she'd want to give a friend.

"So what's the plan?" Faye asked.

That was quite a good question, actually, Layla reflected. "Galina and Oxana will stay here tonight," she answered. "A girl showed up who's going to stay at the lab, and become a teaching assistant now that some other students are getting interested. She'll be house-sitting tonight. We can figure out a longer-term plan in the morning. The place seems secure enough for the moment."

She was about to say something more when Ace poked his head into the nursery. "Your friends from Barker Lane are here." [OOC: Over to you, JR, to have them describe what they saw...]

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Layla might not have included that last bit about the laboratory being "secure" if she'd known that Hikari was now picking up distinct traces of magic being used in Galina's nursery.

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Two nurses from the clinic gasped as Eve opened the door. The mage they were tending to was still much the worse for wear ... but they'd patched him together enough for him to attempt one last bit of magic.

A wave of his hand, and a scalpel from one of the weird dwarven surgical kits hurtled toward the woman in the doorway, propelled by magical force.