Goriel and beyond, part 3

[Drusia]

"I think you've summed it up pretty well," she said slowly. "We just don't have many options. Unless ..."
"Yes?" Brad asked, when no one else would.
"Unless we can find a way to scare him out of it." She looked speculatively at Drusia.

I raise my eyebrows at her.

"Scaring an Errant usually ends badly," I reply. "Even a faux-pendant-caused-Errant. Recall that I was in Tsuirakushiti's sister city when the very first Errant, in his madness, crashed it into the sea. If Eli has been playing fast and loose with fire magic, then I imagine a good scare would end with a good portion of this city on fire." I shake my head at that image.

"No. I work best by ambush. If I didn't have company, I could attempt a non-lethal sort of ambush, but that is the problem with that one. I certainly couldn't employ my companion to a scare tactic, even if we weren't in a flamable town full of innocent people - or at least people, both innocent and guilty, well mixed together."

I pause, tilting my head to the side. "Someone is approaching," I tell them stepping back towards the doorway. I take up a position where I can see how walks in without being seen in turn. If it's Eli - I will strike for this pendant of his.

-- Drusia

OOC: Tim's safe from interference by the Mystery Elf Woman.

[Graybeard]

EDIT: Never mind, retconned away. It took a long time to get that written for Rose, and what Drusia said and did made it all OBE, so it just didn't happen.

[Alberich]

Whether because he wasn't an elf's child, or because the Hand of Luminosita was on him, Tim made it to and through the gate of the compound. The guards had been well instructed on these Cleivieins and how they must be let in and given a mostly-free run of the place. Thus, it was easy for him to make his rapid way to Lord Shashenka's chambers, where he knew Rose and Argus were staying. He did not like the thought of rousing them from their sleep or their sinful relations (maybe not so awful if they actually mended things with a marriage - but still!). There wasn't any choice, though. He had news the Yurkahsev wanted to hear, and he was choosing to deliver it through his own "chieftain" first. That course admitted no delay.

Reaching the door, he pounded on it - as if to wake a sleeper. Brad opened it. Thank heaven for small mercies - they were awake and dressed (surely all four of them wouldn't be in here to...no). He was a little better composed than with Eli - in part because he'd been composing his words on the way. He was still a little wild-eyed as he spoke.

"Sir, ma'am" - he opened - "There's news. A lot of it. And some of it, our hosts don't know, and they're going to want to know it. May I give you the short version first?"

Obtaining assent, and knowing nothing of the hidden elf, he did. "A group of Yurkashevs hid out by the Zukalin compound tonight. I think they were trying to ambush some of them. They got ambushed themselves - and some of them were killed, and one or two were captured. The man who led the Zukalin - I think he was using magic but I couldn't swear to it.

"Also" - and he was starting to have an ugly suspicion about this one, but he couldn't rightly withhold it - "I think there's an elf hiding outside this compound. Possibly to ambush or murder some of us." He looked at Lillith. Then he waited. This situation was going to require some quick decisionmaking - how fast to tell the Yurkashev, and how to react to this news. He wouldn't mind being interrogated further, but he hoped it would be for information, and not just to stall for time while they made their minds up.

[Drusia]

"Also" - and he was starting to have an ugly suspicion about this one, but he couldn't rightly withhold it - "I think there's an elf hiding outside this compound. Possibly to ambush or murder some of us." He looked at Lillith. Then he waited.

Once again, straight lines like that don't come up every day. I draw my Durus blade - the better to not accidently kill him - step up behind him, clamp a hand down on his shoulder, and poke him in the back with it. I do NOT channel any magical energy through the blade - in this form it isn't any sharper than the average pencil, certainly not enough to open any serious wounds, but he doesn't need to know that.

"Where's Eli?" I ask directly into his ear. "He was with you before. If he plans to attack my companion, then a lot of innocent people are going to die." I don't add starting with you although my tone implies it fairly heavily. A bluff, to be sure, but I need an answer fast.

-- Drusia

[Alberich]

Drusia had misread her man. Twisting his head around, he saw a glimpse of what was threatening him. Now Tim was not strong on telling a full-blood elf from a half-elf. He probably wouldn't be able to spot a family resemblance among elves even if he were studying Drusia's face full-on. But he put a false two together with another false two - reaching a four that bore no resemblance to reality.

He'd already felt a little dirty betraying Eli's secret to Rose. And he'd betrayed it for no better purpose than to have her shrug it off, or so he thought, and that made him feel dirtier. And shortly afterwards - an elf had shown up, as if Rose had decided to save herself trouble, by informing on Eli, and sending for the elves - to kill him while he was in bondage. (That was the ugly suspicion he'd been beginning to have, but it had not stopped him from talking.) And now someone, or something, that looked like an elf was right in here, hidden, and threatening him with death unless he betrayed Eli again - to assassination, to murder! And the death of his soul. Better to die than betray him to that!

Tim might've thought he was exceptional in this way; but in truth, his thoughts were common to frustrated young men all over the world. Few thoughts were more appealing than to end their conflicts in death - preferably a heroic death, in front of an audience, in front of the people who gave him scorn, the lovers who jilted him or the elders who brushed him off. Or at least that they'd hear about. Here was the crisis. He would not betray again!

Ptahhh! - he attempted to spit in her face, but his aim failed. He spoke what he thought would be his last words:

"Go to Hell!"

[Drusia]

"Go to Hell!"

I roll my eyes. Men. Always have to play the hero, even to the point of stupidity.

I release my grip on his shoulder, and since my hand is there anyway, I lay my palm on his shoulder and give him a hearty shove. At the same time, I catch one of his legs with mine, toppling him onto the ground at my feet. That was for trying to spit on me.

"Rose, make him talk," I say, putting away my blade, "The people of Goriel don't have time for him to be snippy with me."

-- Drusia

[Graybeard]

Things are going to Hell, all right, Sister Rose groaned mentally. In a handbasket.

"Tim, she's on our side," she said curtly. "She could have killed you just then. She didn't. You know it's the Patriarch's policy to work with the elves when he deems it appropriate. This is one of those times. So work with her. Got that?" Her face was about as fierce as anyone present had ever seen it, except for her cousin.

[Drusia]

"Tim, she's on our side," she said curtly. "She could have killed you just then. She didn't. You know it's the Patriarch's policy to work with the elves when he deems it appropriate. This is one of those times. So work with her. Got that?" Her face was about as fierce as anyone present had ever seen it, except for her cousin.

Not quite what I meant, but it's a start.

"My name is Drusia," I tell this 'Tim', resisting the urge to step on his chest. Probably for the best. Without stiletto heels, it just wouldn't have the same effect. "I believe you've met my daughter, Desiree?" There - perhaps dropping that name will calm him down. Or not, depending on how much he's talked to Lillith.

-- Drusia

[Alberich]

Being shoved and tripped, Tim hit the floor and half rolled into a crouch. He didn't get up but his face was twisted into hate. He saw the elf now, saw the thing in her hands - must be some kind of weapon - yes, there was no doubt. This was the race that had enslaved his people, from whose captivity Lord Luminosita had led them, when their human tyrants had led them into it. She radiated hauteur - how glad she was to have a human at her feet, where she surely believed they belonged! Would Rose and the others come to his aid, protect him from her wrath?

"Rose, make him talk. The people of Goriel don't have time..."

Oh, the elf was giving the orders? And in the name of filthy heathens? That was all right, then!

"Tim, she's on our side," Rose said curtly, "She could have killed you just then....

That's right, you filthy tramp posing as an officer, and you were ready to let her kill me, god damn you...

"She didn't. You know it's the Patriarch's policy to work with the elves when he deems it appropriate. This is one of those times. So work with her. Got that?"

Tim wasn't always the swiftest sailboat in the race. But he "got" quite a few things.

He "got" the shameful way Rose treated Fred Tarmage - the way she made him cry for not throwing himself before a sorceress, against whom his nonmagical body would stand no chance. He "got" the lackadaisacal way she pursued Blaise - when there were warm baths and lazy times to be had in Getsemiel. He "got" the way she'd tried to pollute him, get him to break his vows, and taken pleasure and found it funny in Port Lorrel. He "got" the worst of it - that he'd laid before her the threat to Eli's soul - and she'd responded with a spurious claim to be more worried about Blaise. His proposal - to take Eli down fast, and get the amulet - could've been accomplished in ten minutes. She hadn't caught Blaise in that ten minutes.

(His memories on these scores might not be entirely fair - but when was mankind ever fair?)

Back then, he'd thought it was just female-Reform indecisiveness, and a pattern of bad leadership...but now he saw she was working with the elves. Her own words! Oh, he "got" that too! Lillith had been very clear on how these elves murdered their half-elven children. How perfectly that fit his Orthodox childhood training - the Elven Captivity - how they made humans into playthings - just as Rose used me for her buffoon in Port Lorrel, maybe she's part elf herself? - how the liberation was one of the greatest Gratitudes the Faithful owed the Good Lord. So now it seemed Rose had responded, not with a plan to save Eli's life and so his soul, but simply to hand him over to his racial enemies, for slaughter! Catching Blaise wasn't so right-this-minute important now, was it? No time to save Eli - plenty of time to betray him!

One elf was outside the gates, waiting to ambush him, just as he'd said. And one in here, to ambush him - if he'd been Eli he'd be dead now. So she had to be satisfied with a death threat, and shoving and tripping for humiliation. Which Rose, of course, was perfectly fine with. She was showing all her anger to him. Because she was working with the elf. Because she knew nothing of loyalty to her country, to her faith, to her own people (in any sense of the word, the military included - catch Sergeant Fred Tarmage, or Lieutenant Timothy Gantric, letting an outlander treat one of his privates like that!). Small wonder she was living in sin with a heathen!

And now she presumed to speak in the Patriarch's name, to bring Tim to a further betrayal? Oh, of course! The elf had given her orders, and she was using her authority to carry them out! A few hours ago, she wouldn't save Eli, because "the Patriarch ordered us to go after Blaise." And now that it was time to betray him to death, "the Patriarch ordered us to hand him over to death." Had the orders just come in on a parrot? What kind of fool did she take him for?

The Church existed for the salvation of souls, to which Rose was indifferent. It was charged with administering Veracia, the Kingdom of Lord Luminosita in this world, to which Rose was disloyal. The most ancient enemy of the faithful - the elves - that is what she worked with, and sided with against him. Bradway's The Temptation of the Elves wasn't canon - but it wasn't prohibited, either. (He'd read it even before he met Desiree, and if she was only half an elf, the author was understating the truth.) Who knew what they'd tempted her with? She'd proven weak to temptation - and at this, the elves were masters!

His head whipped around, matching Rose's fierceness with a face full of hate. His nostrils flared, and he sucked in breath. His brain screamed TRAITOR!!!! But he let his breath out, and spoke a single word, in low, steady anger.

"No."

If they didn't like it, let them go ahead and kill him now!

He cared nothing for elf lies about daughters or anything else - friendship mattered. Faith mattered. The salvation of souls, that was supreme. Let the traitor do her worst.

[Graybeard]

The irony is, we're following his directive, Sister Rose thought. Things are going to Hell, all right. In a handbasket.

She turned to Argus, exasperation on her face, for a quick mind-talk. <"Your turn. Maybe you can get through to him. But we don't have much time.">