Goriel and beyond, part 4

[Graybeard]

With the grasp on his throat relaxed just slightly, Father Boris managed to sputter out a few words. "You!... You!... I'll..."

"Open that envelope, Brad," Sister Rose directed her perplexed cousin.

Boris found his voice as Brad complied. "You can't do that!" he screeched. "That's highly classified diplomatic traffic! I'll have your robe and cowl for that! I'll..."

... But he subsided quickly and meekly as at least fifty stunning, red rubies skittered onto the desk.

There was another "UURRKK!" as Rose tightened her grip on the corrupt priest's collar. "Go get the security people from the airship, Brad," she grunted, her voice tense with effort; she wanted to make sure the man wasn't going anywhere. "There'll be two of them in the hallway."

There were.

------------
Half an hour later, after a sullen Father Boris had been taken into custody and a careful Preservation spell had been cast over his chambers, Brad finally worked up the nerve to ask his cousin the question that had been bothering him. "How did you know, Rose?"

She looked at him, raised her eyebrows, shook her head. "I didn't. Give Captain Murial, on the airship, the credit for that one. It never occurred to me to suspect the church of being involved in a smuggling operation. But it did occur to him. He'd been briefed that there was something funny going on at the Saus end, but the Inquisitor could never figure out what it was. So he worked it all out himself, and all I had to do was look for the confirmation." She chuckled. "Of course, putting on the Empathy before we came over here didn't hurt, either. Boris wasn't just a fool; he was an arrogant, venal fool. And he was really looking forward to pulling one over on us."

They hitched up the temple's horse and wagon; it would have been nice to take the much more ornate Gibazov coach, but that was going to be needed for the investigation. "Are we going to go after the Gibazovs for their role in this?" Brad asked. "They've obviously been getting rich from their exploitation of our own -- corrupt practices." It hurt to say it, but there it was.

Rose thought about it. "Probably not. That explains how they've been getting more powerful, all right, but that's an internal Goriel problem, not any of our business." She sighed. "For that matter, we might even have to find a way to help replace their sources of income by legitimate means. The hell of it is, Boris was right about one thing: commerce in a place like this is messy, and you have to do business with them in their own way." She frowned. "But the Church of Luminosita must keep its hands clean while we're doing it. Come on, let's go pick everyone else up."

[Drusia]

She blushed a little as she lowered her hand and her eyelids. "Hi," she said. "Your sister - she's just the best getera there ever was!" Then to cover her embarrassment, she started commenting on the lovely fabrics Desiree had been eyeballing, and she used to have one like this but she thought with Desiree's eyes, she'd look better with one like that

'Drusilla' smiles. "Yes, so I've heard," she says. "We're all very proud of Desiree. She's amazing."

I blink. That's... really sweet of my mother to say. I blink again and wipe my eyes. Mother just... smiles.

"Um, yeah," I say softly. "That one's... yeah."

... I still like the dark red cloth with the golden embroidery though.

-- Desiree

[Graybeard]

"What got into you, Rose?" Brad said as he and his cousin started back toward the Yurkashev compound. "I've never seen you like that before."

Sister Rose was actually feeling a bit sheepish now that the heat of combat, such as it was, was receding. "I probably shouldn't have done that," she conceded. "I should have just been nice and polite, and left the takedown of that priest to the force on the airship. I knew they were going to do it. But dammit ..."

"Yes?" Brad knew that when her voice trailed off like that, there was something on her mind, waiting to come out. Well, she'd been his confessor figure often enough; it was fitting for the roles to be reversed on occasion.

"Well, two things. First, you know how much I hate it when people in the church take advantage of their positions. And the second thing -- well, when I saw that coach out back, some things fell into place for me, and it all came to a head when he started talking about how things move slowly in Goriel." She snorted. "Well, they move slowly because the people who were bribing him wanted them to move slowly. They wanted to get Blaise nice and settled in their mine so that we can't find him when we go looking. And it's probably worked. They'll have defenses set up and be waiting for us."

Brad was horrified. "So you think Boris is part of whatever Blaise is up to? That's terrible, Rose!"

She considered. "No. Really, I don't think so. I don't think the Gibazovs are part of what he's up to, for that matter. But Blaise is part of what they are up to. They have their own reasons for taking him in, although I have no idea what they are. Boris may or may not know those reasons. He probably doesn't; they probably just told him to keep anybody from following Blaise for a while."

She shook her head. "But you know what the worst part of it is? We bought the whole thing, hook, line and sinker, and allowed ourselves to get caught up in the politics of this place ... and not only did Blaise get tucked away in his hidey-hole out there, people died while we were off playing their little games. I'll be asking for Luminosita's forgiveness for that tonight in my prayers."

[Alberich]

Anfisa just kept looking over the clothes, prattling on in her usual, nonthreatening, glad-to-be-alive way, just as she did after lovemaking. She had no thought to come between the two "sisters" or that this had anything to do with her upcoming escape.

Vladimir seemed to have no problem with an early-afternoon re-exchange of geteroi at the compound and would signify as much to his superiors, whom he felt sure would likewise have no issues (except for the great sorrow at her departure and theirs, blah blah blah).

[Drusia]

OOC:

Um... don't really have anything else to say at the moment. Desiree will pick out some pretty (and matching) items to sparkle up her ensemble.

Drusia will observe Anfisa and get a sense for things.

Whenever Argus and Vladimir finish their talk, Desiree can finish her shopping and they can all head back together. Or whatever.

[Alberich]

The shopping ended; the ladies and the escorts went away; Argus and Drusia were free to do as they pleased.

[OOC: So, absent anything else strange, the Kirassia-Desiree exchange can take place in the early afternoon, and Drusia can do any visiting she's of a mind to before or after that.]

[Graybeard]

OOC: I think we can hit the road without further ado. The only question remaining is: which of the geteroi are coming along? Specifically, is Anfisa? I assume the party will find a way of leaving Kirassia behind, with flowery regrets and compliments about her legitimately great skills and aptitudes.

As far as I'm concerned, Anfisa is entirely welcome; I'm pretty sure Desiree can keep her occupied , and the wagon can be sized to fit. However, if she's going, someone will probably want to have a rather candid conversation with her as we depart to let her know that what she's getting into could be dangerous (without spilling the beans as to exactly how). Who wants to take that on?

[Alberich]

[OOC: Right now, the re-exchange of Desiree and Kirassia is all set to go for the early afternoon, and the flowery compliments will be a part of that. But Anfisa is a Duravsky getera, a valuable asset to that clan, who has not been, and is not going to be, just freely given to Clan Cleiviein. So if she's leaving with the group, her departure has got to be arranged one way or the other, whether by obtaining her clan's consent somehow or by other means. And however that happens - it should be played out right here in this forum.]

[OOC2: Unless it involves too much explicit naughtiness and we have to PM it..."Ding-dong! Pizza delivery! (bonka bonka byow-byow)...hey, where'd the getera go?"]

[Drusia]

[OOC: Right now, the re-exchange of Desiree and Kirassia is all set to go for the early afternoon, and the flowery compliments will be a part of that. But Anfisa is a Duravsky getera, a valuable asset to that clan, who has not been, and is not going to be, just freely given to Clan Cleiviein. So if she's leaving with the group, her departure has got to be arranged one way or the other, whether by obtaining her clan's consent somehow or by other means. And however that happens - it should be played out right here in this forum.]

[OOC2: Unless it involves too much explicit naughtiness and we have to PM it..."Ding-dong! Pizza delivery! (bonka bonka byow-byow)...hey, where'd the getera go?"]

OOC: The plan, as far as Drusia is concerned: do the exchange as normal. Sometime later (tonight?) Drusia teleports inside, picks up Anfisa, and teleports them both out. So far as the house is concerned, Anfisa just vanished - literally.

Of course, Drusia needs to tell this to Desiree. She was going to do so AFTER her meeting with Arman.

So... I guess the next thing is to have that meeting take place?

[Alberich]

[OOC: Works for me! While Arman is rarely alone during the day, Drusia can catch him that way by timing it right - ready when you are for it. Let's give 'em a show.]