The search for Brother Dalton, part 2

[Alberich]

Tim subsided into silence. He didn't believe in taking children into danger. Women either, for that matter, excepting soulless elf-amazons like Drusia. For him, "women and children first" was an order to evacuate, not to charge. He had no notion of how completely Rose was planning to violate his beliefs. He knew only that she was in a position to decide and he was not.

[Graybeard]

Sister Rose pondered the Audie question for a long minute.

To be sure, she'd seen young boys taken into perilous situations before; into combat, in fact. One she'd seen in Albigenish, the son of an important person in Saus, had worked out well. Young "Bucky" had been a bugler for an infantry outfit, had faced the Albigensians himself, and if she understood the story correctly, had saved at least one life. Furthermore, he'd returned home with a myriad of stories to tell -- including a changed view of the people of the Northern Confederacy, and the plight of the half elves, that she hoped would be the foundation of a more -- enlightened view of the world beyond the borders of Veracia. He'd emerged the better for it ...

... But then, on the other hand, there was the tragically unfortunate Kodriel boy.

She shuddered at what it must have been like for that child's officer to tell the parents what had happened to him. Of course, on one level he had it coming, since it was his own fault; if the damn fool captain hadn't recklessly ordered a charge that he knew full well his people weren't prepared for, not only would his youthful drummer have been spared, so would a dozen grown-up soldiers in the unit. But the pain the officer would feel from that experience wouldn't begin to touch what the parents felt.

If I had to face such a messenger bringing news of my own child, I would probably die ... if I didn't kill the messenger first.

And that made her decision for her.

"Audie," she said slowly, "I think it would be best if you stayed here at the temple until they can get you back to your home in Kiyoka." A soft smile. "You've had plenty of adventures already, and there are plenty more to be had here and there ... but not with us."

[Alberich]

Audie frowned and Tim nodded firmly, approving. Tim thought it would have been kinder as well as stronger for her to make her decision faster, and not string the boy along, but the right decision late was better than the wrong one. And taking children into battle was wrong. (Had he only known...)

He put a hand on the boy's shoulder. "Sister's right. Let's get you back there. But if you behave yourself, you know she'll make a good report of how you did in the south. Good thing for Father Redmond to hear, right?"

Audie put a brave face on it. Spoiled-brat behavior had not been encouraged in the temple. There were hard sticks and extra chores for boys who thought their lives were too hard. You could hear the disappointment in his voice, and it took him a long time to talk, but the answer was simply "Yes, brother."

"All right," said Tim. "What say we get him back to the mission and get ready to board? Father Amalric's keen to move."

[Browncoat]

Mordan shook his head to clear it.
"What a headache. I think it knocked some sense into me...hope that doesn't last"

[Graybeard]

[OOC: Still waiting for the next shoe to drop at Geno's, which is actually semi-important to progress, but we'll send Rose, Argus and Tim out for some shoes shortly if necessary...]

"What say we get him back to the mission and get ready to board? Father Amalric's keen to move."

This annoyed Sister Rose somewhat. "Yes, we should get him back to the mission," she replied, "but we are not ready to move. For one thing, we don't know where we're going. For another, we're missing some of our people. Amalric will jolly well wait until we are back together again. We need to find Tamina at the least, and it would be best if Desiree and Anfisa stayed with us too." Although things with those two could get ... interesting ... when we rescue Therese, if I read the interpersonal dynamics right. "I think they went into town for a meal before we fly. As soon as we get Audie back to the mission safe and sound, we should go find them."

-----------

"Well, we'd better get out of here," Therese said to Mordan, after a quick Heal to address his headache; most headaches had a vascular cause, which was easy enough to treat. "Let's get topside and get away from here before they come looking for us."

However, escaping the underground wasn't so easy. Rockfall from the explosion had blocked two of the three exits that they could see. And the third...

"There's a magical barrier there," she said, pointing to a shimmering curtain of light. "And I don't think it's like -- one that I saw before on this system." Mordan didn't need to know about Rosteriel, at least not yet. "It isn't just to conceal, it's to prevent people from crossing in either direction. So what now?"

[Alberich]

"Yes, we should get him back to the mission, but we are not ready to move. For one thing, we don't know where we're going..."

Tim smiled wryly at that. It had never stopped them before!

"For another, we're missing some of our people. Amalric will jolly well wait until we are back together again. We need to find Tamina at the least, and it would be best if Desiree and Anfisa stayed with us too."

Tim was taken aback. "Tamina? The catkobrold? She's joining us?" He wasn't actually upset, just genuinely surprised. While he was not as enamored as some, Tamina's guileless charm had worked some of its spell on him back in Goriel. And he'd seen enough of her in last night's battle to know she was tough enough.

He added: "I don't agree about those other two. I grant you, Desiree's brave when she has to be. And she's a very skilled healer. But every time she's back in danger, like when those slavers had her or the Gorielians, you have to wonder if she's coming back alive. If this is more dangerous than that - she doesn't really belong at the sword's point. Let alone that friend of hers" -- slight emphasis only on the friend. "If we've got a private airship and a whole Church full of...Churchmen to draw on, we could find a more rugged kind of healer. If we don't have enough already.

"Also, you've seen it yourself, she's not happy among the Faithful." There was a great deal more he could say along those lines, but that was one advantage of talking to Rose: she knew the background and could fill in the gaps. He didn't want to get more explicit and bring the blush of modesty (or, more likely, the sweaty sinful fantasies of youth) to Audie.

Tim chose not to keep repeating that he knew the choice was Rose's. She knew he knew. Too much genuflecting would give her an excuse not to think about what he was saying.

He would've preferred the mind speech for this conversation, but it seemed more polite to include Argus. The heathen mage didn't hold rank in the Church but he obviously had a strong hold over Rose. Yet one more reason why female reformists under the age of sixty should not be holding rank in the Army of Veracia and Our Lord Luminosita.

[Graybeard]

Sister Rose cocked an eyebrow at Tim's comments. I'd probably have reacted similarly twenty years ago, when I was wet behind the years and still under Orthodox influence, she thought. But now ... well, it isn't just followers of Luminosita who are on the side of the good guys, and the bad guys include some people who do give Luminosita at least lip service.

Which is why I'm going to do what I'm going to do.

"Tamina's skills are likely to be useful to us," she replied neutrally, "and she wants to help. As for Desiree and Anfisa, I made a promise to take care of Desiree while she's out learning what the world is like, and I will keep that promise." She carefully avoided saying anything about Anfisa. "Now let's do what needs to be done. We'll meet you at the airship."

A few minutes later, she and Argus were walking into the part of Lorrel that harbored some restaurants, Geno's among them. Most didn't look like the kind of places that three women on their own would have gone into; indeed, some seemed like a Tsuirakuan mage and a Veracian clergy-soldier might be in over their heads there as well. "Hang on a minute," Rose told Argus. "Let me try a little magical aid to narrow down the search for those three." She put on her Empathy magic, planning on using it to test the moods of the unseen patrons of the restaurants in the hopes of finding Tamina, Desiree and Anfisa ...

... Just in time for three drunken Gorielite yahoos to round a corner a block in front of them.

"Uh, oh," she whispered, and extended her senses in their direction. Drunkenness had weird effects on emotions, she knew that, but maybe she'd get something useful. In the event, she didn't need the spell to see that they were starting to point excitedly in her and Argus' general direction.

The home language of Goriel wasn't close enough to Veracian for her to sort it out without magical aid, but she was pretty sure she could hear the name "Cleiviein" bandied about drunkenly, and loudly, among the three.

[Alberich]

OOC:

The home language of Goriel wasn't close enough to Veracian for her to sort it out without magical aid

I don't think you ought to do this, and I thought that back in this thread we agreed that the NC, Veracia, and Farrel would speak whatever Tolkienesque "common speech" the ES characters speak to each other most of the time.

Yes, the comic says the Tsuirakuans have their separate language (maybe developed during their long isolation) and you could make a case for why the humans would all develop mutually unintelligible dialects, even down to the village level, but that isn't how Poe portrays them in the comic, and it would get in the way of having non-mage PC's travelling all over the world and being able to talk to everyone. Fantasy/Sci-Fi/RPG worlds usually get around this with some kind of "common" language, there's an element of RPG parody in the ES world, and I think we should keep with that for the sake of playability. We can still use German names for Farrelian groups and Russian names for Gorielians, for the sake of local color, without inflicting the Tower of Babel on them.

[Jack Rothwell]

OOC Personally, I'd vote 'let it ride' unless it throws a major road block in the plot. Anyhow.../OOC

Back at Geno's, Tamina had tuned out what conversation was taking place between the half-elves and turned to the door as the sound of the singing men came galumphing back to the edge of her hearing. She almost started to hum the tune again before it hit her that it wasn't singing, but shouting that was coming a short distance from the restaurant.

"Cleave-vein?" She murmured, just loud enough to hear. "s that Argus they're yelling at?"

[Alberich]

Tim wouldn't have understood Rose's thoughts if she'd spoken them aloud. He wasn't complaining about Tamina, only surprised. (And she was quite a surprise package after all.)

"As for Desiree and Anfisa, I made a promise to take care of Desiree while she's out learning what the world is like, and I will keep that promise."

Tim thought Sister had lost her mind. You didn't "keep a promise to take care" of a noncombatant like Desiree by taking her into danger. You put her someplace safe and civilized. Or you sent her back where she came from. But it was obvious Rose was not in a listening mood or a thinking one. She took her leave and he took his.

On the way to the temple, Audie spoke up. "Brother? Miss Dezzy-ray, she be not so bad, in truth..."

"I know," said Tim. "That wasn't my problem. And I'd think the same even if she was."

"What mean ye?"

Tim thought a moment. "You don't hit girls, do you?"

"'course I don't!" - a little indignantly.

"And if you knew a place where they do hit girls, you wouldn't take one there, would you?"

"No way!"

"That's my problem. Sister's in charge and Sister's got her reasons, so don't you worry about 'em." He really wanted to warn the boy away from the wiles of alluring half-elven women like Desiree. But he couldn't think of a warning that wouldn't just make her more alluring. They talked of other things 'til they made it back to the Temple, and Tim presented himself as ready to fly.

[OOC: I think it already has; it would not only make hash of the way Udo, Jamie, Tamina, Tim, and I think even Eli, with no translation magic, were mutually comprehensible with the Gorielians; and if the N.C. is speaking separate languages that's a problem with Aden in the other thread, who's a N.C. native but speaks at a "native" level with the Farrelians as well as the PC's.]