Lorenzel and Ramanzel

[Sareth]

At the question, Lillith's eyes rolled up to where she still, somehow, had a little winged creature riding atop her head. "I suppose. I'm just glad no one commented on..." She gestured with a thumb towards her hair. "Do you think it'll stay if I take a bath?"

[Drannin]

Argus shrugged. "I'm fine. Just not much to say." Thus spake the one whose thoughts were in turmoil.

Again.

[Porcelain Fish]

Maduin was mildly miffed and not a little confused by the reactions of Sister Rose and Brother Miguel. They'd turned rather unexpectedly defensive at his line of inquiry. It was a little confusing. In his experience an expression of interest was considered to be flattering, especially when it offered a further opportunity to elaborate on experiences one was proud of. Clearly that hadn't been the case.

He sighed as he sat on the bed, running a brush through his hair. His efforts to be engaging and polite had clearly gone to waste. He simply couldn't understand where he'd gone wrong. The two Veracians had seemed quite intent on the subject of this 'death god' and Father Blaise, but found his own inquiries unwelcome. His brow furrowed. Why else would they have pursued the subject unless . . . his eyes widened. The brush stilled.

It had, he realized, been far more than an exchange of ghost stories between comrades-in-arms. He'd mistaken the nature of the exchange entirely. That was interesting. He laid the brush aside and a gesture dismissed the ball of golden light hanging overhead, but he spent a long time looking up into the darkness, thinking.

[Graybeard]

[OOC: OK, so presumably the night passes calmly, and on to morning...]

On the way back to their rooms after morning prayers, Sister Rose and Brother Miguel noticed something unexpected.

"What's a parrot doing on the wagon?" Rose asked, getting a shrug from Miguel. "I wouldn't have thought there'd be any need for that medium while we were here in Lorenzel." They went over to exchange code words (they noted the NOFORN delimiter on this one; it was good that they were picking it up before Argus, Lillith and Sasha were on the move) and retrieve the message.

(UNCLASSIFIED/FOUO) We hope that your day and night have passed uneventfully; you people have certainly had -- and perhaps caused -- enough upheaval to last you for a while. We have several topics for you, one of which is rather sensitive; please continue to use this medium when discussing that topic, identified below.

(CONFIDENTIAL/NOFORN) First, a heads-up: You will be contacted, if you haven't been already, by one "Moduin Lochlear," a Tsuirakuan who has been sent by a man named CPT Kitaura in the Department of Homeland Security in Kiyoka. (I understand that this name will mean something to you.) We are unsure what this is all about, but apparently Kitaura is pissed that your colleague Dr. Cleiviein has blown him off since arriving in Veracia and wants this guy along as a shadow for him. We have taken the liberty of a quick background check on Mr. Lochlear and have turned up nothing untoward. The mission wants to keep Kitaura happy, so lacking any reason not to, we suggest you go ahead and treat this fellow cordially, but please don't be as forthcoming to him about this means of communication as you have been with Dr. Cleiviein; need-to-know can only be pushed just so far.

(CONFIDENTIAL) In other news from Kiyoka, the search for a replacement for Egbert Kankaniel has started. One of the candidates is a man at the Veracian temple in Lorenzel. If Father Ranulph hasn't contacted you about this yet, he will do so shortly. Ranulph is a good man who has been treated poorly, in my opinion, and if he says his candidate is a good one, I'd tend to take it seriously. Still, please cooperate in briefing him on the Kiyokan mission (no exchanges beyond the CONFIDENTIAL level, though), and pass your impressions of the man on to us using this medium. Classify all communications on this subject at the CONFIDENTIAL level; frankly, we in the military could care less about them, but this request comes from the temple in Emerylon. Incidentally, in yet other news from Kiyoka, Sister Margaret says that Brother Farley, who traveled to Tsuirakushiti to observe a certain analysis that will be familiar to you, has become engaged to his Tsuirakuan girlfriend. The young man works fast, she says, and she wants you to pass this bit of happy news to Dr. Cleiviein.

(LUMINOSITA'S SECRET) Now comes the sensitive item; please hold the following in strictest confidence. We have received a most unusual instruction, straight from the Patriarch's office, with the directive to "order" you to undertake another mission on your way back here. (The damn fools apparently don't understand that you're not active duty. Of course, you can be called up if necessary so that you have to accept it...) The circumstances are so unusual, however, that we are not fully convinced of the legitimacy of the order. Attempts to verify it are under way and should reach fruition later today. We will be sending another parrot with the order, or if applicable, instructions to ignore it if you get it via other channels. This parrot will be giving the special code word MARIGOLD, to be countersigned via your usual codes. If you hear the MARIGOLD code word, please take the message in complete privacy. DO NOT discuss this strange event with CDR Lauriel, or anyone else, at this time, until we have sorted out some of the weirdness surrounding it.

(UNCLASSIFIED) Our sympathies on the emotional turmoil you must be feeling at Kankaniel's death, and thanks for handling it so well. A messenger has been sent to his sister Mildred, but we have heard nothing back from her yet. If anything interesting develops on that front, we'll keep you posted, but for now, hang tight until this latest oddity is resolved.

Bernie

"What was that all about?" Miguel wondered, but Rose held a finger to her lips. "Looks like everyone else is getting on the move. Let's discuss this later." They walked back to the inn.

[Viking-Sensei]

Sasha proudly held aloft her new and improved GPS unit. It'd taken her the better part of the evening, most of the spare parts that she'd snagged from the church's supply closet, and a little help from both Argus (who was more than willing for the mild distraction) and Compassion (who had tiny hands) but it was done.

"Not only should we no longer have range or communication issues..." Sasha said, setting it down on the table where the rest of the group was slowly assembling for breakfast. "...but now I've added an extra feature. I was trying to find a way to integratae the time scanner into it, but a me from about 5 minutes into the future kept showing up telling me that it wasn't going to work, which didn't make sense because that itself would've been a paradox... but anyway, that didn't work, so instead I figured this out. By reversing the polarity of the neutron flow through that last church's customized emotive crystals, I've been able to change it's function from transmitter to receiver. That way, if anyone near to us should suddenly have any extreme emotional reacions, they appear as a blip on the monitor. Compassion, you want to show them?"

Compassion nodded, then launched into the air, did an extremely complex series of barrel rolls and trick flying (which fortunately went entirely unnoticed by the bleary, not-morning-people populating the inn's dining area), and landed... straight into Lillith's cleavage. Lillith's eyes widened to saucers as she started an appropriate level of freak-out... and on the virtual flickering map of the area, a large pinkish dot appeared in the bar with them.

"Ok... pink apparently is embarrassment... " Sasha said, making a small note in her trusty notebook.

[Sareth]

"Ge.. wha... do... bwa..." Lillith was quite inarticulate, her hand hovering over the dip in the front of her blouse like she couldn't decide whether to go after Compassion or not. Soon, though, she gave a little squeak of surprise (flaming bright red as she did so), and whatever had caused it, her hand shot down inside and began fishing around. Only seconds later, however, her hand came out empty, she gave three very awkward squirms, and Compassion reappeared from under the table. As Compassion settled herself on the table top, Lillith dropped her head to the table, hiding her face behind her hair, and quietly muttering something no one could quite make out.

[Drannin]

(OOC: Hope you don't mind me chipping in, Viking-Sensei.)

Argus winced at Lillith's embarrassment. "Er.. is this really the time to be experimenting with that thing?"

Harker appeared out of nowhere, a huge grin on his face. "Boss, with results like that, it's always time to experiment!" Argus grunted and pounded Harker on the head, sending the familiar to the ground."

Sasha's device beeped again. "Huh... so pale red must mean irritation or annoyance," she commented.

[Graybeard]

Sister Rose and Brother Miguel arrived back at the dining hall just in time to see Compassion complete her fantastic voyage through Lillith's apparel. The idle mind..., thought Rose, but she chose to ignore what she'd just seen and start getting ready for the day. "Let's leave most of our belongings here," she said. "We'll need to come back here tonight anyway, since Miguel and I have a commitment to Father Ranulph tomorrow. If there's anything we don't want tampered with, we can set up a ward or two to protect it. Right, Argus?" she finished, getting a nod; it seemed like a good time to distract him from Harker...

Elric Kankaniel picked this moment to show up in the dining hall. "No storm this time?" Rose asked, not entirely sure whether she was serious or not. Elric took the question at face value, anyway. "No, she's occupied elsewhere. I'm ready to go when you are. Ramanzel was about an hour-and-a-half ride from here when I left it; it should still be pretty close to there today."

Rose marveled at the nonchalance with which the young man talked about finding a movable village; to him it seemed like the most natural thing in the world, apparently. "Well, then, let's get at it." She went back to her room for her day pack.

[Sareth]

Lillith returned to her room and quickly sorted through her pack to find what she felt might be useful to bring along, but not burdensome. A few religious charms, some incense, a small block of cheese (just in case), a few herbs... That was about it. Tucking them away in her clothing, she picked up her water skin and returned to the front room.

Looking at the young man who was their guide, she fidgeted a bit. She wasn't certain how to proceed. She didn't want to cause any problems, or tread on taboo ground. But at the same time, there were things she needed to know. Worrisome things. Finally she steeled her nerve and spoke. Her voice was quiet, and a touch unsteady. But she got the question out clearly enough, and with enough volume for Elric to hear her.

"I'm sorry if this is something I shouldn't ask about. But you seem so matter of fact about it. And... well... May I ask about her?"

[Graybeard]

"'Her'?" Elric echoed, puzzlement showing in his face. "Oh ... you mean the living storm. 'Stormie,' I call her sometimes; she doesn't seem to mind, although she's never given me an actual name." He sat down and began to munch a leftover roll from breakfast. "These are good. Where'd you get them?"

I'm with Lillith here, Brother Miguel thought as he listened to the exchange. The young man's complete nonchalance about friendship with a natural phenomenon just wasn't making sense at all. He decided to risk prying. "It sounds like you and ... 'Stormie' get along reasonably well. How did you become friends?"

"Oh, I don't remember," Elric said around a mouthful of roll. "I suppose I was just out by myself in the woods, and she came along, and we were both lonely, so we started talking. You know how friendships form like that. Could you pass me that jam, please?"

"And you asked her to bring you here to meet with us?" Miguel said, not quite sure he was really hearing this conversation.

"Asked her? Oh, no, that's not the kind of thing you do with a storm," Elric said. "She was just coming this way, I don't know why, maybe she wanted to pick something up at the market. She asked if I wanted to come along, I said sure, and she picked me up. Nice of her, don't you think?" He broke off as Sister Rose returned with her traveling pack, but he was eyeing another roll hungrily as he waited for Rose to join the group.