Lorenzel and Ramanzel

[Graybeard]

Sister Rose smiled to herself as she and Lillith walked back to the house, the conversation between the two men inside clearly audible. It sounded like Argus and Maduin were getting along well. About time Argus found some happiness, she thought. Luminosita knows he's entitled to some. And dealing with a Tsuirakuan, too. She didn't know the details of why Argus was in exile ... but his attitude toward most Tsuirakuans was clear enough that this had to register as a surprise.

They hadn't found much at the barn. It had been abandoned in a reasonably orderly way; it was clean, if dusty, with none of the decaying fodder (and vermin to go with it) that they'd been dreading, given what had been in the storm cellar. A few farm implements were there, but nothing out of the ordinary. The only indication that the place had had any connection to the Kankaniel family at all was a picture of a young man in military uniform, pinned to a wall. Interesting, Rose thought; it had to be Egbert -- who else could have made the connection between this farm and special forces -- yet it didn't look quite right somehow. The man in the picture looked distinctly taller, and perhaps thinner, than Egbert had been. Well, age doesn't treat most of us kindly, Rose thought; maybe Egbert had been beaten down over the years, into the shorter, rounder shape he'd had for most of his life since she'd known him ... not to mention his death.

Best to put that out of mind for the moment, however; this wasn't a time to brood. Rose's shapeshifting skills only affected her body, not her personality, and the reunion with her cousin notwithstanding, nobody was ever going to call her "bubbly." Still, if Argus and Maduin were in a good state of mind inside, she could at least try to project some good cheer of her own; it would be a useful antidote to what still lay in the cellar. Leaving Lillith at the wagon to help get ready to move out, she opened the door to the house, a smile on her face.

"Well, you seem to be in a good mood, all things considered," she addressed Argus. "It looks like this reconnection to your long-lost daughter is agreeing with you."

Uh, oh.

"Now why are you looking at me like that?"

[Drannin]

CRAP! "Er, uh, j-just a lot of old emotions!" Argus said quickly, and completely unconvincingly. Both Rose and Maduin were giving him odd looks. Curse my lack of poker face! In the old days, 'Imperious and Terrifying' was the only game face Argus had needed, and it really didn't work in these circumstances. With a cough and a pat on his shirt pocket, Argus excused himself. "...Lot on my mind..." he muttered, walking away.

Argus reflected that he was really, really bad at this sort of thing. And he still had NO idea what to do about this happy little situation...

[Graybeard]

What was that all about? Sister Rose wondered as Argus walked away. Argus had been behaving oddly at the mention of his daughter ever since the weirdness at Nautkia. Was something not quite right about the situation? Furthermore, his behavior seemed oddest when Rose was the one raising the subject; his reaction when Maduin brought it up was just about what you'd expect for a loving father getting news of a daughter he hadn't seen in years. So what was different about her own inquiries and small talk? Well, Argus would explain when he felt like it, presumably.

Meanwhile, Brother Miguel and the other women had finished sending a parrot and were coming back to the house. "We'd better get going," Miguel said. "We're going to be hard pressed to make it back to Lorenzel before dark, and we still have to find this crazy, wandering town, wherever it is."

"Just one thing before we go," Rose demurred. She walked deeper into the house and found the doll that Maduin had discovered earlier. A quick detection spell revealed nothing unusual about it; it appeared to be a girl's doll, and that was all there was to it ...

... But at some time in the past, a girl had loved it. (Mildred? Lucy? It wasn't clear which, but on one level, it didn't matter.) A girl who'd got out of this town as soon as she could. A girl whose brother had died, at least twenty years later, under terrible circumstances -- circumstances that Rose was going to have to explain to that girl in the fullness of time.

She made her decision, placed the doll gently, almost lovingly, into the bag she'd carried into the house. "All right, let's go," she said, and a moment later, the wagon started back on the path that now led into the waiting forest.

[Sareth]

Lillith was watching the woodline cautiously. As Sister Rose walked out, she stepped over to her, mincing about a bit almost like a scared child not willing to admit fear to an idolized parent. Still watching the forest out of one eye, she quietly spoke to the nun.

"Are you sure we should try to find the town? The spirits of the forest and the storm don't seem to like us. They even moved the town. Are you sure they will let us find it again?"

[OOC: I'm not really back, but I am home sick with, of all things, the chicken pox, so I thought I could at least make some small contributions today. So continue to cameo my characters as needed...]

[Graybeard]

[OOC: Good to have you back in, and sorry about the chicken pox! Take care of 'em, for an adult they can be troublesome... And I don't write nearly as well for Jamie and Lillith as you do, so don't be a stranger!]

"Are you sure we should try to find the town? The spirits of the forest and the storm don't seem to like us. They even moved the town. Are you sure they will let us find it again?"

"Lillith, I think we must," Sister Rose answered quietly; she shared the concern about the "mood" of the forest, but things had to be done. "I think the forest moved the town to be out of the way of that storm, not to get it away from us. Look over there." She gestured toward the land between the farmhouse and the forest, which bore unmistakable signs of the passage of a windstorm, maybe even a tornado. There were even a few trees down along the forest's edge. Rose remembered the strange rustic's contention that "Woody" didn't mind a bit of logging here and there; might she have taken these downed trees in similar stride? A sylvan pedicure, maybe? What a thought...

"Besides, this road is our way back to Lorenzel," she continued as they boarded the wagon. "We don't know exactly where the road north goes from here --" although it's heading in exactly the direction of Centoriel, let us not forget, but I'm not going to remind Lillith -- "so it's probably safer to go back the way we came." Appeals to safety usually strike a responsive chord in this girl, and justly so. "Let's start that way and see what the situation is. I have a feeling that we'll run into the town before we get very far."

[Porcelain Fish]

"Well, the sooner we get going, the sooner we'll get there," Maduin said brightly, climbing up into the wagon. "Not that the scenery isn't nice, but I'm ready for it to change to something not involving a creepy house with corpses stowed in the basement."

[Graybeard]

"As are we all," Sister Rose confirmed, getting nods all around. As Brother Miguel put the cart in motion, she took a moment to adjust her appearance back to that of a Veracian nun; there was no need to manipulate the flesh (even as easily as it came to her, she just didn't have the energy for it), but at least she could modify her outfit to the one she usually wore in the mission. A flash of her green eyes, a momentary blurring of reality, and that was that.

The guess about the town turned out to be correct; it hadn't moved very far at all, and still lay athwart the path heading south from the farmhouse. Not a trace of wind damage was to be seen, although there had clearly been some in the forest that now enveloped the village. Whatever "Woody" had done to protect the place, it seemed to have worked.

A few minutes later, the wagon pulled up in front of the Millenarian temple -- just a shade larger and more ornate than the Orthodox temple opposite it, Rose noticed, although by no means as elaborate as what they'd seen in Provatiel. Evidently the Millenarian sect was doing reasonably well here. "Well, let's get on with it," she sighed as the wagon stopped, just as the front door opened and a short, squat man in priest's robes came out.

[Sareth]

As always seemed to happen whenever they met new people, particularly ones wearing the cloth, Lilith seemed to somehow magically end up behind Sister Rose. Her nervousness seemed to be redoubled, no doubt enhanced by the strange and even dark experiences they had been subjected to so far that day. For a moment Sister Rose could almost imagine Lillith, half as tall and looking like a child, reaching up to tug at the hem of her clothing, staring wide eyed at a stranger.

But the moment passed as the priest came forward, eyeing the collected group and making no comment about the presence of the half elf.

[Graybeard]

Brother Miguel gaped momentarily despite himself as he approached the Millenarian priest. Wow. It's like talking to Egbert again. The physical resemblance is astonishing, particularly considering that they're not really all that closely related; this is Elric's mother's, not father's, brother. From Sister Rose's uncharacteristically wide-eyed stare, it looked like she was having the same reaction.

The man looked to be about fifty, a bit older than Egbert anyway. He was wearing robes that looked distinctly Millenarian; there were subtle differences, compared to the Orthodox vestments, in the representation of Luminosita on the medallion hanging from his neck, the embroidering at the collar and shoulders representing the Path of Righteousness, the stylized figures on the back depicting the lives of the saints (the Millenarians cared about such things more than the Orthodox people did). Rose, Reformed through and through, thought the whole thing looked overblown; Miguel agreed.

Well, let's get this over with. "Greetings in the name of Our Lord Luminosita," Miguel intoned. "We are looking for a priest of your denomination named Father Absalon. Is he in the temple?"

"I am he," the man said solemnly, volunteering no more information. "And you are?"

[Drannin]

Argus observed the introductions quietly. This priest didn't seem the friendly sort, but at least he was being cordial. In any case, this was definitely a job for the resident clergy. Argus knew enough to stay to his strong points: building things and occasionally ripping them apart. Neither seemed to be particularly applicable right now, although the church roof was in need of some touching up.