Lorenzel and Ramanzel

[Graybeard]

"'Us'? Probably not," Sister Rose answered. "I suspect that whoever sent Argus this bottle was expecting him to drink it all himself." If I understand correctly what he was telling us about the people coercing him, they were Tsuirakuan ... and they know what he was, not necessarily what he is. But I'm not going to tell her that. "For that matter, we don't know for sure that this wine has been poisoned. It might have been drugged in some other way, or had a magical tracer added so that they can keep tabs on him; I know there's been some research on ways to do that." By Tsuiraku, at that, not that I'm really supposed to know about it. "Or they might even have just siphoned off the good stuff in the bottle and replaced it with cheap rotgut, hoping that nobody would notice."

"Best not to take chances, though," Brother Miguel chimed in. "Rose, if I cast a Purification spell on it, do you think it would -- what's so funny?"

At the mention of the Purification spell, Rose chuckled as a memory came back. "Sorry, remembering something from the Albigenish Incident. Classic generation gap. There was this sergeant who was old as the hills, no magical skills but he knew everything there was to know about being in the army, and no inhibitions when it came to wine. There was also a little second looey about half his age who'd just got out of mage training and thought he knew everything. He was Orthodox and a teetotaler in the bargain, or he had been until sarge gave him his first taste of wine a week earlier."

"I can see this coming," Miguel interjected, smiling now himself, as Rose continued. "The unit found some Albigensian wine that they were using as bait in a booby trap of some kind, I forget what but we got it disabled without any trouble. The old guy wanted to guzzle the wine then and there as a prize of war. The looey stopped him, reamed him seven ways from Sunday, gave him this big long lecture about how the thing was probably poisoned ... and he cast a Purification spell on it. He'd forgotten that alcohol is technically a poison. And then he handed it to sarge with a flourish."

Miguel was starting to chuckle now. "And when the old guy opened it..."

"Right. He discovered that he was chugging a bottle of highly purified grape juice. I thought I was going to have to lock him down to keep him from killing the kid, or worse." Rose chuckled one more time, then went serious again. "Those were the days ... not. Anyway, let's hold onto this; it might come in handy later. But please resist temptation for now ... all kinds of temptation."

[Viking-Sensei]

"If I must choose one thing to be, it would be musician. There is something both beautiful and eternal about music that crass arts such as mere magic lack. And the things I can do with a fiddle... you'd think your soul were the strings, and beg to be played by such a master. But it is true, I am a man of many talents, fiddle aside... surely, you must understand what it is like to walk between two worlds?"

------------------------------------------------------------------------

The coffee cup, now empty, rocked slowly back and forth as Compassion launched from it and began a manic buzz about the room, eventually landing like a feather on Lillith's head. "So the old poison-in-the-wine-bottle trick, eh? Someone must like you guys. And that's exactly why I'm here. There is a grand destiny in store for you all... but just as it is my goal to usher you towards fulfilling your roles, there are are those who would move in shadows and darkness to force you towards their own dark ends. I am not allowed to directly influence any of your decisions... free will and all that... but I can provide council."

[Graybeard]

"There is a grand destiny in store for you all..."

Something doesn't sound right about that, Sister Rose thought as she watched the fairy out of the corner of her eye. The only "destiny" she had in mind at the moment was finishing the inquiries in Ramanzel, reporting back, and getting home to Kiyoka. Interesting that I call that "home" now...

If nothing else, the story of the sergeant and the lieutenant (which was even mostly true) seemed to have broken the mood slightly. That was good, and another opportunity was coming. "Let's start getting ready for dinner with Abbot Ranulph," she said. "We need to do it, and I can pretty well guarantee that the wine won't be poisoned there ... nor will it have been purified by an over-zealous second looey."

[OOC: Slight retconning here, as I'd forgotten it was the Reformed abbot that invited everyone to dinner, not Lauriel.]

[Sareth]

"That... sounds good..." Lillith responded, sounding like she wasn't really paying attention to the conversation. This was probably true, as her eyes seemed to be attempting to stare up through her own skull at the little figure sitting on her head. Her hands were slowly coming upwards, as though she were attempting to not spook a butterfly she was intending to capture. They made it about level with her shoulders, when she suddenly stopped moving, with a "WHAT AM I DOING?" look of horror on her face, and snapped her hands back down to her hips.

She turned, apparently as rapidly as she dared. "I should go change. I'll be right back," she said, then picked up her bag, head kept level the whole time.

[Graybeard]

[OOC: Oops, sorry, gotta retcon this fairly extensively. I forgot that it was the local Reformed abbot that was inviting everyone to dinner, not the base commander. Sorry. I'll use the dress whites bit some other time; it's a side of Rose that she rarely shows. Retconned version below.]

This will not turn out well, Sister Rose thought, as she watched Lillith retreat with the tiny winged woman atop her head. Something about the fairy just wasn't right. She couldn't be real Paedagogusi (could she?); they hadn't been seen in at least 5000 years, if the book at the Heretic Knowledge Vault was to be believed. But what else could she be? None of the answers were very satisfying.

Well, at least she'd gotten Lillith out of her funk. Maybe the nature worshiper could learn something about the nature sprite, given enough time. Now it was up to her to make that time possible.

"We'd better get ready to go," Brother Miguel said. "What do you know of this abbot?"

"Not much," Rose replied. "He's a distant cousin, four times removed or something like that. No big surprise there, Bishop Nuria has thousands of descendants by now and many of them are priests or nuns in our church. The first couple of generations after him were -- prolific." Although I'm not sure how many of them know about his private papers; I'm not the only one, for sure, but the ones who grew up out here in the sticks ... well. "I think I've met him, but I certainly don't know him. He's older than we are, and not easily impressed. I really don't know how he'll take to us showing up with an elven angel-figure on our shoulders, if that's what you mean."

"It is," Miguel said. "On the other hand, if she wants to come with us, we really can't stop her ... can we?"

"Probably best not to try," Rose said. "Let's gather up everyone else and head out. Maybe Argus can tell us more about the extortionists' interest in his daughter on the way; that might be interesting..."

[Drannin]

Argus decided to make himself presentable before dinner. Wandering back to his room, he concealed the wine in a safe place. If it was poisoned, then he didn't want someone stumbling upon it and getting any ideas. Punishment fitting the d=crime and all that. He looked in the mirror.

Weave. He missed robes. A shirt and pants just didn't feel right. Looked okay, though. At least he kept his hair and beard clean and groomed. How many lines did he have in his face now? A 48-year-old man shouldn't look like this. I look sixty. A very weathered sixty. Some of that's just in the blood, but still... In Argus' family, the men tended to mature fast. Before his exile, Argus had possessed a healthy, austere look to him that Cirella had loved. Six years of alcohol abuse had done some serious damage. Although... he certainly looked a bit better these days. Huh. I guess hanging out with the church is a good influence after all. Go figure.

Argus stared at himself in the mirror. Wondered how Harker was doing (probably okay). Wondered if Lillith was alright (most likely; the fairy seemed friendly enough).

Lillith...

Oh, weave...

Argus slowly sank onto the bed and lowered his face into his hands. In this suddenly peaceful environment, he let it all sink in.

[Graybeard]

Decked out in their Reformed robes, Sister Rose and Brother Miguel set off for dinner, the others trailing in their wake.

"Some local color here," Rose remarked as they walked. Lorenzel was a large enough city to have a diversity of churches, and not just numerous different denominations of the Veracian Church. She was pretty sure she saw a Temple of the Divine Dwarf; that was something you just didn't see in northern Veracia -- it'd attract mobs with torches and pitchforks in Emerylon. There were a couple of small structures that Miguel recognized as shrines for the animist religions of the Southern Continent as well. And Lillith ...

... Was being anxiously waved at by a crowd at the entrance to what looked like a grove.

Rose noticed the crowd, noticed Lillith looking at it. "It's all right if you want to check it out. We have plenty of time before dinner. Mommy and Daddy really don't mind," she added puckishly. "Do we, Argus?"

[Drannin]

"Whu?!" Argus yelped, just about leaving the ground. He looked at Rose in shock. How did she...?!

And then saw the surprise in Rose's eyes as she took in Argus' reaction. Oh, weave... she was just playing. Argus coughed and tried to recover. "Er...sorry. Just lost in thought. Do what you need to do, Lillith." He calmly walked away, trying to still the rapid beating in his chest.

Trying to ignore Rose's gaze, which he could feel burrowing into his back.

[Sareth]

What was that? Lillith wondered. She had taken Sister Rose' little joke as just that, a joke playing on the way Sister Rose and Argus seemed to be the oldest members of the group. But Argus' reaction had been quite peculiar.

Come to think of it, Argus had been acting somewhat peculiar ever since the incident with the ship. She hadn't really noticed before, being busy with... other things. But now that she thought on it...

What's bothering him?

She shook it off, and smiled at Sister Rose. "Are you sure we have the time?"

Sister Rose nodded with a smile, and though he seemed slightly uncomfortable, Brother Miguel nodded as well. Lillith looked at them for a moment, as though looking for a trick, then glanced over at the Temple of the Divine Dwarf, and the grove entrance, both openly displaying themselves. A smile grew on her face.

"If you wish to join us," she said, looking at the entire party, "you would be welcomed. You don't have to participate if you do not wish, but we would be glad of your company."

[Graybeard]

Now what was that all about? Sister Rose thought as Lillith walked -- almost flitted -- off to where the other pagans beckoned. Argus looks like he swallowed a watermelon. Was I insensitive with that crack? Probably. "I'm sorry, Argus," she said gently. "I know family is incredibly important to you, and you've talked about how much you love your daughter, even though she's in a place that's inaccessible to you now. I shouldn't have teased Lillith, and I probably should apologize to her, too. The poor thing is a continent away from her own mother, she doesn't even know who her father is, and -- now why are you looking at me like that?"

She didn't get to pursue the point with Argus, however, because the youthful Sister Penelope came bustling up to where they were standing. "Are you Doctor Cleiviein?" she asked, producing an envelope from within her robes (she was short and plump, and her robes contained plenty of places in which to hide such things). "We got a note at the temple to be passed on to you. It's from someone who says it's from a Captain Kee-- Kitaura, and he says it's important. Does that name mean anything to you?"