Nary smirks. "I don't get into trouble, it just follows me around."
She switches gears from message to a normal conversation - she turns to look up at Auraelia, her face serious.
Nary entertains herself during their conversation by psychically making it seem like a random townsfolk in the waiting room across from them is loudly passing gas. Over and over, in the middle of their otherwise serious conversation - softly at first, but then more frequently and with more volume. She picks out a guy that is sitting next to some other people, hoping to force them into moving to another seat and making him feel real awkward.
"Hey, I didn't know that. I just dunno how useful I'd be in a job like that, y'know?" She shrugs. "I can't rip apart giant crocodiles, like you..."
"And I'm really glad we saved your daughter. I was real worried for a moment, I can't imagine what you were feeling..."
"You have a way with words that I don't, and magic that I don't really understand. You're probably quite a bit smarter than I am too," she says sheepishly. "I can track and fight, but I've never been good at much else, which is why I was always trying to find odd jobs. Not many people in Korvosa work with Shoanti either. if Marius was Shoanti too we'd probably be living in a hovel in Bridgetown," she says sullenly. "Or back among my quah," she thinks, though the thought carries as much anger as it does sadness.
Auraelia nods at Nary's sentiment regarding Sigrid. "Honestly? I was terrified when I saw the crocodile jump for her. I thought I would have to go home with Sigrid's body to Marius, she whispers, somewhat embarrassed that she had been so scared. It was not the sort of thing a Shoanti warrior admitted to.
"How did you and your sister wind up in Korvosa?" she asks tentatively, curious but clearly worried it might be considered prying.
Having gathered everything that they needed in order to feed their swarm of tiny minions, Ila and Maria headed back to her home - Maria ensuring that everyone knew that they were welcome to join them, before they did.
Once they arrived, Maria set to work cooking for the children; eggs certainly went a very long way when it came to feeding them. She went with a simple vegetable-meat-egg scramble, which could easily be doled out or even eaten straight from the pot, given time to cool.
Meanwhile, Ila slowly goes through each of the little packages that Gaedran had collected, scrutinizing them carefully... first for emotional investment, and then for magical investment.
The Strongbox's Contents:
-A narrow teak cigar case inlaid with jade
-a 2-pound gold ingot, minted in Cheliax
-a miniature gold crown
-a fist-sized scrimshaw carving of a kraken with garnets for eyes
-a silver ring with an inscription on the inner edge - "For Emmah - the light in my nights."
-A very realistic and very scandalous ivory figurine of two succubi, erotically entwined.
-A masterwork shuriken
-an adamantine arrowhead
-an abalone-shell holy symbol of Shelyn
-a tiny glass tube with a dose of magic oil within
-an obsidian wand
-a crystalline vial containing a dose of a viscous silver substance
-a beautiful bejeweled brooch, depicting a silver imp and a golden pseudodragon locked in combat, with a broken clasp.
Ila picks out the silver ring, the brooch and the abalone-shell holy symbol, placing them aside... then focuses her attention on the tube and wand.
"The ring, holy symbol, and brooch we should seek to return to their proper owners. They're... important to them in some way." she says quietly, as her hands play with the two entwined rings around her neck. "I don't know what either liquid is. The wand strikes with force unerringly. It is... mostly drained."
Aaron gets his things packed away and keeps close to Ila as they head back to her place. He finds a quiet spot and tells the children to give him some space, reminding them that he's working with explosives and very poisonous mixtures. He carefully mixes a few reagents together, following the guidelines in he books to put together some crude but effective handheld explosives. The odd poisonous mixture takes a bit more time, but he's satisfied with the vial of shimmering green liquid. He was less than pleased trying to mix up the extracts. "How the f!%$ do you 'infuse your essence' into something? Magic mumbo jumbo..."
He finally manages to get one of extracts working and decides that he's had more than enough of trying to get the alchemy tricks to work out. He hears Ila's suggestion and nods. "Fine by me. I'm sure they'll be plenty grateful if they afford nice pieces like these." His eyes linger on the dragon and imp entwined on the broach. "That one." He points to the broach. "That one belongs to the queen, right? It's return might merit a reward. The rest can be pawned off easily enough, or used if it's useful."
He picks up the vial of silvery liquid. A similar concoction was described in his alchemy book. "Huh, this vial's a handy little trick that turns your weapon silver for a while. Might be useful if we run into any devils that give us trouble." He picks up the other vial, turning it over in his hands for a moment.
He just shakes his head. "Yeah, I have no idea on this one though."
Once everyone else finishes their shopping, Mavarro follows them back to Ila's place. He needed to visit his grandmother soon, but at the moment he still had some commitments to his 'accomplices' that he needed to keep. That, and he still had no idea how to explain the events of the previous night to her. 'Oh, yes grandmother, a ghost convinced me and some other fellows to murder a crotchety old criminal.' Hm. I'm sure that would go over well.
He helps Aaron and Ila peruse the contents of the strongbox again, now that they have the time and luxury to do so properly. When the others fail to identify the oily substance, Mavarro holds it in front of his eyes and concentrates.
"Ah. This oil transmutes weapons so that they can strike one's vitals more easily. An assassin's tool if I've ever seen one," he remarks, glancing at Aaron.
"I'm all for returning Ileosa's brooch," he says with some hesitation, remembering the mobs from the night before, "We should just be, ah, careful about it. I mean, how would we even go about it? Walk right up to her castle?"
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You have to schedule with the castle seneschal though, if you want to be sure to not waste an entire day waiting in line.
It's about four hours in the waiting room for Nary and Auraelia, and Nary is successfully able to trick many people into various hilarious circumstances with her psychic magic.
At the end of the waiting time, somebody comes to fetch them, brings them to Kroft's office again and sees them in. Inside is Kroft, smiling, with a form to be signed. Beside her is Isabel. While Isabel is in godawful prison clothes, she appears to be just fine.
"Everything's checked out." says Kroft. "I just need you to sign this release form and you can have Isabel and all of the stuff she had when we took her in."
She shifts her focus to Auraelia. "And if you want work... Come back tomorrow. Bring your friends. I'm sure I'll have something for the extra manpower - we need all the people we can get these days."
"We could... but I don't know if that's wise." Ila says, watching the objects before her, and not looking up. "If we're blamed for taking it... it would be bad. But only if she were... not in her right mind, would she blame us for returning a brooch."
Aaron frowns. "Give how things have been since last night, I wonder if they're still letting people in to see her at all. A fanatic could use a meeting like that to try and assassinate her. Still, I suppose it's the only way we'd have a chance to return it. Or maybe we could deliver it to the seneschal and see if he can just pay us and let us leave without having to see the queen. Surely her servants would recognize her jewelry."
"More likely to be seen as thieves if we hand them jewelry and ask for a ransom. If we give it to someone, they'll likely take credit. If you're interested in a reward, handing it over personally seems best."
Aaron grits his teeth. "I hate to say, you make sense. I suppose we should head up to the castle and see if it's still possible to get in and see her." His hands immediately go over his outfit once, checking his gear. He feels an abnormal twinge of nervousness. Something feels... dangerous about going to visit the queen.
Mavarro grimaces. He knew that it was easy enough to schedule a meeting, but after what happened the previous night... he had assumed things would become more complicated. Perhaps I should consult the cards again... he thinks, folding his arms and stroking his chin. Before he could go much further with that thought, an entirely different matter strikes him. It was disturbingly easy to forget about, given that Maria was still shepherding the children as though nothing had happened, but her rotting head was still sitting somewhere in the house.
"Ah, Ila... under the circumstances, there is really no delicate way of putting this, but..." The witch sighs, rubbing the back of his head. She really seemed to be recovering from the shock of her mother's death, and Mavarro was hesitant to approach the issue. "...we still need to bury your mother. I'm not really sure if that still means anything for her spirit, but..." He shrugs helplessly, almost wishing he had not brought it up again.
Ila nods. "Yes, we should. But..." she looks to the children arranged within the room. "We need to wait for Auraelia and Sigrid, so that we can mend their wounds."
Auraelia whiles away the time watching Nary's mischief. When Isabel gets brought out, she stands up and waits for the Field Marshall to approach. She lets Nary take care of the paperwork, then responds to Marshall Kroft's request.
"Thank you Field Marshall, we'll be sure to come around tomorrow then!" she says, sounding more than a little excited at an opportunity for work.
Auraelia lets Nary and Isabel say their hellos before giving her a smile and a small wave. "Hello, Isabel, I'm Auraelia. I'm a friend of Nary's as of last night," she says with a bit of a grin.
"We should go join Ila, Mavarro and Aaron, they'll want to hear about this opportunity Nary, and also meet Isabel I imagine! Plus I still have a crocodile to dress before it starts to go bad."
Maria continues serving food and entertaining children. "We also need to think about where to put these children. They can't stay here forever. They need somewhere safe."
At Mavarro's mention of her body, she nods. "Yes, I agree. We should make going down to the Gray District a chore. But it is not my head that's keeping me here. It's... Ila. And it's this." she says, sweeping her hand to show the children. "And that." she says, pointing outside to the smoke-filled horizon.
"As for the Queen... Be very careful. I won't be accompanying you, as I'm unsure they'll be happy to see ghosts up there in the castle. I doubt she's as bad as the rioters say but she might be something."
- - - - -
"A friend?" asks Isabel, cocking an eyebrow. "Alright, if you say so." She gives Nary a hug and exchanges greetings quickly before turning and saying, "Can we go? I don't like this place."
She doesn't bother to say "no offense" to Kroft.
"I don't mind you not coming." Ila says, still looking over the items that had real emotion invested in them. "If too many people arrive, it will create some sort of affair. I... don't really have any ideas for the children, other than 'here'. What do you guys think?" she asks, looking over the kids, "And which of you can remember where you live? Really live."
"I agree that bringing a ghost to meet the queen is probably a bad idea and that the queen is probably up to something dangerous. But I don't really know anything about what to do with the kids. Maybe one of the temples would take them in if they have nowhere to go."
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Nary listens to Auraelia. She knows how it feels to have to go worrying about money. She had decades to refine her skills, and poor, weak humans didn’t have that luxury. So she responds honestly - ”Those are good skills! You shouldn’t try so hard to find people who wanna pay you for your skills. You should just go to people and tell them why they need your skills. People are… impressionable. They just want to be told what to do, sometimes.”
She answers her question - ”Dunno, we like to travel! We’ve been all over Varisia, and I think this is the last big city here we haven’t lived in.”
Nary manages to amuse herself in the waiting room with ghost sound, which is good because she’s never had to sit in the same place for four hours straight ever, in her life. She perks up when she is lead to Kroft, and all but sprints to her sister to embrace her in a hug. They're identical - down to the shocking pink hair - which is unusual for gnomes.
”Oh, gods, Isabel! I’ve had to deal with ghosts and mobs and crocodiles to get you out of here. You had better be grateful,” she snaps, but she’s shaking.
”This is Auraelia, she’s good at tracking and hunting stuff, especially crocodiles! She helped me save you. But you’re right. We need to get out of here.” She turns to Kroft and offers a quick bow. ”Thanks so much!”
She grabs her sister's hand - she doesn't want to let her out of sight again.
"You have a way with words! If I want people to do something, I have to yell at them, which I'm ok with. But intimidating people into giving me work is uncomfortably close to intimidating them for their money. I have enough trouble as a Shoanti without living up to the stereotype. Things were much easier back in my Quah," she says sadly.
"Off we go then!" Auraelia says, unable to keep from smiling at the reunited sisters. "As I told Nary, the two of you are welcome to stay with Marius and I if you don't have somewhere to stay for now," She says as they leave the building. "Although... it will get crowded once Sigrid is up and running about again! I think she inherited my energy and strength, she never seems to rest!" she says proudly.
Isabel looks Nary up and down, really quick. Then her eyes flick to Auraelia, up high above them. "You'll have to tell me the truth, later." she says, before she grabs Nary by the hand and starts to lead her out of the Citadel. Kroft waves goodbye behind them before calling in the next supplicant.
Nobody stops them, of course, on the way out of the Citadel. The streets just outside of it are quite deserted. Smoke still rises from the horizon.
- - - - -
Three of the kids - conspicuously the three youngest amongst the group - raise their hands at Ila's question, and each comes up to her and tries to talk over the others, trying to explain how to find their houses. All three of them get angry at being interrupted and within a minute there's a tiny fight happening between seven-year-olds.
Maria looks on passively. "The temples? Abadar's is the biggest and it's a bank. Asmodeus' is the second-biggest. We don't want to be going near that."
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Okay, so maybe there is somewhere than the fishery for them, Mavarro shudders at the mention of the Dark Prince. He couldn't exactly dump them on his grandmother, either. He pinches the bridge of his nose as the children fight, pondering their dilemma. There's another conversation I'm not looking forward to...
"And I don't suppose there are any orphanages willing to take them in," he thinks aloud. At least some of them apparently still had homes to go to, so they were not exactly all orphans.
"Alright, so we drop the three that still have families off at their homes when we have the chance. That solves at least three of them. I was more thinking the temples of Sarenrae or Shelyn in the north end. They're big enough bleeding hearts to take in some orphans if we asked right." The mention of Asmodeus hardly bothers him. Though he's not fond of the Lord of Hell's laws, he's more than happy to treat him like he does most gods: staying out of their way and letting them bother each other instead of interfering with his life. "I wouldn't leave anyone at an orphanage around here. Rumors were goin' around that Lamm outright bought some of his kids from one of the orphanages."
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Auraelia takes the lead, guiding the two sisters back to Ila's house. As they go she occasionally stops to look at the two, amazed at how alike they are. When they finally arrive, she knocks at the door before opening it and letting herself in. She's surprised to find everyone distracted by a fight between orphans, so she clears her throat, "We're back everyone! We managed to get the charges against Nary's sister dropped. I'll let Nary introduce her, but before that, I wanted to say that the Field Marshall also wanted us to come by tomorrow and discuss possibly being paid to help out the guard with jobs that they can't handle. I volunteered myself, but you are all welcome to come along, she was interested in all the help she could get."
Ila looks to the two as they enter, from her position where she'd been when Auraelia had first entered the house. This time, however, Maria was nearby, standing a few feet away. Ila shakes her head, no as she stands, "Being a guard isn't for me." she says, and the crosses the room. Testing her connection to the rings, she focuses on them... and finds a font of devotion within. As she floods with that emotion, what she should do becomes clear. The Pharasman swirl that Ila had previously utilized to heal, flowing counter-clockwise appears, before she holds out her hand to touch Auraelia's bicep.
Aaron nods to the arriving gnomes. "Congratulations on getting out of jail. I'll take you down to the Lamia's Den later. Bartender's policy is to give free drinks to anyone who gets out of the jail." He scowls in Auraelia's general direction. "The law and I don't mix well. But we need to run up to the castle at some point soon anyway."
"I'm okay with helping... just, being a guard isn't my 'job'." she says looking to the children. "Finding a place for them is. Also, we need to go take care of Sigrid." she adds, before moving across the room, the box is sitting on the table, mostly full, but with three objects sitting out.
"This ring, 'For Emmah', this holy symbol of Shelyn, and the queen's brooch all show a great deal of invested emotion. I think we should attempt to find their owners, rather than simply selling them. The rest mean little to their original owners... which means it would be significantly more difficult to return them." Ila adds as she continues to not make eye contact while speaking, most of the time.
"I'm not interested in being a guard, but I need money, and I imagine the Field Marshall wants to use us to do things her guards might not be able to do, like getting rid of Lamm," Auraelia responds to the concerns of the others.
Auraelia smiles warmly at Ila when she brings up Sigrid of her own accord. "That would be great! I really appreciate it Ila, thank you. I hope I can make it up to you somehow. I'll be much less worried about her when she's up and about again. We can go whenever, you'd like, I need to take the croc back home anyway!" She says, sounding quite grateful, and a little bit surprised that she didn't even need to ask Ila.
"It's no trouble at all." she says, looking towards her mother. 'it doesn't even drain me, like my normal magic.' she adds to herself. "We have a lot to do. Returning the Brooch is the most straightforward. Finding the owners of the others will be more difficult. We need to help Sigrid as well. We don't need to stay together for all of that, I don't think... though with the streets as they are, and Hellknights." she says, shaking her head. "Do any of you have specific tasks you would prefer?"
"Ah, dark times these, when the Korvosan Guard is forced to endorse vigilante justice," Mavarro says with an exaggeratedly woeful voice. "But I could use the money as well. Harrow readings don't rake in the gold like they used to. Er, not that they ever did to begin with, but you get my point."
Hearing Ila's suggestion of splitting up, Mavarro thinks it over. "Hm. Well, I think the queen would want all of us to be present to return the brooch. Not that I particularly care what the queen thinks, but since she's apparently the one in charge now, it'd be wise not to displease her. Assuming she cares, anyway. For all I know she'd assume that we stole it in the first place, and then it'd be off with our heads, yeah?"
The Varisian lets out a sigh, realizing that he is going off tangent.
"Anyway, I can lend a hand with Sigrid as well. And I figure we can sell anything that doesn't have a name attached to it."
"I've done a little side work for the guard before, but there's a difference between bounty hunting and working directly for the guard. Gold is gold I guess, but I want to know what I'm getting into before I get involved with them. Still, probably better to get the things we took from Lamm and the kids, Sigrid included, before we bother gettin' involved with somethin' else."
The Strongbox's Contents:
-A narrow teak cigar case inlaid with jade
-a 2-pound gold ingot, minted in Cheliax
-a miniature gold crown
-a fist-sized scrimshaw carving of a kraken with garnets for eyes
-a silver ring with an inscription on the inner edge - "For Emmah - the light in my nights."
-A very realistic and very scandalous ivory figurine of two succubi, erotically entwined.
-A masterwork shuriken
-an adamantine arrowhead
-an abalone-shell holy symbol of Shelyn
-a tiny glass tube with a dose of magic oil within
-an obsidian wand
-a crystalline vial containing a dose of a viscous silver substance
-a beautiful bejeweled brooch, depicting a silver imp and a golden pseudodragon locked in combat, with a broken clasp.
Marius is happy to see Auraelia again, though when she's seen with yet another two eccentric-looking friends, he cocks a head at her. "Who are these two?" he asks. He chuckles a bit. "Where are you going to meet all of these new friends?"
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Auraelia drops the rope she'd been tugging and runs over to hug Marius as they enter. She laughs at his response to bringing in new friends and turns to look at them. "I have been making a lot of new acquaintances lately, haven't I?" she says with a laugh.
"Marius, this is Ila, she's Maria's daughter. You remember her yes, the midwife who was with us when Sigrid was born. And this is Mavarro! Both of them were also there when we rescued Sigrid." she says happily. "They came to take a look at her, they're both healers to some extent and they offered to help since she was wounded so badly."
She finishes dragging Gobblegut into the room, trying to find a place to put it until she can take it out and skin it. "And this is the creature that wounded both Sigrid and I. I intend to put him to good use, it's the least he can do after causing us so much pain and trouble."
"Sigrid's over here," she says, turning to look at the two before, gesturing towards a nook in the back with a very rudimentary bed.
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Maria rests 'comfortably' within Ila's consciousness as they move through town this time. Not paying too much attention to the conversation that is occuring, Ila slips in the doorway, and as soon as Auraelia points her towards the child, she crosses the distance and then places a hand on Sigrid, checking her temperature, before beginning to unbind her wounds so that they'll be clear of bandages and detritus when Ila heals her.
After she has cleared out the areas around Sigrid's wounds, she focuses on the devotion held within the pair of rings around her neck. The same counter-clockwise Pharasman swirl appears in her hands as she places her palm to the girl's chest. After radiating the healing magic through her, she begins to check what remains of the wounds, and rebinding what needed binding, the whole process taking a little over an hour, during which she'd be happy to listen to the others talk.
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"Ah, so you're the lucky husband!" Mavarro says, smiling at Marius, "You've married quite the woman! Would you believe that she jumped right into a crocodile pit to save Sigrid? And you can see who won that little fight." He gestures at the carcass. "His name is Gobblegut, by the way... in case you want to hang his head from a placard, or something."
Hearing again that Ila was the huntress' midwife, he looks over at her as she heals Sigrid. Hm. Quite the coincidence, that. This is almost ironic. Once she is finished, he walks on over to give a second opinion. In any case, Ila was a "true" healer... Mavarro was just fortunate to have some family watching his back. Well, not quite as literally as with Maria, anyway.
He checks over Sigrid's wounds, admiring Ila's handiwork (there was not exactly much left to fix), before ever so slightly tugging on the strands of fate. Whether he was doing so figuratively or literally was something for scholars and philosophers to debate. Drawing on his ancestors' power, he summons forth a small surge of positive energy and channels it through the little girl's body.
"Well done, Ila! She is as good as new!"
"I suppose this means you have your daughter back now." Ila says, turning around with a small smile on her face, she actually looks towards Auraelia for a moment, as she continues. "I'll send my bill later."
As the others head out, Aaron scoops up the lock box full of the trinkets they managed to 'liberate' from Lamm's warehouse. "I'll go take care of this while you're doing taking care of Auraelia's kid then. I know a guy who can get me a good price, or at least a fair one. I'll be back in a few hours. Don't follow me." Aaron hefts the collection of his shoulder and heads out to visit a fence and get the, in all likelihood, stolen goods disposed of.
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