As Zileska tends to her clinic duties that day, she can hear a man's panicked shouts alongside a woman's moans and cries. Most of Stachys can hear the commotion. Just outside the clinic, a heavily pregnant woman sits slumped against the building, covered in sweat and her lower dress soaked with fluids. A man by her side frantically calls for help.
"Oh, gods! Are you a healer? My wife is in labor! We were trying to get to the Grand Bank in Lotheedar, but the baby's coming now! Please, help her!" He kneels by his wife and squeezes her hand. "Hold on, Calia! Hold on!"
"Tell it to the bloody baby, Dratus!" she snarls betweeen pained moans.
Having lived through this exact situation before, Zileska is immediately in action.
"Dratus? Inside. Fetch linens. Clean ones. Bring them here in a pile," she says in a commanding tone.
"Calia? How far apart are the contractions? When did your water break?" she says as she kneels down next to the woman with her black medical bag. She touches the woman's hand briefly but doesn't squeeze it, knowing all too well that she'll get caught in a vise grip under the current circumstances if she does so.
Zileska's commanding tone immediately has Dratus snapping to attention. "Linens, got it." He rushes inside to perform the task.
"My water broke just as we were arriving in town. And the contractions are-- Ah, bloody hell!" Calia whimpers and grits her teeth as pain wracks her body again. "Nngh, every three minutes? I don't know! It hurts!"
Zhi hears the commotion along with the rest of the village and arrives in time for the climax.
As the newborn is placed in the arms of its new parents, Zhi quickly steps back away from the gathered group and wipes her eyes.
It's so beautiful!
Realization sinks in a moment later.
Rule seventeen: You'll never get everything you want.
She looks back again at the happy family. Her gaze wistfully lingers for a moment longer before tearing her eyes away and directing her steps back towards the Wolf's Whisker.
Zhi spends the mornings enjoying her vocal instructions with Melodie. Her lessons go slower then planned because more then once Melodie will demonstrate to her a particular technique and when asked to repeat it, she finds that she was so busy enjoying the sound of Melodie's voice that she wasn't paying attention to the lesson being taught.
Her afternoons, she spends in Stachys, assisting however she can in whatever current improvement project the ladies are currently sponsoring.
Zhi spends her evenings pushing herself through fencing and stretching exercises, finishing off with whichever book has caught her attention from the manor's library.
Zhi finds Zileska when the half-elf has a spare moment.
"I want to apologize for my ... outburst ... the other day. It was a little overwhelming." She looks down at the floor. "I know that in your line of work ... discretion ... is ... stock and trade, but please don't tell Melodie about it?"
The girl meets Zileska's eyes, the pleading in them unspoken.
"I was also ... wondering ... if ... umm ... if I ... " her gaze wanders around the room. "Could I ... could I borrow one of those booklets?"
She turns a shy smile to the priest.
The labor is a grueling, exhausting process, but through it all, Zileska remains a steady rock for Calia to cling to. Soon, she begins to push, and after several excruciating minutes--
"It's a girl!"
Calia and Dratus sob with joy and relief as the wailing newborn enters the world. Zileska expertly cleans and inspects the baby, who is as healthy as can be, Calia cradles the child close to her chest and beams at the half-elf.
"Thank you. Thank you so much!"
---
The next day, you head out to investigate the rumors surrounding Lauchlein Lake. Located off the road about halfway between Stachys and Lotheedar, Lauchlein Lake is shallow and choked with frogs and water plants, making it an ideal home to all sorts of aquatic birds.
After traveling along the lakeshore for a short while, you come across a circle of moss-covered stones reminiscent of those from fairy stories. A single large trumpeter swan floats in the water nearby.
Upon spotting you, the swan lets out an angry honk before suddenly transforming before your eyes! Where once was a bird is now a tall, regal woman clad in a long cloak of pristine white swan feathers and silvery armor with a winged helm.
"Come to finish the deed, have you? I shall not be slain so easily! First, I will make you pay for your crimes!" She raises her bow menacingly.
"Wait! Please!" Zhi calls out, holding up her hands to show that they're empty. "We're not your enemy. We don't even know who you are."
She takes a step to put herself between the woman, her bow, and Melodie.
"Please, can we speak?"
The woman angrily nocks an arrow and draws back the string.
Sara raises her hands in a nonthreatening manner, saying, "Peace. We are new arrivals, come to investigate rumors of danger in the lake. We represent no threat to you."
"Take your lies back to your treacherous count! They are as poisonous as the monstrosity you released into my lake!"
The woman fires an arrow into the ground next to Sara.
"Please, there is no need for violence. We are not affiliated with Count Lotheed. Explain your grievances and we will aid in any way we can," Melodie says.
The woman hesitates, then lowers her weapon. "Very well. My name is Atratus. Long ago, this lake was the home to a fey court, but they retreated in the wake of your people's encroachment. I remained behind to preserve this as a wild place. You humans have no respect for the natural order, but the rulers of this land provided yearly gifts to appease my wrath. But your new count decided to ignore that tradition, and worse, released a horrible ooze into the lake in an attempt to eliminate me! My once resplendent waters are now a polluted mess, and the ooze gorges itself on my birds and fish!"
As the arrow strikes the ground, Zhi's hands reach for her weapons, but she pauses as Melodie speaks up.
"What kind of gifts did they provide? Were they ... ? we have heard that ... ", she begins but then falters.
"What would be acceptable gifts?" she finally says, trying again."And where is this ooze?"
"Traditionally, the gifts were gold, gems, or jewelry. Valuable baubles, but it was more about the pact they represented than their value.
"The ooze festers in the lake's northern hook. Slay it, and I will be in your debt."
"They didn't give you ... ? Uh ... yeah, we could arrange gold or jewelry. Is there anything you could tell us about the ooze?"
She looks around at the other ladies.
"Who knows anything about oozes?"
"It is a nauseating ochre color, and its touch is acidic. My arrows only cause it to split into smaller oozes," Atratus says.
"Umm ... ok" Zhi says nervously, looking down at her weapons. "No stabbing then."
She reaches into her bag and pulls out her hanbo. She gives it a flip and slaps it into her hand.
"Let's go find an ooze."
Maria listened to the explanation, drawing a blank on what oozes could do. The note about it splitting apart was something she could extrapolate from, though.
"Starting to regret not brewing up some acid or the like, now. Still, I suppose if we can't use an edge then Sara and I should at least be able to do something to it."
Zileska seems calm, almost removed, as she goes through the movements of the new arrival. As soon as the husband returns with the linens she points to a spot along the wall.
"There. Lay two of them out on the ground."
She takes the arm of Calia and squeezes once, then says, "We're going to move you onto the linens here in between contractions, and sit your back against the wall. Ready? Aaaanndddd... now." She hurriedly helps scoot the woman up against the wall.
"You've been pushing for a while now, so just a little bit longer and this'll be done!" she says brightly. She turns to the husband. "We can't move your wife inside at this point, so unless you want everyone on the street to see her business, I recommend you step inside, grab a table, haul it out here, and put it on its side so we have a little privacy."
She turns back to Calia, still crouched down, and says, "All right, I'm going to check on everything and make sure there aren't any problems." She opens her satchel and withdraws both a numbing ointment and a set of fresh, clean swatches of cloth. "You're doing find. This will all be fine."
Zileska ducks down to see how Calia's doing. "Not bad. You should be fully dilated soon. Then it's just pushing!" She pops back up to say with a grin, "Don't worry. I've helped with this kind of thing before."
It's several minutes of exhortations, soothing ministrations, and one badly-crushed husband's hand later that Zileska finally manages to bring forth the young girl, wipe her down, and place her into her mother's arms.
~~~~~~~~~~
Cleaning up after the delivery, Zileska wipes off her hands with one of the last clean pieces of linen, then replaces the scattered tools from her satchel back into the magical bag. "Haven't done that in a while," she says, bemused.
She picks up her satchel and heads back to the manor, where Zhi catches up with her.
"I'm happy to lend you one of my pillow books," the half-elf says. "Or talk you through what's going on in them. Or both. That's what I do! Help people to pursue their desires."
She sighs and says, "You're really adorable, you know? You've got that 'hapless waif' down pat. Of course we both know that when you put on your mask you're far tougher than that, but I suppose that's the personality you consider an act while this is the real you - the vulnerable, uncertain you."
"Don't worry, Zhi," she says with a smile, "I'm here to help you."
~~~~~~~~~~
Zileska listens to the presumed swanmay's tale with some interest. "Isn't that always the way? Some dissolute reprobate just gives up on the deal."
"I don't know anything about person-eating oozes, but how bad can it be?" she quips to her companions.
She sighs and says, "You're really adorable, you know? You've got that 'hapless waif' down pat. Of course we both know that when you put on your mask you're far tougher than that, but I suppose that's the personality you consider an act while this is the real you - the vulnerable, uncertain you."
Zhi frowns.
Is she making fun of me?
"I'm not sure if you're ... "
She shakes her head.
It doesn't matter. She's trying to help.
"Zileska, maybe the problem is that I haven't decided who I'm supposed to be. As time goes on I feel the pull of the person I was meant to be, the role I was meant to play, but ... I don't ... I don't think that's who I want to be. My mother's family has a long history of arcane magic, but I'll never be very good at it. My father groomed me to follow in his footsteps as one of the greatest thieves that ever lived, but I don't ... "
She rolls her eyes.
"Blah, blah, blah," she says with a laugh. "You probably get tired of hearing people drone on about their problems."
She turns to leave.
"I think the thing I like about the Raven is that I get to be someone without having to deal with the day-to-day consequences of being her. Life isn't like that, though. In life, sometimes, when you choose 'A', you don't get to choose 'B'."
Zhi turns back to smile at the priestess.
"Thanks for listening, though."
Zileska's dark eyes sparkle as she listens intently to Zhi.
"On the contrary," she says. "This is not boring at all. Understanding what makes people who they are is perhaps the most enlightening form of knowledge."
"You know... you can be both," she adds as Zhi explains her problem. "A sneak and a sorceress. You want so much to live up to your father's expectations that they are something you want. So you have a mixture going on, of what your parents were, and what you want to be. But you're not trapped just being one thing or another."
"Doesn't even matter if you're good at it," says Zileska, "as long as you're doing what you want."
"I'm here any time you want to talk." She winks. "Have fun with Melodie. I'm sure the book will be enlightening."
Zhi's face goes red.
"I almost forgot," she says as she reaches down and picks up one of the books.
"Thank you again," she says as she leaves.
Some choices have no middle ground, Zhi thinks to herself as she walks to the library, the image of the new-born baby strong in her mind.
As you travel to the northern hook of Lauchlein Lake, Melodie touches Sara's shoulder, instilling one of her mesmerist tricks in her mind.
Upon arrival, it's easy to see the truth of Atratus's story. This portion of the lake is a polluted mess, the waters cloudy, sickly brown, and barren of life. After a few minutes of exploring, the waters churn as a yellow-orange ameoboid creature emerges, pseudopods grasping as it surges toward you!
Melodie casts a spell, pinning its shadow in place. The monster tries to throw its bulk against the trap, but is still unable to move more than a few feet closer!
Zhi leans close to Melodie as the ooze rises from the water.
"Stay back," she says, before splashing forward in the foul water,
attempting to flank the thing.
"Where do you hit this thing?" she calls out in frustration.
Sara racks her head, but comes to find that she's never heard of an ooze that's ochre. Frankly, she's not even sure what color ochre is.
"So that's ochre."
Drawing a leg from her purse, Sara assumes a position opposite Zhi and swings.
Sword cane in hand, Maria downed her strength-enhancing extract as they neared the ooze's location. As finally reached it, she charged and brought her sheathed weapon down on it as a makeshift club.
Melodies advanced cautiously to within 30 feet of the creature and reaches out with her mins and her voice, whose eerie song floats across the water to the ooze. As she sings she prepares to cast her spell again, realising that the best thing she can do is hold it for the rest to batter.
Ready for the attack, Zileska opens with prayer, followed by bless.
Calistria's blessings bolstering the group, Zhi, Maria, and Sara all move in around the ooze, bashing it and battering its amorphous form.
The creature lashes out at Maria, smacking the tiefling with a psuedopod. It fails to grab a hold of her, and her fiendish nature protects her from its acid.
Sara jabs at the thing, hard, trying to shove the table leg in it and break it off.
Frustrated at having so little of an effect on the creature, Zhi attacks with both of her weapons.
Assuming the ooze isn't already overcome, Zileska taps Zhi and gifts her with a bit of luck.
Cursing as the acid burnt into her (and, of course, the blunt force trauma), Maria retaliated with her cane once more.
Maria bashes the ooze again before Zhi whacks it with her hanbo. When she slashes with her sword, though, the creature splits in two, both jellies wriggling menacingly! Fortunately, Sara quickly flattens one of the smaller oozes, leaving just one again. Melodie screams at that one, blasting portions of its gelatinous body. Zileska grants Zhi a bit of luck.
The ooze lunges again, but this time fails to hit!
With a mighty thwack, Maria delivers the finishing blow with her sheathed sword cane! The jelly collapses into an inert mass of acidic protoplasm.
"Well... that didn't last long," Maria remarked as the jelly finally fell, "hope that didn't wreck the finish on my cane. Or wreck my coat."
"I'm sorry, I didn't know it would do that," Zhi says in frustration.
She cleans her weapons off as best she can before stowing them away. Once this is done, she looks around the area to survey the devastation that the creature has done.
"I like him less and less the more I see how Lotheed handles his authority. The sooner we unseat him the better," she says finally. "Let's head back to Atratus."
Once the ladies have returned to areas less polluted, Zhi takes Melodie's hand as they walk along the water's edge.
"Without that disgusting thing gone, this place is pretty nice," she says looking around.
~~~~~
"We've destroyed the ooze," Zhi says to the swan maiden(?). "I don't know enough to say how long it will take for that part of the lake to recover. What I can tell you is that Lotheed won't be in power around here for much longer. We have some influence to the one that will replace him and we will see what we can do to restore the tribute to maintain this as a preserve."
"Whatever damage has been done to your home, we will do all that we can to help repair," Melodie says sincerely.
Atratus nods solemnly. "I am grateful for your aid. If you have need of my bow in the coming conflict, I will fight against this Lotheed villain at your side. I shall also reward you directly. Follow me."
The swan maiden leads you to a secluded part of the lake before she dives into the water. She emerges several minutes later, ferrying several large crates full of gears, mechanisms, oils and tools. "I liberated these from poachers several years ago. Perhaps they may be of some use to you. And this treasure is one of a more personal nature."
She presents you with a mask made of porcelain inset with blue and green gems and decorated with golden filigree. "This belonged to a lover I took millennia ago. I have protected it all these years, waiting for somebody worthy of the honor of wearing it. I know little about it, save that it was once worn by a singer whose voice left kings weeping and mountains low." A wistful of expression briefly flickers across her features.
The wearer gains a +2 competence bonus on Sense Motive checks and can use comprehend languages once per day. The wearer can mentally activate the mask as a swift action while conversing with someone or observing a conversation to use detect thoughts (DC = 17 + 1 per additional triumph attained) on a single participant in the conversation. This requires spending the normal number of rounds to detect surface thoughts and can be used for a total of 9 rounds per day. These rounds don’t need to be consecutive.
"Then it should be worn by another such singer," Zhi says with a smile as she takes the mask and turns to Melodie.
"With your permission, M'Lady," she says as she places it on Melodie's face. As the mask vanishes leaving its artistic patterns behind, Zhi's fingers reach out and trace the lines tenderly.
After a moment she frowns. "I wish it didn't change your eyes," she says.
"It will let you read minds?" Zhi says in surprise. The wheels turn for a moment before she says, "What am I thinking right now?"
Her smile grows before reaching out and, with a single finger on Melodie's lips, prevents her from saying anything. "Nevermind."
Zileska re-stows her gear as she makes her way out of the water's edge. "That wasn't too difficult," she says. "Though admittedly, the rest of you did all the work."
~~~~~~~~~~
Once returned to town, Zileska putters about and makes a few purchases. She tracks down the home of the new parents, Calia and Dratus.
She arrives at their simple domicile carrying a small bassinet (like a wicker basket!), with a pillow in the bottom, a full folded bolt of soft cotton cloth atop the pillow, and a selection of choice ripe fruits and a few gold coins scattered on top of the cloth.
"Surprise!" she says when she's answered at the door. "I wanted to come by to check on the welfare of the new girl. And make sure that mum and dad are doing well, too! Do you mind if I come in?"
"I brought you this basket, which you can carry her in while you are doing business about town. At least until she outgrows it! Then she can use it to carry vegetables or dolls or whatnot," says Zileska as she hands the bassinet over. "There's a full bolt of cotton inside, you can use that for swaddling or a blanket or to make a dress for her or anything useful. Also some tasty fruit - if mom's eating well, baby eats well. And dad should have one too, it's nerve-wracking being a new parent! Plus a few coins for a rainy day."
"If you don't mind I'd like to do some follow-up care."
She asks a few questions, about whether they need help with feeding or care, making sure that the newborn is still healthy, that she's eating and sleeping and pooping, and notes that while it's normal for newborns to cry often, they should also sleep sometimes and be quiet sometimes, so as long as she isn't always crying she's probably fine.
"Also," she says with a wag of her finger, "No sex for the next month. Too risky! You could tear something. Sorry, but I mean it!"
Calia and Dratus are grateful for the gifts. "You've done so much for us. We wanted to honor you, so we decided to name our daughter after you," Dratus says.
"Little Zillie," Calia says, beaming at her baby.
The baby's face scrunches up as she lets out an explosive poop!
"Ew! Your turn, dada!" Calia quickly hands the baby to her husband.
"Awww! Please, allow me," she says, interceding to help change the swaddling. "Done this, too," she quips. She boops the baby on the nose and says, "All right, little Zillie, you have to grow up taller and stronger and prettier than me! Deal? No pressure!"
Zillie stares at her namesake with wide eyes. Then she starts wailing at the top of her lungs, shooting out another blast of poop just before the half-elf finishes changing her for good measure!
Unfazed, Zileska gives little Zillie a tiny tap on the head that causes her to suddenly become silent just long enough to be freshly cleaned and changed.
"I need to figure out how to use prestidigitation," she mutters to herself. Then she hands the baby back over to Calia. "Here you go. She's wonderful. I'll see you both around town!"
The priestess waves goodbye and makes her way back to the manor house to rejoin the other ladies.
"There you are, sweet thing! Oh, I missed you something dreadful!" Duchess Veleto veritably pounces upon Zileska the moment she returns to the manor. "Shall we make up for lost time?"
Zhi spends the rest of the afternoon at the Wolf's Whisker, conferring with Kurana. Their conversation is full of whispers and quiet humming. Occasionally the musician pulls out her lute and plays some light notes. The young rogue glares at anyone that attempts to sit too close to their table.
As evening falls, she returns to the manor softly humming parts of a melody.
As Zhi makes her way to the manor, she hears sobs and whimpering. A young girl sits huddled against the wall of a store, arms wrapped around her legs.
Zhi's initial reaction is to look around for the child's parents.
"Hey there, little one," she says as she slowly moves closer and then sits down next to the girl. "What's wrong? Where's mommy?"
Zhi doesn't see the girl's parents anywhere nearby. The girl looks up at her before scooching away.
"I'm not supposed to talk to strangers," she says.
"Well that's good, because there's some pretty strange people out there," Zhi says, making a show of looking around suspiciously. She then looks back to the little girl and smiles.
"I'm Zhi. Let's see if we can find your mommy. You want to do that right? What's your name?"
The girl sniffles and wipes at her eyes. "I'm Trinnia. I don't know where Momma went, or where Mom went, either! We were shopping and I saw a pretty butterfly and followed it, but it flew away and now I'm lost!"
"Well, here, take my hand and let's go find them," Zhi says, standing up and extending her hand with a comforting smile.
Zhi starts with Onora at the Wolf's Whisker and then proceeds to scour the town looking for Mom and Momma.