| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
"What the hell, Zhi? You really think I'd do that?" Her voice cracks as she forces back a tear. "We dated for three months, I'd have thought you'd know me better than that, but apparently not. It is remarkable how little faith you have in me or your own gods-damned wife, after everything. I happen to respect your relationship and the bounds of it, not to mention, Melodie looks hideous like that."
She takes a breath, trying to slow down and calm herself. It doesn't help. "I don't even know how you heard 'I slept with your wife' from 'I banged the elf'. Stop projecting."
She leaves the girl to run off, returning to Melodie a bit ruffled. "She's acting like a child," is all she says, arms folded.
"I didn't say you slept with her!" Zhi turns to cry back, her emotions turning her voice into a shriek. She continues her walk down the tunnel and out of sight.
~~~~
Once she arrives at her room at the Baths, she drops her gear on the floor, kicks off her boots, and curls up on the bed to ponder why everything now seems turned upside down.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
She leaves the girl to run off, returning to Melodie a bit ruffled. "She's acting like a child," is all she says, arms folded.
"I'll talk to her later." Melodie says, glacial calm regained. She helps the rest of the group sort the remaining valuables before heading back to the baths alone.
Once there she goes upstairs to their shared room, opens the door quietly and takes a seat, staring at her wife's curled up form on the bed.
Zhi can feel the weight of Melodie's stare on her, and it only becomes more and more palpable the longer the silence hangs. When Zhi eventually rolls over to face her wife Melodie is still sitting, very upright, and looking very very angry.
"Would you mind telling me, d'Valois Mai Zhi, what exactly I have done?" She asks, voice calm - too calm. "I'm afraid I don't understand what exactly I did that would cause my wife and the mother of my child to sudden reject me. You'd better speak slowly and use small words because apparently I am too stupid to understand. That's if you're willing to speak to me at all, since apparently you don't value me or our relationship enough to even stop and explain yourself rather than just walking off!" The calm veneer has cracked and Melodie's voice rises to something only slightly below shouting.
"I have no idea what I did to hurt you, no idea what happened and now you won't even look at me! Well you listen, wife! Listen well! I did not sleep with the elf! I did not sleep with Sara! And I never want to sleep with anyone apart from you!" She takes a deep breath and her entire face smooths, all trace of anger vanishing like a flicked switch. "If you care to explain, if you LOVE me at all then you know how to reach me."
She stands to leave.
As Melodie reaches the door, she feels the lightest touch on her mind.
{"I love you."}
This is followed by a trickle of emotions which quickly turns into a flood. Loneliness. Abandonment. Inadequacy. Feelings all rush through Melodie's mind in a torrent of longing.
{"I'm so sorry I hurt you. I don't know why I said those things."}
The maelstrom of emotions blends into a single flavor; Fear.
{"I wanted this so badly I think I've tainted it. The shadows won't let me control my thoughts. They spin this way and that. They show me horrible things."}
Fear of rejection. Fear that she's harmed her daughter already. Fear that she's losing her mind.
{"Don't leave me."}
Zileska makes a late appearance - apparently she was off running errands or preaching or doing whatever it is she does when she's not lazing around the manor - and she quietly knocks on the door to the baths.
"Anyone home? I heard some shouting, so I figured I'd check. Also I brought chocolates." She holds up a small box of confections from the shop.
Zhi glances between the door and her wife. She then calls out in a tenuous voice, "It's open, Zil. C-Come in."
As the woman enters, Zhi continues to direct a pleading look towards Melodie.
"Hey ladies!" says Zil. She immediately takes in the social tenor of the room and says, "Oh, Zhi, what's going on? Looks awful. Mel, good, you're here." She sidles over and places a hand gently on Mel's arm before she sits down next to Zhi. "Do you wanna talk about it? Or do you just wanna have a chocolate and let it out?"
The small woman looks down at the bed.
"I'm pregnant, Zil," she says with a deep breath. "But I think I've screwed it all up. Something's wrong. I can't get a handle on ... there are all these thoughts and feelings spinning around in my head and ... " Her head comes up and she looks over at Melodie. "You heard the things I said. I know Mel would never cheat on me."
She takes a slow breath.
"Please say something, Mel," she pleads.
Zil puts a comforting arm around Mai's shoulders.
"No, you didn't screw it all up. Being pregnant means all kinds of feelings go into overdrive as your body gets ready for you to bring up a new life that you will have to protect! That means you will be sensitive and always on the look out for threats and worries and stuff that goes wrong." She rubs Zhi's shoulder comfortingly. "Your feelings will be on high alert! But if nobody ever told you this before then neither of you would know to expect it."
She gently bonks her head against Zhi's for a moment and continues, saying, "Having these kinds of emotions is normal. Probably the most normal thing to happen to both of you in the last year! And given your connection I wouldn't be surprised if Mel's feeling some of the emotions too, feeling that sense of worry and anxiety and a high-strung sense of needing to get to a secure place."
"It's okay. It's going to be okay. You two have literally fought for each others' lives. You'll make it through this. Having marriages and kids is a lot to juggle and it's emotionally intense! These days will happen. You will have tough days and great days. The good part," she says, giving Zhi's shoulder another squeeze, "is that you have girlfriends who love you, who can help you out too."
"So what's important right now is what you're feeling, and why you feel that way. And your feelings may come from a strange place and feel 'not right' or 'irrational' but they are still yours and that's all right too and we can work through that."
"Nobody here wants to hurt you, Zhi, we both love you" - she gestures to Mel and herself - "even if it's in different ways, and we are both committed to making sure your baby has the best life ahead."
Melodie pauses, staggers as the wave of emotion hits, and then without a word returns to the bed, She pulls her wife into her arms and simply sits there holding her.
{"I love you too."}
"How can this be normal?!" Zhi wails. She presses her face into her wife's chest. "It's like I'm losing my mind." After a moment she lifts her head back up again. "How long will it last?" she asks.
...
"I have to tell the others," Zhi says to Melodie with a sigh. "I have to apologize and ... give them a reason for me acting like a basket case."
"Hey," Zhi says, finding Sara as she's tending to her birds. "Umm ... I wanted to say sorry for how I was acting earlier. I know you would never sleep with Mel and ... umm ... you know I'm not normally all psycho b~~**." Her eyes move around the area.
"How's Snow White doing?" she asks, looking for something to fill the awkward space between them.
"There's another thing ... " she adds, taking a slow breath. "I'm pregnant. Mel and I are going to have a baby."
"Hey Maria. Hello Safina," Zhi says with a small wave once she finds the tiefling and her friend.
"I needed to find you and apologize for how I acted earlier," she continues in a small voice. "It's not an excuse, but according to Zileska, there are ... factors ... that contributed to it."
She looks between the two women.
"I'm going to have a baby," she says with a shy smile.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
"You'll have these ups and downs for a while. You'll get a little more used to managing it but you may find that occasionally something unexpected just causes you to have strong feelings. Don't worry, you have friends and loved ones to help you cope," says the priestess. "You'll have more strong feelings even after the baby. That's all right. We'll take it as it comes."
"I think perhaps we should get all the ladies together and we can talk a bit more about this as, well, an ad hoc family?"
~~~~~~~~~~
"Also, some good news: While you are pregnant, healing magic essentially treats you and the baby as a single entity. That is, in the awkward event of a stabbing, my healing magic should have no trouble restoring you both to hale and hearty condition with no complications."
"Also, some good news: While you are pregnant, healing magic essentially treats you and the baby as a single entity. That is, in the awkward event of a stabbing, my healing magic should have no trouble restoring you both to hale and hearty condition with no complications."
Zhi's eyes go wide and her face pales. Her mouth opens as if to say something and her hand moves protectively to her belly.
"S-Stabbing?" she finally manages to stammer out. She turns to her wife and buries her head in the woman's chest.
"Remind me not to let you tell Harmony any bedtime stories," her muffled voice says.
Zil chuckles slightly and says, "What I'm saying is you will have the best care that the divine can provide. If anything happens, it will be taken care of, for you and for Harmony. You can rest assured that your dear child will not have to worry about any of this... wacky business in which we often find ourselves."
Maria and Safina were relaxing when Zhi found them, Safina reading a book on Maria's recommendation while the tiefling was giving her a footrub.
"Zhi that's great! Congratulations." she said standing up to give the former thief a hug.
Melodie holds Zhi close, shooting a mildly annoyed glance at Zil. It says quite clearly 'Really? You say that now?!'
"We'll have a few months before she gets big enough to cause problems I imagine." She says, looking to the healer for confirmation. "Can you get everyone to meet in her darling?" She asks Zhi as the latter heads off to spread the good news.
---------------
"Thanks Zil. Can I come to you in future too? Zhi said something that worries me, about 'the shadows' talking to her. I'll keep an eye on it, but can I come to you if anything really strange happens." Melodie asks, with her eyes fixed on the door. "I don't want anything to happen to either of them."
---------------------
"I think the best thing will be if I go in as Jeroth, split them up by sending some on errands and then pull the rest of you in using the dagger." Melodie says, looking around the group for input. "We should be able to co-ordinate it pretty well and then ambush the others when they come back."
When you are ready to enact your plan, Melodie heads to Waterhill Manor, disguised as usual as Milon Jeroth. She orders the crocodile and hyena-headed rakshasas into the city on some meaningless task. Once they are long-gone, she summons the three remaining fiends to the parlor.
She telepathically alerts Zhi to get ready, then she brandishes Scion's Dagger. In a flash, the rest of you are teleported into the room! The rakshasas cry out in surprise as the ambush is sprung!
Having ensured that her minions are suitably grouped Melodie opens with an attempt to blind them all!
Melodie's spell blinds one of the marais, but the other rakshasas resist it.
Letting herself be pulled by the teleportation effect, Maria quickly recovered and moved to engage one of the un-blinded rakshasa.
Zhi targets the non-blinded marais with her blades, moving to set up flanking with Sara as her blades glimmer with arcane energy.
Sara calls for a charge, raising everyone's spirits and feet , and begins her twinned assault in concert with Zhi, the latter's magic speeding her along and allowing her to execute a diabolical series of attacks.
She punches the snake headed rakshasa in the eye, momentarily blinding it, before kneeing it in the stomach. She follows with three quick heel strikes.
Zileska says a prayer, bolstering your attacks while hindering the blinded marai.
Sara's assault leaves the first marai blinded, shaken, and sickened. Her attacks wound it slightly, but its supernatural resilience prevents a great amount of injury.
Zhi's and Maria's strikes leave the rakshasa badly wounded. Safina takes it down with two bolts, but her third one shatters harmlessly against the far wall.
The dandasuka steps back, casting a spell and surrounding themself with mirror images. They begin to shout cruel jokes and barbs, inspiring their ally. The blind marai lashes out with its viper hands and its own fangs, trying to bite at Zhi. Fortunately, all of its attacks miss! It manages to recover from the glitterdust.
Melodie lets out of surprisingly melodious high note, whose pitch and duration seems impossible for normal voices. The dandasuka winces, seemingly feeling a lot more effect than everyone else!
The well-versed dandasuka winces from Melodie's spell, but resists the worst of its effects.
Zhi expends the energy that her wife laid upon and her and dashes to the dandasuka's rear, her invisible blades stabbing through the air.
Zhi's first two strikes land true, wounding the dandasuka, but her two follow-up attacks destroy mirror images. The small creature has one duplicate remaining.
Sara continues her assault against the hampered rakshasa, stabbing it again and again with her two heels.
With her prayer now in effect, Zileska follows with something new: A blessing of fervor, which drives all of the ladies to accelerated heights of speed and prowess.
Feeling more magic come into play, Maria moves to the next target.
Maria and Sara's devastating assault drops the second marai, leaving it bleeding from numerous deep puncture wounds. The dandasuka continues to hurl insults as it tears ineffectually at empty air next to Zhi!
Zhi laughs as she continues her unseen assault on the ineffective dandasuka. It's an unsettling sound.
Completely ignoring its remaining mirror image, Zhi stabs and stabs and stabs and stabs the dandasuka. It screams in pain and finally falls to the floor, blood staining the carpet crimson.
Zhi reappears with her weapons stowed. "So let's get these bodies stashed and wait for the others to return."
"No. We should go to the bath-house now, while the magics hold. There's something in there and we might as well deal with it now!"
You dash down the hallway and throw open the door to the baths. As soon as you enter the room, the hot water in the southern pool churns and rises up in the form of an enormous water elemental! It burbles angrily and prepares to strike!
"Now I see why they didn't want us in here without an escort," Maria remarked before moving in on the creature.
Sara is completely taken aback by the water elemental, though she still manages to grab a towel and throw it over or into it in an attempt to blind it or hamper it in some meaningful way.
Maria stabs the elemental, though she doesn't seem to hurt it very much. Without being able to tell where the elemental's eyes are (if it even has any), Sara's attempt to blind the creature is ineffectual.
The elemental slams its bulk into Sara, drenching her and shoving her across the room towards the icy cold pool! Fortunately, she flies over the freezing waters instead of plunging into it, avoiding harm. The creature gurgles in frustration.
Melodie lets out another high whistle, unwilling to expend her more potent magics for fear of the Rakshasa that will return soon.
Despite its strong fortitude, the elemental succumbs to Melodie's shriek, reeling in a daze!
Zhi's disembodied voice shouts out, "How in the Hell's am I supposed to stab it in its vulnerable spots when it doesn't have any vulnerable spots?"
Nevertheless, she uses her wife's magic to move in close and make her best attempt.
~~~~
Zhi stabs the water elemental repeatedly, but only leaves a handful of small holes in its liquid body. Koriana's Blade doesn't even scratch the resilient creature!