"Really! Was it there when we arrived? What was it doing? Tell me everything you can remember." Perrin listens closely to Ev's report, then if there was nothing too shocking, gives instructions. "Alright. Can you head down to the guardhouse for me? Just fly around a bit, then roost near the entrance and keep a lookout. Alert me if you spot the imp or other dangers, otherwise I'll stop by around lunchtime."
With that, Perrin closes his eyes, focusing. When he opens them again, he turns to his lab, melting down a handful of gold pieces and adding a pinch of myrrh as incense. He growls his query in Abyssal: "What consequences would result from me carving the rune I saw onto the guardhouse wall?"
In the morning, Perrin wanders downstairs for breakfast. He spots Mel's note and adds one to his own door: Off lurking, back for tea. -P Then he heads out into the city.
Alice looks at Mel with great interest, soaking this up. It's clear she hasn't had a lot of access to books and fascinating information provided so freely appeals to her greatly.
Kelian walks over as Mel and Alice are talking. He whistles slightly when he sees Mel's new bow. "Nice work! Of course I'm not surprised. Mel was the best bowyer back home by far. She taught a bunch of the kids how to make bows and arrows and stuff themselves."
Ev tries to think back and remember it. Perrin's aware that she has a much better memory for things like where to find tasty bugs and how to fly through a narrow passage. Then she perks up "No I only saw it when we went into that one room after you fought that scary guy." She indicates the bag of holding. "It was just hanging out and listening. Every now and then it whispered something to the old guy. Sure I'll keep watch!"
As Perrin casts his spell and asks his question, he hears a small whispering voice wander into his ear. "Haagenti would be able to communicate with his servants in the city more often."
Ev thinks for a bit. "Oh yeah... he did do that. It felt nice, even though I wasn't hurt." She looks at Perrin's face and feels him through their empathic link. "Wait... you seem upset..."
"Well, arrows mostly," Mel says, flushing slightly. "There wasn't time to teach them everything. Arrows are easier, and we needed a lot of them quickly because the orcs were coming."
Alice blanches. "The orcs were coming? What happened?"
With that, Perrin gets to work on his divination. When finished, he stares for a long moment, then heads out into the city. Strolling past the south wall of the guardhouse, the doctor glances around.
"Oh! Well, I guess it hasn't gotten around yet. There was an orc raid on Brookside last week. People had been disappearing -- taken by orc scouts -- and when some of the villagers investigated they wound up fighting a half-dozen or so orcs. They lost a man in the fight, a fellow named Cyrus Lem."
"Worse, that was just the scouting party. There was an orc shaman with them, Halak. He was taken prisoner, and we got him to tell us some things. The main point was that a larger group of orcs was coming, and we had just about three days to prepare. We sent word to Astin, threw up a palisade, made arrows and bows, trained everyone as best we could with every weapon we had at hand in the time available."
Mel grows pale and distant as she continues. "It was ... pretty bad. They had a troll with them. The gate didn't hold long. It would have been worse if the reinforcements from Astin hadn't shown up at just the right moment. Even so, we lost ... a lot of people. Too many. About a quarter of the adults in the village, plus one of Captain Hannady's men from Astin."
She broods for a moment. "I still think I was the first person to see the orc scouts. I came home to find them burning down the house I was renting, a couple of days before the others fought the scouting party. I could have warned everyone. We'd have had days more to prepare. But ... instead I hid in the woods, because I was afraid of confronting Goodman Golightly and telling him his house was gone. I was such a coward. And people died because of my cowardice." By the end of this speech, Mel is weeping openly, head down.
Kelian puts a hand on Mel's shoulder trying to comfort her but the youth really doesn't know what to say. "Mel, you worked as hard as anybody to get Brookside ready. And you fought as hard as anyone could. You didn't know what it meant that the orcs were here..."
As Mel explains her story, Alice's eyes go wide. "You're from Brookside? I heard da saying something about bad news from there. I'd never heard of the place before." Then as the story concludes, Alice also grows uncomfortable and uncertain. She wrings her floury apron over and over, also not knowing what to say. Then a middle-aged, slightly plump woman emerges from the kitchen. She pulls Mel into a firm, warm embrace and refuses to let go.
"That's it, dear. Let it out. Let me hear you." she murmurs in a soft voice.
Mel vaguely recalls seeing this woman in the background of the inn; and though it is somewhat disconcerting to be embraced by a stranger, it feels awfully good to have a shoulder to cry on. And so she does, letting all the stress and agony of a long, painful couple of weeks out in one prolonged bout of weeping.
By the time she's done, Mel's eyes are rimmed in red, and she's snuffling pitifully, trying to avoid smearing snot all over this stranger's shoulder. "Umm ..." she says. "Sorry. And thanks. I've ... had a lot to deal with lately."
Mrs. McHenry looks seriously at Mel. "Ms., you saved my son from something I can't understand. You could cut off my hand and I wouldn't ask you for an apology. You and your friends have certainly dealt with a lot. Too much for most." She offers Mel a towel she was holding on her shoulder then smiles slightly. "Now what do we think of some honey biscuits? Badger's specialty."
If he finds none, Perrin takes a deep breath and chants an incantation, crouching down to touch a brick along the bottom of the wall.
At the mention of food, Mel's belly gives a distinct rumbling noise.
"Err, yes," she says, using the towel to simultaneously clean up her face and hide her embarrassment. "That would be lovely. I haven't eaten since early this morning."
And so she sits down to eat a helping of honey biscuits, along with a rather more substantial evening meal.
Perrin hears a deep chuckling voice in his head. "Clever Perrin. Very good. Play the game with me." He feels his nerves twitch and his senses heighten all over his body.
Mrs. McHenry smiles warmly when Mel tucks into supper, showing a few of the wrinkles of her middle years. But soon the Badger is busy with the evening rush of a sizable city and she heads back into the kitchen while calling over her shoulder "Alice. Take orders and see to the customers."
Perrin dusts off his hands, a little disconcerted, and heads off to further explore the city. He is not wandering aimlessly, however. Perrin searches for any library that's open to the public. If he finds one, he looks for information on worshippers of Haagenti in the region, or demon worshippers more generally.
If he hasn't felt an alert from Ev by midday, he heads back to meet up with her and listens curiously to anything she has to report. They return to the Cozy Badger for lunch, and Perrin spends much of the afternoon crafting while he waits for Mel to get back. When the smell of food starts wafting up the stairs, he heads down in search of Kazador and Mel. "Hey. How was your day?"
"Oh, not bad," Mel says, finishing up her meal. "I made a bow." She taps the weapon, currently leaned against the table, unstrung. "The bluebells are up, and they smell heavenly. I ... may have gotten a bit emotional while telling Alice about Brookside."
"How about you?"
Perrin swallows. "I have some news. It might be... very big." He looks around at the other customers at the inn. "We should talk somewhere private."
"Oh?" Mel says, her eyebrows shooting up. That's odd, she thinks. Perrin's never asked for a private conversation before. Quite the contrary, sometimes he's spoken freely in mixed company about things we've tried to conceal!
"Huh. How private? Upstairs or ... downstairs?"
Perrin nods hurriedly. "Yeah, downstairs would be perfect. I need some... apples." He looks around again. "But we should get Kazador first. Have you seen him?"
"No," Mel shakes her head. "I haven't seen him all day. I was out in the fields past the wall, making a bow in a rather nice glade by a field. Get your apples then, and find Kazador; I'll wait in the room where we found David yesterday."
Kelian looks around a little confused. "Um... should I come too?"
———
While he group did their errands, Kazador kept himself isolated. He sat in his room, staring at his hammer and armor. Looking at the runes on them, which were awakening, he felt an intense feeling of shame. He traced his fingers along them. Runewarden.
A thought came into his mind. Of a young beardling who had come to watch as they marched off to defend the clanhold. He remembered the pride he had felt. Now he wondered if the child was still alive. He wondered if any were alive.
He continued to trace the runes. He stopped, his hand frozen. Torag. The forge father. The runelord himself. He who shaped the world itself. He hadn’t said that name since that day. He hadn’t felt worthy. He stared at it. He had stopped looking, he realized. Intentionally ignoring it. But things had changed. He was changing. Slowly, with hesitation, he said:
“Lo there do I see my father;
Lo there do I see my mother and my sisters and my brothers;
Lo there do I see the line of my people, back to the beginning.
Lo, they do call me, they bid me take my place among them,
In the halls of Torag, where the brave may live forever.”
Tears fell on the runes. Tears that he had been too proud to cry. Grief that he had been too afraid to acknowledge. Emotions bottled up and drowned. He gripped his hammer and he prayed. He prayed for the his clan and their souls. He prayed for forgiveness. He prayed out of welled up piety and a love for his god. He prayed without pride. With every ounce of his being he prayed for Torag to take his broken work and to reforge it, to give him another chance to prove himself.
He prayed. And the runes on the hammer began to glow.
———
Just as the group was discussing his absence Kazador strode up, his face serious and haggard. His back was straight, his head up high, and there was a confidence in his step that was previously absent. His armor gleamed in the light and the runes of his hammer flowed a soft green.
”It sounds like I have kept ye all waiting, I apologize. There were things that I had to do. What’s happened?”
"That's up to Perrin, I think," Mel says to Kelian.
"Oh good, there you are, Kazador! Perrin was just saying he had something important to tell us in private -- downstairs."
”Aye then. Let’s not keep him waiting.”
Perrin hesitates, but nods. "Let's all head down." He leads the others to the mirror.
Demon worship is illegal in the Bishopric of Helm so there aren't many treatises on the subject. Perrin does manage, however, to piece together some information on the topic through rumors and records of trials for demon worship. Eight people have been tried for demon worship in the Bishopric in the last 50 years. Two of them worshiped Haagenti. Both worshipers of Haagenti were in Helm itself, which makes sense as the only large city in the nation would have greater access to the books, alchemical ingredients, etc that a worshiper of Haagenti would desire. One (Tilda Marin) was imprisoned for heresy but the other (Jonathan Aldune) was executed for charges of heresy, treason, destruction of public property, and murder.
"All right, Perrin, let's have it," Mel says once they are safely ensconced in the mirror. "What's this big news of yours?"
She looks around the detritus in the mirror room for someplace to sit, and settles on a rickety, long-empty wooden crate.
As the others file into the room Perrin scans for magical eavesdroppers. Then he takes a deep breath. "Okay. So we heard that the head of the Reaps had an imp. I checked with Ev about it, since she can sometimes detect things our vision can't."
"And she thinks she saw an imp two days ago. At the guardhouse. Whispering in the Bishop's ear."
Perrin pauses at that, collecting his thoughts. "I don't think she realized it was important, or maybe even that we couldn't see it in the first place. She... actually, if you put your hand out she can explain it herself." Perrin holds out his palm toward the center of the group and looks at Ev expectantly.
"What?" exclaims Mel, startled. "Whispering to the Bishop?"
But she eyes the bat with misgiving. She keeps her hands firmly at her sides; but she does not step away. "I think I'd rather hear it from you, Perrin," she says. "If you don't mind."
Perrin frowns, dropping his hand. "Okay, I'll translate." Catching Mel's expression, he looks at Ev with a moment of puzzlement, and casts another spell. "Can you tell me exactly what you saw? What the imp looked like, where it came from, where it went? And when?" He watches her response intently.
Perrin focuses on Everyone very intently. He casts a spell that should help his focus but it doesn't seem to like he'd expect. But througg sheer force of will, he watches and listens very closely. Ev doesn't like everyone staring at her but at Perrin's instruction she talks to him. "I didn't see it until we went into that room. It looked kind of like a tiny person with bat wings. It flew next to the old guy and talked in his ear. It was still in there when we left the room."
Due to his extreme concentration, Perrin notes that Even isn't acting quite like herself. It's more like something is using her like a puppet and doing an extremely good impression of how Ev acts.
Perrin repeats Ev's description out loud for the group, then freezes. "Hold on, let me show you something." He slowly, carefully, draws a metal rod from his pocket. Then he spins on Ev with a shout. "Something's controlling her!"
Perrin's charm person spell doesn't seem to do anything. But her eyelids start to drop when he throws the force of his will to make her sleep.
Ev's eyelids snap back open and she flutters around weakly and speaks in a pitiful chirp. "Perrin! Perrin! What are you doing to me?" She emotes strong distress.
You pick up on what's going on. Something or someone is controlling Ev and Perrin is trying to disable her without harming her.
Kelian seems to pick up on what's going on and grabs a hold of Ev. She begins trying to bite his hand while squeaking in panic. "Perrin! What's he doing!? Help me!!"
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”What the fook?! Pel, what’re ye doin’ lad?” Kazador yelled with evident confusion as he moved between the two of them.
Mel blinks in confusion and backs away from scene, trying to process. "What on earth?" she gasps.
Seeing Ev contained for the moment, Perrin pauses to explain. "Everything I just told you about the imp is wrong. That's not Ev. Something's controlling her, trying to turn us against the Bishop." He grimaces. "And I think it's protecting her from my spells."
"Uh huh," Mel says warily. She shifts her stance slightly.
Ev squeaks and falls asleep in Kelian's grasp. Kelian looks at her a little surprised and holds her out to Perrin carefully. "Um... what now?"
Mel relaxes a bit.
"All right, Perrin. Let me see if I've got this straight," she says, and starts counting points.
"First, Ev told you that she'd seen an imp in the company of the Bishop, whispering into his ear." She holds up a finger.
"Then you ... investigated, somehow? Maybe by sending Ev to spy on the Bishop and see if he had an imp with him?" A second finger goes up.
"And then, once Ev confirmed it, you came to us." A third finger.
"And lastly, when you asked Ev to recount the story, you noticed something off about her behavior. It wasn't her, but something controlling her, using her to feed you false information in order to turn us against the Bishop." A fourth and final finger.
She looks questioningly at him. "Does that sum it up? Am I missing anything?"
"Hold on, I need something to put her in." Perrin takes the bat and rushes out to the basement wardrobe, grabbing an iron pot with a lid that will contain Ev without asphyxiating her. After making sure she's secured, he returns to the room in the mirror.
"Sorry about that." He listens to Mel's account. "Pretty much. I tried to investigate by having Ev stake out the guardhouse where she saw the imp last. She said it didn't turn up again, but I figured it was still time to talk to you."
"And then, just now, you seemed not to trust her, which made me wonder. I haven't known Ev for long, but we've got that mental link - and I could swear she wasn't acting right." He shrugs helplessly. "It was just a hunch at first, but then... something was definitely interfering with my magic. Let's see..."
Perrin carefully sticks a finger through the gap of the lid, trying another incantation.
Perrin can feel the spell fizzling out as he tries to cast it. His magical abilities don't seem to be gone though. He can still feel them inside of him.
Then a rumbling deep voice with sophisticated intonation is heard rumbling from the pot. "Oh little Perrin... I wanted us to take the longer, more interesting road. But I'll settle for what you've already done for me. Let's play again soon."
Mel blanches, eyes flying open, whites showing all around them as she puts it all together. "Had you forgotten who your patron is, Perrin?" she says slowly. "Because I hadn't. And Ev is surely his creature, even if you never truly were."
Her hand creeps up to the holy symbol of Ostara that she wears about her neck, made for her by her mentor Varen from the shards of her first bow. She grips it, hard, heedless of the pain as the edges bite into her palm.
On to the next order of business, Muse sets off towards Anselm’s wharf. He lost able seamen in pirate attacks, and he’s looking for some deckhands to round out his crew.
The Sonder doesn’t plan to set sail immediately, but if an opportunity presents himself the captain would prefer to have sailors on call, rather than scrambling to get everything in order.