Ivan follows Sal, then steps in front of her.
"Perhaps I should take a look first. There may be some clues,"
"Shoo! Shoo!" Zache hisses at the cat, waving an arm at it and stepping up to the pile of wood. He recoils half a step when he sees the foot, but takes a deep breath as he stares at the pile. "Someone give me a hand with this?" he asks in what is obviously a forced calm tone.
"It can't be much worse than what this place has already thrown at us." Marcus grumbles as he moves right up to the foot next to Zache.
"And we are a little pressed for time."
Digging through the pile quickly, but carefuly, the catches the faint scent of campfire from the young fisherman. There is even a slight warmth coming from Marcus as he passes the others.
With all the affected calm they can muster, the investigators careful remove the wood from the top of the pile. Beneath it they find the missing acolyte, Elizabeth, still dressed in her ceremonial robes. For one terrifying moment the young woman lays motionless, then she takes a shallow breath. Her skin is quite warm to the touch and blood stains her robe where she’s been bit on the shoulder. After a brief examination it seems she could be in the early stages of ghoul fever...
Once realizing what has happened to her, Kaede lets out a scream of rage before diving in to free Elizabeth. The second that her can reach for her fellow Shelynite, she does, expending some of her energy to heal Elizabeth. "Elizabeth, Our Lady isn't done with you yet. We all still need your song!"
Ivan plasters himself against the wall as both Salomae and Kaede dive in to help Elizabeth.
Well this certainly raises some questions.
Elizabeth groans and strains to open her eyes as Kaede's healing washes over her. The wound on her shoulder closes, and most of her bumps and bruises fade, but the combination of her fever and the wear of spending a cold night, under-dressed, in a wood pile seems to keep her from regaining her wits. Still, she is able to stand and, with Sal to lean on and steer her, she mostly walks back through the square and into the Cathedral.
The square is, however, fairly busy this morning and a number of people stop to stare at the wounded acolyte and her escorts.
Kaede's anger at the situation and worry for Elizabeth, causes her to almost completely ignore the square around her. Appearances are less important than results. Besides, there are other people that can smooth talk the lay folk much better than she can.
As such, Kaede does what she can to speed Elizabeth's trip to the Cathedral. As the group approaches the holy site, the Shelynite priestess breaks off for the door, to find either Sister Hera or Father Zantus as swiftly as she can.
"It's alright folks," Ivan calls out, putting on his most authoritative voice, "Just someone who had a rough night out. Please go about your business."
The townsfolk seem incredulous at the visiting watchman’s insistence that everything is alright, but his simple explanation is surprisingly effective at quelling their curiosity.
Kaede’s instinct tells her that Father Zantus could be a dozen different places but Sister Hera is almost certainly in one- so she rushes off to the kitchen. The matronly priestess is, in fact, in the kitchen, teaching a pair of acolytes how to clean and cut rutabagas. ”Biscuits!” she exclaims, sprinting to her feet, when she learns of Elizabeth’s condition, ”you two chop these any way you can, I’ll be back in a bit to check on you.” With a worried look, she grabs her long gray braid and the edge of her robe and lifts them to avoid tripping as she and Kaede hustle back to the entrance.
The two of them arrive back at the door shortly after the others arrive and Sister Hera immediately sets to work fussing over her. After a moment she announces, ”I can cure the fever, but I’ll need a few things from the kitchen... the rest I could nurse her through in a day or two, but I think Abstalar probably has a prayer ready that could fix it. Usually I’d ask Sister Amet’ra but with her gone I think the High Priest has been more prepared for some healing... Salomae, dear, could you run out to the stable and fetch Father Zantus? The rest of you can take poor Elizabeth to her room and I’ll meet you there shortly.
Ivan, being one of the stronger people present, finds himself roped into helping the young acolyte to her room.
All the time since finding Elizabeth, Ivan has seemed more and more eager about something.
Zache's tense shoulders sag with relief as Sister Hera tends to Elizabeth. "Of course, Sister," he says with a short bow, trying to support Elizabeth but settling more for moving things out of the way, opening doors, and clearing off her bed as the others help her to it. After snatching a few glances at Ivan, his curiosity finally gets the better of him, and he asks, "What's got you so worked up? You look like you're going to twitch right out of your skin."
"Because I feel like we're getting somewhere. Once this girl is awake we can learn what may have happened to your missing friend," Ivan answers, his tone just a little testy, "we do want to find her, don't we?"
While helping get Elizabeth back up to her room, Kaede is obviously elsewhere mentally. Still, getting her friend upstairs keeps her preoccupied mind on something that isn't charging out after Tera.
However, once Elizabeth is in bed, Kaede immediately slips out to the hall to start pacing. I NEED to find Tera now, but without anything from Elizabeth, we're still on a wild goose chase. This is awful!
Father Zantus is speaking with a rather well-dressed man whom Sal doesn't recognize when she arrives. After her announcement he hastily informs the man, "I'm terribly sorry but our business will have to wait."
He follows Sal back to Tera and Elizabeth's room, where he begins looking over the semi-conscious acolyte. "Blast... of all the times for Sister Amet'Ra to be gone... she was always so much better at this..." he grumbles while wracking his brain about how to proceed.
"Now, don't get yourself worked up, Abstalar," Sister Hera's mothering voice calls out as she enters the room, "the poor girl seems to have ghoul fever, which we've heard shouldn't be entirely surprising, given the recent troubles... I can treat that, but she's had an awfully rough night, left laying unconscious in a heap of wood without so much as a cloak to keep her warm, do you have a restoration spell prepared?"
"Yes, of course, Mother," the High Priest answers with a grin. Grasping his holy symbol with his right hand and placing his left hand on the acolyte's forehead, he says a quick prayer.
Elizabeth gasps and sits upright. She looks frantically around the room and seems to grow more confused by the presence of the marked and the two priests. "What... what happened?" she stammers.
Ivan waits for Elizabeth's answer while carefully observing her for any signs that might give him clues.
"I... uh, I was..." Elizabeth stammers rubbing her shoulder where the bite had been, "I brought Tera out to the alley. It was supposed to be a surprise. Aldern sent set me such a sweet note about how he'd missed Tera over the winter and wanted to see her again..."
The young acolyte hesitates, looking at Sal and Kaede, and then at Zache. She weighs her words for a moment then continues, "We all know she turned down his generous proposal, but she still seemed to enjoy his company, so when he wrote about surprising her with a moonlit carriage ride I wanted to help him... When she got back to the room last night I took her to the alley and the carriage was waiting just like he said it would be, only I didn't see Aldern... Tera climbed in and then someone knocked me over and slammed the door closed... I... I didn't see him... I just remember there was a smell... putrid... like the crypt when a body's been in a few days... I tried to cry out, to call for Aldern, or anyone, but as soon as I did he grabbed my throat... such strong, bony fingers... I couldn't scream, couldn't even breath... then, nothing..."
Suddenly she gasps and turns to her roommate's empty bed. Tears well up in her eyes and she implores, "where is she? O gods... O gods... is she alright? Why isn't she here right now?!?"
"This is much worse. If Tera was kidnapped and taken by wagon, her abductors are even further ahead then we thought." Marcus worries out loud.
Elizabeth is in good hands now, we should be on our way
Thank the Gods that Salomae is with it, Kaede thinks, as she watches in the doorway, keeping both her somewhat ragged emotions as well as other gawking acolytes out of the room. After several moments of trying to get her emotions in some working over (as well as giving Sal and the others time to calm Elizabeth), she clears her throat.
"Salomae?" she says quietly. "If Tera was taken in a wagon, we don't have any time to stay here. We need to hurry to this Misgivings."
"The Misgivings," Ivan says with a falsely wistful note in his voice, "It has such an Ustalavian ring to it reminds me of home."
Then with an intensity that is almost electrifying, his mood and expression turn black.
"Oh how I hate my old home. Let's go and rid ourselves of this place. Grab what you need, we leave err five minutes pass."
Elizabeth's face goes white when Sal mentions Tera deciding to go to a meeting alone. She sits motionless and silent as tears begin to well up and roll down her cheeks. Its not until the Erastilian begins saying goodbye that she finally manages to speak. "Its my fault..." she mutters weakly.
Her composure completely breaks and she begins to sob. "Its all my fault... you're trying to spare me but it really is all my fault," she wails, "Tera didn't even know it was a meeting... I just told her I had a surprise for her... I lured her into a trap... whatever happens to her is all my fault, and she knows it... she'll never even want to see me again... and why should she?"
Her body heaves as she struggles to breath and talk and cry all at the same time, and she collapses back into the bed as she continues, "Oh gods... what if she doesn't make it back... what if she's murdered and its all my fault... by Abadar, you should have left me in that wood pile to die..."
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For a second, Kaede goes stock still as Elizabeth starts to have a mental breakdown. Then, in a blur of motion, she steps forward and grips Elizabeth by the shoulders, and intently staring at her fellow Shelynite. After a couple seconds of silence , she begins firmly talking to her.
"No. This is not your fault. This was never your fault. You were showing your love of her to her by giving her something that you thought she wanted. You were tricked just as much as Tera, and she doesn't realize that, she and I will have a talk about that when this is all taken care of. Don't tear yourself up for this. We [u]will[/u] rescue her and bring her back. I know that she'll accept any apology you give her."
Slowly, she releases Elizabeth and steps back. "We have to go. Will you promise to me that you won't do anything rash until we return?"
Kaede's words stop the wailing, but Elizabeth lays in her bed crying and does not respond to her fellow Shelynite's question.
"Don't worry," Sister Hera answers, sitting down on the edge of the bed, "she'll be well looked after while you're gone." The matronly priestess places one hand tenderly on the young acolyte's cheek and gently turns her head so she can drink the tincture prepared for her. After she gulps it down the older woman draws a chocolate cookie from her apron pocket and hands it to her as well. "Eat, it'll make you feel better."
Turning her attention to the marked, Sister Hera forces a small smile and warmly instructs, "If whoever did this wanted Tera dead, she would have been in that alley, or some empty building in town... You go and find her, but don't you be in such a hurry that you do anything rash, okay?"
Ivan waits for Elizabeth to calm with a look of concern on his face.
The concern, while cleverly acted, is false. If anything, Iven seems annoyed at the delay.
"Right, we should." Zache's jaw clenches as he stands. "Let's hope we get there in time."
"Yes, yes. Horses would be faster. Are we ready to leave?"
Ivan measures his pace to walk beside Sal as she leads the way.
Marcus does his best to be one of the first of their group mounted. Eager to be on the way, he scans the others for signs of delay.
"Yes, yes, of course..." Father Zantus mutters while paying more attention to Elizabeth than to the marked, "come back in one piece... well, one piece each, not one piece total..."
The minutes it takes to get the horses saddled and ready seem agonizingly long but the worried investigators are soon on their way. The road through the hills is uneventful and when they break from it to cut across the farmlands to the south everything is eerily quiet. It seems odd, even, that nobody at all appears to be out working in the fields, but maybe they're off helping with a difficult calving or something...
After crossing over the Lost Coast Road again when it curves back to the east, the marked pick their way along the edge of the Brinestump Marsh. Marcus spots a small party of Licktoad goblins watching them from a distance, but the small creatures think better of pestering the mounted longshanks. The spring hasn't been overly wet and they're able to stay pretty close to the Soggy River and ford it without going all the way down to the Lost Coast Road bridge.
Turning southwest, the investigators head across one of the last farms in the area, towards the path that leads across the Foxglove River and to the old Manor. As they near the low stone wall that marks the edge of the farm, they see to the south, not far from a barn, three men crouching around something; barely audible through the thudding of horse hooves, there is some kind of howl coming from the same area- possibly an animal in pain, or maybe a person calling out, its impossible to say...
"Something's not right. I grew up on a farm like these. Something is.....off." Marcus points out as they ride.
When they see the crouched men, his curiosity is piqued.
"We should see what that's about. If it's nothing, we've only lost a moment." he says, slowing his mount.
Kaede slows and looks toward the men. As Marcus suggests checking things out, the Tien priestess is reminded of the conversation they had with the sheriff last night, as well as the impetus for the it....
As the three men walk past the marked, Maester Grump shrieks, "" A not-so-subtle smell of moonshine wafts off the wild-eyed man.
----
He lets out another exhausted sigh and explains, "Grump's a farmer in the Hinterlands south of here... down towards the old Foxglove place... my men grabbed him on the way into the city ranting and raving about scarecrows come to life... you smelled him... I figured it was the drink- he mighta stumbled through a cornfield, crashed into a scarecrow, and tore himself up trying to run off; or maybe he got mugged by a fellow in straw hat and burlap shirt... whatever it was, I thought we could get him cleaned up and get a better report from him in the morning. If there's a pack of ghouls down there, though, the truth could be a whole lot worse..."
"I agree with Marcus," Kaede adds as she amateurishly maneuvers her horse over to Sal's side. "I trust your eyes more then I do my own. This should help avoid any... surprises," she continues. With a great deal of solemnity, Kaede pulls out a small paper wrap and opens it, revealing some ash. Gently, she dips two of her fingers into it, then anoints Sal's forehead with the ash, while softly singing a dirge in Minkaian.
Marcus focuses his attention on the disturbance some three-hundred or so feet away...
Marcus dismounts quickly, trying not to draw the mens attention, then weaves a protective hedge around his friends.
"There's blood all over them! Something is awfully not right!" Marcus tries to loud whisper.
"They could be dealing with an injured animal you know," Ivan grumbles as he dismounts. "I'll go with you. We shouldn't be alone," he tells Salomae before she can slink off.
Kaede likewise dismounts. The last place she wants to be in a fight is on a horse. As soon as she's on the ground, her glaive is out in her hands. "Normally, I'd agree with you, but this farm is close to the Misgivings. It's incredibly easy for the undead to be in play," she quietly says, reaching into her bag for one of the vials of antiplague that she purchased from the cathedral.
Marcus shudders at Kaede's mention of undead.
Well, I suppose if it sounded normal to me we'd be in much worse shape.
"Be safe," Zache says shortly to Sal as she slinks ahead. And let's hope we're wrong about the undead!