HOSPICE OF THE BLESSED MAIDEN (Midland--West Dock; 12 Desnus)
Emi and Firinne cut down the two zombies leaving only the high priestess to battle. She screeches in anguish as Andrezi's spell not only covers her with glitter but blinds her as well!
Stepping closer to the scrum, Miakoda alters her prayer on the fly as it seems her new companions are handling the pale woman's assistants.
HP 89/81
AC 17, touch 11, flat-footed 15 (-2 to all when raging), DR 3/-, 1 cold resistance
Fort +9, Ref +5, Will +3 (+2 Will when raging) [Defiant luck]
CMD 23 (25 vs. grapple)
Rage: 5/22; Harrow points: 2/3; Auspicious Mark (1d6+1) 1/1; Defiant Luck: 0/1
Effects: Embiggened! (+1d6 damage die, +1 damage, -2 AC [already added in above], reach 10 feet), RAGE!, +2 bonus on all Constitution-based checks
Nebbin stays close to Pale Lily to prevent any chance of her escaping too. His sword flies in great arcs and blood sprays as he tries to finally end this scourge of the city.
HOSPICE OF THE BLESSED MAIDEN (Midland--West Dock; 12 Desnus)
Miakoda casts prayer to give the party an even greater advantage. Meanwhile, the priestess responds to Nebbin's twin strikes by taking three mean swipes at him with her scythe, but all miss! To make matters worse (for her), she still seems blinded by Andrezi's spell!
As soon as the zombie starts to fall, Emi turns and moves in on the last cultist, the braggart. She slips past Nebbin and lashes out, her rapier like a striking viper.
Deciding that this moment is best left uninterrupted, Andrezi speaks a quick spell to close the door behind them. He then shuffles to stand closer to Firinne.
HP 89/81
AC 17, touch 11, flat-footed 15 (-2 to all when raging), DR 3/-, 1 cold resistance
Fort +9, Ref +5, Will +3 (+2 Will when raging) [Defiant luck]
CMD 23 (25 vs. grapple)
Rage: 6/22; Harrow points: 2/3; Auspicious Mark (1d6+1) 1/1; Defiant Luck: 0/1
Effects: Embiggened! (+1d6 damage die, +1 damage, -2 AC [already added in above], reach 10 feet), RAGE!, +2 bonus on all Constitution-based checks
Nebbin thinks of offering Pale Lily a chance to surrender, but for the first time in his life, he decides not to. Maybe he's being hasty, but she's done too much damage to the city. It's clear what her fate would be if she were tried. And there have been too many escapes, too many times they thought they'd saved this city, only to have it all fall apart. He's not willing to risk that happening again. Even if she could maybe tell them where to find Rolth.
HOSPICE OF THE BLESSED MAIDEN (Midland--West Dock; 12 Desnus)
Andrezi uses a spell to close the open door to the west.
Emi drives the point of her new rapier home--satisfyingly--and then Nebben hacks the stunned woman once in the shoulder before beheading her without mercy with a second swipe. There's a moment of stunned, perhaps slightly horrified or relieved silence before the priestess's headless corpse begins to crackle with an unholy black electical pulse. It rises into the air before disintegrating and spattering Nebbin and Emi with blood and ichor. Wiping the mess from their eyes, they and the rest of the party behold a new terror--the priestess has been reborn in the form of a semi-demonic female with an oversized, scythe-like claw for her right arm!
HP 89/81
AC 17, touch 11, flat-footed 15 (-2 to all when raging), DR 3/-, 1 cold resistance
Fort +9, Ref +5, Will +3 (+2 Will when raging) [Defiant luck]
CMD 23 (25 vs. grapple)
Rage: 6/22; Harrow points: 2/3; Auspicious Mark (1d6+1) 1/1; Defiant Luck: 0/1
Effects: Embiggened! (+1d6 damage die, +1 damage, -2 AC [already added in above], reach 10 feet), RAGE!, +2 bonus on all Constitution-based checks
"What the ... ?!" Nebbin exclaims as he hacks in horror at this new thing that's even worse than the woman he just killed. Which he's already starting to feel bad about!
Almost involuntarily stepping back, he again sweeps his blade at the ... woman's? ... throat.
HOSPICE OF THE BLESSED MAIDEN (Midland--West Dock; 12 Desnus)
Despite his initial shock and horror at Pale Lily's sudden transformation, Nebbin connects with a mighty blow, spilling some of the thing's brownish blood while opening a great gash in its neck. The monster lets out a shriek of pain and hacks at her tormentor with each of her claws. Both connect, drawing a lesser amount of blood from Nebbin.
The creature is a rare daughter of Urgathoa, a Large NE corporeal undead. It can fly with perfect maneuverability.
A daughter of Urgathoa has an aura of desecrate that surrounds it and channel resistance +4, in addition to all the regular undead traits.
The monster has a selection of divine spells and a scythe-like great claw that can inflict a disease on a struck target, in addition to potentially huge damage.
for
for
Fírinne tenses and then catapults forward, leaving a cascade of afterimages in her wake as she launches into a furious assault on whatever the Pale Lily has transformed herself into.
HOSPICE OF THE BLESSED MAIDEN (Midland--West Dock; 12 Desnus)
Though neither Emileva nor Firinne can deliver a critical strike, their rapiers deal more damage to the undead version of Pale Lily. She's already looking pretty ragged.
HP 68/81
AC 17, touch 11, flat-footed 15 (-2 to all when raging), DR 3/-, 1 cold resistance
Fort +9, Ref +5, Will +3 (+2 Will when raging) [Defiant luck]
CMD 23 (25 vs. grapple)
Rage: 6/22; Harrow points: 2/3; Auspicious Mark (1d6+1) 1/1; Defiant Luck: 0/1
Effects: Embiggened! (+1d6 damage die, +1 damage, -2 AC [already added in above], reach 10 feet), RAGE!, +2 bonus on all Constitution-based checks
Undaunted by the creature's attacks, Nebbin continues his bloody assault. "I told you: LEAVE OUR CITY ALONE!" he roars as his blade hammers home!
HOSPICE OF THE BLESSED MAIDEN (Midland--West Dock; 12 Desnus)
Two more hacks from Nebbin's blade are sufficient to put down Lady Andaisin's undead form, hopefully for good. No more opponents present themselves...but you've still not found the missing Varisian, Ruan, if indeed he's being held in this hidden complex.
Nebbin's muscles unclench and he slumps slightly as he draws in huge lungfuls of breath.
"I think we need to get Kayleigh," he says. "And Field Marshal Kroft!"
"Agreed. I think this is all too much to just report back to Kroft, and getting Kayleigh here is obviously needed."
"I... am tired," Andrezi says through laboured breaths. "I am fairly certain that Ruan has fled. Chase if you like, but you'd need to know where to go. And I won't be able to keep up."
"I... am tired," Andrezi says through laboured breaths. "I am fairly certain that Ruan has fled. Chase if you like, but you'd need to know where to go. And I won't be able to keep up."
"I... am tired," Andrezi says through laboured breaths. "I am fairly certain that Ruan has fled. Chase if you like, but you'd need to know where to go. And I won't be able to keep up."
"I'll stay behind to protect the others," Fírinne says, as she checks to make sure the cultists really truly are dead. "I don't have the same history with this Kroft as the rest of you."
"That's a point" Emi agrees. "I can go. I've been dealing with her as long as any of us."
"I can stay with Firinne, for the same reasons," Andrezi says, taking a seat on the floor. He sucks in a deep breath. "I... couldn't keep up with you if I tried. But I can set an alarm using magic, so we will know if anyone tries to come for us."
Nebbin hesitates. He doesn't want to let Emi go alone, but he also doesn't want to leave Firinne and Andrezi here, especially when they're so spent. But making sure they get to Kroft -- and get her back quickly -- seems the best way to help.
"I'm going too. We don't know where Rolth is, so you shouldn't go out alone," he says.
CITADEL VOLSHYENEK (Midland; 12 Desnus)
Emileva and Nebbin make the short trip to the citadel as swiftly as their legs will allow. The first thing they notice upon arrival is that the place seems quiet. There are fewer officials and workers in the hallways, not to mention a lack of visitors seeking some sort of justice. Cressida Kroft is present in her office, and her assistant immediately admits the two adventurers. Kroft looks haggard and worn-down. The first thing she does is apologize. "A young lad brought a message earlier that there was trouble at the Hospice, but he offered no clues as to what the problem was or who had sent him...and as you can see, I haven't the manpower these days to send off on a potential wild goose chase. Have a seat and tell me what has happened."
When she hears the gist of your report, Kroft looks even more haggard than when you first arrived, though not overly surprised at your description of conditions at the hospital. "I had my doubts about the Queen's motives, but this is far worse than anything I might've guessed. Queen Ileosa has lost faith in both the Korvosan Guard and the Sable Company, and she's diverted most of the civic funds we normally get to build her army of Gray Maidens to 'keep the peace' in the city. I might be able to get your healer friend here, though Old Korvosa's effectively quarantined now. I still have friends in Sable Company and could call in a favor, if your friend would be willing to ride a hippogriff. Even so, that's likely to raise a big red flag with the Queen or any of her loyal followers who happen to witness the flight. Are things in the Blessed Maiden Hospice really so dire that we need to risk this course of action?"
In any event, Cressida decides to accompany the pair back to the hospice, both to witness the situation there with her own eyes and--perhaps--to interrogate any survivors who might be able to fully prove the Queen's complicity with the Urgathoan cultists.
Nebbin pauses to think for a while. The moment stretches long enough that it feels like days.
"Yes, I think we need her."
HOSPICE OF THE BLESSED MAIDEN (Midland--West Dock; 12 Desnus)
Field Marshal Croft, disguised only by a large cloak with its hood pulled up, pales when she witnesses firsthand the horrors within the hospice. When Emi navigates the freight elevator down into the hidden temple of Urgathoa, however, Cressida's shock has turned to a barely-contained rage.
"And you say this Pale Lily person...thing...confessed that Queen Ileosa is behind the spread of the blood veil in the city, and that her cult cultivated it here? It's unbelievable! I knew our paths were rapidly diverging, but I never guessed at the Queen's level of...evil!"
The Field Marshal quickly asks what physical proof, if any, you've found of either the cult's or the Queen's involvement in the spread of the blood veil throughout the city. "We can't just allow our foes to clean up their mess here and deny their wrongdoing...and that's exactly what will happen if we're not quick! As I told Nebbin and Emileva, the Queen has lost faith in the Guard and Sable Company and has been consolidating power into her corps of Gray Maidens. I don't have enough allies left in the city to challenge the Queen, not even with proof of her treachery. Perhaps, with time, I can find allies strong enough to join together to confront the Queen.... Damn it--I really wish Seneschal Kalepopolis were around to help in this matter!"
HOSPICE OF THE BLESSED MAIDEN (Midland--West Dock; 12 Desnus)
When Kayleigh arrives, flush with excitement and fear from her hippogriff ride out of Old Korvosa, she's horrified at the conditions at the hospice and the revelations about the blood veil's origin and the Queen's apparent involvement in the plot. She (somewhat predictably) insists on staying at the hospice to treat the sick, saying they ought not be moved in their condition, but Field Marshal Kroft won't hear of it, replying that word will almost certainly get back to the Queen of the raid on the place and a 'clean-up' squad will arrive to eliminate any remaining evidence or honest witnesses.
Eventually, Kroft comes up with a plan: she'll order several covered wagons to transport the sick folk to the Old Korvosa clinic, providing the party with emergency orders for the Gray Maidens at the bridge to let them pass. This should get the party across the bridge, even though the Gray Maidens technically don't take orders from her. Whether the party will be let back off the quarantined island is anyone's guess, however.
ENDRIN ISLE/OLD KORVOSA (16 Desnus)
You've taken a well-earned rest after the hardships you all underwent at the Hospice of the Blessed Maiden. Andrezi's no longer exhausted and his Charisma drain has been restored, while Kayleigh nips a case of blood veil in the bud before it can start to consume Firinne.
Life on Edrin Isle has changed markedly, even over the past few days. The island's been totally quarantined, the makeshift wooden bridges across the Narrows destroyed, leaving the Jeggare Bridge as the only mundane means onto or off of the island...and that's guarded by a dozen Gray Maidens and who knows what other spies may be lurking in the nearby shadows. The mainland city's riverbank is likewise patrolled by small squads of Gray Maidens, who ready longbows threateningly before ordering anyone trying to leave the island to return there or face the Queen's justice.
Around noon on the 4th day of your brief respite, a courier arrives bearing a fancy envelope addressed to Emi. Inside is the following note in exquisite penmanship (which she recognizes as belonging to Vencarlo Orisini):
Greetings, Emileva--I'd like to invite you and your friends for another social visit whenever you're free. Nothing urgent--I just so enjoyed our last little gathering and would like to chat a bit over drinks and a few snacks. V.
Emi's trained eye notices a blemish on the otherwise flawless note: there's a tiny inkblot underneath the U of "nothing urgent," perhaps indicating that the matter is indeed urgent but he doesn't want anyone intercepting the missive to know that.
Nebbin nods as Emi points out the blot. "If he says it's nothing urgent, we should go right away!" he suggests, going to grab his new armor and sword. He hopes he won't have to bloody the blade soon -- though the thought doesn't make him as ill as it once did. As long as it's for the right reason.
At first Emi only thought the note a little odd as she read it. The nature of the invitation as well as its tone seemed a little off in a way she couldn't describe in words. But the blot, as well as it's location on the word "urgent" as if to call it out, disturbs her. She stews for mere minutes over it before taking it to the others.
"Vencarlo sent this to me." she tells them as she hands it over to be passed around and read.
"Something's wrong. Notice the inkblot? Vencarlo would never send this out. If he made this kind of mistake in the first place, and he has the deftest hands of anyone I've ever known so I doubt he would, he would have tossed this one out and rewritten it. He's a meticulous man, not the type to send something that's less than perfect."
"I have to think the blot is there on purpose, for a reason. Notice that it is right by the word 'urgent'. He's calling out the word for special notice. I can only think it's to reverse the meaning. Something is urgent, and we should go see him right away, with care to make sure his home isn't being watched."
ENDRIN ISLE/OLD KORVOSA (16 Desnus)
Though the day itself is sunny and pleasant, your stroll west is a bit eerie and unnerving. Few people are on the streets, even though it's just a bit past midday, and those who do walk the city seem to do so only in groups--armed groups. Some of these groups appear to be normal citizens armed with hunting bows and kitchen knives, but most seem to be more organized and potentially belligerent. You see no sign of the city watch (not particularly surprising, as their last guardpost on the island was east in Old Dock) nor of the so-called Gold Boys, the guards (extortionists?) in the employ of the wealthy and influential Arkona family. Most of the roving bands look like gangs--thieves, brigands, troublemakers and the like. Though they often give your party a once-over with some dirty looks thrown in, none dares actually accost such a well-armed group including a big bruiser like Nebbin.
You see a handful of burned-out buildings along your route that weren't there the last time you passed this way. South toward the Narrows of St. Alika, thin plumes of smoke hint at more fires, now seemingly quenched to a few stubborn embers, likely from the night before. Even a couple of the nicer buildings near the bottom of Garrison Hill have been burned recently. The few folks on the streets here seem less like thugs than those you saw further east, but they eye you strangers warily, perhaps even with a bit of hostility.
Perhaps the worst thing you witness comes when you hear a female child singing in a darkened alley. Peeking in as you start to pass, you spy a ghostly girl of about 7 years; one of her eye sockets is utterly destroyed and ectoplasmic blood runs down her face. Nevertheless, she sings the following rhyme:
“Headless, headless, that’s what you’ll be,
Brand-new dolls in the Emp’ror’s cemet’ry!
Choppy, choppy, chop, the tall knife calls,
Waitin’ for the day for Korvosa to fall.”
In her hands she hold several cheap stuffed dolls, each missing its head. She looks up at your group briefly before again singing her song while making the dolls dance.
Nebbin looks horrified as tears spring up in his eyes.
"Can -- can we help you? Who did this to you?" he asks, voice choked.
Similarly aghast, Fírinne looks on in horror. "How is it that things seem worse"
The ghost girl looks up at Nebbin before shifting her good eye toward Firinne. "Help me? With what?" Then noticing that you're fixated on her eye, she adds, "Oh, my runny eye. I think I just got some dust or soot in it."
Unless the ghost child's an exceptional actress, she apparently has no clue she's missing an eye...or that she's dead. As she moves her head to look at the group, you all notice an exit wound blasted through the back of her incorporeal skull, seemingly courtesy of an arrow or crossbow bolt.
Nebbin is at a bit of a loss for words. If she doesn't realize she's dead, she probably doesn't need any help or know how they can lay her to rest.
"Well, we just saw you singing and you seemed ... lonely. Do you have family? What were you singing?"
ENDRIN ISLE/OLD KORVOSA (16 Desnus)
Nebbin doesn't recognize the song's lyrics, though the tune itself is a common enough children's singalong.
"I'm not lonely, silly!" the spirit giggles. "All my friends are he--." The girl swallows the last word and her countenance turns perplexed and troubled. "Where did everybody go?" she whines.
Eventually, she gets around to answering Nebbin's questions. Nodding, she says, "Mommy and Daddy and Sis. Tomorrow's my birthday, and Mommy said maybe I'd get new dollies...if I promise not to cut their heads off like the bad man in the song does!"
Lowering his voice to a whisper, Andrezi says, "This child seems to be bound to our realm. She needs to be freed, so that she can be judged in Pharasma's Boneyard. Perhaps via song?"
"Where do you live, sweetheart?" Nebbin asks gently. "Maybe we can bring you home."
Emi doesn't like this situation at all. She stays, but stays out of it.
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ENDRIN ISLE/OLD KORVOSA (16 Desnus)
The little girl still appears confused and scared, but she looks around when Nebbin asks where she lives, finally pointing off to the southeast before slowly fading out of sight and not returning.
With little else to do, your party continues on its way to the meeting with Vencarlo. The gentleman's fencing academy is closed with no signs of life within its gate and fences, but when Emi leads you to his actual home, his butler, Erold, answers the door, and with polite nods to Emi and Andrezi whisks everyone inside.
A familiar hunched figure sits at a large table in Vencarlo’s dining hall. Standing at Madame Carrington’s side, as always, is the mute halfling manservant, Felix. The wheelchair-bound woman looks more haggard than ever; Felix looks even more serious and attentive than ever as well. ”A pair of uninvited guests arrived a bit earlier,” Vencarlo explains, waving a hand in the oneiromancer’s direction. ”Not to visit me, it would seem, but to see you folks. Please be seated.” A Harrow deck sits on the tabletop before Carrington.
The oneiromancer asks Felix to shuffle the cards for her, not even bothering with a greeting. Then she does her best to shuffle them once herself, though the result is a feeble attempt. For the first time, she notices Andrezi and Miakoda. ”New blood! Interesting! I am Madame Carrington; my able assistant is Felix. Whether you know it or not, your association with these other young heroes has woven you into the fabric of Korvosa’s great tapestry. Be seated and I will try to decipher what the Harrow portends for you all." Holding forth put a fraction of the mystical deck, the woman asks each of you to draw a single card.
”Ladies first!” she cackles, flashing a crooked smile and reaching out for Emi’s card. It depicts a craftsman of some sort being struck by a bolt of lightning that emanates from the hand of an unseen being. He drops the tools of his trade while several acorns fall from his pocket, likely symbolizing the loss of reasoning and/or madness (the nuts). “The Vision! Ah, I wonder if this pertains to some revelation you’ll have yourself, Miss Mavrakis, or if you’re destined to cross path with either a genius or a madman. Time will tell….”
Carrington takes Firinne’s card next. ”The Hidden Truth!” The card show an old wizard standing before an open book. His right index finger points to an open page; the left one points upward and burning with an arcane flame like a candle. ”What mystery lies in your path, young lady, and will you be able to see it in time?”
Next Madame Carrington gives Miakoda the warmest smile she’s able. ”Hard to be certain that you’re female beneath all that luxuriant fur, yet I sense it to be so! Let me see the card of your Choosing…. Ah! The Joke!” She flashes the card’s picture: A traveler whose joke-telling has rendered a mighty giant helpless with laughter. ”Someone or something stands in your path, and you must overcome it with something other than mere physical prowess—wits, trickery, magic perhaps. Catfolk are known for their curious outside-the-box nature…as much as housecats seem drawn to climb inside boxes! We’ll see if you can adapt!”
Kayleigh’s card is next. “The rakshasa--a card that hints at slavery…or mind-control, to be more specific.” The oneiromancer holds up the card while she stares hard at the young Milanite. It depicts an opulently-dressed crocodilian man stirring a cup of tea while seated on the back of a groveling, naked human. Eventually, the older woman harrumphs and announces, ”I detect no enchantment on you currently, young lady, but beware! The mind-control for you might not be literal—it might come down to a choice between what your deity demands of you and what you want for yourself.”
”Another new face, another new hope!” Carrington says to Andrezi as she takes back his Harrow card. ”The inquisitor!” The picture on the card is indeed of a grim-looking man in a hooded robe, a length of dangling chain looped over his neck like a necklace. He holds aloft a codex of some sort, but pages are falling from it. ”You see the immutable, the undeniable. To go against this truth—be it a tenet, law, or person—is to court disaster. Be mindful!”
Last she asks for Nebbin’s card. ”Thank you for not accidentally bending or folding it,” she jokes with a raspy chuckle. The card shows a veiled person—likely a tiefling, judging from the tail that curls out from beneath their robes—holding out a several loops of golden chain with one hand while holding out an open palm with the other as if expecting payment. A grimacing blue monkey is perched on one shoulder. ”That monkey always gives me the willies!” Carrington admits before trying to interpret the big man’s Choosing card. ”You don’t seem the type to be making bargains and deals for your little group, but be wary if you’re forced into such a choice! Or…maybe it hints that you’ll face a person or challenge that’s out of your element.”
Returning the cards to the deck, Carrington has Felix again shuffle before making a half-hearted attempt at doing do herself before asking Miakoda to cut the deck. ”Great things are afoot,” the woman intones as she lays out nine cards face-down, three cards to each row and column.
”Which is partly why invited these young folks here on this fine evening,” Vencarlo interrupts gently with a half-bow toward the harrower. ”When you told me the purpose of your visit, I decided to wait ‘til after your reading before imparting my own news upon them. Both to see if there’s anything to your readings and to then give you the chance to read new meanings and portents into your cards.”
Carrington scowls at the swordmaster. ”Even after the reading I gave you earlier, you still doubt the Harrow?! Pah!”
Vencarlo grins and shrugs. ”I shall try to be open-minded going forward.”
”A quick refresher on the set-up of the Harrowing,” Carrington drawls before revealing any of the cards’ faces. ”The first column pertains to the past: positive, unclear, and negative, going from top to bottom. The middle column speaks to the present, while the final one hints at what may come in the future. Let’s see what the cards decree…. The Midwife, The Theater, and The Cyclone. All partial matches; none misaligned. Let’s run through them all, shall we? The Midwife is responsible for bringing new life into the world, or new information. I think its meaning is clear. Vencarlo told me of your discoveries in the Hospice of the Blessed Maiden, and you have brought new faces into the battle for our fair city!”
”The Theater is a card of true prophecy, and who am I to question it? The spirit of Zellara led you to Gaedren Lamm and your fates have been tied to the city’s welfare ever since. Great events continue to play out on the stage that is Korvosa.
”The Cyclone portends a disaster, but not one of nature’s doing. Vencarlo tells me the blood veil was a manufactured plague. You have uncovered some of the architects of the disaster, but can you bring them to judgment for their parts in this horrific ordeal? Mayhaps the cards that deal with the future will tell….”
”But now, we deal with the present!” Carrington flip over the middle column of cards, revealing The Unicorn, the Demon’s Lantern, and The Empty Throne. ”The Unicorn’s a partial match, and hints that you’re generally on the right path….” The woman clucks her tongue. ”Ah…but The Empty Throne is misaligned!” She holds up the card, whose picture is of a grieving royal crying before a grave marker, while a ghostly figure stands in the background. ”Something in our city’s past stirs, restless, angry, hungry! Beware! Or perhaps seek out old wisdom or knowledge to fight our present threat!”
”Now we try to glance through the murk to discern the future…. The Marriage, the Dance, and…The Inquisitor!” Carrington’s gaze fixes upon Andrezi. ”The card of your Choosing falls in the spot of Chaos and Evil—the negative future! It may well fall upon you to see through some deceit or illusion that hides something mighty that you cannot find another means to work around. Be vigilant! Be wise!”
Carrington closes her eyes, shudders, and then opens them again. In a much meeker tone she says, ”Oh—hello there! I believe Zellara’s spirit had a message for you….”
The closer Emi gets to Vencarlo's place, the more a tightness grows in Emi's chest. The sudden summons has primed her for bad news. It's only when she sees Vencarlo in person that the pressure begins to ease and she can breath easily again. Too many people are dying all the time for her not to expect the worst. She walks straight to him and wraps her arms around him in a tight hug, where she stays for a little while. The secret is out, so there's no reason for her to be coy about her relief in seeing Vencarlo safe and sound.
Emi doesn't even mind taking a seat for Carrington's reading. In the past the readings have creeped her out. But she's getting used to them, and she's buoyed by good news.
As usual, it's hard for her to make much of anything form her card or what it might mean. She can sort of connect the dots in a way that implies she will get another shot at Rolth Lamm in the near future. Emi decides to settle to settle on that as the meaning.
As for the rest, the general reading? Emi think probably none of it will make any sense except in retrospect as usual.
Emi does work in a comment about being glad to see Madame Carrington so well recovered when she gets the chance. She also offers Felix a smile, she doesn't understand why he does what he does, but she likes him.