"Yeah, but maybe in the morning?"
Regeris doubles over with quiet, hysterical laughter. He finally recovers and wipes his eyes. "Bed. Then we go visit this fortune teller."
Once you've collected yourselves and made your preparations, you venture out into an overcast late summer morning. As before, there are plague carriers in the square and a few on the steps of the temple, but you're able to get by the petitioners with a few excuses and promises to help them when you return.
The walk to the fortune teller's takes you the entire width of Old Korvosa and takes time. Not for the first time you regret the discontinued coach services in town. Eventually your steps lead you to the corner of Arkona and Nacre Streets.
Madame Carington's Oneiromancery is a small street-side shop that elicits strong memories of a similar establishment on another street on the far side of town. The little placard can barely be made out through the thick, dusty glass of the shop's front door. A little bell tinkles as you enter and a female voice from the back of the shop calls out.
"Just a moment please, I'll be right there."
There's a reception desk and two upholstered chairs, a door to the rear of the shop, and a corner with shelves full of books. As you stand there taking in the surroundings your attention is drawn back to the source of the voice. From back among the tomes a seated woman advances towards you. Her slow progress is marked by a thin mechanical creaking. Her distorted hands lie still, one grasping the other in her lap. Her head is erect and her eyes alert, and you get the feeling she would be an attractive woman if her jaw was not malformed and twisted.
It's only when she comes to a halt that you realize her chair rolls on thin metal wheels, and is being propelled from behind by an aged halfling man. He steps out from behind the chair and mimics the lady's benign smile.
"These guests are here for a reading, Felix. Lock the door please, and wheel us back to the reading room. Their reading's been in my dreams for days now. Let's have it out in the waking world where we can come to grips with it." Her mouth and her eyes move, but her body seems fixed in her seat, twisted beyond function by some malady or defect.
Felix says nothing in reply but simply does what she asks. He turns her rolling chair about and pushes her through a door, beckoning the party to follow. The room beyond is dark, with black curtained walls and no light sources. The halfling positions Madame Carington around the back side of a low, wide table and begins lighting candles and incense sconces around the room.
As the party finds seats, Madame Carington calls out to Felix.
"No need for my cards. I believe these guests have brought their own deck with them. Please take their cards and prepare them for the choosing. The suit of the hour will be Shields."
Tassira picks a card while Ravnos curls into her lap.
Nebbin resists asking what happened to this woman -- though barely -- and steals a glance at Kayleigh, wondering if the brave priestess will be able to heal her. That would probably make things easier for her and her halfling friend.
He takes a card after Tassira does.
Knowing better than to bark questions at a fortune teller, Regeris nonetheless watches her carefully trying to get a sense of what her game is.
First thing in the morning Emi applies the ointment from the shop again, still wondering if it's really any good. When everyone is assembled and ready, she goes along with them to Madame Carington's Oneiromancery. She spends most of the long walk in silence. There seems to be less to talk about now compared to earlier days.
it's one thing to hunt a madman killer. At least there are ideas to be discussed and decisions to be made about what to try next. With the plague and the dreams (and it's past the point where the significance of the dreams can be ignored) there isn't much to consider. It's almost impossible, for Emi at least, to think of any course except lumbering onward until they (hopefully) just go away.
Madame Carington brings a special chill to Emi's spine. Her appearance, the affliction she suffers from, seems to be Emi's own affliction from last night's dream brought into the waking world. Emi prays it's a coincidence or her imagination.
When asked to do so, she draws a card.
Kayleigh politely wishes a good morning to both Madame Carington and her halfling servant before taking a middle seat at the long table. Although her magic has relieved the fatigue from her all-nighter caring for Crayden, the priestess feels numb, both mentally and physically. She also feels spiritually aloof from Milani, not altogether surprising given that the goddess again found her undeserving of having the granted remove disease spell actually cure Carawyn. Uncharacteristically, the priestess isn't down on herself or peeved that her goddess has again found her lacking; instead, she's resigned herself to the fact that there are other powers in the world than Milani, and perhaps the spiritual connection between Zellara, this Madame Carington, and spirits from beyond the waking realm can offer some insight or assistance to her and her beleaguered friends. So, although she's eager to ask a million questions of the oneiromancer, like Regeris she allows herself to go with the flow and allow Madame Carington to do her thing.
Perhaps due to her personal exhaustion and frustration, perhaps due to feelings of her own ineptitude, and perhaps in part from a desire to possibly learn more about her own recent vivid dreams and nightmares, the Milanite gives herself entirely over to the experience, trusting her judgment and first impression that Carington is no charlatan and that perhaps her powers can open new pathways forward for herself and her friends.
Kayleigh reaches out her right hand and takes Nebbin's in hers, noting but not quite understanding the look he's giving her. Then, after a moment's pause, she reaches out her left hand to take the hand of the friend seated on that side of her. After taking a card, she hands it back to the oneiromancer. Taking a deep breath, she intones, "Please proceed, Madame Carington."
Felix sets the four remaining cards in the suit of Shields back on top of the deck, then reaches out and takes Tassira's card back from her. He places it face-up on the table for Carington to see.
When Carington speaks you note a change in her. Her head sits differently and her voice seems subtly deeper.
"The Brass Dwarf. The Azer of lore. His industrious nature makes him a man of means. His ancestry endows him with great fortitude to resist threats that might bring others low. It is a portentous card, perhaps marking you as such an ally to your friends. If it appears in the spread, it may represent your roll in the reading."
Felix next takes Nebbin's card and lays it next to Tassira's.
"The Survivor!" she calls out, and pauses to look over Nebbin before continuing. "Like most cards in the deck it carries both a hope and a sorrow. The Survivor endures a terrible ordeal and emerges from it alive. The pain of such an endurance is one sorrow, but the pain of the loss of those who do not survive, that's often the greater burden. The survivor gains wisdom, but the cost may be frightful."
Felix next takes back Regeris's card and places it in line.
"The Desert. A wasteland without resources where no person can survive alone. The card is a warning. The task that lies before you will require the help of others. You will not survive it if you try to endure it in isolation. Alternately, or perhaps additionally, the sphinx brings a riddle and holds in its paw the help you may require. The sphinx's riddle is solvable, offering you a thinking way out of what may seem an insurmountable task."
She nods and Felix next takes Emileva's card. It takes its place next to the others.
"The Trumpet! A clarion call that summons power and fearlessness. Are you fearless, young warrior? This card suggests you will be called upon to take up a mantle in some kind or fashion. It suggests you may find your loyalty, if you have not already, and that you may be given a chance to champion that cause."
Lastly Felix lays Kayleigh's card down on the table.
"The Teamster," she says with a twisted grin. In the half-light of the room her deformity adds a sinister look to her smile. "You are a driving force to those around you. You provide direction that can lead to the betterment of all, though those who are led may sometimes have a hard time seeing it. The lumbering half-orc in the art is driven to do moral deeds. Receiving such a card in a choosing, you must examine your own convictions, and ensure that you lead those around you to the right effort."
Each of these cards may represent more if they appear in the spread.
She nods to Felix and he swipes the cards back into the deck and begins expertly shuffling them with his deft little hands. Carington sits back in her seat. The skin of her face looks waxen, and a bead of sweat runs down her cheek as the cards are shuffled.
Tassira feels a bit of smug pride when her chosen card--the Brass Dwarf--is revealed.
No Shortcuts. Family motto.
Nebbin looks worried as he hears that he may suffer the loss of his companions, his resolve firming to make sure that never happens. He doesn't think he could bear that sort of pain.
He's getting ready to say that, but the later picks silence him. Clearly the fortune teller knew what she was doing considering Emi's and Kayleigh's cards: If there was anyone who was a more fierce warrior, or someone more moral than the pair of them, Nebbin Elsbet certainly didn't know them.
Emi shifts her weight back and forth on her feet uneasily.
Fearless? I've always been afraid. Afraid of the other students. Afraid of being mocked, disliked, afraid to go home once I was booted out of school, afraid to leave Ansel when I still could, afraid of Barvasi, afraid of letting Vencarlo meet Tassira or Kayleigh, afraid afraid, afraid.
She doesn't have an answer to Madame Carington's question she wants to give, and nobody else has spoken after her card so Emi remains silent.
Kayleigh's face remains calm and tranquil, even looking peaceful and relieved when Madame Carington pronounces Nebbin's card and its likely portents. She hasn't forgotten her nightmare wherein the big warrior was beheaded by a Gray Maiden who, when she raised her visor, was revealed to be Kayleigh herself. The priestess fervently hopes that this omen comes true, not certain she could live with herself if Nebbin were to perish in the seemingly inevitable confrontation Milani seemed to expect between her servants and the new queen.
There's a brief flash of pride when the oneiromancer proclaims the meaning of Emileva's card. Power and fearlessness--that's Emi all right! The cleric's a bit surprised when Madame Carington's words seem to make Emi uncomfortable.
Speaking of uncomfortable....
Carington's words to and about her leave Kayleigh anxious and troubled. Me, a driving force? Well, she had been a bit more decisive once she'd finally realized that being Milani's humble social worker wouldn't save Korvosa from its many troubles and its seemingly uncaring queen. But it was the oneiromancer's final words that sent a cold shiver down her spine: "Receiving such a card in a choosing, you must examine your own convictions, and ensure that you lead those around you to the right effort."
Kayleigh second-guessed herself constantly, plagued by self-doubt about her own abilities and worthiness to serve and accomplish Milani's will. What if she were to make a big mistake that led her friends to their deaths? And with all the irons the group had in their collective fire...which was the 'right effort?'
I might look like a half-orc, Kayleigh decides, thinking about her puffy, disease-splotched face.
Rather than letting her fear and general discomfort overwhelm her, Kayleigh instead takes a deep breath and asks Madame Carington the two questions that are consuming her.
"How did you know we'd be coming for a Harrow reading...and that we'd have our own deck? Did you somehow commune with a spirit...the spirit of the Harrower who once owned this deck?"
Regeris is no fan of folk divinations. Although having resoundingly rejected the teachings of Abadar, the culture of the place defines who he is and what he thinks about. Magic can be understood - it is governed by rules and law that may be complex, but are documented and can be learned through academic study. Even the religious lore of Milani, scattered and varying as it may be, can be processed in a reasonable, orderly fashion.
A fortune teller is another thing entirely, completely outside of his realm of understanding of comfort. Mystical and occult matters are a way of viewing the world he cannot understand, and is inherently unnerved by.
Not that he'd let it show.
"I already know that what I face could not be faced alone. The possibility of an esoteric puzzle is... odd. I do not know what that could mean."
He looks carefully to the others, taking in their cards and Carington's reading. "I am curious what lessons we are to learn from this. But proceed."
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
"Yes, that's exactly right," she says, turning to Kayleigh. "I'm a kind of medium. I'm very attuned to the spirit world when I dream and my dreams over the last week have been more troubled than usual."
"Not just because of this spirit... Zellara is her name... but by other powers as well. There's a stirring in the spirit realms, where they flow through the streets and the people of our city. Zellara's spirit is powerful, but the power of her family's Harrow is the greater power and she wields it in the spirit realm like a lamp against the dark, demanding attention."
"She told me of you and the harrow you carry. And something of your first reading, and the reason she sought you out. And I've agreed to channel her for this reading. Her spirit is here, in the room now. Her power guides the reading."
She turns her gaze down to the spread on the table before you. Felix has laid out a field of nine cards, face down on the table. The smoke of incense hangs low in the room and its intensity threatens to overwhelm your breathing and make your eyes swim.
With trembling fingers, the halfling flips over the left-most column of cards.
Carington names them as they are revealed.
"The Twin. The Peacock. The Dance."
She stares at them for a long moment before she speaks. When she does, her eyes roam from face to face, including all of you in the collective reading.
"The Twin is a duplicitous card. In a more aligned position I would worry that some malevolent power trifles with the reading, that the entire meaning will be flipped. But here I don't feel that threat. Placed here, the card's meaning is more literal and less profound. The divided loyalties of your allies are increasingly in your past. Read literally, the card is benevolent and speaks well of your friends, or possibly of your friendship with one another."
"The Peacock represents a time of revelation. Sometimes of personal transformation. Here it is aligned and speaks very strongly of the organization of the reading - like a rebuke of the Twin who preceded it. The Peacock sat at the center of your first reading by this deck. Its anchor in the center as time slides by very strongly connects this reading to the last." She smiles and nods at you.
"That's good. It's a sign of the power of these cards that the readings retain such coherence across time. You must guard this deck, for I think its power and connection to your fates will not be exhausted by this reading."
She turns back to the revealed cards.
"Literally, the Peacock's presence in the past may act as a warning to you that the time of revealing your powers may be passing. You may be entering a time when acting from the shadows is more advisable."
"The Dance is a very powerful card that has been evilly placed. It implies coordination among your enemies. While its placement in the past may be seen in a positive light, it may also be said that past plans come to present fruit. I fear this card in that it speaks to the sophistication of the forces who oppose you. Let us hope that the other cards of the spread give more specific warnings."
"Shall we proceed?"
"That sounds mostly good, right? I mean, I think we knew Rolth was working with the elf woman, but does that mean he's working with um, you know who, too?" Nebbin says, suddenly realizing he might not want to name certain of their maybe enemies in front of others.
"And maybe it means we can definitely trust Tallisan, and Trap, and everyone else!"
He waits for her to continue, hoping they'll get more information they can use.
Kayleigh nods at Nebbin's words. She wonders if maybe she'd frowned when Madame Carington had mentioned 'coordination among your enemies' and she'd immediately thought of her nemesis, Pilts Swastel. Her glance turns to her other friends to see if they have any questions before the oneiromancer continues the reading.
"Coordination among our enemies is our constant nightmare," mutters Regeris, focusing on the only negative card in the first line of their reading. "I'm torn between dismissing it as paranoia and realizing that there is something more sinister and grander at work. I have no questions. Continue."
Carington nods and Felix proceeds to flip the next column of cards. Again, the harrower names them as they're revealed.
"The Waxworks. The Sickness. The Mountain Man."
She again she pauses, scrutinizing the cards and collecting her thoughts.
"It's difficult not to look right past the Waxworks, but it's such a powerful card it deserves its place in the reading. The card normally implies an unavoidable fate and an evil one at that. But the card is misaligned and appears in a positive light here, which often implies opportunity. The victim in the waxworks has no control over his fate, but misaligned it can mean that at the moment of fate, you hold the initiative. You are in a unique position to avoid certain doom."
"It's particularly important to bear this in mind as we turn to the next cards, which together tell a dark tale. I'm not sure I can add anything to the obvious meaning of the Sickness, except to point out that it appears in the center of your reading. This plague that's infesting the city is some how bound to your own fate. And the Waxworks may imply that you hold the key to defeating it somehow. Are you healers? Alchemists or physicians? If you have insights or leads, you must pursue them. For everyone's sake."
"The Mountain Man is a card that foretells an unstoppable force. In its position in the spread, that force is certainly an evil one. It reinforces the appearance of the Sickness and underscores the the immensity of the danger that the Blood Veil brings."
"This reading of the present, it's often the least interesting part of the thread because it speaks to things that are already occurring. While on balance the cards foretell great danger - indeed evil and chaos are ascendant in this reading - but I feel hope in these cards."
"The last part of the reading concerns the future. Are you ready to proceed? Or do you have questions about what we've seen so far?"
Kayleigh fidgets when Madame Carington explains the significance of the Sickness card and seems to put the city's very fate in her tremulous, inexperienced hands.
What if I have no insights? she thinks. What if I have no leads...or don't recognize them?
Those were worries for later, however. She motions for the Harrower to continue her reading.
Regeris continues to stare at the care with a brooding expression. When Carington explains that the group are the ones who must stop the blood veil, he simply nods in agreement.
"Kayleigh's a healer!" Nebbin proudly informs the fortune teller.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Carington's focus turns back to Kayleigh. Her piercing blue eyes lock onto the cleric's, probing for connections to the cards on the table.
"Yes, of the Blooded Rose, correct? A healer of physical and social ills. Our city is rife with both. I can think of no more appropriate place for the Everbloom to appear than on the streets of our poor, stricken home. The connection is there. I think this reading foretells a blessing on your struggle."
She nods to Felix and he reveals the last of the three columns.
"The Snakebite. The Unicorn. The Betrayal." Her face again contorts into a twisted smile and she shakes her head.
"This deck is over-proud of its power. It plays games with us."
"The Snakebite is misaligned. This can be a powerful card for evil, but good to an equal degree when appearing thus. It foretells a gift, a discovery, or a revelation. It foretells complimentary solutions, where solving one puzzle may offer a revelation necessary to solve another. Such an epiphany is predicted by this reading."
"Let me skip to the other pole, the Betrayal. Again a profoundly evil card, and this time aligned to reinforce its obvious meaning. That reading is of evil that hides behind beauty. Equally it may foretell self-betrayal, where your own best intentions are subverted by jealousy or pride. In this spread, I believe it warns against both."
"Lastly, the Unicorn. And this is what I mean when I accuse this deck of its own pride. The Unicorn sits in a neutral place in the spread, offering either an aligned or misaligned reading. Aligned, it carries the same reading as the misaligned Snakebite. Misaligned, it carries the same reading as the aligned Betrayal. It sits in the center of the column like a glass mirrored on both sides. Its ambiguity offers nothing to the reading except to reinforce its neighbors, whether you read it as an aligned or misaligned card."
She looks up from the cards spread before you, eyes darting from one face to another.
"If you have questions, you should ask them. The Harrow often holds hidden meanings that reveal themselves as events unfold."
Kayleigh manages a wistful smile at Nebbin's enthusiastic proclamation.
"I do what I can against the blood veil, but I can't save a whole city of sick folks--just a soul here and a soul there."
She's totally enthralled by the Harrow reading, and a hopeful expression crosses her face when Madame Carington mentions the possibility of 'complimentary solutions, where solving one puzzle may offer a revelation necessary to solve another.'
"We have so many things vying for our time and attention," the priestess comments. "We could really use a break in getting to the bottom of all these challenges."
"...so, maybe Madame Helvara's?" Tassira hopefully offers.
"She DID mention something about the basement of her new establishment..."
Regeris looks solmenly at the cards. "The Betrayal, either internally or without. What do these future cards mean? Are these possibilities, likelihoods, or certainties?"
He nods over to Tassira. "Frankly, I think that attending to matters which may be addressed reasonably and resolved in short order will be good for morale and a sense of purpose. Helvara's basement may be such a place."
Nebbin ponders everything the card caster has said.
"It would be good if we could solve one thing and that would fix other things. Right now, we're not doing anything," he says dispiritedly.
He agrees with Tassira.
"She is pretty," he admits, "but I hope there's not any (more) evil behind her. I guess we could make sure."
With Rolth still on the loose and the blood veil still running wild throughout the city, Kayleigh is borderline shocked when Regeris and Nebbin second Tassira's suggestion to visit Helvara and further explore her basement. And her shock is not just because the group has bigger fish to fry...it's because she was going to suggest the exact same thing!
Regeris saying that it would be "good for morale and a sense of purpose" summed up her feelings on the matter rather neatly; also, it was clear that Tassira had feelings for the woman, so checking in on her and her small entourage in this time of plague made a lot of sense. Something had prompted Kayleigh to prepare a second remove disease spell that morning; perhaps Helvara or one of her helpers was battling the blood veil and could use some healing. She chimes in that a visit to Helvara's place is OK with her.
Belatedly, Kayleigh remembers to tell Madame Carington about Carawyn’s spider-themed dream of the previous night. At the last moment, she adds that she’s had some spidery dreams herself in the near past but she doesn’t go into detail about them, theorizing that they likely came to her through the power of suggestion during her recent recovery from the blood veil at Vantyev Manor in the company of Tassira’s somewhat creepy mother.
Lastly, the cleric furrows her brow and asks her friends, "Did we ever report back to Helvara about the sigil we researched in the Pharasmin cathedral? You know--about Dradjit the Godslayer or whatever his name is?"
"I remember bringing it up to her, but she didn't seem to notice..." Tassira starts.
When Kayleigh starts sharing her weird dream, Tassira feels compelled to share hers as well.
"Well, that makes sense," Nebbin reasons. "You said how gross it was dealing with all those spiders Majenko ate. That's probably given you nightmares. I didn't see him eat them, and I haven't been having bad dreams..."
Carington replies to Regeris.
"They're foretellings. Hints in my ear, whispered by the spirit I agreed to contact for this reading. Interpreted through me. Powered by this deck. The fogs of time rarely part to anyone for very long, even gods. May you benefit from this glimpse given you by Zellara and her ancestors."
She closes her eyes and breathes deeply the thick air of the room. When Kayleigh and then Tassira tell of their dreams she listens to everything each woman has to say before replying.
"I've heard variations on this dream many times in the last weeks. Dreams of transformation and control. And when I sleep and dream... my mind is like a cast-net thrown into the sea. I catch glimpses of other dreamers and the demons they create for themselves to torture their slumbering minds. So many spiders, and such a strong correlation to shiver, a drug that requires the essence of arachnia."
"I believe there is a spider who hunts among us. Among the people. Something that invades their minds even as the Blood Veil invades their bodies. It could be that you too are sensitive to traces of this hunter."
Regeris nods solmenly as he listens to the fortune teller, deciding that considering the group is apparently guided by a ghost in a deck of cards he may as well take her seriously. "So what is this hunter. We've done a great deal to remove the presence of shiver from the city - or at least Endrin's Isle. It could be Rolth but I imagine you're referring to something far greater."
Kayleigh appears troubled by the oneiromancer's words but has no idea how to track the arachnoid hunter lairing in the city, so she remains quiet.
"I don't know the answer. Something from the plane of shadows or the plane of dreams, perhaps. A faceless demon of the abyss, maybe. Or something from behind the dark veil, exposed to our world through foul occult ritual or sacrifice. Its powers seem focused on Old Korvosa, or maybe Bridgefront specifically. And they feel like they're becoming more pronounced."
"I had this dream last night, very distinctly remembered. I could walk the streets unaided by Felix or my chair, which was enough to tell my dreaming mind that I dreamed. But still I was elated to stand on my own. And there were tiny spiders crawling like a blanket all over the ground. And everyone else in the dream walked upon the spiders without seeing them. But I could see them. And though I didn't want to, with each crunching step I killed them by the score. They moved so fast and there were so many it was impossible not to. By the time I'd reached my door I'd surely killed hundreds, and felt so bad for it that all I could do was sit and weep. By the end of the dream, I was afraid to stand and walk."
"Whatever this being is, I feel that it stalks the people of the street in their dreams, but I also sometimes feel that I stalk it. Like I possess a freedom of will that others in the dream do not. I can sense it hunting others and know that it does not see me."
"I will continue to probe it in my dream state. Perhaps you should come see me again after some time has passed and maybe I'll have discovered something."
Regeris frowns in the same manner he always does. "So the source of the nightmares may be something far less... corporeal and immediate than I had hoped. I think it would be best if we visit you again."
He looks to the others. "Do we have any more questions?"
Kayleigh shakes her head in response to Regeris's question, thanks Madame Carington for her help, and tells the oneiromancer to be careful in the coming days.
Outside, she asks, "Didn't you and Emi witness the Guard pulling the bodies of a gang of shiver dealers--a few wrapped in spider webbing--out of a building in Bridgefront while Nebbin, myself, and Tassira were trapped at her family estate dealing with the blood veil...and Lady Vantyev's shiver addiction? Perhaps we could investigate that place while we're in Helvara's neighborhood."
"It might not be a bad idea to check in with your mother again to make sure she's all right," the priestess adds haltingly to the mage, "and...maybe ask her what exactly she was using that crystal ball we found her clutching for...."
"I know we killed him and burned the boat down, but ... spiders and the King of Spiders, and Shiver? Maybe we need to make sure Devargo's really dead dead? If we can do that somehow..." Nebbin suggests.
Emi doesn't say anything during the reading, beginning with Madame Carington's naming of Zallera as the previous owner of the deck, following with other facts mentioned, and ending with the spider dreams, there's no way she can reason away what the woman tells them as some sort of trickery or scam.
It leaves Emi stunned, and extremely uneasy. The idea that they have a supreme adversary hidden behind all the various things happening to and around them, and that this adversary may not be a living breathing person or persons of some kind, is going to take a while to process.
Tassira winces at the mention of her mother. "...maybe."
It's a pretty short walk to Helvara's place. Since it's not pouring this time you're able to take a quick survey of the place from the outside. It has a second and a third story. There's a big dead tree that menaces the front walk and a well in the yard. When you approached last time you entered a side door with Helvara. Approaching the main doors this time you find them closed. As you go to knock on them you can hear a musician practicing within. The sound of the instrument and the scale being played are strange to your ear.
Moments after you knock there's the sound of locks being thrown and the door opens a foot. The face that thrusts out is familiar, if unexpected.
"Deliveries come by the back door..." Anpugit is saying as his eyes widen in recognition of Emi. His black mustaches droop and he shakes his head.
"No, no, no! We don't want your business here! We left the Eel's End and sold the ship! All done with that..." he says as he closes the door.
Tassira clears her throat when she sees Anpugit. "We're here to speak with Helvara, sir. Rest assured, she'll want to see us."
Regeris sticks his foot in the door, just sick and tired of this nonsense. He levels a death-stare at Anpugit full of every ounce of malice and danger he can muster.
"We're here at her request. Helvara. Now."
The door stops and Anpugit's face thrusts out a second time for a look.
"Ya, Helvara did say to let you in," he says with a sigh.
He lets the door swing open and you walk into a shadowy tavern that smells strongly of smoke and incense. The left side wall of the room is lined with long low tables with no seats. Short sets of wooden steps on the end clue you in that this is a runway for dancers. Long dining tables sit in the center of the floor facing the runway. Behind these are two cold hearths. The right side of the floor beyond the hearths is a bar that spans the width of the place with barstools along its length. In the far corner, the musician picks out a melody on his round-backed guitar while a waif of a girl in a peasant dress twists sensuously to the sound.
Anpugit locks the door behind you and waves you toward the far staircase.
"Ey! 'Elvara! You have a visitor. Visitors..." he corrects, and goes back to some business of his own behind the bar.
A moment later Helvara comes thumping down the stairs in a white blouse and leather pants. She claps her hands together when she sees who's come.
"Ah Tassira, you got my note before even I sent it! Thank Desna you've come, and with your most capable friends, too!"
She comes straight for the mage, arms extended to embrace.
Nebbin looks around, before he almost violently averts his eyes from the waifish girl toward Kayleigh and then the ground, face flushing. He seems to have trouble looking up, keeping his eyes downcast.
Tassira's face lights up with a sunny smile and she returns Helvara's embrace.
"It's always a pleasure." She greets the madame with a kiss on the cheek.
"What's the trouble?"
Kayleigh is quite surprised to see Anpujit again; her recollection was that he was put out by the friends' eliminating Devargo Barvasi despite the fact the man was a murderer and crime lord. In her book, that made him a jerk at best, and likely an enemy. It bothers her that Helvara is still associating with the man. She's not sure the fellow's 'evil mastermind' material, though. Regeris's death glare at the man makes her feel warm inside. As for herself, she opts to give the man a pleasant smile for now...hoping that the lingering red splotches from her recent bout with the blood veil will make the man uncomfortable.
And speaking of uncomfortable....
Kayleigh catches the last part of Nebbin's averting of his eyes. As Helvara embraces Tassira, Kayleigh is reminded what a crappy girlfriend she's been recently between bouts with blood veil, the general bustle of the recent hunt for Rolth and Jolistina, and her responsibility in treating local victims of the relentless plague. She's had no time with Nebbin. Examining her hands for any hives or other signs of the blood veil, she walks over to the big warrior, quietly takes his hand in hers, and gives him a quick smile.
Then she listens closely to what Helvara has to say.
Emi says nothing to Anpugit, but as she passes him she gives him a smirk.
Inside though she keeps to the back, more or less using the others to block herself from Helvara's sight. Not yet completely recovered from Blood Veil, she now feels more uncomfortable.
Yep, I really needed yet another beautiful woman in he room. Wonderful.
Helevara isn't he only reason for her discomfort though. Emi notices the the dancing girl as well. She knows in the abstract there's an endless supply of Carawyns out there to be had, far more than she can possibly do anything about. But seeing so firsthand is hard. Helvara has been a good ally, and obviously she's important to Tassira. But Emi doesn't think she can ever really be okay with her.
Nebbin blushes a bit more, if possible, but takes hold of Kayleigh's hand, giving it a gentle squeeze.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Regeris stone-faces Tassira and Helvara's embrace. Despite being someone whose entire training and purpose of being is to judge other people, a rogue rich girl's tryst with a brothel owner is perhaps the most wholesome thing he's encountered in the past few weeks.
"You've done us a great favour and it's important for us to help our friends when in need. How can we be of service?"
Helvara's cheek is cold and damp. With a second look it's clear she's been crying.
"Oh, gods. We've had so many problems since we moved in here... but most of those are natural enough and mine to solve. But this morning...", she looks around quickly, then lowers her voice so Anpugit does not hear.
"This morning we found one of my people dead in his room and another certainly infected with the Blood Veil. It's so horrible! I sent Spike to find someone... a guard, a priest, even the wain. But he hasn't come back. Did he find you?" she asks hopefully.
"Only my people know. Cassandra, the sick one, she's in her room bearing up as best she can. Darien..." she stifles a sob, then continues. "It seems like he killed himself." By the end she's whispering, barely audible over the tune.
"Anpugit already believes this place is cursed or haunted. This will certainly scare him into leaving."