"I will add the library to our itinerary." Nesihpo grins, "Perhaps I could borrow or purchase a book on Vudrani while we are there."
"Thank you for your assistance Master Pravezak." Nesipho gives a slight bow.
Tania bows deeply as she leaves, thanking the sage for sharing some of his wisdom with them. As she comes out, she stretches her arms out and gives a warm embrace to her great tiger.
"I agree Nesipho. Let's go to the Library at some point. Where to next? Food? I'm hungry! Then perhaps we could pay a visit to Varunasi?"
It is indeed suppertime, by most standards. There are a number of good inns and restaurants in the area, serving a wide variety of cuisines from Vudrani to "authentic Absalom-style."
While you are trying to decide which one most suits your palates, a young local girl runs up to Tania. She holds out her hand, something clutched in it, smiling up at the sorceress.
Ashaka lowers itself and tenses as the girl runs towards them, but Tania keeps a calming hand on him: "Easy..." she orders, as she eyes the girl, smiling as she speaks in Vudrani as she dismounts the great feline.
"Food already? In the mwangi when on the hunt we would sometimes go for days without food." Nesipho states in a serious tone. Under his breath, though still loud enough for everyone to hear he continues, "Course there wasn't anything to eat till we had finished the hunt."
"પણ નદી વરસાદ જરૂર છે," Breccia opines from the rear of the group, his heavy footfalls a constant reminder of his otherwise stoic presence. He reiterates with an incline of his head, watching a man pass by the group with an attentive stare. "This one would eat."
The girl seems more intrigued by the tiger than scared of him, but she does slow her pace of approach. When she gets within a few feet, she seems to forget what she was holding out, her other hand lifting hesitantly toward the big cat's striped hide.
Tania keeps a hand on her companion to keep him calm. She replies:
She smiles to the girl.
Prashant smiles at the young girl's wide-eyed stare at the tiger, which only grows as she asks her question to Tania. Ah, the innocence of youth, and the heartfelt honesty that comes from it!
The girl jumps, remembering herself, and holds out a folded piece of paper to Tania. Her eyes continue to stray toward the tiger, though.
Having been vigilant about unfamiliar individuals approaching, Breccia steps around from the periphery of the group and takes the young girl's arm by the wrist. The action is forceful and without the decorum of anyone who has ever dealt with or handled a child before. With his other hand, the group's stony protector snatches the piece of paper out and gives the child a warning look.
Shaking the paper into an unfolded state, Breccia reviews it first while maintaining a firm hold on the child's wrist.
The girl screams, and several nearby passersby turn and shout in surprise, fear and anger.
Prashant is interrupted from his musing at the girl's shriek, and he strides forwards. "Breccia, unhand her! She means no harm!" He glances to Tania, his dark eyes upon her at once. "Keep control of your tiger - I don't want it to do anything we'd regret later."
He kneels before the young girl and helps to remove the oread's hand from her tiny wrist. "मैं बच्चे को माफी माँगता हूँ. वह आपको कोई नुकसान नहीं मतलब है. उनके तरीके हमारी तुलना में अलग हैं, लेकिन मास्टर्स 'पथ के मास्टर सभी लोगों के लिए अलग अलग है - यहां तक कि रॉक और पृथ्वी के बने होते हैं. अपना नाम, बच्चे क्या है? और तुम भूखे हैं?"
"I apologize, child. He means you no harm. His ways are different than ours, but the Master of Masters' path is different for all people - even those made of rock and earth. What is your name, child? And are you hungry?
Breccia looks down at Prashant, and instead of releasing the girl holds the note print-out towards the priest. "જંગલ લાંબા પડછાયા છે," he plainly explains in his native tongue, before reiterating in Taldan. "She has had contact with the enemy. She is an information asset." The oread's dark, hematite eyes peer down at the girl and his grip around her wrist tightens some in defiance of Prashant's gentle ministrations.
"Who gave you this message? Lie, and I will squeeze harder." The oread's rumbling voice is deep and resonant, his normally reserved demeanor now a sudden avalanche of determination and fury, mitigated by his lack of forceful delivery and even sounding cadence of speech.
___________
"The forests shadows are long."
Markis looks around worriedly, and eyes the crowd. He glances back at the exchange, and tries to think of a way to calm things down. Unfortunately, his suite of powers doesn't lend itself to calm.
Umm, everything okay? I mean, she's just a kid, right?
The girl shows no sign of understanding Breccia's words, and her escalating scream takes on the tone of pain as well as terror. Several men begin moving toward you, a few armed, shouting in Vudrani.
Tania is a little slow to react and curses as she realizes what is going on: "Breccia, it's okay. I understand you mean well, but your actions are putting us at risk. There is no reason to molest the child. Release her at once. I beg you..."
Under her robe, her hand has already started moving, ready to cast a spell to neutralize her newly met companion.
Gnashing his teeth, Breccia looks down to the girl and then up to his companions with a perplexed expression; he does not understand. Shooting a look to the crowd, Breccia seems torn between two conflicting extremes. Finally, looking back to Tania he replies, "She has seen the face of our enemy. What happens now is on you. જ્યાં તેઓ જ જોઈએ આ પત્થરો કરાયું."
With that order, Beccia releases the girl's wrist.
Ignoring Breccia, Nesipho fishes a silver coin from a pouch to toss to the girl.
Then crouches down, his voice is quiet, "Do you honor the thakur abasha?", the last word is in the language of his homeland.
Tania nods a thank to Breccia amd tirns to the crowd, speaking loud in Vudrani.
As soon as the Breccia's hand loosens from her wrist, the girl tears free of his grasp and sprints up the street. The surrounding crowd, seeing the girl no longer caught, seems to reassess the size of the oread and, apparently reassured by Tania's speech, begins to break up again.
Already moving forward, Nesipho calls back, "Wait here..."
"Wait, I need your help."
Prashant runs after the girl as well. "रुको, वापस आ जाओ! हमारे पथरीले दोस्त आपको कोई नुकसान नहीं, छोटे से एक का मतलब है. , हम थोड़ी देर के लंबे समय तक रहना है, और कृपया ... हम ... हम आप शेर की सवारी करने देगा!"
"Wait, come back! Our stony friend meant you no harm, little one. Please, stay a while longer, and, we...we...we will let you ride the tiger!"
Short of causing a full-scale riot in the streets, Markis's powers would not be much help in this situation. Not understanding the words being said, he holds his hands up to the crowd, showing that he does not carry a weapon.
The girl slows down, still nervously watching the two men who ran after her, but her mouth forms the Vudrani word for "tiger" silently, and she slowly stops and turns back to face Prashant and Nesipho.
Tania puts a hand between Ashaka's ears, mussing his pelt: "Looks like you have made quite an impression my friend. Want to make a new friend?". She speaks to the beast with a contagious smile.
She turns to Breccia: "May I see that letter?"
Still looking quite confused, Breccia gingerly hands over the piece of paper to Tania, while watching the direction Nesipho and Pashant ran off in.
The priest comes to a stop before the girl, panting for breath. "How can she move so quick with such tiny legs?", he wondered aloud as he wiped some sweat from his brow. Once he had caught his breath, he knelt down so he was on her level. "मैं प्रशांत के रूप में जाना जाता रहा हूँ. अपना नाम, बच्चे क्या है?"
"I am known as Prashant. What is your name, child?"
The girl is still clearly wary; she keeps a skittish distance as she answers, "Shari."
Crouching down a little distance from the girl Nesihpo adds, "His name is Ashaka." He tilts his head in the direction of the tiger. "Come and ride him and we can talk?" He fishes the silver coin he had intended to give her earlier out of his bags and hands it to her, "And this is for delivering the message to us."
The girl stares uncomprehendingly at Nesipho as he speaks, but the offered coin seems to transcend the language barrier. She edges slowly closer, then leaps forward to snatch it out of his hand before eying him and Prashant both with a mixture of skeptical wariness and curiosity.
In Common, Tania addresses the others: "It looks like we've made an impression and made them commit. It's a promise of death... The girl, the letter and the scholar are our clues to bring the conversation to them. Let's use them well."
Prashant offers his hand to Shari, and leads her back to the group, helping her up onto the tiger. "यह एक सुंदर नाम, शारी है. आप हमें यह संदेश देने के लिए कहा गया था कि क्यों मैं देख रहा हूँ - तुम एक बाघ को खड़े होने के लिए एक बहादुर दिल है, और यह शुरू हो गया है पहले एक लड़ाई हार रहा है जब ज्ञान पता करने के लिए. मैं इस पत्र देने के लिए कहा है जो व्यक्ति को धन्यवाद देना चाहूंगा. आप उसके बारे में मुझे बता सकते हैं?" He turns to Markis and speaks to him in Taldane: "Could you buy Shari some food for her troubles, friend? I'll repay your kindness in double later."
"That's a pretty name, Shari. I see why you were told to deliver this message to us - you have a brave heart to stand up to a tiger, and the wisdom to know when a battle is lost before it has begun. I would like to thank the person who asked you to deliver this letter. What can you tell me about him?"
Shari does not come easily along, but Prashant is finally able to get her to return to the rest of the group. She charts a wide path away from Breccia's massive bulk as she approaches Ashaka, and the glare she gives him is equal parts fear and fury. Nonetheless, the tiger distracts her again, and saucer-wide eyes drink in his muscled hide as the priest and the girl approach the tiger.
Once she has gotten settled - Ashaka is clearly rather bemused, although he is used to having a rider - it takes her a moment before she pays attention to Prashant's questioning. When she does, though, she smiles brightly and answers him.
and she pauses for a moment to giggle on her perch,
She throws in another glare at Breccia for good measure at that last.
Having been quiet while Prashant and Nesipho were away, Breccia watches the girl's return with the same level of suspicion he had regarded her before. A low, grumbling sound emanates from the oread as he looks to Tania. But then, relaxing slightly, he exhales a sigh and seems frustrated with himself and his own reactions.
"In Katapesh," Breccia says quietly, "my former master used children as assassins. No one suspects a child, no one watches them closely." Furrowing his stony brows together, Breccia shakes his head slowly. "This one learned," sounds like a defense of his actions, until he adds, "re-learning, is hard."
"" Breccia quotes to Tania in his native tongue. "Change takes time."
Slow do the mountains change.
Tania nods and smiles at Breccia, turning to the others: "Her father's age or so... So, old for a child, but not that old, with a big mustache and dressed as a merchant... Not much to go on. Perhaps the dress and the mustache were all fake, but not the shaved head... Does this sound like someone we know? Who wears shaved heads in this land?"
Nesipho speaks in a low voice so that only those very close by can hear. "Its probably way to much to expect this merchant would still be around, but we should learn from her where this person gave her the note, we might be able to discover some clue there, or ask those who stay in the area if they saw or know the man."
That's a great idea, nods Markis. We should also think about those we've already met. Someone has tipped the cult off to us.
Shari tells Prashant that the man found her while she was ragpicking along the river and paid her a silver piece to deliver the message. She'd never seen him before, and she spends a lot of time by that part of the river.
That's a great idea, nods Markis. We should also think about those we've already met. Someone has tipped the cult off to us.
"Markus, that makes a lot of sense. We could go and seek the first one we've met, for example, looking all: We know it's you! to see his reaction, then move to the next. Unless... they're on to us from the very beginning..."