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Thank the Gods Caroliss can lie so easily!
The men just don't go for Caroliss's ploy, they buy the whole damn story. The one carrying Ez clearly knows her father and places and frowns mightily. He places the oracle gently back on the ground and turns to face her. "Sorry Lady Derexhi, just doing my job. Didn't know it was you. Apologies."
Esrisi is red-faced from struggling against the man for the past several minutes, having gone from apologetic to full on frustrated at the event. With her mouth closed, growl-groans at the man wanting to punch him in the face. But that wouldn't do well to sell the Lady Derexhi story, now would it? But then, who can talk sense into a possessed hand?
Her left fist flies forward in a jab at the man's large chest. It's impossible to miss being three times her size and her fist finds purchase in his abdominal.
Feeling like she hit a brick wall, Ez groans and flinches, shaking her hand in pain as she looks up at the large man and tries to figure out how to best avoid further conflict "That's uh, that's for uhm. Tearing my dress! Yeah! You tore my dress!" she says as she starts backing away from the three men towards where she assumed Caroliss is.
Turning her back to them and walking away down the alley, she whispers "I lost Veltariel. I'm not sure I want to go back inside anymore. She got really frustrated and went outside. I think? Maybe we should go around front and look for her."
As she walks with Ez down the alley, Caroliss whispers. "By Calistria's lash, you sure had a lot of faith in my lies! I'm not sure if I should be proud or angry!" With the safety of some distance, though, she can't help but smile.
She starts walking toward the front, as Esrisi explains. "So Vel still likes hurting humans not named Esrisi. Excellent. Whatever you might've done to her didn't quite solve all our problems. Let's go look for her, but if Vel doesn't want to be found, there's probably not much we can do about it. Next time, maybe we have a nice quiet celebration in the forest like a good elf would do."
Veltariel wriggled free of the man’s grasp, again! She stepped back, her bare feet silently moving along the pavement, and put her back to a wall as she raised her hands to defend herself. The five of them had descended on her not long after she made her way outside, and it had been a scrap ever since. She was giving as good as she got, but the math just didn’t add up, being five against one.
Even so, two of them had broken noses and another had a deep cut above his eye. Meanwhile, Veltariel has a busted lip, some sore ribs, and her eye was going to be swollen shut soon. Not to mention her torn dress. She spit some blood out and waved for them to come on! ”તમે શું રાહ જોઈ રહ્યા છો, તમે ગંદા છો? બીજા વિચારો છે? મેં જોયું છે કે અડધા ભાગો તમારા કરતા વધુ સખત હિટ છે!”
One of the men lunged at her and wrapped up her arms, and three more dove in as well, each taking a hold of one of her limbs! The fifth stepped up with his small club and hammered her in the gut, doubling her over as the wind was knocked out of her and she hung limply in their grasp!
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While Vel engages with the meddlesome humans, Esrisi catches her best friend up on recent happenings.
Es looks to Caroliss, pain evident in her face ”There is so much I haven’t told you. The last days have been a complete and utter whirlwhind! I don’t even know where to start!”
She takes a deep breath and winds back a few days ”After my run in with Vel during the dining hall after I saw she had cut my hair, I had a talk with Shelia in her office. She told me I needed to find a way to deal with Vel that wasn’t violence. A way to increase team cohesiveness and not distract from the mission at hand. Well....” She fidgets with her hands and grimaces.
”Sooooo I thought that I could go back to my family estate and find something there they would help. I snuck in and was going through father’s magic vials when my older sister Ulisa caught me red handed shoving things in my pocket. She ...”. She shakes her head as she remembers what happened with the benefit of hindsight. she offered to help me. I was so blown away at the time, she’s never gotten me in anything but trouble. She hates me, it she was so nice and helpful.! Anyway, she told me she knew of someone in town who could brew a potion that would make Vel less hostile. If Veltariel deescalates, everyone wins. Right?”
She swallows hard and continues ”She told me I needed a lot of money for this potion, but not to worry because I could take it from fathers secret stash and he would never know because there was just so much coin there he didn’t keep track of. She told me where to find it and I broke it open and took the money while she gave me the contact info. It was all in code and I couldn’t read what she wrote.”
”So I took the money and picked up a nice elven wine and went to see her contact. He didn’t tell me anything other that mixing the wine and potion. I took it back and have it to Veltariel and ...” she blows out a breath, ”I think it worked a little too good. Now she is infatuated with me. She says we are in love. I’ve never been in love, I don’t know what live is. Is this love? I guess so? I mean, I believe it is because Vel has been in love and she said this is love...”
She covers her face with her hands ”I think now that Ulusa tricked me. Told me to rob father and made her contact make a love potion. I’m very much in over my head. I’m afraid of what happens when her potion wears off. She will kill me if she finds out what I’ve done. I started thinking maybe I should just embrace what I have and enjoy the attention and affection while lasts. It’s... it’s nice Caroliss. Someone touching me and saying nice things about me. Not that you don’t Cars, but it’s different. I mean we uhm, did things together, that was, uhm. I. I liked it. Is that wrong? “
Esrisi still can't see Caroliss, but she can hear her breathing out a long breath to calm her nerves as she contemplates the situation. "I don't know much about love, but I'm pretty sure what you're talking about is lust. I mean, it sounds like Vel's touch was very enjoyable. But do you like Vel as a person? I think you'd have to do that to call it love."
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Esrisi shrugs "Like I said, she didn't tell me what it was. I just foolishly assumed that Uls was helping me out and was so ecstatic everything was going according to plan that I didn't ask questions."
"Do I like her as a person? Uhm. She's really nice to me now, does that count? I don't think she'd cut my hair off anymore. She said that the way we feel about each other is love, not lust. She didn't say anything about lust. Definitely she said we're in love." the oracle says, nodding to herself to reinforce the fact.
As she leads invisoCaroliss through the alley back towards the front, she fronws "It gets worse." Holding up her left hand, she says "Something is seriously wrong with me, Caroliss. I can't control my left hand sometimes. It's like it has a mind of it's own. It flicked off Sapher, it grabbed Veltariel, it punched that guy in the alley. I did not do those things, it did. I know that sounds crazy which is why you have to believe me that it's true! I'm losing control of my body now and..."
She looks down at her hands, pausing momentarily. "Something else happening with my curse. It's getting worse. It's getting stronger and I have this sense of foreboding all of the time. As if I know something bad is about to happen, or worse, it almost feels like I can make something bad happen. How terrible is that?" she sighs, turning the corner and seeing a truly terrible sight ahead.
she screams, seeing broken and bloody body laying in the alley. Not seeing her respond to her call, she rushes to her side and drops in beside her on her knees. She picks up her head and notices her right ear is missing. Looking around her body she sees it laying on her stomach. "What? Oh, oh, no, no-" Seeing the ear and Vel's body is too much and she turns to her side and wretches, losing her beautiful dinner from earlier.
Breathing quickly she grabs Vel's ear and holds it to her bloody wound and for the second time tonight she casts a cure spell to heal her wounds and fix her ear, hoping it's not too late.
Then, she groggily opens her eyes, groaning further as she rolls over to her hands and knees. She spits out a large glob of blood as she mutters ”પ્રાણીઓ”
She reaches up and clutches the side of her head where her ear had been severed as tears fall to the cobblestones from her emerald eyes. She then reaches to try to cover herself with the tatters of what remains of her dress.
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Esrisi reaches to Veltariel's ear with her and says "I fixed it. It's all better now. What. What happen, Veltariel? You ran away and. Oh. They came for you too, didn't they?" She looks down at her own torn dress before moving Veltariel's head to her lap and running her hands through her hair.
Reaching out to the torn and tattered fragments of Veltariel's clothing, she begins to cast a spell repeatedly to reattach them and correct the torn fragments until the dress is once more made whole. She looks around for Caroliss, but remembers she's still invisible "Caroliss is here somewhere, she's hidden."
She whispers "It's okay. Let's just go back to the lodge." Lowering her head to the ground, she stands and says "I need to go in and get my bag back. I'll be right back. Caroliss, can you watch over Veltariel until I get back please?"
Setting her jaw with determination, she strides purposefully forward. She lets her fury fill her body and mind, black tendrils of mist beginning to swirl around her hands as she strides back into the club.
She then slowly limps off towards the Lodge.
Veltariel, in an elegant, Elven style, two-piece dress that has seen better days, comes limping back to the Lodge, her jaw set with pain and determination.
Sapher is happily looking at the second plate of steaming potatoes being set down in front of her when she sees Veltariel limping into the lodge. "Vels!" she yells in suprise and concern, nearly falling out of her chair to attempts to get to her. Stopping just before the elf, her hand out to heal, "May I heal you?" she asks for permission first, as is her way.
Veltariel’s head snaps Sapher’s direction, and for a moment the dwarf is certain she’s going to verbally snap as well. But instead Veltariel just nods sternly.
Sapher reaches up and presses her hand against the elven woman's arm, the welcome (or unwelcome depending on your mood) sense of a warm hug accompanies her healing as always.
She wants to ask what happened, the concern is evident on the dwarf's face, but Vels isn't one that seems to enjoy talking to her much anymore, so she limits her question to "Are you okay, Veltariel?" the question holding many meanings, but is as non-probing as she can make it.
Veltariel takes a deep breath to test her ribs, works her shoulder, and tests her weight on her leg. Nodding satisfactorily she snarls ”I will be soon enough,” before she storms on up to her room.
She doesn’t bother closing the door as she changes into her gear. She picks up her sword and loosens it in its sheath before strapping the belt around her hips along with her quiver. She hooks her bow across her chest and shoulder as well as her dagger.
She makes her way back downstairs and kicks an old coal from the fireplace, rubbing the soot on her hands and then smearing it across her arms, legs, and face in random patterns.
Sapher's concern is growing, not just for Vel's but for whoever she has decided to go hunting. "Veltariel. What is going on?"
Veltariel doesn’t reply, just continues smearing the coal spot across her skin in silence with monk-like focus.
Sapher moves closer and louder "Vels!"
"Where are the others? Are they hurt? Drask, just stepped out. I can get him and we can follow you. Let me grab my shield!" she starts to hurry to where she left it against the table.
”No,” she growls.
She stands and turns, her face a frightening visage of rage and determination. ”This I do alone,” she says through clenched teeth, her body trembling in her fury.
Sapher stops, turning, snapping "WHY! WHY do you have to do this alone?!? Everyone has their heads shoved up their-!" she stops worry making her lose her temper. Trying to soften her voice "We can help." she tries, knowing she has no way to keep up with Vels if she doesn't want it. Words are her only possible way to help, and she's s!$! at words.
Veltariel doesn’t seem to register anything Sapher says, and begins moving through across the room and for the front door.
"S&%$ s~+$ s$++ s#&$..." Sapher forgets to curse in undercommon, rushing over to her shield, and hoofing it to follow as fast as she correctly sized legs will allow. Wondering if trying to clip the elf in the leg would be considered bad form if it is just to make her stride at a respectable speed.
Veltariel hits the street, and immediately breaks into a jog and into the shadows.
Sapher gets to the door, seeing the fleet of foot elf taking off, and knows she cannot keep up with that. So she turns and runs to the library, where she last saw Mok. "MOK! Vels came back hurt in a dress got in her armor and weapons wiped coal everywhere and then took off again" she says quickly, "We... can you find her like you did with Drask? Please say you can!"
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Mokhasi barely has time to put his book down before Veltariel charges into her room, quickly changes, and barrels past Sapher, ignoring Sapher’s perfectly reasonable protestations. Mokhasi grabs his spear and moves to Sapher, ”for god’s sake, what happened now...” It is not asked as a question, but more of a miserable statement of resigned frustration.
He follows Sapher, and quickly adds ”rules: if she tries to kill anyone, disable her. Otherwise, they probably had some of it coming, so let us stay out of this increasingly absurd nonsense if we can, yes?”
He grumbles, ”I can ask the city where she has been...”
”She and the others went to a series of ‘clubs’. I may be able to lead us to the last one. This magic is very imprecise. Look for elven footprints as well, Sapher. I understand you have some ability with tracking. I will assist you when we get closer.” Mokhasi nods at Sapher and helps her to track.
"Stay out of it!?!" Sapher snaps "We can't 'stay out of it'. They are our friends... no matter their current thoughts on the matter" the irritable dwarf mutters the last part, doing her best to keep up.
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Striding back into the nightclub, Esrisi looks around for her bag. Locating it, she heads that way and snatches it up and tries to push away the thoughts in her head about making them pay for ruining her night out.
What they did to Veltariel is inexcusable! You need to send a message.
No! No! You can't just get mad and do what you what to do! What's inexcusable!
DID YOU SEE HER FACE! They cut her ear off for f~#$'s sake! Isn't that inexcusable?!
Leaning against a support column, Esrisi groans as she puts her right hand across her eyes and her left hand on the column.
It doesn't mater! Who are you to play God?
But they can't just do what they want to whomever they want!
Groaning in rage, she squeezes her hand around the column as her black tendrils of mist begin to flow around her body. Her eyes flood a cloudy black and the curse fills her as the power the abyss manifests in her anger. Black tendrils pierce the wooden column and flow into the wooden structure, breaking it.
The wood begins to croak and groan before it splinters and cracks under her weight. The balcony above can't support itself with the column and it cracks and breaks into to. Stepping back in horror as a man up above on the balcony slips and falls onto a table in front of her, she snaps out of daze and gasps. She screams "It's going to collapse! Everyone out!" before she runs up to the man and casts a healing spell on him, dragging him from the building among the many others who are now starting to flee.
Once she gets the man outside she asks if he's okay before looking for Caroliss. she shouts, spinning in a circle looking for her friend as dozens of people flee from the building all around her.
"elven footprints on cobblestones" she continues to mutter.
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Mokhasi takes them to the last ‘club’ eventually, where they see no sign of Esrisi or Veltariel, but a number of people who have fled and are looking at the building, which seems to have a number of cracks in the facade. Many clubgoers are holding each other, and there are a not insignificant number of bodies lying outside the door, some of which are moving and being tended to.
Mokhasi moves to the entrance and looks inside. It seems that a support column had given way.
He shouts Sapher over, ”it looks as if one of the support columns near the center broke - which caused a series of other cascading failures of structural elements. It was not just the balcony, the column was load bearing for at least part of the ceiling. It was lucky that it seems to have happened slowly, allowing most but not all to escape with their lives.” He shakes his head. ”Did you find Veltariel, Esrisi or Caroliss, were Esrisi or Caroliss among those who were injured?”
Once she is comfortable that she has put enough distance in, she finds her a low hanging ceiling and leaps up to it, grasping it with her hands. She then pulls herself to the top and continues her movement through the city via rooftop. Few humans bothered looking up, due to their own sense of self importance.
She then continues her steady progress towards her quarry at the last tavern. She hooks from one building to the next with ease, and as she nears, she lowers to a crouch behind a rooftop with crenellations as she nearly vanished from sight against the night sky...
Sapher is moving around the injured, exhausting the rest of her healing spells on those most injured and helping the others with her mundane healing skills. "No, not yet, but there are a lot of them..." she looks a little stricken. "I... I can't leave these people, Mok. They need help." her face shows a flash of pain at having to turn her back on her friends "mays the gods watch out of them" she then gets to wrapping cuts and settings bones.
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Esrisi and Caroliss are no longer present at the devastation of the former night-event-location. It doesn't take much asking around to find out that they were both there. Several people report two women that meet Caroliss and Esrisi's description dragging people from the building and helping heal their wounds. They reportedly left not too long ago to seek out more help for the wounded.
Caroliss and Esrisi find the closest temple, banging on the doors until and acolyte answers. Quickly detailing what happened, several men and women accompany the duo back to the scene of the crime unfortunate freak incident.
Esrisi starts pointing out places where help is needed and tries her best until she spots Sapher and Mokhasi. She groans and squeezes her eyes shut "Oh. You've got to be kidding me!" she says, running up to Sapher and taking a knee. "Sapher! How did you know to come! I brought help!" she says, taking a look at the woman she is working on.
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Veltariel returns to the tavern not too long after a calamity seems to have already befallen it. The building was in ruin. Revenge robbed from her.
She simply stood there, a shadow against a blanket of darkness. Staring numbly at the carnage that should have been hers to sow by right.
She sees Sapher and Mokhasi arrive, Esrisi and Caroliss dragging wounded away. Sees them begin healing the wounded.
Helping then. THEM!?!? Of all the scum in this city, they heal the patrons of the ones who harmed me.
Her hands tighten into fists. She takes her bow in her hand, knocking an arrow and drawing the string back. She draws aim on Sapher as she speaks with Mokhasi. She lets out a long breath and tries to steady her trembling hand.
They don’t know. They have no idea.
A tear trickles down her cheek as she relaxes the bowstring and drops to her knees on the rooftop, sobbing.
"Good Ez, there are so many..." Sapher says in a troubled tone. "We didn't, we followed Vels. She came in hurt and then left armed. We were worried you two were in danger." she looks up at the blonde "are you okay?"
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Esrisi sheds lots of tears for all of the injured people around her that she's desperately trying to help save.
She asks "Followed Veltariel? What do you mean she left armed?"
Panicked, she looks around for Veltariel and tries to figure out why she would go back and come back out. Her body sags as she shakes her head "Oh no. Oh Sapher. I'm sorry. Things went badly. It always goes badly. We, Veltariel and I, we were trying to dance and this human man showed up and Vel hurt him, just for being human. Turns out he was the son of the owner. Then... things went downhill from there. They took me and cut up Vel and she was really mad."
"I just wanted a night of fun away from the crazy. It seems to follow me wherever I go."
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Mokhasi’s nostrils flare when he sees Esrisi. He stands up, stepping around her and enters the ruins of the building. Everyone hear the sound of someone casting a spell.
He steps out of the building after a few minutes, shaking, his fists clenched. He is staring at Esrisi. Kiir is noticeably not emitting light, just floating quietly above Mokhasi’s head.
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Esrisi watches Mokhasi storm out of the building and shoots her a look, a knowing.
He knows.
She swallows, hard, and looks away. She gets up and moves to assist other injured people.
It wasn't your fault. You just lost control again. You are helping people now. It wasn't intentional. I'm sure they will understand.
He won't understand. He'll blame me for it all. This wasn't my fault!
If that man hadn't groped Veltariel, we'd still be dancing!
Sapher takes a moment from wrapping up a bleeding arm, to catch Esrisi's eye. "Hey!" Her brown eyes are softer toward the other woman than they were earlier today "None of that sounds like your fault. We should... try and find Veltariel, but... there are too many here and now to deal with. I'm worried about her. Even with her skills, she shouldn't be alone."
"Mok, could you find Vels?" she looks around for the mage, and then see him angry... "What's wrong Mok?"
Sapher looks confused "Touching? How could that do anything?" forgetting to whisper.
"I... I'm sorry Mok, I don't follow. I'm... " Sapher sighs looking over all the people hurt "... overwhelmed" Her shoulders setting firmly in her duty "I need to focus on them. We can talk to Esrisi when we're done." she gets her mouth to take on a smile to the woman "Keep off your leg for the next few days and it will heal nicely." then pulls herself to her feet and shuffles on to the next one.
After some time spent tending to the injured eventually a contingent of city watch show up. While some do what they can to help, a woman, obviously some sort of investigator starts asking surveying the scene and asking questions. It’s not long before she comes over to Es, putting a hand on her shoulder and nothing, ”Miss, I need you to come with me.”
When Es spins around she recognizes the woman, it was the one she had spoke to a couple days back, when searching for Natalya. The woman quickly recognizes Es now and eases her grip a little but continues ”You need to accompany me to the Arvensoar, so I can get to the bottom of this... hopefully this doesn’t have anything to do with Natalya... I told you she was trouble.”
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Esrisi's face blanches as the woman asks her to come with me. She nods silently but looks around for help, searching for someone, anyone to come save her from this. All of her friends are busy helping others, everyone except Mokhasi. Turning to the woman she says "Of course. Let me just tell my companions I'm leaving."
She spies the arcanist talking to Sapher as she tends to a woman on the ground. She locks eyes with the man for a brief moment, a guilty, telling look on Esrisi's face. She shakes her head and says loudly "Mokhasi, Sapher. I'm going with the watch to help them with something. I'll be back to the lodge later."
I hope.
She departs with the woman, eyeing escape routes along their journey in case she needs to flee.
Veltariel rises just in time to see them leading Esrisi away! She follows in silence along the rooftops, waiting to see where they take her.
When Es goes to talk to Sapher and Mok, the lead woman heads over to some of the other watch and speaks to them quietly and points toward Mok and Sapher.
As Es comes back she nods her head toward the street and says "This way, let's go." She waves for a few of the guards, ones she hadn't spoken to before to follow along as she leads them toward the Arvensoar. The woman stays in the lead with Es in the middle and the other three city watch following behind.
It doesn't take too long as they walk the city streets before they reach the extremely large tower.
Her breathing becomes rapid as these animals led Esrisi away! She moved ahead of them as she thought, but could only come to one conclusion. She moved to catch Esrisi’s eye, and once she had made eye contact, she lays her bow and arrows down so she can see.
Veltariel then steps out in front of the guard, hands up. ”You ignorant humans have the wrong person. I did it. The bastards tried to rape me and I had my revenge.”
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Esrisi cannot believe Veltariel materializes out of nowhere and confessed to a crime she did not commit. She is so floored, she is speechless. She looks back and forth between the investigator and Veltariel, awestruck. She starts to shake her head back and forth, looking into her eyes and laying a gentle hand on her shoulder ”Veltariel, stop. You weren’t even there, you left. I appreciate you coming to my rescue, but I can’t have you take blame for something you did not do. Let me handle this. ”
Turning to the investigator, she steels herself and speaks firmly and says ”She was assaulted and injured badly. They cut off her ear and left her to die in the alley. Had I not arrived when I did, she would not be standing here right now. Please forgive her rage, but it is just as it applies to the men who harmed her.”
Fearing the power of the magics over Veltariel, Caroliss does her best to get the elf settled.
"Esrisi ઉમદા બાળક છે. તે સારી રહેશે. પરંતુ જો તમને કંઈપણ થાય તો તેણી બરબાદ થઈ જશે. આવો, અમે હેડમિસ્ટ્રેસ હિડમાર્ચ સાથે વાત Heidmarch, અને તે મદદ કરી શકશે."
As the guards march Esrisi past, Veltariel listens to Caroliss’ words with deaf ears. As the grow further away, Veltariel steps over where she stashed her bow and arrow and picks them up, knocking one...
Seeing the madness the elf is about to entertain, Caroliss takes out her whip, utters a prayer, and then strikes out, wrapping it around Veltariel's bow.
She then picks up the bow herself. "તમે મૂર્ખ તેને રોકો!"
Seeing that Vel is anything but persuaded, she tries again. તે ફાંસી પર જશે કારણ કે તમે સિટી રક્ષકને મારવાનું નક્કી કર્યું છે!"