Kira somehow manages to look down her nose at someone significantly taller than her. Slowly, as if talking to a small child, she says, "Do you think I specifically asked for your commander despite having no interest in seeing her? Of course I want you to take me to her!"
Under her breath, in Infernal, she mutters,
Pellius shakes his head in disbelief, as if the man had suddenly grown a second head.
"This place will better suit our needs, certainly, milady. Shall I have El or Aye flay one of them for their incompetence prior to letting them leave?"
He adopts a smile that borders between subservient and psychotic as he says the last bit. Noting that the man had yet to move, he glared a the man and switches to common. "This one would make an excellent choice for that, in my humble opinion."
Kira watches the redactors leave with a nervousness she doesn't show. This is actually working. They're leaving, and we haven't had to fight any of them.
Of course it's not like the redactors have gone far. Worst case scenario Nox could call them back and they'd end up fighting all of them at once. Which means these next few moments are crucial.
No pressure.
Kira nods imperiously. "Yes. He has grown impatient with the lack of actionable progress made by the redactors, and thinks fresh eyes might see what they cannot. Additionally, he feels that your unique...talents...are being wasted here guarding an empty sanctuary. While I am of course not privy to all of our Lord-Mayor's plans, I believe he has another task in mind for you."
Kira watches the woman go, imperious expression still on her face. Only once she's sure the woman, (and the other Asmodeans), have gone does she show the relief she feels.
"Quickly, we won't be able to stay here long. Nox will no doubt report back to Thrune, and as soon as she does they'll learn of our deceit."
As they gather up what they can find from the desecrated sanctuary, only once does Kira hesitate. When she sees the manuscript, her fingers caress the inscription for a moment. "Dad," she whispers. Then her face turns determined once more and she shoves the manuscript into her bag. Later. I'll decode it later.
As they prepare to leave, she pauses. "Did anyone see anything that might have been Yilliv's contract? I hate to leave him here like this, particularly if he'll be punished later for allowing us to enter."
Pellius stands slightly behind Kira the whole time, his head inclined downward in the presence of two people who are clearly his betters. As Nox goes to leave, he bows.
"Thank you, dread one. May your foes come to fear the presence of our master."
Once they are gone, Pellius spits the bilious taste from his mouth.
"Good riddance. I am glad that worked, I would not have wanted to face her today." He proceeds to pick up anything and everything that might be valuable, irreplaceable, or interesting and putting it in sacks. "Agreed, we had best not be here when she comes back. I have not seen anything like that, and I would doubt that she would have left it given we were... explicit... on taking all of her forces. If he is still there we should warn him on our way out. It is the least we can do."
As he loads up, he turns to Kira. "I have said it before, and I will say it again. Kira, you truly missed your calling. You would have made a wonderful actress. When we finally get our Opera house back, you will have to give it a try."
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Adonara lurks and glowers in what she hopes is a suitably intimidating manner as Kira and Pellius lead a silver-tongued way to the heart of the secret underneath the Fantasmagorium: she glares at the underlings and assumes a carefully deferential pose with their betters, as of someone respecting both the ranking officers in place, and her own superiors.
Seeing that it’s Nox in charge here almost brings her up short, and she’s glad she doesn’t have to do the talking. Adonara manages to keep her expression calm as Kira meets the dottari officer’s challenge with truly impressive sangfroid, and she resolves never to try her luck against student or singer in any game that involves any bluffing.
Once the forces of sedition are left in peace, Adonara breathes more easily, though her grin is nervous as she surveys the unexpected luxury of the grotto and joins her compliments to Pellius'. "I heartily agree! That was brilliant! And of course, Pellius, your own performance was as dazzling as we have come to expect."
Her heart lurches as she joins the others in grabbing what look like the most promising books, wondering how much has already been lost and how much the four of them can carry out before Thrune's forces return. The realities of the situation tickle as uncomfortably as the point of a knife, though. "I'm not mad, am I? That was that creature from the first large protest? The one who took a knife to the throat and walked away? Whatever pull she's got, I worry that a contract with a barbazu is the least of our concerns with her."
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A manuscript which appears to be written in code but begins, "To my daughter Kira..."
Adonara, its probably a good point to do another rebellion phase as you leave.
Once everyone’s got hold of the most promising finds, Adonara asks, “In any case, before we disappear, at the risk of being frightfully morbid, was anyone else curious about that body in the last room? And that odd-shaped box?”
Avaricious is not the word, as much as inquisitive, and to the extent that Adonara is interested in lining her pockets, it is also for various good causes, naturally. “Other than that, perhaps we can just keep our eyes open on the way out.”
She tilts her head and indulges in a smile somewhere between wry and mischievous. “Quite apart from the more usually informative reading we’ve just acquired, I think I’ve found something that presents a … rather interesting opportunity.”
Kira flushes at the praise. "Yes, well, we're fortunate that Asmodean bureaucracy leaves everyone terrified of incurring the wrath of someone more important than them. Your threats were particularly effective, Pellius. It left them too frightened to question us!"
More seriously, she nods at Adonara. "Yes, that was definitely her. Perhaps whatever it was that allowed her to heal from that knife is a consequence of her deal with the barbazu. To be honest I'd barely noticed the body, too worried about what we were attempting, but you're right. We should check out everything we can before we leave." Taking a look at the body, she frowns as she considers what could have left those marks.
Well done, people. Lying for the win. Uh, that was out of character :-)
"Never have I seen such blatant lying be so well rewarded. Lying is wrong and yet ....."
Pellius smiles at the compliments. "Thank you, though truthfully if we hadn't been threatening I imagine that their latent fear of Miss Take-a-knife-wound-and-live might have made them less... receptive." As they make their way back, loaded down with everything they can grab Pellius takes the time to look in the rooms they passed on their way to meet with Nox, ensuring that nothing that is obviously valuable is left behind.
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Well done, people. Lying for the win. Uh, that was out of character :-)
"Never have I seen such blatant lying be so well rewarded. Lying is wrong and yet ....."
While Adonara has some knowledge of thaumaturgy, especially as it relates to the stories of the gods, she dabbles too much to have ever done justice to the more theoretical side of magic that would help understand something like the current phenomenon, so she’s very glad that Kira is able to provide some insight.
“Lovely,” the elf says, hands on her hips as she peers up, pouting, into the web of chains. “More people who try too hard and take themselves too seriously. Kytons, honestly? It’s one thing if we’re dealing with followers of the Queens of the Night, but if it’s the bloody Kuthites on top of the diabolists…”
Pellius addresses the scrivener as they leave. "I gather you saw your mistress and her cohorts leaving. It will not last. I recommend, strongly, that you tell them that we lied to you on our way in, telling you that we had orders to relieve them of command and demanded passage through. It will probably save you pain and suffering later."
Upon arrival at the coffee house, Pellius seeks out Rexus and gets him a strong drink.
"You will want to sit down as we tell you what we found. Here, you might want this as well." He hands the man the drink and proceeds to tell him about what horrors they found, finally getting to the discovery of his dead family members in as gentle a manner that he can.
"We were as respectful as we could in returning them to their rest. We also have recovered their bodies so that they can be given a proper burial with genuine funeral rites."
Allowing the impact of what he said to sink in, he then proceeds to tell him of Nox and her flunkies below the shop.
"Suffice to say, she will probably be looking for us now. We had best be cautious moving forward."
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Adonara, less familiar with human customs of grief, watches Pellius’ lead thoughtfully. At least, as thoughtfully as her preoccupations allow, her mind awhirl even before she and the others borrowed some of the Fantasmagorium’s extravagant decorative drapery to wrap the bodies, and dared the bravest carter they found to say anything about the bundles that were joining the books and the band of adventurers back to Villegre.
This is not going particularly well, she thinks, as Pellius gently brings Rexus up to date. Apart from here – cozy as it is – we’ve been combing ashes for salvage, trying to catch up to Thrune. The livery, the Silver Star, now this absurd museum-cum-sideshow, even the damned murders in Devil’s Nursery. We need…
Too many things, she knows. Even as she gets ready to speaks up, as tactfully as she can, other parts of her mind weigh up whether Crissali would be interested in the recovered books, skim a list of other possible contacts around the city who could be tempted to sedition, and start checking off points on a dozen other lists.
What she actually says, tentatively, is, “Let us know if we can help in any way, but take your time, of course. And if you think it would be best for you to stay very much out of sight for a while longer, I’m sure we can get into – and cause the mayor – more than enough trouble on our own for the next few days.”
"I thank you for returning their bodies. The books are Soul Tomes, they hold the memories of the archivists. I would like to read my family's final thoughts but after that you may do with them as you will."
Kira joins Pellius as he explains the situation to Rexus, but she doesn't have anything to add. She just does her best to look sympathetic. Which she is, of course, but she's also rather distracted.
To my daughter Kira...
She's never been one for secret codes. But if the book was intended for her, surely her father would have accounted for that?
She's brought back to the conversation when Rexus mentions Soul Tomes. "Soul Tomes?" she practically squeaks. If they hold memories then...
"Do...do the archivists have to be dead to have a Soul Tome?" Maybe there's one for her dad, maybe it holds the answer to the coded manuscript, maybe...
"Not necessarily, they sometimes use them to record memories and so on."
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Adonara wordlessly rearranges cups, saucers, and short stacks of saved books to sort out one set that must be the ones Rexus means, giving him the nod to join her in finding his family’s volumes promptly. That explains a lot, she reasons, as after a few moments she hands over a couple of books and settles in with one of the others that wasn’t penned for a Victocora.
A closer look heightens a suspicion that began to form from gathering the things before leaving the library beneath the Fanstasmagorium, and Adonara finds herself sharing Kira’s alarm. “Who’s ‘they?’ Surely they didn’t hire official biographers, and yet…”
The book open in front of her, like what she’s glimpsed in the others, certainly reads like the product of a stereotype of an archivist: detailed, meticulous, dispassionate. Its record is precise, and while here and there a particular event or observation sparkles, on the whole even after a few pages Adonara would be hard pressed to guess what impression the author wanted to give of the subject. There’s a life – a soul, even – being described, yes, down to its minutiae, but not from a perspective she can easily imagine.
She’s not sure she would want to. Unbidden, the question of how this author would treat of the first time Adonara was sure she saw something more than friendly interest in her soulmate’s eyes skitters across the priestess’ mind. It is not a comfortable thought.
Pellius nods and helps them find Rexus the appropriate volumes. Finished with that, he heads up to the coffee shop and orders a cup of tea. Flopping into the most comfortable chair he can find, the young bard sips the tea while reflecting over the events of the past few days and weeks.
All I ever wanted to be was an opera singer. How in the blessed name of Shelyn did I wind up here...
"We'll definitely need to lay low for a while," Kira muses even as she begins searching the tomes to see if Aethilwald's is among them. "Nox saw our faces, and no doubt she'll be severely punished for falling for such an obvious bluff. Well, not obvious, we worked very hard to make it not obvious, but still. Thrune doesn't seem the type to accept that as an excuse. She's going to want us dead. Or worse." With Asmodeans, there were always worse fates than death.
Adonara, you realise that these things are nothing to do with Yilliv.
After an hour or two of reading Rexus comes back.
"The tomes reveal that my family were members of the Archivists, they tried to protect knowledge from falling into the wrong hands. My sister Portia's tome reveals that the diabolic chapters from the Book of the Damned has only been read by one person in recent years, a traveller known as Trailblazer Huni, a wandering scholar."
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Settling in with the others once it becomes clear that Rexus is absorbed, or inspired – and she can hardly blame the poor fellow, given how recent and how huge his loss – Adonara takes a closer look at the curious scrap that was one of the first things that caught her eye in searching the raided library.
She divides her attention to keep up with the general conversation. Even as she retrieves her own stationery and writing implements, she agrees with the need for discretion, though she puts a characteristically airy spin on things in an attempt to ward off too much worrying.
“It’s an excuse to think about a new mask, at least,” she says with a smile, referring obliquely to her family’s distant roots in the Mordant Spire. She gives each of the others a slightly longer look than usual, playfully, as if half-considering what sorts of mask might suit each of them as well, before returning delicately to her own case. “Fortunately, I know a few places where that is no obstacle to certain of my … other interests.”
Not in the main line of the family, I imagine, but still. Possibly a useful connection, and her own story is likely interesting, if this girl somehow got involved with the Archivists, Adonara muses.
* * *
Adonara looks up from a second cup of coffee and another of the recovered books when Rexus surfaces, and if the soul tomes unsettled her, she grows visibly pale at the mention of the Book of the Damned. “Here? And how recently?”
Of all the places in the world that horror could surface, Cheliax must be one of the most alarming!
"As far as I can tell they had it in their possession for about the last 6 months.
As I say it records the last reader as Trailblazer Huni.....wait a minute that's an anagram of Barzillai Thrune."
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This just keeps getting better and better, Adonara thinks. “At bare minimum, someone’s going to have to steal it, banish it, ideally destroy it, if he still has it.”
Unfortunately, she doesn’t have the connections to call in the Wasp Queens, nor is she even sure what or how long it would take to convince the right people who could that that would be the correct course of action. Going above and beyond, other ideas to start putting pressure on the Thrice-Damned House cross her mind, none of which can be mentioned in polite company, but which run into the same problem of capacity anyway.
“We can start thinking about it, but it will be a while before we can hope for even a chance at success.” Despite her pallor, her voice is determined, and she forces a shadow of her usual good humour to put on a braver face. "And much as it pains me to give Thrune any credit, while we're on the subject of taking a leaf from someone else's book, that is rather clever. I'll have to think of a suitable alias to answer it, though I'm not sure I can promise an anagram."
The talk of this Book of the Damned completely goes over the singer's head. "Stage names aren't a bad idea, though that anagram was too close. If he had not wanted to be known he wouldn't have tried to cute like that."
As the proclaimations arrive, Pellius is gobsmacked. "Is he insane? I mean, he is obviously insane, but this is just a whole other category. You do not mess with hellknights. They are some of the toughest and most disciplined sons of iron that are out there. Good luck to the dottari if they do run into them." As he says this, it is clear that the wheels are beginning to turn in the back of his head.
"Say... perhaps we finally have an avenue into getting ourselves a trained army now...."
Kira spends their days in hiding staring at the encrypted manuscript. She hadn't found her father's soul tome in with the others, or any other clues that might point to how it had been encoded. She could ask Rexus of course, he'd proven himself more than capable of breaking such codes, but it seemed wrong. His parents had just been confirmed dead, their bodies desecrated...she couldn't bring herself to ask him to help decode a message from her father. Instead she tries painstakingly to translate it herself.
Despite the worries on her mind, she remains fairly cheerful. They'd done it, right under the nose of one of Thrune's most trusted lieutenants. She finds the talk of stage names particularly interesting. "We should all have code names! Maybe related to birds, since we're rebuilding the Silver Ravens...ooh, I could be The Hummingbird!" She's clearly quite excited by the idea.
News of the latest proclamation sobers her a little. "The Order of the Torrent...I can't say I've ever heard of them. Aren't the Hellknights Thrune's allies? Why would he be denouncing an entire Order like this?"
Unfortunately Kira you are unable to break the code.
After several days in hiding Laria comes down and tells you of developments within the city and what she's heard in rumours, etc
"So, there are a couple of leads that may be worth following up:
1)The Scourge of Belial has been moored in Old Harbour for several days. Her captain Cassius Sargaeta isn't that much of a fan of Thrune.
2)Another murder victim's been found somewhere near the south wall in Old Kintargo, slashed up the same way Professor Mangvhune carved up his victims back in the day.
3)The Order of the Torrent was banned by Thrune after he found out they were actually minions of Norgorber and had been operating as a thieves guild.
4)Thrune's been using the Holding House as temporary jail, but there's more to it than that. They've got some sort of fiend in there too-something that's been working to extract intelligence and more from the prisoners."
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While the Ravens avoid the crackdown following their shenanigans at the Fantasmagorium, Adonara takes every advantage of a few days in which she doesn’t need to armour up and stick resolutely to the shadows.
She keeps an eye on things across the river from her haunts in Jarvis End and thereabouts until it’s time to reconvene. A couple of happy finds in Redroof mean that not even the outrageous new bridge toll – which is quite a nuisance to circumvent – entirely dampens Adonara’s spirits: she arrives in improbable new boots in which she moves more easily than any normal person has a right to, their spiky heels somehow quiet and secure on the cobblestones, and with an elegant mask in hand, as threatened, for her new persona the next time the Ravens need to bluff their way past Thrune’s lackeys. It’s a pure masquerade fantasy: what would be a blandly pretty face in silver gilt, if its high cheeks and brow didn’t sweep into scales and feathers. Something for the most disarming inquisitor.
Despite the worries on her mind, she remains fairly cheerful. They'd done it, right under the nose of one of Thrune's most trusted lieutenants. She finds the talk of stage names particularly interesting. "We should all have code names! Maybe related to birds, since we're rebuilding the Silver Ravens...ooh, I could be The Hummingbird!" She's clearly quite excited by the idea.
News of the latest proclamation sobers her a little. "The Order of the Torrent...I can't say I've ever heard of them. Aren't the Hellknights Thrune's allies? Why would he be denouncing an entire Order like this?"
“I was thinking of ‘Lady Erycina’ for myself, the next time we need to wrong-foot someone like Nox. But that could easily be slightly adjusted to a bird name as needed: ‘Rook’ would work too, en famille,” she smiles.
The more serious business Pellius brings up stills Adonara’s features. “‘The enemy of my enemy’ sort of thing, you mean? It’s worth a try, at least, I suppose.”
“They’re a smaller order, and local, I think. A bit less in awe of the ‘power of Hell,’ and all that, but I've never really looked into them.” She tries to dredge up what she knows about them, but she’s obviously not particularly enthused by a young lawful organization. Laria’s words, though, bring Adonara up short. A Norgorber cult is not something she was expecting, though given the ultimate source, she’s willing to take it with a grain of salt for now.
“Hmm. Since the old city seems to be where all the excitement’s happening, shall we see what the locals have to say before … meddling?” Adonara’s grin makes it clear that she will happily look into each of the rumours, and fully intends to meddle extensively. “At any rate, we’d almost have to pass the Torrent’s citadel on the way, and we could ask a few questions…”
Pellius sighs. "Yes, that was what I was implying... but perhaps we had best look into yet another prison first? I imagine that their standards will have been raised after the last few times we have fooled them, so we might have to revise our strategy."
"I have heard that some of the Hellknights from the Order of the Torrent are imprisoned at the Holding House, but their leader Lictor Octavia has fled somewhere else. If you're able to find him he might be able to help you break his fellows out of prison."
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Adonara is apologetic as a server floats another cup her way through the crowd. There’s a slightly desperate undercurrent to the gaiety of the scene, given the slowly increasing pressure of the martial law in effect, but there’s no denying the liveliness of Kintargo’s coffee culture, and it seems to suit the courtesan’s apparently boundless enthusiasm for shameless flirting, gossiping, and eavesdropping.
Pellius sighs. "Yes, that was what I was implying... but perhaps we had best look into yet another prison first? I imagine that their standards will have been raised after the last few times we have fooled them, so we might have to revise our strategy."
She turns away from greeting acquaintances and enjoying the wash of the latest rumours to answer Pellius. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to sound so truculent. I’ll try to play nicely, but I think some friction might be inevitable. There’s just something about the general philosophy. I doubt even the most cosmopolitan Hellknight would be as understanding as our Lodoro here.”
“Anyway. So long as they don’t live down to a caricature of infernal cultists, I won’t write anyone off out of hand,” Adonara shrugs, mentally sifting the possibilities again. Just then, Laria’s suggestion brings a vague feeling of recognition from the morning’s correspondence into sharp relief, and her eyes drop to the couple of notes on the group’s table.
“I beg your pardon, Octav-? oh, of course! Sabinus! I thought it sounded familiar.”
Adonara holds up the invitation to the Tooth and Nail. “Wife? Sister, cousin, aunt? It might be a lead, and it would be less delicate than asking awkward questions at the scene of the crime.”
A plan begins to suggest itself…