"Whoa, whoa, whoa! We don't even know this girl? Why are we using our stock if this is about to become something critically important? I think we should save it for later."
She gets overruled and shrugs, not making a terrible deal out of it but making it clear she disagrees with this approach.
After the miraculous recovery, she plays the part of savior. "You're welcome. At least the least we could do. If we can't protect the children, what are we but monsters?"
The dhampir frowns slightly at Aurelia's comment about 'monsters', but doesn't say anything else about it.
"No... No, I didn't do anything out of the ordinary," Brienna says, lowering her eyes.
Having no real experience with children, Nicoleta frowns in annoyance and then indicates to the others that they should head back downstairs. At least they got a free meal out of it.
Roz shrugs, swatting idly at a fairie that's pulling on her ear.
When Tayce needs more water Iolaire volunteers herself to carry it but asks Brianna to show her the way to the well.
Once they are out of the house Iolaire turns to the little girl. "What happened Brienna? I'm not cross with you but we want to make sure other people don't get sick and you might saves lives if you tell me what happened."
If a promise not to tell her mother is required Iolaire makes the promise with proper solemnity.
Brienna is still too weak to leave the house, and either way, Tayce won't let her daughter out of her sight. When Iolaire tries to question her further, the young girl shifts uncomfortably. "Nothing happened... I told you already."
"I've got this." she whispers in Io's ear and steps forward, putting her arm around Brienna.
"Let's talk, you and I? Hmmm? You can talk to me, can't you? We're here to help, you this right? It's what we do, day to day, saving this city from itself. The more we know about what's going on the better positioned we are to help everyone. Now, if you know something that would be useful..."
"Well..." Brienna looks down at her feet. "I was walking around the alleys near our house a few days ago, and I found something. It was small pouch, but it was full of silver coins! Fifty of them! I couldn't believe that Desna had smiled upon me! I raced all the way to North Point, and I bought all sorts of tasty treats, and some shoes for my brothers, and a new scarf for my Mama." She frowns. "I don't usually go into the city. Do you think somebody there got me sick?"
Nicoleta considers the girls words. She dismisses the scarf and the shoes since neither of the recipients are showing any signs of sickness. "Where did you buy your sweets and did you give any to anyone else?" she asks.
"And do you still have any of the coins?" Iolaire asks, "We won't take them, but I would like to look at them." She can think of at least three ways to use coins to dispense a poison, and this illness might as well be one - if the Harrowing is right at least...
Aurelia nods in agreement to both requests "It was something either with the coins or the food." she agrees.
"I got the candy from a store called Sweet Eats. I didn't share them with anybody else. And, uh... I spent all the coins. I didn't want to have give them back if somebody came looking for them," Brienna says, looking ashamed.
"Where else did you spend the coins little one?" Iolaire asks, already mentally tracking where the girl seems to have gone. The Voices would be useful here, no-one looks twice at kids.
Brianna lists off the half-dozen stores she shopped at.
"What do you say we pay a visit to Sweet Eats, ladies?"
Nicoleta glowers at the little girl for a moment. "Is there a reason you couldn't have just told us that in the first place?" she snaps. "Yeah, let's go visit this candy place."
She heads downstairs to wait for the others.
Brienna winces at Nicoleta's irritation. "I didn't want to get in trouble. Mama says it's not nice to steal. But is it stealing if money is just lying around?"
Tayce refuses to let you leave until you've partaken of the feast she is preparing. Fortunately, her cooking skills are superb and the meal happens to be delicious--a considerable reward, indeed! Grau and Tayce thank you again for helping heal young Brienna.
Ishani Dhatri is impressed by your abilities as well. "I am grateful you could do what the church's tenets would not allow me to do. I swear, sometimes Abadar's decrees can be a bit more limiting than I like. At any rate, some of my more charitable work sometimes requires the aid of those outside my church's rigid hierarchies. Might you be amenable to returning to the Grand Vault of Abadar with me? I've seen similar signs of sickness in the city and I worry that Korvosa may be on the edge of a full-on outbreak."
Nicoleta looks at the others before she replies. "I wouldn't be surprised at that at all. I did a Harrow reading earlier and ... well it doesn't look good. We'll come by the temple with you. Probably purchase more scrolls to cure disease. Then we'll check out the candy shop."
Ishani nods gratefully and leads you back into the city.
The Grand Vault of Abadar, a meticulously well-kept structure of white marble and gleaming bronze friezes, stands in the North Point district of Korvosa. Towering over the surrounding buildings, the Grand Vault of Abadar offers a radiant vision of divine luxuriance amid a sea of mortal troubles. As its gray-veined white marble reflects the midday sun, there’s little question that this place is the house of a god.
Yet for a deity of law, the steep stairs and ramps leading up to the temple’s great bronze doors offer a strangely discordant scene. Dozens of citizens—mostly of the working class, although the silks of a few merchants show through the crowd—throng the entry, scarcely being held back by a group of gold-armored Abadaran clerics. All seem intent on gaining entry to the temple, but the clerics turn away nearly all comers. The clerics’ reasoning becomes clear as one desperate believer is turned away, his pitiful countenance mottled with violent red sores.
While the crowd remains relatively orderly in its pleading thus far, the temple’s protectors and a few Korvosan Guards gathered nearby eye the situation with unease.
Nicoleta attempts to push and shove her way through the crowd, but they seem to be pushing back just as hard. She eventually decides to attempt nimbleness over strength.
While Nicoleta chooses flashy methods Iolaire simply whisps through the crowd. Someone paying close attention would see an exercise in negativity - she simply goes where others are not, into blind spots, too close behind people for comfort, turning when others do and taking their place without them even knowing.
Any which way she fades through the crowd with little more than a whisper of her passing until she reappears at the steps.
Having been paying close attention to Nicoleta, Aurelia is easily able to strong arm her way through the crowd. Looking back at Nicoleta, she laughs. "PEACHES! Maybe you should be taking training advice from me? Do it like this, baby!" she says, pushing past people at will.
Roz follows Iolaire's lead, sticking close to the elf as they slip through the crowd. Ishani moves with Aurelia as the mesmerist somehow shoves her way to the temple steps, and Nicoleta nimbly dances up there as well.
The guards at the door move to stop you, but when they see Ishani, they step aside and let you in.
Within the Grand Vault's airy hall, priests and patrons eye each other and every newcomer with suspicion, and every footfall upon the marble floor echoes through a frightened silence. Ishani shakes his had sadly.
"You saw the crowd outside. It's worse than I had feared." He shakes his head sadly. "I had hoped that the Soldado case was isolated but apparently we have a bigger problem on our hands. Let's see what the other priests can tell us."
Asking around within the Grand Vault, you learn that three of the clerics awoke this morning with early symptoms similar to Brienna's, though they have already been healed. Aside from their usual duties in the temple, none have had any dealings with any who are ill. Later in the day, more of Abadarans—acolytes, guards, vaultkeepers— developed symptoms, and folk from throughout the city began arriving in search of healing. They're calling the sickness 'blood veil.'
The first cases from outside the temple were a barkeep and his wife from the Three Rings Tavern in North Point. They paid to be cured magically and were sent on their way. Within the next hour, though, three more sick citizens arrived, and more in the hours after that. Soon the crowd had formed.
"I must speak to the Archbanker so that we might form a plan of action to combat this infection. Please, come back tomorrow and speak with me. I am certain we can authorize payment for your continued aid in this matter."
"Payment is good," Nicoleta says as she surveys the gathering crowds. "We'll probably take it in magical scrolls."
She turns to the others.
"So, we're off to Sweet Eats, then, right?" she asks.
Inquiring at Sweet Eats reveals the shopkeeper remembers Brienna coming in and buying a lot of candy. None of the shop's employees are feeling sick, but several other people in the nearby neighborhood of Ridgefield are beginning to show symptoms of infection. This is the most crowded of North Point’s neighborhoods, plagued with poverty and desperation--prime breeding grounds for a sickness to spread.
Nicoleta seems disappointed that there wasn't anything more revealing to learn at the sweet shop. But not disappointed enough not to buy a large handful of hard candies.
She offers one to the Aurelia as they leave the shop. "So it doesn't look like it came from either the sweets or the silver," she says as she sucks on one herself. "I guess that leaves us to our own devices until we head back to the temple tomorrow." She considers that for a bit. "If we thought that was bad today, I'll bet you that it'll be a total clusterf#@& tomorrow."
"But someone must be spreading the sickness." Iolaire offers. "If not the coins then maybe Brienna got it here? We need more to go on..."
Rozalia shrugs. "It still could be the coins. Maybe the shopkeeper just got lucky and didn't catch the disease. If he spent the coins somewhere else in the neighborhood,then it could have easily spread further..."
The dhampir looks around seeming seeing people displaying the symptoms all around her. She crunches down on her candy and reaches for another. "Well, at this point it looks like the source is irrelevant. It's already spread enough that putting it back in the box isn't going to happen. Let's head back to the inn."
As they begin walking, without even thinking about it, Nicoleta reaches out to take Aurelia's hand in hers.
Iolaire follows along quietly but peels away from the group to head back to her shop, before stopping and throwing Roz a quizzical look over her shoulder. It's clearly an invitation, and equally clear that Iolaire isn't sure that Roz will accept...
Noticing the glance, Roz follows the comely elf, curious as to what she has in mind...
"So..." Iolaire says as the two wend their way through the streets. "Vox has been busy recently, keeping the West Dock free of any new crime lords and she picked up some... helpers recently. Apparently she's quite inspiring." The elf doesn't seem to know quite what to make of that.
"You've met Tobias already, but now there's five of them, all living out of my shop. The oldest two are fifteen so I've taken them on as proper apprentices, Tobias is still the youngest though. They know about me - both me's and I was hoping that I could introduce you to them as my girlfriend." The last bit drops to a barely perceptible whisper. "If that's ok with you?"
Roz's mouth drops open a little bit. "Oh? Is that what I am, now? Your girlfriend, is it?" The short woman grins as she slides her arms around the elf's waist and stretches up to kiss her lips. "Yeah, I like the sound of that. Let's meet these kiddos of yours, love."
Taking the sweets, Aurelia pops it into her mouth and sucks on it while she listens to the conversation. "This is going to get bad, isn't it?" she asks
After they depart, Aurelia takes Nicoleta's hand as they walk. She tries to determine a course of discussion.
Make small talk about what to do next?
Ask her about her reading?
Tease her about not being able to muscle through the crowd?
She thinks on this over the next minute or so and ultimately decides on neither of the above approaches. She squeezes the monk's hand and looks up at her, talking in a hushed voice "How are you doing, Nicoleta?"
Nicoleta's first instinct is to respond with a sarcastic comment and that's her intent when she turns to look at her companion. It fades on her lips, though, when she sees actual concern on Aurelia's face. "I'm nervous, Aurelia," she says. "I don't know why, but there feels like a malevolence behind this illness." She frowns, but then her confident grin returns. "I'm probably being paranoid. Let's go find something to eat." She gives the woman's hand a squeeze and moves along, her confidence returning.
Satisfied, Aurelia nods. The monk's sentiments seemingly matched her own which meant they were on the same page. She responds "I feel the same way. I feel like this is something we need figure out quickly."
At the mention of food, realizes she's probably hungry. "I think I'd like to have some meat. Do you think we could find some in the market?"
"I'm sure we could find whatever you have a taste for in the market," Nicoleta says with an indulgent grin.
She detours the duo through one of the open air markets. She attempts to keep the mood light, but Nicoleta can't help but spend a little more time looking at the vendors and the wandering customers, seeking out the signs of 'Blood Veil'.
They come away with roasted lamb cutlets on a wooden skewer for Aurelia and some grapes and ripe peaches for Nicoleta. The dhampir can't help but give her companion a sideways looks as she watches the woman attempt to eat the fare as they walk.
"You know that you got juice running down ..." she begins, but then shakes her head. Pushing aside the roasted meat, she leans in and runs her tongue up Aurelia's chin. She pulls away after getting the last traces from the woman's lips.
"Mmmm..." she says, smacking her lips. "That's tasty." With a grin, she pops a few grapes into her mouth.
"I'veh ghoth whahth?" she says through a mouth full of food before swallowing it just the dhampir approaches. She stands still when the monk closes the distance, closing her eyes and letting her "clean her up". While the monk runs her tongue over her chin, she inhales through the process, trying to refrain from allowing her body to quiver.
After she pulls away, she says "Mmm. Yes. Thank you Peaches."[/b] and looks at the grapes. She opens her mouth and asks "May I have a few grapes, please?"
Nicoleta display mock outrage. "You want one of my grapes? I don't know; I really like my grapes." She seems to consider it for a bit. "I guess I can give up one grape," she finally says with much reluctance. She plucks one off of the sprig she carries and, with her own mouth partially open, slips it into the woman's waiting mouth.
As she watches Aurelia bite down on the small morsel, she brings one of the peaches she carries up for a bite. As the juice trickles down her lips, she holds the fruit up toward her companion with a questioning look.
Aurelia munches on the grape, says "Thank you. So juicy." until she offers up a peach as well. She gasps, feigning shock "Peaches... Are you giving yourself entirely to me now by this symbolic act?"
She lunges forward and snaps her jaws into it, messily tearing out a huge chunk of the fruit which she holds halfway into her mouth as she turns to face the dhampir.
"It's just a peach, Love," Nicoleta says with a laugh. She leans in and bites off the half that's still sticking out between Aurelia's lips. She stays there for a moment, pressing her lips against Aurelia's before pulling back and grinning at the woman. "You're being silly."
She takes Aurelia's hand again before strolling off, continuing to eat the rest of the fruit with her other hand.
Aurelia laughs while being kissed by the monk, happy with her joke. "And now you profess your love for me!" She grabs the monk's hand as strolls alongside her in the street, grinning ear to ear with extra pep in her walk as she maintains the smile that doesn't' fade away.
Roz's mouth drops open a little bit. "Oh? Is that what I am, now? Your girlfriend, is it?" The short woman grins as she slides her arms around the elf's waist and stretches up to kiss her lips. "Yeah, I like the sound of that. Let's meet these kiddos of yours, love."
When Roz and Iolaire arrive at her shop the first thing the oracle notices is how unchanged the whole place is. The floors are still swept, the stock neat - there's very little evidence that there are now four, or possibly five, children sleeping here now.
One of them, a tall girl with black hair, appears behind the counter. "Welcome to... Oh miss Io. It's you." She eyes Roz inquisitively, "And...?"
"This is Alice." Iolaire introduces the girl, "She and her brother Jasper are my new apprentices, and fine hands at the forge too." She gestures towards Roz. "This is my girlfriend, Rozalia. I thought I'd bring her by so she can meet you all too."
Alice gives Roz a considering look and seems content to reserve judgement but she proves the hardest to win over. Her brother Jasper is a large lad with an open grin and it soon becomes clear that Alice is the ringleader. Io's brood is rounded out by Isabelle, Charles and Tobias and dinner proves to be a rowdy affair, with kids getting in each others way, competing as to who has the sharpest knife and Iolaire proving that she can cook a surprisingly tasty soup. Combined with fresh bread it proves a very pleasant home-cooked affair until after dinner when Iolaire moves to wash up and the kids take it upon themselves to vet the new adult.
"So, who are you?"
"How long have you know Miss Io?"
"What do you do?"
"Why do you keep making that funny noise?"
"How well do you really know her?"
The barrage is considerable...
Having grown up among Lamm's Lambs, Rozalia has a soft spot for children, especially those who come from similar circumstances. As they assault her with their bevy of questions, the faeries begin acting up, tugging her hair, throwing food, and making all sorts of rude noises, to Roz's consternation and the childrens' delight.
"I'm Rozalia--you can call me Roz."
"A little over a month now?"
"I'm, uh...a performer and comiedenne. That means I tell jokes."
"It's not me, it's the faeries!"
"Pretty well, I think. Why...is there something you want to tell me about her?"
"Alice, stop it." Iolaire calls, her elven hearing apparently sharp enough for this. "She knows, and we trust her. That should be good enough for you."
Alice scowls but subsides, leaving Roz to contend with the boys and her fairies who seem intent on teaming up to embarrass her as much as possible.
"So," Alice says when Iolaire returns, "What's going on outside? Can we help?" Iolaire looks to Roz with a slightly pleading look.
”The best thing you can do right now is stay inside and away from people as much as possible,” Roz says soberly. ”We think a lot of people are going to get very sick, very soon. We will do what we can to help them, but it will be easier if we don’t have to worry about your own health and safety. So, can you do that for us?”
Aurelia says to Nicoleta "What do you think about going to see the show tonight? I heard the Flamboni Sisters are going to be in town and I really want to see them perform"
Alice looks to Iolaire, who nods. She nods too, clearly reluctant.
"You promise you'll call on us when she needs us though?" Jasper nods sharply, all trace of carelessness gone. "She promised. We promised. We're going to help."
Iolaire nods and moves the conversation on. Eventually the children head upstairs to bed and Iolaire lets out a long sigh. "So, what do you think? I hope they didn't scare you or anything. I couldn't just leave them, and they're mighty capable kids. Vox and I can get a lot from them. Is that... ok, with you?"
Roz rubs Iolaire’s shoulder. ”Of course, it’s okay! I was a kid like them not that long ago. Anything they need, you can count on me to get for them.” She gives the elf a peck on the cheek. ”Besides, I think the motherly role suits you, love.”