Eohzayped... came close, looked Cairee up and down, and stepped back with a little pity on his face, "That's Oblivion that is. What happened missy? You needed to forget something, something you couldn't live with, and someone promised cytillesh what gave you oblivion instead? Whatever she needed to forget, that's gone now. But she'll want more and more until she's taking it to forget she's taking it. Then, one day, her mind will be clean as nordern ice."
Cairee kept her head on Zahra's shoulder, hoping her face stayed blank as the dwarf guessed at her condition. At the mention of Oblivion a wave of fear rippled through her. They'd learned about the drug in the Order. It was an unrefined version of cytillesh, sometimes called brain mold - a fungus found deep underground. It was extremely addictive and destroyed parts of the memory centre piece by piece. The order couldn't do much for those desperate enough to take it. She had never seen the effects first hand. Was someone selling it here?
Another thought struck Cairee - was that how all of the guests would forget the party? Would their host give them all this dangerous drug? It was something to look into. But not now.
"Want to help them lose more money tomorrow? Take care to appear quiet and distant come morning, as if still under the influence of the drug, and they might buy their own theory long enough to bet even more heavily against us.”"
The idea gave Cairee a surprising little thrill. She smiled conspiratorially. "I don't know if I could fool a whole arena. But it might be fun to try." Dounia's been a bad influence on me!
Cairee huddled at Cyn's door with her friends. Ousel's little feelings tugged in her mind. "She's excited...something scared her!...oh wait, she's...amused?"
She strained to hear anything from the bath.
For the barest of moments, Dounia stood there, stunned at Candor's utter betrayal. Then her brain kicked into gear and she assessed the situation. Three of them between her and the door. She might be able to make it, if she dove there, and flipped there...but no, she wasn't about to abandon Prem here to die.
So she drew her knives, whispered, "Call for Cairee," and asked, "Well, I feel like an idiot. How does this get Tarith back, exactly?"
Cyn had woken but she still seemed deeply effected by the mirror maze. She sat up groggy and unable to engage with the group.
"Thanks for the assist, E'gama. Sorry to intrude but we shouldn't be here long."
E'gama, "A late night company is welcome. Cyn, you see, isn't very talkative and I don't feel like leaving her side is a good idea right now. What has you all up at the same time and playing pantomime with strangers? I don't think it's mass insomnia."
So she drew her knives, whispered, "Call for Cairee," and asked, "Well, I feel like an idiot. How does this get Tarith back, exactly?"
Candor looked serious and uninterested in digging into the 'reasons' for the late-night assassination
Simone, "Oh, yes, let's stop for a moment and explain the little deal we've made."
Aliss spoke in agreement with Simone, "What's the point of explaining anything to a dead girl."
Ousel shot out of Dounia's shayla and darted towards the door as she sang a warning loudly. She turned abruptly away from the closed door and began to fly wildly around the room.
The others chatted, but Cairee tuned them out. Her attention was focused on her strange connection to Ousel. The small thrush's amusement turned into concern.
Then anxiety.
And then, moments later, panic.
"Something's wrong!" She placed her hand on the doorknob, ready to rush to Dounia's aid. Then paused. Would they be putting their friend in more danger? She turned to Tymythy and Zahra. "What should we do?"
"Something's wrong!" She placed her hand on the doorknob, ready to rush to Dounia's aid. Then paused. Would they be putting their friend in more danger? She turned to Tymythy and Zahra. "What should we do?"
”Wrong? What is?” Tymythy asked, confused.
He shifted his grip on his Usriev, eyes narrowed. ”Let’s go out there. Loudly. Perhaps that will spook whoever is threatening Dounia. Or she will hear us and knows to try and escape. But attacking others when guest rights have been invoked and backed by our host? Whoever they are must be mad.”
Tymythy, seeing the faraway look in Cairee's eyes, sensed she was being touched by some foreboding. He burst out of the Peacock room and moved to the Baths. Cairee and Zahra followed close behind. E'gama came out into the hallway and looked to the Black Birds, then back at Cyn, then to the Black Birds. He did not look like someone who was comfortable staying behind.
E'gama, "Foul! Guards look to the Bath House! Foul!" He didn't feel like someone used to calling for the guard either.
Prem was suddenly sober and his rapier was out like the thought of a fight. He slipped to his right, getting in between Dounia and Kingsworthy. His thrust at the braggard was sloppy, however, and although Kingsworthy was expecting a drunken attack, the blade only scraped his fine leathers.
Pattallia Crux watched Ousel flying in panicked circles and studyied her, "I think the bird is a familiar! What it feels the owner feels!" She moved towards the centre of the room.
”Wrong? What is?” Tymythy asked, confused.
"I don't know, but Ousel went from feeling amused to panicked really fast." Cairee followed Tymythy into the hall. Make noise, make noise...what noise? Should I still play 'drunk'? She put her hand on her friend's back as if using him for balance, and in a panic blurted out "I need a bath!"
Zahra was in the process of asking Cairee if she could send a question back to Ousel like 'help?' when Tymythy started to move. Figuring it was better to ask for forgiveness than permission where Dounia's life was concerned, the sorceress quickly followed.
Putting on a more girlie voice than usual and starting to skip down the hallway she said, "That party was lame! Let's find another one, pleeeeeease? Maybe the baths? I heard some wild things go on in there after hours."
Tymythy opened the door with a bang, looked out and, not seeing any threatening presences within arm's reach, strode towards the door to the baths, quickly overtaken by Cairee and Zahra both. He frowned. If someone was actually attacking Dounia there was need to hurry, of course, but he didn't like it at he was not at the front of the line.
Perhaps there appearance of reinforcements would make the attackers hesitate? He hoped so - it was not... proper... to fight under such circumstances, guests of their very powerful host as they all were.
plus sneak attack
Dounia hoped that her friends were on the way. She didn't want to get cornered by the Sisters, so she tried to get around Kingsworthy and behind him, so she could flank with Prem. However the floor was slippery, and her cool move turned into a stumble and slide. She was still able to stab up a the man with her knife, however. She wasn't messing around with this murderous ass any longer.
She screamed at the top of her lungs,
Dounia looked for a window around Prem's great wings and flung unhesitatingly when one appeared between his lobe and his right side. The knife soared end-over-end and buried itself deep in Kingsworthy's shoulder. The blade disappeared and reappeared in its' sheath.
Pattallia Crux watched Ousel flying in panicked circles and studyied her, "I think the bird is a familiar! What it feels the owner feels!"
Something draws Aliss away from rushing to attack the young Black Bird. She called out from near the door, "Perfect! There's a large group of drunks coming and they all want to use the Baths!"
Simone, "THEN GET RID OF THE BIRD! AND ALISS, JAM THE DOOR ALREADY! WE HAVE TO DO THIS QUICK."
Candor produced a hand-held crossbow and the bolt in it lit aflame without match or flint. She pulled the trigger. The string lost the bolt notch and slipped under it - misfire! The bolt extinguished itself as it clattered to the floor. Candor rushed to Kingsworthy's side drawing her own rapier. The room now appeared to be half-full of duelists.
Kingsworthy yelled, "HELP! THE DESERT RAT'S KILLED ME!" However, he was still vital enough to trade blades with Prem. There was a flurry of jabs and parries but the boaster managed a deep slash across the panotti's chest. He kicked the swinging door beside him and stepped back into the private bath he had come out of. The two continued to fight in the doorway of the little room.
Aliss turned to the door and jammed a dagger underneath. She put her shoulder to it while holding the thumb-latch.
Simone rushed over the lower floor, leapt the stone bench that Candor had been resting on, and hopped onto the steps. She produced a cruel looking short sword, a broken-back seax Dounia was able to turn as the thrust came in but it still left a line of blood on her left ribcage.
Zahra hurried to the door and went to open it. However, before she did she weaved magic around herself to protect from harm.
Zahra summoned her inner strength and formed it into a protective sheath about herself.
Zahra pushed at the door but it seemed jammed. The handle's thumb latch wouldn't move either.
"Ugh! It seems stuck." Zahra put a little more oomph behind her shoulder and pushed harder.
Zahra's eyes went wide. "Dounia needs help! Everyone find a piece of door and push!"
[spoiler=Dounia could see Aliss was clearly fighting against someone pushing hard from the other side of the door[/spoiler]
”On it,” Tymythy said as he hurried to Zahra’s side and added his own mass in their efforts to force the door open.
Zahra and Tymythy threw themselves against the door but something or someone was holding the latch tight.
Prem swung out with a flurry of parries both with rapier and dueling dagger. He was a wall of defence as he stepped down the steps. "Dounia, try and make it to the corner." He seemed so plain, so common at this moment. He seemed small aand each foe felt somehow made huge.
Kingsworthy's blade lunged out from the room only to be foiled by Prem's dagger. Prem's voice had real concern for the young thief. "I overheard someone saying Kingsworthy was up to something. I thought it was another go at me. I never imagined I'd see you here …"
Candor swiped with her rapier several times and Prem continued to talk and defend, parrying each attempt. He glanced at her and smiled. "I've been playing drunk all day trying to learn more."
Then Simone came from the left and cut through his ear creating a foot long severance. Prem yelled in shock.
Patallia, who had been following Ousel with her eyes, yelled, "TIER L'ARCH DE PEINE!" Two deep violet bolts shot out from her fingers. Dounia could only watch as the bolts followed Ousel around the Baths. The bird flew as fast a crooked line as it could but the bolts grew closer and closer as they followed every change. Ousel made a wild turn. The magic darts cut the corner.
And then Ousel was ash.
Cairee could feel Ousel's terror, a wild panic she'd never felt on her own.
Then it stopped. Suddenly, there was no feeling at all.
Cairee heard Dounia's cry for the guards, and she could feel Ousel's terror like a shock of freezing water. Then suddenly, nothing. Was the little thrush dead? Cairee clasped her winged pendent and tried to follow the feeling of Ousel with her mind. "Ezili Bats! she hissed, the only thing she could think to offer her new friend. Hopefully it was enough.
Then she turned turned towards the foyer and repeated Dounia's words.
Pattallia gasped, "Simone look!"
Several of the people around the room chanced a moment's glance as ash consolidated on the floor to form the silhouette of a bird. The image rose into a small pile and feathers sprouted from it. Finally, it humphed into the shape of a wee bird. The bird lay still without time to ascertain more.
Simone, "It's too late! The owner knows. She must be nearby! Fight!"
Dounia was too close! The dagger had barely left her hand and was knocked away by Simone's shield.
Candor stepped over blocking Dounia's passage further into the room. She looked over at Simone who caught her stare with some recognition.
Kingsworthy slipped out of the room and behind Candor too quickly for Dounia to react. He rushed down the steps and blocked Prem's path to the door.
Candor and Simone move simultaneously. Candor swung her rapier in a dazzling figure eight then smacked Dounia in the face with her off-hand. Dounia took the palm in the teeth. Her gums ran bloody but Dounia shook off the strike, and with enough time to see Simone go in for a sweep of her legs.
Prem, "Dounia! Look out!" He made a swift swipe that sliced a long shallow cut over Simone's thigh.
Aliss shouted into the room, "I can't come help until somebody gets me off this bloody door!"
The door at the top of the steps burst open. One porter held the door while looking down the hallway, "THEY'RE AT THE BATHS!" A second porter rushed past, down the steps and was close to Cairee's side. He looked to see Tymythy and Zahra trying to force the door.
Everyone could hear just on the door's other side, "I can't come help until somebody gets me off this bloody door!" It was a woman's voice.
Second porter, "Explain this yell of treason!"
Zahra stepped aside to let the porter get to the door. Speaking really quickly she blurted, ”Our friend is in trouble and someone has barricaded the door and we can’t get to her and I heard her scream treason and she screamed for help and for guards.” The sorceress looked at the porter in desperation, ”Please help her! We need to get this door open!”
Dounia found herself partially surrounded -then her mouth was bleeding and she was on the floor. Spitting blood on Candor's legs, she did a kip-up to get back onto her feet, then sliced at the treasonous thief. She wanted to say something clever and cutting, but she was too busy trying to stay upright, too worried about Prem, too furious about Ousel. She had nothing clever in her mind, only the desperate will to fight and to live.
Zahra stepped aside to let the porter get to the door. Speaking really quickly she blurted, ”Our friend is in trouble and someone has barricaded the door and we can’t get to her and I heard her scream treason and she screamed for help and for guards.” The sorceress looked at the porter in desperation, ”Please help her! We need to get this door open!”
Tymythy stood back as the porters arrived, recognizing them as representatives of their host. Good. If someone was truly threatening Dounia, raising their hand against one of their powerful host's guests, it should be witnessed by his proxies.
Dounia could see the on-comming sweep from Simone. She lept it and slashed down with her dagger, cutting the woman across the shoulder. Simone pulled her leg back, bending it at the knee and hooking Dounia's feet. The desert thief fell like a sack of stones.
Prem fought with Kingsworthy on one side and Simone on the other. He couldn't get past Simone's shield but managed to tag the arrogant Kingsworthy.
Pattalia, "ENOUGH!"
She drew s pinch of something and sprinkled it on the floor. She crushed the substance with the butt of her staff and made a fist with her knuckles to the floor. She opened her fist with her fingers curled like menacing claws and intoned, "HÉCATOMBE!"
Dounia could feel herself getting hot. Her clothes began to smoke. Then she burst into flame.
Cairee clasped her pendant and focused on the door, ready to come to her friend's aid as soon as it opened.
The voice didn't seem defensive, it seemed 'pro-active'. Paired with it being the person holding the door closed (with Cairee yelling treason on the other side) - it's probably not on Dounia's side but that's a guess
Cairee pointed a finger at the door and in a deep, controlled voice said ”FALL.”
Cairee could hear a thump from behind the door. The thumb latch released.
At the far end of the room, Aliss, who'd been holding the door, grimaced as if her body had become terribly heavy. Her legs gave out and she fell to the floor.
One porter, who and a moon tattoo on his chest, looked Zahra in the face and made a quick judgement call. He looked to the second porter, a slightly taller coffee skinned man, and nodded. Then the porter with the moon tattoo pushed the door with his shoulder and it slowly opened. He looked down and stepped over the form of a woman laying prone but conscious on the stone.
The taller porter stepped into the room and looked at the scene. He produced a speckled grey stone with one hand and a water skin with the other. He placed the small stone in the skin - nothing happened.
The room was a haze of steam which every few heartbeats pumped afresh with a long shshshshsh. There were bottles of emptied wine on the floor and two huge piles of discarded towels.
The room was divided in the middle by a curved stairway that led to a raised floor. On the south and south-west walls were private baths and much of the floor accommodated two large wading baths of heated water.
The Sisters of the Silken Scroll were scattered about the room. Aliss was laying on the floor by the door. Pattalia was in the centre of the room holding a great twisted wooden staff. Simone and Candor were on the west side of the room with that dastard, Kingsworthy.
Trying to duel between Simone and Kingsworthy stood Premuroso. His left ear had been cut through in a two foot long slit.
At the feet of Simone, Kingsworthy, and Candor, writhed Dounia. Her clothes were smoking as flames were catching over her body!
When Zahra spilled into the room with the others, her brain was having a hard time processing everything that was happening. She gasped because she had no words. Anger rose in her chest and she wanted to make everyone pay for hurting her friends but concern for Dounia over-rode her anger.
Dounia was experiencing something that Zahra found terrifying when not contained, fire. Hoping that the ice she could produce would put out the fire, she pointed her finger at Dounia's clothes and conjured ice to coat the fire.
Dounia screamed. Her world was suddenly fire and pain. The heat and the smoke brought her instantly back to the warehouse fire that she'd experienced as Cyra. And maybe even long-buried memories of her infant self. The current fight vanished from her mind, and she was a helpless child, with nobody to save her, trapped and burning to death.
She thrashed around on the floor for long seconds, before she finally remembered to roll. She spun around on the smooth tiles, smothering the flames, continuing to do so even after the flames were out. Everything hurt, and all she could smell was her own roasted skin and burnt hair.
Finally, gasping, sobbing, she came back to the present. The fire was out, but she was still in danger. She clutched at a dagger, crying out when the metal hilt burned her palm. From her spot on the floor, she lashed out at Candor with the knife, wishing it was a sword. She needed to get to her feet, but needed another moment.
Tymythy darted in the steam bath as soon as the porters made way for him and tried to make sense of the situation. Two women down, not enough time to determine if they were dead or otherwise incapacitated. Dounia on the ground, burning, surrounded by everyone still standing. The man with the sail-like ears dueling with the miscreant, Kingsworthy. Two more of the sisters still up, not clear if who they were targeting… unless they were merely defending themselves.
Well, let their own actions absolve or condemn them.
Roaring a wordless challenge, Tymythy darter between the two porters, past the dueling pair, heedless of a passing strike aimed in his direction, to stand protectively over Dounia. ”Lower your weapons and face the judgement of our host! Or use them and face mine!”
Cairee barely took in her surroundings. She saw Dounia on the ground and Prem bleeding and was moving before she could think. She followed behind Tymythy, stopping before the group of fighters (in the square with the white dot), and frantically murmured her prayer for Saiph's aid.
Zahra moved into the room and raised her hand. The steam in the air solidified and turned to snow in a long thin line until it reach the burning Dounia. The flames engulfing the desert thief extinguished instantly and her robes were covered in a sparkle of frost.
Dounia looked desperate but focused as she slashed at Candor from the floor. She slashed a gape into Candor's thigh that almost made the woman drop to her knees.
Tymythy rushed the room. He leapt over the stone bench and crossed just behind Prem, who's footwork was agile enough to let the spearman past despite looking greyer then normal.
”Lower your weapons and face the judgement of our host! Or use them and face mine!”
He stood over Dounia and both Candor and Simone cursed him with their eyes with enough of an opening for them to try their luck.
Simone struck him across the belly under his usriev . Kingsworthy stabbed at him from behind . Candor, however, used Kingsworthy's attack as a moment to place her thrust to his heart
Cairee followed but stopped part way to step on top of a low stone table. A small sphere of light surrounded her and beams shot out to touch everyone but Candor and Kingsworthy. All touched by her light felt strength come to them from some hidden place. Prem looked back at her amazed and deeply grateful.
In the corner of Cairee's eye she could see one of the beams of light hit on the upper floor area. What looked like a clump of burned parchment with feathers sticking out of it filled out into its' full bird form. A feeling of confusion mixed with self-righteous fury came to her as Ousel hopped to her feet and took to the steaming air.
Tymythy also awoke as if from the brink of death!
Aliss looked at the priest of Saiph and spat out, "WHO … ARE … YOU"
-
-
Simone, "Don't break! We can still do this! Candor, do the girl. I got the Basternae. Everyone think of Taryth!"
Prem and Kingsworthy traded sword strikes and parries. Kingsworthy nearly hooked Prem's rapier out of his hand but the strange wing-eared duelist managed to flip his sword over the back of his hand and catch it again. They were fighting in a stalemate.
Simone made a few weak attacks on Tymythy and then cut his forehead with her heavy broken-back seax.
Candor watched Tymythy and made small movements left and right to get at Dounia. When Simone sliced his temple, Candor took the opportunity to stab through Dounia's thigh.
Patallia pointed at Cairee and yelled, "TIER L'ARCH DE PEINE!" and two deep violet darts shot out and pummelled the cleric.
Aliss stood, avoiding an opportune attack from the guard, and used her ankus to swiftly disarm him. The motion was so slick she cut the back of his hand and his falchion fell to the floor. He responded by stepping back and drawing his hands to his sternum then pushing them out towards her. She tried to duck but a ray of frost shot out that froze her shoulder and the wall just beside her.
The other guard stepped up to Patallia and slashed at her, leaving a long cut on her forearms. He yelled, "Everyone yield and stop this!"
The Sisters showed no sign of stopping.
Now that Dounia was no longer in danger of bursting into flame, Zahra's anger at the situation once again rose in her chest. Kinsworthy in particular drew her ire. She couldn't understand how someone could be so vindictive and petty. This time she would make him hurt.
Not wanting to take chances with throwing magic into an area where so many of her friends were, Zahra chose to use unerring missiles to attack with. She pointed her hands at Kingsworthy while practically spitting out the arcane words and almost instantaneously two silvery darts of force flew towards his face.
Tymythy grit his teeth again the pain. Pain that he had expected, true, as a price for showing their host’s servants who the aggressors here were, but he had clearly underestimated their foe’s skills. He had sought to stand over Dounia, protecting her from further harm, but felt it was he who might soon be in need of aid.
The two Sisters seemed by far the most lethal foes, but the position of Kingsworthy to his and Dounia’s flank partly made it so. And as he saw Zahra’s silvery darts leap at the buffoon he decided to join forces in bringing down at least one opponent before Tymythy’s woubnds brought him to his knees.
As the man was locked into a deadly balance with Prem, blade matching blade, Tymythy stepped close, using the counterweight at the end of Kizu'gina’s haft to knock the duelist’s sword wide, breaking his guard, then shifted his grip to slash diagonally downwards with the usriev’s heavy, wavy blade, cutting a deep wound into Kingsworthy’s shoulder.