cinaed

Session 130: Day 3 through 8 of Saedan (1/12)

Lyov slides behind the bar and starts pouring drinks, the usual ones for the family by memory before he asks everyone else for their preferences.

Hava asks him about an island drink she used to have back home, and he briefly quizzes her on a few ingredients before presenting it to her. It’s a reasonable facsimile, and she takes it and sighs happily as he says he tries to make things perfect for his customers and especially for Yolov’s friends.

He reaches out and smooths an affectionate hand over Yolov’s head before Audacity asks for something warm. Sestri complains that she could provide that if her kitchen wasn’t trashed, unless ‘Magic Man’ can do something.

Yolov points out that he has Prestidigitation, at which point she fetches a delicious mulled wine and thrusts it into his hand. As he warms it, she asks if he can do magic cleaning up the demon blood off the floor. He says he could move the corpses outside to start with, at which point Sestri says that would make it a lot easier to clean up, though she bets Mhulra could get the demons outside.

She squeezes Mhurla’s bicep and Yolov watches Mhulra preen and say she could. He realizes that it would be a bit of a struggle for her even if she probably could get them outside. He tells Mhulra her help is appreciated, but he has a spell that can carry very heavy things outside.

The party catches Yolov up on the demons and enlists Asa’s aid in translating the questions as he brings the demons outside and Hava casts Speak With Dead on the one that was talking to Audacity.

Through Asa as the intermediary, Audacity asks, “Who are Endure and Mastery?” The demon says Endure is the leash holder and Mastery is one of the dogs. Audacity turns himself into his sister and asks if the demon recognizes her. The demon says he does and calls Arevik Ambition.

Audacity asks, “Who is Ambition?” and is told she’s also one of the dogs.

Galowen asks, “What were you chanting?” and the demon says, “Yield to him who would see us break free.”

The group discusses the final question before they ask who is the one they’re supposed to yield to and is told, “He who commands the masters, he who summons us from the hells, he who watches as they scream, he who will burn you all. Elathias.”

The spell leaves the demon’s body as it answers the final question.

Audacity’s tail is twitching wildly. He says he’s going to ask Yolov’s dad if he has dwarven ale. Hava thanks Asa for helping, and Audacity belatedly thanks her as well, before Asa says she’s sorry. Hava says it wasn’t her fault that demons are cryptic, and Asa clarifies that she meant that it was so hard. She’s fine talking to dead people. This demon won’t even be the last one she talks to tonight, she jokes, clearly meaning Daveena.

As Audacity disappears back into the inn, Hava says it was actually a pretty good day. No one almost died or got seriously hurt. She giggles as Asa holds Yolov’s hand and Yolov immediately flushes. She giggles even harder as Asa pinches his cheek and tells him how cute he is when he’s purple, which makes him blush even more.

Hava goes inside to ‘help’ Sestri and Mhulra clean up the kitchen. Yolov hears Sestri flirting with both of them, asking Hava about her swimming and admiring her swimmer’s muscles, and does his best not to think about it.

Az sees this as well and distracts himself by approaching Galowen, brooding in the corner. He says that he was on the roof during the fight. Galowen says that’s a likely place for him to be. Az says he didn’t see Elathias stick around to watch, but he thinks Elathias is spying on them somehow.

Galowen thinks for a long moment. There are a lot of different ways for Elathias to be spying on them. They don’t travel with other people, other than Asa, who is the least likely to be used as a spy or be spying on the group. She wouldn’t betray Yolov like that; she loves him.

The only thing he can think of is that Elathias is forcibly spying through something that the party is carrying or someone. Galowen immediately stands up and says he needs to go, which earns Yolov’s alarmed request for everyone to travel around in groups.

Az and Hava follow Galowen out. Audacity takes his mug of dwarven ale and sits in the corner to think.

Galowen is walking aimlessly as Az and Hava jog hastily after him. When Hava calls after him to slow down, Galowen says he’s walking away, he can’t be around anyone.

Az tells him that it’s not his fault. Galowen says that it is, none of this would have happened. Elathias has been spying on the group through him, because Elathias knows him the best, that’s how he knew to be here and attack.

Az points out that Elathias was here weeks ago, and Hava says that she doesn’t know what Elathias did to him, but they do this together now. He won’t be making them safer if he leaves.

Galowen says he will, and Az raises a skeptical eyebrow. Hava tells him that his struggles are her struggles now, he’s walked up mountains and endured so much, some of it just to help Hava. She would walk up ten mountains for him. He doesn’t have to ask her to do any of it. It isn’t an obligation or exchange. They’re not trading favors. They’re companions and friends.

Galowen says that friends don’t let friends get hurt.

Hava says that goes for all of them. She won’t let anyone hurt Galowen. Az points out that Elathias will fuck with them even if Galowen’s gone, and they’ve got Asa and Yolov here, they can put their heads together and figure something out.

Hava asks why he’s convinced Elathias is spying through him.

Galowen says Elathias killed his parents. Before Springrest, Elathias killed his parents and he left home. He thought if he didn’t think about it, then his parents would still be alive or at least they could possibly have survived. But he doesn’t think there is a chance for that.

Hava tells him she’s so sorry. She tells him he’s very strong in more than just the obvious ways.

Galowen says he didn’t want to burden anyone with it. It’s not his place. He has to support and protect everyone else. It didn’t make sense to tell them.

Hava moves closer and very tentatively reaches for Galowen’s hands to hold in hers. When he lets her, she holds them and thanks him for telling them. It isn’t a burden. He is not a burden. She looks at Az and holds both their hands and says that she feels like she speaks for everyone that for this they will carry him.

Galowen tells her that she doesn’t have the arm strength for this. She tells him metaphorically, and Az adds that they’ll back him up no matter what. Galowen says he needs to kill that guy.

Hava says that would be nice. She wants that to happen for him, to help him kill Elathias. But she wants to reiterate that he’s not a burden. Could it be anything else? Az asks if he took anything from home, and Galowen says no, but that Kalvianis recognized him at Kiva’s house.

Hava says she doesn’t want to make him relive it, but asks if Kalvianis there when his parents were killed. Galowen knows he wasn’t, but Kalvianis had called him the one who got away. The three of them agree that Elathias is a weirdo.

Hava tells him there’s no leaving and Galowen agrees. He stays with them. Hava says that he can go inside and rest or drink. If he tries to leave, she will track him down. He can’t be harder to find than her sister.

She gives him a hug. Galowen drags them both into the hug. Hava tells them that she loves them. They’re her favorite people.

Az says that’s because she doesn’t know that many people. Hava scoffs and says she’s met plenty of people before Springrest and plenty of people along the way. She’s had friends before them.

They go inside and get another round of drinks from Lyov.

Yolov goes over to Audacity and asks if he wants to be alone with his thoughts or if he wants a distraction. Audacity is tipsy and says he doesn’t know. He wants him to Send to his sister, but he promised her he wouldn’t.

He asks what kind of distraction Yolov had in mind, and Yolov points across the room to Ingenuity and says he’s very distracting. Audacity says sure, and they interrupt Ingenuity listening to a long-winded story from Agnessa.

Yolov introduces them and explains that Audacity is a very talented artist himself and much better at drawing people than Yolov. Ingenuity says he never says a bad word about his students and Yolov is talented in many ways before asking Audacity about his portraits and his virtue name.

Audacity says he chose it, but he’s not sure that it fits anymore before he asks Ingenuity how he ended up here. Ingenuity feigns confusion before asking if Audacity recognized him for the royal art or the book covers. He calls Audacity well-rounded before explaining that he disliked fame and people constantly asking him for favors. This place is a haven where people don’t bother him and he can work in peace.

He asks if Audacity has been experiencing the downsides of fame as well, people asking them to slay more dragons, and Audacity says that they haven’t had that too much of that, they mostly stumble into their heroics. Ingenuity asks about his art, and slightly bemused, Audacity shows him the pictures he’s drawn over the last few months.

Ingenuity tells him he’s very talented. He pulls a quill out of seemingly midair and he and Audacity have an impromptu conversation about art.

Az sidles over to his sister when she and Sestri finish cleaning up, and asks about some of the people who were impacted by the death of Lady Axemight. Mhulra doesn’t remember Lady Axemight’s son’s name, calling him a weirdo and saying he’ll likely be in charge of the company, which means he'll be nominated to take her seat in the Senate. There’s no one running against Lurash, but also no one wants to look him in the eye.

Az says that’s not his fault. Mhulra asks if he’s sure about that, and Az says he always assumed it was something Lady Axemight did. He just wanted to see if there was anything to be said about him. Mhulra says as far as she knows, Lady Axemight’s widower Riktar is looking to move everything out of the city, and Lurash will be the only one left in the city.

Riktar was never ambitious, Az points out.

Mhulra says that no one could be as ambitious as his wife. She adds that she’s heard a rumor that Urzog was under the impression that a group of mercenaries had been hired. Az says he never thought a single person could take her out. Mhulra says the strange thing about it is that the mercenary group hadn’t been active in over a year. It was a group that had moved on to another country. Some group called Hellfire or something.

She knocks back her drink, which is quickly refilled by Lyov, and says that with Lady Axemight dead, the only thing that is going to get in what Lurash’s way is the fact that while he can claim the Axemight money Riktar might cut him off, fed up with having pretended Lurash was his legitimate son for so long.

Az says he would love to watch that go down in a council meeting. Lurash would pummel him, which Mhulra agrees he could, but she says it’s more likely Lurash would just stare at him with those weird eyes of his and make Riktar piss himself. Az says he guesses he’ll see what’s going on when they get there. He’s not sure where they’re headed next, other than checking on Fowlyse.

Mhulra says sometimes she daydreams about filling a room with parchment and quills and books and ink and locking Fowlyse into the room to keep them safe and enriched for the rest of their life. She says she’s tried to figure out how to keep all of them at home, though Az’s involves violence, a huge paperweight and a chain.

Az laughs and says that would be hard to do now. He smugly Misty Steps to the other side of the bar, making her curse and call him a slippery fucker as she chases him and threatens him with two chains and an even bigger paperweight.

He says then she won’t be able to sail. Audacity calls out entertained commentary where he and Ingenuity are sketching this fight. Az and Mhulra returns to their chairs and get into a long gossip session about the Senate, including Alubolt and Kingston’s weekly drinks while Kingston is dating a flighty looking bitch from Kastvar.

Meanwhile Yolov formally introduces his grandmother to Asa, who looks the most flustered he’s seen her trying to ingratiate herself. After a while, Agnessa asks Yolov to help her up. She’s light as a feather and she asks him to fetch down a silver box from under her bed.

When he gets back down to the bar, she has settled into a chair in a corner, saying she doesn’t want her daughter to fuss. She tells him that they all worry about him, and he promises to write more letters home. She says they’ll worry nonetheless, but his parents won’t admit to wringing their hands whenever he’s away from home.

She asks how much he knows about his mother’s travels, which Yolov says he thought she took over for the inn and never really left home. Agnessa says she did, but after she’d traveled for three or four years having her own little adventures. She says she had worried about Ossya coming home out of obligation, but she seems content with the inn and raising him and Sestri. And Lyov’s horses continually make their escape attempts and provide a little bit of excitement.

Agnessa says that she gave this to Ossya to keep her safe during her travels. She tried to have Ossya keep this after she returned, but Ossya insisted she didn’t need it. Agnessa shows him a ring, which Yolov identifies as a Ring of Spell Turning.

He asks how the family got this, startled that they would have a magical item, and Agnessa says her husband was very worried about Ossya and managed to make a deal with a young mage.

Audacity and Ingenuity bond over art as Az relishes getting to gossip with his sister. Hava enjoys helping Sestri clean up the kitchen and getting some exercise tips on building muscles, flirting all the while.

Galowen goes to bed before everyone else.

In the morning, Galowen tells the rest of the party about Elathias killing his parents and the fact that Elathias is spying on him. Asa casts Nondetection on him and promises she’ll figure something else out for the moment, and Yolov tells the group that any plans they make should be made with Telepathic Bond, so that even if Elathias does manage to Scry on them at some point, he won’t hear anything.

After that, Yolov checks via Detect Magic and Identify that the inn, the school, and his family have been otherwise untouched by Elathias. There are no spells on his family or corruption within the places like the druidic grove.

He also gives out the gifts. The first is the bag of fancy buttons that Az retrieved from Careful’s shop for him. His mother doesn’t go for big emotional displays, but she’s moved deeply enough to clasp a hand to her chest and thank him over the lovely buttons. She knows exactly where she’ll display them.

Yolov had bought a nice bottle of liquor from The Silver Captain on Collie’s advice. Sestri sniffs appreciatively at the liquor that he presents her and says if it wasn’t morning, she’d absolutely start drinking this, it’s incredible.

Yolov gives his grandmother a knitted shawl that will ward off the cold. Agnessa wraps it around herself, thanking him and complaining about how cold the inn is nowadays. She looks between him and Asa and asks him when he’s going to ask her to marry him.

Yolov goes a shade of purple the party has never seen before as Asa also goes lavender and murmurs half to herself if it’s weird that she might have to ask Iaevasian permission. Yolov finally manages to stammer out that they’ve been dating a very short time, which makes his grandmother fuss at him and tell him she’ll slip away at this rate.

The next gift is for his uncle Otan as Yolov explains that Az was kind enough to offer to answer his questions about the Striogian educational system, being a Turen as well as a Striogian who experienced the education system firsthand.

Otan immediately lights up and begins asking Az questions, pulling out his very detailed and well organized lesson plans and asking Az’s opinion on them. Az thinks to himself that he sees where Yolov got it before he ropes his sister into the conversation as well. He also says he’ll speak to Alubolt and see if she’ll write to him with advice, which makes Otan stammer in shocked appreciation.

The last gift is for Lyov. Yolov says this gift would be more of an experience and if his father doesn’t like the idea, Yolov can get him something else, but he learned a spell called Polymorph during his travels and thought his dad might like to experience being a horse for an hour.

Lyov asks if that means he could speak to his four beloved horses, and Yolov says he believes so, Lyov will think like a horse but retain his own personality, Lyov excitedly says he has so many questions for them and it actually ties into a gift he was considering for the Hooligans later.

Yolov turns his father into a horse and watches him enter the stables and begin to whicker questions at his four horses. After an hour, Lyov emerges. He also isn’t one for large smiles, mostly small ones, but now he’s beaming as he tells Yolov all about how they discussed everyone’s favorite foods, things that have been bothering them, things that would provide enrichment for them.

Yolov says he’s glad Lyov enjoyed the gift so much.

They stay for most of the day, though Az is understandably antsy to get on the road soon. Yolov gives them a tour of the inn, showing his bedroom which is well-organized clutter of textbooks and old sketchbooks. He grabs his beginning book for Draconic for Captain Treaios’ daughter.

When Yolov can talk to Sestri without their parents around, he asks her about how much it will cost to repair the damages to the inn.

Sestri sighs, rubbing the back of her neck, and tells him not to worry about it. The stove is a loss, she’ll have to get it replaced, but they’ll figure out a way to get the gold, which she estimates will be 15 to 20 gold.

Yolov says that the only reason the inn was damaged was because he and his friends were there, and that he earned some gold as reward from the queen and other people they’ve rescued. He doesn’t know how to explain that he has hundreds of gold now, but Audacity pipes up and says he wants to chip in, handing Sestri five gold.

As she stares down at it, Yolov takes fifteen gold and presses it into her hands.

She thanks them all and says that any leftover money will go to the school.

As they begin to pack up, Lyov leads Yolov to the stable where he finds Kasi, one of his father’s horses, fully packed and ready to go. He knows that having Kasi along will cut the travel time tremendously. He thanks his father and says this will help them places faster, which he’s sure that Az will appreciate and he does as well.

Asa gives Galowen a specially crafted parchment that has four charges of Nondetection for him. She explains that she’ll work on something back in her shop that will help him for longer so he can worry about it less.

Now all that’s left is saying goodbye to Asa. She says it was very nice, though a little longer than expected.

Yolov agrees, though he says it was very stressful at times, but he still enjoys every moment he gets to spend with her and is sorry that they can’t spend more time together. He understands they both have responsibilities to keep Astvanor safe, and he can Send to her and if she wants, he can write to her as well.

She tells him she would love letters. She tells him that she loves him.

Yolov stammers for a moment before telling her this is all new to him, but he cares for her so much and he wants to spend more time with her, she’s clever and kind and knows so much about so many things like erosion causing salt water and he could talk to her about everything and anything. The last few months have been difficult and terrible, despite the occasional incredible things, and finding her has been the best part of the journey. He runs out of words, finally holding her face between his hands and kissing her.

She kisses him back.

When the kiss ends, she reminds him that they’ll be able to see each other soon. She heard from Ivaesian that they’re almost finished with the preparations they need to make for the party to be able to visit and be questioned about the spying. She’ll get to see him then.

Yolov says that he knows they both have responsibilities, but he tells her to be as safe as she can. She tells him to do the same, if he dies she will do what everyone fears necromancers will do and raise an army to avenge him.

He starts to say something and then stops, embarrassed, saying it sounds a little silly. When she urges him to say it, he tells her that in a way she’ll be keeping him safe. He’s learned Contingency and with the Wither and Bloom spell she taught him, she’ll be watching over him.

Asa gets teary-eyed over that and tells him she will be before they kiss one last time and she leaves.

Meanwhile, Hava sighs a little, having a little regret for not making a move on Mhulra and Sestri the night before. She goes to the two of them, standing side by side, and tells them that she’s a bit regretful for respecting them and not having fun, but she swears to protect their brothers.

Sestri says she needs to keep Yolov safe, he’s like wet tissue. Hava says that he can take care of himself, but she will do her best, and receives a squeeze on her arm.

Mhulra says she knows it’s a tall order, but she asks Hava to keep Az from getting hurt. Hava says she can’t promise that, and Mhulra clarifies that she meant to keep him safe from himself.

Hava huffs out a breath and says that’s hard, but she’ll try.

Then Mhulra goes to Az and grabs him from behind. She tells him she’s going to try and figure out more about Fowlyse and meet Az there at the dig site. She tells him to be safe.

Az says he usually tries to direct people away from danger. Mhulra looks skeptical and warns him that if she meets him in a few weeks and he’s got more scars or is missing anything, she’ll send their sibling after him. He can’t complain to their dad, their dad can’t ground her anymore.

She hugs him and Az sees the worry in her face before she pushes him away and says she’ll be here another night. Sestri asked. This earns a raised eyebrow from Az, clearly wondering at Sestri’s taste.

They travel for four days with Kasi and her little cart, as the path turns from gravel to a dirt road. There’s the gradual shift towards more desert areas as everything dries out, farmland replaced by brushland. The dirt around them turns redder, dark and rich. They stop at a very small town one night, the other nights spent under the stars in Hava’s Tiny Hut.

There is a small line of very small mountains and the horizon is empty sky out over the sea. As the fourth day turns towards night, they spy nestled there in the crook north of the Kastvar border, a small, well-appointed village. There are ranches and paddocks on either side of the road, with a clear central town.

As they approach, Hava hears the cool distant voice of Evie in her mind.

“Oh. Are we… You don’t have to sleep again, do you?”

Hava says she’ll have to eventually, but they’ll be able to get into town at around seven or eight o’clock that night. She asks why, and Evie says that Kaspian is here. Hava immediately gets jealous of Evie’s excitement.

Nearly everyone is exhausted, but Hava and Audacity notice the closer they get to the town, the cooler it feels. It’s not like a nice cold breeze off nearby water, but it’s instead a deeper chill, more like the diluted sensation of interacting with Evie. They realize this is an effect of Kaspian being there.

As they step over the boundary of the town, past the sign that has a comedic drawing of fishbones and a welcome to Fishbone lettering, it feels almost as though stepping through ankle deep water. A weird resistance that everyone notices vanishes as they cross over the border.

The town is alight with lanterns and people calmly going about their business.

A voice behind them, that wasn’t there a moment ago, says that it’s about time.

They all turn to see Kaspian standing there.