Porthca Landing III: Burned Bridges & Broken Chains

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Noon of the Twenty-Seventh Day | Porthca | The Maze:

Continuing to smile, Catelyn nodded at the pair, "I'm glad you both think it went so well, personally I think my hands might keep shaking for a little bit longer. I've never tried to give a speech like that -- that was Father ... Father Uskough's job." The cleric looked away for a moment before eventually turning back. "I think you said you had someone to meet at noon?" She tilted her head as bells started to ring out in the city, "You'll probably need to head out, I can guide you back out of the Maze, then I'll stay here to help clean up and see what other aid I can offer before I'm needed back at the temple for evening service."

Kneeling down to hug Virra, then raising to hug Tyrius, she squeezed both tightly, "I'm very glad you were both here for this, and helped with preparations ... not everyone gets along with the people who live here, but they mean a lot to me." Motioning for them to follow, Catelyn smiled, "And of course you know you're always welcome at the temple of Ilmater."

Noon of the Twenty-Seventh Day | Porthca | The Aedon House:


Having left the Tuckered Kraken Tavern, Ander, Magnolia, Valerie, and their two new companions, Lestone and Terminus with Abrahms, the strange group worked their way around the markets of Porthca making various purchases. Valerie made true on her promise to help Lestone get newer clothes, finding the man seemed to gravitate towards comfortable, free flowing fabrics, dark greys and faint blues, topping it off with a large captain-like coat, though seemed to avoid wearing boots, explaining: "I enjoy the feel of the ground beneath my feet, especially after my ... situation for so long."

Continuing towards a fletcher, then a potion maker, and finally towards the Mionaeli House of the Accmours, where the group spent a fair amount of time, searching the large magic store and making many purchases. Valerie once more cleared out the misc potions they had on offer, as well as buying a bag of holding, a new armor set made of silver dragon scales, and a few magical arrows. Magnolia bought herself a portable hole, and thanks to Valerie's haggling, managed to get a cloak of many fashions as well -- thanks to the group selling the Boots of Striding and Springing.

While the other items were appraised and offers made, Valerie pulled back, mentioning she'd prefer to make sure the rest of the group was okay with the values. Ander off to the side made a modest purchase of healing potions to tuck into his pack.

Finally satisfied for now, the group headed off to the Aedon House -- the intended meeting place, finding Eliza already there and with her nose buried into a scroll and inks placed around the table. Virra and Tyrius arrived not long after, and the group was once more together.
 
Eliza looked up slightly annoyed at the sudden commotion before seeing the group, "Oh, is it noon already! I am just working on transcribing some spells I bought recently." The half-orc excitedly showed off her scrolls, "I still have some more custom scrolls I will need to pick up in an hour or so. Before I forget though!" She dug through her now overflowing pack to get to her coin purse and dumped out loud and jingly platinum and gold coins on her table and began divvying up the coins then began passing them on to everyone in the group before she stopped short before a strange kobold and his panther, and the undead-turned-really undead Lestone. She looked wide-eyed and unblinking at Tyrius and shrugged unsubtly in their direction.

"I also spoke to the De Porthcans." she said simply and left it at that.
 
Adorned with her new fancy bracelet and bag of holding that contained dozens of new goodies, Valerie was exhuberent coming off of her shopping trip, practically skipping into the house where her and her companions planned to meet up. Forming a small compact mirror in her hand, she took a moment to adjust her laurel crown before entering the room and letting out a squeal of excitement at seeing Eliza. “Oh Eliza, I am so happy to see that you are still with us! Banrigg left us this morning, and I got so worried about whether anyone else would have left without saying goodbye!”

Seeing Tyrius and Virra arrive soon after, Valerie gave them each a brief hug before turning her attention back to Eliza as she spoke. She returned her excitement with a slightly confused smile. “My, that certainly does appear to be... academic. I am so glad that you are happy with your purchases, I am certain that they are wonderful.”

After Eliza finished showing off her scrolls and handed her a small bag of gold, Valerie took the seat next to her and held out her new bracelet happily. “Magnolia had said that we needed to purchase some diamonds, and I could not be happier to comply. That’s hardly the tip of the iceberg however of all of the grand things I was able to find.”

The warlock put her new bag of holding on her lap and began to rummage through it, vanishing up to her shoulder before she pulled out five neatly packaged bags of two hundred and eight gold pieces that she had had Coreon Accmour help her count out before leaving and offered them out to each of the original party members. “Before I forget, these are for all of you. As it turns out, comfortable magical boots are very much in demand in this city, as I was able to sell those boots of leaping for quite the steal.” She smiled to them before returning to burrowing through the bag and pulling out various objects. “Let us see... I bought arrows, potions, food, some lovely new armor, more arrows, more potions, this bag, some clothing for Lestone...”

That last part made Valerie look up from her bag as she remembered that the rest of the party had not yet been introduced to the newly restored Lestone, nor to their new kobold companion. She blushed slightly. “Oh gods... apologies for my neglect, it seems that I was a little too excited and forgot to introduce you... Eliza, Tyrius, Virra, this here is Terminus. He is a hunter that’s goals are similarly aligned with ours in regards to the bandits and slavers that are plaguing the Sinking Plains.” She gestured to Terminus with a warm smile before pausing for a moment. “And this is Lestone... although clearly you already have been acquainted. He is a good person, not the monster that the Sea forced him to act as, so I was hoping that... perhaps we could help him to atone for it? Offer him a fresh start?” She looked around at the rest of the party as she made the suggestion, her eyes practically begging the question.
 
Virra wore a persistent smile as she and Tyrius followed Catelyn out of the Maze. "I'll call on you again next time I'm in Porthca," she promised, returning her hug with equal fervor. "Remember me when you're the biggest hero in the city!"

Her cheery attitude persisted until she and Ty came to the Aedon House, at which point it was replaced by bewilderment shortly after they greeted the others. "Wait... Banrigg's gone?" She was surprised to find herself so disappointed by the news. "Darn. I was going to thank him for Benbysitting the other night," she muttered, looking over Val and Mags and narrowing her eyes as she noticed the discrepancies. "And you guys went shopping without me? And... who the heck?!" Her gaze had fallen on the strange kobold and his panther companion, their appearance even more surprising than the sight of Lestone as part of the group.

Val's explanation cleared up most of her questions, but not quite all of them. "I mean, sure, Lestone can come with us, he's cool," she said. She might have been more enthusiastic about it if she wasn't thinking about how quickly they'd swapped out Banrigg and (especially) Niradnam for new companions. The implications it had for their goals going forward were a whole other mess to unpack, but first she had to get a sense of this kobold guy.

She approached Terminus, for once unsure how to make her introduction. "I like your kitty," she said, almost like she was forced to concede the point.
 
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Tyrius smiled as Catelyn hugged Virra and then himself, feeling a little better for having stayed to help, though he had started to connect the dots while he'd been helping to prepare the food and realised that Virra's sudden illness had only one likely source - he'd surged. He decided to bring it up later, it could wait for a more appropriate time.

"Hopefully we'll be able to see you again soon," said Tyrius as they walked down the ramshackle streets of the Maze, "Maybe next time we'll be able to find some big amount of food to donate instead of just money." said Tyrius with a wink.

Meeting up with the group at Aedon House, those who had not met him before would see a pale human with red hair that was meticulously combed back wearing a navy blue tailored suit and a red tie, an Azarad pin taking pride of place on the lapel of his suit jacket with the spoke representing Evocation glowing faintly. For once, Tyrius had his jacket unbuttoned, which did reveal that it had a few pockets on the inside of the jacket as well as the three on the front.

"Time flies when you're having fun, eh?" joked Tyrius as Eliza seemed to their sudden arrival. He sighed a little as Eliza brought up speaking to the De Porthcans, the tone of voice suggesting that was both the beginning and the end of the discussion on that front. 'Should probably go and see Benito myself before we leave,' thought Tyrius, 'though if he chased me off the property I wouldn't really blame him.'

A little surprised at Valerie hugging him, Tyrius figured it was down to the high spirits everyone seemed to be in. Tyrius looked to Terminus as they were introduced with a smile, giving the fellow a friendly nod in greeting as Valerie also reintroduced Lestone. Tyrius looked to Virra, well aware that out of anyone it would be Virra who'd most likely have ill feelings, having been close to being killed by Lestone once.

"If everyone else is fine with it, I don't see why not." said Tyrius, "My sister is always preaching how people can grow if given a chance." Giving Lestone a nod, Tyrius wondered how old the man was, though it seemed for the moment Lestone was more distracted by the building they were in, "So, hunting bandits and slavers?" asked Tyrius, hoping Terminus would elaborate a little.
 
"Oh, Banrigg left already? I wanted to say goodbye but I guess it might be too late." Eliza frowned and pursed her lips, ignoring Val's mention of her leaving. She wasn't sure how to tell the group she needed to go north. She looked down at her temporary workstation already strewn with paper and ink stains and started tidying it up with liberal uses of Prestidigitation and Mage Hand.

She looked up again at the heavy thump of sack of coins that almost sent her papers flying about. "Your armor certainly looks...shiny." It looked liked it could certainly repeal a few punches and that's what mattered. "I was finally...finally...able to get my hands on Sending. It is one of the two scrolls I had to have custom made actually. I just need to transcribe it into my spell book which will take a whi-!" Her eyes lit up at the sight of more potions and gleefully rubbed her hands, "Luckily for you, I actually have Identify prepared today so I can figure out...including some of my higher slots..." After some extensive counting on her fingers she cheerfully declared, "I can spare seven uses of that spell."

Terminus would see a half-orc female, short and diminutive, with wild auburn curls that seemed to resist any attempts at taming. She was currently seated behind a small desk, with a tall, thin brown staff with a curved end at her side. "Pleasure to make your acquaintance, Mr Terminus." She bowed her head politely and paused facing Lestone. She had argued at length with the Sea to free him but she hadn't expected him to be living now which complicated matters. Everyone seemed to be vouching for his worthiness and since she herself wasn't able to read anything untoward in his behavior for now, she decided to simply watch and wait for now. "Good afternoon, Mr. Lestone. I hope you slept well yesterday."

She teared her gaze away from Lestone and smiled at Tyrius, "I am almost done transcribing Alarm, which is certainly fun!" The half-orc bit her lips and focused on clearing the rest of her piled papers as the bandits were brought up again. She looked up at Ander with a guilty glance before venturing forward, "This library might help us figure out what the manacles were enchanted with. I have asked them to look into the runes but they said the references will only be ready by later today." Was it just her guilty conscious or did Ander look...different. She continued nervously chewing her lip unable to bring up the fact that she might not be able to help him avenge his family when she had her parents to worry about. Maybe she should just Banrigg it, she thought miserably.
 
Turning to Virra, "Ssshe isss not my kitty, Abrahmsss isss more my partner than an object to be owned. I found her asss a cub during a hunt. There were tracksss that hinted at sssiblingsss, but I wasss never able to find them. Ssshe wasss weak and malnourissshed, but I nursssed her back to health." Hearing this Abrahms nods her head as to signify agreement. Jokingly, "Now I can't ssseem to get rid of her." Hearing this, Abrahms reaches out with a paw and smacks Terminus on the arm, like old friends punching each other in the arm.

Turning to Eliza, "It isss a pleasssure to meet you as well. Thisss isss my partner Abrahmsss." Hearing this, Abrahms turns to Elize gives a strange / eery toothy smile, trying to be polite, but coming off a little creepy. She means well, but, it is a panther trying to smile, so...

And finally, turning to Tyrius, "I have been looking for a group of banditsss that attacked my home while I wasss on a hunt. I was not able to find any sssurvivorsss. I ssstopped at the human village that we traded and worked with, they too were raided, but not nearly asss bad as my village wasss. The sssurvivorsss dessscribed the tattoosss and general ssstate / look of the raidersss. In my travelsss, I found a notice by Richeye and came to sssee if there wasss better information asss to where to look, and potentially othersss sssearching for them. From talking to Andersss, it sssoundsss like your group isss looking for them asss well." Abrahms leans over, puts her head under his arm, meaning to comfort him.

As he finishes, you can see loss followed by anger cross his face, "I did not know about the ssslavery until jussst now. Thisss givesss me hope that sssome have sssurvived and have been enssslaved. It doesss not make thisss right, but givesss me hope that not all is lossst."
 
Virra listened to Terminus's story, looking nonplussed. "Uh-huh?" she said at various points, mostly to give the impression that she was wholly invested in what the kobold was saying and not just sizing him up. He's too serious, she decided before long. Better make sure he's not a snitch like Rowanne. Her gaze slid over to the panther. Whiskers seems nice, though. With a small smiile, she disengaged from the conversation and tucked away the money Val gave her, peering over at Eliza's writing. "So, you're gonna be doing magic library stuff today? That's cool. Maybe when me and Ty have finished with our shopping we can come with you." First, though, she needed to get some things in order; seeing Eliza was a nice reminder of that.

She hoisted herself up onto the half-orc's workstation and clapped her hands for everyone's attention. "Okay! Everyone who's left is here, right?" she asked, looking out at the group who were now, gratifyingly, a few inches shorter than herself. "The reason why I'm making this big proclomation is because I wanna know what our plan is. From what everyone's been saying, it sounds like everyone's assuming we're about to go beat up some slavers as soon as we're done in Porthca. But I dunno if we've all, like, agreed to doing that immediately."

The gnome shrugged lightly. "I mean... if none of you have lives you wanna go back to now that Lestone's free and the murders have stopped, I'm all for travelling around crushing slavers and bandits like we did on the way here. But let's not forget the other really urgent problem we gotta figure out," she said, nodding down at Eliza.
 
Eliza blinked blankly as Virra made her loud proclamations. Her ears and neck turned beetroot red as she went through all her prepared spells trying to find one which will make the earth open up and swallow her whole. "Uh-uh!" She squeaked and stared daggers at the gnome, "I...understand that...the group might have more...important things to do now. It is alright...and thank you Virra, but yes, I need to go to Chilldrift."

She cleared her suddenly dry throat, she could never get used to being shoved into the spotlight. "I used the black orb to scry on my parents. They seem to be stuck in the mountains...That was almost a week now. That's why I needed to get the Sending spell. I could use it to finally figure out what happened to them and why they are now stuck there." She stood up from behind the desk and went next to Ander, "I am very sorry for...breaking my promise to you. I really don't expect the group to leave the slavers' matter and come with me. You all need to be here instead and I understand...which is why I didn't really bring it up in the first place."
 
At Eliza's compliment to her armor, the young warlock beamed in response. "Thank you! It is unfortunately rather louder than the breastplate that I recently purchased back in Wyford, but it is supposed to be far more effective and turns away the effects of cold. Oh, and it is made of real dragon scales, can you imagine that?" Valerie was relieved to hear that no one offered any dissent to her proposal to add Lestone to their numbers.

Listening to Terminus's story, Valerie frowned as she heard of the fate of his village, remembering how the kobold had been hesitant to share with them his history before. "Terminus, I am so sorry to hear that... it sounds as if those scoundrels were the same as the ones that we have encountered in our travels. The tattoos were of a blade, a coin and a length of chain, yes?"

As Virra mentioned "some other really urgent problem", Valerie looked at her in confusion, completely lost by what she might be talking about. As Eliza clarified the situation however, she turned and stared at her friend in surprise throughout her explanation. When the wizard had finished, Valerie nearly dove at her as she wrapped her up in an embrace. "Oh, Eliza, I am so terribly sorry! Why did you not say something sooner about your parents predicament, we could have..." She stopped, realizing that she couldn't think of any actual way she could have helped the situation. Valerie spoke again, much more softly this time. "Well... at least you would not have to be suffering the burden alone. Is that why you have been so stressed lately and working such long nights? I wish I had known, I would have helped with your studies... You offered to assist me with my problems with the ring, it would've been the least I could do..." As concerned as she was for Eliza and her parents, a small part of Valerie was hurt that the wizard had not thought to share her problems with her. That is what friends are for... right? I had thought that that was what we were...
 
Eliza squirmed under all the attention, “I am sorry but I didn’t want to be a bother. We were busy trying to figure out the murders, then find that pearl. Then the slavers came up too and I didn’t think my problems were that important compared to, well, slavers.”

The half-orc awkwardly patted Valerie (‘there, there’) then shuffled back, “And like you said, there wasn’t anything any of us could do about it. I tried asking the magic store if they knew of any magical means of teleportation but they didn’t know if any to Chilldrift so it is still going to be a very long and tedious journey. Maybe this House might know more but I don’t have much hope.”
 
Magnolia had followed into the room, quite content to play with her new cloak. She spent a good few minutes trying to get it to match the local drapery and other apolestery. She couldn't help but note Eliza had done something silly once again. "Liza... Why didn't you just ask me? Through Yondalla I can talk to anyone, anywhere in the world! Sending is a thing for us clerics to you know. Oh well can't hurt to have two of us with it. Did you guys see my super cool cloak!"
Illistrating the point by once again pretending to disappear into the drapes.

The disembodied voice then shouted something about a hole, and sure enough a black handkerchief tumbled through the air creating a space in the floor, ten feet in diameter. "I'm going to start a beer company in here!"
 
As Eliza slipped out of her embrace, Valerie removed a handkerchief from her bag and dabbed at her eyes before smoothing out her dress and adjusting her crown. "Sorry..." Blushing slightly, she slid back into her seat and nodded sadly. "I suppose that is true, but..." She trailed off, unsure of how to continue her thought. It felt like an impossible situation, betraying Ander and their new companion if she decided to join Eliza in her travels, or allowing her friend to go off alone on a dangerous journey. In the recent months, Valerie had learned to enjoy the freedom of her new life since leaving Emberhallow, but in this moment she longed for the guidance and direction that it had given her. Grandfather... he would have known what to do... She clenched her fists tightly before finally opting to remove herself mentally from the situation entirely and focus on her friend's problem.

After a moment of thought Valerie spoke up, her tone slightly defeated. "It would be faster to travel to Azarad and then to use a teleportation circle from there to Chilldrift... Before I left my home at Emberhallow, my family was looking to send me to Azarad, to what end I am not entirely sure. I never had any affinity for magic before the awakening of the Tempest in my ring. Apparently Azarad has circles to every major city worth travelling to."

The young noble looked over to watch Magnolia for a moment as she opened up a gateway with the magical item she had purchased earlier in the day and then turned back to Eliza, growing serious once more and putting a hand over hers. "Eliza... I cannot say that I have any answers for you, but I am distraught to hear that you do not consider your worries worth our time. Friends help each other..." Valerie stopped short of asking the obvious question that was being implied and retracted her hand. "Regardless, I hope that you were not planning to travel alone, because as you know it is very dangerous in Okesh. If I had not had the powers granted to me by the ring, I have no doubt that I would have wound up slain or worse by the very bandits we have planned to hunt."
 
'Oh, boy...' Eliza rubbed her neck at the hurt look on Valerie's face feeling extremely out of her depth, "It isn't the like that...It's just...I never had friends before..." She blurted out blinking rapidly. "Of course I would love your help, Val. Honestly, traveling with all of you these past few months has been quite the experience. I guess what I am trying to say is...Umm...I have no idea what I am doing...I wasn't going to be dragging you all the way to Chilldrift when even I had the foggiest what to do next, especially when Ander's needs were much more urgent." The half-orc confessed as she looked down unable to stand seeing that look on her friend's face again.

Mags' words gave her some pause but she immediately dismissed them as bananas, "No..." she said shaking her head and beginning to laugh now. "No, you can't because...nope..." She kept laughing and pacing back and forth, and then back and forth again, "I struggled with that spell for weeks. I didn't sleep for so many days...I spent so much money on that scroll...nope...I struggled with an evocation spell of all spells..."

Realization finally crept on her face as she opted to just not even, and sat down on the closest surface which happened to be the floor, "<Well, fuck me then...>" she grumbled in Gnomish and she stared gobsmacked at the black hole and its clueless owner.
 
Hearing Valerie's description of the tattoos, "Yesss, that isss what the sssurvivorsss I ssspoke to dessscribed. It sssoundsss like they were alssso resssponsible for the attack on Andersss'sss people asss well."
 
Virra watched with a satisfied smirk as Eliza finally let the issue out into the open. Just as she thought, all the half-orc needed was a little push from a very helpful friend. And now everyone was talking about it and being supportive, too! What a good outcome.

Then Eliza said something in Gnomish, and Virra recoiled like she'd been slapped. "Hey! Cut that out," she snapped at her, then quickly turned away. It wasn't Eliza's fault. Deep breaths. It took a few moments to regain a sense of balance strong enough to reach out with her mind and gently rustle the drapes where Magnolia had made herself part of the furnishings. "Hey, Mags, could you come out here for a second? Your hole's super neat and all, but we should get our business done before we start playing around." Though she knew the severe tone of voice didn't suit her, Virra was glad to have regained at least enough presence of mind to speak calmly. "So, yeah, you've all heard what the deal is," she said to the group at large. "If this 'Sending' thing lets us talk to people far away, then that'll help us get an actual idea of what's going on with Eliza's parents, so let's figure that into our plans."

She glanced apologetically towards Ander, Mags and Terminus. "I know you guys have pretty good reasons to wanna track down some more slavers right now, but it's worth at least looking into Eliza's thing, right? It's been eating at her forever."
 
Tyrius listened patiently as Eliza expressed her concerns and waited until the others had had a chance to react. As Magnolia explained about one of her spells, Tyrius could see the way Eliza looked utterly crestfallen and down. Now the night where he'd binged in the Silverbane library and seen Eliza doing the same made sense to him, and made Tyrius feel guilt about the fact that while he'd purely been focused on what was right in front of him, Eliza had had to cope with the same and her parents on top of that.

As Virra spoke up, Tyrius nodded, "For what it's worth - we could use the time to work out what we're going to do about the slavers as we travel towards Chilldrift," suggested Tyrius, "We need some way of making sure those - manacles - can be broken without injuring the people wearing them." Tyrius said, trying to hide one hand in his suit jacket as he did so. "Eliza, you're not a bother. You're a friend. A good egg."
 
Ander had been distracted. This transformation process had been wearing him out for some time now, and having the feeling that he had some control over it was not as reassuring as one would hope. His vision eased some of his panic, but he still wished he knew more. The scruffy-bearded paladin stepped over to Eliza as he tried to force himself to focus on the conversation happening directly in front of him. He placed a hand on the half-orc's shoulder and looked into her eyes, smiling. "Miss Eliza, we wouldn't abandon ya in yer time of need. We are yer friends, even if we struggle ta be the best at times, and yer family's safety isn't just your problem. It's something we all care about." Ander reached into his bag and felt the chains for a moment. "There's a bit more preparin' we need ta do, like havin' the Accumors check out the chains. But as far as I'm concerned, we could run inta bandits anywhere, why not make our way somewhere important in the process, eh?" He looked around, knowing that at least a few of his companions would agree and hoping that those who didn't would begrudgingly agree. As he looked at the faces, it occurred to him that he would need to reveal his secret to his friends, but this didn't seem like the right place to do so... especially if any of them did not take it well...
 
"oh right you still need to call your parents. What do you want to say? I'm not sure how much I can send Liza but I'll do what I can to help." A voice from the hole in the floor called out. During the numerous shenanigans Magnolia had decided to go and explore her extrademensional space.
"Oh and can someone possibly pull me out?"
 
Eliza sniffed trying not to cry twice In one day. Unable to find the words to adequately describe how grateful she was feeling she opted to simply hug Ander instead, “This means so much to me...you have no idea...thank you so much...” she sobbed into his armor which was getting rather tear-and-snot-stained.

The half-orc wiped her eyes and laughed in relief then laughed some more at Mag’s comment. She picked up the black disc and flipped it upside down to deposit the cleric back in their plane ready to sweep up the halfling in a thankful hug too. “You are great. You are all so great.”

She turned back to Ander as she remembered something, “Regarding these manacles, I had copied down the runes that seem to power them a few days ago. I admit, I couldn’t make much sense to them without a library but, well, we are here now. I gave them the runes earlier today and they said they will get back to me this evening. Hopefully they can make some sense of what they can do so we can start undoing the damage.” She said as she squeezed Ander’s hand.

The half-orc wizard looked at her friends and felt blessed and hopeful for the first time in so long, “Hopefully they have some magical means of getting us to Chilldrift. I think Ormeth who works here probably knows something about them so we don’t have to go camping for weeks.” She remarked and smiled again.
 
Noon of the Twenty-Seventh Day | Porthca | The Aedon House:

Behind her desk, Ormeth watched the discussion with a mixture of confusion and interest, trying to make sense of the strange collection of people not that far away from her.

Lestone busied himself with leaning on the wall as the group talked amongst themselves. "Chilldrift -- you want to go there? Last time I traveled there, it was hardly anything, just some ... small holes dug into the mountains and ice." He scratched his chin, "Guess I really did miss a lot ... You know, I have a method of travel that could help speed things up. Not really one for walking if I can help it," moving his hand away from his chin, his fingers became faint wisps before reforming. "But you probably won't be able to take much with you, unless you can wedge it into those strange bags you spent so much on."
 
Relieved at how quick everyone was to rush to Eliza's aid, Tyrius couldn't resist smiling as Eliza smiled, though her damp eyes showed clearly the fact that she had just been crying.

As Lestone spoke up, Tyrius regarded the man with a weary eye. While Tyrius was willing to give the man a fresh start at life post The Sea, he wasn't so sure about the method of travel. Tyrius couldn't get a good read on Lestone's body language and couldn't tell if Lestone were being serious or were joking. Though Tyrius pushed that thought out of his mind, especially as he remembered the fact that he'd already hurt Virra with one strange blast of his magic that he hadn't even noticed.

"Did you do a lot of travel before then?" asked Tyrius, remembering something from when the group had been looking for The Sea's pearl, "Do you remember anyone named Pyria by any chance?"
 
Noon of the Twenty-Seventh Day | Porthca | The Aedon House:

Frowning, Lestone adjusted his new coat, trying to think, "I traveled a fair amount in my time, sometimes as a messenger across continents, other times merely traveling to travel, visit somewhere and then return twenty years later, see what had changed. Rarely I was called to remove threats but ... that faded over time. People started trying to handle things themselves, and called on the elements less." His expression saddened for a moment until he caught Tyrius' question. "Pyria ...? It sounds vaguely familiar. Please keep in mind though it seems I was tied to the Sea for a few hundred years, not all of my memory is entirely there."
 
Tyrius looked to Lestone, unsure yet how much to trust him. Tyrius found the more Lestone talked, the more he liked the man, but every so often his mind flipped back to that one moment in the De'Porthca Manor where Lestone had Robern by the throat and Virra switched places with him so that suddenly the then undead Lestone had a gnomish woman in his grasp before Tyrius had sprinted out the bedroom carrying Robern and with Joane following after him.

'That was The Sea's will, not Lestone's', thought Tyrius to himself, realising that Lestone was actually a good resource for the group. If he'd travelled as much as he claimed to - he'd have a large amount of knowledge about The Sinking Plains. 'And it'd be good material for Elizabeth too,' thought Tyrius, thinking of the diary in his bag.

"Well, she remembers you," said Tyrius with a smile, "she's safe." Tyrius was about to elaborate a little - not enough to give away Pyria's present location when he realised exactly how significant something Lestone had just said was. "Wait - elements. As in more than just The Sea?"
 
Noon of the Twenty-Seventh Day | Porthca | The Aedon House:

"That's ... good?"
The elemental figure shrugged before looking at Tyrius in surprise at his question. "You really think the Sea is the only elemental power in the world?" Lestone shook his head sadly, "Truly memories have faded over generations." Gesturing towards Valerie, "My mother, the Tempest, ruler of the Air, dwells within her ring. Now I see how she had grown so weak -- no one praises the elements anymore. There is also a sister of the Earth, and then her two brothers, one for Water and one for Fire. They are Greater elementals, practically gods in their power. Others like the Sea are ... pockets of faith given form and power, I suppose."
 
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