Porcelain Child/Magpie

The Imperial City. 5 years previously, RY 763
<onine> You have just gotten back from one of the few 'outside' errands that your grandmother allows you to do, it was a dull job really. Deliver a lucky talisman to some patrician's milkmaid, all the same, it was still an 'outside' job, which made it special
<onine> As much fun as beetles and frog innards are to boil in the dank old shop, being able to run through the streets was a pleasant change of pace
<onine> You are just rounding the corner of the crowded street (the old store is just across the roadway), the sound of too many voices talking at once hangs in the air.
<onine> Then you see something rather unusual on the small set of stairs outside the shop - your grandmother. She doesn't usually go outside, at least, not that you know of anyway
<onine> She seems to be attaching a big fancy padlock to the front door (not that a determined crook would have trouble breaking through the colored glass, but still)
* Magpie halts her run at the front steps, liberally spattered with mud from her gleeful rampage through the puddles on the way home. She runs anxious fingers through her hair- tangled as usual- and wonders if she is in trouble. She approaches Grandmother cautiously, hands held behind her back so the old woman wouldn't see the lump of candy she'd filched from a nearby stall. "Gran? Whatcha doing"
<onine> The shriveled old lady turns her milky eyes on you, examining you up and down a little critically before smiling her toothless smile, the one she gets when she is making something peculiarly 'aromatic' in her massive cauldron - the smile that says she has something brewing, but you're not sure exactly what...
<onine> "Ah Magpie my dear, you're back, good, good, you're just in time," she says in her crackly old voice
* Magpie lets the candy tumble to the ground behind her, and shifts nervously, moving to put her foot over it. "In time for what?" She asks suspiciously. "If you're going to make me peel the toads again, I just wanna say..."
<onine> She carefully edges herself down the steps, one at a time, aiding her way a large gnarled cane that usually hangs by the door. Feathers, bells and crystals jangle noisily from it
<onine> "Shh shh!" She puts her finger up to command silence, "You'll see."
<onine> You're fairly sure she saw the candy, you know well that she's not as blind as she lets on, but she seems to choose to ignore it, instead moving in a hobbling walk down the cobbled sidewalk.
* Magpie scowls, uncomfortable, but follows her slowly, keeping a little distance between them. Grandmother...grandmother never did errands in the city. Magpie had sometimes wondered if the wrinkled old woman would turn to dust in sunlight, shriveling up into nothing.
<onine> She turns a bit, peering at you with one eye "Come along girl, we'll be late!" Which is laughable considering the speed she is moving (and the speed you *know* you are capable of) The charms continue to jangle noisily as she hobbles along.
<onine> You find that you have to edge past people, but notice that people on the street give a considerably wide berth when uneasily passing the old crone.
<Magpie> Chewing her lip nervously, Magpie darts forward to catch up, walking on the side away from the cane, asks, "Where're we going? Is Mother staying home to watch the shop?"
<Magpie> Grandmother was Gran, or sometimes "old hag" or "shriveled nag" (though not often- Magpie had reason to be wary of that cane-) but Mother was always Mother.
<onine> "Your mother? Watch the shop?!" She cackles loudly, and people move even further around her.
<onine> "Now then, how was your errand, did Little Dove approve of the charm I made for her?"
<Magpie> "She could do it, if she wanted." Magpie mutters rebelliously. She snorts disdainfully at mention of the customer.. "Little Dove was like, like...a pigeon with a leg of chicken. Happy, and stupid with it. I don't think she even noticed the smell."
<onine> "Oh now, not that it is much of a concern, after all she paid her jade, that's what matters. I like a customer who pays in advance." She's making conversation, which is odd, and dodging the 'where are we going' question.
<onine> "Hmmmm..." She stops and pulls out a little green and purple crystal and holds it to the sun, letting the filtered light play across her face.
* Magpie tugs on her grandmother's sleeve. "Gran, what's going on?" She's trying to keep her cool, really, but there's a bit of a whine in her voice- this was a major break from routine, and Magpie didn't like it one bit.
<onine> "Shh-shh!" She scolds you and returns her gaze to the crystal a moment, shakes her cane's charms twice in the air *shhk-shhk* *shhk-shhk*. Then the crystal disappears into the folds of her shawl and she continues walking
<onine> "Yes yes.. almost time, almost time. Great things happening, yes..." She mutters to herself
<Magpie> "Good things?" Magpie anxiously interjects.
<onine> She holds up a finger "Things yes. Great things. Good things? Perhaps... Bad things...perhaps. You must stop looking at things as good or bad, as this changes depending on the angle at which you observe."
<onine> "Good things for some...bad things for others."
* Magpie snorts, and rolls her eyes. Grandmother could talk all she wanted, but in the stories Old Niles was always telling, about heroic Dragonblooded and the twisted Anathema, there were ALWAYS good guys and bad guys. Sure, a bad guy might THINK they were right, but they were WRONG. That was the point, and it was important. Magpie, aware of the power of a whack from the old woman's cane, however, decides to keep her peace, for the moment.
<onine> For the rest of the walk, your grandmother steadfastly dodges any questions on your destination, trapping your lines of inquiry in her usual twisted philosophical mumbo-jumbo (you're certain its a hobby for her). She leads you through quite a bit of the Imperial City, eventually coming across a dead end stone wall...
<onine> She hobbles forward and examines the wall, running her fingers over it and muttering as if something interesting is written on its dull tan surface. Every now and then she gives the wall a hard thwack with the end of her cane.
<onine> She stops at one point with a "Hmmm, here we are..." and taps lightly twice on a stone with her cane.
<onine> "Push here would you dear? My back isn't what it used to be." Not a lot of your grandmother is what it used to be...
* Magpie steps forward, puts her hand on the cool stone, and pushes forward mightily. In her experience, not much got done with just a tap.
<onine> The 'wall' swings in like a door and turns out to be light as a feather you discover as it yields easily enough that you lose your balance and topple inside, landing face first onto soft grass. You can hear the old woman cackling behind you.
* Magpie scowls up at the crone as she struggles to her feet, sure that the old woman had done it on purpose.
<Magpie> "Now what?"
<onine> You turn and see that the door is only about child sized, perfect for you, and perfect for the hunched old woman. She points over your shoulder into the interior.

A hidden garden…
<onine> Which is not an interior at all, but a small courtyard nestled between buildings. As the Imperial City continued to become over constructed, roads end suddenly, and evidently, little 'alcoves' such as this are formed. The low buildings that wall the area have no facing windows - it is likely that no one even knows of its existence.
<onine> Except of course, your grandmother, and now, you.
* Magpie looks at her grandmother, looks inside, and makes a face, screwing up her courage to through first. After all, a stiff breeze could knock the old nag over, she bet. And there might be...things, even if she couldn't see them.
<onine> The interior is fairly spacious, and is the host of a beautiful oriental garden, lit marvelously by the morning sun that peeks over the surrounding buildings.
<onine> There is even a little pond filled with fish, and a little wooden footbridge over it.
<Magpie> Magpie walks into the garden nervously, suddenly feeling self-conscious and very aware of her grubby rags and dirty face.
<onine> The old woman hobbles inside and pushes the feather light 'stone' door closed with one hand, smiling as she does it.
<Magpie> "Where are we?" Magpie asks in hushed voice. "It's so...pretty."
<onine> There are dreamcatchers hanging from a few cherry trees, all manner of crystals poking out of small ground plants and small dancing lights float around here and there (fireflies?). You feel oddly at home here. The old lady beams, "This is a secret place, no one knows about it, and you mustn't tell others about it. It is a special place, a very special place that people would try to destroy if knew about it."
<Magpie> A little smile comes over Magpie's face. She puts her hand in her grandmother's. "It OUR secret."
<onine> She nods, and leads you to the small footbridge over the pond. When she reaches the center she 'thwacks' the end of the cane onto the wood and rests both hands on the top, sighing contently and closing her eyes - probably happy that she is no longer moving... and remains silent.
* Magpie wants to know why anyone would want to destroy this marvelous place, but when she sees her grandmother at peace, she sits down on bridge instead, taking off her sandals and putting them neatly, aside, before dangling her feet in the water, watching the fish dart away from her toes.
<onine> After a while, your grandmother finally utters "It's time." And looks up at the sun, now clear of the surrounding buildings.
* Magpie turns her gaze from the water, and looks at her grandmother uncertainly. "What's going to happen?"
<onine> "Watch dear. What is about to happen is more meaningful than many people will ever know."
* Magpie bites her lip, and watches.
<onine> Up in the sky, a black form moves slowly across and in front of the sun, casting a massive shadow on the land. Within a short time, the moon fully obstructs the sun, and the blazing corona of light now paints a dim, but terribly beautiful ring in the sky.
<onine> The whole garden is bathed in an 'unnatural' ethereal shadow, the only real light coming from the small dancing lights that float here and there
* Magpie 's eyes widen, as she watches the eclipse crown the heavens. "What does it mean?" she asks her grandmother, her voice hushed with wonder and apprehension.
<onine> Your voice starts off normal, but as your sentence ends, it muffles weirdly, and you feel a tremendous pounding in your ears, its so loud, deafening, it booms and beats into your brain. Black spots appear quickly on the edges of your vision and rapidly dive in and cover your vision in an inky black curtain.
<onine> You can still hear your gasping breath, but nothing else, you cant even feel your own body... except for...
<onine> I sudden empty feeling, almost like you haven't eaten in what seems like years, there is more, but it defies everything you have ever felt. There is a profound sense of loneliness...
<onine> Then you see... they eyes, in the blackness, a pair of powerfully exotic beautiful eyes seem to open in the black curtain. They're massive (you think) glow with an inner light. The irises sparkle opaline with every color of the rainbow.
<onine> You feel like your throat is closing, and the eyes seem to rush and blur at you, then you see nothing again. You feel however. Something hard is pressed into your back, and your face feels warm.
<onine> You can see a blurred red, and feel your eyes squeezed closed and your teeth clenched.
* Magpie wants to scream, or whimper. She wants her mother to hold her and tell her it would be all right, or her grandmother to rattle a ward and drive away the danger. But she can't wait for them; somehow, she knows she has to do this for herself. She concentrates on hands; concentrates so hard that she creates them for herself. She creates the feeling of rough wood under her fingertips, and opens her eyes, hoping for light.
<onine> Your eyes open to the glorious sunlight, you're back in the garden, semi-slumped against the railing of the footbridge for support. You're panting as if you had just run a marathon, but other than that... you *feel* fine, beyond the shock of what you have just seen. Your grandmother is no longer on the bridge with you...
<onine> ...a quick scan finds her sitting on a small bench near the 'door'
<onine> Either she moved very fast to get there, or you were 'under' for a lot longer than it felt.
* Magpie shivers, in spite of the warmth of the sun on her face. Those eyes....that cold emptiness...Magpie was sure she'd remember them always in her dreams. She stands- staggers- to her feet, feeling comforted by the solidity of the wood under hands and feet. She looks over at grandmother. Why hadn't she done something...? Magpie walks, shaking, over to her. "Gran?" she asks with a quaver in her voice, cursing herself for it.
<Magpie> She sound like- like a stupid baby.
<onine> She sighs contently. "Forget what you already know, what you have been told, what the natural order expects of you. One day you must face the world with open eyes and an open heart." She heaves herself to her feet, you could almost imagine her creaking with the effort. "Well now, my part is done, the world is changing."
<onine> She scratches her chin and pulls the 'door' open. "Come along dear, we have many charms to make now. No doubt the eclipse has left many a scared soul that we must cater to, and we will do so admirably. Wont we?"
* Magpie jogs over to grandmother, still scared, but trying to forget, to put the terror of the eclipse behind her. "Yeah. They'll ask for sweet smelling dreams, and we'll sell 'em it to them, bottled." But she catches her grandmother's hand in hers anyway, feeling the need for the comfort.
<onine> "That we shall Magpie, that we shall..." Your Grandmother holds your hand all the way to the shop, somehow you feel a lot closer to her now, and she seems a lot less frightening. You don't know what all that meant, but it is already starting to fade from significance.
<onine> ...
<onine> Not long afterwards, your mother disappears mysteriously, and your grandmother takes you in and starts training you in the mortal ways of magic.
<onine> A few months after that, it becomes public knowledge that the Scarlet Empress has disappeared without a word, and has not yet returned.

The Streets of the Imperial City. Two years previously, RY 766
<onine> Over the past three years since the garden vision, your grandmother taught you the ways of mortal magics, and you became rather talented for someone so young (nowhere near as talented as your Gran of course, but it gave you quite an edge). You also ran a lot more errands around town as well, which was nice indeed. Every now and then you chanced a visit to the garden, where once again you
<onine> would feel at peace.
<onine> One such errand took you to a dockside merchant, and quite an argument over payment for a few precious baubles. Normally the merchant wouldn't give you the time of day, but then, you are your grandmother's granddaughter...
<onine> The argument ended, and you managed to squeeze *half* the payment of Jade out of him, the rest to be decided later in goods. Not bad for a year old.
<onine> As you near the street your Gran's store resides upon, you notice that there is more commotion on the streets than there normally is, and you smell something burning... not just cheap meat, but...other things, things that aren't usually meant to burn. You can sense another smell that unsettles you greatly...
<onine> One of the 'substances' Gran works with puts out a peculiar smell when burnt... you can smell it fairly heavily on the air.
* Magpie breaks into a run. There was no reason to worry, of course- Gran was good, real good, nothing as stupid as a FIRE could ever happen to the store, it was stupid to even hurry, nothing could ever happen to GRAN, she was too smart, too clever... but even so, the beginnings of panic begin to work its way through her, as she rounds the corner to find...
<onine> You squeeze through the throng and the horror hits, sure enough, your Grandmother's shop is ablaze, and amazingly ablaze at that. The colored glass of the windows melts on the sidewalk, and every now and then there is a pop as some vial of 'stuff' explodes, followed by a sudden burst of colored flames. The smell of all manner of burning things fills the air.
<onine> There is a large group of gawkers watching the semi-beautiful scene, a few men try to dump water buckets onto the flames, but to no avail, it is burning too hot and with too much exotic fuel to be put out. Most are trying to stop the flames catching on neighboring buildings...
<onine> ...at which they appear to be failing.
<Magpie> "Gran!" Magpie screams. It couldn't be happening, it couldn't possibly...."
<Magpie> She couldn't see her grandmother anywhere, she'd never let this happen..."Gran!" She lunges forward, past the men with water, preparing to dive into the flames to find her last connection in the world...
<onine> Another green and purple explosion seems to answer you with a lout *kaboom*, some nearby firefighters are thrown to the ground and showered with flaming debris and melted glass.
<onine> A big meaty arm scoops you up and holds you in a big bearhug. A familiar voice says "Easy girl, its too late, you want to get killed?!"
<Magpie> Even in panicked grief, the wisdom her grandmother had carefully ingrained in her begins to reassert itself. She doesn't struggle. It was no use. There was no way anyone could have survived that. "She was my *grandmother*..." Her voice catches.
<onine> "I know girl, I know, I'm sorry.." The man carries you back to the opposite corner and sets you down "Are ye alright missy?"
<onine> The man, Ol Gibs (or Mr. Gibs to you) was one of your grandmother's few friends, or one of the few people that didn't instinctively fear her. Gibs plays the town drunk, most view him as the disreputable sort, but those who know him best (like you and your grandmother) know that its an act...mostly.
<onine> Gibs sometimes gave you jobs running messages for him occasionally.
* Magpie stares at her hands. She rubs her hand vigorously across her eyes, to stop the tears she could feel forming. "She was all I had...What...how can I..."
<onine> "Yeah yeah.. .I know, a tragedy to be sure... a burner toppled over, at least, that's what everyone seems to be sayin...'
<onine> Gibs digs into his pocket and hands you a well worn cloth for your eyes.
* Magpie felt lost. Lost, and utterly alone, in a way she hadn't since...She couldn't remember. Wouldn't. She takes the cloth, and blows her nose. "Do you, do you think she might have...not been home? On, on an errand or -"
* Magpie stops, knowing how stupid it sounded. Grandmother never went on errands. Magpie ran all her errands for her.
<onine> "... I'm sorry miss Magpie, I knew yer Gran... she didn't take errands... Well... you can stay with me tonight, then you'd best be on your way."
* Magpie shudders, and tries to smile and thank him. It was over, her world was over, and there was nothing to be done but try to be brave about it. She was on her own, now; Gibs had made that clear enough.
<onine> By the time you and Ol Gibs leave, the fire has well and caught on the entire block. Most of the explosives in the store have long since exploded, but every now and then there is an echoing boom across the district.
<onine> Gibs gives you some bread and milk at his 'home' (which is basically a kitchen, private bathroom and couch) proceeds to drink a bottle of rum before falling asleep on the lounge which doubles as his bed.
<onine> He snores loudly...
<onine> Morning arrives, and Gibs is absent, but there is a small bundle on the kitchen table with bread and cheese wrapped up in it.
* Magpie takes some of the bread, and chews it slowly, making it last in spite of her hunger. It doesn't fill the empty spot inside her. She'd seen orphans her age before; painfully thin, hollow-eyed, bony. And always hungry. If she was going to survive, she'd have to learn to be careful. She takes the bread and cheese, and tries to be grateful. It wasn't often, she knew, that she was gonna find even this much generosity.
<onine> You spend a lot of time in the garden, for some reason it makes you feel a little better. You ration the food Gibs gave you as best you can, but after a few days it runs out, and you are forced to go out into the city again.
<onine> One of the store ladies you know catches you on your way
<onine> "Why little Magpie, hello! Oh...." she catches herself "I'm so sorry, I heard about your grandmother."
<Magpie> "Yeah." Magpie says, stony-faced. Her only way to respond to softness, now, was to be hard, or she knew she'd fall all to pieces.
<onine> "Oh... well..er" She fishes through her cart's stock and hands you a sugar candy. "Here... I know its really not much, but, I feel so terrible about all this."
* Magpie 's sullen mask wavers, and she knows she's going to start to cry. So instead, she turns and runs away, heading for the ugliest part of the city, where nobody knew her, and nobody would care about what happened to her.
<onine> "Wait wait!" She calls after you, "Ol Gibs is looking forrrr you!"
<onine> You manage to catch that over the din of the street noise
* Magpie slows down. She hesitates. She doesn't know what to do. She didn't want to see that, that horrible pity in anyone's eyes, but...maybe Mr. Gibs had a job. She knew he cared. After sulking in a allies for a space, kicking rocks at the walls, Magpie turns, and decisively makes her way to Gibs's place.
<onine> The side street Ol Gibs lives on is the same as ever. Usually he is out playing drunk... but still, chances are he's home today.
* Magpie gathers her courage, heads out into the street, and knocks on the door.
<onine> On the second tap of your knuckles the door opens...
<onine> You're not exactly sure if Ol is his name, or the lazy pronunciation of 'Old', but he's always Mr. Gibs to you. He's an average middle-aged man, growing a little soggy around the midsection, and the hairline of his curly hair is receding rapidly, but he usually hides it under a brimless hat.
<onine> He sports thick sideburns that fatten into large mutton chops on his cheeks. He usually wears a simple shirt and pants covered by a waistcoat and a pair of worn (but not tattered) old boots.
<onine> He nods to you without a word and steps into his kitchen, collecting a rolled up and sealed piece of paper and a fabric wrapped package, both of which he hands to you.
<Magpie> "Where do I take this?" Magpie asks straight out.
<onine> "To Cottonship Path. Here's some bread to start you off, I'll wager you probably haven't eaten well in a while. When you get back you'll get some more bread, and bottle of milk. Quick smart dear girl."
<onine> And so began your job running messages for Ol Gibs, you are his fastest runner, and he pays you quite well, food trinkets and occasionally jade.

The Streets of the Realm. Present Day, RY 768
<onine> Once again, you find yourself at Ol Gibs' door for work, apparently, this is going to be a good one... at least so you were told...
<onine> Falgo, the boy that Gibs had inform you, tried to sneak up on you (as boys do) but Crow spotted him. He (Falgo) squawked the information rather loudly when you got his arm behind his back...
<onine> You knock on the door, and as usual, Ol Gibs answers.
<onine> "Ah Magpie good, come in come in..." He walks into the 'house' and orders some things on the kitchen table... normally he just gives you the message at the door.
<onine> "Alright now, this is a fairly big one for you, I've picked you because you're the fastest and the most reliable."
<onine> "I need you to get this message..." He holds up a small package that looks like a dozen letters, "...over to a friend in Pangu. As I said, its a big trip, and may take a couple of days."
<Magpie> "You have friends as far away as Pangu?" Magpie had never been outside the Imperial City in her life. This was going to be a lot of walking. But "big", "fast" and "reliable" spelled "pay off", so Magpie takes the package and the letters.
<onine> "I can have someone else do it if you don't want it... but, this one will pay in Jade when you get back." He shakes a small bag, and the characteristic jingling of jade bits comes from it.
* Magpie stares at the bag. "I want it," she says quickly.
<onine> "Hahahahah! I knew you would. Now then, it will take you too long to go via the bridge west, so this - " he hands you a folded note "Will get you on the ferry."
<onine> "And this..." He hands you a small folded piece of paper, is where the package is going."
* Magpie takes the note, and the paper with the address. "Okay. If you want it there fast, I'd better hurry."
<onine> "Hold on, there, you want to go without any provisions? I like your enthusiasm, but I want my messenger coming *back* thank you very much. Granted, if you don't return, I don't have to pay you, but I still lose a good gopher." He lifts a small shoulder pack off the chair and places it in your arms. "It’s got bread, cheese and a waterskin. Plus a small coat in case it gets cold.
* Magpie looks surprised. The coat was generous indeed. But in spite of suspicions it roused about just how weird this job was, Magpie wasn't about to refuse it. She opens the shoulder pack, and shrugs happily into the coat- sure, maybe it wasn't cold *now*, but Magpie could remember plenty of times when it was.
<Magpie> She pulls the pack over one shoulder, holds the package under her other arm, shoves the papers into a grimy pocket and darts away into the street.
<onine> Ol Gibs eyes your enthusiasm a little strangely while scratching one of his thick mutton chops as you leave.
<onine> Not for the first time you wonder whether Ol Gibs is into things a little more shady than 'just keeping in touch with friends...'
<onine> "Oh going on a trip Magpie?" one of the shop ladies asks as you pass
* Magpie just giggles, and waves to her as she dashes by.
<onine> She waves back, a little confused
<onine> You reach the massive city gates with no problems. A few legion soldiers stand bored at either side. Clearly joining the army sometimes *didnt* let you see the world.
<onine> Carts are coming in and out, so they pay little attention to you, you are a 'disenfranchised' after all...
* Magpie hesitates a little at this threshold. This was the end of her knowledge of the world. But, delighted with her new coat and the promise of jade upon her return, Magpie darts her way agilely through the press, avoiding the notice of the legionaries. Always best to avoid the gaze of those above her in life, she'd long since learnt.

The countryside outside the Imperial City
<onine> The green lush lands stretch out as far as the eye can see. From the northern gate you can see the distant sea to your right, and pointing up like a monument of strength, the Imperial Mountain to your right. Small homesteads and patches of forest dot the land here and there. Out in the distance in front of you, is the river
<onine> You're pretty sure you can see ships out on the ocean, a spec of white sailcloth here and there on the blue.
* Magpie laughs aloud with delight, at these strange new vistas. "You see that, Crow?" she asks, confident he'd be near her. "It's so huge..."
<onine> "Caw"
<onine> Crow flaps down and pecks at some insects on the road leading out of the city.
<Magpie> "You *would* say so." Magpie orients herself with the Scarlet River. "So, the ferry is...that way!" She heads off, not running as she always did in the city, but instead pacing herself to travel some distance.
<onine> After half a day's travel, you begin to wonder if you'll ever reach it... just over the next hill...past that next tree.... aaarr! It looked so close from the gates!
* Magpie looks longingly at Crow, flapping around lazily, taunting her with his speed. She mutters several imprecations about certain degenerate avians under her breath, and plods on.
<onine> Eventually, as the sun is resting low in the afternoon sky, you round a ridge of rock and see the ferry/port town of Ortan, gateway to Pangu, and the sea
<onine> You begin to wonder if you'd picked a slightly less traveled route to Ortan, as you see just about no horses and carts as you distance yourself from the city. You saw a monastery and the occasional walking traveler, but nothing larger. Ah well, you're here now!
<onine> Its about hours from the Imp city to the bay on foot.
<Magpie> At Ortan, Magpie pesters shopholders and sweepboys until they point her to the ferry. She hoped there was still a voyage tonight- or this could take longer than Mr. Gibs would like.
<onine> You make your way through bustling Ortan, there are quite a few auctions going on, for all manner of goods (meat, slaves, fairies in bottles). You also pass quite a few guarded homesteads and estates which you can assume are owned by Dragonbloods or at the very least, Dynasts. You think you can smell fire as you walk, but its only a slight scent.
<onine> You make it to the ferry docks, and fortunately there are still boats ferrying people here and there.
<onine> An old ferryman stands at the gangway of one that looks like its nearing its departure time
* Magpie walks up to the old man, digs into her pocket, and presents him with the note Mr. Gibs had given her, hoping it would suffice.
<onine> The man looks up from his books and takes the note, examining it through the monocle perched over his eye. "One of Gibs' are ye?" He asks.
<Magpie> "Yes."
<Magpie> Did other have this duty before her?
<onine> He adjusts the monocle and looks you over
<onine> "Short one you are." He folds the paper up and hands it back to you.
<Magpie> "Tall enough," Magpie shoots back, stung.
* Magpie moves past him to the boat.
<onine> He roars with laughter, "Of course of course, head over to the port office over there and show the lady there the note, then jump aboard."
<onine> "Quickly now, we're almost ready to go."
* Magpie takes him at his word, and shoves the note at the bored-looking woman in the office, before dashing back to the boat. She'd never been on a boat before, either...
<onine> The ferryman climbs aboard after you, and two slaves pull the gangplank onto the ship. The ferryman heads to the back of the ship and calls down the stairs "A tune please Glorval!" Shortly after you can hear a steady drumming, and the odd shout of 'heave-ho'
<onine> The oars on the sides of the boat begin to steer the vessel on its course towards Ortan's sister town across the inlet. Looking around the deck you can see a few knots of other travelers admiring the view and the sea air.
* Magpie enjoys her unusual sense of leisure. It wasn't often she rested while others did the work. She walks up to the prow, and leans over the railings, watching the ferry slide through the water with fascination.
<onine> Crow flaps here and there, eventually growing bored with having to keep up with the ship and landing on the rail near you
<Magpie> "Isn't this great?!"
<onine> "Caw!"
<onine> The ship slides neatly across the inlet, the drumming gets a little repetitive though...
* Magpie digs into her pocket, and unearths some corn for him, tossing kernels into the air for the crow to catch. At last growing tired, Magpie curls up on a corner of the ship and lets the drums lull her to sleep. Crow would keep watch, she knew.

Pangu…
<onine> *caw* "Rise and shine miss, its time to - Hey!" *caw!* "Someone get this crow away from me!"
<onine> Your dreams begin to revolve around a ferryman being harassed by a crow...
* Magpie wakes up stifling a giggle. She opens an eye to see her dreams taken flesh, stretches, and takes mercy on the poor ferryman, shooing the crow away from him. "We're here?"
<onine> The ferryman glares at the black bird, "Aye, we're here miss..."
<onine> He walks down the gangway after some of the other passengers, always with at least ONE eye watching Crow.
<Magpie> Cheated of his fun, Crow takes wing and lurks threateningly, but always out of the range of any thrown rocks. Magpie disembarks with the rest, looking around at this new place with interest.
<onine> The sister town is fairly similar to Ortan, but a little less impressive, being on the 'wrong' side of the Scarlet River. Its getting fairly late in the evening, for you at least. If you walked now, you would make it to your destination by dawn, but you are quite tired.
<Magpie> Rationalizing that Mr. Gibs wouldn't want her to walk herself to death, Magpie finds a quiet alleyway to curl up in, with her new jacket. Crow lands nearby, and starts digging through a pile of trash.
<Magpie> She'd start out before dawn- figured that would give her a leg up on any bandits that might be looking to prey on innocent travelers. She'd heard a lot about bandits in the stories. She was rather excited to meet some, but native caution held her back. Better to avoid them, if she could, and make good time.
<onine> You set off merrily on your way to Pangu bright and early. The early birds are already awake, (including birds) housewives are out buying rice and bread, maids are milking cows, and undoubtedly some martial artists is practicing on a tranquil hill somewhere. A fine mist covers the lands outside the town, and a few carts pass you by, their owners waving cheerily.
* Magpie hums tunelessly as she walks, in fine fettle.
<onine> With a few rest stops in between, you reach Pangu tired but otherwise none worse for wear. The rest stops that you neglected yesterday really helped today.
* Magpie pulls out the address for her delivery from her pocket, hoping the place wouldn't be too difficult to find.
<onine> Off in the distance near the shore you can see an elaborate palace, definitely a Dragonblood abode. The rest of the lands here are flat fields and rolling hills with the occasional forest here and there.
<onine> The place you are searching for is on the edge of town, one of many simple shops and stalls, but this one has boarded up windows.
* Magpie becomes cautious as she approaches the place, her suspicions of Mr. Gibs brought forcibly to mind. She knocks on the door, package held firmly under one arm.
<onine> A little slit window opens at adult eye-level in the door.
<onine> "Yeah what do you wa...."
<onine> The slit closes
* Magpie scowls ferociously. She *kicks* at the door. "Hello!"
<onine> The slit opens again and an angry voice says from inside "Look you little punks, if you know whats..."
<onine> The owner of the voice adjusts himself so he can see you. "Ooh I see. Well. What do you want?"
<Magpie> "I *have* a *package* for *delivery.* If you want it, you gotta open the door."
<onine> The man examines the package in your hands, closes the slit and opens the door.
<onine> "Heh, sorry, you're the guy...er...girl that Ol Gibs sent."
<onine> The door opens to a small room that seems more like a reception/guardhouse. There's a small desk, behind which is a door probably to a store room, and across the room there is a door that *presumably* goes to the rest of the building.
<Magpie> "Yeah." She hands him the package with a sigh of relief. Even quite a light weight can get annoying after a little while.
<Magpie> "Is there anything you wanna send in return?"
<onine> He examines the package, "Yep all here."
<onine> "Nope, nothin to return, but, hey-" He calls to the other guy behind the desk, "Grab what the boss left."
<onine> The other man reaches onto a shelf then pulls out a small, but nice looking bottle and hands it to the first guy, who in turn holds it out to you.
* Magpie takes it uncertainly. "This is...?"
<onine> "Our boss told us to give the messenger this if he got everything here. So yep, this is for you."
<onine> "Its fruit juice."
<onine> You as a commoner and then a disenfranchised have never had fruit juice, especially the exotic varieties. Juices have always been a luxury for the Dragonbloods and Dynasts.
<Magpie> "Wow, really?"
<onine> He grins "Yeah, really. Kinda wish I was you"
* Magpie unstoppers the bottle, and sniffs at it hesitantly.
<onine> It smells fruity
<onine> The guy behind the desk snorts with amusement
* Magpie glares at him. "What's so funny, you, you-"
<Magpie> Unfortunately, insults have never fallen trippingly from Magpie's tongue. She too swiftly descends into inarticulance.
<onine> He leans over the desk "me what?"
<onine> The first guy just laughs
<Magpie> "Bug-eyed bug!"
<Magpie> Unfortunately, that was generally the best she could do.
<onine> "What? What? Korr, I don't get it, is that an insult, I'm confused..."
* Magpie stamps her foot.
<onine> The first guy groans "Leave the kid alone..."
<onine> "Heh, look kid, you've got guts, but just be careful who you shoot your mouth off to, you might just get your tongue cut off by types slightly less desirably than Tembek here"
<onine> "Undesirable...?" The other guy mutters...
<Magpie> With freezing dignity, Magpie tells him that she was not a kid, and that she was very much grown up now. She turns to leave, remembers her manners, and thanks him for the fruit juice. Then she heads, stiff-backed, back out into the street.
<onine> Korr shakes his head with a smile and closes the door after you "Kids..."
<Magpie> That almost makes her want to kick the door again. But instead, reminding herself that she wasn't a stupid *child*, she makes her tired way back out of the city. She could sleep outside the city, under the trees...

Outside Pangu…
<onine> Its early afternoon in Pangu town proper now, and the sun begins to dip low across the horizon, covering the fields in a rich orange tone. You're about an hour our of Ortan's sister town now, and passing the edge of a field with slaves still tending, and near the foothills of a small ridge...
<onine> ...crow caws, and all the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end...
* Magpie turns slowly round in a circle, eyes searching for threats.
<onine> You hear some of the peasant slaves cry out, and following their outstretched arms, you see dipping low over the eastern sky and headed in your direction, a ship. A sky ship
* Magpie 's mouth gapes open. Crow lands on her shoulder and nibbles at her ear. "Isn't the world amazing?"
<onine> It flies in a lazy circle that aims it directly towards you. As it gets closer you notice with alarm that the brilliant sails on its sides are burning with flames... crow flaps off with an alarmed cry...
* Magpie stares, eyes wide, as the magnificent ruin heads ...directly towards her. With the keen eye for the obvious danger that had stood her in good stead during her years alone, Magpie kicks off her clumsy sandals, and runs for cover.
<onine> As you run, your feet splashing in the rice paddy, a deep rumbling that soon becomes deafening pounds into your ears. Gusts of wind buffet your clothing and tangled hair as the vessel careens towards you.
<onine> You instinctively throw yourself into the ankle deep water and with a thunderous whoosh the stricken ship roars above you. It is still many meters in the air, but to you it feels like the ship touched your hair as you dived.
<onine> The heat from the flames washes over you as it passes.
<Magpie> Magpie lifts her head from the water, and rises to her knees, to stare after the falling ship.
<onine> The ship lists heavily to the port side, and looks for a moment like it is going to make a comparatively soft landing in the pasture but all hopes of that are dashed when one of the portside masts catches in the mud and digs in securely. The ship lurches left and the beautiful bow hits the ground.
<onine> The ship now pulled degrees sideways now begins to roll, spectacularly shearing fins and hull off its sleek form as it chaotically and summarily destroys itself across the rice paddy
<onine> There is a *fwoomp* *Splash* near you as a particularly large fin comes dangerously close to you.
<onine> It misses you, but had you been a standing adult...
<onine> Digging a massive trench in the field, the ship's roll turns into a backwards skid and the ship eventually comes to rest below the ridge, a barely recognizable smoking hulk of twisted metal.
<onine> The silence after the disaster is almost deafening...
<Magpie> Before she even realizes she'd doing it, Magpie's on her feet and racing towards the main body wreckage. Anyone who had been in that ship was dead, she knew. No one could survive it, anymore than anyone could have survived the fire in her grandmother's shop. But...she can't just turn and run away. Not when maybe just maybe, there might be something...someone...left. She had to at least look. She had to. Magpie runs, panic speeding
<onine> The trench begins somewhere around meters from you, and continues nearly a third of a kilometer until the wreckage, at its deepest it reaches nearly a meter. As you run you have to dodge various pieces of debris... and...some pieces look like they may have been human...
<onine> You reach the muddied wreckage, there is a heat radiating from it, but it is not as unbearable...as..........as when your grandmother's shop burned...
* Magpie slows to a stop, and stares at it, trembling. She had dreams, sometimes, about the fire. But, remembering all the times she'd wondered if her grandmother had died screaming, eaten away by flames, she closes her small hands into fists, and continues forward, her eyes darting from one fragment to another.
<onine> "Caw!"
* Magpie looks up at the crow. "Crow? Do you see any survivors?"
<onine> You spot crow, up on top of the main 'portion' of the ship which for the most part, is fairly upright. He sits on a long unrecognizable piece of cabling, and is looking down at something on the deck where you surmise the wheelhouse used to be situated. There is a clunking sound of debris moving from above.
<onine> You're standing next to the ship at the rough level the waterline would be on a regular ship.
<onine>
<Magpie> "Hey! Is there someone alive up there?" Magpie shouts. She touches the surface of the ship, ready to quickly withdraw her hand if it proved burning hot.
<onine> The hull is warm... but not hot. The field's water seems to have cooled it somewhat. You can here louder noises from above, and crow flaps off quickly.
* Magpie scans the hull for handholds. She gives ship's hull a challenging stare, and then a firm nod, and begins to scale the wreckage, monkey-agile
<onine> The hull is amazingly smooth, and a little moist. The portholes are set in such a way that they are smooth against the hull, but are rounded like little globes. Fortunately the ship is on a slight angle, making it more of a slope than a cliff. You slip into the soft dirt a few times, but eventually make it up onto the deck... which is a ruin.
<onine> The wheelhouse is completely smashed almost flat... and there are some suspicious red marks on the shattered deck. You hear a noise coming from the wheelhouse, and you see some of the debris move... there is something trying to get out!
<onine> You think you see a hand which has emerged from under one of the slabs.
* Magpie runs to help. Someone, alive in all this mess...Wild with hope, Magpie struggles to pull the slab away.
<Magpie> "Are you...ooof...okay..?" she pants as she struggles with the debris.
<onine> Eventually with a mighty heave, you manage to pull the slab away, you lose balance and fall back onto your rear rather painfully. You hear a cough... or a gasp from the mound of wreckage.
<onine> (I forgot to cinematically describe the orange glow from the sunset... oops)
<onine> (its orange. There. ) )
<Magpie> (heh)
<onine> The person underneath tugs the remainder of her body free from the wreckage and curls up sobbing in the rich light of the sunset. You would guess her to be in her teens, and she is completely naked, her body covered in charmarks and blood. Her sobs turn to weeping..
* Magpie scrambles quickly to her feet, ignoring her aching bum and sore muscles. She approaches the woman cautiously, to put her hand on the woman's shoulder. "Hey...um..."
* Magpie is rather at a lost. She swallowed her own grief, and she'd never really had to deal with someone else's.
<onine> Her sobs soon become sharp breaths, she seems to be hyperventilating from the ordeal. She's actually quite beautiful (well, her body at least, you haven't seen her face yet), but you notice something odd when you pull your bloodied and sooted hand away from her skin - she is uninjured...
<onine> There are minor scrapes, but nothing to warrant the amount of blood.
<onine> She sits huddled there, hands covering her face, golden blonde hair hanging over her head and pooling on the deck.
<onine> "C...co...cold..."
<Magpie> With a sigh, Magpie takes off her precious jacket and drapes it over the woman, though she feels a twinge as she does so. She crouches next to the beauty, and asks, "Is that better?" She's trying to smile comfortingly at the beauty, but her hair is snarled and matted, and her face is caked with mud.
<onine> "They're...dead....they....they-" She lifts her head out of her hands looks up at you "They're all dead!!!"
<onine> She is indeed beautiful even through the tears and dirt, with the most vivid green eyes you have ever seen, however, something in her face bears something that fills you with fear -
<onine> - A burning golden circle.
<onine> The golden light from the symbol plays across you, and you realize that she is glowing slightly - you could not see it before because of the sunlight.
<Magpie> Choking back a scream, Magpie falls backward. "Ana- Anathema..." Her hands scramble around the deck as she slides back, searching for something to throw. She was going to get eaten, she knew it. Just like in the stories about stupid mortals interfering in other people's business. "...Did you do this?!"
<onine> "Its not my fault!" She screams. "I didn't want to hurt anyone!"
* Magpie scowls. "Then how come everyone but you...is dead!"
<Magpie> "Was there some other anathema aboard?" She tries to make her voice light and mocking, but fear renders it more of a squeak.
<onine> "Ana....anathema...?"
<Magpie> "You know. A monster. Monster that, that..."
* Magpie struggles for a moment, trying to remember exactly what the Anathema did.
<Magpie> "Monsters that the Immaculate Dragons defeated years and years ago, and freed humanity from being eaten by horrible monstrous gods."
<Magpie> That was basically it, Magpie figured. She'd leave the details to the priests.
<onine> She pants a bit and grabs a shard of what looks like colored glass from the pieces of wheelhouse and holds it up looking at her reflection with a dazed shocked expression. She touches the mark, to see if it was real?
* Magpie is starting feel less afraid, and more ..annoyed. Try as she might, it was tough to believe an anathema could be so...stupid.
<Magpie> "What, didn't you know you were an anathema?"
<onine> She screams and throws the glass which shatters against the deck ruins and scrambles back much the same way you did.
<Magpie> "You didn't, did you?" Magpie sounds amazed. "Do you mean you just wander around causing disasters and evil, and, um...not realizing it?"
<onine> "Oh....oh dragons....oh...." She buries her face in her hands again. "Why me?! Why me! I'm going to die! They're going to kill me, they all will!"
* Magpie feels almost confident now. " Yeah ," Magpie not sounding notably sympathetic. "I guess they will. Are you going to eat me?"
<onine> "E...eat you?"
* Magpie figures it was better to get this clear straightaway. "Anathema eat children. Everyone knows that!"
<Magpie> "Not," she adds with a ferocious scowl a second afterwards, "that I'm a kid, no matter what some people think!"
<onine> "Yes... you're right they do but... but - I'm not an Anathema!!!!!!"
<Magpie> "You have a golden circle on your forehead. Even I know that means you're an Anathema. I mean, it's how you tell, right?"
<onine> "Yes but..."
<onine> She seems to be getting a hold of herself, you think. That may not be a good thing, she might remember she's hungry, and you ARE right there...
* Magpie throws her hands in the air. "You have the golden circle. That means you're an Anathema. That's how it works, baby-eater. I have a rock," she adds.
<onine> "Eh...."
<onine> She kneels in the wreckage and looks at you dumbly.
* Magpie doesn't really feel it should have to fall to her to have explain things to the Anathema. "Hey, dummy, how can you not know this stuff?"
<onine> "How should I know! I was just coming back from school!"
<Magpie> "School? Anathema have to go to school?" No wonder they were evil, Magpie thinks. Some Immaculate busybody tried to drag her to some kind of remedial class for orphans, but Magpie was having none of it, and threw rocks at him until he went away . Good thing, she thinks. That stupid woman could have been me.
<onine> "For the last time I'm not an Anathema! Stop calling me that you... you little peasant twerp!"
<Magpie> "I'm not some rotting field grubber!" Magpie shouts back. "And at least I'm not a stupid evil monster with a golden shiny thing on my forehead!!"
<onine> She looks at you with an angry expression, then starts to cry again. Some Anathema SHE is...
<Magpie> In spite of herself, Magpie begins to feel almost sorry for the monster. I mean, not only was she an evil monster, but she was a pathetic and stupid evil monster.
<Magpie> She decides to cheer her up. "So how did you become an Anathema? Did a demon or something come to you in your dreams, and offer to buy your soul?" Magpie asks chattily.
<onine> "I...I came to dinner... and then the guards... they... attacked me?" she seems a little blank and dazed as she thinks back.
<onine> The glow on her skin has long since faded, and the sun has dipped below the horizon, reddening the sky to the color of blood. The mark on her forehead is slowly dimming as well.
<Magpie> "Was it because you were eating babies?"
<onine> "Stop saying that! You're disgusting!"
<Magpie> "I'm not disgusting! You're disgusting! I was just making conversation! Plus, all Anathema eat the innocent. It's in the stories!"
<onine> She hugs the jacket around her and shivers. "Well maybe I should eat you!"
* Magpie scrambles back. "I have a rock!"
* Magpie realizes this is lame. "Plus, plus..." She gropes for something to add. "I know important people! Who would come looking for me, and gut you on a stake!"
<onine> She stands to her full height, the light breeze tossing her blonde hair around
<onine> "Well, my father is a Dragonblood, so that...er..."
<onine> "He'd... try to kill me too...."
* Magpie crows with laughter. "I win!"
<onine> She seems to be beginning to realize the gravity of the situation she is in.
<onine> "I'm gonna die I'm gonna die I'm gonna die..."
* Magpie decides to steer this conversation back to the important stuff. "Are you going eat me?"
<onine> "No, of course not!"
* Magpie looks taken aback. "Why not?"
<Magpie> "Er, not that I want you to, or anything..." she adds hurriedly. "But that's ...strange."
<onine> "Because I don't eat people! Why won't you believe me!"
* Magpie taps her forehead meaningfully.
<onine> She sits down on one of the pieces of wreckage. "What am I going to do... standing here arguing with a kid isn't going to get me anywhere..."
<onine> "I need to... I need to find...."
<Magpie> "I'm not a kid!" Magpie interjects, outraged.
<onine> She seems to be trying to remember something...
<onine> Her eyes widen "My... my prince!"
<onine> "Oh.. oh no! They killed you!"
* Magpie wrinkles her nose. "Your...prince." She always thought those stories were stupid. Hardly any fighting or anything.
<Magpie> "Then why do you need to find him?"
<onine> This time she *really* breaks down, even more than before. She curls into the fetal position and weeps with sorrow.
<Magpie> Anathema or not, there was only one cure for hysteria. Magpie slides down the hull, and with some regret, dumps her remaining provision out of her satchel- though making her fruit juice was tucked safe in her pocket. Then she fills the container with water that had pooled in the trench, and shinnies her way back on deck, and dumps the chill liquid unceremoniously and unsympathetically over the sobbing demon.
<onine> ...and all over your jacket...
<onine> She screams loudly and recoils from the water. "What was that for!!?"
<Magpie> "You were being stupid, again. If you want to be an Anathema, you're going to have to try a lot harder," Magpie says sternly.
<onine> She stands over you angrily and growls something in a language that you haven't heard before... but for some reason you know.
<onine> "Why you pathetic conceited little human, why I should - "
<onine> She catches herself a little shocked and steps back.
<Magpie> " I'm conceited! Well, you do nothing but cry !" Magpie shouts back in the same language, furious. "You just floated on life in a happy little cloud, while I've scrambled and starved and everyone hated me. Well, now your life burned up, and I'm glad !" Magpie catches herself, and wipes angry tears from her cheeks.
<onine> You're actually a little surprised as well, you've never been taught this language before, and the words have never entered your head until now.
<onine> "How do you...?"
* Magpie 's nose wrinkles, and she looks confused too. "I don't...did you do something to me?"
<onine> She shakes her head quickly
<Magpie> "Well, maybe it's because I was so angry," Magpie tries to explain, even though it makes no sense.
<onine> The young woman wipes her eyes with the sleeves of the jacket and looks around
<onine> "I should leave...they're going to chase me"
<Magpie> "Yeah," Magpie says. But her voice doesn't sound so hard or unsympathetic this time. "Do you even know where you are?"
<onine> She shakes her head
* Magpie points in one direction. "THAT's Pangu." She points the other way. "There's a stupid little port town with a ferry to another stupid little port town with a ferry. THERE'S the Imperial City."
<Magpie> "There's a lot of places to run to," Magpie offers hesitantly.
<onine> "Thank you..." She does look genuinely thankful.
<onine> The woman walks to the edge of the ship and slides awkwardly down. You hear quite a few terrified screams and soon see a rapidly expanding semi-circle of peasants that had come to gawk at the ruin fleeing in terror.
* Magpie hurries to the railing. "Good luck...." she calls to the Anathema who wasn't very good at it. "And remember, DON'T START EATING PEOPLE!"
<onine> Strangely, you cant see the woman anymore, you'd think that you would be able to see a naked woman wearing a jacket to be fairly easy to spot, but no, all you see are peasants....
* Magpie decides that it would be prudent, at this juncture, to make herself scarce.
<onine> Crow flaps down and lands on your shoulder, the slight pinprick feeling of his talons seem semi-reassuring
<onine> "Craw?"
<Magpie> "I hope so..." Magpie replies broodingly. "Anyway, we should go."
<onine> The ridge behind would actually be an easier way off the ship, and it involves less mud. The wreck itself rests against a ridge, the top of which looms a meter above the deck. There is a slightly more sloped area with rocky handholds in one spot.
* Magpie makes her way in that direction. She had had enough of mud. As she struggles her way out, she suddenly exclaims, "Hey! That demon left with my jacket!"
* Magpie broods on the revealed evil of the Anathema.
<onine> You lift yourself over the edge, and your heart catches in your throat as you focus on the area above
<onine> The ridge slopes off gradually west into grasslands and an eventual forest, and framed against the rusty sky is a small unit of cavalry, ten in all
* Magpie instinctively tries to make herself small against the slope of the ridge, while keeping an eye on the soldiers.
<onine> They wait in a semi circle formation a good distance away from the edge that you hide on. Each horse and rider is clad in armor, but wear no helmets. One holds a purple banner depicting a black oriental dragon coiled around a yellow circle.
<onine> All of them are facing you, and the 'shipwreck' just visible behind the ridge. There is no sound, even the horses remain silent.
<Magpie> "Crow!" she whispers. "Find the demonwoman. Make sure...make sure she doesn't come this way. These people are...scary."
<onine> One of the riders is unarmored and clad in white and green robes...
<onine> "Caw!" Crow takes off and wings away towards the fields again, you realize that this probably gave you away if they hadn't spotted you already...
<onine> The closest is a good meters away. Should they have superior than mortal senses, you've probably been seen..
* Magpie tumbles hurriedly down the slope the other way, fear making her heart pound loudly in her own ears.
<onine> You hear a horn from behind you, and the sound of horses hooves trails a mere instant later...
<onine> You tumble down onto the deck of the wreck with a thump, banging your knee painfully.
* Magpie tries to remember what Slinky taught her, what she learned for years living in the streets, to fade away. "They won't care about me, they aren't looking for me, I'll be find this is fine..." she tells herself in a litany.
<onine> When you look up towards the fields, you spot four of the cavalry moving down either side of the ridge, each taking up positions surrounding the wreck.
* Magpie concentrates, hard, and with a nauseating stomach lurch, she manages her one useful trick...she shares the crow's sight.
<onine> Your vision blurs and you feel like the world is traveling away from you, then it clarifies again into the black and white sight of a birds eyes. It looks like Crow couldn't find the anathema, or he disobeyed you and stayed behind... out of concern perhaps. The scene before you is the wreck from above, he seems to be circling it.
<onine> The four riders that came down now sit at an evenly spaced semi-circle near the crash trench, a fifth seems to be joining them. The other four are now at the edge of the ridge above you.
<Magpie> "Crap." Magpie mutters feelingly. "Why does this kind of thing always happen to me?"
<onine> "Burn it." Says a woman's voice
* Magpie swears, and decides...to do something dangerous. From one particularly dirty pocket, she retrieves a sharp and shining shard of blue glass. She'd retrieved it from the ruins of the shop. The edges are brown with dried blood.
<onine> "Lord, I don't think you should be doing that, it is one of your father's ships... and not one he would like to lose" replies a deeper man's voice
<onine> "The anathema will escape while you complain." the woman's voice replies matter-of-factly. Lord? Not a woman then...
<Magpie> Even as she listens to their conversation, Magpie prepares her mind for ritual. She slices the shard wide across her thigh, and watches, slightly dizzy, as the blood begins to pool on the deck. And with that reservoir of sacrifice, she begins to summon crows.
<onine> "Sir I-" the man counters when another voice cuts in
<onine> Another woman "Wait, I hear something."
<onine> After a while you hear it too....the sound of many... many crows in the distance getting closer.
<onine> The man breaths in awe, "Are those...?"
<onine> "Crows." the first voice you heard states.
<onine> "So many... but how?" the third female voice asks.
<Magpie> Figuring the soldiers were well distracted, Magpie begins to move smoothly and quietly around the Dragonblooded, calculating her path to provide the most cover possible.
* Magpie waits a bit first.
<onine> From your vantage point you can see the 'murder' of crows closing from across the fields, the five horsemen below start to back up a little as the black swarm grows closer, descending upon the shipwreck.
<onine> "Vermin" the first voice states almost bored, "are easily dealt with."
<onine> The crows are now upon the five riders now, swarming and cawing as they pass. Some swing madly at them with their swords, while the others dive off their horses as the animals bolt.
<onine> There is a thunderous flapping of wings as the birds swarm over the wreckage...
<Magpie> If she were more brash, Magpie would have thrown a rock at the bastard. As it is, she contents herself with a sneer, and whispers to the murder beating around her, "distract them..." as she slinks away.
<onine> You duck out onto the deck and try to make it past the franticly flapping birds to the field below, you're slowed by the self-inflicted gash on your leg... then all hell breaks loose
<onine> Suddenly, blurred black shapes scream past you, equaling the numbers of crows and smashing headlong into them, each impact releases an explosion of feathers and blood.
* Magpie wants to scream when she sees the crows die around her. That wasn't...that was evil. But she keeps the scream inside, trying to make her escape...so that at least their deaths won't be useful.
<onine> Pieces of wood and support cables are sliced clean as the black shapes pass. You dive, but one of them catches you across the shoulder, cutting across your shoulder and throwing you clean off the ship and onto the muddied field below. The black shapes above you continue to smash together and rain red droplets on to you as you gasp, winded on the ground. Feathers rain around you.
<onine> You gaze around dazed at the red chaos around you, a red amplified by the fading twilight. You can here nothing but the cawing of crows, the flapping of wings and the sickening *shhk!* as the shapes collide.
* Magpie scrambles in the mud, and the blood, and hunkering down, she scurries through the red, slipping and sliding, desperate for escape from this nightmare.
<onine> You stagger around madly in the unnatural rain, splashing drunkenly in the rice water. Your foot comes down and a sudden sharp pain enters your foot as you step on something razor sharp. You sprawl screaming into the ground hitting your head. You try to sit up, but with a nauseating lurching in your stomach, you fall back and the world blackens...

Monastery Ahoy!
<onine> "Well?" a woman's voice... "Is she the one?"
<onine> "No, I don't think so." a young man's voice replies.
* Magpie keeps her eyes closed and listens intently.
<onine> You hear the first woman hiss angrily, then you hear the splash of booted feet as one of them dismounts
<onine> The footsteps splash up to you, and you become aware that someone is standing over you
<onine> "Well J'ann?" the woman asks
<onine> "Hmmm..." the young man's voice is right above you.
* Magpie cracks one eye slightly open.
<onine> The green-clad man is crouched over you. He's fairly average looking, long brown hair, brown eyes. He looks at you carefully.
<onine> "You're awake." he says
<onine> "Good!" a deeper voice in the background complains, "Find out if she saw it."
* Magpie considers denying this, but grudgingly opens her eyes fully and sits up.
* Magpie shakes her head to clear it. "...what?"
<onine> "Or if she IS it..." the woman's voice calmly remarks.
<onine> No, no, she's not the one we're looking for... but..."
<onine> "But what J'ann? You're wasting valuable time."
<onine> The woman's voice actually comes from one of the men (who are still on horseback about meters from you). You realize that the voice is more a boy's voice, and the owner is quite beautiful to say the least.
* Magpie cringes away from "J'ann's" gaze. She takes a quick look around for an escape route. She knew it was bad news when ...people like these took notice. And the boy, the cruel boy...she didn't like him. At all.
<onine> Androgynously handsome, he has short gray hair, and a smooth fine featured face, proud nose and amber eyes. A slight breeze seems to blow through his hair.
<onine> Yes, his eyes you don't like. They are cold, very cold...
<onine> "Just let me look at her a moment Alphaeios." he says
<onine> "Quickly!" roars the man with the deep voice. He is armored like the rest, but carries a horn at his hip as well.
<onine> All of the mounted men (except J'ann and another woman) (you don't know where the th went, and J'ann is with you) are clad in finely crafted black armor, with various weapons at their sides.
<onine> The woman is wearing a simple pair of white slacks and a black sleeveless top. She carries a bow, and has flowers in her ebony hair above her ears.
<onine> You can tell that four of them (the grumpy man, the boy Alphaeios, another man, and the woman in the different clothing and bow) are definitely Dragonbloods
<onine> J'ann you are unsure about.
<onine> He cups your cheek in his hand and smiles reassuringly, "I'm not going to hurt you okay?"
* Magpie looks distrustfully at him. "I don't know anything. Can't you just let me go?"
<onine> He doesn't answer, but closes his eyes and falls silent for a while. Alphaeios shifts impatiently on his horse. J'ann frowns a little confused and says quietly, "Nothing... nothing at all..."
<Magpie> "See? Nothing. I want to go now." In spite of herself, her voice trembles.
<onine> He opens his eyes and stands up, "No no...that isn't right... who are your parents girl?"
<onine> "J'ann, you promised us an Anathema!"
<onine> Alphaeios interrupts angrily, his boy's voice strangely very menacing
* Magpie decides to be very, very quiet while they fight it out.
<onine> He sits on his horse and taps the grip of his sword into his hand.
<onine> "No no, this is important," J'ann quickly steps up to the side of the horse. "I've never seen anything like this before, this is just as important as the anathe-"
* Magpie cringes. She didn't like the sound of that. She wondered if she ran, very very quickly, the horses might trip on rabbit holes and she'd get away.
<onine> With a loud thwacking noise, the scabbard of Alphaeios' sword impacts like lightning, hitting J'ann solidly in the jaw
<onine> "Immaculate dolt! We are here to hunt anathema, yet you waste OUR time with a mortal!"
<onine> J'ann holds a hand to his bleeding mouth and glares up at the Dragonblooded and says quietly.
* Magpie seconds Alphaeios enthusiastically in her heart, and hopes they all go away.
<onine> The two stare each other down until J'ann eventually gives up... looking at his feet.
<onine> "You predicted the Anathema to be here, yet all we received was a pathetic mortal child and crows. How do you explain this J'ann."
<onine> The Immaculate climbs slowly to his feet looks over at you, "I...don't know."
<onine> "I am not happy J'ann..."
<onine> "I am *aware* of that... something must have gotten in the way...this sort of thing does not happen."
* Magpie digs up her courage from somewhere around her feet, and asks tentatively "...can I go?"
<onine> "Well it has happened you fool, and an anathema has escaped us as a result." Alphaeios glares coldly at you, "You. Girl. Did you see the anathema?"
* Magpie cringes. "...I didn't see anything. Just a crashing ship...and I wanted to see..."
<onine> He narrows his eyes at you, and looks as if he is going to say more, but is interrupted by J'ann.
<onine> "I think this one may have had something to do with the inaccuracy... We should take her to my superiors."
* Magpie looks at J'ann, horrified. "I was just there ...I didn't..."
<onine> Alphaeios doesn't look away from you, his cold eyes seem to drill into you, making you nervous...
* Magpie looks at her feet, and at last, turns to scowl right back at him. It wasn't fair. It really wasn't. And she figured things were going to go bad for her regardless, so she might as well not be a wimp.
<onine> "Fine. YOU will take her to your superiors J'ann. Secure her." he commands, his voice almost bored of the conflict already.
<onine> One of the other soldiers dismounts and walks up to you with a pair of manacles in his hands...
* Magpie turns her scowl on him. She looks wildly around for any possible escape route...
<onine> "Thank you..." J'ann says, "But what about the hunt?"
<onine> "The hunt is over. For now."
<onine> The soldier stoops over you with the manacles and says quietly, "Don't bother kid, Oke over there is an excellent archer, you wouldn't get ten yards away."
* Magpie heaves a great sigh. "I just want to go home ...."
<onine> He snaps the restraints around your wrists and lifts you none too gently to your feet and leads you towards one of the horses
* Magpie figures they won't always watch her this closely...she'd escape. Soon. And then she'd spit on the next Immaculate temple she found..
<onine> "Hey... is that really necessary?" J'ann complains as the soldier secures you.
<Magpie> "No." Magpie volunteers.
<onine> Alphaeios pointedly ignores the Immaculate and turns his horse around and urging it into a walk. The large Dragonblood with the horn sounds a single note, and in unison the mounted soldiers follow after their leader.
<onine> You are dumped fairly unceremoniously over the back of a horse with another soldier, and march in the middle of the column. The young woman with the bow and flowered hair brings up the rear...
* Magpie eyes her speculatively. If she was 'Oke...' perhaps there would be a way to poison her...or something...
* Magpie descends into resentful planning.
<onine> The unit travels down the road in the fading light in complete silence, amazing discipline... You notice a black shadowy shape flap through the sparse trees, and hear a light, but reassuringly familiar 'Caw'
* Magpie smiles. He survived. Of course he did. He would never abandon her...

The Monastery
<onine> The march continues for about half an hour, but it seems a lot longer draped over the back of a horse. Its night time before eventually you come to an immaculate temple near the ocean. The soldier dismounts and carefully helps you down at the gates. J'ann also dismounts and walks up to Alphaeios (but makes a point to stay out of striking distance)
<onine> "Tepet Alphaeios, I'll see to it that you are reprimanded for that incident before, mark my words..."
* Magpie looks speculatively at her manacles, and tries to edge a little away...
<onine> The Dragonblood cackles with amused, but cold laughter, then his voice turns quiet and sinister. "Of course you will J'ann. I cannot count how many have said that in the past. You will find that the Immaculate Order does not hold the grip on the realm that it thinks it does. You don't rule the empire."
<onine> As you edge you hear a quiet woman's voice state simply "Don't."
* Magpie glances up, startled, to see who had spoken...
<onine> It's the Dragonblood with the flowers in her hair. She shakes her head slowly.
* Magpie scowls at her, heaves a great sigh, and plops down on the road. She then turns her attention to the argument. Free entertainment is free entertainment.
<onine> You tune into Alphaeios simply waving his hand forward and the rest of his troops moving off, leaving you and the Immaculate J'ann alone at the gates. He wanders over to you and breathes a sigh of relief. "Lord how I hate that man..."
<Magpie> "I want to go home."
<onine> He kneels down in front of you and tries to offer a reassuring smile
* Magpie looks back at him open skepticism.
<onine> "Its okay, you can go home very soon, but I want you to meet someone first."
* Magpie regards him narrowly. "Okay," she agrees grudgingly.
<onine> "Whats your name?"
<Magpie> "Magpie."
<Magpie> The next second, she's kicking herself. Telling him her real name. So stupid .
<onine> "Magpie, That's a pretty name. I'm J'ann Vedante, but you probably already realized that..."
* Magpie gives him a sulky nod.
<onine> "Come on, this hopefully wont take long, then we can take you home okay?"
<Magpie> "Okay."
<Magpie> "...J'ann.
<Magpie> "Why is that evil boy so powerful?"
<onine> J'ann leads you through the circular entrance to the temple and to the gardens inside, they're nice yes, but they don't have the same vibrant and living beauty that *yours* does. As you pass through the garden you hear the familiar 'clucking' noise that Crow makes with his throat
<onine> "Ah... Alphaeios... yes. He is quite powerful, very experienced, powerful family members."
<Magpie> "But he's, like, a kid."
<onine> "Oh no little Magpie, appearances can be deceiving, he's a lot older than he looks. He is one of the most successful Anathema hunters in the land. I would have stood up to him, really. But I'm not allowed to as long as he remains a useful if difficult to control element."
<Magpie> "Oh."
<onine> "This way..." He directs you into the main hall of the temple, it is quite large and quite well crafted. J'ann leads you around a balcony that runs around a central dais, probably used for ceremonies and special martial arts demonstrations.
<onine> There are depictions of the immaculate dragons at each corner, and on large paintings on the walls. J'ann leads you into a corridor beyond the hall on the opposite side to the entrance and asks a monk walking in the opposite direction where he can find someone named 'Vahlk Crimson'
<onine> J'ann looks back at you, then his eyes widen
* Magpie , in spite of her words, remains alert for a chance to escape. How was she supposed to tell Mr. Gibs why she was late-- she was kidnapped by Immaculate? He'd kill himself laughing.
<Magpie> "What?"
<onine> "Magpie, I'm so sorry! I didn't realize you were so injured!"
<onine> In the semi-subdued temple light, you see your wounds more clearly, the one on the shoulder, leg and the side of your foot.
<Magpie> "Well, it's not my fault I got this way."
<onine> They're not bleeding, but they definitely aren't looking great.
* Magpie scowls at her toes. No way would she be working until she got better...and if she wasn't working, how would she eat?
<onine> "Oh my, I didnt see them outside at all, here, we'll take you to the temple's healer, Vahlk will have to wait. He seems a little disappointed, but abruptly takes you to the healer, if only to get your wounds cleaned and bandaged up.
* Magpie wonders darkly if this is all a plot to back out on his deal to let her go, but follows along, philosophically resigned.
<onine> Eventually you come to a door off one of the main chambers which J'ann knocks on loudly. A short bald-headed monk answers the door with a warm jolly smile. "Greetings brother, can I help you?"
<onine> "Yes, thank you, I would like to you to look at this child's injuries please." J'ann replies.
<onine> "Of course, please don't hesitate to come in," he beams and stands aside. "Come in my child."
* Magpie eyes this new person suspiciously. He was jolly. She didn't trust jolly. But she goes along with it. She doesn't have a choice, does she?
<onine> He delves deeper into the room, and brightens the lanterns. The room itself is like a small version of your grandmothers shop, with slightly less questionable objects within. Mostly herbs and salves for the better part. He gestures for you to sit on a table in the center of the room.
* Magpie sits down, relaxing a bit in the atmosphere. "What kind of stuff do you use?" she asks chattily, taking a professional interest.
<onine> J'ann says quietly to the monk that he needs to speak with Vahlk Crimson, and quietly exits
<onine> "Oh I have many things new and old my child. Herbs and salves mostly, but not nearly as much as I would like to have..."
<onine> He holds up a small glass globe with a bright dancing light buzzing around inside it and examines your wounds, 'tsk tsk tsking' all the way.
<Magpie> "I thought the Immaculates raked in tons of cash."
<onine> He glances up at you for a moment before going over and considering which of the many salves to use.
<Magpie> "You don't like answering questions, I bet."
<onine> "I see that you know well the other side of the order...we 'rake in' money yes, but not as much as we used to. Plus, a lot of the salves and potions around are deemed 'unfit for temple use' as it were. So I am limited in my healing powers."
<onine> He picks a bizarre blue colored salve and turns to you, his smile as wide as ever
<Magpie> "Unfit for temple use? Why?"
<Magpie> "What's that?"
<onine> "Rules. And this is a balm which has a name tricky on the tongue, but is effective on the wounds, hold still, it may sting a little..."
<onine> The monk certainly does not lie, it DOES sting...
<onine> ...but the sensation fades quickly, in fact, you can barely feel the wound.
<Magpie> "I bet bat vomit is one of the ingredients. It's always something gross, if it's useful."
<onine> "Aaaah you know medicine? Yes, it is true that some of the most tasteful things are born of things most distasteful. But no, it is notoriously difficult to get bats to vomit... we only have that red paste over there, and I don't use that one very much for its rarity..."
<Magpie> "So what's in the blue stuff?"
<onine> "Have you ever been to the beach?"
<Magpie> "...once."
<Magpie> Sort of.
<onine> "Do you know those little things that looks like jelly?"
<Magpie> "No."
<onine> "Well, they eat this little cucumber shaped creature the size of your little toe, and they squirt out water when you stand on them. The water they squirt is the chief ingredient. Along with various herbs and venoms to make a multi-functional healing paste!"
<onine> He beams proudly and fetches some bandages and begins to wrap your foot up.
<Magpie> "Who's this person J'ann wants me to see?"
<onine> "Oh, that would be Vahlk Crimson, he is in charge here."
<Magpie> "Yes, but what's he like ? I don't want to be kidnapped forever."
<onine> "Kidnapped? Whatever do you mean?" He starts working on your shoulder.
<Magpie> "I mean he kidnapped me. He and the evil boy. I didn't want to come, but I got tied up and they made me."
<onine> "Hmmmm," he says
* Magpie glares at him, and mutters darkly to herself.
<onine> As he says that, the door opens, and a new man walks in, followed by J'ann
<onine> The new man is older, but not *that* much older. He wears the standard immaculate robes, but instead of the standard clean shaven look (on the head) that most monks have, the new man has flaming red hair.
* Magpie tries her best to look like an utterly normal, though remarkably dirty, urchin. It is not a difficult task.
<onine> "Alright J'ann, is this her?"
<onine> J'ann replies, "Yes, this is the girl."
<onine> The older man rubs his chin, "So there's nothing did you say?"
<onine> "That's right nothing. Its uncanny."
<Magpie> "Right, there's nothing, so there's no reason to bother and can I please go now..."
<onine> The older man sighs like a master to a naive apprentice. "You weren't looking hard enough evidently." The older man studies you intently
* Magpie strives valiantly to be invisible, with no notable success.
<onine> The man's frown deepens as he observes you
<onine> "You see what I mean Vahlk?" J'ann says quietly
<onine> Vahlk abruptly turns and walks out of the room, J'ann follows after and closes the door behind him
<onine> "I wonder what all that was about?" the healer remarks.
<Magpie> "Me too," Magpie agrees, regarding the closed door with a worried frown.
<onine> "Well, no matter..."
<Magpie> Maybe not to you.
<onine> The healer continues his work, making smalltalk here and there. Outside the window on a tree branch, you see a familiar black shape perched, watching.
<Magpie> Just as soon as this guy is done patching me up, we're out of here, me and crow, Magpie thinks grimly.
<onine> After quite some time, J'ann returns and with a smile that seems... a little too uneasy. "Well now Magpie, shall we go?"
* Magpie regards him with deep suspicion. "Yeah. I can find my own way out."
<onine> "Aha, well, I'll be coming with you."
<Magpie> "No." Magpie replies flatly. "I'm going home now."
<onine> "I'm afraid that's not possible at this stage."
<Magpie> "You said I could. You promised. "
<onine> "I never promised a thing, and I gave you no word to keep. You are a very important little girl, and you can either choose to come willingly or unwillingly, either way, I will be leaving with you."
<onine> "I never promised a thing, and I gave you no word to keep. You are a very important little girl, and you can either choose to come willingly or unwillingly, either way, I will be leaving with you."
<Magpie> "Leaving with me." Her voice is flat.
<onine> He smiles relieved, "I'm glad"
<onine> (I forgot to take the manacles off before... sorry, but they were removed)
<Magpie> If it was just him, Magpie would have no doubt. It would be easy. No stupid priest could keep up with her in the city streets...but what if more there were more? Well, she'd just have to do her best...and she had a few aces he knew nothing about...
<onine> "Come along then", he opens the door and stands aside for you.
* Magpie chews her lip. "Why kidnap me?" she asks him directly. If she figured out why they gave a damn, she could avoid them easier in the future.
<onine> "So that we can figure out what you are."
* Magpie stares at him. "I'm just me."
<Magpie> She moves reluctantly through the door.
<onine> "Indeed you are, now, shall we?"
<onine> Two monks wait outside the door, they glance impassively at you
* Magpie looks at her toes. After all, it would be suspicious if she weren't sulky, wouldn't it?
<onine> "Ah yes, and these two will be joining us for the trip..."
* Magpie scowls openly when she sees them. This was going to be tough.
<Magpie> But at least there would be no horses involved. Monks didn't ride horses, she was pretty sure. So she could outrun them.
<onine> Across the hall you can see Vahlk speaking with some of the other monks. When J'ann emerges, he nods to Vahlk and Vahlk nods back before disappearing down another passageway
<onine> "Ah and one more thing..." J'ann says, acting as if he has forgotten, holding up a pair of manacles, "Now more than ever, these are important."
* Magpie quickly trades visions with the crow, for the briefest of instants- just long enough to get an idea of the temple layout.
<Magpie> "Why?" she asks, to buy time.
<onine> "I must admit to the value of Alphaeios' paranoia before."
<Magpie> "What, you think I'll strangle you while you sleep?" asks Magpie with scathing sarcasm.
<onine> Unfortunately all you see is roof at the moment, and a few gardens exercise yards and courtyards
<onine> "I will be in quite a spot of bother should I lose you, especially now, so it is important to ensure you are... secured"
<onine> J'ann walks a little down the hall, and gestures you to follow.
* Magpie looks at him hatefully, and trails behind.
<onine> The two monks walk quietly behind you.
<Magpie> Magpie just comforts herself with the knowledge of the bit of wire stuck up her sleeve.
<onine> (you are now at the gates)
* Magpie says in a small, resentful voice, "I need to pee."
<onine> You see J'ann's shoulders slump ahead of you.
<onine> "You can hold on."
<Magpie> "I have been holding it."
<onine> J'ann sighs loudly. "Fine. Go behind that tree."
<onine> He points to one of the trees and brush next to the temple wall.
* Magpie hurries over to the bushes in a convincingly strained gait.
<onine> One of the monks walks a little further up the road, making a run for it difficult.
* Magpie crouches down, as if to pee, and brings the manacles near her face. With delicate care, she takes a small bit of wire from her sleeve with her mouth. Then, holding the wire firmly between teeth, she begins to pick the lock.
<onine> You try your best, but you don't have quite as good a range of movement holding it in your mouth, and the darkness makes it nigh on impossible.
* Magpie abandons that plan for the moment, and gets another idea.
<Magpie> She leaves the bushes, wire tucked back up her sleeve, and says, in a humiliated voice, "I can't get my pants down." She indicates the manacles.
<onine> J'ann exchanges a pained glance with the monk still with him.
<onine> "Help her..." he says to the monk
<onine> "I don't really think that would be appropriate..." the flustered monk replies
* Magpie turns bright red, and looks about ready to cry. "Can't you just undo the manacles for...one minute?"
<onine> J'ann groans...this girl is more trouble than she's worth
<onine> Reluctantly he crosses over and unlocks them, "Be quick!" he instructs sternly
* Magpie nods, and ducks back behind the bushes. This time, she just take a quick pee- might as well be economical, and if this didn't work she didn't think she'd be getting another chance any time soon.
<onine> You're up against the wall of the monastery behind a tree. For the most part, there is little cover, as the area seems to be light rolling hills of grass, very few trees
<onine> J'ann and the first monk are waiting on the road about meters away, the other monk is a reasonable distance down the road, - easily. Up the road behind you is the entrance.
<onine> In the distance, you think you can see the lights of the port town opposite Ortan
<onine> And the Monastery is on a cliff, but not an exceptionally tall one.
<Magpie> In a flash, Magpie has started up the tree. She climbs quickly, scrabbling up the bark, pulling herself into the upper branches. From there to the top of the monastery wall is but a short leap. And the wall, as far as she is concerned, may as well be a highway.
<onine> The cliff goes into the ocean...
<onine> The wall is more the 'edge of a roof' and has the oriental sloped tiles, but for the most part, it is quite accessible from the tall tree. You can hear J'ann and the other monk cry out as you blur up the branches
<Magpie> Safe on the wall, Magpie shares her vision briefly with the crow again.
<onine> Unfortunately, the temple seems to be pretty well abandoned in that regard, you could run all over the roof if you wanted to, but that's about all. Jumping into one of the yards is a possibility, but the temple is full of monks.
<onine> Covers about a football field worth of real-estate.
* Magpie decides to emulate one of her heroes, the Tiger-Thief of Chiaroscuro. She moves from the walls to the roofs, looking for tell-tale smoke to indicate a kitchen.
<onine> Yes, there is a small metal smokestack on one of the building sides.
<onine> Most of the buildings are connected in this temple, with tiered roofs
* Magpie walks quietly across the roofs, confident of her invisibility in the darkness. She drops silently down into the yard next to the kitchen, and peers in the window.
<onine> You can see a few monks cooking up a bland stew, most of them look like younger monks, and aren't enjoying the task.
* Magpie checks in the windows of the rooms next door, searching for the storeroom.
<onine> Unfortunately you cant find a windowed storeroom. Any access to it must only be from the inside
<onine> Somewhere in the temple you can hear a deep drum start to beat, an alarm?
* Magpie flattens herself to the wall.
<onine> You can hear the cooks arguing about whether they should leave the brew, and eventually, the loudest of them convinces the others that clearly they must respond
<onine> You press yourself against the wall as the four monks file a little unsure of their purpose out the door, they seem to have difficulty deciding which way to go, before the loudest eventually drags them towards the main chamber.
<Magpie> Once she is sure the last of them is gone, Magpie dodges inside the kitchen and glances around, looking for another door.
<onine> The kitchen is a fairly large room, windowed at the top, with many tables and cutting boards packed with vegetables like onions, potatoes, and objects of similar glory. There is one main double door to the left of the entrance, most likely leading to an eating hall, numerous stoves directly opposite, and a closed single wooden door at the other end to your right.
<Magpie> Instinctively paranoid, Magpie creeps to the wooden door on her right, and opens it cautiously. You never know. There might be vicious guard dogs. Or Immaculate monks ready to haul her away and slice her up.
<onine> You see a fairly large storage room, but no immaculate monks are stored within, instead there are shelves and shelves of bags filled with presumably potatoes, rice and onions. It is fairly dark inside, and the firelight from the kitchen does little to chase away the blackness
* Magpie eyes the bags with misgiving. She'd rather been hoping for barrels. But philosophically, she begins rummaging around, searching for one empty enough that she could manage to squeeze inside.
<onine> You do indeed find one that is half empty of onions. Unfortunately barrels are a rarity here, as only postulants are still allowed to consume alcohol.
* Magpie sniffs hesitantly. She'd never really been in love with onions, not since that time a year ago when she'd stumbled across an overturned cart full of them, and had scavenged enough that she'd eaten nothing else for weeks. But, if she smelled like onions, maybe it would make the Immaculates less eager to kidnap her. After making sure the door was closed behind her, Magpie squirms inside the bag, curls up into as small a ball
<Magpie> and falls asleep.
<Magpie> Tomorrow...by tomorrow, the Immaculates would have forgotten all about a little urchin some stupid monk had picked up from a rice paddy.
<onine> You just begin to doze amongst the smell of onions when a voice pipes up out of the darkness, making your heart rise to your throat
<onine> "You know young one, it would be infinitely more comfortable had you emptied the bag first..."
* Magpie squeaks. "Who...what..."
<onine> "Come breakfast time, those on kitchen duty will find you here, that much is certain," the mystery voice states, a young man probably.
* Magpie scowls into the darkness. "Well, maybe I don't plan to be here, breakfast time. I'm not stupid ," she says, though she had not, in fact, considered this.
<onine> "Mmm-Mmm," he chides in agreement.
<Magpie> "So who are you supposed to be?" Magpie asks, climbing out of her bag of onions.
<onine> You stumble into the darkness and onto the cobbled stone floor. The only light comes from the crack under the wooden storeroom door. Unless he was very quiet with the door he was either already here...or...he came in with you.
<onine> "I'm rather more interested in who *you're* supposed to be, but since you asked, my name is Tany."
<onine> You can almost hear the smile in his voice.
<Magpie> "Oh. Are you going to tell them I'm here?" Magpie's voice is anxious.
<onine> "Well possibly, after all it is my responsibility."
* Magpie cringes away a bit. "Why is that? They're just excited about nothing. I just want to go home, and they're being so stupid."
<onine> "Mmm-Mmm," he chides in agreement again. "That is a feeling I can sympathize with.
<onine> "
<Magpie> "So you'll let me go?" Magpie asks hopefully.
<onine> He sighs a little
<onine> "I'm sorry, but as I said, I can't really do that."
<Magpie> "Why not!" Magpie demands.
<Magpie> She puts her hands on her hips and glares into the darkness.
<onine> "Because I'm a monk of this temple, and if the Abbot wishes us to retrieve you, that is what we must do."
<Magpie> "You...you craven stupidhead!" Magpie dashes for the door.
<onine> You lunge clumsily at the door, the latch catches a few times and you ram your shoulder into it until it bursts open, you stumble out and tear through the kitchen, knocking potatoes and all manner of potato and onions rolling across the flagstone floor.
* Magpie scrambles across the kitchen floor, and glances wildly around, prepared to dive through the narrow window if there was someone between her and the door.
<onine> There is a whooshing noise and then there is a blur in front of you, and the monk is standing there with his arms outstretched. You can see little blue flaming footprints across the kitchen floor.
<onine> "Please do not make this difficult young one! I may be a stupidhead- " he remarks, using your previous words "-but I am more than able to catch you!"
<onine> The young monk is almost entirely blue, his robes, his hair, his eyes, even his skin is the pale translucent color of a cave fish. His hair seems to float around as if he were immersed in water.
* Magpie sneers at him, and dives through his legs to spring for the door.
<onine> You dive low between his legs and for a brief instant elation runs through you, you made it! Then all of a sudden you are pressed into the ground. He merely places his hand on the center of your back and pushes you against the floor, halting you and keeping you from moving.
* Magpie wants to scream with rage and frustration, but she chokes it in. No way would she give this jerk the satisfaction.
<Magpie> But she does twist to bite his leg.
<onine> "Urk!" he grunts through grit teeth, but your savage attack has little other effect. His bare ankle kind of tastes like... rain.
<onine> "Ah now, please, I request that you stop this, neither of us benefits from it."
<Magpie> "It would if you would just go away."
* Magpie feels unjustly persecuted.
<onine> He sighs and picks you up by the back of the shirt and looks at you with a pained expression. "Now why are you so interesting anyway..."
<onine> It seems more him musing than asking a question.
<Magpie> "Monks are stupid."
* Magpie glares at him sullenly.
<onine> He sighs, "Yes, some of us are..."
<onine> He carries you out of the kitchen and heads in the direction that the inexperienced monks on cooking duty took, eventually leading him to the main hall you entered earlier. Inside you can see many of the monks running here and there, obviously on important business.
* Magpie makes it as difficult for him as possible.
<onine> Vahlk Crimson is standing on the central dais speaking to a small knot of the other monks, he looks up when you and your monk 'transport' enter.
<onine> "Vahlk, I do believe I have located what you were searching for. Was J'ann somewhat... lax in his concentration?"
* Magpie 's eyes narrow when she sees Vahlk Crimson. This was his fault even more than J'ann's, she figured. If she had a rock in hand...Magpie glares hatefully.
<onine> All the monks turn to face you, all fall silent, it is very unnerving. After a short pause Vahlk grunts. "Harumph. You're still here Tany? I had hoped you would be long gone by now."
<Magpie> "See? Nobody wants you!" Magpie shouts back at Tany. "Let me go!"
<onine> "Shh!" he says "Aye that I should have been, but I could not help but to stay for a little while longer, if only to enjoy the friendliness and warmth of your students"
<onine> One of the younger monk shouts out "Show more respect! It is little wonder you-"
* Magpie tries to kick him again.
<onine> Vahlk cuts the younger monk off with a wave of his hand.
<onine> "Well now Vahlk, maybe I should just leave - " He turns to walk away
<onine> "Stop!" Vahlk roars.... "I will admit that your usefulness can be misjudged, but you still made a mockery of the temple AND the order."
<onine> "This again... "
<onine> "This again! Even now you act the respectless cur! You're an insubordinate criminal!"
<Magpie> "And stupid." Magpie adds for the benefit of the room at large.
<onine> None of the other monks move, all have their eyes on you and Tany.
<onine> There is a staredown until Tany finally speaks, a little resigned
* Magpie does add 'respectless cur' and 'insubordinate criminal' to her repertoire of insults, however, in case she should be stuck with this individual.
<onine> "Fine. I'll leave, but why is the girl so important to you."
* Magpie looks interested to hear this too.
<onine> Vahlk waves a hand and a small knot of the monks walk up quietly to take you into custody. "That, Tany, is none of *your* concern."
<onine> As the monks secure you impassively, the main entrance doors burst open, admitting a *very* angry looking J'ann accompanied by one of the monks you dodged before.
<onine> "Its no good, she's nowhere in....oh. Good."
* Magpie sticks her tongue out at him when she sees him, glad that at least someone was inconvenienced.
<onine> Vahlk glares at him angrily. "You have already missed the ship out to Sion with your bumbling, you will have to wait for the next one. Considering your... current misadventure-" Vahlk glances your way, "- better preparations will be made."
<onine> "And as for YOU!" He roars at a startled Tany, "You have outstayed your welcome!"
<onine> The young monk shrugs and moves quietly to the door, exchanging a glare with J'ann as he goes.
<onine> There is a definite feeling of tension in the hall, that grows only slightly thinner as you are taken to a small store-room and locked in...
<onine> (oh yes, and any escape tools are confiscated, including your bottle of juice)
* Magpie kicks and screams, all dignity forgotten, when they take her juice. "That's mine! Give it back! You thieves!"

Imprisoned!
<onine> You are locked up for what seems like weeks, though realistically it was only a couple of days. Monks gave you a tasteless soup now and then, and curbed any further darting for freedom that you attempted. Visions from crow depicted various scenes of the temple roof and him attempting to eat the carp in the temple pond...
<onine> ...only to be chased quickly away by monks tending them.
<onine> At last the door opens for a final time, J'ann is waiting outside. The only words he speaks are 'It's time' before you are taken out of the temple.
<onine> You are not so lucky this time, you are manacled AND incarcerated in a barred cart that J'ann must have appropriated from the nearby Cynis palace, along with some armed guards. As opposed to relatively peaceful monks.
* Magpie scowls blackly at him. "This isn't fair," she tells him flatly.
<onine> "Quiet!" one of the guards commands
<onine> J'ann walks up to the cage and tries to give you a reassuring smile. "I'm doing what is expected of me. I promised that you would not be harmed. You brought this on yourself Magpie."
* Magpie feels around her cage for something to throw at the guard, but finding nothing, sits back and sulks. "I didn't do anything. You kidnapped me!"
<onine> He sighs and mounts up on the horse, along with the guards and the 'caravan' such as it is makes its way towards the port town.
<onine> Once at the port town you are locked away in a cabin aboard a large sail ship. The guards leave but J'ann remains on board for the journey to god only knows where. After a few hours the ships casts off and makes seaward.
<onine> You are locked once again in a small windowless room, there is however a straw bed this time, which makes things infinitely more comfortable. You try to locate crow, but your attempts fail, which worries you greatly.
<onine> For days you are trapped in the cabin. Food is occasionally slipped to you through a hatch at the bottom of the door... this was once (or still is) a prisoner ship.
* Magpie occasionally shouts at the door, banging on the unyielding wooden cage, but these outbursts become increasingly rare, as she takes to lying on her straw bed, trying to see people in the lines and knotholes of the wooden ship. All she sees are crows, though, and that makes her feel even worse. Hope slip away as the days pass, she goes on little crying jags, and wonders if it would ever end.

<onine> After a few days you are roused from sleep, but you are unsure why
<Magpie> "What now?" she mutters.
<onine> A bell begins to toll from the decks far above you, and then there is a great deal of shouting and commotion
<onine> You here what sounds like a *fwmmp* from the distance...
<Magpie> "What?!" Magpie goes to bang on the door some more. "What's happening, let me out!"
<onine> There is a high pitched whistling scream and then a deafening booming which makes the vessel shudder violently, rocking it from side to side.
<onine> More *fwmmps* sound from outside and then begin to grow louder, followed by more booms and cracks that rock the vessel
<Magpie> "Pirates...?" Magpie's voice is awed. Pirates were in all the stories. Maybe they'd kill J'ann. Magpie feels guilty about thinking that. He was a stupid monk and a kidnapper, and he'd locked her in a cage, but she didn't want him dead...
<onine> Thunder erupts from the decks above as the vessel's cannons roar out in answer.
<onine> You can hear screaming coming from the above decks as canon shells tear through the vessel. Soon the booming becomes a cacophony as the ships draw aside one another unleashing their fury into their enemy's hulls.
<onine> There is a massive boom that makes your ears ring and your teeth vibrate together...a little voice or instinct tells you to get the hell down...
<onine> If the first boom wasn't loud, the thunderous crack that follows a split-second after IS. Splinters of wood shower everywhere as the hull next to you is torn asunder by the shot. Your dive throws you to the ground and knocks you senseless for a while.
<onine> When your ears stop ringing, you feel a weight on top of you - the straw bed flipped itself over and on top of you, shielding you from the worst of the hell that just broke loose
<onine> there is a particularly large shard of hull sticking out of the floor like a spear an inch from your nose...
<onine> Up above you can hear the roaring of battle and the clashing of steel.
* Magpie has choice. She could do the smart thing, or she could...Magpie rises to her feet. She was out of her prison, finally.
<onine> Pre morning light enters from the ragged hole in the hull, outside of which you can see another wall of wood lined with canon - another ship. In the light you can see that the shot blew straight over you, and helpfully tore the wooden door out of the bulkhead...
<Magpie> And it's the easiest thing in the world to waltz right through the crumbled space where the door had been.
<onine> It certainly is, the door lined hallway outside is a disaster zone, splintered wood everywhere. A few meters to the left you can see the badly destroyed doorway, and to the right light streams down the stairway to the gundeck.
* Magpie picks up a particularly large and sharp splinter of wood- from the hull, probably, and makes her way up the stairway into the sunlight.
<onine> You find yourself on the ruined gundeck, there are bodies *everywhere*, the sounds of battle joined from above are even louder now, the clanging of blades, the spraying of blood, the screams of the fallen....
<onine> You think you can hear two voices further down past the stairs up to the main deck. They don't *sound* like realm sailors and they seem to be squabbling over possession of something.
<onine> (in other words, the stairs are in the center of the gundeck, you are on one side, they are on the other)
<onine> (you've just come out of a hatch, so there's more deck behind you as well that you cant see)
* Magpie sneaks forward on her belly like a snake, moving slowly and carefully, so her movement doesn't attract attention. She strains her ears desperately to try to hear more of the conversation.
<onine> "...its mine!" says one
<onine> "Look 'ere, I found it first aye? So its MINE!" another gripes in a deeper voice
<onine> "Oi now c'mon Schoona, you awlready 'ave a pockit watch!" complains the first
<onine> "Shu'up Bilge! Pirate's code aye? Finda's, KEEPA'S!"
<Magpie> How disappointing, Magpie thinks. Pirates are even stupider than monks.
<onine> "Oi 'ang on... you 'ere that?" the first says again.
<onine> "'Ear what?! You're whining voice!? SHU'UP!"
* Magpie freezes.
<Magpie> ....and relaxes.
<onine> You here what sounds like someone getting thumped on the head, followed by an "Ow that 'urts!"
<onine> "It's suppose'ta hurt you rat!"
* Magpie waits hopefully for them to kill each other.
<onine> The two fools continue their looting and squabbling, but they may finish over there and come your way soon...
* Magpie creeps cautiously away, keeping low and staying close to cover. Unhappily, her eyes linger on the faces of the fallen, looking for J'ann.
<onine> They seem to be at the guns closest to the bow of the ship. Regardless of whether they're starting from the front and working back, or back to front, they'll be heading back soon. Chances are also that they've shirked their responsibilities and are trying to get a bite of the loot before the rest.
<onine> You sneak back, dodging behind canons here and there, unfortunately none of them are dressed in the green robes that J'ann seems to favor, most appear to be crewmembers.
<onine> You cant really tell from down here who's winning the battle, but at best guess, the pirates arent losing.
<Magpie> Irked to find herself without an aerial scout, Magpie looks up...and sees the sails.
<onine> You can see the ripped sails through the grating, occasionally a figure leaps over, followed by another. The battlecries from above sound more piratey than realmy....
* Magpie gulps.
* Magpie decides to make her way to the deck. Splinter clutched in hand, she ventures her way up the stairs. She surveys the deck with interest, eyes wide.
<onine> You poke your head into pure chaos, pirates and crewmembers clash every which way, but the draw of your attention is on one of the pirates...
<onine> Fighting and leaping and flipping over the top-deck gunwalls just below the helm and in front of the ship captain's quarters door, two combatants clash together, the pirates not engaging crewmembers (who are mostly at the helm section of the deck) are watching and cheering intently.
<onine> One of the combatants, wielding a wickedly long silvery scimitar you recognize immediately as J'ann, his body now surrounded in a bright green aura, a strange mark emblazoned on his head. He ducks and weaves his opponent's blows skillfully, but appears to be outmatched...
<onine> ...the other combatant terrifies you.
<onine> Surrounded by a flaming gold and white aura, the pirate wields a massive golden longsword in one hand and a curved shortsword in the other. He is dressed in a long coat that flows after him as he pursues J'ann around the deck with glowing eyes. On his forehead is another symbol you know, the sunburst of the Forsaken.
<onine> Unlike the poor Anathema girl you met earlier, this man embodies all the words to describe a demon. His blade comes down heavily as young J'ann barely ducks out of the way, the gold sword smashing a huge rift in the deck.
* Magpie shrinks back. This, this man...was frightening. She could imagine eating children. On a stick. And asking for seconds. Magpie turns to run, to hide...
<Magpie> ...but she stops. J'ann was her enemy, but he was... her enemy. No stupid little demon was going to kill while she just watched.
<onine> As you shrink back, J'ann makes a strike trailing green energy -
<onine> - Which the demon catches with his curved shortsword and pushes it down with the momentum, smashing the blade into the deck. With a bestial roar, the massive gold sword comes down like an avalanche...
<onine> ...and J'ann is no more. As he slumps to the ground, the Anathema plucks the Scimitar from the deck and holds it aloft for all to see. The pirates roar with victory, and with renewed fervor, clamber towards the helm where the last of the ship's resistance lies.
<Magpie> "No!" Magpie screams. "J'ann!" Suddenly she remembers, he may have been a stupid monk...but he had always tried to be kind to her.
<Magpie> "You evil demon!" she shouts, as she draws back her arm and flings her splinter, straight and sharp as a javelin, directly at the Anathema's back.
<onine> The splinter sails true and hits the flaming demon square in the back, center of the dark purple coat, ripping a bit of the fabric, but lacking any sort of power to seriously wound, he still jerks a little as the wood skinks into his skin... he turns his head and those terrible, terrible eyes meet yours...
* Magpie remembers J'ann, and meets them squarely, rage dancing in her eyes...
<onine> Then there is a shout from below -
<onine> "Aye?! Who's tha'?!" says one of the looting pirates.
<onine> "Wha-?!" exclaims the one with the deeper voice
<onine> "On the ladda Schoona!"
<onine> "Aw yeaah.... Allo poppit! Come to yer uncle Schoona..."
<Magpie> Knowing she'd been spotted, Magpie scrambles away, and dashes towards the nearest mast, ducking pirates.
<Magpie> She figured she could climb up, and then...
* Magpie realizes she's lacking an 'and then...'
<onine> (well, none of the intervening pirates catch you, but you see Schoona and Bilge pour onto the deck and give chase)
* Magpie grabs for the ropes dangling above the ship, and squirms her way desperately upwards.
<onine> You climb desperately upwards, then the ropes shake a great deal, looking down, you can see the two looting pirates climbing after you
<onine> "Come on poppit! We wont 'urt ye!"
<Magpie> They can climb? Stupid! Magpie scolds herself. Of course they can climb. "I'm not STUPID!" she shouts back down at them.
<onine> "But... we are gonna 'urt 'er right Schoona?" the lankier of the two says
<Magpie> Seeing her pursuers in some difficulties, Magpie spares a glance for the ...gulp...Anathema.
<onine> "Of course we're gonna 'urt 'er you land lovin dolt!"
* Magpie sticks her tongue out at them and makes her way further along the ropes.
<onine> Schoona takes a swing at the lankier idiotic Bilge and the dolt does lose his grip... and grab Schoona's foot to stop his fall, sending both pirates screaming to the deck.
<Magpie> I hope they die , Magpie thinks.
<onine> You make it to the top, and spare a glance at the anathema, who is now marching towards the mast. He kicks the two pirates out of the way, and with a mighty swing, his gold sword trailing light chops clean through the mast.
<onine> The mast starts to sway, then begins slowly at first to fall.
* Magpie bites back a scream , grabs onto the sails, and tries to slide down them to a safe landing.
<onine> The anathema lifts the shortsword to his forehead at you before you fall off the side of the ship. The mast soon rips clean off the boat and into the water, the sails lying flat, and you lying on top of them like on a trampoline, the impact takes the wind out of you, but you are otherwise surprisingly unharmed
<onine> The sails are starting to 'take on water' however.
* Magpie flounders her way to the mast. It was floating, and, well...
<Magpie> She couldn't swim.
<Magpie> As she grabs hold of it, she turns her head to fix the ship with a ferocious glare. First they steal her jacket...then they kill her kidnapper...and now they were going to leave her to be eaten by sharks!
<onine> You make it to the mast with only a little water swallowed and watch the rest of the battle unfold as the 'driftwood' floats further from the ships. You are quite distant from it when the pirates take to it with flames and send the once proud vessel to the depths...
<Magpie> The next Anathema she met, Magpie vows...she was gonna have words with.
<onine> The days drag on, and soon the heat of the sun and the cold of the water become too much. You drift in and out of consciousness, each time you see crows...

The Glitterstar
<onine> Meanwhile, on the deck of the Glitterstar...
<onine> The last bit of blood on Reprisal's decorated hilt just wont come out...
* Vana rubs at it furiously.
<onine> The dawn light starts to aid your work, but only seems to make you aware of more spots that you have missed.
* Vana sighs, and puts it down for a moment.
<onine> "Try using some of this Lookshy..."
<Vana> "Hm?" She looks up, shielding her eyes from the sunrise.
<onine> Its kind of surprising that Diamandus was able to sneak up on you given his somewhat gargantuan size, maybe you were concentrating a little too intently. In his hand he holds out a small waterskin filled with liquid for you to take, and over his shoulder is a positively huge sledge studded with white jade.
* Vana blinks a little, then carefully takes it from him. "Oh... thank you."
<onine> "You're welcome." He sits down next to you and watches you work.
<onine> "I would have cleaned it for you, but I gathered that it was a personal job that you would have preferred left to you."
<onine> He strokes his moustache and gently sets the huge head of the sledge on the deck.
<Vana> "Yes, it... it's a family heirloom. I shouldn't have even let it get like this." She tries not to show her discomfort at his intimidating presence.
<onine> He makes a deep rumbling noise of acknowledgement on his throat.
<onine> In the mean time, fish of all colors swim around Magpie, nibbling at your toes, indeed the ocean around you is riotous display of color.
<onine> "Brave souls seek a worthy sword, and likewise do swords seek worthy souls. It is a relationship of mutual respect."
* Vana frowns slightly. "I don't know... I don't think I'm worthy of this."
<onine> "So you may think, but heroism and worthiness is not decided where, it is a question of 'when'"
<Vana> "I suppose." She goes silent, just slowly cleaning her blade.
<onine> The liquid that the Magistrate gave you has a very strong smell, it smells like... liquor?!
* Vana wrinkles her nose.
<onine> "Strong yes?"
<onine> It is actually taking the blood of superbly, leaving no marks whatsoever
* Vana nods. "It is."
<onine> "You don't work in the business of battle and not learn a thing or two about cleaning blades" He takes the waterskin and gulps down a mouthful of the potent liquid and laughs heartily.
* Vana smiles slightly.
<onine> He notices your lack of humor and clears his throat apologetically.
<onine> A shadow flits over you along with the noise of flapping wings...
* Vana flinches a little, then looks up.
<onine> A black bird flaps down and lands on one of the piles of rope near you on the deck. It cleans its beak on the ropes then "craws" at you very loudly.
* Vana blinks at it.
<onine> The crow hops down and moves a little closer to you, crawing loudly again
<onine> "Hmmm now, that's interesting..." the Diamandus muses.
<Vana> "I... these birds don't normally come out to sea, do they?"
<onine> "No, no they don't. Crows are exclusively a land bird. Although they have tremendous flight endurance for one, they are never this far out to sea..."
<onine> "Craw!"
* Vana looks at it worriedly.
<onine> The bird flaps up closer to you at eye level and starts crawing more.
<Vana> "What does it want?"
<onine> At that moment a door thuds open and the ships captain walks out yawning, tugging his waistcoat on. He stops a little wide eyed when he sees the frantic bird
<onine> "Whats going on?" he asks.
* Vana jumps at the sound of the door.
<onine> "Captain, are there any islands near us?" The Magistrate asks
<onine> "No" the captain replies shaking his head, "No islands for days, beyond the Blessed"
* Vana has gone back to watching the bird nervously.
<onine> The crow flaps crawing over to the railing and carries on cawing frantically, flapping off the ship a few feet then flapping back to the railing.
* Vana tries to see over the rail, but can't from her seat. So, she stands! And walks over to the bird.
<onine> The crow flaps off low over the ocean which is covered in a low fine fog in the early morn
<onine> The crow seems to be flapping over a spot covered in fog, you can just hear it cawing
<onine> The Magistrate walks up to you and rumbles quietly "What is it?"
<Vana> "I think there's something out there..." She squints.
<onine> Diamandus squints. "I see nothing."
* Vana shields her eyes from the sun again, and tries to see.
<onine> The captain looks through a small telescope.
<onine> "I can see the bird....but nothing else..."
<onine> He hands it to you.
<onine> You think you can see when the mist clears, some floating wood and fabric... you would guess a mast and sail cast adrift. Draped over it you think you can see a figure.
* Vana 's eyes widen. "There's someone out there!"
<onine> Diamandus strains his eyes, "Yes yes, I think young Lookshy is right, there IS someone out there!"
<onine> Captain Theisloah takes the telescope and looks "...you're right."
<onine> He hands the telescope back to you and starts roaring out orders for his crew to prepare a boat for IMMEDIATE launch.
<onine> "Excellent eyes Vana," Diamandus compliments.
<Vana> "I-it's only because I had the telescope..." She looks down.
<onine> "What's a telescope without eyes?"
<Vana> "I guess..."
<onine> In short order a boat is prepared, the fog is clearing nicely, and with the crows help, finding the castaway wont be exceptionally difficult.
<onine> "Do you want to be on the boat?" The Captain asks.
<Vana> "If you need me..." She seems unsure.
<onine> "She'll be coming," Diamandus assures him, and soon you're being lowered into the ocean with the Magistrate, Tara and two crewmembers.
* Vana sits, feeling a little out of place.
<onine> The crew members row from Diamandus's directions and soon you're nearing the mast and its human cargo. Diamandus hauls the mumbling girl, little more than a kid into the boat, and Tara begins her diagnosis.
<onine> "Hold this please," she asks pushing a small medical bag into your hands.
* Vana does so.
<onine> Magpie drifts in and out, feeling a pair of strong arms pluck her out of the water and haul her onto a launch. You can hear voices and a familiar cawing. Crow lands on the bow of the launch and watches as Tara works on the girl...
<Magpie> Magpie is a bony, scrawny little girl, all elbows and knees. She hovers on the brink of adolescence. Her shoulder-length black hair is snarled and matted, and her eyes, from what you can see of them, are hollow and dark. She's a not pretty child; childhood illness has roughened her skin and pocked her face.
<onine> "Could you get those swabs and bandages out of the bag please Vana? She has a lot of cuts and scrapes and is dehydrated. Could use a good meal or two... but I'm amazed," Tara says in a quiet voice. "She's lucky, a few more days and she'd be dead."
* Vana hunts around in the bag until she finds the requested items. She passes them over without comment.
<onine> "Hey... hello?" Tara calls quietly to the girl. "Can you hear me dear?"
* Magpie cracks her eyes open. "Y-yes." she croaks. She closes them again.
<onine> "Here darling, this is some water, you need to drink"
<onine> You feel the edge of a bottle gently pressed against your lips
* Magpie opens her mouth, dry as a desert, and sucks water in greedily.
<onine> "There you go...you're safe now...you're safe now," she says reassuringly
<Magpie> "There- there was a...."
* Vana looks on with concern.
<Magpie> "He killed..."
<onine> "Easy there dear, there'll be time for that later, you need to recover now."
<onine> The launch reaches the ship and is hauled slowly up, allowing you to disembark. Diamandus gently lifts Magpie in his arms and carries her below while Tara packs away her small medical kit.
* Magpie cries out when the darkness washes over her as she's carried into the hold, but feels comforted when she hears crow flutter in after her.
* Vana follows at a distance, feeling somewhat useless.
<onine> Diamandus gently rests Magpie down on the bed opposite Vana's and allows Tara to continue her work. Captain Theisloah steps in and rests against the door frame.
<onine> The water has made you feel a lot better.
* Magpie struggles to sit up, struggles to get the words out.. "Anathema! There was an, an anathema..."
<onine> A few of the crewmembers stand in the hall curious
<Magpie> "They- the pirates- they burned the ship. Killed..."
<onine> "Anathema?" Diamandus frowns concerned. "Captain, if I may be so bold as to suggest that you have your crew prepare themselves just in case."
* Magpie chokes.
<onine> "Sir?" One of the crew asks, to which the captain simply says "Go."
<onine> Theisloah Pirates? Anathema?! What did the captain look like?! Tell me, what their captain looked like!"
<onine> Tara Captain please, this isn't the time for such questions!"
* Vana steps back and lets the crewmen pass, standing just behind the captain.
<Magpie> "He- he was...scary." She raises a hand to trace a circle on her forehead. "A...forsaken, right?"
<onine> Theisloah "The captain dammit!"
<Magpie> "He killed J'ann." Magpie looks sad.
<onine> "Wait... "
<onine> Theisloah hisses in annoyance and dismay and storms out, past Vana
<onine> Tara, a pretty but sullen looking woman with wavy blond hair leans over you and offers you a reassuring smile, "Its alright, you're okay now, just relax."
* Magpie leans back. "But what if the Anathema comes?"
<onine> Tara "Oh don't worry about the Anathema, this man here is a Realm Magistrate, if any Anathema come anywhere near the ship he'll defeat them."
<Magpie> "A Magistrate?" Magpie sparkles when she hears this. "Like hunting demons and beasts and ..."
<onine> The young woman gestures to a particularly large man wearing banded armor and a crimson cloak. He is old and scared, but his remaining eye (the other is covered by a scar) is as alert as ever. He has a heavy grey moustache and long hair.
* Magpie examines him minutely. She asks, excited, "Are you really a Magistrate?!"
<onine> He is beyond a shadow of a doubt Dragonblooded, as many small colored crystals grow from his temples.
<onine> "Aye, that I am, Magistrate Mnemon Diamandus." He bows his head slightly in greeting.
<Magpie> "Have you ever killed any Anathema?" Magpie asks, nearly bouncing.
<onine> You have actually heard of this man! He is one of the magistrates that you've heard tales of, that have filtered back to the Imperial City
<onine> (certainly most of the stories have undergone chinese whisper treatment)
<onine> (and yes, the tales tell of the MANY anathema he has slain in combat!)
* Vana is just standing by the doorway, now.
<Magpie> "Did you really kill the wicked Cathak Rahalis with a fork?"
<Magpie> "Are you going to kill the Anathema now?"
<onine> "Ah... well, it was a trident actually..."
<Magpie> "...what's a trident?"
<onine> "A large fork."
<Magpie> "Then it's true!"
* Magpie looks thrilled.
<onine> "In a way yes."
<onine> Tara interjects "Please try to calm down dear, you've just been through a lot, you need to rest."
<Magpie> "You won't let the Anathema come and kill everyone?" Magpie asks, as if she hadn't even heard Tara. She gives him a searching look.
<onine> Diamandus "No, and if he does try, he will be stopped, I can assure you of that."
<onine> Vana can tell from his tone of voice that he doesn't quite believe what he says.
* Vana looks even more worried.
* Magpie doesn't hear it, however, she's so relieved. She smiles hugely at this. "Good!" She glances at Tara, and leans back in the bed. Then she sits up again. "Is it true you-"
<onine> "Rest." Tara interrupts
* Magpie looks darkly at her, but apparently decides she is an authority not to challenged...for the moment....and lies back down obediently, with a deep sigh.
<onine> Diamandus stands and walks to the door stopping and talking quietly to Vana
* Vana looks up at him.
<onine> "This girl's tale of an Anathema pirate is concerning. I am going to go up to the deck to observe and help where I can. I want you to watch over her for now."
<onine> "And Vana-?"
<Vana> "Yes..?"
<onine> "I want you prepared. Keep your weapon with you at all times."
* Vana nods. "I will. Do... do you think we can beat him?" She keeps her voice low.
<onine> He looks up the hall. "I hope so. But.... I hope it doesn't come to that..."
<Vana> "Me too." She looks past him at the girl. "But I'll be ready if it does."
<onine> "Good." He walks down the corridor, his boots thumping heavily on the deck.
<onine> Tara in the mean time collects a few waterskins and leaves them on the table beside the bed.
<onine> Tara "What's your name?"
* Vana moves to sit on her bed once Diamandus is gone.
<Magpie> "Magpie."
<onine> "Well Magpie, my name is Tara. Would you like something to eat?"
<Magpie> "Yeah. I'm pretty hungry."
<onine> She smiles, "Alright, I'll go and have cook prepare you something."
* Magpie looks around the room vaguely. Her eyes focus on the woman sitting on the bed. "Who are you?"
<onine> She glides quietly out of the room, leaving you pair alone...
<Vana> "I'm Vana. Teresu Sou Vana. It's nice to meet you." She smiles, mostly for the girl's benefit.
* Magpie nods. "Oh." Magpie stares at the wall a bit. "Are you a member of the crew?"
<Vana> "I guess so... Diamandus has kind of recruited me."
<Magpie> "Does that mean you're a magistrate too?"
<Vana> "I don't know. I don't think so, though." She seems a little unsure on the matter.
<Magpie> "How can you not be sure? Where are you from? You accent is weird."
* Vana smiles again. "You like asking questions, don't you?"
<Magpie> "Yes. So? Are you going to answer them?"
* Vana grins. "If you'd give me a minute. I don't know if I count as a magistrate... I work for Diamandus, that's all. And I'm from Lookshy, so my accent might be a bit strange."
<onine> Magpie, you also notice that Vana is rather heavily bandaged.
<Magpie> "Lookshy! Does that mean you have superweapons to conquer the world? Is it true you murdered the Scarlet Empress?" Magpie sounds impressed, and makes gleeful chopping motions with her hand.
<Vana> "I don't think we killed the Empress... I wouldn't know, though, I'm just a soldier. As for the weapons... yes, we have them."
* Magpie looks disappointed to hear they hadn't killed the Empress, but brightens when she hears about the weapons. "So have you killed anyone with them? Did their flesh melt from their bones, and their souls make a shrieky sound as they were denied forever the embrace of the Dragons?" Her tone is ghoulish.
* Vana shakes her head. "I never used any of them. I'm not sure we even have ones that can do that."
<Magpie> "Oh." In the manner of one throwing a bone, she asks "Are you Dragonblooded?"
* Vana nods. "I am."
<Magpie> "Can you do tricks?"
* Vana smiles. "Like what?"
<Magpie> "Make fire dance around the room....or make vines grow and choke someone... You know. Dragony stuff!"
<Vana> "Well... I can do some things with fire, yes."
<Magpie> "Can you show me?"
<Vana> "I guess so... if you promise to rest."
* Magpie contemplates this. She was rather tired...
<Magpie> "Okay," she concedes. "Deal."
<Vana> "Agreed." She closes her eyes for a moment, balling her hand up into a fist.
* Magpie watches, eyes wide, ready for a show.
* Vana opens both her hand and eyes, a small ball of fire appearing. "There isn't really much I can do..."
<Magpie> "That's so cool!"
<Magpie> She stares at the ball of fire. "Can you make it into shapes?"
<Vana> "Not really... all I can do is throw it at people." She grins sheepishly.
<Magpie> "That's not too bad." Magpie says graciously.
<Magpie> "You said you were a soldier. Have you been in many battles?"
* Vana nods. "Quite a few, yeah. Mostly small skirmishes, but I have fought a lot. Most people in Lookshy have."
<Magpie> "Have you been around the world a lot, then?" Magpie waggles her eyebrows suggestively.
* Vana raises her own in response. "I have traveled a fair bit, if that's what you mean."
<Magpie> "Ever been to a place called Sion?"
* Vana shakes her head. "No, sorry."
<Magpie> "Ever heard of the place?" she persists.
<Vana> "Nope."
<Magpie> "Hmm." Magpie contemplates the wall for a minute. "So why are you covered with bandages?"
<Vana> "I'd rather not talk about that, if it's okay with you."
<Magpie> It's not really okay, but Vana's been nice, so Magpie doesn't say it out loud.
<Magpie> "How'd you come to work for the Magistrate?" It's clear Magpie has developed a serious case of hero-worship for the man.
<Vana> "He offered me the position in return for paying my fare, pretty much."
<onine> Tara walks in with a small bowl of soup and some bread
<onine> "Here you are. And Magpie, its not polite to ask other people about their injuries."
* Magpie looks at the food and sits up again.
<Magpie> "Why not?" she asks around a slurp of the soup.
<onine> Tara wears a very serious but pained expression on her face.
<onine> "Because it just isn't."
<Magpie> "I bet that means there isn't any reason, and you just say so."
<Magpie> Magpie picks up the bread, and begins gnawing on it. It apparently doesn't occur to her to dunk it in the soup to soften it.
<onine> "Magpie." Tara scolds sternly.
<Magpie> "What?"
<onine> "You be polite to Miss Vana, do you understand me?"
<Magpie> "I am being polite!"
<Magpie> She turns to Vana for corroboration. "Aren't I?"
* Vana nods a little. "You've been pretty good. But some subjects make people uncomfortable."
<onine> "See? Now eat your soup."
<Magpie> " I never get uncomfortable," Magpie says with a little sniff, apparently feeling this was a virtue of hers. She drinks the soup.
<onine> "Nevertheless, you respect Miss Vana's wishes, she is an exalt after all."
* Magpie rolls her eyes. She'd never met anyone who scolded so much.
<onine> She may scold, but there is no edge in her voice.
<Vana> "It's ok, Tara... she's allowed to ask. I just might not answer, that's all." She tries to smile.
<onine> "If you say so Miss Vana... I'll leave you to rest then Magpie." Tara bows her head respectfully to Vana and leaves.
<Magpie> "..can I have more soup?" Magpie's voice is plaintive. Her eyes are soulful.
<Magpie> As soon as Tara's gone, Magpie turns bright eyes on Vana. "So tell me about your adventures."
* Vana grins again. "They're pretty boring. Lots of marching and keeping equipment clean."
<Magpie> "Even for Dragonblooded?" Magpie sounds surprised. Stories had led her to believe Dragonblooded soldiers did nothing but go on heroic adventures and kill Anathema.
<Vana> "Yep. Our equipment rusts just like everyone else. Except for the artifact weapons, of course." She indicates her sword and armor, sitting on the other side of the room under a cloth.
<Magpie> "Could you cut through the side of the ship with that?" Magpie nods at the sword.
<Vana> "If I really needed to."
* Magpie suddenly looks distant, staring at nothing. "The Anathema had a golden sword. He sliced right through the mast with it."
<Vana> "Was he really as scary as you said?"
<Magpie> "He was...he was terrifying. I threw something at him, but it was like...the sailors wouldn't even fight him, they were so scared."
* Vana looks unhappy. "I hope we don't have to fight him, then. I'm pretty good with a sword, but if he's that strong..."
<Magpie> "Diamandus will fight him. He wouldn't let the Anathema win," Magpie replies chirpily.
<Vana> "True. He seems pretty strong as well."
<Magpie> "So it'll all be fine. Just like in the stories!"
<Vana> "Things don't often work out like a story, I'm afraid." She smiles again, a little sad this time. "But we can only hope."
<Magpie> "My grandmother once said Creation was a story. One without a point, but a story all the same."
<Magpie> "She was pretty smart, too."
<Vana> "She sounds it."
* Magpie looks sad too now.
<Magpie> "Do you have a grandmother?"
<Vana> "Yeah. She's back in Lookshy."
<Magpie> "Is she a Dragonblooded too?"
<Vana> "Yep. Most of my family is." She shakes her head a little, clearing it of any unpleasant thoughts.
<Magpie> "That's good." Magpie lies down in her bed, and stares at the ceiling, apparently having run out of questions, for the moment.
* Vana looks at her for a few seconds, then sighs. "Well, I'm going to get some sleep. You should too."
<Magpie> Eventually, Magpie does.