Porcelain Child/SessionTwelve

On a mountain on the way to Arjuf…
<onine> The Magistrate has set up a camp along the mountainside of the range, and the sun has just dipped below the horizon, so there is still a little light remaining from the day, and the moon as well. A small fire is prepared, Tara and Ujiro are discussing cooking of all things, and the Magistrate amuses himself a short distance away with some calligraphy.
<onine> The three more serious members of the troupe, Yengo, Anona and Epheri are sitting around the fire discussing recent events, leaving the terrible two with time to burn.
<Anona> "Yengo."
<Yengo> "Anona."
<Anona> "I swear, I'm beginning to think the whole world's against us."
* Yengo pokes at the fire with a stick. "Seems that way, doesn't it? I guess at least you got some good news."
<Anona> "Oh, if the Arjuf place is in any condition like the Noble house, I'm sure it'll be /very/ good news." You can cut the sarcasm with a knife.
* Yengo grunts. The first time he saw the place, it was half-burned to the ground... "Maybe this estate will be standing, at least. And here I thought you Dragon-Blooded were born into luxury."
<onine> "Chin up Anona," Epheri says. "Arjuf isn’t as run down as Noble, so maybe its still at least in alright condition?"
<Anona> "There's luxury and *luxury*. Oh, I don't have to choose from rice, rice, or rice for dinner like a peasant, but what my father didn't squander Krennell took hold of."
<Yengo> "And who knows what he's doing with it now..." He tosses the stick into the fire. "Sorry, I didn't mean to bring up a sore point."
<Anona> "Well... it's not like Krennell's some evil uncle like in a child's story. He made sure I got a proper education, and enough of a stipend to keep going... but when I was little, we /were/ as wealthy as you seem to think we should have been. Then... it's a long story. As for current affairs... well, if it's in any shape at least we'll have a good place to base from."
* Yengo nods, dropping the sensitive subject. "That's true. It might be a nice change to not sleep in a different place each night."
<onine> "Oh I dunno... I kinda like the stars and the trees." Epheri pipes up
<Anona> "I wish I could have gotten more information from Krennell, for that matter. I think he knows a big piece of this situation, and he seems to be the only one not inclined to kill or distract us. At least, not too much."
<onine> Epheri remains silent on the subject of her father's involvement.
* Yengo sighs. "At least we have a lead... I just hope it doesn't take us the same place Starflower probably wound up."
<Anona> "Anyone who tries is going to find us harder to get rid of than some bureaucratic functionary."
* Yengo hopes so, anyway. He's still feeling the close call he had with that thing in the woods...
* Anona looks at the darkening sky. "Suppose we ought to think about the night's watch.... where are /those/ two, I wonder?"
<onine> "Um, both of them ran off a while ago... you don’t suppose... noooo..." Epheri perishes the thought. If Magpie were older it might be valid.
* Yengo frowns. "Not looking for trouble, I hope."
<onine> Epheri blushes a little. "I'm uh... gonna go see if the food is going to be ready..." She quickly flees from the pair of you, embarrassed.
* Yengo looks after her and shrugs. "Your cousin can be strange sometimes, Anona. I guess if they don't come back I can take the first watch. That's assuming we don't have to go looking for them again."
<Anona> "Oh, glee."
<Anona> "Last time that led us into discovering and fighting one of the Fair Folk. A good thing, I guess, but I really could do without another monster tonight."

Not far away…
<onine> Vana and Magpie managed to find a small-ish level area a about meters down the mountain to practice in. It’s not as large as you'd like, but it’s functional - and it has a tree! On one side at least, so you have room.
* Magpie is concentrating hard on getting past Vana's guard, occasionally interrupting her training to throw a stick at Crow, whose raucous mockery she tries unsuccessfully to ignore…
* Vana blocks each of her blows off-handedly, occasionally thwocking her when she does something poorly. Her lessons have gotten a little harsher; just enough to make Magpie realize that this isn't a game.
* Magpie grimly attempts to return the favor, and give -Vana- a couple bruises- and when she earns herself a thwock on the head, sighs in melancholy despair.
<Vana> "Do you want to stop for the day?" She looks sympathetic.
* Magpie shakes her head. "No. I'm not good enough yet."
<Vana> "You won't get good overnight, Magpie. It took me years, and most others in my class even longer."
* Magpie suppresses a dismal sigh. "Okay." She adds confidingly, "You know, this is harder than it looks."
<Vana> "It is." She sheathes her blade. "And you have to keep practicing, or your skills will quickly fade."
<Magpie> "Right."
* Magpie wonders if going into service for an Anathema demon for a year and a day to be granted superhuman mastery of weapons would be considered cheating. Probably, she realizes glumly.
* Vana is oblivious to this line of reasoning as she goes to sit beneath the tree.
<Magpie> "Does -everyone- in Lookshy train like this?" Magpie asks, as she goes to sit down beside her.
<Vana> "Yeah. Except for the non-combatants, but those are rare. Even the retired troops keep it up in their spare time."
<Magpie> "Huh. No wonder they're all crazy." Magpie leans against the bark and rubs her aching arms.
* Vana looks her over. "I didn't hit you too hard, did I? I've never taught anyone before, so I don't know if I'm doing very well."
<Magpie> "It's not too bad."
<Magpie> "If only Crow would stop laughing," she mutters darkly.
* Vana smiles a little. "You'll be able to make him, eventually. Just keep practicing."
<onine> The bird *does* sound as if it is laughing.
* Magpie shakes a fist at it.
* Magpie stretches. "We should go back. Or Tara won't give me more food."
<onine> Crow starts pecking at bark on a branch above you, then dropping little flecks of it on you.
<Magpie> "Crrooow!"
* Magpie begins to start scrabbling up the tree.
<onine> Crow does the noble thing. And allows you to get halfway up before winging over to another tree.
* Vana just grins at the pair.
<Magpie> "Meeannie!" Magpie calls after him.
<Magpie> She slides down the tree and lands with a thump in the dirt.
* Vana brushes bark off the girl's shoulders. "You need to stop worrying about him. He just does it to annoy you."
<Magpie> "He's good at it, too."
<Vana> "Well, like I said, just keep practicing and prove him wrong."
<onine> "Scraw?!"
* Magpie foresaw much mockery in the future.
* Vana stretches a little. "Magpie... explain to me again what it was you were going to do once we take you back to the Imperial City?"
<Magpie> "Uh..." Magpie stalls cautiously.
* Magpie decides to offer her the sanitized version.
<Magpie> "One-Eyed Rat offered me a place in his...uh, entrepreneurial group. So I'll probably work for him. And keep running messages for Mr. Gibs, til I'm too old."
<Vana> "And then?"
<Magpie> "Rat'll give me different jobs," Magpie replies discouragingly.
* Magpie 's stomach knots at the thought. Rat could be pretty...funny, sometimes. At least, he thought it was funny.
<Vana> "Oh." She looks at her for a bit. "Do you want to join his group?"
* Magpie takes pity on her outsider's incomprehension. "Well, he said I could. So it's that, or my internal organs get collected in baskets off the street."
* Magpie brightens slightly. "But it's not that bad. I was -invited!- To Rat's gang! He's pretty famous."
<Vana> "Oh." She sounds neither approving nor disapproving. But perhaps a little worried.
<Magpie> "Dragonblooded hire him all the time, I hear, to do their work. So that's why I have to be good. It's that, or-" Magpie makes a cutting gesture across her throat.
* Vana grimaces a little. "Couldn't you... you know, go somewhere else? I could probably persuade Yengo and the others that taking you back is a bad idea."
* Magpie looks at her, a little wide-eyed. "Really? You think...you think maybe they wouldn't want to get rid of me?" She sounds a little wistful.
<Vana> "Get rid of you? Is that what you thought we were doing?" She seems surprised.
<Magpie> "Welll...I know I'm a lot of trouble..." Magpie looks down at her feet.
<Vana> "And you think I'm not?" She smiles. "I'm just less obvious about it."
<Magpie> "But you're a -Dragonblooded-. And a warrior. And an archon! That's different."
<Vana> "I'm not different. I know it's hard for you to understand, being from the Realm... but in Lookshy, Dragon-Blooded are just like everyone else. We aren't gods, just people."
<Magpie> "Huh," Magpie says skeptically, eyeing the daiklaive Vana carried with her everywhere.
* Vana takes it out again and looks at her reflection in the red blade. "We are better warriors, admittedly... but that doesn't make us gods. I always feel uncomfortable when mortals bow and scrape in front of me."
<Magpie> "But you're useful-. You can take on a thousand bandits and win!"
* Magpie demonstrates with a few invisible bandits.
* Vana grins. "It was only about twenty. And I got pretty beat up, too. Plus, I didn't think about what I was doing... it left you all alone against the fae."
* Magpie shrugs unhappily. That was her fault, after all.
* Vana reaches over and ruffles her hair a little. "You're more useful than me. A lot better at sneaking, too. All I can do is hit things."
* Magpie sighs enviously.

At camp
<onine> On the other 'side' of the camp, Epheri is watching Tara and Ujiro arguing about spices. They both taste the brew they are concocting then bicker about what spice to add.
* Yengo stands up, stretching.
<onine> "Yeeeengooo!" Tara wails.
<Yengo> "Eh?"
<onine> "Come!" Ujiro says beckoning
* Yengo wanders over, scratching absently at the back of his head.
<onine> "Taste this” Tara says, holding a spoonful of strong smelling 'stuff' in front of you.
* Yengo leans forward and has a taste.
<onine> It tastes pretty good, it has more flavor than what you're usually used to. What you're used to is bread and water.
<onine> Ujiro grins at you and rubs his belly... or well, the breastplate of his armor.
<Yengo> "It's not bad."
<onine> "Ujiro says that I should put more Water Oak leaves in it, but that would ruin the flavor entirely. What do you think?"
<Yengo> "Well... uh... I don't know. You know how well I cook." That he would stay far away from such duties had been one of the first rules they had made out in the Threshold.
<onine> "Yes but you have taste right?" She says.
<onine> "The meal needs spice for the warrior's hardy constitution!" Ujiro says.
<onine> "That doesn't mean we have to put it in, only four of us are warriors out of eight."
* Yengo raises an eyebrow. "Can't the warrior add her own?"
<onine> "Er...” Ujiro clearly hadn't considered this.
<onine> "Problem solved. If Vana or any of the others want more water oak, they can add it themselves.”
<onine> Ujiro sits down on his stool very unhappy. He looks like he may have cried, but he manages to recover fairly quickly.
<onine> "Thank you." Tara says to you.
<Yengo> "No... problem..." Yes, you're always good at solving the unimportant things, aren't you? He accuses himself. "Did either of you see where Vana or Magpie went?"
<onine> "Practicing their martial prowess, further down the road, er, that way?" Ujiro says, pointing.
<Yengo> "Martial prowess, eh?"
* Anona butts in. "Oh, THAT I have to see.
<onine> "It is most impressive! Not as grand as the Warrior or mighty Ujiro, but skilled for such a small size!" He adds.
* Yengo has a sneaking suspicion that a vanished scalpel may be partly to blame... he sighs.
* Anona, for once, decides to restrain herself from giving an opinion on Ujiro's skill.
<Anona> "We need to figure out if Vana's going to be standing a watch, so I suppose we ought to hunt them down, Yengo."
* Yengo nods. "Let's have a look, then."

The practice arena
<onine> Your search does not take you far, you find the pair some distance down the mountain, on a small flat area - with tree!
* Vana is sitting beneath it with the scalpel-snatcher, talking quietly.
* Yengo raises a hand in greeting as he arrives.
* Vana notices him after a moment, and waves back. "Oh, Yengo... hi."
* Magpie looks up, startled, when he arrives. She seems a little nervous, and unsuccessfully attempts to hide a small wooden dagger behind her back...
* Yengo looks at Magpie, pointing. "What's that?" He sounds more curious than angry.
<Magpie> "Uh..."
* Magpie looks at Vana.
<onine> "Scrawww!" The crow flaps on the branch near Yengo
<onine> (Translation "Look, diversion!")
* Magpie tosses the dagger in among the roots of the tree as Yengo glances away.
* Yengo looks askance at the crow for just a moment, but turns his eyes back quickly.
<Yengo> "Ujiro said that you two were 'practicing your martial prowess'... I wonder what he meant..."
<Magpie> "Nothing. Is the food ready?"
<Anona> "At least you ARE down this way. I guess even Ujiro has to be right once in awhile."
<Magpie> "-Ujiro- sent you?" Traitor. "Food?"
* Yengo doesn't look quite like he believes Magpie's "nothing", but he lets it slide. "The food should be about ready by now."
<Magpie> "Great!" Magpie dashes up the hill back to the fire.
* Vana stands slowly, and stretches, watching the girl race back.
* Yengo looks at Vana for a moment. "Just be careful, okay?" and he follows Magpie back to the fire.
* Anona moseys back as well.
* Vana wanders back after them, offering no comment.

Later that night…
* Vana will approaches Magpie again when they get back to camp, and people are starting to head to bed.
* Vana taps her on the arm slightly with the handle of the wooden knife, not saying anything.
* Magpie glances up.
* Vana just gestures for her to take it, sitting down beside her.
* Magpie takes the handle, concealing it instantly somewhere within her clothes. Perhaps it's better not to know where.
<Magpie> She looks curiously at Vana. The Dragonblood looked like she had something to say...
* Vana comments not. "Would you mind sitting up on watch with me? Just for a bit?"
<Magpie> "Sure."
<Magpie> No one had ever quite lost grasp of their senses to the extent that they'd put -Magpie- on watch.
<Vana> "Thanks. I won't keep you long."
* Magpie looks at her curiously.
* Vana settles back, looking out into the darkness beyond the camp. "Just wondering... if you could be anything in the world, what would it be?"
<Magpie> "An archon!" Magpie replies instantly.
<Vana> "Really? Why?"
<Magpie> "Because..."
* Magpie struggles for an answer.
* Vana just waits patiently.
<Magpie> "An Archon's jobs is...is justice. Real justice. Not- hanging cutpurses but...helping people. When they need it."
<Vana> "Hmm." She sounds thoughtful. "And you want to do that? Help people?"
<Magpie> "Yes. It's not- lonely."
<Vana> "What do you mean... lonely?"
* Magpie chews on that for a minute. "Being alone- it's like hunger, or cold...it's empty, and it hurts. When you help someone...it's like lighting a fire. It's warm."
* Vana nods a little. "That I understand."
* Vana is again silent for a long while, looking up at the stars.
* Magpie is content to sit there with her, looking up at the stars and wondering if they looked back.
<Vana> "I'm not... sure... that it is my place to ask this." When Magpie looks back at her she's gazing at the grass between her feet.
<Magpie> "Ask what?" Magpie asks, surprised.
<Vana> "Lookshy... we help people, or we try to. Like you want to do." Her words are halting, like she's trying to work her way through something.
* Magpie waits, looking confused.
<Vana> "I can't make you an archon. But I can still let you help people, in Lookshy." She looks up at her, worried and unsure.
<Magpie> "Really? You'd let me go to Lookshy?" Magpie sounds pleased. Mostly, people were unwilling to let within a hundred miles of something important.
<Vana> "Well... I don't know if I'll ever return there. But... next year I will be of adult age. I'll be able to many things that I couldn't... like adopting children."
* Magpie 's eyes widen. She couldn't mean....
<Vana> "I could... adopt you, if you like. You'd be able to become a Lookshy citizen."
<Magpie> "-Really?-"
<Vana> "Only if you want to. And if I go back. I don't know how well I'd be able to take care of you, but it's better than joining a gang, right?" Not as silly as she looks, it seems.
* Magpie lunges forward to give Vana a strangling hug.
* Vana didn't really expect that, so lets out a small yelp. But she does hug the girl back. "That's... a yes?"
<Magpie> "Yes!"
* Vana looks relieved. "I didn't know if you'd want to or not..."
<Magpie> "Of -course- I want to!" To be wanted...it was strange. It had been a long time since anyone had wanted her...
* Vana gives her a bit of a squeeze, then lets go. "I doubt I'll be a good parent, but its worth a shot. Plus, I like having you around." She smiles.
* Magpie gives her a huge, ear-to-ear grin
* Vana grins back. "You'd better get to bed, anyway. I'm just glad you like the idea."
* Magpie nods, and in her happy distraction, trip over the half-full soup pot on the way to her bedroll.
* Vana winces in sympathy, before wandering over and helping her clean herself up.

Further down the mountain, the next day
<onine> The next evening, you, the Magistrate and your various tag-alongs look to be reaching the foot of the range on the Arjuf side of this range. You still have a whole valley to cover before making it to Arjuf, but the first big step is over. In the lower reaches, you come across a village. There is something not quite right about it. It could be the lack of animals, the dead plants, the silence - or it could be the dead immaculate monk strung up on a post outside the village proper.
<Yengo> "Wha-?"
<onine> He appears to have been dead for some time and a cursory glance says that this village became abandoned in a hurry. Cars lie upturned, forks lay here and there. If there was a fight there wasn’t much of one.
* Magpie gasps.
* Vana just looks worried.
<onine> "Weapons." The Magistrate says simply.
<onine> Or rather orders...
* Magpie pulls out a slim wooden dagger...
* Yengo draws his sword, turning the pitted blade slightly so the sun doesn't glare off it and into his eyes. An Immaculate was no easy prey...
* Vana gently places her hand on Magpie's blade and shakes her head.
* Anona draws her own sword, keeping alert.
* Yengo squeezes Tara's elbow softly. "Stay close."
<onine> "Groups. Yengo, you have Tara and Epheri. Anona, you take Vana and Ujiro. Magpie, I want you to stay with me. Search for clues." The Magistrate orders quietly.
<Anona> "Understood."
<Yengo> "Yes, Magistrate." His eyes are already darting around, taking in the surroundings.
<onine> Be quick, but thorough, it is late, so we have little search time before the usable light evades us. Go”
* Magpie stays close to the Magistrate as ordered, but keeps her eyes looking everywhere else. She wondered what would kill a monk...
* Yengo takes his group and begins to move in the opposite direction from Anona's party, looking around at the blank eyes of empty windows.
* Anona begins her search by heading directly into the village, looking at the huts and houses of the peasantry... is anyone alive at all?
<onine> You fan out into the town, the Magistrate cuts down the dead monk and examines him...

The town proper
<onine> Anona heads to the lower sections of the town with the farmhouses, barns and fields, leaving the higher sections for you, Epheri and Tara.
* Yengo tries to look everywhere at once, wondering if he should dare call out.
<onine> Tara stays very close behind you
<onine> Epheri is uncharacteristically competent, sweeping the area carefully with her bow, remaining very watchful, her injuries forgotten.
<onine> There is a smell... in the air. You and Tara both know it. Humans don’t usually smell, but the smells from inside the body are very characteristic and strong, and the air is thick with it. The stench of a battlefield, with bodies spilled open, stomachs bloated with bacterial gasses, flies, maggots and vermin.
* Yengo speaks quietly, barely a whisper, but Tara is close and Epheri has better ears than any mortal. "This place stinks...like death."
<onine> Most people think that its the decomposition that is the bad part of a body, but no, it isn’t true. The sickly sweet smell of rotting muscle tissue is the nicer of the smells here.
<onine> "Gods..." Epheri gags. "This is awful."
<onine> You don’t see many bodies outside, which means they must be... in the buildings.
<onine> There are a few villagers slumped over carts, hay bales and what not - but not nearly enough to produce this sort of smell.
<Yengo> "We're going to have to check inside somewhere..." Could it possibly matter where at this point?
<onine> You pick a random doorway to a nice little cottage. There are blood splatters on the paper screens...

The farms…
<onine> As Yengo, Epheri and Tara head north into the higher sections of the village, you, Ujiro and Vana head downwards to the farming areas.
<onine> Here too, the stench of death is strong, but the open air has purified a little of it.
* Vana has yet to draw her blade, but is otherwise just following Anona's lead.
* Anona carefully looks into the barns they pass - /very/ carefully, in case whatever caused this is still around.
<onine> The smaller barns have livestock. Dead livestock.
<onine> There is nothing living here. There are even dead birds around. Nothing higher than rats, hornets and insects move in this place.
<onine> There are the occasional dead bodies floating in the fields.
<onine> You do a rough estimate that these people have been dead for... a few weeks at most...

The road into town…
* Magpie watches with interest as the Magistrate cuts down the Immaculate's body.
<onine> The magistrate lays the monk down and looks worriedly at the fading light in the sky, and begins to make a simple torch out of cloth and wood, lighting it and handing it carefully to Magpie. "Hold this where I tell you."
* Magpie grips it tightly.
<onine> He begins to inspect the body, making curious 'hos and hums' as he works, which gradually become more negative as he works. Occasionally he orders a repositioning of the light.
* Magpie moves the light obediently, only occasionally earning an irritable correction when she tried to lean in too far to look.
<onine> "There are...no wounds that I can find, but the body has deteriorated much. Poison perhaps, but that doesn't fit with the ritualistic hanging." He mumbles.
<Magpie> "Could a fair folk have eaten it and it starved to death...but no...why hang it.....do think a god could have...?"
<onine> "Possible. I won’t rule out fae creatures now that we have seen one this close to the mountain." As he says it he looks at the vast triangular shadow that blots out a large portion of sky.
<onine> "This would be more characteristic of rabid fae, or wyld warped men..." He says. "Fae can live in manses and demesnes far from the bordermarches as long as they have mortals and exalts to feed from, but wyld warped humans simply *do not* appear far from the wyld itself."
<Magpie> "Huh. So what do you think did this?" Magpie considers nudging the Immaculate's corpse for emphasis, but looking at Diamandus's fates, changes her mind.
<onine> There is one thing that does occur, this man looks like he has been dead for a few weeks, *but* his robes are in the most god-awful shape.
<onine> "I don’t know... not yet anyway. I wonder what the others have discovered..."

In the farms…
<onine> You continue through the area, and the picture doesn't get any brighter. There is a larger barn area ahead with an old watermill and a pair of silo buildings for holding rice.
<Anona> "Whatever caused this, can't have been more than a couple of weeks ago... I wonder... is it just this village, or are we going to be walking through this all the way through?"
* Vana offers no response, busy scanning the upcoming buildings.
<onine> You lead the way, and Ujiro looks uncharacteristically bitter. He angrily kicks over a small stack of barrels, spilling their contents across the ground.
<onine> "Always! Always!" He roars angrily and chops at the barrel with his greatsword.
<Anona> "What's with you, Ujiro?"
<onine> "It is always the innocent, never those who deserve it!" He grips the sword grip with such fury that his knuckles turn white.
<onine> "Mortal farmers. They are nothing in this world. They are merely here to suffer."
* Vana pauses in her scouting to look at the man worriedly.
<Anona> "Misfortune happens all over, Ujiro. The best we can do is prepare and prevent."
<onine> "Mmm. The fire burns in Ujiro's belly." He wrenches his sword from the barrel. The symbol on the barrel is one of the Immaculate Order.
<onine> The spilled contents appear to be a fine white sand in the low light.
<Anona> "Whatever did this doesn't seem to be around... unless it's hiding."
<onine> "Raiders. Beasts. It matters not. These people are dead before their time."
<Anona> "If the cause remains loose, the only thing we'll accomplish is /more/ people who are dead, Ujiro."
<onine> "Then we shall find it and we shall kill it!" He kicks over another barrel of sand, spilling the contents over Vana's feet.

The residential area…
<onine> Meanwhile, further up the hills, Yengo proceeds into one of the homesteads.
<onine> The garden looks like it was once well manicured. The wife must have loved this garden...
<onine> You move up onto the veranda of the house. There is a child's body, slumped over a small box that he was using as a table. His drawing is half finished, and the ink line trails off.
* Yengo takes a step back, his mouth twisting. "Damn..."
<onine> It... it doesn't look as if he died in fear. He seems to have dropped right where he was sitting.
<Yengo> "What the hell could've done this?" It's not the first time he's asked the question. He steps over to the boy for a little closer look, but takes care not to disturb him yet.
<onine> His skin is beginning to mottle and darken, there are post death lesions and bruising that you can see on his arms, the kind that happen long after the blood vessels are weakened by decomposition and the body is disturbed. The marks however don't have any evidence of being hands that moved him.
<Yengo> "Hmm..." This doesn't tell him much. He turns to the others. "Let's go further into the house..." He thinks about asking Tara to stay outside, but he'd rather have her near him.
<onine> Epheri nods and looks ill, but moves in close, but stays back, her bow is useless inside, and her skills in close combat are poor at best. Tara on the other hand is perfectly at home, the smells do not phase her, nor does the dead child.
<onine> Since...that day... her compassion has been quite absent in a lot of places.
<Yengo> "Poor kid..." It could be Magpie lying there, he thinks. It still might be, for that matter. Or any of them if whatever caused this is still around. He squeezes Tara's hand lightly. "Hope whatever did this is long gone."
<onine> "Urk-!" Epheri covers her mouth and nose as she smells the interior.
* Yengo turns to Epheri. "It'll get better with time... a little."
<onine> "I hate your job. After you."
<onine> You step inside, and what you see when your eyes adjust to the darkness makes even your stomach churn...

Where road meets village…
<onine> At the entrance of the village, Diamandus continues his work.
<onine> Soon, even the immaculate corpse becomes boring. You saw it, you got to nudge it with your foot - the dream of every kid with supreme intestinal fortitude. You didn't poke it with a stick - but the foot-nudge is far better!
<Magpie> There's only so many points of interest with a corpse, right?
<onine> You hold the torch and end up looking at the village in the evening light, and as you scan it you see someone standing in the main market place twentyfive- odd meters away. A kid. Just standing there. Looking at you.
* Magpie heaves a sigh of relief. So they -weren't- all dead. Maybe they'd just run away.
<onine> "Magpie, light." Diamandus orders
<Magpie> She glances down at the Magistrate. Still - still! - engrossed in corpse-investigation. "There's a kid," she explains. She hands the torch to him. Maybe he'd be foolish enough to take it.
<onine> "Hmmm? A kid? Where?" He looks around.
<onine> You look over to the market area. And it is empty.
<Magpie> "There-"
* Magpie frowns.
<Magpie> "He was just there a second ago."
<onine> You could swear that the kid was there the briefest instant ago.
<onine> The kid was way too far to have run the distance to a hiding spot without you seeing, you only looked away from him for a second.
<Magpie> "He was -there-." A scowl begins to creep over her features.
* Magpie trots forward a few feet. She waves the torch in the air. "Kid!"
<onine> You here nothing but the echo of your own voice.
<onine> "Are you certain you saw someone?" The Magistrate asks.
<Magpie> "Yes. Staring at me.."
<onine> He looks at you a moment with his blue eye, a concerned expression on his face. "I believe you. Stay close to me, understand?"
* Magpie nods. Not that she'd ever get beat up by some village kid...
<onine> He moves into the village, leaving the monk's corpse behind, hefting the gigantic goremaul...
* Magpie follows him, surveying the darkness at the edge of the torchlight...

Among the farms…
<onine> Anona Vana and Ujiro stand over a small collection of barrels on the outskirts of the village next to the fields.
* Vana is shaking sand off her feet.
<onine> Ujiro sticks the end of his sword into the ground. "What next?"
<Anona> "It doesn't seem as if anything's around. Unless it's hiding real well. Even so... it's getting dark, and I for one would prefer not to stay here at night. Just in case, you understand."
<onine> "Mm. Should we look in there?" Ujiro gestures at the mill.
<Anona> "I guess we should... I doubt there's anything there, but..." Anona walks to the mill, sword at the ready even so.
<onine> The stench near the mill is overpowering, the mill doors are barricaded from the outside, there is a bar across the main door.
<onine> Logical enough, since when you close up storage of grain, you don’t lock it from the inside where you cant get out, you do it from the outside. But there is a wagon across the door too, and the wooden beam on the door looks cracked in the center.
<Anona> "I think maybe one of you should go get the others..." Is that a quaver in her voice?
<onine> Ujiro looks to Vana for her orders.
<Vana> "Good plan. Ujiro, find Diamandus."
<onine> "Mm!" He nods, running towards the village proper.
* Vana has been fairly quiet, which probably isn't doing much for Anona's nerves.
<onine> After he leaves, you start to notice a fairly large amount of the white sand around.
* Anona looks closer at the sand... /is/ it sand?
<onine> Same texture.
* Anona gingerly tastes the 'sand'.
<onine> Salt.

The homes…
<onine> Your eyes adjust to the darkness, and the small homestead is a slaughter. Where the child outside seems to have died quietly and peacefully, not so for the rest of the occupants. The place is fairly covered with blood, and organs are draped here and there like some morbid decoration.
<onine> Epheri staggers back covering her mouth and nearly falls over into the garden outside, retching. Prince of the earth yes, strong stomach no.
<onine> "Dragon’s grace... what could have happened here?" Tara asks monotone.
* Yengo gags a little as he takes in the scene, most of him wanting to join Epheri despite all the things he's seen.
<Yengo> "I... I don't know..."
<onine> You continue further through the house. There are more bodies. Some are intact. Some...aren't.
<Yengo> "I don't know if I've ever seen savagery like this..." Not since Alebrahn, and he at least had been *whole*... the memory brings a fresh wave of nausea. "Could all the houses be like this?"
<onine> "Should we check? I don’t think Epheri could take much more of this. She is a lot less worldly than she appears." Tara answers.
<Yengo> "Y-yeah, that's true..." Once you couldn't take things like this either, Tara, he thinks. I guess that's what you get for throwing in with me... becoming 'worldly.' "This isn't telling us much, either... other than the fact that we should probably get back to the others, soon. This is..." he stops, shakes his head.
<onine> "Evil." Tara finishes, exiting the house.
<onine> Epheri is leaning over a fence with Tara patting her on the back trying to make her feel better.
<onine> As you step to the door, you hear a creak behind you.
* Yengo turns quickly towards the source of the noise.
<onine> In the darkened recesses of the room, admist the slaughter and the carnage, there is a figure silhouetted against the red splattered paper screens, you feel suddenly claustrophobic as the room begins to swim in your vision. The figure begins to walk slowly and purposefully towards you.
* Yengo takes several steps back, bringing his sword up as he does so. "Who's there?!" he demands in a voice that he hopes sounds a lot braver than he feels.
<onine> The figure does not answer.
<Yengo> "Epheri." His voice is as calm as he can make it as he takes another step back towards the doorway.
<onine> You step back and nearly stumble sprawling backwards onto the path outside, but you maintain your balance.
<onine> The figure enters the light, and you have never seen anything like it before. It's one of the farmer's wives, the more intact ones anyway. Her hair is matted and her clothing is torn and she advances on you with bare feet. The dead are supposed to stay dead, but this villager seems to have forgotten.
<onine> Her expression is one of a hungry hatred, and her eyes are milky, the irises and pupils long since disappeared.
<onine> If it weren't for her half rotted skin and the general situation around the area, you would have sworn her to be alive and well...
* Yengo retreats another step, his weapon still held before him. "Don't come any closer, or you'll die again." He says, for all the good that will do.
<onine> She opens her mouth and exhales a small puff of.. smoke? Then she launches herself at you, not a leap, but steps off the ground and glides quickly through the air towards you...

The marketplace
<onine> In the marketplace, the Magistrate looks around carefully with Magpie in tow.
<onine> "Magpie, if something happens I wand you to run as fast as you can. Do not stay close to me when my power manifests, understand?"
* Magpie looks at him. "I guess...but...it's just a kid."
<onine> "And if Anona and Yengo were correct, so was that fae."
<Magpie> "You think there's another fae?!"
<onine> "I-" He starts. "Hold on-"
<onine> "Lord Magistrate!" A voice roars from behind you, scaring you *almost* to the point of ruining your breeches.
* Magpie jumps, and twirls.
<onine> Ujiro is standing there a few meters behind you, bowing tothe Magistrate. Surprisingly quiet for such a noisy man.
<onine> "Ujiro, what is it?" Diamandus asks concerned.
<Magpie> "Fae?" Magpie pipes up.
<onine> "We require your presence in the fields, the princes have discovered something they wish you to examine!"
<onine> As he says this, a screen is thrown onto the street dark figures erupt from various houses, and some of those on the streets rise to their feet and surround you...

Farmlands
<onine> Meanwhile at the mill, the grains have been identified as salt.
<onine> The mill under inspection appears to be surrounded by a great deal of it, and indeed the land has been saturated with salt in many places.
* Vana lets her small handful drop, and looks back at the mill looming above them.
<Anona> "NOW it begins to add up..."
<onine> IF there is anything inside the mill, it is still almost certainly trapped inside. The roof of the mill looks like it has exploded outward in a few places, and the windmill (whatever the spokes are called) is hanging at a bad angle. No wind is around to turn it, nary a breeze moves it around assuming it still turns.
<Anona> "Vana, I don't suppose you've figured out the significance of all this, have you?"
<Vana> "No, sorry." She frowns a little, still looking at the building.
<Anona> "Hm... I guess you've never had to worry about such things, then. Lines of salt are a ward against hungry ghosts. You have to know the proper occult patterns for strong protection, but even a simple line works in a pinch. We definitely should not open that door until everyone else is here."
<Vana> "Oh, hungry ghosts, yes. I've fought a fair share of those. But they don't normally do that." She gestures at the gaping holes in the mill.
<Anona> "Fae aren't normally found on the Blessed Isle itself, either. Other than the Mountain Folk."
<Vana> "True."
<onine> Vana is correct, hungry ghosts usually do not manifest that sort of power. The dead monk and the general state of hurried death in the village seems to fit in with a particularly strong ghost perhaps.
<onine> The darkness of night is beginning to fall across the village, and the two young fire aspects outside the mill.
<onine> Then, you both begin to hear movement. Movement all around, though you can see it well, it is enough to make the hairs stand out on the backs of your necks
* Vana grips her weapon's hilt slowly, unease awakening combat readiness.
<onine> There are a few in the fields, standing in the rice paddy water, the moonlight reflecting around them. A few can be seen on rooves of barns nearby, another few move in from around the village proper.
<onine> One leaps - or rather - soars from one building to one far away. The kind of jump that only a spirit or an Exalt can do.
<onine> There is a crashing boom followed by cracking very loud behind you which makes the pair of you jump as whatever is inside the mill tries to force the door... To be continued...