For the Ones We Love

By the time Dolan returns to Alexandria, the skies have opened up, and a pouring, driving rain drenches the city, the wind whipping in from the mountains. With the noble and the girl settled, and the pay in his hand, now it's time for him to see to himself. The journey back had been an increasingly painful one, but there hadn't been time to stop, not if he was to keep the woman from changing. The holy symbol he'd put around her neck had helped a lot - in fact, had made it possible.

Drenched despite the thick, warm clothing he wears, he limps now heavily into the Temple of Daeus, only as far as the nearest statue or pillar that is inside the magical calm that keeps the weather out. He sags back against it, closing his eyes and reaching for the sunburst at his neck, the words of the prayer that would ease the tearing agony in his left leg forming on his lips. The silver holy symbol of Eluna still dangles from his left hand, the sunburst in his right.

Not far behind Dolan, coming in out of the rain is a red-coated elvish woman. She has her cloak pulled up for a moment against the rain, but lowers it as she comes into the temple revealing her dark features and remarkable hair which starts out black and becomes pink at the ends. She looks around the room worriedly and catches one of the cleric's of Daeus by the arm. "Pardon me. So sorry. Have you seen Mourner Verna?"

"Have you checked the Mourner's Temple?" Asks the cleric irritably.

The response makes Auranar frown. "Yes, I've checked there. I..." The man wanders off and she sighs at her failure. Looking around for someone - anyone - that might be useful when she spots Dolan. Remembering him from the incident at the temple previously she perks up and starts toward him.

The warmth of golden sunlight forms around Dolan's leg and side like a gossamer golden scarf, and he breathes considerably easier. The bandages beneath torn trousers are visibly stained, but the spell seems to bring the man considerable if not compete relief.

Not having weight on it also helps.

"You're looking for Mourner Verna?" He lifts his head to stare at both the cleric and Auranar, recognition in the chocolate brown eye along with unusual sobriety. The artificial eye is now a warm topaz, different from what she will remember, but well-suited to his coloring and at least a little less jarring to look at - maybe.

Auranar starts to pause when she notices the spell, but it seems of the healing variety and her eyes flicker over Dolan with new born concern. She doesn't really notice his eye. She's far too distracted by his injuries and her own worries to think about such things. "Yes. You know her? I... I've been looking for her _everywhere_." Her hands twist in front of her, and she holds them one to the other. "I shouldn't bother you, you're clearly busy..."

She looks around a little bit, as if hoping that anyone else might look as though they are willing to offer aid.

"Yeah. She was with us." Dolan's voice is unexpectedly deep, and the times she's heard it before, it's been light, good-natured. Not this time. "I'm going after her, but it's got to be in the morning, I'm damn near spent. We had to get the girl out of there before she succumbed." He leans his head back against the statue, then looks up. "Look, I'm sorry. Auranar, was it? I know we've met before. I take it you know the Mourner?"

Auranar looks startled a moment and then hesitates. "Yes. I'm Auranar. You said that Verna was with you?" She latches onto the important bits quickly it seems. "She's my girlfriend. What do you mean... go looking for her? As in you... you lost her? I... I think you ought to tell me what happened." She firms her jaw a little. Even if Dolan is injured... she can't just let him sneak off to get some rest without getting answers.

Girlfriend? Dolan looks momentarily startled, but he doesn't seem angry, just nods and spins the tale in fairly brief terms of how they came to be out there and what happened, including Verna's sacrifice to draw the werewolf away, the shouts from Halani, and him talking the girl down so that she didn't change on them and attack them then and there. "She and Halani didn't make it back to the meet point," he explains. "We couldn't wait, or the girl would not have held out and we'd all be dead. So yeah, I'm going to go find them."

The elvish woman's expression darkens as the story progresses. "How about you tell me where all this took place?" Her expression brooks no argument on this fact. In fact, she steps toward the man, ready to argue if need be to get the information that she wants. There's no violence in her, just determination. She takes a breath to ease herself down a little, but it hardly helps. "Please."

GAME: Dolan rolls sense motive: (5)+11: 16

The advancing toward Dolan is enough to make him straighten at once from his lean against the statue, his entire demeanor shifting into a defensive posture, the strands of wet dark hair framing his face and leaving rivulets of water to trail down his neck. He doesn't seem to notice.

Instead, all of his attention is focused on the woman. Maybe it's the "please", tacked on as an afterthought, that gets to him, makes his stance relax. Maybe its his own conscience. It's hard to say. "You up for a journey? It's several hours' walk from here. I get it. I'd be frantic too if it was Andie."

Auranar relaxes when Dolan does, sensing that she's won the fight without ever having to fight. "Yes! I mean..." She hesitates finally, every part of her raring to go but... Her eyes flicker to his injuries. "You don't have to come with me. You're already injured."

He's not wrong about being frantic with worry though, her fingers pinch one another, to keep from doing anything more foolish like waving about uselessly. Auranar would have told Verna not to go out today if given half a chance but Verna had gone without a word and now... Now she was lost somewhere and Auranar couldn't bear the thought of waiting to look for her. Every second might count.

"Don't be a dumbass, Auranar. This is a werewolf camp, and going out there alone is a good way to end up changed if you're lucky, or more likely dead. They're already on high alert." Dolan shakes his head, sighs heavily, and gingerly puts weight on the injured leg, experimentally. He frowns at it, but ends up shifting his weight again in what he hopes is subtle. "If she did get bitten, she won't be safe to approach tonight. You won't be able to reach her. She's not likely to know you or anyone, or much of anything besides killing. She'll be much safer to approach in the morning, and the Temple of Eluna can still help her."

The words are harsh, and they're not at all what Auranar was hoping to hear. She lowers her face slightly, but there's stubborness in her. "You love your Andie right?" She looks at him then and her dark eyes are burning fierce. "Then you know it's not dumb. I can't. I can't leave her out there knowing she might be injured and inches from some werewolf camp. Waiting and hoping that she's found. You can call me names if it makes you feel better, but tell me where I can look for her. _Please_."

"If I do, your blood'll be on my hands. Enough blood has been shed. Come on, let's go." It's a tacit assent, of sorts, but not a wholly silent one. "I'll make it up to Andie later. She'll probably yell at me anyway." Knowing that he'd better save his last spell for Halani, Verna, or both, he sighs and pulls up the hood of his cloak.

Auranar relents, she can't make Verna wait for her, but dragging this poor man out in his injured condition... It was selfish and she knew it. It was selfishness she was almost certain she could live with though, so long as they both survived. "Alright. We'll take it slow though. I don't want you to hurt yourself more." She really didn't, it was simply... She couldn't wait either.

-End