Quickly to Quelynos (Part 3)

The King of the Slaugh looks at Telamon and then turns his gaze to Andelena. It's as if he can see her. "Yes. I am aware. One was brought into my kingdom." He pauses then and looks from Dolan to Andelena. "No. I do not, nor do any here, hold her against her will, but she is young and her choice is a hard one."

He makes a motion with his hand and the girl appears at his side. As if she'd been there all along, or perhaps simply just now arrived. It's hard to say. She has platinum blond hair now, but her bright pink eyes remain the same.

"If I go with you... I can tell you where Eluna's Avatar is, and you could find her... But then I can not return here to the safety that this court offers me." She looks toward the king and he nods once. "If I stay here, I can not tell you, because this is a place of darkness and Caracoroth will hear the words I speak and carry them to his minions." She seems torn.

Dolan, who had been pretty quiet up to this point, frowns pensively at her, and at the King, his booted foot tapping as he thinks. "Tough choice," he allows. "But if Caracoroth wins, where's going to be safe? Anywhere? Hiding ain't always the right answer, because sometimes, there's nowhere to hide.”

"There are few easy choices, my lady," Telamon responds, his dark eyes solemn and gentle. "I wish I could take this burden from you. But it remains." He reaches up to run his hand through his own platinum-blond hair, very similar to the girl's.

"You say 'hear the words'..." His lips quirk. "I don't suppose you could write it down? That would probably be too easy." Tel nods to Dolan's comment. "Your Majesty, I will state that the Nightmare will stop at nothing to gain what he seeks. I do not want Quelynos to become another battleground. It has suffered enough at the hands of the dark gods." He exhales. "My heart says for you to come, my lady. But I won't deny your fears. They are true enough."

Andelena smiles a little knowingly at Dolan's answer--if he could see her, there's a subtle warmth in her eyes and mouth that's there as he comments that hiding isn't always the right answer.

But she turns her head back to the little girl and the terrifying King of the Slaugh. "He's right. It's real tempting to hide and hope nothing will happen, and it'll all just blow over. Let me tell you--I know from experience. Hiding will just result in more people hurting. It's not just you, it's not just us--it's so many people who will be hurt by the Hound."

"And sometimes... sometimes there are things bigger than one person. Bigger than all of us," Lysos adds to Dolan's comment. "I don't want to be here! I'm not brave and self sacrificing like the others here! But if people like me don't try and step up during times like this... well, there won't always be someone else there to solve our problems. If I hide, or run away... then sooner or later, I'll be all alone with no one left to help me." The tsuran clenches her fists, frustrated.. with herself, probably.. the current conflict, assuredly. "Sometimes the heroes need help.. because sometimes the darkness isn't just going to drift by."

The girl at least seems swayed by your words. She ducks her head and twists her fingers uncertainly before nodding. Her fear is almost a plapitable thing. The king makes no move until the girl starts toward you and then he lifts a hand that makes her stop. "And the cursed one that you came here with. Will you abandon them to us?"

Telamon shakes his head. "No. We have a responsibility there, as well." His eyes glint. "Let it not be said that mortals were in your domain, -littering-." His eyes flick to Phyrelia, and he offers her a small smile, before turning his gaze back to the sluagh king. "If that is acceptable to you, your Majesty. I am fairly certain you do not wish us to leave her here."

"Can't, sorry, but we've got to keep her away from Phyrelia here. I've got every reason to think she'll attack her if she sees her, and not because she wants to." Dolan pauses, looks around at the others, hesitates. "Tanith ... maybe we ought to give her her holy symbol back, and she can take herself home? But then what about us?"

"That's a possibility," Andelena says, and she looks at Phyrelia. "Phyrelia, you made that portal... well, 'here', into Quelynos, right? Can you make a portal back? That seems like the easiest way to go."

Already looking to Phyrelia to do the work, Lysos winces.. but she doesn't have any better ideas. Her hand goes to the pocket holding Verna's items, pressing them against her leg. "We can't leave without the mourner.." she says. Not really reluctantly. But with the air of one who has no idea how to accomplish a necessary task. "Maybe she's done being a wolf?"

"Littering..." The king mulls over this word, an odd light in his too-pale eyes. "This means you intended to throw them away? This one you call 'mourner'? The Sluagh has ever been a dumping ground for those who are unwanted. We will keep them."

He looks at the girl and she seems to grow smaller before him. He shakes his head and rises from his throne. "Come, you have made your choice to go with them. We will grant you a mirror to use to return to the lands you came from." He offers to the girl his hand and to some surprise she takes it and he walks across the water with her in hand. You get the impression that if you were to walk across that water you would not be making neat little ripples as you strode confidently across the surface...

Tanith looks at Dolan, wiggling slightly. "I can do..." She is talking very quietly, as if she is trying to go unnoticed. Though certainly even a very small golden dragon is hard to overlook.

"No, Telamon simply is a bit of a fool who thinks he's funny sometimes--sorry, kid," Andelena responds, although there's still a hard edge in her voice. "I have no intention of leaving the Mourner. I don't think any of us do. We are not abandoning her."

Telamon regards the king sternly, before murmuring to Tanith, cupping the dragon's small head. "Can you find Verna, Tanith?" With that asked, he smirks faintly at Andelena. "I made no such claim, your Majesty. But then," his voice takes on a slightly harder tone, "if this is the level of discourse found in the Courts, no wonder my bride-to-be's ancestor removed himself from them." He shows his teeth, in that expression that is most distinctly not a smile, to the king of the sluagh.

"No. We do not leave her," Dolan chimes in, straightening up. "Tanith, take us to Verna. I'll protect Phyrelia. Phyrelia, can you take us back to Ea, if you need to?" His own expression has hardened, his smile and musing gone. "We'll need to move fast, and probably grab Verna and go at once. Can you do that?"

Lysos sticks her hand in her pocket, closing her fingers around.... ew. She grimaces, fidgets in the pocket like she's trying to work something free.. then finally produces a ring that is thankfully finger-free. Still a bit red and sticky, though. "We've got this if you need it to find her," she offers, not looking at the king directly.. definitely not looking at any of his servants directly.

"One must be careful of the words one says when they might change the very fabric of reality. Is that not so He-who-is-called Telamon?" The king and the girl are more than half-way to you now. Phyrelia takes her hand from the man who you are quickly realizing is taller than you originally thought him to be. He is in fact about the same height as Andelena. Perhaps the pond is merely larger than _it_ seems. Either way she whispers a word and rushes away from him toward you.

Tanith quietly urges you to gather together into a group. "Touching!" She reminds you. Because she can not move you all together unless you do so. Irritably the king makes a motion with his hand and there's a sound like thunder echoing.

"Would you not give this Mourner the choice you give a child? A chance to be whole and welcomed rather than outcast?" The king's eyes are suddenly you realize the color of lightning because they spark with live activity as he strides closer. The girl grabs Dolan's hand. "We know where the Mourner is. We can bring them to you, you do not need to flee from us." He's nearly at the edge of the pond now.

"She'll only get to truly choose if you're not involved." Dolan without hesitation grabs for Phyrelia's hand, and for Andelena's. "She already is welcomed. Get us out of here, Tanith!" Suddenly there's urgency there, and he casts a quick, worried look at the flashing king.

Telamon's eyes glitter now, hard and cold. His voice rings out as he steps back a pace... casually pressing his shoulder against Lysos's. "She will not be outcast. Neither will. And I owe my own debt to the Mourner's bride-to-be." He switches to Sylvan, and grins sharply. "But I will bear your greetings to Alud'rigan, the Feathered One. I'm sure he'll be delighted to hear from you." Then in Draconic, a softly growled, "Do it."

There's a fire in Andelena's eyes as she looks at the king, steel-grey eyes that seem to have a fire in them now like the blessing of Daeus's sun. "She isn't yours to lay claim to, just as Phyrelia wasn't yours. No woman is, no man is, no person is. She has people who love her so damn deeply back home." She has to keep herself from spitting out more unsavory words. "People give themselves when they say they do, and the Mourner hasn't."

It's probably a good thing Lysos doesn't comprehend a word of what Telamon is saying. She's probably barely holding it together as it is. When the half-elf's shoulder touches hers, she reaches out to grab Andelena's.. though she nearly faints when Andelena's words are VERY CLEARLY understood. "We're all going to die.." she says in quiet, strangled words. "Please Tanith go go go gogogogogogo..."

Tanith does indeed - go - and she takes everyone with her. You are all transported to a large room holding three things of note. The first is a woman standing near you. She looks wholly human save for an arm which is a tentacle. She notices you immediately, screams, and runs to a corner of the room far away from you. The second is a werewolf which is slowly shifting into a human. This is clearly Verna after a second or two, curled up in her slightly worn robes and collapsing into the middle of the third thing of note. A magical circle of some variation.

GAME: Telamon rolls knowledge/arcana: (13)+10: 23
GAME: Lysos rolls knowledge/arcana: (14)+7: 21
GAME: Dolan rolls knowledge/arcana: (8)+7: 15

Telamon shakes his head. "Alright, that was cutting it a little closer than I thought..." Then the woman screams, and he throws his hands up. "Wait! Wait! We're not here to hurt anyone! ...Uh..." He takes in the woman, who seems to have a tentacle for an arm, as well as seeing Verna flopped over inside a magic circle.

His dark eyes flick over the circle, and he gestures for the others to stand clear. "Don't touch that circle," he advises. He looks back to the woman again, and offers a winning smile. "Ah... what exactly is that doing? I can tell it's transmutation, but I'd need a little time to examine it. But at least our friend isn't trapped as a wolf for the moment."

Lysos, predictably, screams too. A woman with a tentacle arm is not normal. She backs away to the other corner, bringing her hands up in front of her to protect herself as she back pedals.

The abrupt shift in scene is disorienting, and Dolan shakes his head hard as if to clear it, then looks up. He's got _no idea_ what that circle could be, and it is a good thing that Telamon knows more. Upon seeing Verna, he puts himself between Phyrelia and the circle, his weight balanced between the balls and heels of his feet like a warrior. The woman with a tentacle for an arm makes him suck in a breath, but she screamed, and something in that makes his heart go out to her, more than his mind screams of an enemy.

In the end, it is rather a lot to process, all at once, and he ends up not moving beyond placing himself between Verna and Phyrelia.

"Motherf--the /fuck/ is that? The fuck are /those/?" Andelena yelps as she gets her bearings and sees the tentacle-armed woman. And then she looks over at Verna. "Oh, thank gods--she looks okay."

She looks over at Dolan's expression and then back at the woman, actually a little embarrassed by her original reaction. "Err--sorry, if you can understand us? Octopus arms on humanoid people aren't, uh, in fashion right now."

The woman looks at you all in obvious fear, but she responds to Telamon, holding up her human hand as if to forstall him. "I knoweth not sir, f'r t is charm beyond mine own ken." Andelena's reaction makes her flinch back and she tries to hide her arm behind her so that you can't see it. "I be human!" She seems like she's trying to reassure you in spite of her fear.

Meanwhile Verna is groggily getting to her feet. Swaying and stepping backwards. She gives the woman a look that - might - be appreciation and stumbles wearily out of the circle. Whirring on Telamon's shoulder worriedly Tanith looks around the chamber nervously.

Telamon nods slowly. "It's all right. We're just here for our friend." He gestures to Verna, who is staggering to her feet and out of the circle. "Two friends," he amends with a rueful grin. "What are you called, miss? You may refer to me as Telamon." He seems less appalled by the tentacular appendage than his companions, but then he IS a strange fellow sometimes.

"Yeah, uhh--we're just here for her. Nobody's gonna hurt you. Just want our friend back," Andelena says, gesturing gently in Verna's direction. "Please." (It never hurts to be polite.)

Dolan keeps himself between Phyrelia and the circle, but his head is not turned towards the woman. It is turned towards Verna, and he watches and waits, cautiously. "Yeah, no problem with you, especially not if you helped her out. What about you? You all right where you are?" The mass of conflicting and confused gamut of emotion he wears is plain to see.

Lysos has her hands over her eyes, as if that could even protect her. Heels pressed firmly against the orbs, pressing them deeper into her sockets. Might be the Tsuran has reached her limit of alien weirdness.

The woman shakes her head furiously at Telamon's effort to get her name, looking like she expects to be eaten by the group of you. She plainly radiates fear. Her eyes flicker to Andelena and then to Dolan. "I am well sir." She says quietly, trying not to look at Lysos. Oddly Lysos' fear of her seems to be perhaps the source of her own fear. "I am human." She reiterates, hiding her tentacle arm.

Verna takes another step back from the magic circle. Toward you. She seems slightly unconscious of this fact until she looks at you guys. For a moment her eyes - you swear they flash yellow - yet she doesn't turn furry and she moves carefully toward you with purpose. "We should go nooooow." Says Tanith, her voice full of concern. "Hewillbeback!"

Telamon stares carefully at Verna. "Verna, can you speak?" He gestures for Lysos to bring forth the symbol of Vardama. "Are you well?" He doesn't like this silent treatment much. Granted, it wasn't like the Mourner was the most garrulous of persons, but... "I'm sure you're eager to get back home," he says cautiously. Trying to draw something out.

"We don't have a lot of time," Dolan agrees, his face turned towards Verna, and the chocolate-brown one narrows as he catches that yellow flash. "But I know what it's like to be stared at. Grab her and let's go." He doesn't dare look at Andelena, or anyone else, does not take his eyes from Verna - he is quite obviously as wary as he is weary.

"Uhh--yeah, if the golden one's nervous, we need to gee-oo-go right the hell now," Andelena says, eyes darting over to Tanith, and she's already fumbling for hands to help facilitate teleporting out. (Obviously, she's pawing for Dolan's first.)

Lysos doesn't actually see Telamon's gesture.. it probably takes a nudge or a cough or something similar, but she does come around... if from the urgency of everyone's words, at the very least. "Oh!" she blurts, swallowing hard as she very much avoids looking at the tentacle armed lady, fishing into her pocket for the holy symbol and the ring. And the finger. She pushes these all into Verna's hands.

Verna blinks once or twice as she looks to each in turn. She started to answer, making a hoarse sound before pausing to swallow. "I am better. Apparently panting dries the-" and then she has items pressed to her. Another blink and glance before some sense of urgency is noted finger in Lysos' pocket, the woman with the tentacle, or that Verna had fur a moment ago. "Is something amiss?" Aside from the finger in Lysos' pocket, the tentacled woman, and that Verna had fur a few moments ago, of course

The moment that Lysos and Verna touch, Tanith teleports everyone. She doesn't wait for a reply, but rather returns you all to the round-tabled room that you'd left behind what seems in retrospect like a lifetime ago.

It's disorienting, doing that multiple times in a row, and Dolan staggers when the second teleport untwists, coalescing into the the round-tabled room, automatically dropping hands and looking around him. "Shit. Tanith, you're a marvel. How in all the green garden hells did you _do_ that?" There's awe and no small amount of respect in the flesh-and-blood eye. "That would have been eleventy dozen levels of fucked without you."

Telamon staggers slightly as his feet hit the floor, and he looks around. Yep, this is the Round Table. He then glances to Tanith, and scratches the little dragon gently. "Well done," he says gently. "Very well done." With that, his eyes land on Verna. "Mourner, with all due respect, I think you need to visit the temples. That... could've gone very, very sideways." That said, though, he smiles at Phyrelia, and inclines his head. "Welcome back to Alexandria."

Lysos wasn't ready for the last jump. Not that she was too terribly ready for the previous ones, but at least there'd been warnings. And to be fair, being ready for this one may not have helped. As the dragon's plane-shift teleport dumps them back into the meeting room she stumbles and falls on her arse, one hand on her gut, the other clapped over her mouth.

"Amazing," Andelena agrees, looking at Tanith with complete and total awe and adoration in her eyes. The Sunguard doesn't often look at anyone or anything like that--Dolan's seen it before, of course--but Tanith's earned it twice over. "We... Shit Bry, aren't we supposed to like, offer her /something/? A meal? Fish?"

Then she looks back to Phyrelia and nods. "Nevermind, all that can wait--welcome back, Phy." She smiles at the not-child warmly.

Tanith chitters with pleasure at the many complements, her golden eyes shining with mirth and goodwill. "It's a secret!" She declares simply, not bothering in the least to explain her magical ways. "Happy to help!" She says and then... Well someone says the magic word and she launches into the air (after she's had her pettings of course) and eagerly flies through the room. "FISH!!!"

Nope. Nobody is getting any work done until she's fed.

-End