Living Daed Man

The Healer's temple. For one generally dubious (at best) of the various deities, Aya has spent an increasing amount of time within one or another in the past year. Most recently, much sitting and/or pacing (mostly pacing) at Vardama's Temple. Now things have changed for the better.

Aya now currently paces in Althea's Temple... or, rather, in one of the larger treatment rooms. Layers of silk flutter as she moves, far more colorful than her norm. The many-layered dress/wrap would be recognizable to some as the one that nearly pinned her in the dress shop. Does she look presentable? Possibly? Does she feel rather like an ostentatious gnome? Yes (no offense to any ostentatious gnomes). Still, -he- purchased it for her. Also, she might appear less threatening to him should he return.

-He- being Daechir, of course; brought from his entombment at said prior temple. His current condition is ...grim ... yet Aya holds some hope that it is entirely curable and reversible.

A well dressed, scarred mul'neissian woman is present. Clad in black slacks, a white button up, a silvery vest and a matching black coat. Wide rimmed, silver shades hang from her collar as a silver clasps adorn her ears as a gray ringed piece of metal with a filigree pattern to it is keeping her hair bunched into a bun.

Aryia steps forward to her pacing sister, a white gloved hand catching a shoulder as it passes by. She gets her attention with a flutter of her free hand, raises it as she takes a deep breath In.

Then slowly lowers it as she exhales Out.

She softly smiles.

Announced by pleasant humming, Jinks arrives smelling of fading lavender perfumes and various tavern smells. The gnome doesn't carry a bottle with him but his rubber-legged skip all but announces to the world that he's at the tailend of a long and eventful evening.

A long velvet coat in emerald hangs opens and flaps around his legs when he walks. His silken shirt is pasted to his slight torso, unbuttoned low to reveal a smattering of fading bruises around the base of his neck and sternum. His usual assortment of jewels are intact and he's spinning the coyote-chasing-its-tail ring as he steps into the room.

The temple of Althea is a welcoming place, full of warmth, good food and care for everyone in need in the place. an oven that was stoked regularly, and all manner of people milling about, taking food, talking to people, healing those who did not need more intensive care. One of the acolytes in question does stop what they were doing to walk over quickly to the very out of place looking group. "Good day to you all, senior Hearthguard Seyardu told me they were expecting you this morning." They greet. "The preparations are underway, so you are welcome to join her in one of the side rooms off of the main hall, the seventh on the right."

The hand to her shoulder causes Aya to pause her steps and the gesturing hand grabs her attention away from similarly-pacing thoughts. Still, it takes her a moment to associate the gesture to her sister's respiration and parse its meaning. So she breathes: in.out.in.out... in ... out. There; it slows somewhat and she nods, offering a flickering hint of smirk in return.

Just in time for Jinks to arrive. He gets a long look and consideration. She may now feel less ... overly colorful. As well, he is all but guaranteed to have that flask on his person... Aya dips her head to him in a nod of acknowledgement.

Both of those diversion are promptly dropped as her head snaps around to the arriving and greeting acolyte. Aya's eyes are already looking down the hall and counting doorways. Then... she is off. Not at a sprint, but rather a brisk walk. For a monk. It isn't until she is several strides away that she calls back a light "Thank you," without breaking stride as she heads for The Room.

Aryia nods in approval, patting the fellow mul'neissa on the back before her attention shifts towards the dandy at the entrance. She gives a light smile and a wave towards Jinks, giving him a thumbs up at his attire.

The dapper mute nods towards the acolyte, her brushing off her jacket with the back of a hand as she heads on towards the indicated room with the others.

Seeing as there's little chance of keeping up with the two tallmen speedwalkers, Jinks takes his time. The gnome unties the ribbon in his hair as he walks, combing his gnimble fingers back through it with alternating hands, collecting up and re-securing his ponytail. Then he tosses back his coat and finds his pockets, craning his neck curiously to peer into the open doors they pass along the way.

The minstrel pauses just outside the room, smoothing down his goatee and taking a steadying breath. The all-too-casual mask slips for the briefest fraction of a heartbeat before he's grinning his fool's grin and stepping into the ritual space.

"... remember the first time I saw someone returned to life," he muses aloud, onyx-black eyes roaming the walls and ceiling. "Halani." He reaches up and taps his forehead with a decorated, glittering finger. "Took one right between the eyes. Mulria's sideways smile she was just a child at the time..."

Inside the room was one of the much larger ones of the temple, filled with the same polished stone as much of them, blue pennants and banners hanging from the walls to bring color to the room in the light of the lanterns set within it.

The room was filled with the scent of roses, and Seyardu waited on a bench inside. "Thank you all for coming, peace on your nests." The cleric greets. "Please, step inside and make yourselves comfortable. This should only take a few moments, but I will need the reagents necessary for the spell, if you brought them with you."

Aya suddenly slows as she enters the room, and not only due to Seyardu waiting just inside. Contrary to her haste to arrive, she seems suddenly less inclined to look for and/or see the one they are here to tend.

Fortunately, it is easy to focus wholly on Seyardu at her greeting and request. "Yes, of course." She retrieves a simple pouch and offers it to the Makari Hearthguard, the contents tinkling. "Use all that is required or desired."

She did not take much time to count diamonds nor their worth, only ensuring that there is more than enough. Such might draw unwanted attention, and then there might be more dead in her wake.

Aryia files into the room and slips off to the side as to not get in the way of anything. Her gaze settles on the setup and the chamber, expression softening as memories filed in from a time ago. How happy her sister seemed to be in those few scarce moments before...

The mute waves to Seyardu, "Peace on your nest," she signs back to her as she bows slowly before stepping aside. She flicks her attention to Jinks, and raises a brow. "I've never seen it been done before," she admits with some flicks of a white gloved hand.

She watches Aya, hands folded in front of herself. She hoped, at the very least, her being here would give her sister the strength to press on. For weal or woe. <Handspeech>

Jinks rocks on his heels and gives Seyardu a wink in hello. A brief glance is given to the subject of today's gathering before he shrugs and finds a chair to climb. He tosses out the bottom of his coat and perches on the back of the chair, rubbing idly at his neck and wincing mildly.

"To be fair, I didn't get to see the Happening but the islander girl was still coffin-fresh and crying when I arrived." The gnome produced the flask Aya had predicted earlier but doesn't quite open it yet. "They said I'd missed the scheduled time but I'm still sure they just started early to spite me. I'm quite punctual," he grunts.

There's a table in the middle of the room which holds the body. A white linen cloth has been draped over it to prevent anyone from getting a glimpse of the deceased and being disturbed by the sight. In spite of the roses a scent of decay hovers about the table. It has after all been some time since Daechir passed, and there's little the roses can do to hide that.

Seyardu takes the pouch, and sets it down on the bench for the time being as she nods. "Thank you, that should be more than enough. But as I was told the other day, it would be best to make sure it will not be wasted first." The cleric states.

"I can allow their spirit to speak to you through the body for now, but I have to be the one speaking and asking questions. I would ask, what you would like to ask. There will be time for several, a half dozen at most."

Aya glances to Aryia after handing off the pouch; she is grateful for her presence and even offers a hint of smile. Also, yes, looking to her means not looking to the sheet. Not that she expects Daed to be anything but well-dressed beneath it; dapper, even; smiling...

This is not helping.

She is promptly pulled from that (thankfully..?) when Seyardu's words register. Wait, what? Talk to him? While he is still ...not here? That was ... wholly unexpected and she is unprepared for that, as widening eyes show.

"I..." her head then shakes, almost imperceptibly, hesitantly, at first, but growing more recognizable in the negative. "...No. There is no waste, regardless of the outcome. I would speak with him here, directly, if he returns..." The 'or not at all' is not stated aloud, but obviously the implied alternative.

Wondering whether he might return, or what he would think if he did are concern enough; a venue for him to chastise her from beyond, and remain so would be ... deserved, yes, but...

Aryia takes a seat next to Jinks and crosses her legs. She affords a little chuff at the smallman's grumbling. "Well, at least it'll be a first for both of us," she signs back to him as her attention settles on the table in the center of the room. She lightly sighs, already anticipating Aya's answer to having the option of speaking with him before he's fully here.

She clasps her hands together, and leans forward, resting her chin atop her knuckles as glowing eyes watch this to sear it in her memory. <Handspeech>

"Without seeing it through I can admit I prefer being here to over there," Jinks adds, canting his chin towards the platform supporting the corpse. The he closes his mouth with a glance between Aya and Seyardu, pantomiming the pulling of a needle and thread through his lips.

An illusion immediately spoiled by his unscrewing the cap of the flask and taking a drink.

"So be it. But if nothing happens, then the diamonds will be gone. And you can not help others with them." Seyardu sighs. "It is your choice, and I will respect it."

She reaches back down, takes the small pouch, and looks to find a diamond that would suit the purposes, before she moves over to where the body is. "It should not take long, then."

Aya has finally succeeded in slowing her breathing as Aryia wished... as she now exhales a breath held since her response. This leaves her nodding to the now moving Seyardu. One hurdle down. Though now her attention can do little but follow the Makari to the slab, sheet, and slain.

"As should we all," she manages to note quietly in Jinks' direction, even as her body takes advantage of the twist to reach a hand for Aryia. Her eyes now remain firmly fixed upon the .. dias.

Aryia slowly nods in agreement, her watching on as she tenses and untenses her jaw. A gloved hand find's Arya's own, and she gently holds onto it.

Quietly, she mutters in mostly, "Tarien, I fucking swear, no goddamn jokes." <Celestial/Tongues>

Jinks doesn't understand Aryia's muttering but he refrains from taking his opera glasses out, anyway. Maybe Coyote handed the message back down. A divine game of whisper-chains. Or it could just be he's busy having a drink.

There's little for the gnome to do here, so he simply remains perched on the back of the chair watching from an elevated position.

Seyardu finds a large diamond that seems to fit the bill, and she looks to the others, and sighs. "I will need to touch the body directly for the spell, so I will need to remove the drape. It will take a minute as I prepare afterwards." She warns, giving the others the chance to look away if they wished, before she lifts the shroud up and away, only exposing their head. Then, she steps away, closing her eyes and beginning to chant. Only near the end does what she say turn into actual words shared in draconic. The lantern she brought with her seems to trail away from the bench, blue smoke swirling around the shrouded figure.

"Celestial Mother, this one asks you for your aid. The fiends around this city have taken too much that was not theirs to take, and your children have suffered for it. This one is held dearly to others, and Aya, who this one owes too much too. With your grace and strength, through this ones hands, allow Daechir to be brought back from the shade of the death singing dragon's wings to the plane of the living, to return Aya's family to wholeness everyone deserves." 

The diamond in the palm of their hand was glowing blue as well now, and it shattered as she clenched it, before quickly placing the palm of her hand on the forehead of the body.

<Draconic>

Daechir's deathly form is best left undescribed, and for a moment after the diamond is crushed against his brow it seems that nothing happens. Then... The deathly palor of his skin begins to fill out and darken. The shallowness of his flesh filling out. The sheet has fallen low enough to see the edge of his clothing and the grievious injury which killed him. It seems, that because no one came forward to claim his body, he's still wearing the same thing as he had been that night.

Quickly the spell repairs the damage to his form, and though it seems like it takes a great deal of time for his body to recover from its state, suddenly there's a great intake of breath, and only a few moments have passed.

The spell does not fix the damage to his clothing, does not chase the dried blood from his lips and chin, but his red eyes open and are filled with confusion. Daechir blinks, looking at a room filled with familiar and unfamiliar faces, and he notices last the sheet he's suddenly clenching in his fist as he tries to rise from his place laying on the bed. "W-"

His voice is a croak and he winces, his arms trembling at the attempt to hold him upright. Threatening to spill him back onto the table. His mouth is unbearably dry, and if the momentary disgust that flickers across his lips is any indication, not a pleasant taste there either. All of this is banished however when his eyes fall on Aya and his gaze softens.

For once in quite some time, Aya is a deathly still as Daechir. She can do naught but watch as Seyardu makes her plea. Watch and .. hope? pray? The latter is truly more the silverscale's domain, and Aya has no tongue for such things, anyhow. There is no need, much less desire, to seek any wounds upon him, so she simply looks to his face. And squeezes Aryia's hand.

After the gem is crushed, taken as the conclusion of the spell, she cannot help but creep forward a step. Her hold on Aryia tethers her there a moment, but then another step forward causes her to pull free.

And then Daechir sits up...

Another step. Then Aya halts. She continues to stare.

Amidst all these strides, hand-holding, and staring, the only thing she seems to forget to do.. is breathe.

Aryia sits a bit nervously as the spell goes on, it taking some time to go off. She flinches as the gem breaks. Was that... it? Wait-

She leans in some, getting up out of her chair as she sees once soiled flesh becoming hale.

Fingers slip free from her sister's grasp as she hazards steps forward, her clasping her hands in front of her.

Then he stands up. Shining eyes grow wide in disbelief.

"H-ly sh-t, S-y... y- d-d -t..." she hisses out quietly, her staring on beyond surprised, her jaw hanging loose.

Seyardu takes a step back, catching her breath, clearly tired from what had transpired. Whatever was left of the diamond was gone from her hand completely. "I did just do that, did I not?" She asks Aryia, tiredly smiling to the mul'niessa. "You should help him sit up Aya. Better you than someone who is basically a stranger. It is good that you are back Daechir, if you need a change of clothes, I can fetch some robes from the storage for you."

Daechir doesn't really seem terribly aware of anyone else for a long moment, staring at Aya as he is. Yet Seyardu's words draw him out of his own headspace and he nods. "Fr-fresh clothes would be appreciated. And water?" His voice is hoarse from a mouth gone dry for too long, and he makes a small sound in the back of his throat to clear it before he shakily reaches out for Aya.

It's a bad move on his part, because his other arm hasn't the strength to support him and he tilts to the side toward her. Clumsily his fingers reach for her shoulder for stability. "Aya..."

Whether it is Seyardu's common sense or Daechir's reaching, Aya snaps free from her still staring. She may not be able to step through the shadows, here and now, but she may as well have. Daechir gains immediate stability from her shoulder. And torso connected to it. And the arms connected to that. All as he is enveloped in an embrace. For stability, of course.

"Daed," is the first thing she utters after remembering to breathe in the instant of travel, "All is well. You are with us, and safe." She is quiet again for another breathe or three before she comments, "There is clothing here for you. You cannot -not- be well-dressed, afterall."

Eventually, her 'support' slackens just enough to spare a hand for a moment. A brief gesture at her side to Seyardu, Aryia, perhaps even Jinks as well.

Thank you.

-End