3/11/07

Are You Talking To Me?

Susan Jane in the big chair, with James & Arnold trying to cause trouble.

 

As they headed to the smoke shop, the pair discussed their options. Clearly asking for a rules clarification and/or help with the location of the Fairy Star would not work. Confronting the sisters about the risk they placed participants in would definitely get their attention, but could also probably get Kissa and Ophir killed. They briefly pondered kidnapping one to ransom, but abandoned the idea as too difficult to carry out. While capturing one should be relatively easy, where to take her and how to hold her would be a problem. Assuming they had the prizes with them, stealing the prizes would leave the pair facing an angry mob of contest participants empty handed, that would get interesting fast. Ophir liked that idea best. while Kissa preferred taking the direct approach.

Halfway there Kissa was sure she saw a shadowy presence following them. "Do you see that?" she asked.

"What?" Ophir was too busy scheming to notice

"Never mind."

When the reached the shop, they found out it was actually an open air cafe in the middle of a large plaza. The twins were sitting towards the middle of the opposite side, intently playing a game of tiles. Ophir brainstormed a wild plan where Kissa would run through the cafe and flip the table they were playing tiles, while Ophir followed after accusing Kissa of thieving. When Ophir reached the twins he would take advantage of the chaos to pick a pocket or two, before resuming his chase of Kissa. It was a reckless plan, but that was Ophir's style. Kissa again advocated the straightforward plan and then suddenly without warning said, "let's do it your way!" and started running. Ophir had to grab her and stop her. He was about to try to reason with her when her head jerked in the direction of an alley across the street.
Kissa heard an amused laugh. She stared across the street. There it was again in the mouth of the alley. The shadowy form. She grabbed Ophir's arm and pointed to the mouth of the alley.

"Are you alright?" Ophir asked, looking across the street at the empty alley.

Kissa continued to stare across the street. "OK, I can see you. What are you playing at?"

"They don't have it" said a voice only Kissa could hear.

"What?" said Kissa. Ophir was staring at her gap mouthed. He kept looking back at the alley, but still saw nothing.

"The Fairy Star."

By now Kissa was walking across the street to 'converse' with the shadowy form. Ophir followed a few steps behind with a look of concern on his face. About halfway across the street Ophir began to sweep an arc around the mouth of the alley looking for what he was missing. He thought he heard some sort of swishing sound.

"Why are you following us?"

"I want what you want."

"And?"

"They don't have it."

"What do you know about it?" probed Kissa.

"More than you."

"Like?"

"There is more than one."

"Really," Kissa was curious. This shadow seemed to no more than anyone they had encountered yet. She wanted to know more, "in Hopeless?"

"That is doubtful, I suspect there is only one here at this time. The others are scattered. Tell me what you have learned so far."

"Very little. In fact the only people that seem to even know what it is are a few high level mages we have run into. I am curious as to why you want it?"

"That's a ridiculous question."

"No it's not. We are in a contest and we need it to win, what do you want it for?"

"Do you have any idea what it is worth? Wealth beyond your wildest comprehension. More than all the prizes in your silly contest ten times over. I wouldn't kept it for myself, I'd sell it."

"So what do you suggest we do?"

"Get yourself captured."

"To what end."

"So that I can follow you to where they take you, that is where we will find clues to the location of the Fairy Star."

"Can I discuss this with my friend?"

"I'm not stopping you."

Kissa headed over to where Ophir was standing and brought him up to speed on the exchange. Ophir was incredulous. "Why would you want to get captured to help... him" Ophir choked back the work, the corrected himself "it? What's in it for you? What happens after you are captured? Can I talk to this... this thing?"

Ophir started toward the mouth of the alley and was almost immediately overwhelmed by a sense of... wrongness. It scared him and made him nauseous. He backed away.

Kissa headed back to the alley and said "If I help you what will you do for me?"

"Give you a share of the profits, you name it" said a voice only Kissa could hear. Ophir thought he heard the faint rustle again.

"What about my capture, what good are profits if I am being held?"

"Well, I will free you of course."

Kissa was at a loss, she went back over to Ophir. "What do you think we should do?"

"Stick to our original plan and stop talking to.. to... ghosts." The whole situation was making Ophir jittery.

"So I should just go up and talk to them?"

"Yeah. Tell them we know someone who knows about the Fairy Star, and then judge their reaction. You can always give them a description of Scarface or of Changer, although I would prefer not to get Changer involved in any trouble. Or, you could direct them to your imaginary friend there, in the mouth of the alley." Ophir pondered the possible outcomes. "I doubt you'll get anywhere, but you might get captured and that would fit into someone's plans."

Kissa pondered a moment and then stalked off toward the square. Suddenly there were too many options and none of them were very promising. Time to stir the pot and see what surfaced.

As she entered the square the two sisters were still intently playing tiles. They were oblivious to the outside world. There were several other patrons in the cafe including a huge stone thrower, who was sitting and smoking alone. Kissa skirted the edge of the cafe and came to a stop beside the sisters, who were sitting at a table along the edge. Ophir had moved as far down the street as he could while still keeping the table in sight. Conveniently he was across the street from an alley.

Kissa cleared her throat loudly, the sisters never took their eyes off the tiles. Now that she was up close she understood the description the guard had given. These two were swords, hired mercenaries. They wore no headdress and proudly displayed their long warrior braids. Kissa had never been this close to the Fire Caste before, but she had heard about the odor. It was the faint smell of brimstone. These were formidable women.

"Hello," again no acknowledgement.

"Excuse me, I was wondering if I could talk with you about the Fairy Star?" Without ever taking her eyes off the game, one sister lunged out and grabbed Kissa's ankle squeezing a pressure point that sent stabbing pains up Kissa's leg.

"I'd like to help you find it, and thought if we shared information, I could better assist your search." The grip on Kissa's ankle tightened and the tingle shot all the way up her back. Her lower leg started to go numb.

Kissa was annoyed that they refused to acknowledge her "OK, if that is the way..." she never got to finish. As she turned to walk away a sharp tug on the ankle dropped her flat in the street. Seemingly effortlessly, the woman pulled her under the table. To add insult to injury she propped her foot up on Kissa as if she was a footstool.

Kissa noticed the boots first, fine soft black leather boots with long laces. Before she could consider them long, she noticed the weapons. Each of them carried a short sword in a leather sheath at their side. She made a mental note that a fair fight was out of the question.

Kissa waited patiently for a minute or two. Clearly this was going nowhere. Time to stir a little more.

Without warning she stood up, flipping the table and sending the tiles flying everywhere. The sisters were shocked and angry. Kissa took that split second of confusion and used it to escape. She bolted out of the cafe and rounded the corner toward the street where Ophir was. As soon as Ophir knew she had seen him he darted across the street to hide in the alley.

One of the sisters was hot on her heels. The other was waving a hand in the air and saying something. There was a whooshing sound and a powerful smell of brimstone washed over Kissa, but she ducked her head and kept running. Her speed had taken her in a wide arc around the corner to the far side of the street from the alley where Ophir was hiding. Knowing the way Ophir thought, she angled back for his side of the street. He could trip one of the sisters and even up the odds a bit.

She hazarded a glance over her shoulder. The closest sister was holding an amulet in her outstretched arm. Uh-oh! There was no ducking this time. The spell hit her full force and in a split second she was hurled 30 feet down the street on a blast of sulphur.

Time to do something. Kissa regained her composure, she made a low buzzing sound and flicked her wrist at the closest sister. Suddenly in the middle of a dead run, her shoelaces tangled and she sprawled flat out on the street. The other sister was gaining.

From his vantage point in the alley Ophir could see the sister sprawled out on the ground. Her sword had slipped from its scabbard and lay beside her on the street, along with a coin purse and another item Ophir couldn't recognize from a distance. It was all he could do not to run out and start scooping up loot. He cautioned himself to be patient remembering the second sister just a few yards away.

The sister on the street started to rise. Kissa saw the shadow slip from the alley and suddenly the sister collapsed back onto the ground. That was odd. Kissa scooped a few grains of sand off the ground, traced a pattern in the air and the second sister dropped like a stone.

Ophir was out of the alley before she hit the ground. As he neared the first sister, he noticed the object was some sort of amulet. Interesting, but not as interesting as the sword. From his hiding place he hadn't been able to see, but as he closed on the sword he could see the edge. Where a normal weapon would have a metallic glint on its sharp edges, this sword seemed to dance with gold and orange sparkles that seemed to chase along the edge, a fire enchantment! He was no more than ten feet away when the sense he had felt from Kissa's invisible friend before came over him again. This time it was so powerful he simply collapsed onto the ground with a feeling of profound emptiness.

"Tell your friend we need them alive and with all their possessions for this to work," the shadow admonished Kissa.

"What do we do now?" Kissa still wasn't sure where this was headed.

"Charm" said the shadow.

"Excuse me?"

"Charm one, and she'll lead us to what we need."

"I don't have it."

"Get it!" the shadow sighed in exasperation.

By now Ophir had recovered..As soon as he woke up he lunged forward and grabbed the sword. He was thrown back and blacked out again.

The shadow put forward another option. "I can keep mine out as long as I need to. Wake yours and she will take the other back to safety. We'll simply follow.

Ophir woke again. He looked at his stinging hand and there was an impression of the hilt of the sword burned into his flesh. He wasn't deterred. Again he sprang up to go collect the sword. Kissa held him back, explaining the shadows request and their plan.

"You know," Ophir said curtly "You're friend is really starting to piss me off."

"I think we should listen to him. I don't know why, but I feel we can trust him."

"I think you are being used and you are too naive to even realize it. If your imaginary friend has all the answers, why does he need us?"

It took a bit of cajoling, but Kissa was able to convince Ophir to at least follow along. Ophir agreed to watch her back, but adamantly refused to put himself at risk at the instruction of a force he couldn't see and didn't trust.

They slipped into the alleys and Kissa said a word and the second sister awoke groggily. She looked about for a moment or two and then became very concerned about her sister. She tried without success to wake her. She spent a few minutes cradling her sisters head in her hands before finally picking her up, throwing her over a shoulder and carrying her away. The shadow slipped in a safe distance behind with Kissa and Ophir trailing.

They took a winding route through the unfamiliar streets of the Fire Caste district. The shadow directed Kissa this way and that to avoid various hazards Kissa could not perceive. Clearly the shadow was paranoid. Kissa and Ophir felt a bit silly crossing the road every few hundred feet, ducking under windows and dog legging for a block here and there where the shadow felt they should not pass.

Eventually they came to the back entrance of a very large Fire Caste estate. They moved their way through the servant areas and came to a gate made of two iron bound wood doors, securely locked. The Shadow slipped between the doors and disappeared inside. Peeking through the crack between the doors, they could see a large courtyard with a fountain and reflecting pool. Strange, this looked to be a front entrance... accessed by going through the servants quarters, very odd. On the far side of the fountain a heated argument was taking place. There was an imposing man, who looked as if he might be the brother of the mage Ophir had knocked down earlier in the day. They couldn't make out all the words, but the gist was he was very upset that the sisters had brought rabble into the Fire Caste district. The sisters protested loudly that they were not followed and they had no idea how anyone found them.

Ophir seized on the discord. He vowed to make sure that they knew that they had not only been followed into the district, but back into their estate. As he explained to Kissa, the more they fought among themselves, the less they would trouble Basaram or look for Ophir and Kissa. He was pondering having Kissa carve "Home of the Fairy Star" into the wall, when suddenly the argument ended and the three moved inside. Kissa watched as the shadow followed. Once the courtyard was empty, Ophir picked the lock and they slipped inside.

The first thing they noticed was the smell of water. Neither had ever known that smell before, this courtyard was a level of opulence far beyond their experience. There was greenery everywhere, clearly a fortune was being spent to create this artificially lush setting. They slipped around the perimeter of the courtyard. There was a wicker door and two windows, each shuttered. Ophir tried the shutters to take a peek inside, but they were locked up tight. With no other option they opened the door. They faced an empty dark hallway that opened into room at its end. About halfway down was a door on each side. Soft light was emanating from the door on the left.

Ophir tried the door on the left and it was unlocked. He opened it and found an office. Tidy was an understatement, this office was meticulous. All the papers were in orderly stacks, drawers and boxes were tidy and everything was exactly where it was supposed to be. On top of the desk was a stand with a beautifully gleaming silver sword like object about nine inches long. It looked like a slightly curved very fine dagger, but clearly it was much too small to be a practical weapon. Ophir wasn't sure what it was, but knew taking it would upset someone and that was good enough for him. On the assumption anything that valuable would be warded against theft, he felt it wise not to grab it until they were ready to leave. He turned to Kissa.

"This is as far as I go. I'll watch your back, but I'm not getting myself killed."

Kissa had no choice but to accept his decision. The shadow came to her in the hall urging her onward and promising safety. She moved to the end of the hall and peered into the open room. It was a large immaculate parlor. All the furniture was carefully arranged and looked as if it had never been sat on. There was no other exit. The shadow knew otherwise and told Kissa to make her way to the far corner. At the shadow's instruction Kissa placed her left hand flat against the upper left portion of a blank wall. She could feel the magic tingle under her hand. She put her right hand next to it, drew it down and then over to the right. The section of wall swung away silently revealing a dark stairway heading down. The shadow lead the way.

Kissa hesitated a moment, pulled out a sling bullet and set it on the chair nearest the section of wall with the secret door. She stepped onto the stairs and closed the door firmly behind her, if the shadow needed her to open doors, at least it could not leave her behind. For the second time today, Kissa found herself underground. At the base of the stair was a long hallway with six doors, three on each side opposite each other. The shadow was nowhere to be seen. The doors were hung with beaded curtains, as Kissa advanced down the hall the beads rustled slightly as she passed. Oddly, there was no rustle as she passed the last door on the left, just an eerie silence. The hall extended a few feet beyond the last set of doors and then ended abruptly. Kissa walked toward the end. Something was not right. She could see the end of the hall, but the sound of her footsteps was all wrong. The echo of her footsteps seemed to come from farther than the end of the hall. She held up her hand to touch the wall and it went right through. She pulled out her hand, examined it, and finding it uninjured stepped right through the end of the wall.

Back in the office, Ophir was searching for something. He didn't know what it was, but was sure he would recognize it when he found it. Being illiterate, he was having little success in an office full of letters and invoices. He was, however, amusing himself to no end removing things from one file and putting them in another. For someone as compulsive as the owner of this office, this was a profound violation. They would definitely know someone had been here. He smirked imagining the chaos when his little prank was discovered.

Through the illusion at the end of the hall, Kissa found the shadow waiting. He urged caution, explaining that he had scouted ahead and there were many traps and pitfalls. He led her through what turned out to be a vast warren of tunnels. There were many doors all covered with the same beaded curtains. It was impossible to see into any of them, but the shadow informed Kissa that many were simply false facades. Kissa was guided around and over traps and steered deeper and deeper into the labyrinth. The shadow explained that of all the doors he had identified three that were particularly promising, but he needed her to let him in.

They headed to the first door. Kissa noticed a strange darkness that seeping out from below the beads. Kissa pulled the beads aside, surprised at how heavy they were. The shadow slipped in instantly. As soon as the curtain was disturbed the darkness started to ooze forward. Kissa let go of the curtain and jumped back. The ooze followed. She backed slowly down the hall with the ooze following at a steady methodical pace. What was it? and what should she do? Suddenly Kissa was wishing the shadow was there to offer advice. She turned down a corridor, hoping the ooze would go straight. No such luck, the ooze rounded the corner and continued bearing down on her slowly. It was over five feet from side to side and almost covered the floor. As it moved gaps and holes exposed themselves and then just as quickly those holes were consumed by the continuos steady forward flow. The unhurried ruthlessness the ooze exhibited had a disconcerting inevitability to it. Kissa backed up until she realized she had backed into a dead end. The ooze kept coming...

Ophir decided to check the other door. It proved to be unlocked and unoccupied. He snuck back across the hall, grabbed the lamp and went in for a closer look around. It was a virtual mirror image of the other office, but with a decidedly female flair. Where the other desk had the stand with the small knife like object, this desk had a stand with a gold rose. The detail on the rose was immaculate, definitely the most beautiful fine metalwork Ophir had ever seen. The leaves were ultra thin and had texture and veins, the petals were impressively delicate and the stem even had perfect gold thorns. It took Ophir all of about two seconds to decide to steal this first and the knife if there was time. For the rest the rooms were very similar in layout and the rigid organizational structure and unnatural tidiness were exactly the same. He began going through files and checking in drawers and boxes. Clearly this was a different business, all the forms were different, but more than that he was unable to determine. Ophir figured what was good for the gander was good for the goose. He mixed a few files for good measure.

Kissa was backed into a corner with the ooze closing in relentlessly. She made a decision and took a deep breath. Running up to the ooze she jumped and tip toed over the ooze taking great care to place her feet only where the floor was visible. Amazingly she made it all the way over without touching the mysterious black goo. The ooze immediately stopped and reversed direction. It folded over itself and again began pursuing Kissa. She didn't wait around, instead hurrying back and ducking through the curtain into the room where the shadow was waiting.

"What was that?" Kissa asked. The shadow wasn't sure but was quite certain that not touching it had been a wise course of action. Such things usually drained life energy the shadow explained. Kissa shuddered and then focused on her surroundings. What she saw was astounding. Clearly this was a mages workroom. There was a magic circle inscribed in the floor as well as a workbench with every imaginable spell component. A rack of parchment scrolls filled one wall. There was also a large cabinet. Kissa wanted everything. The shadow explained that this was ritual magic and most of it would be of little use to an arcane mage like her. They were there to look for a key, nothing more, he said and directed her to open the cabinet. The cabinet was filled with small boxes all labeled in heiroglyphics. The shadow was frustrated by his inability to see the contents of the boxes, but said they didn't have time to open each one. Then, in an uncharacteristic moment, he stared at the labels, pointed to one and told Kissa that she should take it, it would be of use to her. Kissa was surprised. Up until this moment it seemed that the shadow had been only working to serve his ends. Ever since Ophir's warning, she had been waiting for the moment of betrayal, but here was an unexpected kindness. She wasn't sure what to think. As they prepared to leave the room, she helped herself to four scrolls, despite the shadow's assertion that the ritual magic would be useless to her. If nothing else, removing them fit in with Ophir's plan of making sure they knew someone had been here. As soon as she parted the curtain to let the shadow out, the ooze began slowly pouring into the room. Having a large space to work with made it much less threatening. She simply let the ooze follow her to the far corner of the room then walked around it and out the curtain. The shadow led her to door number two.

Ophir was having fun. He began taking invoices from one office and filing them in the other and vice versa. That should really unnerve them and hopefully lead to accusations and recriminations. Nothing better than an enemy divided against itself.

Meanwhile in the warren of tunnels, Kissa and the shadow detected no traps or wards at the second door. Kissa parted the curtain and they entered what looked like a living room or trophy room. There were number of pieces of wood furniture. On one wall was a large map. It took Kissa a minute to figure out what it was. She had never seen such a map of before, but once she saw Hopeless, and the Tajia River running the length and emptying into the Sea of Sorrows she figured out it must be a map of Solsistalis. The walls had mounted heads of various monsters. Kissa had thought such creatures were mythological as she had only heard of them in scarry stories children used to frighten one another. She knew there were strange beasts out in the wastes, but this was a bit too grotesque and real. Along the walls was a series of display cabinets filled with specimen jars and curious objects. In addition there were smaller tables with all manner of strange things arrayed on them. The shadow made a quick swing through the room and declared that they would not find what they were looking for here. Kissa scooped a handful of trinkets off one of the tables hoping they would placate Ophir before parting the curtain and heading back into the tunnel network.

Ophir was getting worried. It had been over fifteen minutes since Kissa had headed down the hall. How big was this estate? He hadn't heard a thing, so she doubted she had been captured, but he was worried nonetheless. He had agreed to watch her back, and wait for her. How far did that responsibility go? The contest was ending in fifteen minutes and Ophir had every intention of being back at the Blue Statue to collect whatever winnings they may have garnered, or at least find out what the other teams managed to accomplish. He thought Kissa would be back by now. Surely the Fire Caste sisters had to leave to be at Basaram's for the judging. Of course, there might be another exit. What if Kissa was following them back to the statue shop and had abandoned Ophir here? She wouldn't do that, would she? He resolved to wait another five minutes and began pondering whether he would go after her, or leave her to her fate and head back to the Blue Statue for the end of the contest.

 

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