Of Mortal Sorrows and Fey Pride
Twenty-Sixth Day of the Tenth Month 293 AC
Swan Street fails rather thoroughly to live up to its name, from the scab-like lichen growing between the paving stones to the grime turning the pale sandstone of the shops to a light blotchy brown, where it is not covered in the marks of the local gangs. Colored strips of cloth hang listlessly on a rope spanning the street, you suspect in imitation of Westerosi pennants, and if so, put there almost two months ago to coincide with the tourney in the Deep. They say a rising tide raises all boats, but you know better. The ones with holes in the bottom will sink just the same.
It is not hard to guess what 'malady' afflicted the craftsmen here. The freeing of the slaves who did the simple but necessary work apprentices handled in other realms left them without the coin to hire freemen for the task. Many of the stories of the conquest of the Three Daughters dwell upon the fall of the great latifundia or trading houses, but in truth they were far better equipped to weather the storm than most, at least if their owner managed to avoid the noose. It is not hard to find the tailor shop Haldon had mentioned. The sign of a pair of scissors and a measuring stick creaks above a door covered in peeling green paint... and beside it a beggar trying to find what shelter he can against the chill of approaching night.
Rina reaches out to toss a steel Faith in his bowl, but you reach out to stop her. "Too valuable, he won't keep that long."
"I just wish I could help," she sighs.
The man does not recognize either of you for who you are beneath your glamours, of course, but you still have the look of relatively wealthy travelers. "Turn around. Turn around right now, missy, and don't make any deals with old Hogart. It'll be better than anything he could pay me." He spits on the ground. "May the Lord of Light strike the bastard blind and deaf for what he's done."
Thoros, the only one among you to be wearing his own face, shakes his head sadly and drops a fist-full of bronze Trades in the beggar's bowl. A windfall, but one he can explain away when he goes to spend it. "He would sooner bless the innocent than curse the guilty."
"What
has he done?" you ask, half tempted to add to the gift, but knowing that anymore would likely arouse suspicion. This is not a problem you solve by slipping your hand into your pocket here and now in any case. You need some sort of net to catch those who slip between the cracks of the system, former slaves ill-fortuned in gaining their freedom. Hell, the man before you would probably be better off breaking a law and getting sent off to prison, absurd as that may be.
"He uses folks right up he does, takes us off the street saying he'll feed and clothe us but ain't no one that left his shop any better off than they found it," he answers, old anger mixing with shock at the priest's generosity. "And that's for the ones that even make it out," the beggar adds, determined to pay back the gift in words and tales or driven to pay ill with ill to his former employer. "There's a lot who come out of here feet first and no one gives a damn, 'cause they were sick, old and nameless when they came in."
"Are you sick?" Rina asks a touch hesitantly.
"Nothing catching, lass, just the aches and pains you'd expect inside and out, nothing a warm meal won't help put right," the words have more hope than confidence, a fact that Rina notices too to judge from the determined light in her eyes.
"Do you want me to heal you... with magic?" she adds after a moment.
The old man looks at Thoros, eyes wide, to which the priest nods in encouragement. "It won't harm you in body or in soul."
Rina reaches out and with a whispered spell in that tongue like breaking ice, she cures all sickness from his flesh, for though the power she wields cannot mend or strengthen life, the cold can slay plagues and parasites as easily as anything else alive.
"Lady Rina, Lady Rina is that you," a tiny fey light flickers up from among the weeds, the
sprite clearly known to your companion.
"Yes, it's me, Dewchaser, but you shouldn't announce it to all and sundry," she sighs as the old beggar, more hale and healthy than he has been in a long time, stutters his thanks and walks away from the odd meeting.
"What are you even doing here?"the frost-touched mage adds.
"I'm investigating the Hooded Lord and his Hunters," the sprite proclaims with pride that brings to mind Moonsong's manner. He is another fey spirit who would not let something so insignificant as being the size of the dragonfly whose wings he bears get him to back down from a challenge.
"How did you come to investigate
here?" you interject intrigued.
"I followed a rumor I heard from a house spirit that said the dreams of mortals had been troubled by visions of death on tattered wings. If they think I'm going to take my life being threatened for no cause..."
"You were going to fight one of these fey hunters?" Thoros asks incredulously.
"Well, no..." Dewchaser's light flickers brighter in embarrassment. "I was just going to spy on them, look around, and then I noticed there are fey wards on the shop writ in fire."
Calling on the second sight, you see there is indeed a simple
ward laid out across the threshold, like embers spread across the stone.
What do you do?
[] Speak to Hogart the Tailor
-[] Write in
[] Dispel the ward and sneak in
-[] Write in
[] Write in
OOC: It's been a while since I got to name the new currency, I hope it integrates properly.