Arc 2 Post 12: Of Life and Death
Of Life and Death
The Twenty Second of Elnu-hamba [Elnu Descendent], Year Unknown
"If you can truly do this thing you claim then I shall scout these standing stones for you." You take a deep breath, then another. It only gets easier... Whether or not it should you cannot say for certain, but one thing you do know as sure as the earth is under your feet, there is no arguing with death. If Hugh wants to curse at you for seeing him healed by a sorcerer then he can and seek his peace with God afterwards, but if he is dead you will never know if he would have rather lived.
In his place you certainly would have.
Thus it is that you stand in the door of the sickroom, watching the old man walk up to Hugh's pallet. He takes a small clay jar out of his robes and rubs a dark red paste onto his hands while speaking into his beard, his voice too low to carry. With each syllable the red in his hands is growing brighter and brighter still until it looks as though his hands are covered in fresh blood...
You open your mouth to shout something, whether a warning or a demand for answers even you do not know, but before you can speak Ohun places his hand on Hugh's forehead and there is a flash that does not dazzle the eye but befuddles the mind.
Hugh opens his eyes, blinking blearily against the fading light of evening streaming through the window. "Who the fuck are you?" he asks in French.
"He thanks you for your healing, wise one," you hasten to 'translate'. From the amused look in his eye you do not think Ohun entirely believed you.
***
That is not the last you see of the sorcerer that evening for he invites Inge to dine with him and speak of how she had come to be lost. He seems surprised but not displeased to see you in her company, quick to call for another chair and another plate. You use your own belt knife and there is no use for spoons. Most of the food eaten is wrapped up in flat bread and again for the most part it is familiar fare, goat meat and fish with Egyptian Peas and a side of the same odd red beer you had sampled from the island. But when the time comes to eat desert you are not sure what to compare the odd yellow and reddish fruit that is served up in bite-sized slices, perhaps some sort of enormous plum crossed with an apricot. Inge calls them 'Sunfruit' from the Great Lands.
Well whatever they may be you have to agree that they taste great.
It is only once the meal is done that Ohun begins to question Inge and at first the girl is quite agreeable in her answers. She recounts how she and her master, Ilfa, had left Korman on a journey to the eastern lands, planning to learn what they could of the mysteries and ways of the Blue Sea folk while also letting the sea teach them, the ways and currents passing along strange shores. The wind was favorable and they made good time towards the Speartip Islands, planning to partake of the Ojo Iku ceremonies on the islands, the Day of the Dead.
"It is said the dead are less greedy of their secrets than the living," Ohun offers, his tone light, his eyes deep searching. "Perhaps that is why your master sought the islands."
"Maybe, he didn't tell me," Inge hesitates. "He said something about the bones of the land, the light of Green Eye revealing that which the light of the sun could not." Then she is silent a long while. "There was a fight, not sure why, the Orinilusi shot a us with arrows unaware, all perished but me. Ilfa told me to run, gave me piece of greenstone... piece of Eye and told me to run." She does not weep, though you suspect it costs her much to swallow the tears. "Ilfa was lost, they didn't bury him right, so he came back, they all came back and killed the Orilinusi. He wanted the stone... but I could not give it to him, not when he was lost..."
The story she tells from then on is a familiar one, how she had hidden in the abandoned village and sought counsel with the fish and birds, how she eventually found Ripper and sent him searching for a ship to mount a rescue. Finally how you and Zaia had found her in that last dreadful confrontation with her former master.
However your mind keeps coming back to what Ilfa might have wanted to do on the Spear Islands to begin with, and in the company of so many armed men. That does not strike you as a man going to a festival with a humble heart and a wish to learn. Had he been planning to betray his hosts and steal their secrets from the start?
Do you reveal your suspicion?
[] Yes
-[] To Inge she is most likely to be able to confirm or deny it
-[] To Ohun when you are alone, his heart is not bound up in the matter and he has dealt with you fairly thus far
[] No, it is none of our business, let the dead keep their secrets
[] Write in
OOC: I am not going to reveal how high the wisdom save was on this one since it would be something of a spoiler on its own. You guys are just going to have to judge from IC context if Roland is barking up the right tree with his suspicion.
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