Arc 11 Post 25: By Light Step and Hidden Hand
By Light Step and Hidden Hand
Day of the Dead 1348 A. L. (After Landfall)
When did you become the speaker to the spirits, you wonder, the strangeness of the hour no match for the growing headache born due to too little sleep and too much worry. Still, Inge is not going to speak up and Antoniois obviously of two minds on the matter. "Keen are your ears, but alas you have come too late, for that which you have sought is in the keeping of Serik, servant of Ashinu, who by his arts cured two among our number of a curse of drowning which fell upon them from the spite of a vanquished foe," you say in as formal a manner as you can manage.
The look of faint amusement flickers like a candle in the wind upon the face of the herald and beneath it you see, or think you see at least, a flash of anger, but before you can catch more than a glimpse of it she sighs and looks around the courtyard. spotting the small shape of the owl which has by now lingered close to the Marcella for almost three moonturns. She crooks a finger at it and it half hoots half sings a sleepy little melody, but the bird does not budge, only ruffling its feathers as though the spirit had disturbed it... though now you wonder what it was doing here and not on the ship where it usually sleeps.
"That's not a bird," Fechin says loudly, before adding in a singsong tone. "There, I've given you away, see if you don't want to play nice."
"Well, what in the Devil is it then?" Antonio asks perturbed, but the spirit pays him no mind, instead pointing at a little black nightjar which you had not even noticed in the moonlit gloom, making a sound like clinking and crooning and this time the bird comes to her hand tame as a dove and takes from it an odd metal cylinder, too small for any letter surely.
In spite of that she dusts off her hands dramatically. "There, now I won't have to go back until morning and in the meantime we can get to know each other better. I know there is much you would ask me and surely there are things of note you can tell me in turn, news of the south and of the Sunset Lands beyond the sea that one cannot hear on the whistling wind. A nights fair telling for questions three, these I freely give."
"She means that she expects to be feasted and amazed with all the tales of our exploits and in exchange she will answer three of our questions to the best of her ability," you hear Esha's voice echo in your mind, though there is something odd about it, beneath the acerbic manner you had expected of her she sounds wary, almost afraid. "Ask her if she would like leaks or sweetbread."
An odd thing to ask of any guest, but still Esha has earned your trust and there must be some reason why she is watching from a window and not here herself. "What manner of feast would be most pleasing to you... my lady Fechin?" The title feels awkward on your lips and ill fitting, as though you had decided one day to call a tree 'my lord' or a cloud 'your grace'. "We have, I fear, but little in the way of provisions, winter leaks and the like, but I am sure the cook can bake some sweetbread with honey in good time..." You send a silent apology to Zuan as you are sure of no such thing.
"Leeks, I love leek, no need to wake the cook," the messenger brightens.
You get a vague sense of flickering lights and ghostly laughter in the deep woods, birds and beasts watching from every branch and on those paths a shadow moving lighter than the wind on the leaves. "Lemkin," Esha names them and adds. "I would almost rather fight the dragon if given the choice... good thing this one isn't here as a foe, you would not even have seen it until the poison was already in your veins. "
"Why do you think they've sent such a herald?" you ask, more bewildered than wary. Perhaps it is foolish of you, but it is hard to see great peril in what seems to you a bubbly smiling child.
"They are skilled indeed in hiding from eyes near and far," Esha replies.
What questions do you ask of the fey herald in exchange for your tales?
Choose Three:
[] The strange owl, she seems to have recognized it
[] The Anjo-oru and their unholy pacts, for it is against them that you go to war
[] Dragons and the portents of their waking
[] The otter-kin, their beginnings lost to time, and if any should know anything about them it would be the fey
[] Who In Orinilu has dealings with their court
[] What manner of trade would be the most pleasing to the Court of the Great Wheel
[] The lady of whom the messenger spoke
[] What it means to be without fate (will require revealing where you come from)
[] Some means of breaking curses that linger on two of your men
[] Write in
OOC: No actual chance to trade this time around since you are just leaving, but this is your chance to make a good impression and learn some things.
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