Prices to Pay
Tenth Day of Elnu-Hamba (Elnu Descendent), 1349 A. L. (After Landfall)
When you agreed to this you had expected a work of subtle craft, some hidden invocation in the dark, some call the powers of the deep earth in the dark below, akin perhaps to the call to the spirit of Onogu Iranea from his unquiet grave. What you had not expected was for you and Tom to be standing sheepishly close in what seems to be some kind of vestibule that in better times had served the maids of the princess, as can be seen by the linen wraps too simple perhaps to have tempted looters, or perhaps removed. Esha does not seem the least surprised to be shown to such a chamber and to Inge one corner of a palace is much the same as another. She had hesitantly admitted yesterday that she just wanted to be some place warm again 'where words don't flutter from wall to wall like startled bats' Though you cannot read Wanderer's face as well as any of the others it is clear he understands the danger here.
The Knikut, at least those tribes you have so far met, do not see the Neverborn as creatures apart from the world, but as spirits just as they would see the fey or the dead, foul and ancient, but in their eyes there's reason to wade even though the most fetid waters to save a drowning soul. Not for the first time you wonder if they might be wiser than more 'civilized' folk would account for.
Neverborn, means they had never been alive under the sun yet here and how Aina reaches out for the red stained rope adorned with many bells, each carved from the bones of beast and bird and fish you wonder what it is to be Neverborn... yet not.
The bells sound cold, like the clanking of stones down a long deep shaft out of sight... out of hearing, then comes the patter of soft feet and a voice from the walls: "What does mistress want?" Meek it sounds, almost fearful, though under it you can hear something darker.
"I am not your mistress, we have a bargain one with the other, the one that holds you to this place when you choose to abide, that gives you form and substance. You drink of the mead of warriors and eat the
domodah made by the lady of the House..."
"Which are you then?" the spirit asks waspishly. "You come with hosts an bearing fire, yet you call on us as a girl who has not yet met the moon."
"I call you by the manner than I know, for I was never taught another," the princess replies as you look tither and yon for some sign of the spirit, holding your shield at the ready to throw in front of Aina as best you can.
How are you meant to guard against what you cannot see?
"Then you have been taught folly!" the scream suddenly echoes down the long corridors, so looud is must surely have carried far and wind through the echoing corridors. Aina had sent away as many of the servants as she could without suspicion from the west of the palace, but what does that count beside a howling banshee? "If you would have our aid in battle than you have come too late, if you would beg our mercy than you have come too early. The First world is past, the Third has Yet to Be! Blood in blood shall be paid!"
"Blood has already been paid, much blood and suffering, Adi, Obari, father, nana Luaza, all of them are dead, gone, all of them gristle to the mill of the evil that has come here. If you still be anything of the spirit that braided my fair when i was a girl and sang away the nightmares when the storm blew in help me now or hold your peace...." the words are not a command but pleading and yet for all of that they seem to have some power.
Slowly, agonizingly the stone on the far wall began to flow into the shape of a crude face, its eyes deep pits and lipless mouth opening wide as though in a silent scream. "A bargain then, let us walk freely under the light of day, break the secret and reveal that which was hidden in the time of Kor that we may be known as king's kin and I shall tell you how to find those you seek, how to cut off the head of the beast. "
At this Aina is frozen in shock and indecision. To reveal to all what she has just recently told you in confidence, that her kin had made servants out of the spirits of the slain. Worse yet she did not know how the spirit who offered her the bargain had been touched by the darkness.
Before she could answer there was a call on the other side of the heavy doors leading into the apartments, then the thump of someone trying to push their way in. "What on Ashinu's green earth is happening there?" you hear one voice call, a young one, and those that answer it aren't much different.
What do you do?
[] Try to bluff the warriors at the door
-[] Write in
[] There aren't that many of them, incapacitate them, once you have your answers and the heads of foes much can be excused
[] Write in
OOC: Your rolls were very swingy this time around. 
