Behind the Veil
The Twenty Sixth of Elnu-hamba [Elnu Descendent] Year 1348 A. L. (After Landfall)
The truth will to little good but earn you a foe where there had been none before, yet it seems an ill thing to you leaving one in desperate straights not knowing that their plans had been foiled. Thus you attempt to thread the needle.
//The Lonely Ones waled abroad by day and by night and many on the island have gone missing without a trace. The bodies of strangers also have been found by those sent to investigate the area by a local wise man. If your hopes rest in such I fear you must plan for the worst.//
For a long moment the lady Aphiwe is silent and what thoughts might lie behind those storm-grey eyes you would not hazard to guess. It is only when her illusory conjuring fails in a shower of sparks that she speaks again, her had unbowed and tone unwavering.
//So I was right that you bear ill news, but not by ill intent. Better that I should learn this now than to watch for a ship might after night in vain// She starts to peace, then lifts her head again as one struck with a sudden thought.
//You are a free sword yes, not of the Sunset Islands and giving allegiance to none of their princes? Strong must your soul have been to reach this far, and fortunate to have been carried here this night and not to some more perilous conjunction. Both luck and skill I can make use of if you should sail hither... the rewards of service are far richer than you might find in the cold and windswept north, True I might not seem to you in best of sircumstance, but I have not yet wagered my final piece Beware the watchers as I have warned before....//
Her words fade and you are falling again, pulled by a current stronger than storm winds as unrelenting as the tides, from dreaming worlds to realms of flesh where the responsibilities of the waking world hang heavy.
***
You wake to the sight of stars and a worried Inge kneeling over you. "Where did you go?" she asks a little hesitantly, obviously as surprised as you are. It feels faintly comforting that she does not know more than you do. The feeling that everyone around you friend and foe alike knows more than you gnaws upon your thoughts
Would you have been able to keep Tam alive if you had known more about the people and the spirits you faced? That too you do not know.
As you pull yourself to your feet, glad that your men were not here to see you collapse for no visible reason and hereby acted rashly, you shake your head. "Later..." there is a time and a place to be discussing offers of power and riches in distant lands and that time is not out on a lonely hill under the eyes of wild lonely things.
Later is long delayed, first with the somber ride back to Apuku with Tam's body still tied to his horse then with the urgency of finding a winding sheet and having a coffin made while Tom sees to it that the body is washed and prepared for the grave with as much dignity and honor as you can manage A sailmaker is able to handle the first, but for the second you have to make an order of a bemused carpenter along with the cross, but your money is certainly good enough to account for it.
Alas you have no priest to speak and while Zaia does both speak and read Latin he knows no prayers in it, much less ones that might have been spoken by a priest anointed by the Church in Rome. The best that any of you can do is keep vigil according to tradition an and hope that God will find his own even this far from home for in this sandy ground not far from the walls of a strange city lies a good and leal man who died doing his duty against foes beyond his ken.
You had half expected that you would look up from the newly covered grave to see looks of condemnation from the eyes of your men, fear and anger certainly, but there is very little of that. sorrow certainly, that you can see in every face and hear in every voice, but the men are somehow steadier after hearing Aubert speak the Lord's Prayer over the grave, it having been established that the son of a priest was about the closest to a proper funeral you were able to manage.
This strange journey had finally claimed one of their lives and it would claim more...
All of them, a hateful voice whispers in the back of your mind, but they had driven away the enemy, they had won. Unlike with Ilfa and the dead of the spear islands the final battle here had not been hidden from all eyes save yours and Inge and Zaia's. There had been a fight two in fact and Tam had died, but two others who had also been wounded perilously deep were now right as rain thanks to Inge's magic.
No one says it in so many words where they know you can hear them, but you have sharper years than they assume. Henri perhaps had put it the most plainly. "If it takes a bit of cunning craft to see me whole to wed my Ana then I will take it and be glad of it, better than the leech-work."
As to the 'Leech' in question it is clear that jealousy could not be further from his thoughts. He seems fascinated by the working of her healing, its limitations as much as its virtues. You have a sneaking sense that if the good doctor had his way he would learn how she does t and not feel the least guilt in the matter. Perhaps he has a point, if you had known more than you did setting out from the city less blood would have been spilled for it.
Arc Two Complete
Triumphs
+Passed the Stout Folk ambush
+Survived the Storm in the Sunset Sea
+Landed on Lirman without incident
++Made a good impression on the Anwa king and his court
+Won a Battle against the Imperials
++Drove away the chaneque and recovered the skulls for the local fey
+Fulfilled your bargain with Ohun
What did your experiences offer you?
[] More skill in peace and war alike (4500 XP -> Level UP)
[] The chance to reflect and change (3000 XP towards next level -> Level UP + the chance to change one of your feats, reassign 2 skill points or change and archetype)
[] Glimpses of the world beyond the veil of the mundane, a touch of power that lingers (1000 XP towards next level -> Level UP + the ability to choose the feat Fey Foundling)
OOC: Note that the feat is not going to be fluffed as fey foundling, just... an odd affinity for healing magic that might grow into something more. Not yet edited. 
