TURN 15, OMAKE 1 [
FERENIKE]
Ferenike 39: Eirene of Nowhere & Ferenike – Meeting Old Teachers and Impossible Sights, Pt 1.
Eirene held the tankard of spiced wine under her nose and closed her eyes as she breathed in the warm fragrance rising up from the hot beverage. As an Expert, her nose was sensitive beyond mortal means even without active enhancement. The hints of mulled spices tickling her nostrils unraveled into deeper and clearer aromas as she inhaled deeply into her nasal cavity and mouth, letting her tongue join in the effort of deciphering her drink's contents.
Cinnamon and cloves were the dominant elements she could pick up but beneath those strong presences were shades of nutmeg and cardamom which bolstered the main flavor with minor traces of star anise and peppercorn. The spice mixture well complimented the sweet tang of red wine brewed from some blend of berries. Nodding in appreciation, Eirene opened her eyes and lifted up the large container to her lips and drank it all down, slowly but steadily without pause. As the flow of liquid washed over her tongue and down her throat, she noted that whichever vintner had produced this batch of mulled wine had been ambitious in their winemaking efforts. Not content with trying to balance sweetness and spiciness, they had gone a step further to try and meld undertones of bitterness to the blend. Orange rind most likely, Eirene thought to herself. It wasn't exactly an unmitigated success but she had to give credit to the winemaker. The combination certainly made for an interesting gustatory experience.
When finally the last swallows were consumed, Eirene burped politely and placed her tankard on the small table before her. Her eyes rose from the table to meet the wide eyed gaze of the server who had brought the tankard over at her request. The waitress was dark haired and fair-skinned with a slight almost boyish frame. She had introduced herself as Hou Zhou when she had come over to Eirene's chosen seat in the small tavern the Expert had stopped over for the night. She shared similar features with a trio of other servers moving around the cozily crowded floor of the tavern and the grey-haired matron who was seemingly in charge of the tavern busy dealing with a small crowd of apparent locals at the bar counter. If the name of the establishment was anything to go by, Hou's Rest-stop was a family run affair.
"Please give my sincerest compliments to whoever made this wine," Eirene said with a small smile, "They managed to produce quite a remarkable beverage."
"How? What? That wine was fresh off the pot and you guzzled it down like it was nothing!" Hou Zhou blurted out, looking at Eirene like she was some strange beast. She stared at Eirene and apparently took her first proper look at the quest who had come in through her family's doors.
Eirene felt the young woman's focused attention pierce through the light veil of obfuscation she'd kept up during her journey and smiled ruefully. The technique she was practicing was a minor qi enchantment picked up from the looted Jingshen archives. The Harem Concubine's Veil was a subtle working of qi woven into her aura that pushed at the minds of those around her to ignore her, making them give little thought to her appearance. The technique required little upkeep in qi and made for decent practice in area affecting workings even if its actual utility was limited to niche circumstances. It failed outright against anything with the slightest spiritual sensitivity and could actually be overcome by a mortal mind with enough motivation to push back against the technique's psychic manipulations.
Eirene blurred as she stretched out her hand to catch the tray that Hou Zhou dropped in shock once her mind actually processed the person she was attending to.
"Go-golden Devil?!" Hou Zhou squeaked out in surprise.
Eirene placed the tray on the table and looked up at Hou Zhou with a lifted eyebrow. "I can't imagine that the presence of one of my Clan should be a surprise in these lands. We are the lords of this domain after all."
Hou Zhou blushed fiercely and her unoccupied hands busied themselves with crumpling the brown apron she wore. "I'm so sorry, honored cultivator. I just wasn't expecting you to be… well you! I didn't notice anything when you entered or made your order. I know I saw you and you don't look different than I remember but you weren't quite the same. I would have had Ma come attend you right away"
Eirene smiled broadly and helpfully clarified the situation for the confused young woman. "No need to worry about that. I wasn't interested in raising too much of a fuss with my presence so I made an effort to keep my identity concealed."
"You can do that?" Hou Zhou said wondering, before shaking her head at herself, "Of course you can. You're a cultivator of magic arts."
Hou Zhou recovered quickly from the shock of the unexpected revelation and her surprise was quickly transformed into excitement.
"The last patrol of Golden Devils that came through was at least a year ago. Are you here on a mission? Is it dangerous?" she asked eagerly, then she looked over at her shoulder where what Eirene assumed to be her mother was clearing at her over the counter and shuffled closer to whisper conspiratorially to Eirene, "Oh I know! It's a secret assignment which is why you're hiding yourself. Perhaps Old Fen wasn't drunkenly mouthing off like always when he said that there were strange tracks outside of town. He said that there were cultists or raiders lurking about"
Eirene pricked a hole in Hou Zhou's excitement with her next words and buried any imaginations she had of Eirene being part of some adventure like the tales of immortals the old elders told to entertain the children. "No such luck I'm afraid. I'm simply passing through here on my way to visit an old teacher and nothing more than that. I didn't exactly take a detailed look around but I'm pretty certain that Dewdrop Valley has neither bandits nor cultists in its vicinity."
Hou Zhou's face fell as her fancies of villainous threats about town awaiting a heroic resolution were summarily quashed but she quickly perked up as something came to her. "Ahah, perhaps you're here to look for the dragon's hoard that's supposedly about here?"
"What is this about a dragon's hoard?" Eirene asked curious
Nodding confidently in her conclusion, Hou Zhou continued, leaning closer in a conspiratorial manner. "Apparently a long time ago, a dragon made its nest in the mountains hereabouts. It was supposedly killed by a cultivator of the Shanqu Clan which means this was a very long time indeed. Anyways, legend has it that when it fell it managed to kill the Shanqu warrior after it had received a mortal wound and then buried itself and the treasure it had accumulated in the mountains. Supposedly the light from the morning dew in our valley is a mark of its blood spilled when it was wounded."
Eirene stared askance at this information from Hou Zhou. "Forgive me but that sounds like run of the mill village tall tales rather than a credible lead. Has anyone actually encountered any trace of this alleged dragon or its hoard?"
Hou Zhou was more than happy to answer. "Everyone in Dewdrop Valley knows the story. The old fogeys like telling it during the festivals before the tax is delivered. Even Eirene of Nowhere, the hero of the Indomitable Thirteen thought that there was something to the legend and went looking for the hoard."
Eirene's eyebrows climbed precipitously as she heard Hou Zhou reference her albeit ignorant of her true identity. "I haven't heard anything about Eirene meeting with a dragon and I'd think it would be something I'd know."
Hou Zhou looked delighted to know something that a cultivator didn't. "The way the elders tell it, she came through the valley a couple of centuries ago. Mind you this was before the Miracle at Pleuron so no one paid much attention then. But then she came by again and again, at least twice that I have heard of, always heading up into the mountains without saying much. Why else would a cultivator like her return so often to this area? Dewdrop Valley doesn't produce anything special so she has to think that there's something worth her while in the area. There's got to be some truth to the dragon's legend, maybe not all of it but surely there's something valuable up in the mountains.
"A few of the more daring village folk tried looking for themselves but between the terrain and the beasts they had to abandon their efforts quickly," Hou Zhou said wistfully, "But you're a cultivator so you shouldn't have that problem. I wish I could go up with you but Ma would kill me if I dared."
Eirene looked at the shine of excitement in the eyes of the mortal girl in front of her and resisted an urge to facepalm. How had irregular visits to her ghostly teacher in the mountains transformed into this!? The base elements were still familiar but this was nothing like what actually happened. Looking at the gathered patrons of the tavern with new eyes, Eirene felt the weight of her years anew. These aged, weathered folk were the grandchildren of the children she had met on her last visit to this area. Two hundred odd years had come and gone for her, a lifetime once close to extinguished but revived with new vitality but that had been multiple generations for these mortals. More than enough time it seemed for minor meetings to become mixed with myth and transform in the retelling.
Shaking her head quietly, Eirene said to Hou Zhou, "I do have an interest of sorts in that story but that's for much later. Right now I think your mother would rather like to have a word with you."
Hou Zhou spun around to look behind her and almost flinched from the stern glare she received from behind the counter. She eeped and quickly grabbed the tray and empty tankard from the table.
"Please don't go too soon. I have so many questions and I can tell you all about anything you might want to know about the area," She stammered out.
"I think I'll take you up on that offer. Bring me another tankard and I'll wait for you to be free so we can talk," Eirene replied. Hou Zhou nodded eagerly and hurried off to attend to the other patrons she'd ignored in her fascination with Eirene. Eirene for her part, settled into her seat and reconsidered her plans for her visit to Dewdrop Valley.
***
The view from the mountain range that cupped Dewdrop Valley was a beautiful sight at dawn. The eponymous morning condensation blanketed a verdant refuge of vegetation sheltered in the vast hollow of the valley. The demarcation was stark from her current vantage point, the broad stripe of green terminated in a band of hills from which the dusty sands of the desert dominated everything towards the horizon. The valley faced towards the east and as the sun inched above the terrestrial plane the light of its rays turned the water sprinkled across Dewdrop Valley into dazzling droplets that reflected the warm colors of the sky above, orange, purple and red making the ground look ablaze from on high. Eirene observed the morning's glory, etching every moment into memory as she waited.
The ascent this time had been much easier than she remembered. This region was well patrolled for its relative value and there was little risk of hostile cultivators about. The few Spirit Beasts she'd noticed around that could have been a threat were little interested in chancing their lives against an opponent in Foundation Establishment and she had little interest in unplanned violence so as she had climbed, she had cautiously negotiated the territories of the bestial inhabitants using her sense for qi and they had left her well alone. Her purposeful wandering had led her to this overlook of the valley where she'd perched on a boulder, her aura unveiled in request and announcement.
Her request did not go unanswered for long. From behind her a song of invitation drifted upon the still quiet air of the early morning to her ears. It was a wordless melody, the babbling of brooks, the creaking yawn of opening doors. Eirene turned around and beheld the sheer cliff face at her rear transform and reveal a crack in its surface. The tune beckoned from within and Eirene followed its lure into the side of the mountain.
Light abandoned Eirene almost immediately as she proceeded within but she did not let being bereft of sight leave her without direction. Even without the beacon of the song she was following, Eirene had means enough to find her path. Picking up the thread of notes being sung at her, Eirene hummed in complement to the tune and threaded qi around her vocal cords and ears. A map quickly built up within her mind of the tunnel she was delving into, a map formed by scanning her surroundings via echolocation. The tunnel was narrow but not impassable and ran deep into the mountain for almost the same width as far as Eirene could sense at a shallow angle.
Down into the depths she went following a trail of song, down into the deep dark where no light from the sun had been seen in ages. She walked for a time, an incense stick's worth she estimated, before the passage terminated into a wide open cavern. Her echolocation told her that the cavern was vast indeed, a massive hollow buried deep in the recesses of the mountains filled with the fangs and spires of stalactites and stalagmites still dripping the water that must have carved out this space over eons. The tune she had followed to the cave cut off once she entered in full and Eirene waited politely in the embrace of darkness.
She appeared from the dark, standing close enough to Eirene to be touched. All was still dark around her but Eirene could see the figure of the woman she'd sought out, a vision born of the spirit and not the body. Smoothly Eirene bowed and offered her greetings.
"This junior humbly greets the venerable senior once more. She is honored to have been invited to have an audience with the esteemed senior," Eirene intoned solemnly, while still holding her bow.
"Still polite I see. I like that," the woman smiled, porcelain white teeth flashing, "You are welcome to my humble haunt."
As the woman spoke, floating balls of blue-white flame appeared in the air around the two illuminating the cavern. The light from the floating fire stretched far into the expanse of the open space of the cavern and revealed what Eirene had already sensed. Lots of rock pillars, pools of water around the cavern and bodies, many many bodies. All were long dead, reduced to skeletal remains clutching weapons and clad in armor. Eirene rose from her bow and kept her attention on the woman before her. In the wan light, Eirene's host looked exactly as she remembered which was not unexpected. After all, the dead had little need for change. The ghostly senior was still clad in her pale gown, the long fall of her dark hair shifting in an ephemeral breeze.
The woman smiled again at Eirene and asked in a gentle tone, "What brings you back to my presence, daughter of the Golden Devils?"
Eirene had grown much and learned even more since the last time she had spoken with this ghost. That time had taught her much about ghosts and the origins of the spectral Wills that she had lacked as a young Junior just elevated from being an Aspirant. Ghosts were not people, rather they were the shadows of the persons they had once been in life maintained by qi and lingering intent. They did not learn or grow in any meaningful way but merely pantomimed responses based on calcified personality and memory. Their very existence was a candle consuming itself, every thought and action by the Will drawing on limited reserves. Some of the more complex and capable phantoms were capable of a restricted rejuvenation, usually by feeding on the closest analogues to what sustained them, human life.
That was the rub of course. The complexity of a ghost left behind depended on the cultivation and comprehension of the cultivator who had died to make them and whatever else she was, the ghost in front of her was dangerously powerful from the life-likeness of her reactions and the way she still so easily affected the world even after her death. Eirene did not attempt anything so rude as a spiritual probe but the aura that brushed at her senses, senses now heightened by a successful tempering in Heavenly Tribulation, spoke of a deep and vast strength. Whoever she had been in life, this spectral musician had possessed quite significant power so Eirene carefully considered that innocent seeming question before she answered.
"I have come once more to beg a sip from the waters of your knowledge," she finally said, keeping her tone firmly respectful, "Your lessons on the resonance of qi to music and how to harness that relationship have greatly helped me in service to my Clan and my Dao. I hope to find favor with you and receive further instruction."
"Oh ho," the ghost laughed, her voice ringing out like a carillon of bells, "Junior has been fortunate to be helped along past one gate by the gift of this senior and she returns to ask for more enlightenment? How delightfully bold."
The ghost vanished from Eirene's sight and Eirene tracked the qi signature of the spectral cultivator to where she appeared seated on a low boulder to Eirene's side.
"Well then, tell me of your experiences since you left my presence and I will see if there is worth in you for further instruction," the ghost said.
Eirene took but a moment's pause to gather herself before starting her presentation, thankful that at least she had had prior experience with such a performance before a more demanding audience though atop a mountain rather than buried in its heart.
"I sought to hold all the world and steal all its secrets for my own. I journeyed across the lands held by my blood and met a teacher of song from an age long past," she sang out after nodding to her ghostly audience, "I challenged my limits and danced before the walls against a host of foes. By charity and honor, I saved a life and for it received favor from beyond the grave. My greed sought out good fortune in a land of peril and found boons of glad friendship from enemies turned allies. I brokered peace between the great and little, the many and the few, finding success and failure in equal measure and suffered for my faults. New times brought new questions to my heart and I clawed for the compass of my path. At the borders of death, I found new life in a mirror of truth and birthed myself anew in the washing of tribulation. Now I seek greater heights and grander vistas."
She sung these words and more, telling of the deeds she had wrought over two centuries of life as a cultivator. When she was done, her throat was sore but her heart was at peace. She kept quiet and waited for the ghost's response to the accounting of her life.
Slow clapping echoed between the stony surfaces of the cave for several long minutes.
"An excellent tale," the ghost announced, standing on her feet without moving to do so, "You are certainly worthy of my attention. Come now, junior. I have enlightened you to the cosmic harmony that lies in the energy of heaven and earth. Now let me teach you the way of bending the substance of creation to the tune of your will."
Pleased with the ghost's reaction, Eirene bent her attention to the lesson she was being taught about how matter too had a resonance and what workings could be employed with that knowledge. In the back of her mind, she wondered if it would be unwise to ask her teacher for advice on how to get in the good graces of cats. That would be a line of inquiry to explore later before her next stop.
When Eirene departed her teacher's presence enough time had passed for it to be night of the next day. Her mind was bursting with new ideas from the lessons she'd received as she idly drew from a Spirit Stone to restore the qi she'd expended in practice. Her plans pulled her away from Dewdrop Valley after her meeting but she made a brief stopover in a small tavern before she left the area. Hou Zhou was having a quiet night so ducking out to see Eirene was no trouble.
"What did you find in the mountains? Was it treasure? Tell me it was treasure?" Hou Zhou asked excitedly, searching Eirene's person for any hint of valuables.
Eirene chuckled and said, "Nope, I didn't find any treasure beyond a good view and a nice spot for music. If you're interested in that, dawn and dusk both are beautiful when seen from a clifftop."
Disappointed, Hou Zhou pouted, making her look younger than her age.
Eirene smiled at the mortal girl. "Who knows you might be luckier than me or Eirene of Nowhere if you go looking for yourself? Stranger things have happened before. Perhaps when I come by again, you'll have an interesting tale of your own."
Eirene left Hou Zhou, distracted by dreams of adventure and thrills, behind as she set off towards the desert. Maybe nothing would come of that little encouragement or maybe something would. It would be interesting to find out later which it was.
***
Being an Expert gave stamina and speed beyond mortal ability but that didn't mean that most travel wasn't any less dull. Walking the sands under the stars got boring quickly after traversing endless dunes. It made a quick break to check on certain mementos very appealing.
Eirene studied the small statuette, sized to fit in the palm of one hand. It was a queer looking piece carved in the shape of a monstrous purple cat. Try as she might, she had never been able to determine exactly what material the statuette was carved from but she had managed to determine that the purple color was not painted on but inherent to the material. The size of the thing seemed to shift at odd times, never becoming cumbersome to handle but noticeably different in shape nonetheless. The paper slip attached to the back of the statue that never seemed be affected in any way by the environment or rough handling was just another of the peculiarities of the statuette.
"Mesmerizing Cat Summoning Token: £15.75. Let the cat bite your finger for a one-time miraculous survival!"
She didn't know exactly how much £15.75 translated into the stavratons and Spirit Stones she was familiar with or even if such an exchange was possible but the escape from certain death the token had provided her was well a lifetime's expense. The token was expended now even if it maintained its odd qualities so she kept it more as a souvenir of a trip into a mad dream than anything else. Eirene tucked the token back into her pouch and resumed her journey under the starlit ceiling of the night. She had miles yet to go, places to be and people to meet.
***
Night in the Organ Meat Desert could be alternately sweltering hot or teeth chattering cold. The moon was full tonight and the weather was pleasantly warm without being uncomfortable as Eirene made her way out from Dewdrop Valley. It had been an interesting meeting with her ghostly mentor. For all that the woman still refused to speak about herself, this visit had been an unexpected development in their relationship. They had always had their meetings upon the ledge overlooking Dewdrop Valley but this time she had been invited into the mountain by the ghost. Change was a peculiar thing with ghosts. It could herald disaster as failing Wills unraveled and collapsed into madness but Eirene doubted that that was the case in this circumstance. Her judgment of the situation was that her newly strengthened cultivation and repeated visits had triggered a new response that she had channeled to her benefit.
Eirene hummed low and deep, feeling for the resonance in the air and sands like her mentor had taught her. Around her as she walked, the sands flowed outwards from her in wave like ripples. This was a minor effect easily imitated with crude exertions of qi but this was just the start of the comprehension she was pursuing. Learning to heal from lessons in field medicine and deeper studies into the mortal and not so mortal condition had engendered an interest in the intricacies of the human body. Perhaps it was a bit morbid that her eyes still flashed with glee as she recalled how the ghostly lady had demonstrated a ghastly shriek that was supposed to forcefully sublimate fluids, blood in particular, even within fleshy vessels. Oh well she had taken no oaths to do no harm and violence was a lover she was courting with renewed interest.
As she rose up the rise of dune, Eirene tugged at the scarf wrapped around her neck feeling a newfound bite to the nighttime air that was recently unfamiliar after her ascension. She paused and blinked several times when she crested the wave of the dune, taking in what lay below. Mapping the entirety of the Organ Meat Desert in detail was a tiresome and impossible task even for an influence as powerful as the Golden Devil Clan but she wasn't that far out from Dewdrop Valley that she wouldn't have heard word of a lake nearby, particularly one consisting of pale liquid that was definitely not water. Descending the dune and approaching the banks of the unexpected interruption, Eirene wriggled her nose in confusion. Dipping her hand into the liquid and lifting a dribble onto her tongue, she furrowed her brow in confusion.
"Milk? Who fills an entire lake with milk?" she wondered out loud, tasting the liquid again for confirmation, "Camel's milk at that. What on earth is going on here?"
A hearty chuckle stole her attention, partly from surprise as she'd kept her spiritual sense scanning all around without detecting anyone close by and partly because that chuckle was familiar. She carefully looked all around but didn't find anything or anyone nearby who could have made the sound. She shivered once more and then as she remembered just where and how she'd heard that familiar chuckle Eirene looked up.
The full globe of the moon was gone, replaced with a giant purple cat's head, smiling boldly with a predator's grin.
"Took you long enough little songstress," the Mesmerizing Cat purred.
Remembering her manners, Eirene greeted the strange being, "Good evening, Mr Cat. I see it's a fine night to be out for both of us."
The cat's head drew closer, looming over Eirene with all the ponderous significance of the celestial body it had replaced.
"Indeed, it is a fine night. I quite like it when there's a nip to the air. Makes the body feel alive," the cat said, "Still as polite as ever I see. Good for you. Courtesy is a garden best kept well watered."
Eirene waved to the lake of milk behind her. "I hope I didn't interrupt your meal."
The Mesmerizing Cat laughed, the sound booming like a thunderstorm. "No need to worry. I had settled down for a light repast and my mind thought to check up on some interesting fellows while I was idle."
"My oh my you've grown but not as much as I expected," the cat said tilting it's head to examine Eirene with one eye, "What happened? Fall asleep at the wheel or lose your way? How disappointing. I was hoping for more excitement."
Eirene replied honestly, "I did my best but it was not always enough. My mistakes and follies are mine to own."
Rotating its head to look at her upside down, the cat sighed, its breath forming clouds of running mice and pouncing felines in the sky above. "Oh well it can't be helped I suppose. You mortals flit about on the wind like gadflies."
Eirene decided that discretion was the better part of valor and kept her opinions of that description to herself.
"Cat got your tongue?" the Mesmerizing Cat asked slyly and Eirene felt the prick of needle points on her tongue.
Pushing the sensation aside, she put a question to the enigmatic creature. "If I may be so bold as to ask, why am I here?"
Lazily rubbing its very white and pointy teeth with its tongue, the cat drawled, "I foresee interesting times ahead for you, very interesting indeed. I didn't want to miss out on the excitement so I thought to check up on you and offer an opportunity to earn another favor."
Never one to miss an opportunity, Eirene did not challenge the cat's prediction – whatever this creature was, incredibly powerful and perceptive was certainly part of the description – and followed up on the offer. "What would I have to do for you and what would this favor consist of?"
"Oh nothing much, I just want a message sent to an intemperate fool. Nothing too bothersome really," the cat said, licking a disembodied paw, "As to the favor, well it's not exactly from me. It's actually a trinket from an acquaintance that will be most useful to you."
Eirene thought about it for a moment and decided that any trinket that the cat promised was useful would likely be such. Eccentric and mysterious as the cat was, it had never been anything but honest. She agreed to the offer and said, "Very well, I accept. What is the message you wish me to carry and who is the recipient?"
The eyes of the cat gleamed brightly, burning hot with glee. "Come now, let me tell you about this most irksome feathered idiot and what I would have you o say to her in my stead…"
***
A battered, bruised and utterly exhausted Eirene fell backwards onto the sands of the desert. Groaning at the glare of the noontime sun even through her closed eyelids, she bunched the Glittering Star Scarf over her face and relished being back on boring stable land rather than the shifting dream of the liminal lands the Mesmerizing Cat had sent her into. Nothing bothersome, the cat had said, just a message to be delivered, it had promised. Hah! She'd never been so worn out or escaped injury so closely as many times as she had in this "simple delivery". Never again was she taking the cat up on its little errands.
At least, the mischievous feline had come through on its promise. Eirene clutched in her hand a rabbit's foot cast out of some dark metal and attached to a paper tag. The front of it read, "Charm of El-Ahrairah's Blessing: Consideration for services rendered. Rub three times to activate." The reverse of the tag had an odd quote, "All the world will be set against you, Prince with a Thousand Enemies and whenever they catch you, they will kill you. But first they must catch you, o digger, listener, runner, prince with the swift warning. Be cunning and full of tricks, and destruction will dog your shadow in vain."
***
"You look absolutely wretched," Ferenike commented as her old friend practically fell into her seat. They were meeting in a small tavern in Simmering Soup Sect territory. Eirene had requested to meet up and Ferenike had directed her to her current location.
"I feel absolutely wretched," Eirene groaned out into the table, "I haven't had a good night's sleep all because of that stupid cat!"
Ferenike, confused, questioned Eirene. "What cat are you talking about? I thought you wanted to meet up in person because you needed to talk about the Angelus family."
Lifting her head up, Eirene fixed bloodshot eyes on Ferenike, "Oh my problem absolutely has to do with the Angelus family and their dream cult but the root of it lies with that cursed feline. Let me advise you that if eldritch beasts make suspiciously favorable offers, decline immediately. A simple courier message turned into a whole mess. Sit back and let me tell you the whole sordid take."
AN: (200/5600 words) This is a Collaboration with
@Liliet. This is part 1 which is why the pov is mostly Eirene. Part 2 to follow some time later.
