Lassara - Shards of Neril - Story Thread

Alain had noticed the way Thomas was viewing his own hand, as if he was watching over a wild animal that was about to break out of it's cage. He wasn't sure it was wise to address that just yet, though and so he took a few steps towards the window, looking back west, away from the island they were headed to right now.

"Well, that was probably the wise thing to do, collecting it's head", he actually meant it but he wasn't sure if Thomas would take the comment as a sarcastic attack. "Anyway, we are headed towards Cantun. What happened there? Did the flying fortress actually go to Tar Cantun and where was it headed when it left? I need to know how big the risk of taking our passenger there is."

***

Amalia was listening, trying to make sense of what the little fairy in front of her was talking about. She had no idea what the part about this 'Morangul' was supposed to mean, apart from the fact that obviously others were fighting the demons as well. She was able to link the image of a clawed man to the demonic attacker they encountered in Lein, but before being able to think about Alaria's last comments, she was completely taken by surprise as her face was attacked, stumbling backwards a few steps until she felt the reling behind herself, in danger of tumbling over and into the ocean. Fortunately the fey's physical strength wasn't all too much and the princess only needed to overcome the shock and quickly take the fairy form's hands, pulling Alaria away from her face. She knelt down and held the fey down onto the ship's deck, careful, not to hurt her but firmly enough so Alaria couldn't just slip our of her grip.

"Now don't go invisible on me again, please. No one wants to hurt you here, little one. I'm letting go now."

And that she did, letting the fey free, the princess sat back on the deck and stared at the strange girl. "Easy now. I want to help you but I need to understand what you are talking about. Don't panic, you're safe here."

"No!" Alaria gasped. "You listen, but you do not comprehend. I lived for centuries, and I saw and heard much. Yet the beings of worlds other from this one, I do not know of."

She sighed. "What do you need to know?"

Now for a moment Amalia paused, processing that last bit of information. She had gotten the fact that this was not a normal little girl long ago but that she had lived for a few human lifespans was new.

"So, you're saying you are older than anyone in our kingdom, who is still alive? How old exactly are you?" She sighed and eyes the fey closely. "And what did you mean, about the clawed man. Do you feel him in your mind? Is he coming after us?"

Alaria raised an eyebrow. "No, you silly. He ran away from us in that city, remember?"

"Oh...was it seven hundred or eight hundred.... I lost track... You don't always see the days go by when you are within a deep forest." Alaria giggled. "Older than anyone? Hah! And my mother told me I was too young."

While the princess didn't really share the fey's view of the demon running away from them, back in Leon, she marvelled at the thought of this innocent looking being that could be older or at least as old as the kingdom of Lassara. She had never heard of beings that would grow so old and not age, except for gods maybe, but gods weren't ever born, or were they? This converstation was starting to confuse Amalia and she shook off her thoughts, concentrating on the here and now.

"Well, it depends on what you define as too young I'd say", she shrugged and smiled, "but you are way older than I will ever get."

So much for little child, the princess thought, before turning more serious again: "So, why is the clawed man still bothering you? Do you still see him in your mind?"

"How big a risk? What makes you think there are any safe places?" He sighed "There's afew dozen vaults and about a hundred tombs to hide in where we're going, and considering my family, I think you'll be able to find at least one that is inpregnable for your tastes. We have a scrying bowl on the ship and even with its lack of distance a flying castle is hard to miss, there's nothing over Tar cantun."
Thomas walked to the door, but paused.
"Its fortunate, our backup plan is currently sleeping off a potion overdose below decks. The princess has cleric training correct? If she doesn't have any objections could you ask her to see to Cedrick before we arrive. I doubt they would have left the city completely abandoned so we'll everyone in top form when we arrive."

After the camp was set up, with little to no help from Morangul,
the lich turned to his human companions.
"All right, I'll be meditating over here; and don't worry about sentry duty, I've got that covered."
And with that, Morangul walked over to the base of an old tree, sat down cross-legged, closed his eyes,
and did nothing else.
Alyssa and Guantano watched the lich curiously, but Frijyk just rolled his eyes.
"Come on, lets dinner started; Morangul won't be doing anything."

However, Morangul was quite active. In fact he was searching for the energy
his brooch gave off. Eventually, he found it, still up north, closer to Cantun than Leon,
if he remembered the locations correctly. He could only wonder why the fey was heading in
the same direction that the demons headed in.
He focused on the energy emitted by the brooch, for yet another one of the
many enchantments he placed on it was one of communication; he and whoever wears the brooch
could communicate with each other via their minds.

So, Morangul attempted to open up a telepathic connection with the fey.
And was quickly barraged by a jumble of images and emotions, the chief among them being
an image of demonic being and fear. However, it quickly ended, replaced with a stunned silence
as the fey realized there was another being in her mind.

Remember me, Little Devil?

Alaria was about to respond when she suddenly paused and tilted her head as if to pour offf some annoying bugs. Then her smile brightened.

"Mr. Bones!" she said out aloud. "How can I help you? The demons gouged my mind out, cracked it and gnawed at it like a squirrel, but I am sure that I have some time left for you!"

She turned to the princess, who raised her eyebrows in an alarmed fashion. "Shhh," Alaria said, giggling. "I am talking with Mr. Bones."

I can clearly see that, Little Devil, but you should recover soon enough.
I've seen worse, trust me. Morangul responded to the young (relatively speaking) fey.
Hey! I said my name was Alaria! And I'm not a demon! She responded, and then added, I wasn't talking to you,
silly, I was talking to Mr. Bones!
Morangul was confused for a second, until he realized that the fey is probably speaking out loud, with someone next to her.
Ok, Alaria, I have a few questions for you. First, why are you going to where the demons most like are? And second, who are you with
that can find a boat to go to Cantun?

"Well I'm..." Alaria paused. "Excuse me," she said, eyeing the princess. "But your name is Amalia, correct? I think I overheard some of the guards talking about it, but I don't really recall..."

"In fact," Alaria mumbled. "I don't really remember how old I am either. How many days is in a year? 365? 40? Ooh, what is that down there! Cool! A shark! Can we eat it? I don't think I've eaten in days..." Alaria gave a nervous chuckle. She swore that she heard somebody groan inside her head.

"Oh, sorry Mr. Bones!" Alaria said. "But he better not see me in the forest because I'll kill'em. With his own skin. In his sleep. No, Alaria, you are going down the slippery slope again. Bad Alaria, bad."

Could you focus for 5 seconds?

"Oh, sorry, sorry," Alaria giggled. She waved her hand across her hair, where the brooch was. A green mist began to gather next to her before taking the shape of a tall and very thin and skeletal looking Mage. "Now you can talk to each other!" She said to both Morangul and the princess.

Alyssa turned to the blue-skinned stranger and stared daggers at him, snapping, "can we trust him?" so low that Morangul was out of earshot by far.

Morangul was caught off guard and was about to cast a counter-spell when he
realized the kind of spell being cast upon him. Soon enough, he saw in his
minds eye that he was standing upon the deck of a ship, next to Alaria in her fairy form,
and in front of a very shocked young woman.

A very holy, very shocked young woman, as Morangul could
easily sense the holy aura the woman emitted. He could only shake his head
at the absurdity of it all; first, a fey with the mind of a child casts an illusion spell most
masters would struggle with, and now he is standing in front of someone who could quite possibly
detect his true nature!

The old lich sighed, made a grand, sweeping bow, and said
"Greetings, I am Morangul, and I'm sure you already know her name," he said,
pointing to the giggling fey.

He sighed again and turned to the still giggling fey.
"Oh, Little Devil, what have you gotten yourself into?"

"Oh, you can ask her yourself. I'm sure she'll want to talk to you before we reach the island", the captain walked towards the door as well, "Now, I'm not sure what the princess wants there, but what are you looking for?"

***

At first the princess was a bit shocked by the appearance of a man out of thin air and, somehow expecting another demon attack, took a step back, backing into the reling again. She quickly realised this was Alaria's doing though, judging by the giggle on the fairy's face and she examined this new 'arrival' more closely, sensing it's dark aura, a presence that made her inner being cringe.

"What are you?", she pondered the name, Morangul, that had now been given to her twice and combined with what she sensed about this character she remembered her teaching and the revelation of who she was talking to hit her like a bolt of lightning. "This is impossible", she whispered, her eyes wide open, as if she was seeing a ghost, "you were slain."

She looked over at Alaria: "You should not have brought him here, for all we know this... this abomination could be behind the evil that has befallen Lassara!"

"Ha! Even I am not stupid enough to unleash Vayne upon this world!
I wanted to conquer Lassara, not bring it crumbling down! And it is not so
easy to slay a lich, as you well know, woman! Even if that Paladin was using
one of the Shard weapons...."

Morangul grimaced, then flashed a big grin at the woman.

"But you already know who I am, pray tell, who are you?"

Alaria listened to the princess and the lich, pondered on their discussion for some time and came up with absolutely nothing in particular.

"What does slay mean?"

"Shut up, little devil."

"Hey!"

"Alaria, he's a..."

"I like Mr. Bones though," Alaria muttered, sensing the princess's thoughts. "He reminds me of my great great great grandfather after he went on a mouth-stitching diet for a year. Lost 500 kgs of weight. He was always so cranky and mean and fat before that. He was mean and cranky and lean after it. Did I tell you about the time when some hunters came to decapitate him?"

Morangul and the cleric (since she certainly didn't look like a Paladin) stared
at the fey, who had the most innocent looking face. After a few awkward moments,
Morangul facepalmed and cackled, a sound that shocked the cleric out of her stupor.

And alerted the rest of the ship to his presence.

A few members of the crew made their way towards the scene, wondering who this man was and why he was upsetting their female passenger so much. Amalia calmly raised her hands to show them the situation was under control and they didn't need to step in. "I am Liana, a cleric from the Order of Dawn", it wasn't a lie, except for the name, "and I have sworn to battle... things like you."

She calmed down a bit though, realising the Lich was not about to unleash a horde of undead creatures onto the ship's deck. "So, why have you returned, if not to bring ruin into our lands once again?"

"Hopefully we will find out when we get there. We have generations of-"
Thomas stopped midsentence as he pulled the door open to the deck and stared in shock. Slowly, he closed the door, turned, and rushed wordlessly past the confused captain to the window. He pushed the windows open wide and, ignoring the questioning of the captain, lowered himself from the captain's cabin window to the guest cabins, leaving Alain in the cabin wondering what the hell was going on and why the Lordling's chest seemed to have a glowing thing on it. Trying to ignore the foaming water beneath him Thomas reached his leg over to the nearest cabin window, which he kicked. After a few kicks the window opened and Gilford leaned out wearing a bed robe, bewilderment on his face.
"What in the hells are you doing?" He asked
"Trying a new diving technique!" Thomas hissed "Shut up and let me in, quick!"
With some cursing and several bruises Thomas lowered himself into Gilford's cabin and rushed to the armour chest at the foot of Gilford's bed.
Gilford looked him over "Do I even want to know?"
"No" Thomas grunted as he pulled a steel breast plate from the chest and laid it out on the bed. "Big skeleton thing on deck."
Gilford groaned. "Well that’s just perfect." He walked over to the chest of drawers and pulled out a padded shirt "How many have we lost this time?"
"None so far"
"Really?"
"Yeah, it's talking to the imp thing and the princess"
Gilford had put on the set of padded wool and held out his arms and slipped on the chain hauberk Thomas had held up for him. "Talk-talk or enchanting-talk?"
"How would I know?" Thomas replied pulling out more armour from the chest and laying it on the bed. "For all I know he could- wait why is that bird in here?"
He was referring to the seagull sitting on the pillow of Gilford's bed; it cawed at him and prodded with its beak at a gauntlet Thomas had placed next to him. If he could tell the difference between birds, Thomas would have sworn it was the same one from earlier.
"I don’t know." Gilford replied his voice muffled by the mail coif he was pulling over his padded hood "'just showed up this morning and has been following me around all day. It hasn't crapped on anything yet so I've been ignoring it."
"Yeah well, It better not start" Thomas said as he held up the breastplate "now hold still"

Morangul stood there pondering.
The woman was a cleric, no doubt, but he
was thinking back to Alaria's ramblings
before he was projected.

"Wait a second! Alaria said your name was Amalia!"
Morangul gave a large frown.

"It's not nice to lie to potential allies, for I to am
looking for a way to defeat Vayne and the demon armies."

The cleric scoffed at his comment; "And why should I believe you, of all people?
Why should I believe that you have not joined them?"

Morangul simply rolled his eyes;
"Put simply, I actually want to enjoy my new-found freedom in an actual world,
not a smoking ruin. Now, I suggest you tell me who you really are."

Alain, after regaining his balance, carefully opened the door as to not alert whatever Thomas had seen to his presence. He gained a look at the skeletal Morangul across from his princess' face and quickly slid out of the door, without making any sound.

Whoever this was, his presence made the hairs on the captain's neck stand up and he wished he had brought his sword from his cabin. Slowly approaching, he heard fragments of the ongoing conversation.

"...Now, I suggest you tell me who you really are."

The captain's eyes widened. Surely she wouldn't...

"I am Amalia Undine, rightful queen of Lassara and I hope you are sincere in your proposals of allying yourself to me, or I will hunt you down with all the might that is at my disposal", the straightened posture, her proudly lifted chin and the spark in the princess' eyes made clear that she was momentarily unaware or intentionally oblivious of the fact that all the power at her disposal might well be limited to who was on this ship. And even that wasn't as clear as the captain had wished.

The reaction of the crew was as it was to be expected. Open mouths and wide eyes, but also some laughter went through the crowd that surrounded Morangul and Amalia and the princess quickly realised that what she had just done might not have been the wisest course of action.

Frijyk took a glance at the old wizard, who looked unusually concentrated while sitting in his meditative position. Usually, his face was more relaxed, and more... well, meditative. He couldn't tell what, but Frijyk guessed Morangul was doing something. Probably magic-related. He turned back to Alyssa, who was glaring at him expectantly.

"I've been traveling with him for a while, and he seems mostly benevolent. I'm not one to believe in trusting anyone besides oneself with his own life... but I at least trust him not to suddenly betray me. He helped when we were fighting one of those demons. He knows some very powerful magic, and has some strange ideas about the subject... but he is teaching me to use it myself. And anyway, he's just an old wizard. If he does try anything, there are three of us, and only one of him. And we have swords."

Frijyk hoped his answer was satisfactory. Both Alyssa and Guantano were giving him something of a strange look.

"What about you two? What do you plan to do if we find these weapons?"

"We'll see about that once we're there. The most important thing right now is to get our hands on something that can actually defeat the demons. As benevolent as he looks, Morangul is not helping us for the blue in our eyes."

The revelation of who he was talking to put Morangul off
guard for a few seconds, but he quickly composed himself.
"Ah, well now...." He started off, "Now I see why you were
hiding yourself. I could imagine what Vayne would do to you if
he captured you."

He chuckled at the red flush that came to
the princesses cheeks. "Oh, but you have a filthy mind, you do!
Here I am talking about torture and a gruesome death, and here
you are thinking about that. Kids these days, so uncouth...."
He ended with a mutter, chuckling inwardly as he watched the
princess fumble for words to refute him, her face redder than ever.
And Alaria didn't help much either, giggling madly and zipping around the princess's head
in her fairy form.

It was at this point that he noticed the man standing behind him with a shocked look on his face,
"Ah! Greetings, I am Morangul, and you are?" The old lich gave yet another sweeping bow.

Before he could even begin to answer, two other men came out of a cabin with a crash,
both fully armed and armored.

"Oh, its becoming a grand party on deck, it seems." Morangul
said dryly. Then he felt a peculiar sensation emanating from one
of the newcomers. In fact, it seemed to be coming off of the finer dressed
one's right hand.

After a few moments, he finally realized what it was, with a strange look coming over his face.

"Nice hand you got there."

"I feel dizzy," Alaria moaned. She stopped spinning around Amalia's head and dropped to the deck like a stone, moaning.

The lich's image flickered once. Then twice. Then stayed exactly where it was as Alaria burst back up. "Mr. Morangul!" she yelled. "You are glad! I've never, ever seen you glad before!"

Alain was about to answer and he took a step, trying to place himself purposefully between the skeletal creature and the princes when he noted the flickering image and the reactions of Alaria.

"Alaria, is he an illusion of yours?"

Alaria looked at Alain as if he was crazy.

"Mr. Bones is sitting far far away in some trees. Why would he be here? That's just him speaking throuh me."

"Speaking through you..." Thomas muttered to himself. "Well that's just what we need. Yet another monster who knows who we are."
Thomas walked over to the fey woman and struck the side of her head with his palm, shocking the girl and breaking her concentration, causing the image of the skeleton to dissapear. "If you ever do this again, I'm throwing you overboard!" said Thomas. He turned to the surprised crew "That goes for the rest of you, we have gods knows how many creatures looking for this ship, all eager to tear us to pieces if given the chance. If I find any of you doing anything to give away our position, so much as a message in a bottle, I'll have you hanged! Dismissed!"

His stomach finally slowly steadying, Guantano turned to look at Frijyk before adding on to Alyssa's reply.

"Well Frijyk, I don't know whether you've been one for the bards," Guantano said with a hint of his telltale humor. "But we, are going to make a saga worth a dozen compositions and countless recitations in inns all over the land." Taking a quick swig of water from his gourd, before burping and raising his hand to wipe his mouth, Guantano then continued in a faux serious voice, "Will you join us on this epic quest Aqua boy?"

".....Aqua Boy?"

Morangul just came out of his trance,
and was still quite disoriented from the abrupt ending
of his conversation with Alaria and Amalia.
Impetuous fool, he thought, thinking of the young upstart with the prosthetic hand, its never a good idea
to break a telepathic connection by force! I hope her fragile mind wasn't damaged even more...

With that, he turned to the events at hand, and called out,
"Actually, I think he is more of a sky blue!" as he shakily got to his feet.

"Might be from the lack of oxygen so high up in the mountains."

"Speaking of hanging people..." Alaria said, slowly raising her head. The tone was of intense annoyance, with none of the characteristics of the confused little girl before.

"You do know that I can pretty much kill everyone in this ship right now if I really want to, right?"

Alaria raised an eyebrow as if amused. "Oh? Surprised that I can even talk this way? Don't worry, I'm fine. I am just...borrowing... some vocabulary from your own brain here. A big roomy place as well, I might add. Mother told me that it was very rude to do so, but you know what? I don't give a damn," Alaria smiled. "It makes me feel...powerful."

"Hey, did you hear an anecdote about a nobleman hanging from the ceiling by his own entrails? Well, you better listen when a Fey tells you a life story because if not, you may just miss the life lesson... hell, you might find yourself becoming a life lesson!"