15[20:20] <@VoxPVoxD> The Princess Crimson has never been subject to a moment like this before, and it never will again. There are 30 people in this large, open area, filled with tables and the lingering scent of smoke. Three men and a woman stand out amid the two small armies at opposite ends of the space like children dreading their first dance. 15[20:20] <@VoxPVoxD> There's the well-dressed but rumpled man surrounded by armed guards, who projects authority and cowardice depending on which way he catches the light in that moment. 15[20:21] <@VoxPVoxD> There's the white-haired stranger, who just wanted a cup of tea and a little civil conversation, even as he entered with murder on his mind. 15[20:22] <@VoxPVoxD> There's the woman in high finery, regarding this place as through a window, watching from some high and far-off place, her head swaying gently to the music. [20:22] 14Stranger-Visits-Heaven slides back his chair and stands in one fluid motion, gently stretching out his neck, his 'walking cane' firm in one hand. Then he shakes out his arms -- and while everyone who cares to see is looking at that, a little golden-eye mouse peeks free from the bottom of his robe and scurries under the table. 15[20:23] <@VoxPVoxD> And there's the man in black, as a matter of fact, his eyes as fierce as the sun. Battle may have been inevitable, but the first step was his. 15[20:24] <@VoxPVoxD> Now there is only sensation. The flurry of movement, the clatter of wood to the ground. The crash of steel and the gentle crack of porcelain on wood. Beneath them all the guqin plays tranquil music. 15[20:24] <@VoxPVoxD> Intrigue! Treason! Fury and folly and high vendetta! All these are games. One must first answer the call to battle. [20:28] 14Stranger drinks the last of the tea -- then kicks the table away. [20:31] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar doesn't let the woman finish her breath. He's advancing as she centers herself, dragging his sword so as to draw an ominous groove across the woodgrain floor - but it's his shoulder she should be watching, because somehow the third step the man takes brings him directly into the terrestrial's face. [20:32] 14Stranger keeps a milky eye on Keldar and Niobe -- but steps around, making sure to take in the rest of the room. And not catch poor Ra underfoot. 15[20:40] <@VoxPVoxD> When was the last time Keldar went dancing? [20:40] <@Ferrinus> 12How close Keldar's coming in is a sign of how seriously he's taking this. The warrior's pushy, sending Niobe stumbling backwards with a fierce shoulder check and then continuing with a menacing advance that barely offers the warrior room to bring his sword into play. [20:40] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar last watched dancing, oh, two nights ago? Went? Uh.... hang on, he's got this- [20:41] 14Ah. [20:54] 14Tonight hasn't gone as planned. He had a deal. The deal changed. The person the deal benefitted spit in his face. Keldar has a grudge and that's sacred and that's something Stranger respects. Everybody has a grudge. He had a deal. 15[20:55] <@VoxPVoxD> It's not quite dancing, that she does, though there's an element of that. It's hard to pull his eye from the way she moves, like he isn't there. Like he's a statue. She flows around him and feels a pressure at the small of his back, something he last felt when he fought Tepet Sachin on bloody ground. Her voice is in his ear. "We have earned this," she whispers, as the wind whips around them. Porcelain flies and shatters about the room as the teacup rises to his throat. 15[20:55] <@VoxPVoxD> Reaching through the colors of the wind in her anima is a pecuilar creature - part dragonfly, part seahorse, part waking dream. Its wings flutter like drawn blades. [20:56] 14So now everything's back to...back to first principles. Back to what matters. Back to a man with a sword and a will to power. Stranger slips the cane end off his 'walking stick' as the blood feud sparks and seethes. The objective here remains the same. All that's changed is who needs to die. [20:59] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar's heart hammers. The world slows around him. The teacup moving in from the sides of his peripheral vision, right past his face, suddenly flashes orange-red, and each of the smooth, subtle creases running from its center to its edges glints with lambent gold. The mercenary can, in that instant, envision his own death - and he banishes it, refuses it. [21:01] <@Ferrinus> 12Rough violence meets artful violence head-on, and this time ugliness wins. Keldar jerks backwards even as he sweeps an arm forward, knocking the razor-edged porcelain out of its deadly orbit and sending both himself and the Dragon-blooded sailing backwards across the teahouse floor. The man's roaring inarticulately as, in the space between seconds, he manages to get a second hand on [21:01] <@Ferrinus> 12the hilt of his sword, then get the length of his sword angled just down past his side, then drive the whole blade past and through resistance. 15[21:02] <@VoxPVoxD> Niobe chokes. 15[21:02] <@VoxPVoxD> "We- we-" 15[21:02] <@VoxPVoxD> "14deserve-" [21:02] <@Ferrinus> 12Niobe's beginning to twist out of the way as the pair of fighters remember the existence of gravity, and of the floor. They smash and skid and finally bounce apart, but it's with a spray of scarlet that immediately glitters golden-red in the light of Keldar's anima. [21:03] <@Ferrinus> 12Actually - no, they'd bounce apart if there was still a fight going on. As is, Keldar's lying back against the transfixed Niobe, holding the blade white-knuckled and still driving it deeper into the floor behind him. "You sure as fuck do," 12the Solar hisses. [21:03] 14There is a part of him that is sorry as he watches the woman die to Keldar and her nephew's blood-feud. It's not even a small part. But it is a part that, right now, is being very, very quiet. [21:04] 14And the rest of Stranger-Visits-Heaven is smiling. [21:04] "So. Gentlemen." 14He grins at the rest of the room. "Are you in or are you out?" [21:06] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar disfigures the floor a third time, stabbing his sword into the wood and lifting himself to his feet. Niobe'd just begun to bleed a proper Terrestrial anima, before she bled too much of it - the warrior takes a moment to look down at the blood frozen to his sword, clangs the weapon hard enough into a pillar to simply knock the crystallized viscera away, and then look around [21:06] <@Ferrinus> 12the room. A great rosy fire burns around him, lifting up from beneath his feet and crackling softly against the teahouse roof. [21:14] 14Stranger looks around the room as the fire starts to catch and the last of the life leaves the poor woman. "I suppose you're in." 15[21:18] <@VoxPVoxD> The Tepet legionnaires do not falter or hesitate at the death of their master or the demon ascendant. They move in common rhythm, tearing the room apart as they draw swords an advance even more than the last brief whirlwind of Niobe did. Candles and lanterns scatter from splintered tables. The rising blades catch the light of tapestries in flames. [21:19] <@Ferrinus> 12Exhausted and exhilarant, Keldar takes a bit too long to believe these matchstick-men are even making the attempt, and before long he's swamped in whirling blades. The man retreats, parrying and shoving and counterstriking in a frenzy, but he doesn't manage to extricate himself from the melee and catch his breath before it's his own blood that's staining his clothing. [21:20] 14Stranger dances between the flicker of the flames and the fading echoes of a woman who has passed on. [21:21] 14Nothing connects. 15[21:22] <@VoxPVoxD> The Guild pays well. But a jade talent won't put murder in your heart. The mercenaries bounce off the zealots like rain off a thousand scales. [21:28] 14The sheath of the cane sword clatters on the ground. Stranger-Visits-Heaven shudders forward, smiling: "What's the most that you think I can take from you, Realmsmen?" [21:30] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar's as the dawn - but what that means, here, is that he stalks the edges of the room, keeps pillars to one side and overturned tables to another, his blazing aura of power only creeping by degrees out from around obstructions as he sees opportunities to strike. One man can take down a gang, even a platoon, if he's smart about terrain. [21:35] 14The first man doesn't get a chance to answer. Stranger cuts him open and throws him to the left -- then wades right. A neck. A back. An elbow. A crack across the head of another Tepet Elite wading in -- and Stranger guts him too, throwing him in to the deeming, armored mass and moving off the other direction. [21:36] 14He looks down. "Run, Ra. Run!" [21:36] 14The mouse scurries off. 15[21:44] <@VoxPVoxD> Everything burns. 15[21:47] <@VoxPVoxD> The living Chosen move nimbly through the flames. Tepet force themselves through the fire unscathed, and the Guildsmen avoid it entirely. Was there anyone else in here? In the chaos it's hard to remember. Corpses burn on the ground, unremarked-upon. [21:54] 14Nothing can touch a man as furious as Stranger. 15[21:54] <@VoxPVoxD> Tepet swords rise and fall. [22:00] 14Stranger is angry. He promised a woman he would find her sister. He promised a woman he would find her sister. HE HAD A DEAL. [22:01] 14Where is Saul? Where has he fallen? A Tepet guard runs up on him and gags on a sword. Where Is Saul? Another falls! Another! WHERE IS THE MAN WHOSE CORPSE HOLDS HIS PROMISES? DIE DIE DIE 15[22:03] <@VoxPVoxD> The floor creaks ominously under the tramping feet of the Guildsmen and the Legionnaires. [22:06] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar sees where this is going, and actually chops through, then rams into, a nearer pillar. The Tepet see this coming, though, scattering like well-trained, highly-synchronized leaves rather than helpless ones. [22:09] 14Everything falls away but the anger. The Sun commends him. The Sun commands him. The Moon knows his pain. None of this petty uselessness is worth a soul to feel. 15[22:10] <@VoxPVoxD> The floor falls in and the fighters follow it. Guildsmen and Tepet break their falls on their burnt and dying comrades. The Guildsmen, seeing the night air, and the door opened by the stampede of fleeing patrons, pour out into the street. [22:10] 14Part, fire. Fall, floor. I am a favored son of the patron saint of last resorts. [22:10] 14Stranger-Visits-Heaven walks across the burning beams. [22:11] <@Ferrinus> 12The collapse of the floor and the great rush of outward air and inward furniture prevails not against Keldar, who grits his teeth and shoulders backward against the rain of burning debris. His costume's half burned-away now, his leather armor's singed and smoking, and is exposed skin's an angry red - but that's all stuff you'd notice second, after the halo of furious sunfire. [22:16] 14There's a shape beneath him, twisting and screaming and runnning, and the province of the Sun is fire and judgment delivered from above, shining down on shame. Stranger-Visits-Heaven is an exemplar in his scorn. [22:19] <@Ferrinus> 12The Dawn draws in a breath, snorts it out like a bull, and leaps for the piece of remaining second floor that he judges is above the door on the first. He comes smashing down to stand astride the teahouse's main exit in a rain of burning timbers, and is immediately back in the melee. [22:19] 14He drives the Guild man to the ground, but doesn't hit him with the full brunt of his weight. He lands in a rolls. He feels a tickle on his back and neck. Stranger smiles. Ra is safe. [22:23] 14But when the Guild man looks up, he sees angry, empty eyes. "I am the angry frustration of all the men you've sold to Lookshy's conscription scrums; the wails of all the women you've sold worse places. I am a thing, a monster, a narrative force that just walked the burning beams of a teahouse and saw his god, and then found you. And I am, above every other worthwhile thought or [22:23] feeling, losing my patience." 15[22:24] <@VoxPVoxD> The Guildsman goes down, reaching for a short dagger and finding his hand pinned under Stranger's foot. He struggles and curses. [22:26] <@Ferrinus> 12Standing on the half-buried body of a Tepet soldier, Keldar demonstrates to Niobe's men that out past the reaches of the fire is just a sharper and deadlier fire. That was a goddamn mess, back there, but the Dawn can feel the tide turning and his spirits rising with it. "NEXT!" 15[22:31] <@VoxPVoxD> The Guildsman's resolve breaks after only an instant against Stranger's fury. "STOP! PLEASE! I SURRENDER!" [22:31] "Draw the knife. Do it. DO IT." 14Stranger leans down. "THERE IS NOTHING YOU CAN DO TO ME THAT WILL STOP ME SMILING AS YOU DIE." [22:32] 14Pause. "A wise, rational choice. Let's talk about places and things." [22:32] 14Stranger drags him off into the shadows of an alley. [22:35] <@Ferrinus> 12The first volunteer doesn't make it two steps - Keldar swings his sword in a great vertical arc through what remains of the doorframe, drawing a great ribbon of gold-streaked fire down through the poor bastard's helmet, breastplate, and gut. The impact sends a soft orange glimmer radiating out across the street like a ripple of water, its outer edge flickering jaggedly as it dances [22:35] <@Ferrinus> 12across the edges of flagstones. [22:37] <@Ferrinus> 12It's not really the armor that's been foiling Keldar, here, it's the drill. Not single shields, but walls of them; not single dodges, but entire evasive formations. That last one's fall brought the Tepet platoon past a critical point - just not enough men to execute all the tactics, but still too many men for the realization that a single barely-armored warrior is holding his own [22:37] <@Ferrinus> 12against a small regiment to interfere positively with itself as it reverberates from brain to brain. [22:39] <@Ferrinus> 12It's when the Tepet break that they really grasp the origins of Keldar's most common nickname, because they're just plain hunted down. Finally, one last man is slammed roughly against a nearby clay wall, watches helplessly as a sword draws back and aims at his throat while Keldar's already turning away to look for the next - but there is no next. "Heyyyy. Lucky you." [22:40] 14Stranger leaves the man in an alley, alive, swearing he doesn't even know his own name. [22:42] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar's to be found back at the entrance of the Princess Crimson, hoping apparently that his own flames are disguised at least somewhat by those of the building. He's alternately soot-black, burn-pink, and blood-red, but none of that seems to tamp down the nearly bestial mirth that beams from his face. He's actually joking with his captive - well, at his captive, since it's not like [22:42] <@Ferrinus> 12the guy's in much shape to respond. [22:43] 14He is probably in time to see Stranger stalk out of an alley-mouth and off towards the city center. 15[22:43] <@VoxPVoxD> Stranger has a lead to follow, albeit a twisty and turny one. On one of the Yanaze piers tonight there's a shipment coming in. Something from upriver, from the Hundred Kingdoms. The man who'll be there to oversee the shipment is what he's after. [22:43] 14How long does it take to get there? 15[22:43] <@VoxPVoxD> On foot? An hour. [22:43] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar: "...too bad your fang was more of a gum, eh- oi! Stranger! Meet back at the Sergeant's?" [22:44] 14Stranger spins, his face a rictus of anger. "I made a promise. I intend to keep it." 15[22:45] <@VoxPVoxD> The Princess Crimson collapses behind them. The flames lick out but the buildings to either side are clay. [22:45] "Follow me if you have any sympathy for those you've put in danger." [22:45] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar: "Just remember the one about heads! ...I can come with if you wait a bit!" 12The Dawn motions apologetically at his own divine radiance before retreating further towards the increasingly-sooty wreck. [22:45] 14Then he's off. Weird guy. [22:46] 14Stranger will, oddly, take an indirect enough path to allow Keldar to drop his prisoner off, unless it would stop him from making it to the pier on time. [22:53] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar's fairly insistent - it's just too annoying, otherwise, and Pellicia did ask. She's getting the Tepet trooper as well as any evidence that can be scraped up of the involvement of the Realm and traitorous counselors in this sordid affair, although Keldar's keeping the apparent valuables. [22:54] <@Ferrinus> 12Not that he needs the bracers, of course. He assumes, though, that they'd sell or trade for a- ...oh, right, he's got allies now. Well, Judge is fairly flippy when it comes to fighting. [22:54] 14Stranger-Visits-Heaven is tolerant, but fairly quiet, and only because he has a specific time that he has to be at that pier. [22:55] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar: "Stranger, help me out. In your best estimation of Pellicia... yes on the heads? Or no?" 15[22:55] <@VoxPVoxD> There's time. The meeting at the teahouse passed fairly quickly. [22:55] 14Stranger: "Are you trying to bed her or scare her?" [22:56] <@Ferrinus> 12The Dawn's fiddling with the silver case as he walks and talks. This little bit's kind of- no, wait, that jiggled - "...hmmm." [22:56] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar: "...impress her...?" [22:56] 14Stranger: "Then no severed heads. But." [22:56] "We might still want to keep them about." [22:56] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar: "Cool." [22:56] "We're headed to the docks." [22:57] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar gets his hands on a nice burlap sack, then. You can get stuff like that at all hours in Nexus, of course - doesn't even take a detour. 15[22:58] <@VoxPVoxD> Keldar is able to pry the case open with some careful fingernail work. There's a sheaf of parchment inside, bearing seals matching House Tepet and the satrapial seal Keldar handed off. It's a missive seeking reinforcements, reumneration, or license for stricter security against the medium-term aggression of the Bull of the North. 15[22:58] <@VoxPVoxD> The signature is very formal. TEPET SACHIN, GOVERNER-GENERAL OF FORTITUDE AND ENVIRONS [22:59] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar: "GOV- fucker." [22:59] 14Stranger is...focused. The sort of focused that wants nothing to do with people with whom he doesn't intend violence. He's not even speaking to shopkeeps or passersby. [22:59] 14That snaps him out of it a moment, though. "What?" [23:00] <@Ferrinus> "Man, I didn't tell you. Didn't tell you." 12Keldar doesn't seem to have picked up on Stranger's mood. "Sachin, like an ex-monk or something - he was right there when I first went up. Betrayed me, slaughtered my whole crew. Didn't even explain himself." [23:01] 14Stranger: "That sounds very painful. For you. You seem extremely sad." [23:03] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar: "Oh, not as sad as he's going to be. You ever hear of Fortitude? Doesn't ring any bells for me." [23:04] 14Stranger: "I have not. Are you done with the head-shuffling?" 15[23:05] <@VoxPVoxD> How are Keldar and Stranger making their approach to the docks? Is there any subtlety or are they going to march right on up? [23:05] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar: "Good on that front." 12Nothing ominous about the bag tied at his waist, no sir. [23:05] 14Stranger is, essentially, done with subtlety. [23:05] 14At least for tonight. [23:05] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar's still dressed in black cloth on light armor, but he's all crispy. He could do the rooftop thing, but he's glad not to bother. [23:09] 14Stranger-Visits-Heaven steps onto the pier. "I'm looking for something." [23:11] "The most important thing you need to consider before responding is whether or not you can swim." [23:12] "The second-most important thing is, well. Are you going to be the man who tells me what I want to know, or are you going to be the man I kill for effect?" 15[23:12] <@VoxPVoxD> The men and women working the docks look up at the white-haired man as he gets their attention. [23:12] <@Ferrinus> 12A few steps behind Stranger, Keldar is cracking his neck to the side, clasping a shoulder with a hand while rotating that shoulder's arm, etc. 15[23:13] <@VoxPVoxD> Someone's coming out even as the worker with what looks like authority is pointing back to the warehouse. If Keldar watches he'll see those big boats creeping down the river. [23:13] "And the thing you already know about me is: I am not in the mood." 15[23:13] <@VoxPVoxD> "What's the problem?" says an old man matching the description Stranger received. [23:14] 14Stranger: "Tibera's the problem." 15[23:14] <@VoxPVoxD> Tibera: "Well, here I am." [23:15] 14Stranger smiles nastily. "Here you are. Saul's dead. He didn't even die making money. He burned to death in a teahouse fire. And we killed all the ones responsible." [23:16] 14Stranger smiles nastily. "Here you are. Saul's dead. He didn't even die making money. He burned to death in a teahouse fire. And we killed all the ones responsible." 15[23:16] <@VoxPVoxD> Tibera: "I'm sure he came by it honest." 15[23:17] <@VoxPVoxD> There's surprise in his voice, but no fear. [23:17] 14Stranger: "He burned to death in a teahouse fire. And you trade in slaves. And frankly, I'm very, very tired of being polite to people who don't deserve it this evening." 15[23:18] <@VoxPVoxD> Tibera: "Well, why don't we see what you need from me and I'll give it. I'm of no mind to fight here." [23:18] 14Stranger: "I need you to run." [23:18] 14He pops the blade from its sheath. [23:19] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar blinks in surprise, here, but, hell, it's been a hectic night. [23:19] 14There is nothing more miserable, more contemptible, than a slaver who thinks he deserves a sit down and talk. 15[23:20] <@VoxPVoxD> Tibera sniffs. "You gonna catch me?" [23:20] "Or I swear on the sun and the moon I'll cut you down." 15[23:20] <@VoxPVoxD> "Ah. Either/or." 15[23:20] <@VoxPVoxD> "Well..." he shrugs. "Fair enough. You might want to stick around to receive the shipment. Won't be twenty minutes yet." [23:21] 14Stranger: "The next word out of your mouth trying to bargain with me, you earn steel. Run, pig." [23:25] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar's expression is almost unreadable from behind Stranger, but if Tibera has a care he'll be able to make it out. It's a wince. Damn, thinks the man with a dripping burlap sack hanging from his hip, this guy's really, really asking for it. 15[23:32] <@VoxPVoxD> Tibera turns to go. [23:32] 14Stranger: "You don't care about the women. You don't care about the pain, or the tears, or anything else. You're immune to morality, aren't you? So riddle me this: A blind motherfucker and a man carrying heads in a sack walk onto a pier and let everything single thing the Guild thinks it can sell walk away. What happens next?" [23:32] "Wouldn't that be something to see." [23:37] *rewind noise* [23:38] 14Stranger-Visits-Heaven steps onto the pier. "I'm looking for something." 15[23:39] <@VoxPVoxD> The men and women working the docks look up at the white-haired man as he gets their attention. 15[23:39] <@VoxPVoxD> "What's the problem?" says an old man matching the description Stranger received. 15[23:39] <@VoxPVoxD> Someone's coming out even as the worker with what looks like authority is pointing back to the warehouse. If Keldar watches he'll see those big boats creeping down the river. 15[23:39] <@VoxPVoxD> "What's the problem?" says an old man matching the description Stranger received. 15[23:39] <@VoxPVoxD> rather [23:39] 14Stranger: "You don't traffic in slaves, of course." [23:40] 14Stranger: "That would be illegal." 15[23:40] <@VoxPVoxD> Tibera nods slowly. 15[23:40] <@VoxPVoxD> He takes Stranger and Keldar in. Special attention is paid to that bag at Keldar's waist with the dark bottoms. [23:40] 14Stranger: "I've had an unconventional evening, if we're being honest with each other. Tibera, is it? The man said your name would be Tibera." [23:40] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar gives Tibera a chagrined smile and a small wave as he notices Tibera's eyes dart downwards. No, no, don't worry about it! 15[23:41] <@VoxPVoxD> Tibera: "That's right. What should I call you?" [23:41] 14Stranger: "Stranger." [23:41] "I think you'll find I'm actually rather well known." [23:41] "Funny, the way the world works." 15[23:42] <@VoxPVoxD> Tibera: "I've heard the name. A hero. What can I do for you, Stranger?" [23:43] 14Stranger: "So! There's something you're going to tell me. Slavery isn't legal in Nexus. But it's quite legal places other than Nexus." 15[23:43] <@VoxPVoxD> Tibera: "So it is." [23:46] 14Stranger: "I'm going to give you a name, and after that one of two things happens. In our first concept of Creation, let's say you tell me where you sold her. We check a ledger, because you subhuman filth certainly keep one. Me and my companion don't hurt anyone here. We go on our way. In our second concept of Creation, there is no end to the lengths I will take to personally see [23:46] you take years to die." [23:46] "And that's where the two of us stand. You and me." 15[23:49] <@VoxPVoxD> Tibera just nods. 15[23:49] <@VoxPVoxD> His eyes flick to the boats upriver. [23:49] "The name's Zutu. I want a ship name and a port." [23:50] 14Stranger: "Perhaps you're about to tell me that's a common name. That's fine." [23:50] "I've got time." [23:50] "You've got paper." 15[23:50] <@VoxPVoxD> "Well. Let's check the ledgers." [23:52] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar rolls his shoulders back and ambles along after the man. He likes this guy's posture. 15[23:55] <@VoxPVoxD> After Keldar and Stranger follow Tibera inside, it does take a fair while to get a list for Stranger. Zutu is, luckily, not that common a name. There's only two, and they both ended up on quiet ships in the dark bound for other places in this direction. One is the temple-city of Great Forks. The other is the tomb-city of Sijan. [23:55] 14How long ago? 15[23:56] <@VoxPVoxD> One six months ago, and one fifteen months ago. With a little information from Demido, given the dates of these two departures, it should be easy enough to identify which is her sister. [23:56] 14Then Stranger is going on a trip. [23:58] <@Ferrinus> 12....to Fortitude! Right? No, guys, it's really- 15[23:58] <@VoxPVoxD> On the way out of the docks, the sound of armored boots on the ground echoes behind them. [23:59] 14But before he leaves, to Tibera: "Do you ever think about how much they all sold for -- the women and men you sold up the river. Do you ever think about the price you can put on a body? The price you can put on a soul? The price you can put on dignity? Your own, not theirs. Have you ever considered that there's a reason Heaven made sure it was separate from Earth? You ever wonder [23:59] if maybe that reason was you?" [23:59] 14Stranger: "Boat's coming for you too, Tibera. You won't miss it." 15[00:00] <@VoxPVoxD> Tibera just nods. At the end of the day, there's not much left to the man, in Stranger's eyes. [00:00] 14As long as he knows. [00:01] 14Which councilor do those boots belong to? [00:01] 14One of theirs, or one of the others? [00:01] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar: "Damn. You know, I've never had it in me to actually promise years-long torture. It sounds good, but the comm- hmm." 15[00:01] <@VoxPVoxD> None. They're coming off the boat. There's dozens of armored soldiers coming off these ships, and a foreign banner. [00:02] <@Ferrinus> 12...which banner? Keldar's pausing and turning long enough to ascertain that, at least. 15[00:02] <@VoxPVoxD> Keldar doesn't even need to think. Every merc in the Direction knows the banner of Highland. [00:04] 14Stranger-Visits-Heaven just stands there. "Keldar?" [00:04] 14Stranger: "You feel good about what we did tonight?" [00:05] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar works his mouth around. "Coulda been cleaner. Coulda stood to see Saul walk outta there - he'd have meant those guildsmen who got out onto the street weren't maybe problems." [00:05] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar: "Still, what's cool here is, we know who the enemy is. Now it's just, you know - strategy." [00:07] "That's good. That's good to know." 14Stranger turns away from the pier. "I'm glad we learned something. I'm glad we didn't fail the whole of Creation." [00:08] 14Just the ones Stranger promised he wouldn't. [00:08] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar's a little out of the way, but he's not actually retreating - he wants to know what's up with these landing soldiers. "Psshh, we did it a favor. One less finger on the hand the Realm's rooting around the River Province with, one less ally for the lunatics who thought blowing Nexus for some sort of Guild finder's fee was a good idea." 15[00:09] <@VoxPVoxD> They're a few hundred strong, all in fine plate and armed. Once the Highlanders have emptied on the boats, one figure emerges from each. From the rear boat is a big, stooped man with long, lank gray hair pouring out from violet robes, whose hem rustles and flutters on a breeze that isn't there. [00:09] 14Stranger: "Do you think anyone's told these men not to eat the honey?" [00:11] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar: "Ooh, yeah, Xu was saying something about that, wasn't he? Maybe you want signs or somethin'." 15[00:12] <@VoxPVoxD> From the front boat, a man sweeps out, eyes darting up and down the pier, alighting on every worker and every work. His eyes meet Stranger's and then Keldar's. He's wearing fine plate with a gold symbol embossed on the beast, and a blue cape billows behind him as he walks, leaving the sword at his hip free and easy. [00:13] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar's always flirted with the idea of a cape, but the time's never seemed right. [00:13] 14Something crawls up Stranger's back and takes up residence. 15[00:19] <@VoxPVoxD> The caped man raises a gauntleted hand. "KELDAR!" 15[00:19] <@VoxPVoxD> "THE TIGER OF NEXUS!" 15[00:19] <@VoxPVoxD> "What luck." [00:19] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar raises his own. "Yo!" [00:22] <@Ferrinus> 12He pauses. "....help ya?" 15[00:25] <@VoxPVoxD> The armored man will give Stranger a polite nod as he walks up. The robed man sweeps up and down the forming ranks of Highland's elite. "Keldar. We're here to help defend Nexus. Nexus is their aim. I've made arrangements to billet my soldiers. There will be more in the coming days. But. But. I could use a good word with the Council. What would it take to get you to help me with this?" [00:26] 14Stranger just stares. [00:28] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar: "Hmm. Story of how you fended 'em off?" 15[00:31] <@VoxPVoxD> The armored man: "Walk and talk?" [00:32] 14I'm sure you can. "Return the heads when you're done, Keldar. I need to tell a woman about her sister." [00:32] <@Ferrinus> 12Keldar: "Let's roll." [00:33] 14It's not until he's past the next street corner that Stranger-Visits-Heaven realizes he's shaking. [00:34] <@Ferrinus> 12Frankly, since he didn't deliver them to Pellicia first time around Keldar's just plain not sure what to do with these heads. Stranger didn't end up needing 'em, and now, as long as he's been holding them, it just looks weirder and weirder to, like, drop them casually. [00:34] <@Ferrinus> 12He'll just have to own it. 15[00:39] <@VoxPVoxD> NEXT TIME: A feathery woman