Zion: Light of the New Moon, Ch 5.2 Myrh
Zion - Light of the New Moon Chapter 5.2
Myrh Eye of the Storm
The party elected to let Brother Johann join them for evening prayers, and maybe even mingle with the Caravan... a little. Either way, people will be keeping an eye on him... just in case. Since Priestess Fanewatcher, Brother Farstrider, and Ephram Zoari were the focus of the last post, Kell and Artemisia get this one. The Myrhean Caravan has confirmed +1 Favor as one of their four event arc rewards thus far.
The prayers went well, as was to be expected, but there were two specific individuals who were absent from the Twilight Vigil; neither Artemisia nor Kell were in attendance. Nobody noticed or, if they did, they were courteous enough to keep their observations to themselves. Neither Kell nor Artemisia knew the other had no intention of attending, but they both realized once they encountered one another in the hall outside of the gathering room that they were of the same mind.
"Too noisy?" Artemisia asked Kell.
"Too preachy." Kell responded casually, leaning against a wall next to the bench where Artemisia had chosen to take a seat, "One priest is enough, but when you get three or four it ruins the point of 'listening for the Goddess'."
"So... too noisy." the dragoness repeated her earlier statement.
"Too noisy." Kell confirmed with a nod of his head, tail lashing back and forth in humor.
The two remained in the hall without another word for nearly ten minutes before Kell spoke up again, "I saw you with the Captain earlier this afternoon."
"And?" Artemisia questioned, still looking straight ahead.
"I thought you two were avoiding one another." Kell offered.
"Whatever it was that's been causing my..." she paused, looking for the right word, "unplanned missteps, is passing."
"So no more kissing..." Kell chuckled.
"No..." the dragoness hissed in mild frustration at the friendly jab, "no more kissing."
"So whatever happened between you and the mouse is wearing off." the assassin ventured.
"I'm not certain," Artemisia admitted, "but at least the emotional connection is... which is a good thing."
"Because you don't want to keep trying to steal a kiss from the Captain every time you see him?" Kell flicked an ear.
"You want to be fed your own tongue, don't you?" the dragoness questioned, pulling out her blade and a whetstone.
"Just passing the time." Kell responded neutrally.
"Then if you're looking to pass the time, tell me about the alligator we saved..." Artemisia suggested, sharpening her weapon, "I saw you sneaking around Anya's pavilion."
"Not much to say." Kell replied with a shrug, folding his arms across his chest, "Ephram Zoari... he was a lieutenant in the Myrhean army a ways back during the war."
"He seems too young." the dragoness stated.
"So does someone else I know... Demon of Ashlai." the leopard/wolf replied, a hint of a smile showing where the cloth of his face mask creased.
"Point taken... but he doesn't strike me as a Thaumaturgist, or as a disciple of the Sickle Moon." Artemisia noted.
"I would tend to agree... he can't be any older than in his mid-thirties but, then again, I was never a very good judge of age when it comes to alligators." the assassin admitted.
"So you do not know for certain." Artemisia asked.
"You asked what I heard." Kell shrugged in response, "Whether it's true or accurate doesn't fit into things."
"Do you mean to say that is all you heard?" the dragoness glanced at Kell.
"Not ALL I heard." Kell answered, offering a conspiratory wink.
"Are you hoping I'll elect to interrogate you?" Artemisia asked flatly, "If so, we would have to find a stout wooden table and a lot of very sharp, pointy objects."
"The Priestess made it sound as if he was somehow important for something, or to someone. She mentioned something about 'the dragon'." Kell looked to her again, "Do you think she means you?"
"I have stopped trying to second guess Anya Fanewatcher..." Artemisia answered, "I just assume that whatever she has planned is going to be dangerous and for the sole purpose of furthering goals that none of us could so much as pretend to understand."
"A riddle wrapped in an enigma..." Kell nodded, "Captain Rakken described her that way to the mouse."
"To Thera." Artemisia stated.
"What?" the assassin questioned, glancing toward her.
"The mouse... her name is Thera." the dragoness clarified.
"Ah..." he nodded, "Thera." he looked back to the far wall, "She seems like a nice lady... genuine in her dishonesty."
"That sounds like an oxymoron." Artemisia noted.
"Not once you've met the many kinds of dishonesty out there it isn't." Kell chuckled humorlessly, "No... out of all the kinds of dishonesty you can find I would definitely consider hers to be the best... it's understandable, measurable, predictable, and reasonable."
"That sounds like some very amazing, rare dishonesty to me." Artemisia noted, the very edge of her lips curling in the faintest smirk. "So you're saying you've gone sweet on her?"
The assassin took his turn to smirk beneath his mask, "I don't go sweet on anyone... I simply appreciate the wiles of a skilled prostitute in the way many others might appreciate the steady hand of a skilled painter."
"You have a lot of experience with the wiles of skilled prostitutes then?" Artemisia inquired, her smirk widening.
"Jealous?" the assassin inquired, then deftly slid away as Artemisia casually lashed out at him with a punch to his midsection.
"You aren't my type." she answered, still chuckling to herself.
"Indeed..." Kell acknowledged, "There is no way I can compare to the esteemed Captain Yearl Ra--" and he took a double step back as Artemisia stood and picked up the stone bench upon which she had been sitting.
"Please return the bench to its correct placement." a voice paused the two in the middle of their antics. Artemisia slowly lowered the bench and turned to regard the speaker, a young ocelot dressed in the gray robes of the local clergy. It was a ceremonial robe; its edges were hemmed in silver and the symbol of the Sickle Moon was embroidered on the left breast. It had a cowl, which was lowered across the priest's back, making his face clearly visible in the torchlight of the hallway. His eyes studied them both intently, and his features held no sign of levity. "Thank you." he noted, once Artemisia slid the bench back against the wall.
"You are a priest of Myrh?" questioned the dragoness, looking at the symbol on the ocelot's robe.
"No." he answered simply, "I am a priest of Tah'Aveen."
"Yet you wear the symbol of Myrh." she motioned with a talon.
The priest glanced down to the embroidered symbol then back up to Artemisia, "Courtesy to our visiting guests." he answered and, as Artemisia and Kell watched, the symbol slowly melted away, as if the silver thread had never been there in the first place.
"He is a Diviner..." Kell noted quietly, taking a step back.
"We need not be defined by our occupation... surely you, of all people can appreciate that." the ocelot noted, looking straight at the assassin.
"Stay out of my head." Kell replied, the words coming out as a combination of a lupine growl and a panthine hiss.
"Not all observations require the use of magic, my friend." the priest responded casually, "Sometimes merely paying attention can provide results far greater than any supernatural insight." the ocelot cocked his head to the side, "Will you request that I not look at you next?"
"No..." Artemisia responded, placing her talons on her hips, "We are your guests, and that would be rude." she glanced to Kell, who remained beside her and a step back.
"Your wings are beautiful." the priest noted.
"Thank you for your praise, but I have no wings." Artemisia noted flatly.
"I refer to the ones on your armor, madam." the ocelot explained.
"Perhaps you would like to introduce yourself before you continue lavishing her with kind words." Kell suggested.
"My name is Brother Johann... I am one of the priests here at the Cathedral of Her Light." he nodded his head.
"So you ARE a priest of the Sickle Moon..." Artemisia ventured.
"As I said--" the ocelot clarified, "I am a priest of Tah'aveen." and a new silver-threaded symbol embroidered itself into his robe.
"The symbol of Zion?" Artemisia questioned, looking at the thread.
"The Symbol of Tah'Aveen." Brother Johann clarified, "Most of the City States forget that they all worship the same goddess."
"Try telling them that." the dragoness stated flatly, "I've seen too many men and women die for 'their goddess'."
"So who is YOUR Goddess then?" the ocelot questioned, tail lashing.
"The same one we all worship." Artemisia answered. For the first time, the priest hinted at smiling.
"So what is it you want, Priest?" Kell spoke up, "Did you hunt us down for not attending the Twilight Vigil?"
"No." Brother Johann answered simply, "If the choice were mine, I would have found a way to sneak out as well." his tail lashed at the subtle humor, "but that's difficult when you have hundreds of eyes on you."
"I've had enough of your half answers..." Kell noted, his eyes squinting out a threat from behind his hood, "Priest or no, just stay away from me... Diviner."
Priest Johann watched Kell leave down the hall before turning to regard Artemisia, "Not following your friend?"
"I don't scare off as easily." Artemisia answered, folding her arms, "What DID you come find us for?"
"I was looking for you, actually, not both of you." the ocelot answered.
"Why?" it was the dragoness' turn to glare.
"Because the wings you have on your armor there..." he answered, "I had a dream about those symbols."
"About my armor?" Artemisia questioned.
"No... just the symbols..." the priest responded casually, and he about-faced, "it wasn't YOUR armor."
Something about the way Brother Johann said the words made a chill run up Artemisia's scales from the tip of her tail to the base of her skull. She took a step forward, then pulled her foot back, calling after the priest, "Whose armor?"
The ocelot continued his walk, saying absolutely nothing. Artemisia bit down, clamping her jaw when she felt the ocelot's mind slide into hers; it reminded her of a time when a drunk hog leaned over next to her in a bar to whisper in her ear with a breath that smelled of stale ale... only it was all in her mind, "He was introduced to me as Ephram Zoari." and, as the priest turned the corner and walked off down an adjoining hallway. "It has been a pleasure meeting you, Artemisia."
It took her only a split second for Artemisia to realize that she had never given the priest her name. Unwilling to remain still any longer, the dragoness raced down the hall and skid to a stop on the stone floor, facing the hallway where the priest had turned... but there was nobody there. The presence pulled back from her mind, but not before adding, "I'm certain you have more questions... but maybe you should take it up with your Priestess, Demon of Ashlai."
* * * * * *
This post focuses on Kell and Artimisia, and takes place some time after the initial meeting with the Great Mother. More character development before the upcoming Milestone, so take a chance to look in on the assassin and the dragoness and see what there is to see.
And now, to further develop the party's bonuses for this event arc, time to issue out a voting opportunity:
1) Kell manages to locate Brother Johann and assassinates him before he has a chance to use his Divination Magic to 'interfere' with anything.
2) Artemisia manages to locate Brother Johann and convinces him to divulge more information before her chat with Anya Fanewatcher.
3) Brother Farstrider bumps into Brother Johann and the Great Mother and convinces them to have Brother Johann join the caravan as a guide to (and around) Zion.
4) To heck with Brother Johann already... what I/We REALLY want to see is some m/m smut between Beo and Johann... you keep hinting at it you son-uv-a-bitch, now stand and deliver!
As usual, you have until this Thursday (Sept 1st) to get your vote in. Remember: vote by midnight!