Session Sixty Nine: Nice

General Summary

The tortle and the hare

  Chantilly and Silmer are picked up by Jay, another bird, and together escort Griff to the Knott. As her family takes Griff over, Chantilly informs them about meeting anpther tortle, Dea, who might want to seek refuge at the Knott. Caren is sent along with them back to Wroat to escort Dea. Chantilly's mother ensures a faster by giving additional gold to use the Teleportation Circle at the House Orion station.  

Tall blue building with blue shutters

  Tristan asks to go past Briar at her appartment before she heads to the Deneith station that morning. They will then walk with Briar to the Deneith station, where they had agreed to meet Chantilly and Silmer. Tristan will then hang out with those two while the others will go see Elizabeth. While they head towards the appartment, Tristan shares the news that Lord Elson has left. He also mentions that he wants to sneak into Briars apartment to prank her. Malak offers the ability to use invisibility.  They arrive at a tall building with blue shutters and Edward seemingly knows the place. He mentions he needs to deliver bad news to someone. Tristan offers to help but Edward says he can do it, sounding doubtfull. Malak and Vence decide to join Tristan and Mallak makes them invisible. Briar lives on the 24th floor and Edward needs to go to the 23rd floor.  

Delivering some bad news

  Edward knocks on the door and an elderly man opens. The man is the father of Magnia Trace, a person who died from the Sickness that Edward knows. The elderly man confuses Edward for his son and Edward plays along. While  impersonating his son, Edward learns about Magnia’s friend Ruse who went to Korth. Ruse is from ken-something in Breland. Edward gives the man some gold as he leaves and says goodbye, telling the man it’s unlikely for him to return as he’s going on a dangerous venture and that he loves him.  

Walking up Briar

  With Malak out of breath, Tristan, Vence and Malak arrive at the 24th floor. When Tristan is considering how to open the door, Vence tells him to check for a key under the doormat. ...And they find a key... It’s a small apartment, not tidied up but not a mess. Tristan sneaks into Briar's room and gets up close yells at her to Stand to.   Briar wakes up and gets confused at the voice of her colonel and starts swinging her sword. Tristan gets hit. Malak drops the invisibility and Tristan laughs at Briar and tells her they brought her breakfast. As Malak and Vence prepare breakfast, Tristan uses code to verify if she has been compramised. She is able to reply back in code that she has not been.  Tristan then feels more comfortable to proceed with asking Briar further questions as they join Malak and Vence. He asks why she’s here. Briar explains she’s here investigating Deneith members disappearing and/or dying but she hasn’t figured out why yet. Vence asks about common threads. Briar explains its mostly members of House Deneith, Orion and Tharrask or it’s ex-soldiers. Tristan explains the Sickness to Briar in broad strokes. Malak asks if they know about anyone else is involved. Vence asks about places of interest and explains Elson (but not Sickle).   Tristan asks Briar about Valdis and Briar mentions he’s been on his own missions and she has not actively kept track of him. She has not seen him in some time but last time was in Korth. On that occassion, he mentioned Elizabeth.   Edward arrives upstairs and Briar is introduced to Edward. She mentions to be happy that he’s safe and that Elizabeth was so worried and hugs him. Malak mentions he does not look forward to walking down and Briar offers to carry him. Malak agrees and Briar lifts him up and princess-carries him down. When arriving downstairs Vence asks for a ride and Briar offers Vence a piggyback ride. As they move onto house Deneith, Edward asks Briar about Karrnathi birthdays. Briar simply mentions Karrnathi milk. Vence and Briar have flirty banter  

House Deneith

  Chantilly and Silmer arrive at Deneith Station around the same time as everyone else. Chantilly introduces her younger sibling, Carin, who has been tasked to escort Dea to the Knott. Carin tells Chantilly not to steal while away from the family and Chantilly tells Silmer she’s not a thief anymore…. Probably? After confirming that Griff is safe, Carin and Chantilly go into the Deneith Station to talk to Dea.   Grace meets up with the group, freshened up and over dressed for a date. Tristan introduces her to Briar, who is excited to meet Tristan's new bae. Grace and Malak talk about all the wands in her room, Malak not understanding why they need to be everywhere and Grace not understanding why Malak moved them from their 'tactical placements'.   It is decided that Tristan will go shopping with Silmer and Chantilly and then join them to meet up with Piesk and Gisleia as the rest meet Elizabeth. Vence asks Tristan to tell Gislea she should stay put while he works out what’s best. Before splitting ways, Tristan gives Edward a letter for his sister.  

Shopping

  Tristan and Silmer look for shops and Silmer buys a ribbon for Carin, as requested by Chantilly. Tristan's Karrnathi bartering instincts kick in and he manages to know the price down by acting as if Hayon was his boyfriend (Silmer is still wearing the hat). They try and buy some bluethroat feathers but the guy seems suspicious of Tristan for asking about that. Silmer offers to otherwise check it out later in (another?) disguise. They find a jewellery stall where Silmer buys Tristan a square copper clasp as a gift. Tristan apologizes for the feather business but Silmer mentions he didn’t even notice. They return to the Deneith station where Chantilly explains that her sister is doing well on her first mission and she’ll leave with Dea at the end of the day.  

We’re off to meet the… Bards?

  Vence, Malak, Edward and Grace walk to the address Elizabeth gave Edward. Edward seems to be re-exploring the city as they go while Vence seems very distracted. This specific area is a labyrinth of alleyways and does not seem like a great place to be living.  They arrive at a tall building, with 35 floors. Instead of climbing all the stairs again, the group decides to fly up. Arriving at the apartment at the very top, Edward knocks on the door.   A big man opens the door. He’s dressed in very eclectic attire, wearing touristy things from all sorts of places from around the world. He hones in on Edward, obviously recognising him. He ushers them to follow him inside and takes them to the dinning room. The room has a large dinner table surrounded by a number chars and appears to be decorated for a culturally inappropriate Karrnathi birthday party decorations.   Vence is turning very pale and looks distressed. Edward asks him if Elizabeth means a lot to him, which makes Vence bluescreen. Malak tells Edward that Vence is here because he cares about one of ELizabeth's companions. Hearing Malak say this, the big man slams the dining room door shut behind them and frowns deeply. He towers over Vence and asks him who he is and, if he’s not here for Elizabeth, who's he here for. Vence explains that his name is Vence and he wishes to meet with Talia.   The big man calls Genti and introduces himself as Niklas Lathom. When Genti enters the room and sees Vence, he calls in Quori for Talia to hide herself. He then turns to Vence angrily, asking him why he thought this was a good idea. Vence explains he can be there, he has a feather, which is visible. Genti, still angry, tells Vence that it they cannot assume who was sacrificed for that feather. He would have to have told them. And Talia does _not_ know that he was a feather, let alone that she was sacrificed. An annoyed Thean shifts in and continues the discussion with Genti.    Elizabeth walks in. Being a Glamour Bard, she is very beautiful and bears a very striking (though more feminine) resemblence to Tristan. She goes over to Genti to calm him down. She tells him that matters are very likely as complicated for Thaen as they are for the rest of them. She then asks both him and Thaen not to not start fights as it is better if they are a more united front. She then formally introduces her to Thaen, who wishes her a happy birthday. She turns to Edward with a big warm smile for a moment before she returns to dealing with Thaen.   While this happens Edward steals birthday cupcakes.   Thaen asks to see Talia. Elizabeth suggests she talks to Talia first as she was shaken by this whole ordeal. Thean reluctantly agrees. While Elizabeth checks on Talia, Genti is trying to calm himself down. Edward asks Genti if Elizabeth and Niklas saved Genti and Genti explains he was saved by the group Edward has found himself with. This also seems to calm Genti down.   Thaen then formally introduces himself to Grace, Niklas and Genti. Edward asks Malak quietly about the two Thaens, who explains there are two of them, both called Thaen.   Malak takes out his book and gushes about Elizabeth to Kiasuh and Cissa. He also tells Cissa about Thaen meeting Talia, to which she doesn’t respond. He also gushes to Jurian and April. Kiasuh wants to hear everything and April seems very excited. Jurian replies with a confused 'that's nice' as he was not really part of this.   Edward thanks Niklas for trying to save him who nods his head in reply.  Thaen notices that Grace has been uncharacteristaclly quiet and breaks the ice by offering her a chance to read General Len’s spell book. She relaxes a little, eagerly taking the book and mentions she would love to copy some spells.  Elizabeth returns and Grace closes the book, looking uncomfortable once more.  

Talia

  As Thaen follows Elizabeth to the music room, she asks him to be gentle with Talia. At the door to the music room, Thaen tells Elizabeth Tristan loves and misses her. Elizabeth thanks him and tells him that she had never doubted how her brother felt about her. And, until today, she’s never been jealous of her friend before...   She returns to the group, leaving Thaen in front of the music room. He tries knocking but there is no answer. He stars reading a passage from a dirty book. On the other side of the door he can hear what could either be a sob or chuckle. He then sings the verse of Flight of the Silverbird he learned from Cygnus, proving he’s on the trail. This promts Talia to whistle part of a tune to him, to which he responds in kind. The door cracks open.   She stands in the doorway and takes a moment to look him over. Her hair is short and dyed a chocolate brown with a few coloured streaks. She greets him (in Quori) and mentions she’s unsure what to do. He mentions he’s as uncertain and moves into the music room. It looks like she was about to embrace him but thinks the better of it.   After a short, very uncomfortable exchange, Thaen tells her he wants to hug her. Talia seems surprised but agrees. He holds her tightly and, as they both slowly relax, they quietly cry into each other’s shoulders.    After some time, they release from the hug and sit together to talk. Talia tells Thaen that she is very confused. If anyone would have had to be sacrificed, would it not have been Cissa? Or were Emir and Cissa a ruse?  Thaen tries to explain the complicated mechanics of his personas. After a few years he had given up and fully intended to become Emir. Instead, Emir became his very own person. Thaen goes on to explain that, when he was in Dal Quor, all his persona’s where there. They are all real. He tells her that, while he owns the house, he has three roommates he cannot evict. Emir and Cissa are real, but Cissa and Thaen don’t get along. It’s complicated. Thaen then tells her about his other two personas, Vence and Lady. Talia knows about Lady (though not by that name) but not Vence.   Talia tells Thaen that, if he had moved on after seven years, she would have understood. So when Emir and Cissa came out at their big concert, she was sad to hear about it but not surprised. So she's happy to see Thaen here, be it a little confused as to why she would still have been considered a sacrifice after all this time.    After this, they discuss that Thaen still needs to meet Asir. They then briefly discuss Thaen and his group's run in with Len. Talia mentions she wants to meet their group. Thaen sees no issues beyond Tristan and Elizabeth. Thalia tells him she wants to meet them all, especially Tristan.  

Elizabeth returns

  Elizabeth re-joins the group and, after she enters the room, she lets out a deep sigh while leaning against the doorway. She then shakes it off and a smile returns. “Big surprise for my birthday!”   Malak tells her he has a present from Tristan and hugs her. She rubs her cheek against his beard for a moment as it dawns on Malak why he was chosen. He then tells her that he has someone special with him for her to meet. Elizabeth misunderstands and assumes it's Edward. She runs to him, hugs him and tells him that she's so very glad that he's safe. Flustered, Edward gives her Tristans letter.    On the envelope, she reads the below:   “The beautiful lady there is Grace. Shut up She seemed nervous about meeting you. She is never nervous BE NICE!”   She looks around at Grace and Malak gestures for her to go talk to Grace. Grace stammers, looks sick but introduces herself. Elizabeth smiles and says “My new sister in law!” She hugs her. Grace is still very much flustered but pulls through and asks if she could discuss something with Elizabeth in private. Elizabeth immediately drags her of.   Genti asks Malak who things are. Malak mentions its going pretty good. We’ve captured Len, freed Edward and Malak has a new son (adopted) but he’s unsure of his sons actual age. Malak explains what happened to Griff, which sends Genti off in a typical Thranian way. Niklas tries to calm Genti down about Jossac. Malak also mentions the Princess, Balinor, the Knott and the Bride of Balinor. Genti all the more confused. Malak explains Keya. Genti finds it all very convoluted.   Malak asks Genti how he’s been. Genti mentions he’s been good. He has a new feather, they are finished with Asir and, after a short stay to run errands, they are going to Korth.  

And they all come back

  Talia seems a bit shell-shocked, compromising her usual regal stance. Malak introduces himself and Edward. As she introduces herself, it is clear that common clearly isn’t Talia’s first language. She greets Malak and Edward warmly. Elizabeth and Grace return. Grace seems blushing and Elizabeth is beaming. Malak introduces Grace and Talia to each other. Followed by smirks being exchanged between Talia and Elizabeth.   Elizabeth: “Now that we’ve all gotten very acquainted” She checks if Thaen and Talia are ok.    When Malak asks Elizabeth about Valdis, all 4 dodecophany bards react. They all know him. Valdis will be escorting them to Korth. Elizabeth asks how Tristan is doing. Edward tells her about Il'Lashtavar and Malak elaborates that Tristan is not doing too good since the encounter. Elizabeth looks even more pale than she already does. Thaen tries to soften the blow by telling Elizabeth that Tristan is recovering. Malak tells her he was in there yesterday but Edward got him out and that he’s slowly recovering. Elizabeth frowns and mentions that clarifies the timing. Malak asks her how she knows Edward. She explains they found him while looking for Genti in different places. Edward explains they found him while looking for Gisleia. Thaen now has to explain Piesk and Gislea to Talia but Malak explains because Thaen is Thaen.   After talking about Griff and Elizabeth being curious about the Dream spell, Elizabeth nudges Grace who then prompts the group to maybe leave.   Edward asks Elizabeth if she has a note back for Tristan. She tells him she can’t but takes a ribbon out of her hair and tells her to give it to him for his birthday. She also gives him a kiss on the cheek to pass along. Thaen invited Talia to come along. Malak invites Elizabeth to join him for dinner at his place after everything.   Edward asks for an explanation about the feathers. Genti explains in a show.   Tala is Raan, the book Elizabeth is Ollarhune, the Sentinal Genti is Therindor, the healers moon Niklas is Eyre, the Anvil Thaen is Barracas, the Lantern   Thaen was never previously told who Genti or Niklas' moons were. But he instinctively knew.   Elizabeth hugs them all and says goodbye. Thaen thanks them all for keeping Talia safe. Thaen asks Elizabeth how to mess with Tristan. Elizabeth tells him she’d normally be happy to… but not today. She asks Thaen to simply tell him that she loves him very much.   With that, the group leaves, with Talia joining.