Sidna's Glowing Tits

As Connie grieves in the darkness, he notices with some fuzziness a glowing firefly blinking lazily as it bumbled throughout the air, and he morosely stood to try and usher it outside. It landed eagerly in his hand, but refused to vacate, leaving Connie to stare at it before hearing a voice in his head comment that "his flower was wilting".
 
Startled, Connie looked at the bug before the voice clarified it was internal, and continued to hassle him for a "deal". Knowing this to be the fae entity responsible for his rebirth, Connie was not super eager, and only gave it a ten second sales pitch in which to convince him before ultimately refusing the offer to help find his mother with the eyes-and-ears spies that were the fireflies. Connie, telling him that being given the time of day was more than he should expect at the moment, terminated the negotiation before trapping the firefly under a glass that he covered. He noticed that there was an orc downstairs, prepared to stay the night, but as heavily as he was in his own head he could not bring himself to leave his room.
 
--
 
Across town, Camellia grows tired and so Sidna gently ushers Zeal and Serafina on their way, with Serafina only briefly considering Camellia's offer of rooms for the evening (it is a nice place) before Zeal comments that they sent Connie out to get a room and he needed to pet his cat, as he had promised her earlier in the evening. On the way out, Sidna reprimands Zeal for asking for a favour without bothering to get to know her first, and then bid them good evening.
 
Zeal asks if the animals and cart can remain, and it is graciously granted, with Zeal saying that he is more than capable of guiding people through town. The two begin to make their way towards the Prancing Pony, ready for the evening to conclude.
 
---
 
Inside, Sidna closes the door to see Camellia already inside, readying herself for bed. Camellia is very interested in the party and seems to like us! She thinks Serafina's powers are super interesting, and that Zeal is ugly as all hell, and Sidna comments about his previous immortal beauty. Sidna admits she is extremely tired as well, and that much has happened over the past two weeks, but that she'd prefer to have an easy evening before looking at the journal tomorrow.
 
---
 
On the way to the Prancing Pony, Zeal warns Serafina not to purchase anything at the inn unless she's intending on getting into trouble, though she should be fine with her powers so long as she can break line of sight first. Passing over the bridge into the central district towards Norbank, they note how quiet and dark the night has gotten even in the liveliest part of town here. Further into Norbank, though, sees the amount of guards lessening. Zeal leads Serafina towards the Prancing Pony, where a bouncer stands outside looking tough. Calling out to him, Zeal introduces himself and says that he's planning to get a drink and meet up with Connie inside.
 
As Zeal states that they're here to meet with Constantine Briar, the guard nods and welcomes the two in. Immediately, it doesn't look like any sort of standard inn or tavern. It smells like shit and seedy deals, and Serafina is immediately off-put and asks if they have to stay here, surely they could find a Ye Olde Hiltonne around. Zeal says there's probably one around, but they have to find Connie first. Looking around, he spots an old dwarvish acquaintance passed out at a table and re-introduces himself in his new face.
 
Varric, his companion, can scarcely believe it, asking what happened. After all, he went north only a few weeks ago, and he's only looked like this for a week or so. Apparently, though, the last time his friend saw him he was heading south. As Zeal explains his dealings with Beans, Serafina approaches in the shape of old Zeal and sits at the table, a dagger quickly pointed in her direction at that.
 
Serafina gently asks to not be killed, as a half-orc she knows would be very upset. Mentioning that half-orc, Zeal asks if Varric has seen Connie, with Serafina shape-changing into Connie to help show - almost getting a dagger thrown at her for it. Zeal encourages her to stay in one shape for now before continuing on to say that he'd like to male some sales with this person as well. He wants to sell the secret for the ingredient to grow something. Unfortunately, the dwarf doesn't seem too terribly interested in this, disregarding druidry and herbology in general as profitable.
 
Zeal and Varric plan to move to a private room to negotiate this while Serafina looks around for Connie, going around to the various non-humanoid races and asking if they've seen an orc around who looks like her. She roughly explains that she's trying to find her twin, which they seem to buy, but no one seems to have seen him.
 
Zeal follows Varric to a private room, picking up the passphrase with his excellent hearing. After being allowed in, Varric sits Zeal down at a desk before instructing him to get to the point, no riddles. Zeal nods, and says plainly that he knows how to grow fleshwort, an incredibly rare potion in healing potions of superior quality. Zeal carefully explains the significance and rarity of bloodwort, expounding on its nature, and Varric asks if he has a sample. As the deal progresses, Varric asks how Zeal became so fucked ugly, and Zeal explains that he traded his immortal beauty to a fae being for his friend to be resurrected. He also finds out that a *second* Zeal Hawke has apparently been around, and a week ago set off southwards.
 
(In the background, Serafina is calling out for Connie loudly now)
 
Zeal realises that there is an imposter attempting to ruin his name, or otherwise cause him harm, and after finalising his deal with Varric, makes his way up towards a figure who's a mafioso named Briarbrush (sp?). Secret details ensue!
 
After, Zeal returns to Serafina who confirms that Connie is nowhere to be found. The two begin their tavern crawl across the city in search of their friend and Serafina's room for the evening. Coming back towards central Mornhaven, they pass by the central portion of the city again before finally losing patience and moving to ask the guards if they'd seen Serafina's "twin brother". The guard gives the note that Connie gave over to someone on the previous shift, and as they open the letter they see that in fact there are two sets of directions in there, one which leads to the Old Stick in Twinham, whilst the other leads to another inn in Outer Fairbank.
 
The barkeep is surprised to see Serafina come in since she's still disguised as Connie, who is upstairs, but the twin brother story is enough to get her recognised and to be told there's someone upstairs. Serafina is taken aback, however, by the orc sitting at the bar. He has a Chantesian insignia on his belt, one that a guard might have, and is easily recognised as 'Hirol Smith'.
 
Serafina rushes up and tries to open Connie's door, but it's locked and he's unresponsive. Downstairs, she talks to the clerk again and finds out that there was a second room paid for for a 'Serafina'. Before she can go to claim it, however, she hears a voice behind her remarking on the name. It's Chantesian, after all. She grows nervous as the guard who was sat at the table is now explaining the story to this half-orc. Apparently a rampaging purple lizard had killed a Serafina Zelreth, and he's here to see it dead.
 
As Serafina tries to explain that she's not herself, Zeal steps in to lie on her behalf, and while he manages to convince the guard that the "monster" was last seen in Clearwater, he unfortunately lets loose the fact that it could speak as a human could, and he invites the two to sit. Hirol tells Mr. Serafina to sleep tight, getting a death glare, and he and Zeal move to sit and drink (with Serafina paying for their drinks).
 
Panicked slightly, Serafina readies herself for bed in the dark and lies down, a wax paper under her head crinkling and causing her to yelp and jump up. She discovers the candied oranges that Connie had left for her, and her heart softens as she tries one and discovers that they're legitimately good: better than an establishment of this quality could afford. Sadly, the yelp alerted Connie to her presence, and she doesn't hear his silent tears through the rest of the night.
 
Downstairs, Hirol and Zeal converse over drinks, Hirol telling Zeal about Chantesy where he's from and where Serafina's "rampage" had happened. He says that one of the victims was a young girl named Seraphina Zelreth, the daughter of a chocolatier. Three other victims besides her were confirmed, killed quite gruesomely dessicated and scattered, with Serafina's remains entirely unfound.
 
Zeal pieces together the puzzle and gently suggests that there was a curse he knows of which caused one to change the shape of another at the cost of a life. Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be the case, Hirol says, and the man morosely continues into his cups. Justice has been escaped for so long, he says, that the only justice he can hope for is the blade.
 
Zeal continues speaking, much to the GM's delight, and lets slip that the "twins" are from Woodside, and the man is suspicious considering they have different accents, and claimed to be from different places if Zeal is to be believed. He manages to spin some of Connie's tragedy in and distract with Garna and talks of orcish culture, even getting Hirol to say that he would keep an eye out for Garna.
 
Zeal leaves a note with the barkeep for Connie, explaining that Serafina is now his twin brother to keep her safe. [failed insight check?!] Heading home, it's a pleasant walk through familiar vistas - surprisingly less drunk than usual, hoping that Mrs. Hudson is going to be understanding when he gets home. After some time, he approaches his home - an apartment within a larger building that resembles an inn. It's dark, Mrs. Hudson is already asleep, so Zeal heads upstairs to his room. Unfortunately, when he digs through his coins to get to his key, he can't seem to find it. He replays the events in his memory, he knows he locked the door when he left, but he can't seem to remember what's happened to it.
 
After some thought, he goes and knocks on Mrs. Hudson's door gently, and she shuffles to open the chained door. Apparently he has done this before, her chiding him for losing it again, before fetching the spare and going to let him in. She gently pats his arm before letting him go for the evening, allowing Zeal to graciously greet Aida, who recognises him even in his changed shape and is a cuddly, purring delight before setting in for the night.
 
Back at the Old Stick, Serafina listens to Connie's light snoring for a little bit before whispering a quiet good night to him and passing out in her sleep. Unfortunately, she fails a perception check in the middle of the night. That's not worrying in the slightest. She wakes up to a sudden stabbing pain.
 
Over her stands Hirol, who has buried a longsword in her stomach, and she screams. No sooner has she done so than does Connie appear in a shower of incandescent firefly-like lights. Seeing the situation, he quickly reaches up and grabs a petal from his orchid before plucking it, going through a magical boy transformation into his fae-fueled former face. Now fully buff, he rushes forward and frees Serafina before beginning to lay into him with a glaive manifested of the selfsame firefly light. While the two exchanged blows, Serafina managed to escape out the window - Connie launching over to close it and bar it with his body. Unfortunately, he failed a wisdom saving throw and was Commanded to Surrender, which he promptly did after dropping to his proper self.
 
The man said that Connie had no idea what he'd just done, but shook his head and turned to leave. Though Connie looked out the window, he could see no sign of Serafina, who had turned into a guard before quickly fleeing into the night.
 
Serafina awakens the next morning in an alcove next to a shop, somewhere in Ferryside, though she doesn't know this herself. She gets up and heads into the shop, disguising herself as Poppy, and finds that it's a weapon's dealership. A somewhat older elf woman, when Serafina reveals her wound, the woman asks what happened and seems to disbelieve Serafina when she says she was stabbed, but rushes her to medical attention while yelling for her husband to take over the shoppe.
 
Quickly, Serafina is ushered to a barber-surgeon named Morning Oak. With a trusty needle and thread, he administers treatment to Serafina and though it's a painful process, he carefully sews her shut. Serafina thanks him for his help, and asks if he knows where she is, to which he answers: his clinic. Serafina drags her hands down her head, and the man brings up payment. Unfortunately, she jumped out the window without her coinpurse, and so the man says that he will have to re-open her, then. Fortunately the elfen woman offers to pay, and while Serafina attempts to storm off afterwards, she cannot make it far. The woman carefully meets her and accompanies her back to her shop, introducing herself along the way as Rapunzel, with Serafina introducing herself back as Poppy.
 
---
 
Back in Inner Fairbank, Sidna awoke and carefully untangled herself from Camellia's clutch after the best night's sleep she's ever had. Enjoying the view of the city from the balcony for a few minutes, she dressed before making her way downstairs and helping Siegfried prepare breakfast. They talked, and Sidna clarified that Anatoly and Rhyiem were both, in fact, the same person: Serafina. She also said to expect an actual third guest, and the two talked comfortably before he handed over Camellia's favourite breakfast: Oatmeal with honey and tea alongside.
 
---
 
Across town, Zeal wakes up and cuddles with Aida for a luxurious amount of time, even beginning to speak with animals so he could speak with her more personably. She's an adoring cat, who's just so happy to have him there. Aida mentions that Mrs. Johnson likes to steal things, but she comes in very regularly to feed her, so it's fine by Aida. Apparently the last time she saw Zeal, he didn't have the red balls he's been tracking with him. She loved hearing what a dragon was, and wants to hunt one herself one day! Zeal greets her from Camellia and Aida suggests she could cuddle her, too, if that would make her feel better. Zeal says he will see if she's up to it, and then goes to meet with Mrs. Johnson. She is surprised by his appearance, and while Zeal asks for a new key, she tells him that apparently he was here all the previous week, and had given her no indication that he wasn't normal; going around spouting about the great fire of Rante while dressed in his formal robes.
 
Zeal thinks this is odd, because he didn't really wear his formal robes very often. He asks if she remembers where he said he meant to go, and though worried for the state of his mind, she says she last heard he was going south to help those poor refugees. He thanks her and says he's got to go do some refugee work. He thanks her and then asks after the refugees, even going so far as to ask after Connie's dad, a man with the last name Briar, thinking it would be nice to help Connie find him. Unfortunately she doesn't know any person like that, though she does have a room for rent now! Zeal purchases that room for a month, and Mrs. Johnson says that she'll have a copy of his old key ready for him by the end of the day.
 
---
 
Connie, having been directed to the Necropolis, found his way upon an enclosed, small stone building. It's a simple temple, a small tower rising from its very middle. Inside, Connie is met by a figure covered head-to-toe in white robes. He says he's there because he heard Sebastian Briar had been interred here, and they lead him through a courtyard to a set of doors that open to a spiral staircase leading down past hundreds of rows of dead. On and on it continues, past a veritable legacy of bones; one of the latest, though, has a shiny plaquard and bears his father's name. The priest steps aside, and Connie quietly addresses his father, admitting his crime of patricide and promising to find his mother and tell her, too. He's trying to help people, he promises. A few more passionate exchanges and an incense-fueled vigil later sees him ask for guidance, brought back to the surface to the noonday sun.
 
--
 
Last night notes: CAMELLIA CAN READ THE SHIT ON SIDNA'S TIDDIES. Translated exactly from Primordial to Roveric, "Flow across the elements, leaving Soul and Life untouched. Disperse the poison, disperse the dark." These apparently look just like the runes that are on her mentor's body. The runes, though, only started to glow recently.
 
Sidna returns to Camellia and finds her slightly upset in bed. She brightens a bit when she sees Sidna has breakfast, but Camellia's face falls and she admits she was afraid Sidna had left because Camellia had woken up from a nightmare. She admitted, as well, that she was worried because the previous guard she'd had before Sidna had been forced by her father into war efforts under Wisteria's command, and they'd sacrificed themself to protect her. Camellia's nightmare was that Sidna had done the same for her.
 
Sidna says it's true, she would, but Camellia is upset by this. Sidna swears she will endeavour to make it not happen, but she has sworn that were there no other option she would sacrifice herself for Camellia without hesitation. Camellia brings up the runes again, saying that something must have happened to spark them flaring up. She demands answers, and Sidna sighs before beginning her explanation.
 
She starts by giving a little bit of background to Connie, and his ailment that was so similar to hers. Camellia was boggled by the idea that he was able to use the sickness as magic, and is excited to meet him. She asks why Connie didn't come last night, and Sidna waffles before answering that it was because Connie had been killed. Camellia is alarmed by this and immediately asks after Sidna's health, and as they embrace Sidna continues the tale and explains Connie and Sidna's exchange, making Camellia promise to not get mad at her before explaining they had made a blood pact.
 
She explains how when their blood connected she felt strange, and how Connie had grown sicker whilst she had grown less so. Thankfully this wasn't what killed Connie, but Camellia's concern grows, and she wonders if Sidna might be cursed, too. Sidna says she might be, and only Mystras could know. Sidna explains how Connie died, that it was to get rid of his curse -- swearing that she wouldn't do the same -- and continued to explain that Zeal made a choice to revive Connie in exchange for his beauty.
 
Camellia sighs and says that she loves Sidna, but she's awful blunt. She gives her a ring that's too small for anything but her pinkie, and when Sidna acquiesces, Camellia asks if Sidna will promise her (as she will promise her) that whatever happens, they will come back to each other. Sidna smiles and says her oath stands, and she will swear it as many times as Camellia wants to hear it: she will come back to her. Always. Camellia explains this ring will show that she is more than just a knight, she is Camellia's. The ring is small and pure silver, with an amethyst set within. Sidna almost restrains her joy before remembering she is with Camellia and begins to smile unenthusiastically.
 
Sidna remarks her present seems a little lacklustre now, but after making Camellia closer her eyes (NO CHEATING!!!) she finally placed the box of chocolates within her hands. Camellia is touched and consumes three without breathing before Sidna removes the box; only returning it when she promises to behave and not consume them all at once.