Absently Janessa lifted her shimmering hazel gaze to watch a small group of RE's and ladies in waiting nearby, laughing and shouting as they tossed a small ball of twine back and forth to one another. "I've always thought that I should just...Hoist up my skirts, run in there, grab that ball and show them how to really throw," she murmured to her companions, giving them a faint smile. The dark circles beneath her eyes hadn't eased at all, but she watched the game with interest.
Corvarath stood at Janessa's side, his arm loosely looped through hers as she watches the game. His demeanor seems to improved somewhat since Janessa's return last night, but everything that had happened in the past week still weighed upon his humor. He was going through the motions of the normal cheer he felt around Janessa, but it was hardly convincing. "And why haven't you, my dear?" He asks quietly in reply, glancing down at her. "I'm open! I'm open! I'm--!" Marks is plowed by a rather burly RE, whom most would recognize as RE Lt. Prax, the one Mystonian-reared Alesian in the courtyard. A group of 'ooooooohs' in sympathy could be heard from the spectators, winces apparent as the young man goes down on the grass, and piled onto by several others. "........in pain..." Marks finishes from under the pile. Janessa burst out laughing, one delicate hand moving to cover her mouth as she leaned on Corvarath, her gaze upon Marks even though there wasn't much of him to be seen beneath the pile of bodies. "Because I'm not sure they'd let me play. I don't think a single one of them would have the guts to tackle the Queen like that." But oh, would she love if they would. She missed the games of her rough and tumble childhood, and hated the fact that as she grew up her title had slowly drawn her away. Loreli had finally fallen asleep about dawns this morning, and several nights of -no- sleep had caught up with her, causing her to sleep right through the day. As the sun slid down toward the horizon, and her room began to heat up she turned over with an uncomfortable sound. She'd dreamt earlier it was raining. The gentle pat-pat-pat of drops of water against the marble of the balcony. Sighing, she knew it was time to get up. It couldn't have rained, it was still too hot, either way it was a lovely dream ..Pushing herself to sit up, she opened her eyes and lifted a hand o push hair out of her face. When she ran into a matted clump, she frowned and tugged at her hair. As her eyes focused, she glanced around and her breath just emitted out of her lungs in a woosh and her lips just moved silently while her blue eyes got wider .. and wider and wider ... and she managed to suck in a breath and let loose a scream like all the devils and demons of the abyss were on her heels. Corvarath laughed and shook his head. "Let you play? Do you seriously think they'd say no?" Motioning toward the game, he continued. "You go in there and play hard, start throwing elbows and tacking people yourself, and they'll forget their fear of touching you. I think you grossly underestimate the affection your people have for you, darling." The sound of that terrified scream coming from the castle jolted Janessa from her thoughtful contemplation of the game, and her head spun around to stare up at Corvarath. "What in the name of all the gods...." she said wonderingly, then she proved to the Alesian Prince that she really COULD play well in that game. Hitching up her skirts she took off at a full-blown run for the castle, silky legs flashing in the breeze for all to see. "HURRY!!" What Loreli had seen of course, everyone knew about. Dozens and dozens of dead chickens hanging from the ceiling of her room. Blood spattered and smeared -everywhere-. The floor, the walls ... her bed, her pillow ... HER. SCREEEEEEEECH! It sounded vaguely like a banshee being tortured. She tried .. she tried to move .. but she was literally frozen in place in bed, half sitting, but not for long. She rolled out of bd, sobbing now and crawled/ran towards the door. And when Janessa takes off running, he does likewise. Despite the fact that he was a foot taller than she was and had a longer stride, she could still outrun him. Of course, in a gown she can't move as swiftly as she might when otherwise attired, so he does manage to keep up with her as she dashes headlong for the castle. He had no idea who was screaming or where in the castle the screams were coming from, but he imagined it wouldn't be too hard to figure out. Just follow the gathering crowd of spectators. Caelan could be blunt sometimes as well. And it helped that she had this whole demeanor of not caring. The sudden shriek though cut off her attempt at fun as she jolted upright in bed and stared wide-eyed towards the door. "What was that?!" Loreli finally stumbled to the door and clawed at the handle. her heart was literally threatening to burst out of her chest in terror and fright, and she couldn't make -anything- work right. She was trapped in a nightmare, and she didn't know how to wake up. She pounded against the door in utter, unknowing frustration, her eyes picking up the dark, dried splatter marks of blood and she screamed again, the sound almost hoarse now as she clawed at the handle again and managed to get the door open and practically rolled out into the hall. She was a sight. Her white bed gown, her hair, and practically everywhere else, a brownish dark color, covered in dried blood. her blond hair was matted with it, causing it to stick up at amazing angles. And the stench that rolled from the room at the dead chickens .. only now in the clear air of the hallway could she detect it. At Loreli's scream, Fox's head jerked over down the corridor, the reverberating banshee's scream reaching his ears. He jerked up suddenly, his hand on his rapier and looking around, closing his eyes for a moment...a fox christened is a fox named, tracing the air to the direction it was coming from, and who it was. "Shit," he growls, giving Caelan a glance. "Stay here. I'll be right back!" He flings the door open, and makes sure to close it before he takes off like a bat out of hell. And since he'd already inside the castle, it doesn't take him long to find the quarters of the royal secretary....with the door shut. "Lady Loreli!" He yelped, banging on the door, before rearing back and shoving his shoulder into the wood in an attempt to throw it open.....except this time his more logical senses took over to actually -try- the handle...except the door flies open, and Loreli practically falls on him. His arms come around the woman instinctively. As it was, Janessa cursed the fact that today she'd succumbed to expectation and dressed in a light summer gown rather than what she preferred to wear - boy's clothing. It was easy to follow those horror-stricken screams, and the little Queen's heart leapt into her throat when she realized where they were coming from. Loreli's room. "Lor? We're coming!" she cried, taking the stairs by twos as she flew. She knew Corv was beside her, thank heavens, for she wasn't sure WHAT they'd find. "Stay here?" Caelan was already swinging her legs out from the bed as Fox was rushing from her room. She wasn't just going to stay right here! The young woman bolted from the bed and across her room, pulling open her door to dart out into the corridor and after the star elite. And bounding up the steps with Janessa, they rounded a corner and saw Loreli and Fox down the hallway. Before long the stench of rotting poultry reached his nose, and the corners of his mouth twitched, but he doesn't seem too badly affected by it. He was all too familiar with the smell of decay and death, and learned to hold his bile down in much worse conditions. Still, the sight of Loreli covered in dried blood is no less revolting than the smell. The thing that tops it all off is that the Elite present happened to be a certain Mr. Aisli, and for just a moment, the look in his eyes is positively chilling, as if he were contemplating the man's death. Of course, it's only there for a moment, and there are other, more immediate concerns. Corvarath peered into Loreli's room and saw the carnage in there, and stared uncomprehendingly for a moment. "What the hell is this?" Loreli just babbled for the moment, in a whisper, since it hurt to scream again, and the immediate terror was draining out of her, causing her body to shake like she was in the grip of a fever. All Fox might be able to make from her is "Dead ... all blood .. all over .." Repeat. Her eyes were wide and glassy, and were obviously not seeing her surroundings. Though she realized she was being restrained somehow and was scrambling for release. Speaking of bile ... Her body started to jerk as the retching reaction kicked in. His eyes swept to the door and to the interior of the room, and while he seems oblivious to the approach of both royals and Cael, it doesn't necessarily mean he wasn't aware of them. But the sight and stench of blood was enough to keep him focused on one thing only...until he felt Loreli tremble in his arms. He turned her slowly to the side and towards the wall. "Let it out...you'll feel better," He said, rubbing her back and gritted his teeth as he watched the secretary, blood streaked and absolutely terrified. Rage....raaaaage.... he'll check on the room later, but at present, given the amount of blood on her, he tried to gauge if she herself had acquired injuries. Breathless, Janessa drew up short in front of Fox and Loreli, the poor secretary huddled in the RE's strong arms. "Oh...gods, Lor..." she whispered in horror, her gaze fixed upon the poor woman's tortured face. Dropping to her knees beside them both, she looked beseechingly up to Corvarath. Did he know healing? It looked like she was bleeding to death! Her heart pounded fiercely - and it was for many reasons. Calm, Janessa...just keep calm, she whispered to herself again and again. Turned toward the wall, she emptied the contents of her stomach there. Thankfully not much, but enough to cause humiliation to rise as a pale second to her terror. She heard the others words as a faint buzzing in her ears, not really comprehending. No wounds on the secretary, it appeared, merely dried blood from where the chickens and dripped all over her. Caelan skidded to a halt when she reached Fox, Lor, Jan and Corvarath. Apparently the woman had begun to recover some semblance of her older self, just by the fact that she was here, and not locked in her room. Her mouth fell open at the scene, and her hand rose to cover it. "Oh, gods..." she breathed, feeling her stomach turn at the sight. She had to turn her head away. "Watch her," He muttered towards Janessa, turning his eyes to her for a moment, then to Cael's, before he gets up slowly and starts heading inside the room, hand crossbow drawn from the sheath he kept at the small of his back. He seemed oblivious, thankfully, of the wild danger alarms he was feeling in Corvarath's presence. He stepped into the room, almost slipping at a puddle of chicken blood on the floor before staring at the interior. He didn't seem put out by the smell, or the sight...instead, he flicked his eyes around the room...lockbreaking had always been one of his best subjects back in the Academy, and so he ventured inside further, poking at the area under Loreli's bed, passing the window to glance at it, fingering something here and there, opening the closet door....he set on the meticulous task of getting an imprint of the room inside his head. His eyes narrowed, standing in the middle of the room before withdrawing the rather distinct sword-rapier from his scabbard, and swept it down on the floor, before making the blade face up...the engraved, runic inscriptions of the blade gleam once, but nothing....he barely seemed to be moving, just watching the room, ignorant of a glop of blood spattering on his shoulder. Cor couldn't heal, but he'd already surmised that the blood wasn't hers, just judging by the sheer volume of it splattering her room. "Someone has managed to sneak an entire flock of chickens into into this room, butcher them, and hang them from the celing...without being noticed. How is this possible?" Caelan 's hand curled into a fist at her side. Well, how did he really expect her to stay in her room? She swallowed back the contents of her stomach, and looked from Fox to Jan, to Loreli. Who on earth would do this? Glancing up to Caelan, Janessa's eyes widened a bit. How long had it been since she'd seen her longtime, erstwhile friend? Quickly she looked away before reaching one small hand to Loreli's face to wipe some of the dried blood from it. "Cael...Do you have any water in your room? And a cloth?" She glanced back to the girl beseechingly, although her gaze was hooded and flat. She appeared to pay no attention to what was in the room, not certain she wanted to know, and she turned back to Lor. "This is quite a feat, even for Charlena to accomplish." Corvarath was making a rather large deductive leap, but he couldn't fathom who else in the castle would have both the ability to pull something like this off, and the malicious nature to want to. This was the work of a depraved mind. "It seems that our unwelcome guest may be escalating matters." Loreli looked at Janessa as she felt her comforting hand on her cheek, and the tears started to fall. Choking on a sob, she moved towards her friend, who she wasn't even aware was back and just cried. Torrents of tears for the moment as she sought some way to dislodge the horror from her throat. Fox Aisli tried not to take too much of a deep breath in the middle of the carnage. His sword flashed upwards, letting a chicken's body drop from the ceiling, and started prodding at the flesh with the point of his rapier, inclining his head a bit. He then spoke up slowly. ".....as far as I know, this wouldn't have been possible for a human. Even a mage....well, possible for a mage, but there's no trace of that here, except on the chickens." Caelan looked back towards Janessa, wondering herself on how long it's been. For a moment, Jan can see the disappointment in her gaze. Apparently not all has been well with the head LiW, she looked thin, and had dark circles under her eyes. "I do," she replied, nodding her head, "Why don't we take her there, and away from this," she began to kneel, offering a hand. Oh, did her ankle throb now from running like that down here. Heedless of the sticky blood that was going to ruin the gown she wore, Janessa crooned softly and soothingly as she wrapped her arms tightly around Loreli. "It's okay, Lor...It'll be all right. Fox is here and you know he's the best...Corv will help, and Cael and I will clean you up and get you some whiskey..." She rocked her secretary in her tight embrace, her small frame stiff with upset, then she planted a gentle kiss on Loreli's forehead. "And whoever killed these..." Fox prods the body with his boot. "Killed them here -while- the Lady Secretary was sleeping." He sets his jaw firmly. "Shit..." He didn't like the idea of a blade flashing around inside the room while another woman was asleep on the bed. But his question remains, all three incidents he'd been here for had all involved the Lady Secretary. Why? Janessa nodded wordlessly to Cael, giving her small quick smile of gratitude that faded away almost immediately. "T-thought it was raining .. s-so gentle .." She gasped hoarsely, trying to get words past the sobbing, which was thankfully quieting as she realized she wasn't alone, but that also brought home the fact that that gentle dream of summer showers was tinged with the evil of what Charlena had done. What that BITCH had done! Oh gods .. she felt sick again .. and she knew this was going to be bad, because she didn't have anything left in her stomach. The smell of blood brought up his own senses as few could possibly understand. The old man, elderly yet still erect in his posture, and with a poise all of his own that seemed a mix of the aristocratically arrogant and the warriorly competent, had essentially queried a servant as to the location of Thalor Corvarath Paralor. It was the second thing he did in this place, the first being to order his aide to set his quarters up accordingly. The man was young, but eager to please. One didn't exactly expect the pungent aroma of blood and vomit to permeate the hallway of Molentia castle, but all the same, he wasn't about to faint from it. "Thovaratos, Khalor Corvarath! Jornos dal makstan jordothen!" The last of it was, roughly translated from Alesian, "Victory, Prince Corvarath," (typical greeting among Varnin, a soldierly sort of greeting that was also a battlecry and a way to answer a question with an affirmative, as well as a parting call, Thovaratos was a favored phrase among the soldiers), "Jornos watch over this castle." A pretty standard greeting, in any case. "That's how it seemed to me, judging by the sheer volume of blood in here, and the lack of blood or feathers elsewhere." Corvarath said to Fox. "Actu--Actually," Caelan stammered as she glanced back towards the room, seeing Fox poke one of the chickens, and seeing how the blood still dripped from the ceiling, her stomach heaved again. "The baths are just across the hall from there... A nice hot bath would be good, wouldn't it?" she rambled for the sake of talking about something normal as she wrapped an arm about Lor, supporting her from one side, Jan likely taking the other Missing one eye, and with a burn line down his cheek and along his jawline that was branded from a helmet's cheekpiece, it was hard to miss the hawkishly intent features of Vedon Galothen, who seemed to be made in that classic mold of Alesian leadership that preferred men of a perhaps overbearing sort of image that they presented others. They walked fast, they held their shoulders tightly and their chest and chins tucked in, if only to give themselves an even more unrefined and austerely warlike look. But that was Alesians, really. This one must have been a raffish bastard once upon a time, before war and time chewed him up and spit him out. All the same, he still wore the tools of the trade, the sword and the breastplate, though the latter was an old fashioned solid steel one. Fox Aisli glanced at the walls. "Mmmhm..." He said, his voice taking on a more absent note. He frowned however as he passed a patch of wall, pausing in his steps to give it a critical eye for a moment. He gritted his teeth momentarily, before he took a step to the side. "All the incidents I've been here for all involved the Lady Secretary," he mutters. "If it's the ghost, I wonder if she's attracted to her for some reason. Seems the vengeful type." Janessa seemed to be the only one unaffected by the stench of blood, but as focused as she was on her terrified friend she probably didn't even notice. "The baths would be perfect..." She called over her shoulder to Corvarath, feeling a tightness growing in the pit of her belly as she drew further away from the men. No time to worry about that now. Soon she and Cael had Loreli in the baths, and Janessa closed the door firmly behind the three women. "Lor...honey...Do you want some help with your clasps?" she asked gently, one delicate hand still supporting her secretary's elbow. The voice behind Corvarath in the hallway was a surprise, and a very welcome one at that after the hellish experiences of the past week. Turning, he looked down the hall in the direction of the voice and spotted his old teacher from the School of Arms in Prine. Laying eyes on the old man improved his mood so much that he was actually able to smile in the midst of this carnage. Leaving Fox alone in the room to investigate for the time being, he hastened down the hallway toward Vedon, and clapped his hands on the old general's shoulders. "Vedon! You ugly old bastard, what are you doing here?" "I don't want anyone in here till this is all cleared." Fox eased himself out of the door, still looking a touch homicidal, sheathing his rapier back in. "Shit..." came the quiet curse again. A blade in the room with the sleeping royal secretary. >_< He looked positively furious. At seeing that grandpa--er---the prince was occupied, he shut the door to Loreli's quarters, and dug a black sash out of his pocket and tossed it over the knob to indicate a makeshift 'keep out' area, before he hurried down the hall to contact the rest. "Helping to plan a wedding, apparently," the old man grinned back, with that tight grin that gave a glint to his one good agate-hard eye, "though I'm told the groom is such a louse that his father wished to have someone reliable to keep a sword at his back all the way to the wedding ritual." Corvarath laughed, and lifts one hand from Vedon's shoulder and lifts his hand over the older man's head in a blessing. "Jornos shine his light upon you, and Hepheran give his strength to your arm. Welcome, my friend!" Loreli would feel appropriately chagrined when she finally came to herself. She was though, becoming slowly aware that she was bawling like a baby in front of a bunch of people, and faint mortification swept over her as the door to the baths closed behind her. She took a deep hiccuping breath and squared her shoulders, but it looked more pathetic than it did strong. She nodded slowly and reached behind her back for the ties to her bed gown, hands trembling. "I'll.. ah.. get the bath ready," Caelan nodded towards Jan, as she began to help Lor with her clothes. If it's magic running water, or one bucket at a time, eventually the lady in waiting filled one of the tubs with steaming water, and added a few good dollops of fragrant soap. ---------- (more to come) Jax -- #Dragonmyst*inn and #RPGWorks channel operator. Typo demon extrodinaire We all think we're ordinary, it's others that think we're extraordinary. - Me (On going to war over religion) "You're basically killing each other to see who's got the better imaginary friend." -Yasir Arrafat (PLO leader) (On cost overuns) "One way to ensure that it is not a major achievement for mankind" was to pass the budget limit. Rep. (Dana Rohrabacher, a California Republican) <Kylus> What was that really bad vamp movie you saw over the summer? <Kaejo> Dracula: Lord of the Dance The only disability in life is a bad attitude. - Scott Hamilton -- To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Archives & Other DMI Lists: http://islesofmyst.com/lists.php3
