Child of Ember - Chapter 13

"Thank you, Eve and Dea, for the compliments on my dance." Celestia said with a smile. "I have heard of Westgate, Griffen, but I have never been there. Merchants would travel through the small village that I lived in for a while and would talk of it. I can tell you this though, it will be very hard to get back to Westgate. You are in a land that is very far away. But, I don't mean to get you upset. Come and join us, tell us about your journey and maybe we can find something for you to take comfort in."

"So... you are from the same land? How interesting." Dea's gaze drifts from Celestia to Griffen. Her interest seems to have been roused.
"Well, mr Griffen, I am called Dea, born Quarta Deos Vanita. I am a Maiden from Vechor, though I guess that does not have much meaning to you right now.
I was suggesting we tell our live's stories here, in these relaxed conditions.
Maybe, as you are the newcomer, you can start by telling us yours?"

Griffen bites his lip and nods, "Aye I guess telling my story could not hurt much."
He settles back gently against the curve of the heated bath and begins to speak, "My father was a merchant, a poor one, but nonetheless a happy one. My mother was a rare beauty and until this day I yearn to hold my mother or even just to see her once but I know that will not happen.
The cursed Night Masks, hired by other individuals that my father could not pay, stormed our house one night in the midst of a storm. They killed my mother and father, but I ran for miles - it seems - until I lost all my breath in the run and the tears.
I was a kid and I didnt have any hope of leading them astray. So they found me and," At that he stands revealing the deep pockmark scars from hot steel and wicked barbs across both biceps. It seems every inch of his body is covered with the wicked scars as he speaks, "That is when Katar, some would call him "the shadow of Acheron" or "Gruumsh bane" found me. The old ranger became my surrogate father and taught me all I needed about the wilds, but I sought a more urban venue of life and I became a rather respected private investigator with a secret agenda to destroy the Night Masks at every possible op, and I did so along with many of my friends for years and enjoying every moment." At that he settles back into the bath and sighs, "but now I've been taken from my precious city and the work I love to do. Perhaps here I will find some of that work here. Who knows. All I know is that I wanna return someday."

"A longing for vengeance..." Dea says.
"not so much different from the one we search..."

Lit looks up from the water, into which he's been staring intently.
"Celestia, forgive me for not saying anything before, but your dance entranced me beyond any I have ever seen."
He turns to Dea, "but as for life stories...some are not meant to be told. However, I will share that this creature reminds me of...something I once fought. And lost to. So you might say, I have a rather PERSONAL stake in this hunt."

Celestia looked at Lit, "Thank You." Turning to Dea, she says "I agree with what Lit says. There are still some things that I find rather personal right now and not comfortable sharing with others. I will let you know this, I was not born in the same place as Griffen. I have also spend most of my life being hunted for no better reason than I am different."

Dea nods.
"I understand. Some things are hard to bring to the fore. You have to be ready, and have fully accepted your fate to be able to do that.
Even I have things in my past that I am not ready to tell about yet. Still..."
She looks at each individual in the bath for a moment.
"I am here for you. That is not an understatement. It is my duty, as a Maiden, to be here for you, to help people through the hard moments in their life and have them accept their fate. But in this case, maybe you will need to know more before you can trust me.
I do not expect you to open up to me... that is a something you have to decide for yourself. But I hope you will come to comprehend who I am, and why I am here.
So let me tell you a story. It will enlighten you.
I was born Quarta Deos Vanita, daughter to Deos Vanitos, a wealthy merchant in Abdok. Quarta means 'Four', in the Vechor language, and it is a good indication on how women are treated in our land, Vechor. Vechor is ruled by our King, Easan, a divine though fickle entity. He does not bother himself with our mortal affairs, as you migth expect from a god. And thus, power in the city is mostly in the hands of older, wealthy men. It is no wonder that two of my sisters were married off to these men as soon as possible. But I never desired such a position. When I was seventeen, my father was casting out lines to find a man for me to marry. I was dismayed, but there did not seem much that I could do.
I was rebellious though, and on the day my father had invited one of those elders to visit and meet me, I fled the house. I wandered the streets for some time, thinking over and over how to avoid being given away as if I was a mere token of goodwill.
I was awakened from my own pity troubles by the weeping of a young woman. In the corner of one of the allys in the city, I found a young woman on the floor, weeping and shivering. Her dress was torn, the nails of her hands were torn, and there was blood on her. Normally, I would have walked on. I was from the upper class, and the woman on the floor was clearly not of my station. But something stopped me.
I turned, kneeled beside her, and took her hand. She looked up in wonder. There was blood tricking out of her mouth. She didnt say a thing, but she grasped my arm, and her eyes - well, I cannot put in words what I saw in them. Despair, fear, disbelief. I think she couldn't comprehend that I cared about her, and at that moment I realized that I could not comprehend not caring before. I pulled her to me, and she cried in my arms and messed up my dress with blood and tears, but I didn't care. I suddenly knew that there was something I could do. I never felt needed, but this woman did need me - or at least a shoulder to cry on, and I felt the urge to supply her with it.
When I went home, after bringing her to the shack she lived in, I didn't feel so bad anymore. So maybe my father would marry me off. I knew that didn't matter anymore. There was something inside me now, something I never knew existed, that would be with me forever. I shared the woman's feelings, felt her despair and hurt and hate. And I took it, and cried with her, and finally she calmed down. In a way, I became a woman that day - spiritually, that is."
Dea left a short silence.
"I never got married. When I arrived home, a woman from the Maidens of Visanis was awaiting me. She took me away and brought me to the temple for training. My father never objected, I think he was relieved to be rid of me.
I was put in training, a hard time, in which I learned a lot about myself.
I fell into some traps, and I strayed form the path a few times. At one time I almost not made it back..." She touches the beetle on her forehead, which seems to glow for a moment.
"But that is another story."

Eve nods after hearing your stories.
"Perhaps it is time for me to tell a story." she says looking at each of you.
"There once was a woman who lived on the coast. Her childhood was rough. Her father died at sea, and after that her mother became withdrawn. Her mother was severe, a harsh woman and a harsh disciplinarian." As she speaks, Eve's eyes take a slightly distant tone.
"She was a lonely child that grew to be a lonely woman. Her mother never allowed her to be courted, and often called her a ugly tramp."
"Her only escape was dancing, she would sneak off to the city, off to the dance halls, and hide, watching through the windows as pretty women danced and whirled in bright colored skirts. Like angels, they floated and drifted across the floor. The men in their arms were the most handsome she had ever seen."
"One day, after a fight with her mother, she left and never went back."
"Life on the streets is a tough one. There are few options for a thirteen year old girl. Most of those are unpleasant. She -- I was lucky. The woman that took me in had a soft spot for little ladies, and it wasn't difficult to please her." Her cheeks gain a slight blush as she tells her tale, and her eyes drop to the water for a moment before looking back up.
"She treated me well. She never made me work like her other girls. And I never had to ask her for anything. Everyone that knew her, even the working girls, thought that I was her niece."
"It was her that paid for my dance lessons. Ballroom, Folk, Classical, and of course Ballet."
"I was happy, but I soon discovered that life was much more complicated that I had ever imagined."
"My Benfactor was tied to powerful people, and heavily in debt. One night men came to collect. Several of her girls were killed in their beds, and not a few Johns."
"In their haste to flee, someone knocked over a lamp. The fire spread quickly across the expensive carpets and upolstery. Many of the ladies and patrons alike were trapped upstairs."
She shakes her head. "I will never forget the sounds of thier screams."
"After that I was forced to find a new home. I turned to the only skill I had at the time to make money. I had decided to teach young girls how to dance." She chuckles, "Not quite as easy as it sounds."
"The first few years were lean, But eventually I made it."
"It was after a class that I met Marcil. He was more beautiful than any man I had ever seen."
" 'I have been watching you' he said. 'You are enchanting, Like an angel.'" Her chest heaves as she lets out a deep sigh. "No one had ever talked to me like that. To this day his words echo in my nightmares..."
"I never knew his true intentions, never knew he wanted me as toy to play with. We had a whirlwind romance and soon he asked me to marry him."
"Of course I accepted. What girl wouldn't. He was hansome, and a doctor as well."
"Students started to dissapear. Then one night I stumbled on him with one of the girls. He was in his workshop, a place He had forbiden me to go. 'It is full of sickness, I do not wish you to get sick." Her voice drips with sarcasm.
"There stretched out on the able was one of my students. He had gagged her and bound her. He stood over her with a scalpel and slowly amputated her arm. I could see her buck and writhe."
"I turned to leave but the door wouldnt budge, I pulled and pulled, till the knob came off in my hand, sending me tumbling down the stairs."
"A blow to the head Does marvelous things," she says with a sarcastic chuckle, "Among others it can plunge you into blissful unconsciousness. When I awoke I found myself strapped to the operating table in the place of my student."
"Like her, I found myself securely bound and was gagged with a rag. He must have noticed that I was awake, 'It is unfortunate me dear, that you had stumbled upon me so soon. Now I must increase the timetable, and I am afraid I cant use you as my cover for finding specimens.' he told me."
" 'But soon you will be the most beautiful woman in the world.' he said. There was something in the way he said those words that caused a shuder to run through me."
"When I looked up was when I noticed that he was holding a scalpel. I watched in horror as he lowered it into my skin. I tried to buck, to move away, but I was too securely held. The rag in my mouth muffled my screams, and there was no escape as he began to remove my arm at the shoulder."
"Blessedly, The pain caused me to loose consciousness. When next I woke, it was to his voice, talking to one of my students. 'She is down in my lab, she is helping me, but I know she would want to talk to you.' The room was dark, I could hear a double set of foot steps on the stairs, could see the slim halo of light from the candles wick. I cried out, and he told her that one of his patients was in pain, no more."
"I could hear them at the bottom of the stairs. 'Doctor, why is it so dark' she asked. Her voice the familiar voice of Louisa, my prize pupil. she had wanted to dance in the balet."
" 'Let me get the lamp.' he said. The sudden flood of light was like staring into the sun, blinding after so long. The girl's eyes met mine for a brief second, running over my bound body. Over to the colorless, patchwork limb Marcil had attached to the stump of my arm. As she prepared tp shriek, Marcil clubbed her sending her spiraling to the flood and into unconsciousness. I watched as he placed her on a table. Watched as he stripped her legs bare. He seemed to carress them for a time before moving up to her ass and caressing it as well. I saw him turn and smile at me as he reached for his scalpel."
"I watched him work, I think he wanted me to watch. He didn't kill her. He merely took what he had wanted. Later I discovered that she had been dumped in an alley, and had crawled her way to a watch station. That night he loaded me and his stuff into his carriage. We rode away to Pont-a-Maseu, where he set up shop as a doctor."
"That is how my nightmare began. Over the next few weeks he would bring in others, or make changes to the parts he had attached to me." She shakes her head, "In time Dolph discovered me, though I am unclear as to how. He simply had said that the walls have a way of speaking some time."
"Reguardless, Marcil escaped, and I assume he continues his work even now. I searched for him of course after I recovered, I traveled with Carnival, the only place other than here that I have ever felt at home, but all I had found were a rumors and a trail of victims. Most of them were so traumatied that they were put in mental wards, and some took their life."
"But that is my story."
She waits for you to say anything or to ask questions.

During the story, Lit pays strict attention. At the point where she mentions the blaze, his eyes seem to...flicker...almost, but when she speaks of the doctor and his evil, he averts his eyes but he continues to listen...small plumes of steam rising from his eyes. As she finishes the story, he plunges back under the water, finally soaked to the bone, but the water steams from his body as he stands up.
"I'm sorry for the pain he placed you in..."

"I..." Dea shook her head. "You have been in more pain - physically and mentally - than I can imagine. You must be a strong woman to not haven given in to madness. I owe you more respect."
She glides through the water, closer to Eve. She old out her hands.
"I offer you my abilities as a Maiden to find that fiend and end the chaos he brings to the world.
In return, all I can ask you is to find a way to help us end the suffering in this city, by finding Ember's child."

"What do we plan on doing with this 'Child of Embers,' as you call it, when we find it?"

We help her find her peace" , Dea says simply. "And stop the murders."

Griffen sits quietly through the entire tale soaking it in slowly bit by bit and sighing softly at the conclusion. He just sits there and listens to the situation unfolding that he has stepped into totally pleased to remain silent.

"Let me elaborate.
The woman we are searching for has a vendetta with a number of men, one of whom we found yesterday, Caine DuMonjiete.
She used a courtesan, Isabella Tarascon, to exact her vengeance. I believe that during the festival, she will do the same to the other men that... did her injustice."
Dea pauses for a moment to let it sink in.
"I believe, from the things I have heard, that the crime we are dealing with here is an act of sexual violence and murder, an act that occured long before the festival. It may even have happened last year. Maybe I am wrong. I would actually hope I am.
But all my senses and the rumors I hear make me believe that Caine DuMonjiete and his friends raped and killed the woman that is now going round, burning them alive. I believe we are dealing with a spirit of vengeance."
Dea closes her eyes. Then, softly, she begins to sing.
"Embers, embers flicker bright, Vengence comes festival night, Violators, emolaters, hurry, hurry, hide your face, All shall be burned in her smoldering embrace."