The Shattered City: Chapter Four

[Nerit]

Nerit had merely been watching the proceedings for the most part. Petrik was, despite her irritability, surprising in some aspects.

"Why, hello, Tomas," she said with a touch of sarcasm, notably over the shriek of the huldra. "You have quite an effect."

She then smiled to Mercator before focusing on the fey. "Yes, Mademoiselle, I am afraid our Mr. Agale is not so stalwart as you."

[Rock of the Fraternity]

"I'm disappointed," Lia says as she comes to stand next to Tomas, and lays a hand on his shoulder. "All of this high emotion for the White Knight, but no screaming for me?" She gives the shopkeeper a sharp-edged smile. "Salutations, Faer Anvo. It has been a while since I have seen one of your kind."

[Kaitou Kage]

Rex retreated to the shadows again and watched. Inkeri's shriek made it easier for him to avoid notice. All attention, even Rex's own, focused on the reaction the Lamordian provoked. It was a little amusing to see someone provoke such irrational terror in the large woman.

So the Lamordian makes troll-wives scream and the mage-woman thinks she should make troll-wives scream. What an utterly bizarre group. And the Lamordian seemed to suggest he'd want to hurt her outside the Market. But perhaps that was just him tripping over his own tongue.

Also it was funny to see the Borcan getting crushed by the large female.

It would be interesting to see how this turned out.

Rex has become invisible. Stealth of 36.

[NeoTiamat]

1 Days, 22 Hours, 29 Minutes
Inky's Emporium, The Midnight Market, Just past Midnight on April 23rd, 770
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Instead of throwing up his hands, he simply turned to professor Petrik and asked in a quiet voice. "I should be used to this by now, right?"

"You learn slowly, pup," Petrik said simply.

"Hey, hey!" Tomas finally says over the din, "Lady, whoever you are, calm down! Remember where you are! Even if I wanted to hurt you I couldn't, right?"

"That is right, you cannot!" Inky snapped. The lithe dairy maid zipped behind Agale, peeking balefully out at Tomas from over the lawyer's shoulder - which fortunately required her to let go and stop compressing Agale's ribs. "Then why have you come here, Lothurr Lightning God? Oh...!" The horrible truth occured to her. "Do not tell me he is with the rest of you!"

Petrik gave Eisenwald a sharp, appraising look. "It's said the God of Lightning hunts the huldrafolk for sport." She sniffed critically. "You don't seem like the type. Interesting she would call you by that name."

[Nathan of the FoS]

It takes a moment for Mercator to parse the eruption of exclamations that break out as Tomas enters, and another moment to process the idea of Monsieur Eisenwald being acclaimed as--or, actually, accused of--being a demigod.

He murmurs to Tomas, "It seems it would be better not to put your life in the hands of this young lady, Monsieur Eisenwald...she seems to have taken against you." Stepping forward, he nods at the rest of those present, with a half-smile in response to Nerit's, abd bows politely to Inkeri. "Mademoiselle Huldra. I am Doctor Mercator Melanchthon, at your service. I understand you have offered to perform a ritual which would allow one of our number to communicate with the young man presently styling himself as Death?"

[DocBeard]

"This is all just a misunderstanding!" Tomas insists, holding his hands up in surrender. "I mean, when you look at me, does 'Oh, hey, he might be a god.' ever really come into the equation?"

Tomas gives his best 'look how darn mortal i am!' smile.

He blinks at Petrik's note and finds himself saying, "Who says that?!" before coughing and adding, "Because I've never heard much lore about the fellow." Tomas sort of nods at Mercator; he'd be a bit more stubborn but this would be pretty much asking for it.

[The Whistler]

"Mademoiselle Huldra. I am Doctor Mercator Melanchthon, at your service. I understand you have offered to perform a ritual which would allow one of our number to communicate with the young man presently styling himself as Death?"

"She does intend so, Dr. Melanchthon!" Celeste stepped forward, still inexplicably pleasant. "And I, that humble communicator. As one who has must take the most direct responsibility for the recovery of M. Boucher--by virtue of my conversation with that worthy, yesternight--it must needs be my duty to participate in our present efforts in the most direct of fashions. Ah, but I am sure I have already explained myself adequately, to that effect!"

She had. Oh, had she. As Tomas might recall, the reason why he had not been able to volunteer for the procedure on the walk over was due to Celeste explaining herself, a process that involved one impossibly long sentence and a bathyspheresful of semicolons. You could not recall any pauses for breath, suggesting that Celeste respired via some as-yet-undiscovered form of mammalian photosynthesis. Anyone's guess, really.

"And I shall not have you maltreating our noble M. Agale on the grounds of M. Eisenwald's imposing figure, my dear Mlle. Halvari!" It was said with a smile. "Leaving aside that I may personally answer for his gentility of character and peacefulness of demeanor...why, he is no more demigod than I am!"

Celeste laughed lightly at this, clearly finding the idea utterly ridiculous. This left the rest of you a moment to parse her last sentence in a variety of entertaining ways.

"I assure you, mademoiselle, from one friend to another...you have nothing whatsoever to fear."

[lostboy]

"God?" Nicolas quirks an eyebrow at Tomas and mutters sideways out of his mouth. "If so we should talk about your biography, your omnipotence.."

"Well regardless this plan is just my brand of insanity, I'm in. Although.... whilst I do appreciate your arguments Mademoiselle, it would be remiss of me not to at least offer to take deadly poison on your behalf." Nicolas adds with a smile at Celeste, before turning his attention to Inkeri.

"What's the tipple of choice this evening anyway mademoiselle? Arsenic apparently is rather fatal in the wrong doses, but does give a lovely sense of euphoria, as does Strychnine, although with a slightly more melodious feeling. Personally I would suggest Laudanum as my poison of choice, hell if it goes wrong at least you don't care."

[Rock of the Fraternity]

When professor Petrik makes her statement about the god of lightning hunting the Huldra for sport, Lia... laughs. She actually doubles over with laughter and has to clutch Tomas' arm to prevent herself from falling or dropping her staff.

"Ridiculous," she gasps when she has finally found her breath again. "Hunting your people for sport... Laughable! Hoooo..." Still chuckling, Lia bestows a kindly smile on the Huldra. "I have known this man for over ten years. I have never known him to hunt for sport, which is a low and deplorable pastime. I sincerely doubt you will ever meet another man as honourable as this one. As for him being a god, well..."

Lia lightly punches Tomas on the arm. "I do not believe I have been smitten by divine fury. Now. With that settled, what say we get on with things?"

[Nerit]

Nerit's eyebrows imperceptibly rose as she watched Lia, along with a humorless smile.

"Yes, Mademoiselle," she faced Inkeri again, "he is as harmless as a tamed mule, I assure you. I can't imagine he even could hurt you. If you were not to believe any others, believe me," Nerit chuckled, and she smiled wider with a slight incline of her head.

[NeoTiamat]

1 Days, 22 Hours, 25 Minutes
Inky's Emporium, The Midnight Market, Just past Midnight on April 23rd, 770
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"Mademoiselle Huldra. I am Doctor Mercator Melanchthon, at your service. I understand you have offered to perform a ritual which would allow one of our number to communicate with the young man presently styling himself as Death?"

"What's the tipple of choice this evening anyway mademoiselle?"

"I have," Inkeri replied, rather unhappily at this point. "If you can pay." She frowned deeper at the mention of 'Death' - her grudge against Eisenwald seemed less intense than her desire to be rid of Thanatos.

"I thought Cyanide might be the easiest. Do you have much experience with it, Doctor? I have heard there are common antidotes... Oh..." She looked around the room. "A young gentleman claimed he had anti-venom, but it seems he has left."

"Who says that?!" before coughing and adding, "Because I've never heard much lore about the fellow."

"Graben Island," Professor Petrik informed abruptly.

Inky did not seem terribly mollified.

"You don't want to hurt me? I want your promise," she said, still looking out balefully from behind Agale. "Promise me you'll never hurt a huldra. Then we can perform this ritual."

[DocBeard]

"A lightning spirit saved my life once." Tomas confides in Nicolas, "That's probably what she's picking up. I don't like to talk about it because back home people who see spirits tend to become volunteer applied phrenology subjects."

Listening to Inkeri speak, Tomas is about to reassure her that, no, of course he has no desire to hurt her, when he processes that last bit. Fairies. Of course she'd work an angle.

"Look, I'll leave the shop if its that bad." Eisenwald gestures with his thumb to the door. "But I'm not promising anything like that. If there's wrong doing I can oppose, I'm going to fight it, human, fairy, ghost or god. Or have your people completely given up that old 'seduce men and drag them to the netherworld' habit?"

Tomas would normally jam his hands into his pockets at this point, but his pants pockets are stuck under his armor's apron. So he crosses his arms instead, snorting out of his nose bullishly before turning around and heading for the door. It could've been worse, Tomas admits to himself, it could've been the Featherflute.

[Rock of the Fraternity]

"It's not a fair price, madam fey," Lia says, seconding Tomas. "If your people are all going to respond as strongly to my friend here as you did, then sooner or later one of them will be sure to do something... unfortunate. And violent. If he is then bound by this oath of yours, what is he supposed to do? The only way it would work would be if you could promise that no huldra would do harm to him -- or anywhere around him.

Sending the White Knight away probably would not work, either. Who only knows what will happen once this ritual begins? Trust me, you will not regret having Herr Eisenwald's strong right arm and virtuous heart here if something unpleasant appears as a reaction to this ritual. A Grim Reaper, for instance, has a capacity for being very unreasonable."

[lostboy]

"A lightning spirit saved my life once."

Nicolas demeanour becomes a lot more serious for a moment, "ah intervention from a higher power, now there perhaps we have some common ground, whilst I cannot claim the spark of the divine within me, I do understand the need for discretion over ones experieinces. He finishes with a conspiratorial wink.

Laying one hand on Tomas' arm to stop him leaving Nicolas continues. "But now is not the time to bow out Monsieur, what we are about to attempt is dangerous in the extreme, we have need of your strong right arm and your forbearance." He looks at Tomas pointedly. "And you Madame, perhaps a concession on your part as well? Perhaps Herr Eisenwald might swear no harm to you personally for the duration of your engagement with us?" He smiles winningly at Inkeri.

Diplomacy: 32

[Kaitou Kage]

"I am here."

Suddenly Rex was there, standing near Mercator and Celeste. "Pharmacist and herbalist at your service." He bowed slightly. The corner of his lips quirked up in a small, wry smile.

"I am also familiar with cyanide," the man continued quietly, "And dosage lethality."

How he knew, Rex didn't say. It did make sense that a pharmacist would have a broad understanding of chemical substances, though. After all, to concoct an antidote, you had to know what you were counteracting, right?

He fished around in his jacket and pulled out two small vials. "These are all the antivenom I have with me, but I think one should do."