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Post by demikara on Jun 25, 2020 18:38:44 GMT -6
"You have. Ahmad thinks the same." She admitted quietly. "I think I need more information before I decide what to do entirely. You've given me a lot more than she did." And it was helpful more than he knew. It also made her re-think the entire venture. If it was as difficult as Kim made it out to be, was it worth it, even to sooth the mind of an old woman who meant a lot to her and her husband?
Was the venture something they could afford for her to go on? She didn't know, not any more. Not now that she had more information. And entire planet and only five people there, each a scientist studying poorly understood magic.
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Post by Ylanne on Jun 25, 2020 19:03:43 GMT -6
"Good. I hope I helped save your ass, then," said Haroun Kim, sticking his tongue between his lips as he surveyed what remained of the food now that he'd devoured almost all of it, including the butter completely on his own. The waiter finally returned, trying to ignore Haroun Kim in the futile hope of avoiding another lengthy request, and handed Aerilyn her check. "Oh! A triple layer cheesecake and apple pie slice, please," Haroun Kim said, and the waiter's shoulders visibly slumped. She stalked off to the kitchen. "I can get past the forcefields. I just ... I don't really want to. I don't like that place. Everyone who's from there, like I said, they've all up and gone by now. None of the people stayed. And I'm pretty sure none of them want to go back. It's just going to be cursed basically forever. And that's fine. Far away from here."
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Post by demikara on Jun 25, 2020 20:25:02 GMT -6
Aerilyn put down the credits for the waitress and included a decent tip. From the sounds of it he was wavering on his stance of not going. "I need to talk to Arianne before I decide. She has to have a better reason then what she's telling me for asking me to go to such a dangerous planet." It sounded like it was going to be a lot more complicated than she wanted to think of. She'd have to look up Ưi'dhàr more and see what she could find out in preparation. She'd also have to tell the pilot that she had failed in securing a wizard so they might as well look for other work, while Aerilyn tried again.
"Thanks for talking to me." She said and left. She needed to find out where they were keeping Arianne over the weekend. If she was in town, or out at the jail. Either way, at least tracking her down wouldn't be that difficult. There were a limited number of places such a high profile prisoner would be kept.
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Post by Ylanne on Jun 25, 2020 21:15:55 GMT -6
Haroun Kim lingered for a while after Aerilyn left, until eventually the waiter all but asked him to leave, and he finally did. At least he left some kind of a tip on his way out. He was nothing if not exceedingly polite, although the waiter still cast a stink eye in his direction.
It took only a few phone calls before an undersecretary and an administrative assistant finally confirmed that the TIB's former director was back at the prison in Wrentham over the weekend. She hadn't had any visitors yet since the trial had begun, but visitation would be allowed in the afternoon all day both days.
The old woman had not moved from her bed since arriving back to her cell the night before. Her knees and shoulders screamed in pain, and her ankles and wrists had grown swollen and red, with ligature marks from the restraints clearly visible over the older scars. She hadn't eaten since arriving back either, only stared out the window vacantly as cars arrived and left, depositing and retrieving their passengers throughout the morning and midday hours. The more recent scar on the side of her face throbbed, too, and eventually, she found it easier to stare at the far wall instead of the parking lot through the window. The sun glared less there. The paint was plain white, dull, chipping at the edges of the wall, with a few holes where a past occupant had tried to tack something there. A picture or a note perhaps. She listened to the unceasing hum of doors opening and closing, and shouted voices, spilling in constantly from the hallway. She recognized most of the languages. No one seemed to notice that she hadn't left to eat.
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Post by demikara on Jun 26, 2020 16:23:32 GMT -6
Aerilyn had arrived and was waiting on them to bring out Arianne now. When she saw her she gasped and rushed to her side, fluttering around her, uncertain and not allowed to touch. Oh screw it, she'd only get in trouble if she was caught. Aerilyn gently supported Arianne with hardened air, still invisible to the naked eye and gently hugged the old woman.
"You look terrible." She admitted, not mincing words. "Have you been eating? Oh your wrists!" She soothed them as best she could with a jet of cool air, trying to help out as best she could. "They're cuffing you too tightly for this trial." They were cuffing her too tightly in general.
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Post by Ylanne on Jun 26, 2020 16:38:14 GMT -6
"I've said repeatedly that the handcuffs are quite unnecessary, but I'm afraid the matter's of no real concern to anyone here," said Drulović, wincing as she settled awkwardly into the usual chair. This particular chair had a slightly uneven leg, and wobbled a bit if you moved in the wrong direction. "As for me, well, I'd just been resting this morning. You certainly didn't have to come here today, not after yesterday's tiresome excitement." The handcuffs hurt already, the metal abrasive against already tender skin, mottled with fresh bruising plainly visible now that she wasn't wearing a jacket. The old woman's eyelids drooped from exhaustion, but her eyes were sharp and impenetrable. "I see you have yet to make your own departure. I don't suppose you think this delay will somehow lead to my forgetting." The corner of her lips twitched downward in a frown. Otherwise, she hardly moved, her posture stiff and closed, avoiding any chafing from the restraints or further stress on her aching joints.
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Post by demikara on Jun 26, 2020 16:44:03 GMT -6
"You need to eat too. Please, at least try to eat at the next meal." Even a little was better than nothing at all. "And as to that...I don't have a sorcerer willing to make the trip. and Kim brought up some interesting things about the planet too that worry me. He called it a death planet and seemed convinced I'd face certain doom if I went there." She kept the air circulating around the others wrists for a little bit longer, but magic was difficult in this place and she had to stop.
"I know part of this is from regret, but Arianne, why return the ashes? I won't have time to dig a hole, even if I find the grave site quickly, so they'll just be knocked over once the winds come up again."
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Post by Ylanne on Jun 26, 2020 17:02:17 GMT -6
"I'll eat what I can, Aerilyn," said Drulović, turning slightly away from the younger woman. "There's no need to worry much about me." She hadn't had anything to eat much for dinner the entire first week of the trial, though, because they'd arrived back at Wrentham too late for the actual meal in the cafeteria, and the bagged sandwiches were either too soggy or too stale to eat much of before the pain in her teeth and jaw was too much. She could hope for soup of some kind for dinner in the evening, and if not, then, well. It might have to wait until morning. There'd probably be something soft at breakfast. "I'd asked you to go to the garden on Ưi'dhàr for me because it's the only way to make right what I've done in the eyes of god. I'm afraid I've broken my promise, and that's no small thing. If your hole is deep enough, I'm sure the ashes will stay. Mr. Kim will go with you in the end; he's only nervous. You'll live."
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Post by demikara on Jun 26, 2020 17:11:08 GMT -6
"I'm afraid I'm always going to worry about you. Especially because you look worse every time I see you. I'll see about making certain there's something soft for you to eat during the lunch recess on Monday. Maybe a soup, if they'll let me get away with it." If not, at least a muffin. "Some to fill you up well, but doesn't involve too much chewing, given everything." Given the tooth situation. Aerilyn didn't doubt the other still ached that way too.
"What promise? Returning these ashes...it won't restore the planet or anything of the sort. No matter how much like quest Haroun made this entire thing sound." Mystical backstory included.
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Post by Ylanne on Jun 26, 2020 17:25:03 GMT -6
"I promised to protect Ms. Sampathkumar and her daughter," said the old woman, speaking with a sigh. "I promised to bring them home." Home was far. She could see the arch, its leaves fluttering gently in the off-cycle, the two moons casting almost a comforting glow. But only until the next cycle, when the winds became so fierce they all but hid the moons, and threatened to rip flesh from bone. She'd seen it. "You ought to worry about them much more than you worry about me," she said. "I know I look a terrible mess, and believe me, I feel it too. But I'm fine, really." Pain was nothing new for her, nor was isolation. "I'd be happy with a warm cup of tea and a good book - and knowing you'll finish in my stead what I couldn't do myself." She looked directly at Aerilyn now.
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Post by demikara on Jun 27, 2020 19:32:23 GMT -6
"I'm not...I'm not an agent you know. I'm a veteran. What you're asking of me? I don't know if I can do it." It sounded absolutely insane. "I haven't seen any sort of action beyond bar fights in decades. I've never used my magic to do what I'd have to do there. Or anything remotely similar." She was scared, and for good reason as far as she was concerned. What the other was asking for her.
"This planet is supposed to be dangerous, Arianne. What if I can't handle it?" There was nothign to say that she could handle the winds. "We don't even know where the gravesite is."
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Post by Ylanne on Jun 27, 2020 19:45:49 GMT -6
"I have every faith in you, my friend," said Drulović. She hardly blinked as she talked. "I trust you'll finish the task." Her eyes carried something heavy in them. "I don't need an agent or a soldier to do this, Aerilyn. I need a friend. I've chosen to trust you with this task. I should hope you'll see it through for me. I'm like to die soon, you know, and I don't suppose you'd like to leave these kinds of things unfinished by the time you're helping Mr. Fazari choose a casket for my decomposing corpse." At least she expected she'd have one - neither Lenore nor Jiryha had ever had that opportunity. The Aschen, and the witches, and the queens, had all made sure of that. The old woman could never even begin to count the gravesites she had had some hand in digging. But she could attempt to set at least some things right.
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Post by demikara on Jun 27, 2020 19:51:17 GMT -6
Aerilyn sighed. She'd do it. "Of course. And I hate to think of that day. I know it will be soon and that is hard enough." They really ought to talk it through, and see what she wanted, but the idea of the conversation was repulsive. Aerilyn would try and ensure it was a burial in line with the older woman's religion, but that was the best she could really stand to do.
"I'll find a way to dig out the soil fast enough. Are you sure you don't know where the grave site is? Even a quadrant of the planet would be helpful." Something to narrow down the search.
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Post by Ylanne on Jun 27, 2020 20:07:21 GMT -6
The lesser warrior gleamed overhead when the sky was clear. The greater warrior was impossible to see from the planet's surface, not since the whole population had vanished, never to return. The oceans were nearly as deadly as the winds, buffeted and swept into terrifying tsunamis sometimes thousands of feet tall by them. She remembered. "North." Drulović's gaze softened ever so slightly. "The soil is cold, hard, and crumbling. She's not so forgiving, I think." Priests were supposed to offer penance, but there would be none for the old woman. There could be none. "I don't expect them to forgive me from some place after death. There's no storybook quality to it." The old woman shrugged, though, the movement small and careful. "I know where I'll find myself then, in some special hell or another. I pray I'll not meet you there."
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Post by demikara on Jun 28, 2020 20:01:27 GMT -6
"Are you...are you sure I can even do this?" She had a bit more of a direction at least. Somewhere in the north, with cold, hard, and crumbling soil. It wasn't much, but it was more than she had before and she could use it. "And I'm sure you won't go to some hell. We'll find a priest and you'll be absolved. Isn't that how it works?" Aerilyn had no clue. She didn't believe in hell or anything like it herself.
But others did, and she was pretty sure that was the christian viewpoint at least. "I can start looking as soon as I get out, if you like."
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